Technical Progress on Researches for the Safety of High Concrete-Faced Rockfill Dams

The concrete-faced rockfill dam(CFRD) is an important dam type in the selection of high dams to be constructed in Western China,owing to its direct utilization of local materials,good adaptability,and distinct economic advantages.Over the past decades,China has gained successful experience in the construction of 200 m CFRDs,providing the necessary technical accumulation for the development of 250–300 m ultra-high CFRDs.This paper summarizes these successful experiences and analyzes the problems of a number of major 200 m CFRDs around the world.In addition,it discusses the key technologies and latest research progress regarding safety in the construction of 250–300 m ultra-high CFRDs,and suggests focuses and general ideas for future research.

Green technical innovation, environmental expenditure, and the environmental Kuznets curve:a dynamics model

The relationship between the emission of pollutant and economic growth has attracted a lot of attention in the environmental debate of the recent decades. Based on some theoretical and empirical research on environmental Kuznets curve （EKC）, this paper introduces the environmental technical innovation and environmental investment into Salow growth model to discuss the relationship between GDP per capital and the emission of pollutant By the dynamic simulation and parameters analysis, the results of the model indicate： （1） when ＂green＂ technical progress and environmental investment are fixed, the relationship between GDP per capital and the emission shows the linear relationship; （2） ＂green＂ technical progress can lead to the positive growth rates with a decreasing level of emission, which is compatible with an EKC; （3） the proportion of the environmental investment can lead the different growth rates and level of emission. These results can explain that developing countries are ＂too poor to be green＂.

THE OPTIMAL ALLOCATION ABOUT CAPITAL AND LABOR IN THE ECONOMIC GROWTH WITH AN ENDOGENOUS TECHNICAL PROGRESS MODEL

In this paper, the balanced economic growth path was considered in a new growth model with endogenous technical progress. It is not only obtained the optimal allocation about capital and labor between a goods-producing sector and a R&D Sector, but also the optimal value of saving rates. By discussing the effect of parameters, it are also got the following results: When the rate of time preference (discount factor) rising, the fractions of Capital and labor in the goods-producing sector will increase, the fractions in R&D sector and the saving rates will decrease; When the population grows rapidly, the result will be contrary.

Technical Progress of China's Delayed Coking Technology

This article introduces the recent advances of China in the fields of process technology of delayed coking, enlarged equipment size, hydraulic decoking, automatic control and environmental protection. By the end of 2004 the total capacity of delayed coking uniis in China had reached 37.24 Mt/a with the maximum coke drum diameter equating to 9.4 m. This article also presents the investmerit in delayed cokers and the current production status while pointing out the existing problems and future development trends.

Impact of Regional Development on Carbon Emission: Empirical Evidence Across Countries

Global warming is recently an urgent issue worldwide. The increase of carbon emissions induced by human economic activi- ties has become a major driving force behind global climate change. Thus, as a matter of social responsibility, reasonable carbon con- straints should be implemented to ensure environmental security and sustainable development for every country. Based on a summary of studies that examined the relationship between carbon emissions and regional development, this paper shows that human activity-led carbon emission is caused by the combination of several influencing factors, including population size, income level, and technical pro- gress. Thus, a quantitative model derived from IPAT-ImPACT-Kaya series and STIRPAT models was established. Empirical analysis using multivariate nonlinear regression demonstrated that the origins of growing global carbon emission included the increasing influ- encing elasticity of the population size and the declining negative effect of technical progress. Meanwhile, in context of classification of country groups at different income levels, according to the comparison of fluctuating patterns of the influencing elasticity, technical progress was found as the main factor influencing carbon emission levels in high-income countries, and population size might he the controlling factor in middle-income countries. However, for low-income countries, the nonlinear relationship between carbon emission and its influencing factors was not significant, whereas population growth was identified as an important potential driving force in future carbon emissions. This study can therefore provide a reference for the formulation of policies on carbon constraints, especially to de- velop more efficient carbon mitigating policies for countries at different income levels.

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.

Progress in the Field of Converting Methanol into Light Olefins over the ZSM-5 Zeolite Catalyst

Technical progress in the field of conversion of methanol into ethylene and propylene over the ZSM-5 catalyst was summarized. The economical analysis of the technology, the mechanism of chemical reaction and reaction kinetics were introduced. The factors including the effect of the operating conditions,the influence of catalyst preparation conditions and modification of ZSM-5 zeolite on the reaction and coke formation were also discussed.

