Search

A reorientation towards emphasis on consumption has become a major issue in China, raising the question of the relationship between economic growth and the composition of output. The issue is addressed here, using insights from economic growth theories. These theories indicate that concentration on capital goods production generates the most rapid overall growth. With short-term deviations and without explicit reference to any theory, Chinese practice in the past seems to have conformed. A shift to emphasizing output of consumption goods while resulting in an overall growth slowdown, will improve consumer welfare, suggesting the benefits of shifting to this criterion of economic success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The explanation offered here for the high rates of saving in China is that much of the saving has been “forced” in two Benthamite senses. Involuntary saving, the first of Bentham's meanings, includes taxes which finance investment. These have made up more than half of the total savings in China in recent years. There is also forced saving in China in the form of Bentham's second sense, conduced saving, resulting from bank loans which have financed investment. While the existence of a savings glut has been suggested for China, a better characterization would be that it has had a high rate of investment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Regression analysis is used to tease out the relative significance of influences on the supply and demand for the exports of China and India. On the supply side, the value-added tax in China has discouraged export supply. The elimination of the rebate on those taxes will discourage exports. Higher wages discourage exports, but the share of exports by foreign invested enterprise is a positive influence, as is a higher share of value added in output and greater experience in exporting. On the demand side, exports depend in part on aggregate income levels in importing countries. Relative wages have been more important than exchange rates in determining the demands for Chinese and Indian exports. This evidence does not support the pressures for a devaluation of the RMB. There is also evidence of the positive significance of the accustomization of purchasers to buying Chinese exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Models with time horizons of 100 years are customarily used to predict anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Historical evidence indicates that over this time span the current consumption patterns in developing countries are likely to change and converge to the present patterns in developed countries. This study deals with modeling this type of convergence in consumption patterns within the MIT Emission Prediction and Policy Analysis Model (EPPA) framework. We find that the differences in the model with static consumption-function coefficients from that in the model with dynamic coefficients have significant implications for the costs of emissions restrictions in developing countries, even though the regional emissions profiles are virtually the same. Our results suggest that the costs of emissions restrictions in developing countries would be higher if the changes in consumption patterns are taken account of than if they are ignored in the simulation model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deals with the desired distribution for greenhouse gas emissions of the Kyoto Protocol signed in 1998. Background of the Kyoto Protocol emissions constraints; Calculations of the costs of alternative guidelines for emissions restrictions; Advantages of the alternative guidelines.

Analyzes the Global Warming Potential (GWP), a policy tool of a physical index of radioactive forcing of a greenhouse gas, which was proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Necessity of measuring and comparing the effects of greenhouse gas emissions; Information on GWP; Economic aspects of preventing global warming.

This section presents commentaries on articles about Chinese planning and economy published in the May 1973 issue of the American Economic Review. It is enlightening to learn from Dwight H. Perkins' paper about the problems which the People's Republic of China has had in formulating and implementing consistent plans for development. Perkins also raised but does not resolve some of the central issues of planning and plan implementation in China. Imports can be an efficient source of goods which can relieve unforeseen bottlenecks and exports can permit the utilization of capacity which might otherwise remain idle. Perkins' argument may be interpreted as meaning that the signals of resource misallocation or plan disruption are somehow clearer and stronger when foreign trade is not available as an offset. With regards to the paper by Ta-Chung Liu and Kung-Chia Yeh, it is clear that they have employed considerable ingenuity in assessing the overall economic performance of China. However, the source of the differences in the incremental fixed capital-output ratios may not be in the differences in the mix of industries and projects in China as compared to other countries, but in the relative inefficiency with which investment projects are carried out.

The article presents the author's comments on technological innovations in less developed countries. According to the author, process innovations in the less developed countries mean a change in technology with a corresponding change in factor productivity. The author states that several different factor combinations might simultaneously be actively in use in producing a given commodity

The factor proportions problems of growth in underdeveloped areas can be discussed on both theoretical and empirical levels. First of all, the technological changes either occurring or in prospect for underdeveloped arms are pervasive and profound departures from the previously used techniques which have often become imbued with cultural traditions. By comparison, the technological innovations which occur in advanced countries axe marginal changes, which do not represent such abrupt transitions with such far-reaching consequences for culture as well as economy. Second, technological change in underdeveloped areas is nearly always imported from advanced countries whose factor endowments are usually quite different. Thus, while some of the technological imports may economize on all factors, others, adopted willy-nilly, will economize on the wrong factors. Finally, technological choice in underdeveloped areas is a more obvious problem just because it is done more consciously, more publicly, and is often undertaken directly by government or under the control of its policy.

This article presents a discussion of the research paper "Agricultural Surpluses and Foreign Aid," in the U.S., by John H. Davis, a professor at the Harvard University, published in the May 1959 issue of the journal "American Economic Review." Davis' views on the constructive international purposes to be served by selling U.S. agricultural surpluses for foreign currencies under Title I of Public Law 480 must nevertheless be subjected to the critical process of weighing conflicting evidence, distinguishing valid generalizations from official or unofficial rationalizations, and disclosing unobtrusive side effects. Under present practices, continuing shipments of expendable U.S. commodities are being converted into substantial long-term claims against foreign economic resources. Both the U.S. and the importing country are more eager to move the goods under sales agreements than to negotiate subsequent loan agreements. But pools of local currencies, rising at compound rates in keeping with annual export shipments and prospective loan repayment schedules, are likely to become increasingly embarrassing to both parties.

Presents a series of abstracts on various topics of economics published in the May 1964 issue of the periodical 'The Review of Economics and Statistics.' Overview of resource allocation for education and training; Fiscal impact of industrialization on local schools in the U.S.; Approaches to measure the effectiveness of fiscal policy; Trends of the concentration of manufacturing industries in the U.S.