Cambio técnico y medioambiental en España : ¿Atraso agrario o "dragón europeo"?

La visión peyorativa sobre la agricultura española, principal fuente de empleo hasta 1950, ha sido una de las constantes en los análisis socioeconómicos hasta fines del siglo pasado. Se convirtió en uno de los tópicos que alimentaron la inferioridad hispánica, a lo que contribuyeron escritores como Joaquín Costa. La renovación de la historia agraria ha corregido la imagen de atraso social y económico por dos caminos: el mejor conocimiento de los procesos de innovación técnica y el de los límites ambientales y biológicos de la actividad agraria española. Esto último sirve para llamar la atención sobre los peligros del productivismo, que fue más fácil de consolidar después de que el franquismo destruyera y reorientara los sistemas de innovación al eliminar las posibilidades de la vía campesina que ofrecía la reforma agraria republicana

Cambio técnico y medioambiental en España : ¿Atraso agrario o "dragón europeo"?

La visión peyorativa sobre la agricultura española, principal fuente de empleo hasta 1950, ha sido una de las constantes en los análisis socioeconómicos hasta fines del siglo pasado. Se convirtió en uno de los tópicos que alimentaron la inferioridad hispánica, a lo que contribuyeron escritores como Joaquín Costa. La renovación de la historia agraria ha corregido la imagen de atraso social y económico por dos caminos: el mejor conocimiento de los procesos de innovación técnica y el de los límites ambientales y biológicos de la actividad agraria española. Esto último sirve para llamar la atención sobre los peligros del productivismo, que fue más fácil de consolidar después de que el franquismo destruyera y reorientara los sistemas de innovación al eliminar las posibilidades de la vía campesina que ofrecía la reforma agraria republicana

The rise and fall in the price of food, fuel and manufactured goods : interdependency between prices and technology determining comparative advantages and development paths

Green innovation, which enables us to extract energy from food crops, caused a food shortage in 2008. Countries suffering severe damage started to reconsider their agricultural policy with the aim of becoming more autonomous. The food price hike of the time looks like a reversal of the celebrated Singer-Prebisch thesis proposed in the 1950s. This paper examines the consequences of this trend on the comparative advantages and development strategies of developing countries. For that purpose, first, trends and short-run fluctuations in the prices of fuel and bio-energy crops are investigated. It is shown that the price series of fuels and the crops are synchronized only after the fuel extracting technology came into effect. Second, the reversal of the Singer-Prebisch thesis is underpinned by the generic form of an endogenous growth model developed by Rebelo (1991). It is shown that as an economy grows, appreciation of the non-reproducible, such as mineral resources and raw labor, over the reproducible, such as capital goods, is the norm rather than an anomaly. Third, the consequences of the food price hike and underlying capital accumulation on the development strategies of labor-abundant and low-income countries are explored. It is concluded that the impact of the food price hikes on the alteration of a development strategy is only incremental, without reinforcement from raw-labor-saving innovation. A case study of inventions by JUKI Corporation, a world-leader in the sewing machine market exemplifies the fact that, of all the major inventions the company have made, raw-labor-saving inventions have not dominated, although JUKI's machines are sold to one of the most raw-labor-intensive industries.

