|
on South East Asia |
| By: | Katsuhiro Sakurai; Takeshi Mizunoya; Shintaro Kobayashi; Yoshiro Higano |
| Abstract: | Northeast Asia countries (e.g. around the Sea of Japan area) cooperate in economic and environmental policies, etc., because the comprehensive problems like the climate change and global warming occur in recent years. The ring Sea of Japan area consists of Japan, Republic of Korea, China, and Far East Russia in Northeast Asia, and the countries have to join forces in order to control the ocean environment and attain the sustainable development in the region. In this study, we try to evaluate the policy measure to control the land-based water pollutant into the Sea of Japan through a system simulation approach. The system simulation model is formulated a definition of an objective function and the structure of water pollutants inflow and the socio-economic system of the target countries and regions of the ring Sea of Japan. We present an optimal international policy for environmental investment taking account of economic situations and environmental influences of this area over a certain period of time through the dynamic simulation. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p413&r=sea |
| By: | Roy, Francine |
| Abstract: | This article documents the evolution of Canada's trade with China over the last 15 years in the context of the broad shifts in China's trade with the world. |
| Keywords: | Trade, Exports, International trade, Imports |
| Date: | 2004–06–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp2e:2004007e&r=sea |
| By: | Yana van der Meulen Rodgers; Gunseli Berik |
| Abstract: | Labor regulations designed to protect workers, promote workplace equality, and improve working conditions achieve social objectives and affect international competitiveness. Considering these dual outcomes has taken on added urgency as Asian economies adjust to an increase in global competition in textiles and clothing following the end of the Multi-Fiber Agreement, with large projected gains for China and potential losses for other Asian producers. Countries that stand to lose from the MFA phase-out face China’s low cost and high quality production. This paper shows that China’s competitive threat lies in its extremely poor compliance record with its own and international labor standards. Yet empirical evidence generally supports the argument that the costs of raising and enforcing labor standards are offset by dynamic efficiency gains and macroeconomic effects. This evidence supports the case for Asian economies to pursue the “high road” in their race to capture post-MFA markets in textiles and clothing. |
| Keywords: | Post-MFA, Asian Markets, Labor Standards |
| Date: | 2006–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uta:papers:2006_02&r=sea |
| By: | Takuya Urakami |
| Abstract: | Although water supply systems include activities such as water intake; water purification; and water distribution, many water supply organizations are not always equipped with all three activities. In fact, Japan has two types of water companies: one that operates water intake and water purification (type 1); and the other which mainly operates water distribution (type 2). Many previous studies have attempted to identify scale economies for water supply organizations, but have failed to take into account which water supply systems operate. In this analysis we categorize Japanese water supply organizations into three types: type 1 - which operates water intake and water purification; type 2a - which not only operates water distribution, but also operates water intake and water purification; and type 2b - which operates water distribution, but purchases water from type 1 companies. After that, we estimate scale economies for each type of water supply organization using translog cost function. Furthermore, we take into account their water sources, especially type 1 and type 2a, because we consider that differences of water sources might affect the cost structure of water supply systems. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p370&r=sea |
| By: | Sylvie DEMURGER (HIEBS, the University of Hong Kong and CNRS (France)); Martin FOURNIER (CEFC (Hong Kong)); CHEN Yi (CERDI, Université d’Auvergne (France)) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the impact of market liberalization on gender earnings differentials and discrimination against women in urban China at the beginning of the 90s. The observed stability in the overall gender earnings gap between 1988 and 1995 is shown to result from a complex set of evolutions across enterprises, earnings distributions and time. Our results highlight the interplay of opposing forces, economic reforms contributing to changes in managers’ behaviors in different dimensions. On the one hand, by bringing more competition, liberalization favored a reduction in discriminating behaviors in both urban collectives and foreign-invested enterprises; on the other hand, by relaxing institutional rules, it led to a loosening of the government’s egalitarian wage setting policies, leaving more space for discrimination in state-owned enterprises. |
| Keywords: | gender earnings differentials, discrimination, enterprise ownership, urban China |
| JEL: | J16 J31 J71 O53 P23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2006-23&r=sea |
| By: | Bin Li; Yoshiro Higano |
| Abstract: | Global warming is likely to be the greatest environmental challenge among various known climate changes that related with many aspects of land use and water management in the 21st century. In general, the phenomenon of global warming is almost proportionally related with the pace of industrialization, which has to be resolved with high priority. Fossil fuel production and consumption is primarily responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide (CO2), into the environment, increasing the level of global warming. In this research, a policy mix as a kind of climate change strategy is proposed, imposing carbon tax in China. Based on available data, an eco-conscious socioeconomic framework model is built and several scenarios of energy use and CO2 emission are developed in order to evaluate comprehensively the effect of carbon tax on CO2 emission curtailment and introduce suitable alternative energy in China. Sustainable power technologies mean solar power technology and wind power technology in the research. The main target is to form a low carbon sustainable society in China, using a multi-sectoral macro-economical model including Input-Output (I-O) table. Then an optimum carbon tax rate is derived endogenously by running the simulation model under CO2 emission restrictions. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p218&r=sea |
