Market failures, factor allocation and input use in Chinese agriculture

Public human resource policies are motivated by market failures that prevent equal access to education and training and lead to too low investments in skills. The market failures also limit the supply of information about human resources—and, thus, transparency. At the same time, the dynamics of learning impose strong requirements on information, for planning and evaluation purposes. Five aspects of human resource policy relevant for transparency are considered: efficiency and equity, input utilization, learning outcomes, the dimensioning of education, and benefits and costs. The chapter shows that there need not be a tradeoff between equity and efficiency and argued that input use transparency should focus on the teachers. Regarding learning outcomes, needs for better information are identified in the tails of the age distribution. Suggestions for enhanced transparency concern, inter alia, improved benefit–cost analyses through better estimates of educational externalities and extended policy accountability through initial commitment to effect evaluations.

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LIQUIDITY CONSTRAINTS AND INCENTIVE CONTRACTS

Macroeconomic Dynamics ◽

10.1017/s1365100599010019 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 1-47 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Andreas Lehnert ◽

Ethan Ligon ◽

Robert M. Townsend

Keyword(s):

Interest Rate ◽

Opportunity Cost ◽

Production Functions ◽

Limited Commitment ◽

Incentive Scheme ◽

Market Failures ◽

Empirical Methods ◽

Theoretical Approaches ◽

Input Use ◽

Parameter Values

Are firms and households constrained in the use of a productive input? Theoretical approaches to this question range from exogenously imposed credit allocation rules to endogenous market failures stemming from some sort of limited-commitment or moral-hazard problem. However, when testing for constraints, researchers often simply ask firms or households if they would wish to borrow more at the current interest rate and/or test for suboptimal use of inputs in production functions relative to a full-information, full-commitment benchmark. We demonstrate that if credit is part of a much larger information-constrained (or limited-commitment) incentive scheme, then input use may very well be distorted away from the first-best. Further, households and firms, in certain well-defined circumstances, may, at the true interest rate or opportunity cost of credit, desire to borrow more (or less) than the assigned level of credit. In other, more constrained, contractual regimes, firms and households would say that they do not want to borrow more (or less), but these regimes are decidedly suboptimal, although the magnitude of the loss does depend on parameter values. We conclude with empirical methods that, in principle, could allow researchers armed with enough data to estimate parameters and distinguish regimes. Researchers then could see if firms and households are truly constrained and, if so, what the welfare loss might be.

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Discontinuous Institutional Alternatives in the Context of Economy Deregulation

Voprosy Ekonomiki ◽

10.32609/0042-8736-2004-12-94-110 ◽

2004 ◽

pp. 94-110 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

A. Shastitko

Keyword(s):

Market Failure ◽

Transaction Management ◽

Market Failures ◽

Relative Cost ◽

State Participation

Various ways of state participation in the mechanisms of transaction management are considered in the article. Differences between compensation and elimination of the market failures are identified. Opportunities and risks of non-regulatory alternatives usage as a mean of market failure compensation are described. Based on classification of goods correlated to relative cost of their useful characteristics evaluation (search, experience, merit) questions of institutional alternatives in three areas (political, financial and commodity) are examined.

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Analysis of relations in the state sector of Russian public procurement

Voprosy Ekonomiki ◽

10.32609/0042-8736-2018-10-106-126 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 106-126

Author(s):

O. V. Anchishkina

Keyword(s):

Current Practice ◽

Public Procurement ◽

The State ◽

Market Failures ◽

Administrative System ◽

State Sector ◽

Contractual Relations ◽

State Organizations ◽

State Organization ◽

Negative Factors

The paper deals with a special sector of public procurement — G2G, in which state organizations act as both customers and suppliers. The analysis shows the convergence between contractual and administrative relations and risks of transferring the negative factors, responsible for market failures, into the administrative system, as well as the changing nature of the state organization. Budget losses in the sector G2G are revealed and estimated. There are doubts, whether the current practice of substitution of market-based instruments for administrative requirements is able to maintain integrity of public procurement in the situation of growing strategic challenges. Measures are proposed for the adjustment and privatization of contractual relations.

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A Theory of Patronized Goods: Inefficient and Efficient Equilibria

Voprosy Ekonomiki ◽

10.32609/0042-8736-2011-3-65-87 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 65-87 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

A. Rubinstein

Keyword(s):

Nash Equilibrium ◽

Social Policy ◽

Nash Equilibria ◽

Institutional Environment ◽

Social Motivation ◽

Pareto Optimal ◽

Market Failures ◽

Equilibrium Conditions ◽

Policy Issues

The article considers some aspects of the patronized goods theory with respect to efficient and inefficient equilibria. The author analyzes specific features of patronized goods as well as their connection with market failures, and conjectures that they are related to the emergence of Pareto-inefficient Nash equilibria. The key problem is the analysis of the opportunities for transforming inefficient Nash equilibrium into Pareto-optimal Nash equilibrium for patronized goods by modifying the institutional environment. The paper analyzes social motivation for institutional modernization and equilibrium conditions in the generalized Wicksell-Lindahl model for patronized goods. The author also considers some applications of patronized goods theory to social policy issues.

