The impact of policy reform on productivity and efficiency in Chinese agriculture: A distance function approach

The study is devoted to the measurement of productivity and efficiency change in Chinese farming sector over the reform process in the 1980s and 1990s. Within an output distance function framework, an index of total factor productivity is decomposed into technical and allocative efficiency, technical change, and scale effects. We estimate a parametric output distance function using individual farm household data from the province Zhejiang over the period 1986-2000. Results indicate that during the more market-oriented reform period in the mid 1980s productivity and technical efficiency increased while allocative efficiency remain constant. However, productivity growth and technical efficiency slow in the mid 1990s when market orientation of the reforms was reduced and self-sufficiency as a major goal reappeared on the political agenda. --productivity growth,efficiency change,China,stochastic distance frontier

Policy Reform and Productivity Change in Chinese Agriculture: A Distance Function Approach

Agricultural policy reform has been an important source of change in the Chinese agricultural sector. The reforms led to productivity growth and helped China in pursuing its self-sufficiency goal especially in the grain sector. To analyse whether observable productivity growth stems from technologically induced components, or from the market induced parts, a multi-input-multi-output model is derived using an econometric distance function framework. A decomposition allows to distinguish allocative effects, scale effects, technological change, and technical efficiency change. Data on farms in Zhejiang from 1986 to 1999 are used to analyse the impact of policy reform.Productivity growth, China, Policy reform, Distance function, Productivity Analysis,

POLICY REFORM AND PRODUCTIVITY CHANGE IN CHINESE AGRICULTURE: A DISTANCE FUNCTION APPROACH

Agricultural policy reform has been an important source of change in the Chinese agricultural sector. The reforms led to productivity growth and helped China in pursuing its self- sufficiency goal especially in the grain sector. To analyse whether observable productivity growth stems from technologically induced components, or from the market induced parts, a multi-input-multi-output model is derived using an econometric distance function framework. A decomposition allows to distinguish allocative effects, scale effects, technological change, and technical efficiency change. Data on farms in Zhejiang from 1986 to 1999 are used to analyse the impact of policy reform.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Modeling Risk Behavior of Agricultural Production in Chinese Small Households

This paper analyzed Chinese small-scale farmer's response to agricultural risks by using MOTAD model. Based on the household's data from the two villages Wangjia and Damao in Zhejiang province, we established "representative rural household" for each of the sampling villages. The results show that farmers in Zhejiang are quite sensitive to agricultural risks. However, different farming systems, the ratio of agricultural income to total family income, as well as the size of arable land, differentiates their risk response. The decision maker's risk preference not only affects the type of agricultural activities and corresponding scales they selected, but also have further effects on the micro agricultural production structure and stable growth of household's income. Given the amount of productive resources such as arable land, capital and labor force, the combination of production activities with a higher level of expected income/risk would be selected if the decision maker is willing to take risks. In a higher level of risks, capital is invested prior to manpower, implying that the latter has a much higher opportunity cost. For those combinations with a lower risk level, diversification might reduce risks to some extent at a cost of total return. Current agriculture structure needs to be adjusted and improved.Farming household, agricultural risks, risk response, MOTAD Model, Farm Management, Risk and Uncertainty, D1, C6, D2,

International Food Safety Standards: Catalysts for Increased Chinese Food Quality?

During the last 10-15 years the question about food safety has increasingly been a topic of great concern nationally and internationally. Traditionally there has been a conflict of interest between the developed countries with higher food safety standards and the developing countries with lower food safety rules. As long as adequate international rules persist the view of standards as barriers should be replaced by the view of standards as catalysts for increased food quality. This article looks at the food safety issue in China, the largest developing country. The Chinese exports of food products have been confronted with trade restrictions because the products did not comply with the high food standards in the USA, the EU and Japan. These difficulties have contributed to a greater concern in China about the quality of the food products. In the last ten years a series of changes in the rules and in the administration have taken place. It is a complicated task because it touches the whole food chain. The article tries to cast light on these important questions. What have been the consequences of inadequate food safety regulations in China? What have been done until now to improve the food quality standards in China? What further initiatives should be taken to improve the situation in the future