Economics of Wheat in Egypt

Este estudio pretende estimar la eficiencia y la productividad de las principales provincias de la producción de trigo en Egipto. Los datos utilizados en este estudio son datos de panel a nivel de provincias del período 1990-2012, obtenidos del Ministerio de Agricultura y Recuperación Tierras, y de la Agencia Central de Movilización Pública y Estadística, Egipto. Se aplica el enfoque de fronteras estocásticas para medir la eficiencia (función de producción de Cobb-Douglas) y se emplean las especificaciones de Battese y Coelli (1992) y (1995). También se utiliza el índice de Malmquist como una aproximación no paramétrica (Análisis de Envolvente de Datos) para descomponer la productividad total de los factores de las principales provincias productoras de trigo en Egipto en cambio técnico y cambio de eficiencia. El coeficiente de tierra es positivo y significativo en los dos especificaciones Battese y Coelli (1992) y (1995), lo que implica que aumentar la tierra para este cultivo aumentaría significativamente la producción de trigo. El coeficiente de trabajo es positivo y significativo en la especificación de Battese y Coelli (1992), mientras que es positivo y no significativo en la especificación de Battese y Coelli (1995). El coeficiente de la maquinaria es negativo y no significativo en las dos especificaciones de Battese y Coelli (1992) y (1995). El coeficiente de cambio técnico es positivo y no significativo en la especificación de Battese y Coelli (1992), mientras que es positiva y significativo en la especificación de Battese y Coelli (1995). Las variables de efectos del modelo de ineficiencia Battese y Coelli (1995) indican que no existe impacto de las diferentes provincias en la producción de trigo en Egipto; la ineficiencia técnica de la producción de trigo tendió a disminuir durante el período de estudio; y no hay ningún impacto de género en la producción de trigo en Egipto. Los niveles de eficiencia técnica varían entre las diferentes provincias para las especificaciones de Battese y Coelli (1992) y (1995); el nivel mínimo medio de eficiencia técnica es 91.61% en la provincia de Fayoum, mientras que el nivel máximo medio de la eficiencia técnica es 98.69% en la provincia de Dakahlia. La eficiencia técnica toma un valor medio de 95.37%, lo que implica poco potencial para mejorar la eficiencia de uso de recursos en la producción de trigo. La TFPCH de la producción de trigo en Egipto durante el período 1990-2012 tiene un valor menor que uno y muestra un declive. Esta disminución es debida más al componente de cambio técnico que al componente de cambio de eficiencia. La disminución de TFPCH mejora con el tiempo. La provincia de Menoufia tiene la menor disminución en TFPCH, 6.5%, mientras que dos provincias, Sharkia y Dakahlia, son las que más disminuyen en TFPCH, 13.1%, en cada uno de ellas. Menos disminución en TFPCH ocurre en el período 2009-2010, 0.3%, mientras que más disminución se produce en TFPCH en el período 1990-1991, 38.9%. La disminución de la PTF de la producción de trigo en Egipto se atribuye principalmente a la mala aplicación de la tecnología. ABSTRACT The objectives of this study are to estimate the efficiency and productivity of the main governorates of wheat production in Egypt. The data used in this study is a panel data at the governorates level, it represents the time period 1990-2012 and taken from the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, and the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, Egypt. We apply the stochastic frontier approach for efficiency measurement (Cobb-Douglas production function) and the specifications of Battese and Coelli (1992) and (1995) are employed. Also we use Malmquist TFP index as a non-parametric approach (DEA) to decompose total factor productivity of the main governorates of wheat production in Egypt into technical change and efficiency change. The coefficient of land is positive and significant at Battese and Coelli (1992) and (1995) specifications, implying that increasing the wheat area could significantly enhance the production of wheat. The coefficient of labor is positive and significant at Battese and Coelli (1992) specification, while it is positive and insignificant at Battese and Coelli (1995) specification. The coefficient of machinery is negative and insignificant at the specifications of Battese and Coelli (1992) and (1995). The technical change coefficient is positive and insignificant at Battese and Coelli (1992) specification, while it is positive and significant at Battese and Coelli (1995) specification. The variables of the inefficiency effect model indicate that there is no impact from the location of the different governorates on wheat production in Egypt, the technical inefficiency of wheat production tended to decrease through the period of study, and there is no impact from the gender on wheat production in Egypt. The levels of technical efficiency vary among the different governorates for the specifications of Battese and Coelli (1992) and (1995); the minimum mean level of technical efficiency is 91.61% at Fayoum governorate, while the maximum mean level of technical efficiency is 98.69% at Dakahlia governorate. The technical efficiency takes an average value of 95.37%, this implying that little potential exists to improve resource use efficiency in wheat production. The TFPCH of wheat production in Egypt during the time period 1990-2012 has a value less than one and shows a decline; this decline is due mainly to the technical change component than the efficiency change component. The decline in TFPCH is generally improves over time. Menoufia governorate has the least declining in TFPCH by 6.5%, while two governorates, Sharkia and Dakahlia have the most declining in TFPCH by 13.1% for each of them. The least declining in TFPCH occurred at the period 2009- 2010 by 0.3%, while the most declining in TFPCH occurred at the period 1990-1991 by 38.9%. The declining in TFP of wheat production in Egypt is attributed mainly to poor application of technology.

