Agricultural economic reforms,gender inequality and poverty in Senegal

In Senegal, as in many developing countries, the agricultural sector plays a key role in the economy. In addition to supplying food, agriculture is the most important source of employment, especially for women. Through the Plan for an Emerging Senegal (PES), the Senegalese government is implementing an ambitious financing plan to improve the productivity of the agricultural sector and enhance employment opportunities for women. Our study assesses the impact of two PES measures (investment subsidies and an increase in production subsidies for the agricultural sectors) on economic growth, women's employment, poverty and inequality using a dynamic computable general equilibrium model linked to a microsimulation model. The results show that both policies have generally positive effects in reducing poverty and gender inequalities. However, investment subsidies in the agricultural sectors have stronger impacts in reducing gender inequality and poverty in the long term.     

休闲农业在我国山区经济发展中的潜力分析

山区发展休闲农业潜力非常大,全国大多数大中城市周边农村都有发展休闲农业的条件。山区农村的生态环境是发展农村经济最好的资源,是发展休闲农业的生产资本,可以容纳一大批农民当地就业,可以大幅度增加农民收入,是一种新兴产业,是现代农业的重要组成部分,是解决三农问题的一种重要途径。农村现有的土地山林和生态环境是发展休闲农业产业的固定生产资本之一,农家小楼的投资建设加上生态环境构成完整的休闲农业的固定生产资本,其投资应该由国家财政来解决。农业财政方针转变为资本性投资功能,解决多年以来农业生产资本增长缓慢问题,国家应该承担投资的风险。只有劳动者获得所需要的生产资本才能够进行扩大再生产,才能够不断扩大农民增收的源泉。     

反哺农业:寻求社会公平发展的有效途径

文章提出“三农”问题的实质是现代化过程中农民与其他社会利益主体之间的利益关系。目前,我国已进入工业反哺农业的时代。通过构建农村公共服务体系,实现城乡社会公平发展;依靠乡镇企业发展,实现劳动力转移促农,农产品加工和产业化经营促农;建农补农实现反哺促农;小城镇建设与乡镇企业发展相互促进实现以城带乡促农。     

Determinants of public support for tax and expenditure initiatives: An Oregon and Washington case study

This article examines the determinants of public support for state tax and expenditure initiatives in Washington and Oregon during the 1993 elections. Both states had initiatives on their November ballots dealing with taxes and expenditures—Measure 1 in Oregon, which would have introduced a state sales tax, and two initiatives in Washington (I-601 and I-602) concerning state government revenue and expenditure limitations. Using statewide mail and telephone surveys conducted among voting age residents of Oregon and Washington several weeks prior to the election, this study examines the determinants of public support for each of the initiatives. The determinants of support examined include various sociodemographic factors such as age cohort, gender, education, level of income, and occupational sector (public v. private); the level of informedness concerning each initiative; perceptions of self interest; and various political indicators, including partisan identification, ideology, degree of cynicism concerning state politics, and perceptions of state budget waste. Findings suggest similar patterns of support and opposition among citizens in both states, with perceptions of high state waste and political cynicism strongly associated with support for tax and expenditure limitation in Washington and opposition to the adoption of a sales tax in Oregon.     

Healthcare in India: Changing the Financing Strategy

The way in which healthcare is financed is critical for equity in access to healthcare. At present the proportion of public resources committed to healthcare in India is one of the lowest in the world, with less than one‐fifth of health expenditure being publicly financed. India has large‐scale poverty and yet the main source of financing healthcare is out‐of‐pocket expenditure. This is a cause of the huge inequities we see in access to healthcare. The article argues for strengthening public investment and expenditure in the health sector and suggests possible options for doing this. It also calls for a reform of the existing healthcare system by restructuring it to create a universal access mechanism which also factors in the private health sector. The article concludes that it is important to over‐emphasize the fact that health is a public or social good and so cannot be left to the vagaries of the market.     