A Comparative Study on the Labor Productivity of Provincial Textile Industry Based on DEA in China

Making use of the DEA-based method of quadruplicate decomposition of labor productivity, the paper analyzes the influence of labor productivity of provincial textile industry in China, caused by the effect of technical efficiency, pure technical progress, changes of scale efficiency of capital per labor and of capital intensity from the year of 2002 to 2005. Its results show that the improvement of provincial textile industry labor productivity has mainly resulted from technical progress since 2003. Meanwhile, labor productivity of underdeveloped provinces has been growing faster than that of developed ones owing to technology diffusion. And then, the above-mentioned improvement has originated from the enhancement of capital deepening and technology efficiency. In addition, scale return of capital per labor appeared to decrease during the period from 2004 to 2005.

Incentives to Invest in Improving Quality in the Telecommunications Industry

This paper investigates the incentives of invest in improving quality （as opposed to investments in new activities） in the telecommunications industry, based on the example of wireless markets. What is the impact of competition on incentives to invest, and on capacities to invest？ What is the role of the rate of penetration and technical progress？ This paper highlights the fact that investment incentives are positively related to potential for technical progress. Investment incentives also depend on market structure, competition intensity, and penetration rate, but not monotonically. This paper consists of a theoretical part which, under assumptions of full market coverage and market share symmetry, shows that for each national market, there is a target level of investment which companies strive to achieve but had not exceeded, and an empirical part that confirms the findings of the theoretical part and explains the differences with the theoretical part by relaxing the assumptions of full coverage and market share symmetry. This target level on the one hand depends on the potential for technical progress and on the other hand, depends on the rate of penetration. From a social perspective, this target level is the best amount that companies are encouraged to invest. Non-achievement of the target level entails underinvestment and a decrease in consumer surplus and welfare and may slow down technical progress. A data set covering 30 countries over a period of eight years is used to empirically prove the existence of a change in investment behavior depending on whether or not the target level is achieved. A low margin per user may hamper achievement of the target level. As a result, maximum consumer surplus and welfare occur under imperfect competition but not under perfect competition.

Do ICTs Boost Agricultural Productivity?

Based on panel data from the Rural Fixed Point Survey of the Ministry of Agriculture over the period 2004-2016 and supplementary survey data on information and communications technology(ICT)applications in the countryside,this paper employs the difference in differences(DID)method to analyze the effects of ICT applications on rural households’agricultural total factor productivity(TFP)with mobile phone signal,internet and 3G mobile network connections as indicators,and decomposes and evaluates the constituent factors.Our findings reveal a positive effect of ICTs on rural households’TFP,which primarily stemmed from rising agricultural technical efficiency.However,ICTs exerted no significant effect on agricultural technical progress during this paper’s data period due to limited rural human capital.These findings are consistent with robustness test results based on counterfactual and matching methods.

Assessing Technical Progress Via Data Envelopment Analysis

This paper examines the nature of production function and derives its mathematical description similar to Cobb-Douglas form. Defining pareto optimality production state and reducing multiple outputs to a single output, we present Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models, which have, in effect, extended the definition for decision making unit (DMU) from cross-section to timeseries so as to determine production function satisfying maximal output and minimal inputs under the condition of pareto optimality. By means of production function determined in this paper we can further obtain such important information in the context of technical progress as index of the level of disembodied type technology and so on. In addition, a case study shows the contributive consequent of this work.

The Educational Efficiency in the Economic Growth with Exhaustible Resource：An endogenous technical progress model

In this paper we consider optimal economic growth in the presence of exhaustible resource, exogenous population growth, and endogenous technical progress. A production function with endogenous technical progress and a more appropriate objective function are suggested. In this new framework we determine the conditions required to ensure exponentially growing, as opposed to declining, consumption. Optimal per capita consumption will be less likely to be incerasing when: the educational efficiency is low; the planner cares little about future; population grows rapidly; and the elasticity of marginal utility is high.

Life-insurance Efficiency in China:A Comparison of Foreign and Domestic Firms

The Chinese life-insurance industry has experienced major structural changes in recent years, primarily because of increasing demand and the entry of foreign insurers. Although the market is clearly booming, the efficiency of its growth and development is unclear. In this paper, we evaluate the efficiency of life insurers operating in China and compare foreign firms with domestic firms. We find that foreign insurers have not brought efficiency into the Chinese market, and that the market is still dominated by domestic giants. However, the gap between foreign insurers and domestic insurers is narrowing. After testing hypotheses regarding scale economy, technical progress andpotential improvements, we discuss several issues＇ of importance to life insurers, market investors and government regulators.