Genome-wide identification of resistance genes and response mechanism analysis of key gene knockout strain to catechol in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Engineering Saccharomyces cerevisiae for biodegradation and transformation of industrial toxic substances such as catechol (CA) has received widespread attention, but the low tolerance of S. cerevisiae to CA has limited its development. The exploration and modification of genes or pathways related to CA tolerance in S. cerevisiae is an effective way to further improve the utilization efficiency of CA. This study identified 36 genes associated with CA tolerance in S. cerevisiae through genome-wide identification and bioinformatics analysis and the ERG6 knockout strain (ERG6Δ) is the most sensitive to CA. Based on the omics analysis of ERG6Δ under CA stress, it was found that ERG6 knockout affects pathways such as intrinsic component of membrane and pentose phosphate pathway. In addition, the study revealed that 29 genes related to the cell wall-membrane system were up-regulated by more than twice, NADPH and NADP+ were increased by 2.48 and 4.41 times respectively, and spermidine and spermine were increased by 2.85 and 2.14 times, respectively, in ERG6Δ. Overall, the response of cell wall-membrane system, the accumulation of spermidine and NADPH, as well as the increased levels of metabolites in pentose phosphate pathway are important findings in improving the CA resistance. This study provides a theoretical basis for improving the tolerance of strains to CA and reducing the damage caused by CA to the ecological environment and human health

Prospects of Chinese Grain Supply and Demand in 2010: A Regionalized Multimarket Model Simulation and Policy Implication

Based on China's Agricultural Regional Market Equilibrium Model (CARMEM), the paper projects the production and consumption of rice, wheat and maize in China toward 2010 at both national and regional level under two different scenarios. The results show that China can ensure a stable grain market development under more liberalized internal and external conditions. Transmission of the world market prices as projected by the World Bank (2003) to the Chinese domestic market would lead to a long-run recovery of the growth in grain production. Total production of paddy rice, wheat and maize is forecast to increase from 386 million tons in the base period 2002 to over 420 million tons in 2010. However, the rate of grain self-supply will be 91% due to higher demand. This may be significantly lower than the target of the Chinese government. The corresponding deficit would amount to about 35 million tons, to be compared with 38.5 million tons in 2002 when China had huge grain stocks available. Three fifths of the grain deficit is wheat. China would also become a net importer of maize. The regional results indicate an increasing grain deficit in East and South China. Northeast and North China will achieve higher production growth mainly due to a rapid increase in maize production. The Central South will be able to increase production faster than consumption. The Southwest and Northwest will maintain their current deficit. Finally, some implications for future Chinese grain policies are discussed

Uncovering Hidden Factors in Electricity Consumption Based on Gaussian Mixture Estimation

Load characteristics play an essential role in the planning of power generation and distribution. Various undiscovered factors, which could be socioeconomic, geographic, or climatic, make it possible to describe the electricity demand by a multimodal distribution. This letter proposes a novel method based on multimodal distributions to characterize the hidden factors in electricity consumption. Consequently, a new approach is developed to evaluate the impact of the underlying factors of electricity consumption. Some quantifiable and predictable factors are analyzed in developing multimodal distribution to describe the expected demand. Simulations based on synthetic and real-world data have been conducted to demonstrate the usefulness and robustness of the proposed method

Geographical Detection of Traffic Accidents Spatial Stratified Heterogeneity and Influence Factors

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the existence of stratification heterogeneity in traffic accidents in Shenzhen, what factors influence the casualties, and the interaction of those factors. Geographical detection methods are used for the analysis of traffic accidents in Shenzhen. Results show that spatial stratification heterogeneity does exist, and the influencing factors of fatalities and injuries are different. The traffic accident causes and types of primary responsible party have a strong impact on fatalities and injuries, followed by zones and time interval. However, road factors, lighting, topography, etc., only have a certain impact on fatalities. Drunk driving, speeding over 50%, and overloading are more likely to cause more casualties than other illegal behaviors. Speeding over 50% and speeding below 50% have significant different influences on fatalities, while the influences on injuries are not obvious, and so do drunk driving (Blood Alcohol Concentration ≥ 0.08) and driving under the influence of alcohol (0.08 > Blood Alcohol Concentration ≥ 0.02). Both pedestrians and cyclists violating the traffic law are vulnerable to fatality. Heavy truck overloading is more likely to cause major traffic accidents than minibuses. More importantly, there are nonlinear enhanced interactions between the influencing factors, the combination of previous non-significant factors and other factors can have a significant impact on the traffic accident casualties. The findings could be helpful for making differentiated prevention and control measures for traffic accidents in Shenzhen and the method selection of subsequent research

POLICY REFORM AND PRODUCTIVITY CHANGE IN CHINESE AGRICULTURE: A DISTANCE FUNCTION APPROACH

Agricultural policy reform has been an important source of change in the Chinese agricultural sector. The reforms led to productivity growth and helped China in pursuing its self- sufficiency goal especially in the grain sector. To analyse whether observable productivity growth stems from technologically induced components, or from the market induced parts, a multi-input-multi-output model is derived using an econometric distance function framework. A decomposition allows to distinguish allocative effects, scale effects, technological change, and technical efficiency change. Data on farms in Zhejiang from 1986 to 1999 are used to analyse the impact of policy reform