Does fertiliser use improve household welfare? Evidence from Ghana’s cocoa industry

This article analyses welfare impacts of fertiliser adoption using data collected from 838 cocoa farm households in the four key cocoa-producing regions in Ghana. Using propensity score matching (PSM), the study indicates that application of fertiliser leads to significant gains in farm yields, farm income, consumption expenditure, consumption expenditure per capita, and value of productive farm assets. The article concludes that cocoa-specific programmes such as Cocoa High Technology (Cocoa Hi-tech), initiated to intensify the application of improved farm technologies such as fertiliser, should be strengthened through effective and efficient management systems.     

企业文化研究路径的新探讨——《Z理论》方法论的应用

“经济人”的理论的缺陷,导致了“社会人”的行为科学的产生,威廉.大内的《Z理论》就是在这样的背景下产生的,其理论既有局限性又有优点,应用其方法对中国的企业文化进行探讨是一个较好的途径。     

2007年国际风险投资研究特征及前沿动态综述

中国风险投资研究尚处于起步阶段,需要了解国际风险投资研究的现状和发展趋势。沿用作者2006年风险投资研究综述所创建的分析框架,将风险投资研究分为经济学和管理学两个维度、11个研究领域,使用Excel分析了2007年国际风险投资研究的特征,重点介绍了风险投资研究的前沿动态,给出了可能的研究方向。通过对检索到的87篇文献的梳理和分析,发现2007年国际风险投资文献仍然以实证研究为主,欧美学者仍然占据主流位置,美国仍然是研究焦点所在,其成功经验正被包括发达国家在内的世界各国所借鉴以促进创新经济的发展。从期刊来源分析发现,关注风险投资的期刊愈来愈多,其中包括顶级经济学和管理学学术期刊。对文献的内容分析表明,经济学维度的研究除了关注法律和公共政策因素对风险投资的影响这类传统热点之外,开始关注资本市场以及技术水平这类因素,此外,风险投资集群被特别关注;管理学维度研究的热点基本保持不变,但是观点出现分歧,新的动向是对风险投资网络的关注。     

Food distribution's socio-economic relationships and public policy: Mexico City's municipal public markets

Traditional food supply systems, like municipal public markets (MPM), are in crisis. Nevertheless, MPMs continue to demonstrate importance in the lives of the cities. In this article we discuss the case of Mexico City and the importance of the public markets for its neighbourhoods. We present the results of two research projects, completed in Mexico City at two different historical times and interpreted longitudinally. The results demonstrate the importance of socio-economic relationships for MPM's survival and potential. The article concludes with public policy recommendations to permit conservation, given the MPM's importance for the city's social cohesion.     

Can top-down community enterprise development reduce poverty and out-migration? Evidence from Thailand

This article examines the performance of a poverty alleviation policy in Thailand known as the Small and Micro Community Enterprises (SMCEs) programme. It investigates provincial determinants affecting the establishments of the SMCEs and assesses the effects of the programme on household income and out-migration by using panel data analysis and propensity score matching model. The research findings indicated that such enterprises have spread widely. Average household expenditure, the rate of poverty, and agricultural output were significant predictors of SMCE establishments. However, the research did not find any concrete evidence to support the claim that this policy helped reduce poverty or out-migration.     

The relative success of private funders and government funders in funding important science

Regression analysis is used to test the effects of funding source (and of various control variables) on the importance of the article, as measured by the number of citations that the article receives. Funding source is measured by the number of private and the number of government grants mentioned in the acknowledgements section. The importance of an article is measured by an “early” count (of citations through October 1992), and a “late” count (of citations through July 2002). Using either measure of article importance, the evidence suggests that private funders are more successful than the government at identifying important research. Jel classification D 780 . H 110 . O 310     

Going, going, gone: the effects of aid policies on graduation at three large public institutions

This paper exploits uniquely detailed data and cross-institution variation in aid for three large public universities to identify the effects of aid on the probability of college graduation. The results indicate that need-based and merit-based aid both increase graduation rates at large public institutions, but primarily through the types of students that ‘select’ these institutions. Merit-based aid facilitates an institution attracting students who have higher observed academic ability that raises the probability of graduation. Need-based aid enables an institution to attract students with non-academic attributes such as social and cultural networks that, while often unobserved, improve graduation success. Broadly, our results suggest that recent aid policy that has moved away from need-based aid for low-income students (reducing their ability to find the best institutional match) and toward merit-based aid (that alters the distribution of high ability students across colleges) could foster stagnant graduation rates even with rising enrollment rates that have been observed over the last three decades.

意识形态理论的对立与批判——马克思主义与新制度经济学

新制度经济学意识形态理论包含有新制度经济学对意识形态及其基本取向的认知,与马克思主义意识形态理论具有本质不同。基于马克思主义意识形态理论,借由对新制度经济学意识形态理论之理论预设、方法论、意识形态基本功用、意识形态变迁推动力、理论构建语境、理论旨趣、理论实践目标冲突的解读,可以发现其在如下方面存在问题:理论预设缺乏经验事实支持、方法论个人主义与意识形态的社会性相抵牾、以降低交易成本为意识形态的基本功用、以非阶级因素为意识形态变迁推动力、以西方世界为理论构建的基本语境、以解释西方世界为基本目标、以资本主义意识形态为永恒存在。对这种对立的批判性比较研究有利于清晰认识新制度经济学意识形态理论的本质,以更好维护我国意识形态安全。     

A note on household approach to credit rationing in agrarian economies

Using clues from transaction cost economics this note develops an intertemporal agricultural household model to explain the demand-side credit rationing from formal financial institutions in agrarian economies. The model employs ex-ante transaction costs, namely search cost and negotiation cost to explain this phenomenon. The model shows that with market failure an agricultural household's production decision is not separate from its consumption decision. This is when the policy analysis household approach, which includes simultaneous decision making in production and consumption side, becomes essential.