| By: | Wu Zhigang; Zhou Suhong; Feng Changchun |
| Abstract: | There appears bran-new models of land use development which is not entirely in accord with national policy in China, especially in the rapid urbanization zone. It results from the conflicts between the active two-system of land use policy and the rapid development of society and economy in these areas. Although it disobeys the national law of land use in some aspects, this phenomenon reveals the irrationality on the active land policy, which has to be reformed for the urban sustainability. After summarizing and analysing the typical models of land use development of the rapid urbanization areas in the Pearl-river Delta metropolitans, the paper gives some conclusions and some suggestions for land policy reform in the future. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p442&r=sea |
| By: | Makoto Tsukai; Makoto Okumura |
| Abstract: | Multimodal policy between railway and airlines is of importance in providing seamless transportation service to inter-regional passengers. However, it is difficult to make coordination among the railway and airline service suppliers, especially when they are fiercely competing for the share in passenger market in the target OD. Inter-regional transportation in Japan, fierce competitions are observed between Japan Railway companies and airlines, especially after the 1990 fs deregulation of the airline entrance; the number of new air service are parallel to the conventionally profitable railway service. Regardless to railway service improvements such as speed-ups, increase of frequency and special tickets of bargain fares, the number of airline passengers has been increased in the middle to long distant regions, while railway passengers continuously decreased. Such consequence would be brought by the multimodal route which has an airline link as the trunk line, and railway links as the access or egress service, considering inter-regional passenger behaviors. In other words, the improvement of railway service of middle to long distance would simultaneously and inevitably improve the short distant railway service, which can be used as the access line to airport. This phenomenon can be called the spatial externality of railway network. Spatial externality much strongly appears in railway network, comparing to airlines. If the above consideration is valid, inter-regional transportation market would not be efficient without considering the unintended multimodal use. This study purposes to clarify the existence and effects of spatial externality of railway service from investigation of longitudinal change in inter-regional transportation service and demand in Japan. The LOS of multimodal routes are calculated by the k-th shortest path algorithm which gives alternative routes to the shortest. In order to assess the LOS for each OD, the mode choice model is estimated, and passenger utilities of ODs are calculated. The results are aggregated for each distance range of ODs, and compared the LOS improvement measured by estimated utilities with the number of passengers of railway and of airlines. Implications for regional transportation administration are finally made. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p416&r=sea |
| By: | Makoto Okumura; Makoto Tsukai |
| Abstract: | It takes long time and huge amount of money to construct inter-city railway network. Careful demand forecasting and rational service planning are therefore required. However, long ranged demand forecasting is always facing to unintended change of regional population or change of the service level of competing transportation modes such as airline and inter-city express bus. Those changes sometimes resulted in severe decrease of demand for the constructed railway lines and discussion of abolishment of train service occurs. In order to avoid such tragedy, we want to build a robust network plan not vulnerable for the changes in forecasting conditions. This paper discusses the robustness of optimal inter-city railway network structure in Japan against alternative population distributions. Genetic Algorithm is applied to find best mixture of maximum operation speed category and number of daily train service for each link, which maximize the total consumer surplus of inter-city railway passengers. Consumer surplus is assessed by a gravity demand model considering service level along several routes for each OD pair. Travel time calculated by allocated link speed category, allocated train frequency, and estimated fare regressed by travel speed, will be summarized as route service level via ML route choice model parameters. In the GA, we consider a chromosome consists of two parts; speed category of 275 links and relative operation distance of trains in those links. Besides the real distribution of population in 197 Japanese local areas in the year of 1995, we set four other hypothetic population distributions; two of them concentrate in megalopolises like Tokyo, others disperse along geographically remote areas. We first obtain network structures optimized by the GA for each population setting. Speed category allocation will be compared for the five network plans. Secondly, we calculate total consumer surplus of each network plan under the different population settings and discuss the vulnerability of those plans. Thirdly, we optimize train operation plans for different population settings under the given speed category arrangements. The results shows that spatial arrangement of high speed railway service in 1995 keeps optimality for wide range of population settings, if we adjust number of trains according to alternative population distribution. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p497&r=sea |
| By: | Ross H. McLeod |
