To analyze and estimate the environmental efficiency of China’s vegetable production. Methods The stochastic translog frontier model was used to estimate the technical efficiency of vegetable production. Based on...To analyze and estimate the environmental efficiency of China’s vegetable production. Methods The stochastic translog frontier model was used to estimate the technical efficiency of vegetable production. Based on the estimated frontier and technical inefficiency levels, we used the method developed by Reinhard, et al.[1] to estimate the environmental efficiency. Pesticide and chemical fertilizer inputs were treated as environmentally detrimental inputs. Results From estimated results, the mean environmental efficiency for pesticide input was 69.7%, indicating a great potential for reducing pesticide use in China’s vegetable production. In addition, substitution and output elasticities for vegetable farms were estimated to provide farmers with helpful information on how to reallocate input resources and improve efficiency. Conclusion There exists a great potential for reducing pesticide use in China’s vegetable production.展开更多
Induced travel is an important component of travel demand and increasing attention has been paid to building analytical model to get more precise travel demand forecasting. In general, induced demand can be defined in...Induced travel is an important component of travel demand and increasing attention has been paid to building analytical model to get more precise travel demand forecasting. In general, induced demand can be defined in terms of additional trips that would be made if travel conditions improved (less congested, lower vehicle costs or tolls). In this paper the induced demand resulting from higher design speeds and, therefore by less travel time, for the High Speed 1 in UK will be modelled on the basis of the relationship between existing High Speed Rail demand (dependent variable) to existing High Speed Rail travel times and costs. The covariates include socioeconomic variables related to population and employment in the zones connected by the High Speed Rail services. This model has been calibrated by mean of a before and after study carried on the corridor, when the new High Speed Rail services was introduced. Elasticities of induced travel (trips and VMT) have been computed with respect to fares, travel time and service frequency.展开更多
As a cleaner,high-efficiency,and low-carbon fuel,natural gas has been an important fuel resource for China.To achieve a substantial increase in natural gas demand,China has sought to reform its natural gas pricing mec...As a cleaner,high-efficiency,and low-carbon fuel,natural gas has been an important fuel resource for China.To achieve a substantial increase in natural gas demand,China has sought to reform its natural gas pricing mechanism.Employing a set of unbalanced panel data for China’s 30 provinces covering 1999-2015,this study aims to estimate the evolving price and income elasticities of natural gas demand and explore the effect of natural gas price reform in China.For this purpose,a series of econometric techniques allowing for cross-sectional dependence and slope homogeneity is utilized.The results suggest that although natural gas demand in China still lacks negative price elasticity,the phenomenon is improving.Moreover,the estimates suggest that natural gas demand in China is indeed becoming increasingly sensitive to income changes.Our estimates also provide strong evidence in favor of the effect of natural gas price reform on the change in price elasticity as the price elasticity decreases in five of the seven regions.In addition,the results indicate large variations in the change in price and income elasticities of natural gas demand across China’s regions.Natural gas demand is becoming more price inelastic in Southwest China and Northwest China,while such demand in North China and East China responds less sensitively to income changes.These findings offer several policy suggestions for the reform of China’s natural gas market at the national and regional levels.展开更多
This paper examines global value chains at the level of the heterogeneous firm. The context is a world of horizontal intra-industry trade, characterized by imperfect competition and product differentiation at the firm...This paper examines global value chains at the level of the heterogeneous firm. The context is a world of horizontal intra-industry trade, characterized by imperfect competition and product differentiation at the firm level. Standard microeconomic tools are employed to assess the effects of inter-firm dissimilarities in both demand and supply on firms' responses to changes in trade policy. In this set-up, dissimilarities in firm characteristics play roles similar to factor endowments and technology differences in