Technology diffusion and its effects on social inequalities

We develop a dynamic general-equilibrium framework in which growth is driven by skill-biased technology diffusion. The model incorporates leisure–labor decisions and human capital accumulation through education. We are able to reproduce the trends in income inequality and labor and skills supplies observed in the United States between 1969 and 1996. The paper also provides an explanation for why more individuals invest in human capital when the investment premium is going down, and why the skill-premium goes up when the skills supply is increasing.

Micro-meso-macro

Building on the ontology of evolutionary realism recently proposed by Dopfer and Potts (forthcoming), we develop an analytical framework for evolutionary economics with a micro-meso-macro architecture. The motive for reconception is to make clear the highly complex and emergent nature of existence and change in economic evolution. For us, the central insight is that an economic system is a population of rules, a structure of rules, and a process of rules. The economic system is a rule-system contained in what we call the meso. From the evolutionary perspective, one cannot directly sum micro into macro. Instead, we conceive of an economic system as a set of meso units, where each meso consists of a rule and its population of actualizations. The proper analytical structure of evolutionary economics is in terms of micro-meso-macro. Micro refers to the individual carriers of rules and the systems they organize, and macro consists of the population structure of systems of meso. Micro structure is between the elements of the meso, and macro structure is between meso elements. The upshot is an ontologically coherent framework for analysis of economic evolution as change in the meso domain - in the form of what we call a meso trajectory - and a way of understanding the micro-processes and macro-consequences involved. We believe that the micro-meso-macro analytical framework can greatly enhance the focus, clarity, and, ultimately, power, of evolutionary economic theory.

Measurement efficiency and productivity in SAS/OR

This paper explores the use of the optimisation procedures in SAS/OR software with application to the measurement of efficiency and productivity of decision-making units (DMUs) using data envelopment analysis (DEA) techniques. DEA was originally introduced by Charnes et al. [J. Oper. Res. 2 (1978) 429] is a linear programming method for assessing the efficiency and productivity of DMUs. Over the last two decades, DEA has gained considerable attention as a managerial tool for measuring performance of organisations and it has widely been used for assessing the efficiency of public and private sectors such as banks, airlines, hospitals, universities and manufactures. As a result, new applications with more variables and more complicated models are being introduced. Further to successive development of DEA a non-parametric productivity measure, Malmquist index, has been introduced by Fare et al. [J. Prod. Anal. 3 (1992) 85]. Employing Malmquist index, productivity growth can be decomposed into technical change and efficiency change. On the other hand, the SAS is a powerful software and it is capable of running various optimisation problems such as linear programming with all types of constraints. To facilitate the use of DEA and Malmquist index by SAS users, a SAS/MALM code was implemented in the SAS programming language. The SAS macro developed in this paper selects the chosen variables from a SAS data file and constructs sets of linear-programming models based on the selected DEA. An example is given to illustrate how one could use the code to measure the efficiency and productivity of organisations.

International and intranational technological spillovers and productivity growth in China

Technological spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) have been regarded as a major source of technical progress and productivity growth. This paper explores the role of international and intranational technological spillovers from FDI in technical change, efficiency improvement, and total factor productivity growth in Chinese manufacturing firms using a recent Chinese manufacturing firm-level panel data set over the 2001–05 period. International industry-specific research and development (R&D) stock is linked to the Chinese firm-level data, international R&D spillovers from FDI and intranational technological spillovers of R&D activities by foreign invested firms in China are examined as well. Policy implications are discussed.

Total factor productivity and the spillover hypothesis: some new evidence

In this paper I test the spillover hypothesis of the endogenous growth literature on a sample of manufacturing firms in Italy, 1989–1994, using a new approach based on the Malmquist index. First, I measure the productivity growth registered by the high- and non-high-tech firms computing the Malmquist index with DEA. I decompose it into technical change and technical efficiency change. Then I test whether the technical change registered by high-tech firms affects productivity growth of non-high-tech firms, after controlling for factors which can potentially affect productivity growth.