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The European Guilds

10.23943/princeton/9780691137544.001.0001 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Sheilagh Ogilvie

Keyword(s):

Middle Ages ◽

Common Good ◽

Industrial Revolution ◽

Dark Side ◽

Market Failures ◽

Women Migrants ◽

Work Skills ◽

The Common ◽

Economic Reasoning ◽

European Economies

Guilds ruled many crafts and trades from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution, and have always attracted debate and controversy. They were sometimes viewed as efficient institutions that guaranteed quality and skills. But they also excluded competitors, manipulated markets, and blocked innovations. Did the benefits of guilds outweigh their costs? Analyzing thousands of guilds that dominated European economies from 1000 to 1880, this book uses vivid examples and clear economic reasoning to answer that question. The book features the voices of honourable guild masters, underpaid journeymen, exploited apprentices, shady officials, and outraged customers, and follows the stories of the “vile encroachers”—women, migrants, Jews, gypsies, bastards, and many others—desperate to work but hunted down by the guilds as illicit competitors. It investigates the benefits of guilds but also shines a light on their dark side. Guilds sometimes provided important services, but they also manipulated markets to profit their members. They regulated quality but prevented poor consumers from buying goods cheaply. They fostered work skills but denied apprenticeships to outsiders. They transmitted useful techniques but blocked innovations that posed a threat. Guilds existed widely not because they corrected market failures or served the common good, but because they benefited two powerful groups—guild members and political elites. The book shows how privileged institutions and exclusive networks shape the wider economy—for good or ill.

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Input Use and Productivity across Farm Sizes: A Comparison of the Two Punjabs

The Pakistan Development Review ◽

10.30541/v27i4iipp.595-604 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 27 (4II) ◽

pp. 595-604 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Eshya Mujahid Mukhtar ◽

Hanid Mukhtar

Keyword(s):

Agricultural Practices ◽

Distribution Networks ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Government Policies ◽

Economic Costs ◽

Land Distribution ◽

Input Use ◽

Policy Measures ◽

Ideal Framework ◽

Productivity Gains

Agricultural production depends upon certain crucial inputs e.g., water, fertilizer etc. In the less developed regions of South Asia in general, and the indo-Pakistan sub-continent in particular, the use of these inputs depends not only upon the financial affordability but also upon the institutional accessibility of farmers to these inputs. Besides high economic costs, bureaucratic controls and corruption regarding the distribution of inputs have created problems of limited accessibility, especially to the small farmers. In the absence of any credit, information and/or input distribution networks, the use of these inputs, and related productivity gains, become confined to that class of farmers which not only has better access to these inputs but is capable of using them in the best possible way e.g. use of water and fertilizer in the appropriate amount and at the appropriate time. This paper attempts to study how input use and input productivity vary across farm sizes, with some reference to the infrastructural and institutional factors, whose development play an important role in improving the distribution and productivity of inputs. For such an analysis, a comparison of the two Punjabs i.e. Pakistani and Indian Punjabs, presents an ideal framework, Separated by a national boundary since 1947, the two Punjabs enjoy a common history and culture, similar agricultural practices and agro-climatic conditions, Government policies in the two Punjabs, however, have not only differed between the two provinces at the same time, but also over time in the same province. It may be noted that due to certain policy measures, land distribution, tenancy conditions, promotion of agricultural co-operatives and provision of infrastructural features, such as roads and electricity, are relatively more improved in Indian than Pakistani Punjab.

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Проблемы оценки качества при проектировании транспортных услуг

Quality Innovation Education ◽

10.31145/1999-513x-2020-5-30-40 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 30-40

Author(s):

S.U. Lyapina ◽

◽

V.N. Tarasova ◽

V.B. Ruchkin ◽

E.O. Koscheeva ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Business Processes ◽

Service Industries ◽

Service Organizations ◽

Quality Of Services ◽

Market Failures ◽

Expert Opinions ◽

Service Life Cycle ◽

Quantitative Indicators

The quality issues of new services directly affect the competitiveness of service organizations. However, the introduction of new services to the market is often limited only to the construction of the logistics of business processes, and the design applies only to technological equipment and infrastructure, the quality of which ultimately does not always ensure the quality of the services provided. At the same time, quality management affects mainly operational aspects, that is, it covers the later stages of the service life cycle. In resource-intensive service industries (for example, transport, communications, etc.), the high cost of equipment and infrastructure reduces the possibility of changes in service delivery technologies to improve their quality, which leads to inefficiency and market failures due to the fact that the new service does not match the real needs of customers. Despite this, forecasting and planning the quality of a service at the stage «making a decision» to launch a new service on the market remains largely without sufficient attention. The authors prove the need to design the quality of services at the stage «making a decision» to bring new services to the market. The purpose of the article is to describe the approach developed by the authors to assessing the quality of projected services at the early stages of their life cycle, which makes it possible to integrate qualitative and quantitative indicators of the future service and take into account the forecast requests of customers. The proposed approach has two features: (1) forecasting customer requirements for the quality of services is based on the results of machine learning based on data on existing and potential customers, as well as on the basis of the accumulated knowledge base of customer experience and expert opinions; (2) multi-criteria optimization is used, while some of the optimized parameters are discrete and high-quality. In conclusion, the authors demonstrated the advantages of the developed model on the examples of transport and logistics business in the field of passenger and freight transportation in Russia.

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