Impacts of the Rising Opportunity Cost of Farm Labor on Agricultural Land Use Structure: Theory and Empirical Evidences

Abstract

Nowadays the rising of opportunity cost of farm labor comes to the forefront of attention in China. In order to understand its impact on agricultural land-use structure, a theoretical framework of household economics is formulated drawn on Low’s model. Under the theoretical framework, the impact of the rising opportunity cost of on-farm on cropping structure is deduced in theory. And then, using statistic and survey data, taking mountain area of southern Ningxia as an example, the theoretical assumes are verified. The results show that the rise of opportunity cost of farm labor leads to less diversified cropping structure.     

Impacts of the Rising Opportunity Cost of Farm Labor on Agricultural Land Use Structure: Theory and Empirical Evidences

Nowadays the rising of opportunity cost of farm labor comes to the forefront of attention in China. In order to understand its impact on agricultural land-use structure, a theoretical framework of household economics is formulated drawn on Low’s model. Under the theoretical framework, the impact of the rising opportunity cost of on-farm on cropping structure is deduced in theory. And then, using statistic and survey data, taking mountain area of southern Ningxia as an example, the theoretical assumes are verified. The results show that the rise of opportunity cost of farm labor leads to less diversified cropping structure.     

最小数据方法在舟曲县生态补偿中的应用

弄清补偿标准和新增生态系统服务供给量之间的关系是生态补偿研究中的关键问题.舟曲县现有的补偿是静态补偿,补偿标准低,没有很好地达到改善生态环境的目的.本文基于最小数据方法,以耕地和林地提供的水土保持量的差异表征生态系统服务,通过提供单位水土保持服务的机会成本的空间分布,推导出舟曲县森林水土保持的供给曲线,从而将补偿标准和新增水土保持服务的供给联系起来.同时对比了3种补偿标准下的退耕比例、生态补偿总资金需求和新增水土保持量.研究表明生态补偿在理论上可以提供舟曲县的水土保持能力.随着补偿标准的提高,新增水土保持量也在增加.当补偿标准为250元/亩时,退耕比例仅为8.26%,生态补偿总资金需求为1 930.03万元,新增水土保持量为4.69×104t;当补偿标准提高到518.63 元/亩时,退耕比例增加到49.54%,总资金需求为23 184.26万元,新增水土保持量为2.83×105t;当补偿标准增加到995.65 元/亩时,退耕比例可达到98.79%,总资金需求为87 340.95万元,可新增水土保持量达到5.65×105t.     

土地督察对土地违法的遏制效应评价

选择当年发生土地违法案件数和当年发生土地违法涉案面积作为主要表征指标,收集了2002-2009年的省级面板数据,分析土地督察对土地违法是否有影响以及影响的程度。论文分别采用了固定效应模型、随机效应和混合OLS模型加以估计,通过相关检验,最后选用了固定效应模型的估计结果。在模型估计结果的基础上,对土地督察的违法遏制效果进行了评价。分析表明:①土地督察的确对减少土地违法有显著影响,土地例行督察覆盖度每提高1%,可能减少土地违法案件92件,可能使土地违法涉案面积减少约2.18%;②若对某省份实施了专项督察,则可能减少土地违法案件7件,可能使土地违法涉案面积减少31.11%;③由于实行了土地例行督察和专项督察,可能使2007-2009年的土地违法案件分别少发生84件、3 473件和12 500件,土地违法涉案面积分别少发生2 314.13 hm2、1 919.75 hm2和3 046.57 hm2。     

Study on the Flow of Rural Labor Force and the Contribution of Terrain Factor in Shaanxi,China

The flow of rural labor to urban is a significant phe- nomenon in China during the last 20 years. In spite of many researches focus on the driving force of economy, terrain is an important index in the...     

Determinants on Rural-Urban Labor Migration in China: Empirical Analysis on the Effect of Rural Cooperate Medical Insurance based on Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Data

Abstract

This paper studies factors influencing rural-urban labor migration in China, particularly the implementation of rural cooperative medical insurance (RCMI) in the year 2003. With the support of data analysis from the year 2000, 2004 and 2006, clear linear correlations are found between gender, income, health condition and rural-urban labor flow, whereas the impact of education and employment status are more complicated. More importantly, results from regression show that the establishment of RCMI in countryside of China not only inhibits rural residents from seeking employment outside the village, but also pulls back rural people who have already worked in cities. When regional dimension is concerned, the pure composite effect of RCMI on rural labor flow is less significant in coastal areas with better economic performance and medical service.     

