DO MACROECONOMIC SHOCKS IMPACT THE ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF SMALL FARMERS? THE CASE OF WETLAND RICE FARMERS IN INDONESIA

The economic efficiency of Indonesian rice farmers was lower and more variable during than before the macroeconomic crisis. Specifically, larger declines in technical efficiency were not offset by smaller improvements in allocative efficiency. Farm ownership, larger farm size, and higher education were associated with higher levels of efficiency.Farm Management,

Using the DiaSpec design language and compiler to develop robotics systems

A Sense/Compute/Control (SCC) application is one that interacts with the physical environment. Such applications are pervasive in domains such as building automation, assisted living, and autonomic computing. Developing an SCC application is complex because: (1) the implementation must address both the interaction with the environment and the application logic; (2) any evolution in the environment must be reflected in the implementation of the application; (3) correctness is essential, as effects on the physical environment can have irreversible consequences. The SCC architectural pattern and the DiaSpec domain-specific design language propose a framework to guide the design of such applications. From a design description in DiaSpec, the DiaSpec compiler is capable of generating a programming framework that guides the developer in implementing the design and that provides runtime support. In this paper, we report on an experiment using DiaSpec (both the design language and compiler) to develop a standard robotics application. We discuss the benefits and problems of using DiaSpec in a robotics setting and present some changes that would make DiaSpec a better framework in this setting.Comment: DSLRob'11: Domain-Specific Languages and models for ROBotic systems (2011

Performance metrics for consolidated servers

In spite of the widespread adoption of virtualization and consol- idation, there exists no consensus with respect to how to bench- mark consolidated servers that run multiple guest VMs on the same physical hardware. For example, VMware proposes VMmark which basically computes the geometric mean of normalized throughput values across the VMs; Intel uses vConsolidate which reports a weighted arithmetic average of normalized throughput values. These benchmarking methodologies focus on total system through- put (i.e., across all VMs in the system), and do not take into account per-VM performance. We argue that a benchmarking methodology for consolidated servers should quantify both total system through- put and per-VM performance in order to provide a meaningful and precise performance characterization. We therefore present two performance metrics, Total Normalized Throughput (TNT) to characterize total system performance, and Average Normalized Reduced Throughput (ANRT) to characterize per-VM performance. We compare TNT and ANRT against VMmark using published performance numbers, and report several cases for which the VM- mark score is misleading. This is, VMmark says one platform yields better performance than another, however, TNT and ANRT show that both platforms represent different trade-offs in total system throughput versus per-VM performance. Or, even worse, in a cou- ple cases we observe that VMmark yields opposite conclusions than TNT and ANRT, i.e., VMmark says one system performs better than another one which is contradicted by TNT/ANRT performance characterization

The Strategic Issues of Economic Development of Border Area of Indonesia - Malaysia

On the land, Indonesia is bordered by three countries: Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste.Whereas, in Indonesia sea area bordered by 10 countries: India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand,Vietnam, Philippines, the Republic of Palau, Australia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea. Most ofthe border region in Indonesia is still an underdeveloped area with less facilities and infrastructure ofsocial and economic. Formulation of the problem are: 1. How do the condition of the socio-economicand culture in the border of Indonesia - Malaysia? 2. What is the condition of infrastructure in theborder and what is the urgent infrastructure to be built? 3. What are policy and strategy of theIndonesian government of the border of society development between Indonesia (Entikong) andMalaysia (Sarawak)? The purpose of writing are: 1. Comparing the condition of the socio-economicand culture of border both Indonesia and Malaysia. 2. Comparing the condition of the infrastructureof border both Indonesia and Malaysia and determining the infrastructure to be built. 3. Describingthe Indonesian government policy and strategy in development acceleration of economic society in theborder between Indonesia, especially Entikong Sub-District of Sanggau Regency West Kalimantanand Malaysia (Sarawak). Although, the commitment and the governments policy have given a higherpriority in the reorientated development of border, which those of security (security approach) into awelfare orientation (prosperity approach), but overall, the issue of society development in Indonesiaborder, especially the District Entikong Sanggau Regency West Kalimantan and Malaysia (Sarawak)so far can be said that are still not getting proportional attention. The indication, though a variety ofpolicies, regulations or laws relating to efforts to accelerate economic development of border societieshave been made. Various issues and problems are faced by the border, both land and sea borders canbe solved by more focused and targeted on six aspects, these are policy, economic and socio-cultural,defense and security, natural resources management, institutional and management authority, as wellas cooperation inter nations

Industrial Policy and Technology Diffusion: Evidence from Paper Making Machinery in Indonesia

technology diffusion, Indonesia

Industry Evolution in Developing Countries: the Indonesian Pulp and Paper Industry

Industry, evolution, developing countries, Indonesia, industry

The Basics of International Trade: A Classroom Experiment

We introduce a simple web-based classroom experiment in which students learn the Ricardian model of international trade. Students are assigned to countries and then make individual production, trade and consumption decisions. The analysis of experimental data introduces students to the concepts of absolute and comparative advantage, relative prices, production possibility frontier, specialization, gains from trade, utility maximization and general equilibrium. Students learn about the relationship between individual decision-making and aggregate economic activity. The associated software, Ricardian Explorer, is easy to setup and requires minimal preparation time for instructors. The game is developed as a tool to complement courses in international trade, but it can be used in introductory and intermediate microeconomics courses as well. The analysis of teaching effectiveness has demonstrated that integration of this experiment in the curriculum enhances student learning.Absolute advantage, comparative advantage, specialization, production possibility frontier, gains from trade, utility maximization, general equilibrium, classroom experiments