Mechanization and efficiency in rice production in China

Agricultural mechanization and custom machine services have developed rapidly in China,which can influence rice production efficiency in the future.We calculate technical efficiency,allocative efficiency,and scale efficiency using data collected in 2015 from a face-to-face interview survey of 450 households that cultivated 3096 plots located in the five major rice-producing provinces of China.We use a one-step stochastic frontier model to calculate technical efficiency and regress the efficiency scores on socio-demographic and physical land characteristics to find the influencing variables.Variables influencing technical efficiency are compared at three different phases of rice cultivation.We also calculate technical efficiency by using the Heckman Selection Model,which addresses technological heterogeneity and self-selection bias.Results indicate that:(1)the average value of technical efficiency using a one-step stochastic frontier model was found to be 0.74.When self-selection bias is accounted for using the Heckman Selection Model,the average value of the technical efficiency increases to 0.80;(2)mechanization at the chemical application phase has a positive effect on technical efficiency,but mechanization does not affect efficiency at the plowing and harvesting phases;(3)machines are overused relative to both land and labor,and high machine input use on the small size of landholding has resulted in allocative inefficiency;(4)rice farmers are overwhelmingly operating at a sub-optimal scale.Future policies should focus on encouraging farmland transfer in rural areas to achieve scale efficiency and allocative efficiency while promoting mechanization at the chemical application phase of rice cultivation to improve technical efficiency.

Measurement of Technical, AIIocative and Economic Efficiency of Tomato Farms in Northern Pakistan

The study measures productive efficiency of tomato growers in village Akbarpura of Disctrict Nowshera in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa （KPK） province of Northern Pakistan. The study uses household level data collected in summer 2010 from sample farmers selected by multi-staged sampling. The study uses a theoretical framework to measure productive efficiency and estimates the Cobb-Douglas frontier production and cost models. The study found that technical efficiency indices varied significantly, with technical efficiency index averaging at 65%. The indices of allocative efficiency also varied widely, with an average of 56%. There was a wide gap between the highest and lowest economic efficiency indices, with a mean economic efficiency of 35%. The study concluded that farmer education, extension visits, age and access to credit contributed significantly and positively to productive efficiencies. A policy implication of this study is that there is enough potential for farmers to increase tomato production and net profits. The study recommends that the government should further invest in public education and strengthen extension services farmer education and because extension visits constituted important determinants of productive efficiencies.

An application of data envelopment analysis to investigate the efficiency of lumber industry in northwestern Ontario,Canada

This study aims at exploring the technical efficiency of lum- ber industry in northwestern Ontario, Canada using data envelopment analysis （DEA）. The DEA model analyzes relative technical efficiency of lumber mills with disproportionate inputs and outputs by dividing the 10- year time series data, for inputs and outputs of 24 lumber mills, over two periods （1999-2003 and 2004-2008）. Four inputs, namely, material （log volume）, labour （man-hours）, two types of energy （hog-fuel and electric- ity）, and one output （lumber volume） are used in this study. The trend analysis shows an annual reduction of 10%, 13% and 13% for lumber output, log consumption （input） and number of employees, respectively, during the period 1999-2008. The results from DEA with two scenarios with energy inputs and without energy inputs, for the two periods are found to be mixed and interesting. While some mills have improved their performance in terms of best use of available scarce inputs in the second period, some have shown negative per cent change in efficiency. In the with energy input and the without energy input scenario, some of the mills show a reduction in efficiency in the second period from the first period, with the highest estimated reductions of-13.9% and -47.6%, respectively. A possible explanation for these negative performances of mills in the latter period is the decline in production in the second period compared to the first period, where these mills were not able to adjust their inputs （mostly labour） as proportional lay-offs might not have been possible. These results provide policy makers and industry stakeholders with an improved understanding of the trends of efficiency and employ- ment as well as reallocation opportunities of future inputs in order to increase benefits from this sector.

Literature Review on the Impact of Blockchain Technology on Resource Allocation Efficiency

With the rapid development of Internet technology,the importance of blockchain technology has become increasingly prominent.Faced with this situation,extensive research has been carried out at home and abroad.Through the analysis of relevant literature on blockchain in recent years,it is found that there are many research results of blockchain technology in medical care,finance,education,etc.,but its application in the field of resource allocation efficiency is rare.From the existing studies on the influencing factors of resource allocation efficiency in China,it is found that there are significant differences in resource allocation efficiency between China and some developed countries or between various provinces and cities of China.

