| 1. |
- Berisso, O., et al.
(author)
-
Farm-Heterogeneity and Persistent and Transient Productive Efficiencies in Ethiopia’s Smallholder Cereal Farming
- 2020
-
In: IZA Journal of Development and Migration. - : Sciendo. - 2520-1786. ; 11:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper does an empirical comparison of time-invariant and time-varying technical inefficiency measures obtained from an econometric estimation of different panel data stochastic production frontier models. It estimates four panel data specifications of frontier models widely used in empirical applications using a panel dataset from the Ethiopian cereal farming sector. The empirical results show that estimates of both the magnitude and the individual farms' rankings of persistent and transient productive efficiencies differ considerably across models and based on their agro-ecological zones location. The results further show that the cereal growing farms experience much more transient inefficiency as compared to persistent inefficiency.
|
|
| 2. |
- Han, J., et al.
(author)
-
Circular economy business models with a focus on servitization
- 2020
-
In: Sustainability. - : MDPI. - 2071-1050. ; 12:21, s. 1-17
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- During the fourth industrial revolution, based on information and communication technology (ICT), service-led growth has been an increasingly important development area. This paper focuses on service-led growth as an innovative business model in the circular economy and offers the ‘product as service model’. A business model needs to be flexibly adjustable for changes in the market in response to changes in technology, the economy, and the environment. For firms facing increasing scarcity of resources, the right business model for using resources is becoming crucial for their growth. In a circular economy, a new method of business modelling is essential. This paper introduces the ‘product as a service model’ using a conceptualized and case study methodology. We illustrate this innovative circular business model through product servitization at the Hyundai Automotive Enterprise in Korea. This business model can be effective because of emerging new ‘smart connected products’ such as the ‘internet of things’ and ‘fifth generation’ network technologies. Cost, convenience, and the circular economy for firms, consumers, and the environment are critical factors in this new business model.
|
|
| 3. |
- Heshmati, Almas, et al.
(author)
-
Estimation of technical change and TFP growth based on observable technology shifters
- 2020
-
In: Journal of Productivity Analysis. - : Springer. - 0895-562X .- 1573-0441. ; 53:1, s. 21-36
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper models and estimates total factor productivity (TFP) growth parametrically. The model is a generalization of the traditional production function model where technology is represented by a time trend. It decomposes TFP growth into an unobservable time trend induced technical change, scale economies and an observable technology shifter index's components. The empirical results are based on unbalanced panel data at the global level for 190 countries observed over the period 1996-2013. It uses a number of exogenous growth factors in modeling four technology shifter indices to explore development infrastructure, finance, technology and human development determinants of TFP growth. Our results show that unobservable technical change remains the most important component of TFP growth. Our findings also show that technical changes and TFP growth are unexpectedly negative across all country income groups and years.
|
|
| 4. |
- Heshmati, Almas, et al.
(author)
-
Measurement and analysis of urban infrastructure and its effects on urbanization in China
- 2020
-
In: Journal of Infrastructure Systems. - : American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). - 1076-0342 .- 1943-555X. ; 26:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper studies urbanization in China using composite indices of urban infrastructure. It has two objectives. First, it computes a multidimensional composite index of urban infrastructure for ranking 31 provinces and six regions in China by their level of urbanization and infrastructure development during the period 2005-2014. The infrastructure index is composed of 15 components: consumption, culture, economic, education, employment, environment, finance, human development, health, housing, social security, social services, technology, transport, and utilities. Second, the paper estimates the effects of the aggregate urban infrastructure index and its underlying components on urbanization levels. Our empirical results suggest that provincial and regional disparities are significant and allocations for urban infrastructure are not balanced between the different provinces and regions. Guangdong and Tibet have the highest and lowest values of urban infrastructure respectively while the Eastern and Southeastern regions have the highest and lowest urbanized populations, respectively. One policy implication of these results is that each province should implement a different urbanization plan based on its own characteristics and the resources available. The central government should improve the allocation of resources and the location of key industries between poor and rich provinces. Our estimation results indicate that the economics, employment, human development, health, housing, security, utilities, and technology components of urban infrastructure had positive and significant effects on China's urbanization. We suggest that the government should guide investments to more efficient transportation systems that include all age cohorts. After discussing the findings and how they are reached, this paper concludes by providing policy recommendations for city planners and policymakers.
|
|
| 5. |
- Kebede, Selamawit G., et al.