A cost Malmquist productivity index

This paper develops a productivity index applicable when producers are cost minimisers and input prices are known. The index is inspired by the Malmquist index as extended to productivity measurement. The index developed here is defined in terms of input cost rather than input quantity distance functions. Hence, productivity change is decomposed into overall efficiency and cost technical change. Furthermore, overall efficiency change is decomposed into technical and allocative efficiency change and cost technical change into a part capturing shifts of input quantities and shifts of relative input prices. These decompositions provide a clearer picture of the root sources of productivity change. They are illustrated here in a sample of hospitals; results are computed using non-parametric mathematical programming. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Testing incremental politics : the case of North Sea oil

In the quest to secure the much vaunted benefits of North Sea oil, highly non-incremental technologies have been adopted. Nowhere is this more the case than with the early fields of the central and northern North Sea. By focusing on the inflexible nature of North Sea hardware, in such fields, this thesis examines the problems that this sort of technology might pose for policy making. More particularly, the following issues are raised. First, the implications of non-incremental technical change for the successful conduct of oil policy is raised. Here, the focus is on the micro-economic performance of the first generation of North Sea oil fields and the manner in which this relates to government policy. Secondly, the question is posed as to whether there were more flexible, perhaps more incremental policy alternatives open to the decision makers. Conclusions drawn relate to the degree to which non-incremental shifts in policy permit decision makers to achieve their objectives at relatively low cost. To discover cases where non-incremental policy making has led to success in this way, would be to falsify the thesis that decision makers are best served by employing incremental politics as an approach to complex problem solving.

Indigenous and foreign innovation efforts and drivers of technological upgrading:evidence from China

This paper explores the role of indigenous and foreign innovation efforts in technological upgrading in developing countries, taking into account sectoral specificities in technical change. Using a Chinese firm-level panel dataset covering 2001–05, the paper decomposes productivity growth into technical change and efficiency improvement and examines the impact of indigenous and foreign innovation efforts on these changes. Indigenous firms are found to be the leading force on the technological frontier in the low- and medium-technology industries, while foreign-invested firms enjoy a clear lead in the high-technology sector. Collective indigenous R&D activities at the industry level are found to be the major driver of technology upgrading of indigenous firms that push out the technology frontier. While foreign investment appears to contribute to static industry capabilities, R&D activities of foreign-invested firms have exerted a significant negative effect on the technical change of local firms over the sample period.

Estimation of TFP growth:a semiparametric smooth coefficient approach

This article uses a semiparametric smooth coefficient model (SPSCM) to estimate TFP growth and its components (scale and technical change). The SPSCM is derived from a nonparametric specification of the production technology represented by an input distance function (IDF), using a growth formulation. The functional coefficients of the SPSCM come naturally from the model and are fully flexible in the sense that no functional form of the underlying production technology is used to derive them. Another advantage of the SPSCM is that it can estimate bias (input and scale) in technical change in a fully flexible manner. We also used a translog IDF framework to estimate TFP growth components. A panel of U.S. electricity generating plants for the period 1986–1998 is used for this purpose. Comparing estimated TFP growth results from both parametric and semiparametric models against the Divisia TFP growth, we conclude that the SPSCM performs the best in tracking the temporal behavior of TFP growth.

Absorptive capacity and the benefits from global reservoirs of knowledge:evidence from a linked China-OECD dataset

This paper investigates the role of absorptive capacity in the diffusion of global technology with sector and firm heterogeneity. We construct the FDI-intensity weighted global R&D stock for each industry and link it to Chinese firm-level panel data relating to 53,981 firms over the period 2001-2005. Non-parametric frontier analysis is employed to explore how absorptive capacity affects technical change and catch-up in the presence of global knowledge spillovers. We find that R&D activities and training at individual firms serve as an effective source of absorptive capability. The contribution of absorptive capacity varies according to the type of FDI and the extent of openness.

Indigenous and foreign innovation efforts and drivers of technological upgrading:evidence from China

This paper explores the drivers of technology upgrading in emerging economies using a recent Chinese firm-level panel dataset over the 2001-2005 period. It extends the Directed Technical Change theory by considering differences in technology intensities across industries within a country; examines the drivers of technical change, efficiency improvement and TFP growth in Chinese manufacturing firms; and explores the roles of indigenous innovations and foreign technology. It finds that FDI contributes to static industry capabilities by advanced technologies embedded in imported machineries, but not to dynamic technological capabilities of indigenous firms in developing countries. Collective indigenous R&D activities at industry level are the major driver of technology upgrading of indigenous firms that push up the technology frontier. Policy implications are discussed.