traditional trade models. When cross-border production sharing ("fragmentation") is introduced into this framework, those differences in firm characteristics determine the degree to which individual firms will enter into production networks. In this context, horizontal and vertical intra-industry tradel elements interact in their effects on firm decisions. Traditional comparative advantage considerations still govern the choice of off-shored activities, while direct competition between imports and exports expands the range of possible outcomes. Finally, it is shown that cross-border production sharing reduces the sensitivity of firms to variations in exchange rates, matching a phenomenon that has been observed in traditional country-level models.展开更多
China is believed to have gained immensely from its admission into to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. One of the direct gains comes from the lessening of deadweight loss (DWL) due to tariff reduction. ...China is believed to have gained immensely from its admission into to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. One of the direct gains comes from the lessening of deadweight loss (DWL) due to tariff reduction. Conventional measures for DWL, however, are too aggregate to capture the trade policies, which are determined at a much higher disaggregated level, and ignore the interactions between tariff and corresponding import demand as suggested by theories. In this paper, we first systematically estimate the import demand elasticities at a highly disaggregated level and then match them with the most detailed lines of the applied tariff for the most favored nations as reported by the WTO. Using the detailed matching data, we construct Feenstra's (1995) simplified trade restrictiveness index (TRI), which captures the covariance of tariff and the corresponding demand elasticity. Finally, we use the TRI to compute the DWL from1997 to 2008 and find that the DWL due to the tariff barrier was reduced to 0.73% of GNI in 2008, noticeably lower than the highest previous mark of 4.58% of GNI in 2001.展开更多
The main objective of this research is to estimate the different types of demand elasticities for the main fresh vegetables consumed in Jordan. The estimated elasticities can be used to measure the impacts of agricult...The main objective of this research is to estimate the different types of demand elasticities for the main fresh vegetables consumed in Jordan. The estimated elasticities can be used to measure the impacts of agricultural policies and can be used to predict future consumption in the context of food security in terms of access, availability, stability, and food quality. The reported demand estimates were obtained through the estimation of a Linear Approximate Almost Ideal Demand Systems (LA/AIDS) for Jordan fresh vegetable crops demand system using the most recent cross-sectional data of household expenditure survey in 2005. A censored regression method for the system of equations was used to analyze fresh vegetables consumption patterns. This method allows for inclusion of a large number of zero consumption for some foods through two-step demand system estimation. All of the own-price demand elasticities have the correct negative signs and statistically significant. According to the expenditure elasticity, tomato, cucumber, and potato are the necessity goods. The mean budget shares indicate that consumers spend 30 percent of their allocated budget to vegetables on tomatoes and potatoes. The green bean elasticity is the highest indicating that demand for beans is highly responsive to any changes in the price. The expenditure elasticities reveal that the demand on all vegetables is expected to grow over the coming few years. High own-price elasticities of all vegetables studied suggests that any changes in the prices of these crops could bring about a significant shift in fruits and vegetable constanption patterns.展开更多
Elasticity of substitution is traditionally estimated while ignoring technical and allocative inefficiencies,which could bias the estimates.We estimate elasticity of substitution for Chinese energy-intensive sectors b...Elasticity of substitution is traditionally estimated while ignoring technical and allocative inefficiencies,which could bias the estimates.We estimate elasticity of substitution for Chinese energy-intensive sectors by incorporating these inefficiencies.The results show most of the sectors are low substitutes between input factors and stress important differences among energy-intensive sectors.Concerning the cross-price elasticity for energy,with respect to capital(labor),the sectors are mainly characterized by weak substitutability or complementary.These imply the production structure is quite rigid and capital cannot be so readily used as a substitute for energy.展开更多