(author)
-
Energy use and labor productivity in Ethiopia : The case of the manufacturing industry
- 2020
-
In: Energies. - : MDPI. - 1996-1073. ; 13:11
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This study investigates the effect of energy use on labor productivity in the Ethiopian manufacturing industry. It uses panel data for the manufacturing industry groups to estimate the coefficients using the dynamic panel estimator. The study's results confirm that energy use increases manufacturing labor productivity. The coefficients for the control variables are in keeping with theoretical predictions. Capital positively augments productivity in the industries. Based on our results, technology induces manufacturing's labor productivity. Likewise, more labor employment induces labor productivity due to the dominance of labor-intensive manufacturing industries in Ethiopia. Alternative model specifications provide evidence of a robust link between energy and labor productivity in the Ethiopian manufacturing industry. Our results imply that there needs to be more focus on the efficient use of energy, labor, capital, and technology to increase the manufacturing industry's labor productivity and to overcome the premature deindustrialization patterns being seen in Ethiopia. © 2020 by the authors.
|
|
| 6. |
- Khraief, Naceur, et al.
(author)
-
Are unemployment rates in OECD countries stationary? Evidence from univariate and panel unit root tests
- 2020
-
In: The North American journal of economics and finance. - : Elsevier. - 1062-9408 .- 1879-0860. ; 51
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper revisits the dynamics of unemployment rate for 29 OECD countries over the period of 1980–2013. Numerous empirical studies of the dynamics of unemployment rate are carried out within a linear framework. However, unemployment rate can show nonlinear behaviour as a result of business cycles or some idiosyncratic factors specific to labour market (Cancelo, 2007). Thus, as a testing strategy, we first perform Harvey, Leybourne, and Xiao (2008) linearity unit root test and then apply the newly ESTAR nonlinear unit root test suggested by Kruse (2011). This test has higher power than conventional unit root tests when time series exhibits nonlinear behaviour. Our empirical findings provide significant evidence in favour of unemployment rate stationarity for 25 countries. For robustness purpose, we have also used panel unit root tests without and with structural breaks. The empirical results show that unemployment hysteresis hypothesis is strongly rejected, when taking into account the cross-sectional and structural break assumptions. Thus, unemployment rate is expected to return back to their natural levels without executing any costly macroeconomic labour market policies by the OECD's governments.
|
|
| 7. |
- Lee, Inhee, et al.
(author)
-
Estimating older people's labour supply decisions in Korea
- 2020
-
In: Society and Economy. - : Akadémiai Kiadó. - 1588-9726 .- 1588-970X. ; 42:1, s. 39-58
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In 2017, Korea became an ‘aged society,’ with the proportion of people aged 65 or older exceeding 14%, while the ratio of the working-age population declined for the first time. This study uses data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLOSA) to examine the effects of public pension on the labour supply of older people and discusses ways of preparing for this ageing problem. The study uses the Heckman sample selection model for analysing both the extensive and intensive margins of older people's labour supply. Our results show that the effects of public pensions in Korea are very different from that in other countries. It can be inferred that these differences are a consequence of the less developed social security system and limited experience from its short period of implementation. Hence, encouraging older people to work could be a way of solving the problem of relatively high poverty among the older population in a society that is likely to age even more. This is considered an optimal solution in light of increasing life expectancy, a poor social security system, and a decrease in private income transfers from children to their ageing parents.
|
|
| 8. |
|
|
| 9. |
- Muhamad, Goran M., et al.
(author)
-
The dynamics of private sector development in natural resource dependent countries
- 2020
-
In: Global Economic Review. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1226-508X .- 1744-3873. ; 49:4, s. 396-421
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper discusses the role of private sector development in overcoming the challenges of the resource curse. It identifies the developmental factors in the private sector in natural resource dependent countries by adapting a dynamic flexible adjustment model. Its empirical results are based on panel data from 110 natural resource producers in developed, developing, and emerging countries during the period 1990–2017. The findings show that natural resource rents can foster private sector development, and the speed of adjustment towards the target level of development is faster in oil and gas exporting countries.
|
|
| 10. |
- Sarkhosh-Sara, Ali, et al.
(author)
-
Assessing the sustainability of high-, middle-, and low-income countries : A network DEA model in the presence of both zero data and undesirable outputs
- 2020
-
In: Sustainable Production and Consumption. - : Elsevier. - 2352-5509. ; 21, s. 252-268
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Sustainability evaluation has been an important topic for politicians and professionals for the last few decades. A data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a popular technique for evaluating the sustainability of decision-making units (DMUs). The traditional DEA models consider a DMU as black-box thus ignoring the interactions among the different processes. This study proposes a new network data envelopment analysis (NDEA) model for evaluating the sustainability of high-, middle-, and low-income countries. The proposed NDEA model allows us to evaluate sustainable production and distribution stages in a unified framework in the presence of both zero data and undesirable outputs. The results of our proposed model show that countries with high and low incomes perform well in the sustainable production stage but have a weak performance in the sustainable distribution stage. In contrast, middle-income countries have weak performance in the sustainable production stage but good performance in the sustainable distribution stage. Finally, to identify countries’ strengths and weaknesses, we also did a sensitivity analysis. Based on the results, the paper proposes solutions for reducing inefficiencies in the sustainable production and distribution stages.
|
|