Employers and the Management of Retirement

In the UK early withdrawal from the labour market is seen as a risk and a cost, worsening the dependency ratio, raising public and private pension costs and threatening additional welfare expenditure over the longer term. Explanations of the retirement process have focused on the welfare state and the impact of pensions and other social security policies. This paper argues that a missing actor in these accounts is the employing organization. Early retirement in the UK has been predominantly driven by the labour requirements of employers rather than state policies to encourage older workers to take early retirement. There is a case for arguing that significant change in retirement behaviour in the UK will come primarily from the modification of employers’ policies. This research is a case study of three employers: one public‐sector and two commercial. It examines the dynamics of the retirement decision. This paper reports the public‐sector case. The findings indicate that employers, in order to reduce their pensions liabilities and stem the cost of early retirement, are trying to regain control of the retirement process. The employees interviewed felt they experienced little choice concerning their retirement, had limited knowledge of the options open to them and found pensions complicated and confusing.     

Crowding Out or Welfare Promotion? How Foreign Aid Affects Social Expenditures in Latin American Welfare Systems

Foreign assistance constitutes a significant share of government revenue in many low‐ and middle‐income economies and is targeted at poverty reduction and the promotion of social and economic well‐being. This study therefore examines fiscal responses by Latin American welfare states to the inflow of such aid. As a form of external non‐tax revenue, aid can function as a substitution for public welfare expenditure, with a crowding out effect being the likely outcome. This article investigates whether overall aid and aid that is particularly targeted at the social sector substitutes public welfare provision and, if so, whether it also substitutes its function. A time‐series cross‐section analysis of 19 Latin American countries for the period 1980–2008 provides limited support for the assumption that foreign aid payments influence the welfare budget. It is only the health care sector in middle‐income countries which experiences a small decrease in expenditures. Social security and education expenditures are not affected.     

Agricultural policies and migration in a U.S.-Mexico free trade area: A computable general equilibrium analysis

A United States-Mexico agreement to form a free trade area (FTA) is analyzed using an 11-sector, three-country, computable general equilibrium model that explicity models farm programs and labor migration. The model incorporates both rural-urban migration within Mexico and international migration between Mexico and the United States. In the model, sectoral import demands are specified with a flexible functional form, an empirical improvement over earlier specifications, which use a constant elasticity of substitution function. Using the model, we identify trade-offs among bilateral trade growth, labor migration, and agricultural program expenditures under alternative FTA scenarios. Trade liberalization in agriculture greatly increases rural- urban migration within Mexico and migration from Mexico to the United States. Migration is reduced if Mexico grows relative to the United States and also if Mexico retains farm support programs. However, the more support that is provided to the Mexican agricultural sector, the smaller is bilateral trade growth. The results indicate a policy trade-off between rapidly achieving gains from trade liberalization and providing a transition period long enough to assimilate displaced labor in Mexico without undue strain.     

Does research and development expenditure impact innovation? Evidence from the European Union countries

This study empirically investigates the relationship between innovation and Research & Development expenditure in European Union countries over the period 1995–2014. The findings of the empirical analysis show that there is a co-integration relationship between innovation and R&D. The results also reveal the existence of a positive and significant effect of business, public and higher education R&D on innovation. Business R&D is the sector with the highest positive effect on innovation. The results indicate that EU should strengthen the cooperation between business, public and higher education R&D through the encouragement of partnerships between the private sector, R&D and innovation system.     

SPECIAL ISSUE： DISTRIBUTION OF NATIONAL INCOME IN A TRANSITIONAL ECONOMY Exploring high saving rates in China： an analysis based on the 1992-2003 China flow of funds accounts

本文以国家统计局公布的1992—2003年中国资金流量表为基础，从收入分配和部门储蓄倾向两个方面对居民、企业和政府等国内三个部门的储蓄率进行了比较分析。我们发现，尽管居民部门的储蓄率最高，但是，自1992年以来，它实际上呈逐步下降趋势，其主要原因在于居民部门获得的劳动报酬、财产收入和再分配收入均有所下降；企业储蓄率呈现缓缓上升趋势，主要原因并不在于企业盈利能力的提高，而在于其主要支出——对居民部门的劳动报酬支出和利息支出长期被稳定在较低的水平上；政府储蓄率在经历了上个世纪的低位徘徊之后，于2000年以后急剧上升，其主要原因在于，通过初次分配和再分配，政府的可支配收入在国民收入的分配中占据了越来越大的份额，同时政府部门的储蓄倾向也在不断提高。本文的政策建议是：为了实现以提高国内消费率为核心的经济发展战略，我国的经济运行应全面转向以改善收入分配结构、提高居民收入为重点的轨道上。为达此目的，加速财政政策向公共财政转型，增加公共支出和对居民的福利支出，在提高劳动生产率的基础上提高企业对劳动者的支付水平，应成为今后我国宏观调控的长期任务。     