Research on Labor Reallocation Efficiency of State-owned Industries

This article,which is based on panel data of Chinese state-owned industrial enterprises over the period 2006-2011,analyzes Labor reallocation Efficiency of State-Owned Enterprises with Syrquin＇s analysis of the total Reallocation effect of Resources. The results show that：①Labor allocation efficiency keeps a high level all the time;②The contribution that labor Reallocation efficiency makes to the growth of labor productivity has been at a low rate. Therefore, our government had better deepen the reform of state-owned enterprises and the evolvement of marketization

Cross-efficiency DEA model-based evaluation of allocative efficiency of rural information resources in Jiangsu Province, China

Purpose: This paper aims to compare and rank the allocative efficiency of information resources in rural areas by taking 13 rural areas in Jiangsu Province, China as the research sample.Design/methodology/approach: We designed input and output indicators for allocation of rural information resources and conducted the quantitative evaluation of allocative efficiency of rural information resources based on cross-efficiency model in combination with the classical CCR model in data envelopment analysis(DEA).Findings: Cross-efficiency DEA model can be used for our research with the objective to evaluate quantitatively and objectively whether the allocation of information resources in various rural areas is reasonable and whether the output is commensurate with the input.Research limitations: We have to give up using some indicators because of limited data availability. There is a need to further improve the cross-efficiency DEA model because it cannot identify the specific factors influencing the efficiency of decision-making units(DMUs).Practical implications: The evaluation results will help us understand the present allocative efficiency levels of information resources in various rural areas so as to provide a decisionmaking basis for formulation of the policies aimed at promoting the circulation of information resources in rural areas.Originality/value: Little or no research has been published about the allocative efficiency of rural information resources. The value of this research lies in its focus on studying rural informatization from the perspective of allocative efficiency of rural information resources and in the application of cross-efficiency DEA model to evaluate allocative efficiency of rural information resources as well.

A Literature Review of the Influence of Commercial Credit on the Efficiency of Enterprise Capital Allocation

The real economy is the main body of high-quality development,and the efficiency of capital allocation is an important manifestation of the development of the real economy.Therefore,it is very important to study the efficiency of capital allocation.As a representative of horizontal finance,commercial credit has a significant impact on the improvement of capital allocation efficiency.In view of this,this article combs the literature on commercial credit and capital allocation efficiency from the following aspects:firstly,by studying the literature,combing the literature on the macro-level,micro-level and economic effects of commercial credit;secondly,the measurement method of capital allocation efficiency And the influencing factors are systematically sorted out,and finally sorted out and evaluated the existing literature on the influence of commercial credit on the efficiency of capital allocation.

Efficient Cloud Resource Scheduling with an Optimized Throttled Load Balancing Approach

Cloud Technology is a new platform that offers on-demand computing Peripheral such as storage,processing power,and other computer system resources.It is also referred to as a system that will let the consumers utilize computational resources like databases,servers,storage,and intelligence over the Internet.In a cloud network,load balancing is the process of dividing network traffic among a cluster of available servers to increase efficiency.It is also known as a server pool or server farm.When a single node is overwhelmed,balancing the workload is needed to manage unpredictable workflows.The load balancer sends the load to another free node in this case.We focus on the Balancing of workflows with the proposed approach,and we present a novel method to balance the load that manages the dynamic scheduling process.One of the preexisting load balancing techniques is considered,however it is somewhat modified to fit the scenario at hand.Depending on the experimentation’s findings,it is concluded that this suggested approach improves load balancing consistency,response time,and throughput by 6%.