| Abstract: | Development economists often analyse the performance of particular sectors of the economy, yet they have largely ignored that of one of the most important sectors, namely, the public sector, the performance of which is demonstrably poor. They are also continually giving recommendations to the Indonesian government as to what constitutes sound economic policy, whereas there is abundant evidence that the bureaucracy has neither the incentive nor the competence to implement such policy. Civil service reform is therefore crucial to improving Indonesia's economic performance. This paper argues that the key to such reform is the adoption of human resource management practices similar to those that can be observed in successful, large business enterprises: namely, creating an environment of open and fair competition for all positions within the organisation. |
| Keywords: | civil service reform, human resource management, performance evaluation, competition, incentives |
| JEL: | D73 H11 H83 J31 L33 M12 M51 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pas:papers:2006-02&r=sea |
| By: | Takahiro Akita; Sachiko Miyata |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the changing geographical pattern of manufacturing industries in Japan in the 1990s and explores factors of their geographical concentration. We start with an estimation of the geographical concentration of manufacturing industries using the coefficient of localization based on manufacturing employment and establishment data at the prefecture level. We then conduct a regression analysis to test some hypotheses of geographical concentration of manufacturing industries, which were derived from new theories of trade and economic geography that have been advanced by Fujita, Krugman, and Venables (1999). In the regression analysis, we consider the following three factors of geographical concentration: scale economies, transportation costs, and inter-industry linkages. We follow basically the approach used by Amiti (1998, 1999), which investigated the effects of scale economies and inter-industry linkages on the geographical concentration of manufacturing industries for EU countries using manufacturing employment and output data from EUROSTAT and UNIDO. As opposed to Amiti, we also consider transportation costs as a possible factor of geographical concentration. Furthermore, our analysis is based on regional data rather than country data. As a measure of plant-level scale economies, we use the ratio of total employment to the total number of establishments in each industry, while as a measure of the intensity of transportation costs, we use the ratio of intermediate transportation inputs to total inputs. To measure plant-level scale economies, we employ manufacturing data from the Statistics of Industry. On the other hand, to measure the intensity of transportation costs and inter-industry linkages, we use the national input-output tables. We expect that scale economies and inter-industry linkages have positive effects, while transportation costs have a negative effect, on the geographical concentration of manufacturing industries. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p195&r=sea |
| By: | Laksiri Jayasuriya |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pas:asarcc:2006-01&r=sea |
| By: | Fumitoshi Mizutani; Tomoyasu Tanaka |
| Abstract: | Inefficient use of public money is a policy issue of concern in Japan. Some contend that spending towards the formation of public capital does not promote economic growth, one reason being that such investment is concentrated in underdeveloped regions which have a low impact on the growth of economic activity. Investment in underdeveloped regions might be the result of political misallocation or simply the fact that public capital no longer contributes to private productivity. Our study addresses these two important issues: whether or not public infrastructure contributes to production in the private sector, and whether or not political factors really affect the allocation of public infrastructure investment. If the political factors indeed affect allocation, what kinds of political factors are the most deterministic? First, we survey studies on this topic published since the 1970s. For methodology, we plan to take a simultaneous approach to examine these issues. Second, because some data are not publicly available, we construct a data set of public infrastructure and related variables. Public capital in this study is limited to public infrastructure such as roads, ports, airports, banks and dams. Railroads and electric power plants are excluded because these were built by the private sector in Japan. In this study, we plan to use a panel data set covering 46 prefectures and 9 time periods for every 5 years from 1955 to 1995 in Japan. Therefore, the total sample size in this study is 414. Third, after constructing the data set, we overview the regional distribution of public infrastructure and the relationship between public infrastructure allocation and political factors. Last, we estimate simultaneous equations regarding regional production function, infrastructure investment function and grant allocation function. By using these estimated functions, we evaluate whether or not public capital contributes to production and what kind of political factors affect the allocation of public infrastructure investment. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p412&r=sea |
| By: | Ryohei Nakamura |