Demand for food plays an important role in the adjustment of prices for agricultural products and for adjusting agricultural structure.By using the extended linear expenditure system(ELES),we analyzed the food consump...Demand for food plays an important role in the adjustment of prices for agricultural products and for adjusting agricultural structure.By using the extended linear expenditure system(ELES),we analyzed the food consumption structure of rural residents in the Ganzhou district of Zhangye city,and determined the basic food-consumption demand,the marginal propensity of consumption,the income elasticities of demand,and the own-price and cross-price elasticities of local rural residents,all of which illustrate the influencing factors on food consumption of rural residents and for forecasting the food-consumption structure.Those analyses show the following:the rural residents’ expenditure on household basic food consumption reaches about 7,050.35 Yuan;the marginal propensities of consumption of fruits and vegetables are relatively high(0.062 and 0.106,respectively),followed by meat(0.044);the demands for various foods are increasing as income increases,with the largest income elasticity of demand corresponding to fruits(1.354) and the lowest to cereal(0.310);fruits and vegetables have relatively high own-price elasticities(respectively-0.879 and-0.442),with the cereal having the lowest one(-0.184).An increase in cereal prices would greatly affect demand for other products;with the rising size of rural households,the consumption for meat is decreasing whereas it is increasing for cereal.The improvement of household education levels will lead to the increase of fruit consumption(E = 0.297),which indicates that people will pay more attention to diet and nutrition structure with the improvement of education.Further,although the amount of cereal expenditure is continually growing,the share will be declining with the increase of household income in 2006-2012.For all these reasons,therefore,the government should encourage the cultivation of economic crops and guide the development of stockbreeding to ensure the stability of cereal output.In order to attain the balance between supply and demand,it is important to rationally ad展开更多
基于Kee et al.(2008)的模型,本文扩展测算了包含反倾销税的贸易限制指数,利用2001—2015年G20经济体的进口贸易数据,分阶段测算了G20经济体进口需求弹性系数和贸易限制指数,在此基础上考察了贸易限制指数与增加值贸易的关系。结果表明:...基于Kee et al.(2008)的模型,本文扩展测算了包含反倾销税的贸易限制指数,利用2001—2015年G20经济体的进口贸易数据,分阶段测算了G20经济体进口需求弹性系数和贸易限制指数,在此基础上考察了贸易限制指数与增加值贸易的关系。结果表明:①2008年国际金融危机后,G20经济体进口需求弹性系数总体呈上升趋势。各经济体的进口需求弹性系数变化对贸易限制指数变化的贡献率存在差异,且发达经济体进口需求弹性系数的贡献率总体上高于中国、印度等发展中经济体。②从贸易限制指数变化趋势看,2000—2015年大部分经济体贸易保护程度在波动中呈下降趋势,且中国下降幅度最大。但是国际金融危机后,欧盟、日本、韩国、美国等经济体的贸易保护呈一定程度的上升趋势,发达经济体逆全球化趋势明显。③在扩展考虑反倾销税后,各经济体贸易限制指数有所增加,发达经济体的增加程度尤为明显,说明现实中除关税外,发达经济体越来越多地采用非关税贸易保护措施。④贸易限制指数显著降低了出口国内增加值和国外增加值,表明贸易自由化总体上促进了增加值贸易。传统进口加权平均关税率低估了贸易保护程度,也低估了贸易自由化对增加值贸易的影响。展开更多
文摘To analyze and estimate the environmental efficiency of China’s vegetable production. Methods The stochastic translog frontier model was used to estimate the technical efficiency of vegetable production. Based on the estimated frontier and technical inefficiency levels, we used the method developed by Reinhard, et al.[1] to estimate the environmental efficiency. Pesticide and chemical fertilizer inputs were treated as environmentally detrimental inputs. Results From estimated results, the mean environmental efficiency for pesticide input was 69.7%, indicating a great potential for reducing pesticide use in China’s vegetable production. In addition, substitution and output elasticities for vegetable farms were estimated to provide farmers with helpful information on how to reallocate input resources and improve efficiency. Conclusion There exists a great potential for reducing pesticide use in China’s vegetable production.
文摘Induced travel is an important component of travel demand and increasing attention has been paid to building analytical model to get more precise travel demand forecasting. In general, induced demand can be defined in terms of additional trips that would be made if travel conditions improved (less congested, lower vehicle costs or tolls). In this paper the induced demand resulting from higher design speeds and, therefore by less travel time, for the High Speed 1 in UK will be modelled on the basis of the relationship between existing High Speed Rail demand (dependent variable) to existing High Speed Rail travel times and costs. The covariates include socioeconomic variables related to population and employment in the zones connected by the High Speed Rail services. This model has been calibrated by mean of a before and after study carried on the corridor, when the new High Speed Rail services was introduced. Elasticities of induced travel (trips and VMT) have been computed with respect to fares, travel time and service frequency.