The Core Driver of China＇s Economic Growth： An Analysis Based on Cross- Region Spillover Effects of Factors

China＇s recent economic slowdown has provoked academic discussion on what the core driver should be to ensure sustainable and healthy economic growth. To answer this question, it is essential to analyze the resources allocation efficiency. Using the newly-developed spatial panel data model, this paper studies not only the direct efject of resources allocation on local economies, but also the spillover effects on the economies in other regions. We are then able to assess the actual effects of resource factors on China＇s economic growth, including labor force, fixed-asset investment （FAI） and technical progress. The conclusions are.＂ 1） during the past 13 years, the labor force has had an insignificant effect on all the three industries; 2） FAI has produced a prominent positive direct effect on secondary industry, but accompanied with even severer negative spillover effects which outweigh the positive ones; however, FAI has had significant direct and total effect on the tertiary industry,＂ 3） technical progress has significant effects on all the three industries. Therefore, the labor force is not the core driver of China＇s economic growth, and the demographic dividend is an invalid explanation for China＇s economic growth. Instead, fixed-asset investment remains the powerhouse of China＇s economic growth, not in the secondary industry but in the tertiary industry. All in all, technical progress is the core driver for healthy economic growth as well as the inevitable path to industrial upgrading in China.

The Return on Capital in China and Its Determinants~

This paper first estimates the overall return on capital in China between 1978 and 2013. It then identifies the determinants of return on capital by analyzing provincial panel data and breaks down the causes of swerves in capital return after the eruption of the global financial crisis in 2008. It finds that： （1） there is significant inertia in the return on capital,＂ （2） government intervention has significantly negative impact on capital return; （3） a significantly negative correlation is observed between investment rate and return on capital,＂ and （4） the increases in the shares of secondary and tertiary industries in the economy have significantly positive impact on return on capital. This paper concludes that the growth in investment rate and the expansion of government size are both important contributors to the recent decline in China＇s return on capital since the financial crisis.

Energy Efficient Resource Allocation in Timesharing Multiuser Systems with Hybrid Energy Harvesting Transmitter

An energy effi cient resource allocation scheme in timesharing multiuser system with a hybrid energy harvesting transmitter is studied in this paper. Specially, the operation energy of system is supplied by constant energy and energy harvesting, which harvests energy from external environment. Our goal is to maximize the energy effi ciency of timesharing multiuser systems by considering jointly allocation of transmission time and power control in an off-line manner. The original nonconvex objective function is transformed into convex optimization problem via the fractional programming approach. Then, we solve the convex problem by Lagrange dual decomposition method. Simulation results show that the proposed energy efficient resource allocation scheme has a better performance than the scheme which decomposes optimization problem into two parts(power allocation, time allocation) to solve iteratively.

Can the low-carbon city pilot policy promote the upgrading of high-carbon emitting enterprises? Evidence from China

As a crucial environmental reform system to realize“carbon peaking”and“carbon neutrality”,the pilot policy of low-carbon cities(LCCs)puts pressure and challenges on high-carbon emitting enterprises(HCEEs)while providing opportunities for these firms to take the path of independent transformation.Employing the data of Chinese listed enterprises from 2006 to 2016 and adopting a difference-in-differences(DID)model,we evaluated the impact of LCC construction on the upgrading of HCEEs and its mechanisms.The results indicate that LCC construction enhances the upgrading of HCEEs in the pilot cities.The conclusions remain stable after a series of robustness tests.The mechanism analysis reveals that LCC construction triggers the upgrading of HCEEs by promoting resource allocation efficiency,R&D investment,and green technology innovation.The heterogeneity results indicate that this positive effect is more pronounced for HCEEs in regions with more stringent environmental law enforcement.This study also observes that the upgrading impact is more promi‐nent for state-owned enterprises,enterprises with higher bargaining power,and enterprises whose managers have a long-term vision.The above results provide directions for upgrading HCEEs and replicable evidence for cities in developing economies to fulfill the win-win target of environmental protection and economic transfor‐mation.

Comprehensive Utility Function for Resource Allocation in Mobile Edge Computing

In mobile edge computing(MEC),one of the important challenges is how much resources of which mobile edge server(MES)should be allocated to which user equipment(UE).The existing resource allocation schemes only consider CPU as the requested resource and assume utility for MESs as either a random variable or dependent on the requested CPU only.This paper presents a novel comprehensive utility function for resource allocation in MEC.The utility function considers the heterogeneous nature of applications that a UE offloads to MES.The proposed utility function considers all important parameters,including CPU,RAM,hard disk space,required time,and distance,to calculate a more realistic utility value for MESs.Moreover,we improve upon some general algorithms,used for resource allocation in MEC and cloud computing,by considering our proposed utility function.We name the improved versions of these resource allocation schemes as comprehensive resource allocation schemes.The UE requests are modeled to represent the amount of resources requested by the UE as well as the time for which the UE has requested these resources.The utility function depends upon the UE requests and the distance between UEs and MES,and serves as a realistic means of comparison between different types of UE requests.Choosing(or selecting)an optimal MES with the optimal amount of resources to be allocated to each UE request is a challenging task.We show that MES resource allocation is sub-optimal if CPU is the only resource considered.By taking into account the other resources,i.e.,RAM,disk space,request time,and distance in the utility function,we demonstrate improvement in the resource allocation algorithms in terms of service rate,utility,and MES energy consumption.