Public policies promoting the informal sector: Effects on incomes,employment and growth in Burkina Faso

Since the 1990s, Burkina Faso has intensified the implementation of supporting policies to enhance the access to capital and liquidity in the informal sector. This paper analyzes the effects of these public policies on incomes, employment and economic growth by taking into account the interactions between the informal sector, the formal sector and the agricultural sector. For that purpose, policy shocks are simulated through the Partnership for Economic Policy Network's static computable general equilibrium (CGE) model which is adapted to the structure of a 2008-based social accounting matrix developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute. Our results highlight mixed effects including a paradoxical contraction of the informal sector, the formal sector and economic growth as well as an improvement of the informal households and the farmers’ incomes.     

The influence of governance on public sector efficiency: A cross-country analysis

This paper examines whether governance quality affects public sector efficiency in the policy areas of administration, education, infrastructure, and stability. Using cross-country evidence, we find that a country's measures of governance quality are positively and significantly associated with public sector efficiency in the policy areas of administration, infrastructure, and stability. However, regression results suggest that a country's governance quality cannot affect efficiency in the policy area of education, even after controlling for some explanatory variables.     

Rural African women and development

70-90% of Africans still live in rural areas, and 25-30% of rural households are headed by women. Standards of living in rural areas are lower than in urban areas. Rural African women's involvement in development is in its initial stages, and social development for women is likely to be slow. Increasing women's opportunities for education is a means of promoting social justice and fairness. Schools should offer courses of practical value for those not planning on higher education and special programs and career counseling for gifted girls. Women's organizations, African leaders, and other influential parties should aggressively create awareness about the oppressive aspects of traditional attitudes, beliefs, and views about women. Laws on ownership of property, inheritance, access to credit, and employment must be equitable and enforced. Consciousness-raising among rural women is an effective means of encouraging rural women to seek and assume new roles and for questioning unreasonable expectations and norms. Women's professional associations serve important functions and fulfill the need for role models. The quality of rural women's life is effectively improved through formulation of policies relevant to women's needs and problems and improve rural conditions. Women should have fair representation at local and national levels of government. Women's role in agriculture is likely to be enhanced through improved transportation systems, electricity supply, and introduction of intermediate technology. This assessment of rural African women's contributions to economic growth emphasizes women's involvement in farming and the informal sector and their lack of equal remuneration or low wages. Illiteracy places women in a disadvantaged position when competing for employment in the formal sector. Lack of access to credit and limits on credit are other obstacles in the informal sector. The reduced participation of rural women in the formal and informal sector is due to lack of economic power, limited educational opportunities, and policies that place industry in urban areas. Social development that reduces illiteracy and poverty should be encouraged.     

Investigating the implementation of SME-friendly policy in public procurement

Public sector employees with responsibility for purchasing are under increasing pressure to implement small and medium enterprise (SME)-friendly policies. Such policies are intended to make it easier for SMEs to compete for and win public sector contracts. In spite of the socio-economic importance of this issue, there remains a dearth of evidence on what is happening in practice. Using primary survey data from 271 public buyers in Ireland, this paper examines the extent to which SME-friendly procurement policy is being implemented and the individual and organization factors that affect implementation. The findings reveal a gap between what government policy recommends public buyers and their organizations should do to facilitate SMEs versus what they are actually doing. Policy familiarity, procurement involvement, organization size and the maturity of the procurement function are shown to be positively associated with the implementation of SME-friendly policy. For managers and legislators, the findings underline the need to invest in the human capital dimension of public procurement if policy implementation rates are to improve.     