基金Financial support from the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos.17BGL014 and 18VDL017)
文摘As a cleaner,high-efficiency,and low-carbon fuel,natural gas has been an important fuel resource for China.To achieve a substantial increase in natural gas demand,China has sought to reform its natural gas pricing mechanism.Employing a set of unbalanced panel data for China’s 30 provinces covering 1999-2015,this study aims to estimate the evolving price and income elasticities of natural gas demand and explore the effect of natural gas price reform in China.For this purpose,a series of econometric techniques allowing for cross-sectional dependence and slope homogeneity is utilized.The results suggest that although natural gas demand in China still lacks negative price elasticity,the phenomenon is improving.Moreover,the estimates suggest that natural gas demand in China is indeed becoming increasingly sensitive to income changes.Our estimates also provide strong evidence in favor of the effect of natural gas price reform on the change in price elasticity as the price elasticity decreases in five of the seven regions.In addition,the results indicate large variations in the change in price and income elasticities of natural gas demand across China’s regions.Natural gas demand is becoming more price inelastic in Southwest China and Northwest China,while such demand in North China and East China responds less sensitively to income changes.These findings offer several policy suggestions for the reform of China’s natural gas market at the national and regional levels.
文摘This paper examines global value chains at the level of the heterogeneous firm. The context is a world of horizontal intra-industry trade, characterized by imperfect competition and product differentiation at the firm level. Standard microeconomic tools are employed to assess the effects of inter-firm dissimilarities in both demand and supply on firms' responses to changes in trade policy. In this set-up, dissimilarities in firm characteristics play roles similar to factor endowments and technology differences in traditional trade models. When cross-border production sharing ("fragmentation") is introduced into this framework, those differences in firm characteristics determine the degree to which individual firms will enter into production networks. In this context, horizontal and vertical intra-industry tradel elements interact in their effects on firm decisions. Traditional comparative advantage considerations still govern the choice of off-shored activities, while direct competition between imports and exports expands the range of possible outcomes. Finally, it is shown that cross-border production sharing reduces the sensitivity of firms to variations in exchange rates, matching a phenomenon that has been observed in traditional country-level models.
基金Acknowledgements We are grateful to the participants at CESifo Venice Summer Institute workshop on "China and the Global Economy Post Crisis" for their invaluable comments. All errors in this paper are ours. Bo Chen acknowledges the financial support of the Ministry of Education of China (No. 09YJC790180) and of the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71103116).
文摘China is believed to have gained immensely from its admission into to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. One of the direct gains comes from the lessening of deadweight loss (DWL) due to tariff reduction. Conventional measures for DWL, however, are too aggregate to capture the trade policies, which are determined at a much higher disaggregated level, and ignore the interactions between tariff and corresponding import demand as suggested by theories. In this paper, we first systematically estimate the import demand elasticities at a highly disaggregated level and then match them with the most detailed lines of the applied tariff for the most favored nations as reported by the WTO. Using the detailed matching data, we construct Feenstra's (1995) simplified trade restrictiveness index (TRI), which captures the covariance of tariff and the corresponding demand elasticity. Finally, we use the TRI to compute the DWL from1997 to 2008 and find that the DWL due to the tariff barrier was reduced to 0.73% of GNI in 2008, noticeably lower than the highest previous mark of 4.58% of GNI in 2001.
文摘The main objective of this research is to estimate the different types of demand elasticities for the main fresh vegetables consumed in Jordan. The estimated elasticities can be used to measure the impacts of agricultural policies and can be used to predict future consumption in the context of food security in terms of access, availability, stability, and food quality. The reported demand estimates were obtained through the estimation of a Linear Approximate Almost Ideal Demand Systems (LA/AIDS) for Jordan fresh vegetable crops demand system using the most recent cross-sectional data of household expenditure survey in 2005. A censored regression method for the system of equations was used to analyze fresh vegetables consumption patterns. This method allows for inclusion of a large number of zero consumption for some foods through two-step demand system estimation. All of the own-price demand elasticities have the correct negative signs and statistically significant. According to the expenditure elasticity, tomato, cucumber, and potato are the necessity goods. The mean budget shares indicate that consumers spend 30 percent of their allocated budget to vegetables on tomatoes and potatoes. The green bean elasticity is the highest indicating that demand for beans is highly responsive to any changes in the price. The expenditure elasticities reveal that the demand on all vegetables is expected to grow over the coming few years. High own-price elasticities of all vegetables studied suggests that any changes in the prices of these crops could bring about a significant shift in fruits and vegetable constanption patterns.