Some Financial Problems in the Light of EMM Results:Asset Pricing and Efficient Portfolio Allocation

Discussing results in asset pricing and efficient portfolio allocation,we show that mixed success and errors in these results often follow from a lack of information about the asset return distribution and wrong assumptions about its properties.Some mistakes in asset pricing come from the assumption of symmetry in return distributions.Some errors in efficient portfolio allocation follow from Markowitz’s approach when applying it to portfolio optimization of skewed asset returns.The Extended Merton model(EMM),generating skewed return distributions,demonstrates that(i)in skewed asset returns,the variance is not an adequate measure of risks and(ii)positive skewness in the asset returns comes together with a high default probability.Thus,the maximization of the mean portfolio returns and skewness with controlled variance used in mainstream papers can critically increase portfolio risks.We present the new settings of the optimal portfolio allocation problem leading to less risky efficient portfolios than the solutions suggested in all previous papers.

Adaptive Energy-Efficient Power Allocation for DAS with Imperfect Channel State Information and Antenna Selection

Considering that perfect channel state information(CSI) is difficult to obtain in practice,energy efficiency(EE) for distributed antenna systems(DAS) based on imperfect CSI and antennas selection is investigated in Rayleigh fading channel.A novel EE that is defined as the average transmission rate divided by the total consumed power is introduced.In accordance with this definition,an adaptive power allocation(PA) scheme for DAS is proposed to maximize the EE under the maximum transmit power constraint.The solution of PA in the constrained EE optimization does exist and is unique.A practical iterative algorithm with Newton method is presented to obtain the solution of PA.The proposed scheme includes the one under perfect CSI as a special case,and it only needs large scale and statistical information.As a result,the scheme has low overhead and good robustness.The theoretical EE is also derived for performance evaluation,and simulation result shows the validity of the theoretical analysis.Moreover,EE can be enhanced by decreasing the estimation error and/or path loss exponents.

The measure and characteristics of spatial-temporal evolution of China＇s science and technology resource allocation efficiency

According to the connotation and structure of science and technology resources and some relevant data of more than 286 cities at prefecture level and above during 2001-2010, using modified method--Data Envelopment Analysis （DEA）, science and tech- nology （S＆T） resource allocation efficiency of different cities in different periods has been figured out, which, uncovers the distributional difference and change law of S＆T resource allocation efficiency from the time-space dimension. Based on that, this paper has analyzed and discussed the spatial distribution pattern and evolution trend of S＆T resource allocation efficiency in different cities by virtue of the Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis （ESDA）. It turned out that： （1） the average of S＆T resource allocation efficiency in cities at prefecture level and above has always stayed at low levels, moreover, with repeated fluctuations between high and low, which shows a decreasing trend year by year. Besides, the gap between the East and the West is widening. （2） The asymmetrical distribution of S＆T resource allocation effi- ciency presents a spatial pattern of successively decreasing from Eastern China, Central China to Western China. The cities whose S＆T resource allocation efficiency are at higher level and high level take on a cluster distribution, which fits well with the 23 forming urban agglomerations in China. （3） The coupling degree between S＆T resource allocation efficiency and economic environment assumes a certain positive correlation, but not completely the same. The differentiation of S＆T resource allocation efficiency is common in regional devel- opment, whose existence and evolution are directly or indirectly influenced by and regarded as the reflection of many elements, such as geographical location, the natural endowment and environment of S＆T resources and so on. （4） In the perspective of the evolution of spatial structure, S＆T resource allocation efficiency of the cities at prefecture level and above shows a notable spatial autocorrelation, which in every period presents a positive correlation. The spatial distribution of S＆T resource allocation efficiency in neighboring cities seems to be similar in group, which tends to escalate stepwise. Meanwhile, the whole differentiation of geographical space has a diminishing tendency. （5） Viewed from LISA agglomeration map of S＆T resource allocation efficiency in different periods, four agglomeration types have changed differently in spatial location and the range of spatial agglomeration. And the conti- nuity of S＆T resource allocation efficiency in geographical space is gradually increasing.