Fighting terrorism in Africa: Complementarity between inclusive development,military expenditure and political stability

This study examines complementarities between inclusive development, military expenditure and political stability in the fight against terrorism in 53 African countries for the period 1998–2012. Hence the policy variables employed in the study are inclusive development, military expenditure and political stability. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) with forward orthogonal deviations. The paper reports three main findings. Firstly, military expenditure and inclusive development are substitutes and not complements. Secondly, it is more relevant to use political stability as a complement of inclusive development than to use inclusive development as a complement of political stability. Thirdly, it can be broadly established that military expenditure and political stability are complementary. In the light of the sequencing, complementarity and substitutability, when the three policy variables are viewed within the same framework, it is more feasible to first pursue political stability and then complement it with military expenditure and inclusive development.     

WTO若干成员对《农业协定》的政策调整及启示

在WTO协议中,《农业协定》对农业支持与保护问题有着严格的约束。主要反映在农业国内支持政策上,包括协定中免于削减的“绿箱政策”和削减范围内的“黄箱政策”,我国必须按照该协定的规则合理调整对农业领域的支持政策。作为农业大省的黑龙江省更应尽快完善相关政策,以适应国际要求,从而提高黑龙江省农业的综合实力与国际竞争力。黑龙江省应着重进行对农民从价格支持向直接固定补贴转变并扩大补贴范围,合理减少食物安全储备支出,加强农村发展方面的投入。     

Welfare Rigidity,the Composition of Public Expenditure and the Welfare Trap

Welfare expenditure is characterized by rigidity, i.e., it goes up easily but is very hard to get down. We introduced welfare rigidity into an endogenous growth model that includes government expenditure to analyze the impact of welfare rigidity and the composition of public expenditure on economic growth and family utility. Our findings show that welfare spending and economic growth have a non-monotonic relationship that is negative or inverted U-shaped depending on cross-country differences. Higher welfare rigidity reduces long-term economic growth and household utility. According to the estimated optimal size of welfare expenditure, China, as a developing country with a large population, has to do all it can to improve people’s livelihood but must at the same time weigh its limited resources so that its welfare expenditure does not fall into a “welfare trap.”     

公共财政与中国国民收入的高储蓄倾向(英文)

本文将国有企业从“企业部门”中分离出来,与“政府部门”合并为“公共部门”,其储蓄率称为“公共部门储蓄率”;并将非国有企业与居民合并为“私人部门”,其储蓄率称为“私人部门储蓄率”。据此提出的中国高储蓄率的公共财政假说认为：2000年以来中国储蓄率持续高涨,是由政府的赢利性动机及其对公共财政职能产生的挤出效应推动的,并带来了公共支出的不足。结果,居民和非国有企业不得不增加预防性储蓄。利用我国1996--2006年30个省面板实证检验的结果验证了此假说。     

‘You don't want to be a check‐out chick all your life’: The out‐migration of young people from Australia's small rural towns

Globalisation and changes in agriculture have resulted in major social changes in inland Australia. Depopulation of the inland has led many to speculate on the future of rural towns and rural people. This paper will examine population drifts from country towns to cities and from the inland to the coastal regions and, in particular, the out‐migration of young people. In doing this, the paper focuses on several small towns in central New South Wales that have been the subject of intensive study during 2000 and 2001. Drawing on analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, in‐depth interviews and focus groups with key informants and surveys with young people and their parents in small rural communities the paper will report on the loss of young people and the greater loss of young women from these areas. It is argued that this outmigration of young people is linked to the need to seek higher education and also to the loss of full‐time jobs for young people. The loss of these jobs is the result of changes in agricultural production, labour market restructuring and a withdrawal of public and private sector services. It is further argued that current reliance by governments on market based and community self‐help solutions is not enough to provide a future for rural communities. Even if economic growth occurs this will not solve the problem of loss of young people, and the greater loss of young women, nor will it address the issue of access to education and training. Rather far greater attention to human capital (access to education, training and employment), institutional capital (government and non‐government services and infrastructure) and social capital (strong networks) is needed if Australia's small rural towns are to survive and flourish.     

A comparative study of the modes of transference of surplus labor in China's countryside

The problems posed by the recent development of a surplus labor force in rural areas of China are examined. Separate consideration is given to ways to absorb this surplus both within and outside the agricultural sector, agricultural labor migration to other rural areas, and rural-urban migration. The implications for urbanization and migration policy are reviewed.