| Abstract: | Agglomeration economies are usually divided into two categories: urbanization economies and localization economies. In 80fs a number of attempts have been devoted to estimate urbanization economies and/or localization economies. After the work by Glaeser et al. in 1992, however, historical effects on agglomeration called dynamic externalities in agglomeration are tried to estimate extensively. These externalities are named as MAR in a dynamic sense, and traditional agglomeration economies are evaluated in static sense. Besides urbanization and localization, more traditional sources of industrial concentration are found in industrial linkages, such as customer and supplier linkages or backward and forward linkages. These linkage effects come from the concentration of different kinds of industries while localization economies mean the benefit from the concentration of firms within the same industry. Also, linkage effects are often referred as pecuniary externalities. This paper tries to construct an estimable model of linkage effects among industries as well as agglomeration economies, and to estimate these effects separately within a framework of the Translog production function. In this model intermediate inputs play an important role as linkage effects. The empirical analysis is based on two-digit data for manufacturing industries in Japanese cities. Estimated results vary significantly among the two-digit industries. Furthermore, in order to capture dynamic effect in changes of agglomeration, a time variant production function model which is consistent to static production function model is constructed and estimated. From the time series evidence we find agglomeration economies are decreasing while linkage effects are still important. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p768&r=sea |
| By: | Fidel Pérez Sebastián (Universidad de Alicante); Lilia Maliar (Universidad de Alicante); Serguei Maliar (Universidad de Alicante) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of sovereign risk on capital flows from rich to poor nations in the context of a two-country model where Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) creates positive externalities in domestic production. We show that if externalities are large, a developing country never expropriates foreign assets, and behaves as under perfect enforcement of foreigners' property rights, jumping to the steady state in one period. If externalities are absent, a developing country always expropriates foreign assets and, then, there are no capital flows in equilibrium, as occurs in autarky. If externalities are of a medium size, our model can account for scarce capital flows from rich to poor nations, as well as other key features of the data, such as rising-over-time patterns of foreign capital and FDI in developing countries. In addition, the model offers an economic rationale for the FDI restrictions observed across nations. |
| Keywords: | Sovereign risk, Foreign direct investment, Externalities, Incentive compatibility |
| JEL: | C63 D82 E22 F15 G32 O40 |
| Date: | 2005–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ivi:wpasad:2005-27&r=sea |
| By: | Marija Boèkarjova |
| Abstract: | Protection from the threats posed by water in the Netherlands has a centuries old history. Remarkably, if one takes a historical prospective, it becomes apparent that water protection policy has not changed much through time. In fact, one may detect a certain “path dependency”. Today many experts agree that “technocratic” philosophy of raising dikes (though now upgraded with certain new techniques for water retention) has reached the limits of its development cycle. This means that new solutions have to be found to guarantee long run sustainability under conditions of increasing risk of sea level rise. A number of implications for regional development are addressed in this paper. We will present a novel way of thinking about the complex flood protection problem in a densely populated country with a highly developed economic network. Basically, a large-scale disaster hitting an industrial area causes (temporary) businesses closure and thus production breakdown, thereby generating distortions in the whole economic network. We present a first effort to model such distortions using an adapted Input-Output (I-O) model. In contrast to the existing I-O models, our model is able to deal with production disturbances and emerging disequilibria on the market, which has not been the case before. As a result, we can explore various flood scenarios and describe possible recovery paths. Here we shall focus our analysis on the regional structure. The Western provinces of the Netherlands, the areas most prone to flooding, are industrially highly developed. Once such a province has been hit, this may have direct and indirect consequences for other regions in the medium and long term. For example, other (peripheral) areas of the country may experience an incentive for output growth, overtaking the lost production from the central part to satisfy demand needs. Using inter-regional input-output tables for the Netherlands we show how in principle the sectoral composition of the provinces may change in the aftermath of a calamity. Furthermore, this may have implications for the bordering countries as well as for specific parts all over Europe. Our proposed approach is not only a device to study possible regional change as a result of a disaster; it can also serve an instrument for policy advice. This may assist policymakers in thinking about the long-run dynamics in regional development strategies. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p540&r=sea |
| By: | Nor Aziah Abdul Manaf, John Hasseldine and Ron Hodges |
| Abstract: | This article analyzes the determinants of Malaysian land taxpayers’ compliance attitudes. While income taxpayers often have the structural opportunity to underreport income/overstate deductions, it is more difficult to hide land ownership. Despite this, there are high levels of uncollected land tax revenue in Malaysia. We document the factors associated with land taxpayers’ compliance attitudes and our results should be useful to policy makers in Malaysia and elsewhere, as we find that independent variables significant in prior income tax compliance research also extend to the field of property and land tax compliance. |
| Keywords: | malaysia, tax, compliance, land |
| Date: | 2006–01–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsw:discus:323&r=sea |