A New Perspective on Raising Energy Efficiency:A Test Based on Market Segmentation

A comparison of the facts at the micro-and macro-level indicates that although some Chinese enterprises are at the international frontier in terms of micro-level energy efficiency,overall energy efficiency at the industrial and national level is seriously lagging behind.Hypotheses based on a market segmentation framework indicate that this is because market segmentation inhibits energy efficiency through its effect on technical efficiency,scale efficiency and allocation efficiency.This effect has been demonstrated by empirical research based on Chinese provincial panel data.

Evaluation on the allocative efficiency of agricultural factors in the five Central Asian countries

Based on methods such as stochastic frontier production function,this paper analyses the changes of single factor productivity(SFP)and total factor productivity(TFP)of agriculture in the five Central Asian countries,during the period of 1992 to 2017.The research results show that the agricultural output in most of the five Central Asian countries has increased steadily,while agricultural labor productivity has shown a growth trend.With the exception of Kazakhstan,the land productivity of the other four countries shows a growth trend.In terms of factor input,the number of agricultural workers in the five Central Asian countries mainly shows a trend of decrease,with the input of chemical fertilizer increasing,and the amount of agricultural machinery increasing or decreasing within a small range.The total factor productivity in the five Central Asian countries has improved,but it is still at a low level.The policy suggestions contained in the research conclusions are as follows:(1)Promote the growth of agricultural TFP in the five Central Asian countries,and strengthen the emphasis on the input and allocation of agricultural factors;(2)be aware of the innovation of agricultural technology,as well as the promotion and diffusion of existing agricultural technologies,and improve the overall technical efficiency of agriculture;and(3)accelerate the effective flow of capital and other elements to the agricultural sector,improve infrastructure,better release the'dividend'of science and technology,and enhance the output efficiency.

Financial Development, Foreign Direct Investment, and the Efficiency of Capital Allocation in China

We study the roles of local financial development and foreign direct investment, and more importantly, their interaction with one another, in local capital allocation, based on Chinese industrial and regional data. Our main finding is that, although local financial development and FDI each individually tended to improve the efficiency of local capital allocation during the sample period, they tended to compete and crowd out each other＇s effect, so that one impaired the individual function of the other. In particular, there exists a threshold value for local financial development, above which an increase in FDI reduces the efficiency of local capital allocation, rather than improve it. On the other hand, there exists a threshold value for FDI, above which further development in the local financial system lowers the efficiency of local capital allocation, rather than increase it. Our estimations suggest that the levels of FDI and local financial development in some relatively more developed Chinese regions have already surpassed such threshold values. We provide some interpretations of our findings and we discuss potential policy implications.

Measuring health care efficiency with a tripartite configuration under the ＂National＂ Health Insurance system

Background The ＂National＂ Health Insurance （NHI） in Taiwan, China is a single-payer system that was introduced in 1995 to provide universal health care. It is worth noting that three stakeholders are involved in Taiwan＇s NHI, which can be seen as a triangular governance regime between the Bureau of ＂National＂ Health Insurance （BNHI）, the insured and providers. Accordingly, this study intended to assess the efficiency of various different production processes that occur among these stakeholders in Taiwan＇s NHI system. Methods A two-stage relational Data Envelopment Analysis （DEA） model is adopted to investigate the sub-process efficiencies of the health care resources held by 23 cities and counties through stages I or II, where the outputs of the first stage serve the inputs of the second. The dataset was collected from the annual reports published by the Department of Health, Taiwan, China. Results Under the proposed framework, the efficiency of the whole process can be obtained from the product of productivity and allocative efficiency. Ten DMUs are efficient either in stages I or II, with only two DMUs being efficient with regard to both sub-processes. Conclusion The relational DEA model not only demonstrates the physical relationship between the whole process and the sub-process components, but also produces reliable outcomes in efficiency measurement among different stakeholders in Taiwan＇s NHI system.