基金financial support provided by the China Natural Science Funding:[Grant Number71673134]sponsored by Qing Lan Project and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities:[Grant Number NJ20150035]
文摘Elasticity of substitution is traditionally estimated while ignoring technical and allocative inefficiencies,which could bias the estimates.We estimate elasticity of substitution for Chinese energy-intensive sectors by incorporating these inefficiencies.The results show most of the sectors are low substitutes between input factors and stress important differences among energy-intensive sectors.Concerning the cross-price elasticity for energy,with respect to capital(labor),the sectors are mainly characterized by weak substitutability or complementary.These imply the production structure is quite rigid and capital cannot be so readily used as a substitute for energy.
基金the funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40671076)CAS western Action Plan (2),"Strategy Research on Basin Integrated Water Resources Management" (KZCX2-XB2-04-04)
文摘Demand for food plays an important role in the adjustment of prices for agricultural products and for adjusting agricultural structure.By using the extended linear expenditure system(ELES),we analyzed the food consumption structure of rural residents in the Ganzhou district of Zhangye city,and determined the basic food-consumption demand,the marginal propensity of consumption,the income elasticities of demand,and the own-price and cross-price elasticities of local rural residents,all of which illustrate the influencing factors on food consumption of rural residents and for forecasting the food-consumption structure.Those analyses show the following:the rural residents’ expenditure on household basic food consumption reaches about 7,050.35 Yuan;the marginal propensities of consumption of fruits and vegetables are relatively high(0.062 and 0.106,respectively),followed by meat(0.044);the demands for various foods are increasing as income increases,with the largest income elasticity of demand corresponding to fruits(1.354) and the lowest to cereal(0.310);fruits and vegetables have relatively high own-price elasticities(respectively-0.879 and-0.442),with the cereal having the lowest one(-0.184).An increase in cereal prices would greatly affect demand for other products;with the rising size of rural households,the consumption for meat is decreasing whereas it is increasing for cereal.The improvement of household education levels will lead to the increase of fruit consumption(E = 0.297),which indicates that people will pay more attention to diet and nutrition structure with the improvement of education.Further,although the amount of cereal expenditure is continually growing,the share will be declining with the increase of household income in 2006-2012.For all these reasons,therefore,the government should encourage the cultivation of economic crops and guide the development of stockbreeding to ensure the stability of cereal output.In order to attain the balance between supply and demand,it is important to rationally ad
文摘基于Kee et al.(2008)的模型,本文扩展测算了包含反倾销税的贸易限制指数,利用2001—2015年G20经济体的进口贸易数据,分阶段测算了G20经济体进口需求弹性系数和贸易限制指数,在此基础上考察了贸易限制指数与增加值贸易的关系。结果表明:①2008年国际金融危机后,G20经济体进口需求弹性系数总体呈上升趋势。各经济体的进口需求弹性系数变化对贸易限制指数变化的贡献率存在差异,且发达经济体进口需求弹性系数的贡献率总体上高于中国、印度等发展中经济体。②从贸易限制指数变化趋势看,2000—2015年大部分经济体贸易保护程度在波动中呈下降趋势,且中国下降幅度最大。但是国际金融危机后,欧盟、日本、韩国、美国等经济体的贸易保护呈一定程度的上升趋势,发达经济体逆全球化趋势明显。③在扩展考虑反倾销税后,各经济体贸易限制指数有所增加,发达经济体的增加程度尤为明显,说明现实中除关税外,发达经济体越来越多地采用非关税贸易保护措施。④贸易限制指数显著降低了出口国内增加值和国外增加值,表明贸易自由化总体上促进了增加值贸易。传统进口加权平均关税率低估了贸易保护程度,也低估了贸易自由化对增加值贸易的影响。