| By: | Dominique Drouet; Ronald Steenblik; George Stubbs |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the synergistic relationships between trade in environmental services and trade in environmental goods. It forms part of a series of OECD studies that analyse various issues related to Paragraph 31(iii) of the World Trade Organization’s 2001 Doha Development Agenda, which mandates negotiations at the WTO on “the reduction or, as appropriate, elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to environmental goods and services.” For the purpose of this study, environmental services are defined as wastewater management services, solid-waste management services, sanitation and similar services and other environmental services. Services related to the collection, purification and distribution of water are also discussed in the paper. After describing the nature of each environmental service, the paper identifies broad categories of goods used in the performance of those services, and notes that for some goods environmental services are what is driving growth in their markets. The analysis then draws on case studies of actual business-to-business exports of environmental services, mainly from OECD countries to developing countries, to form general insights into the kinds of environmental goods used by service providers, and how these goods are procured. The case studies provide qualitative evidence that many of the goods included on either the APEC or the OECD lists of environmental goods are used in the performance of environmental services. These include, in particular, items for holding, conveying, treating and filtering liquids, and instruments for monitoring and measuring. Many of these goods are procured from local suppliers, if not initially then over time as local demand for the associated services develops. The benefits to the businesses that engage environmental-service providers are many, allowing them to concentrate on their core activities, and to shift some of the liability of meeting environmental regulations to other companies. Local employment is also generated. The general implication of this study for developing economies is that the potential benefits to simultaneously liberalising trade in environmental services and in environmental goods are likely to be much greater than liberalising trade in only one or the other. |
| Keywords: | trade, developing countries, environmental goods, environmental services |
| JEL: | F14 F18 O33 Q56 |
| Date: | 2005–07–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:traaaa:2005/1-en&r=sea |
| By: | Marcio José Vargas Cruz; Cássio Frederico Camargo Rolim |
| Abstract: | This research had like general goal to identify the determinants of the international tourism flow, seeking diagnostic the main restrictions to the expansion of this sector in the countries in development, utilizing a comparative analysis for the regions of the South America, Africa and South of the Asia. To be specified the determinants of the international tourism flow, was applied the econometrics instrumental, aiming to establish its empirical evidence. In the analysis was utilized the panel model because it´s shown adequate to the objective of identify the prominent factors of generalized form. Furthermore, this paper discuss the performance of the countries of the South America, Africa and South of Asia in the international tourism, with base in the determinant specified, seeking identify the empirical coherence of these general determinants in case of these countries and comparing the specificities and homogeneity between these regions, constituted by countries in development. The result of the study aims that the income is a fundamental determinant for explain the emission of tourists and there are indications of an elevated elasticity, what is translated in empirical coherence. Referring to the tourism attractive, we found the relevant paper of the risk related to the security and of the development of the country, identified through of the Human Development Index - HDI. The comparative analysis between the regions of the South America, Africa and South of the Asia, showed that the performance of these countries show consistency with the general determinants, in function of their conditions, for example, their geographic distance from the rich countries. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p714&r=sea |
| By: | Alexander Marthyn Borghuis; Yu-Jia Chiu |
| Abstract: | Taiwan is a little smaller than the Netherlands, an island surrounded by the sea and has a population of circa 23 million. Add a central range of steep mountains and it is clear that the pressure on living space and natural resources is enormous. This is exemplified by the fact that Taiwan has become one of the countries facing water scarcity in the next decades. Taiwan has around 40 large reservoirs that hold around 4200 million cubic meter of all water, a recent study shows that around 300 million cubic meter of silt accumulates in Taiwan's reservoirs and further that only around 10% of sediment is removed each year. Therefore, reservoir management tries to counter the sedimentation problem at the source. However, for effective measures reliable data on the origins of the sediment and patterns and rates of erosion in the hinterland are needed. It is for example not well established what the effect is of the annual tropical cyclones on erosion rates of undisturbed steep forested slope land soils. Therefore, the authors present a novel method that aims at reconstructing more than 40 years of soil erosion and deposition within the two largest reservoir catchments in Taiwan. The method combines the Cs-137 isotope technique, widely used to calculate soil re-distribution rates with a detailed representation of the watersheds in a GIS. More than 160 soil profile samples were collected in both undisturbed (forested) and disturbed (agricultural) locations across the watersheds. The sampling was based on an a priori stratification of the watersheds into landscape units that were assumed to have distinct ranges of soil re-distribution. Cs-137 activity levels in the soil profiles were measured in a radiological laboratory. Published conversion techniques were applied to compute soil re-distribution rates for observed Cs-137 inventories. Geo-statistical methods were then applied to obtain the relations between re-distribution rates and landscape units. These relations were then distributed using the GIS representation of the landscape units. The GIS-embedded models were calibrated and cross-validated and show maps of 40 years soil erosion and deposition across the studied watersheds as well as a map of estimate uncertainties. |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa05p666&r=sea |