Conversion Margins for the Major Uses of Agricultural Land and Their Variations in Shandong Province, China

It is of practical significance for the decision-making on country food security and farmland protection to analyze the conversion margins for the major uses of agricultural land and their variations. Based on the panel data of wheat, corn, vegetable, fruit, and forests productions from 520 investigated farmer households of 13 investigated villages in Shandong Province from 2003 to 2009, and using Cobb-Douglas production function, the revenue conversion margins can be obtained separately, between different grain-crops (wheat, corn) and different non-grain crops (vegetable, fruit, forests), and the conversion relationship between growing grain( wheat, corn) and going out for non-farm work. The results show that from 2003 to 2009, growing wheat and corn are more economically and reasonably for farmers, compared with growing vegetable, but growing wheat and corn are becoming less economically and less reasonably day by day, compared with planting forests. Moreover, the conversion margin between wheat and fruit shows obvious scissors difference. Just from 2007, farmers’ growing fruit became economically and reasonably, but until 2009, compared with going out to work after abandoning farm8land, growing wheat had no economic rationality. From 2003 to 2009, farmers’ growing corn is more profitable than growing fruit and going out for non-farm work after abandoning farmland. The subsidies for wheat and corn have increased farmers’ comparative income from food production remarkably, but the subsidies cannot change the general tendency that farmers transform food (wheat, corn) production into non-food (especially forests) production. The revenue difference between growing wheat, corn and vegetable and growing fruit and forests is being pulled ceaselessly bigger, and the tendency that farmers transform wheat, corn and vegetable growing lands into fruit and forests growing lands has become increasingly apparent.     

Measurement and Spatial Distribution of Urban Land Use Compactness in Chaoyang District of Beijing, China

China is in the process of rapid urbanization, and wise land use is critical to the long-term sustainability of Chinese cities.Promotion of a compact city is typically believed to be helpful for sustainable land use management. However, given the fact that Chinese cities are characterized by high population densities, the applicability of a more compact solution to expand cities in China remains questionable; there is little evidence to support the many claims in its favor. In seeking to provide empirical data to explore the application of compact city theory in China, one of the key problems researchers face is the task of measuring the urban com-pactness, in order to objectively investigate the current characteristics of urban compactness. To meet this need, indices were developed for measuring the urban land use compactness, by which the spatial distribution characteristics of urban land use compactness were identified and applied to the Chaoyang District of Beijing. The conclusions can be made as follows: (1) comprehensive land use compactness in Chaoyang District has increased during the period of 2001-2007, especially the population density; (2) the spatial distribution of land use compactness has the characteristics of a ring structure, which shows a decreasing trend with its distance to the city center; (3) there is a strong positive correlation between urban land use compactness and location. The better the location is, the higher the land use compactness is.     

基于耦合关系的中国区域土地利用效益水平测度

新时期,土地利用的属性决定了土地利用能同时产生社会经济效益与生态环境效益,而这两种效益的交互耦合进一步决定了土地利用的整体效益。本研究建立了土地利用的社会经济效益与生态环境效益的耦合模型,设计了分别测度这两种效益的指标体系,用熵值赋权法计算了各指标的权重,进而计算了中国31个省(市、自治区)土地利用中这两种效益的系数及其耦合协调发展系数。结果显示:第一类地区是我国社会经济与生态环境均较好的上海市;第二类地区主要是社会经济发展较好但生态环境建设相对滞后的地区;第三类是生态环境较好但社会经济发展相对滞后的地区;第四类是社会经济发展相对滞后但生态环境建设更为落后的地区;第五类是生态环境建设滞后但社会经济发展更为落后的地区。最后,对每一个类型的成因和未来发展思路作了说明,在此基础上,又说明了中国土地利用的整体效益仍较为有限、整体效益表现出较为明显的区域分布特征、社会经济与生态环境的协调发展已成为提高我国土地利用效益的现实选择等基本政策含义。     

中国资本回报率:考虑碳减排成本的新核算

对资本回报率进行绿色核算既符合当前绿色发展的新理念,同时也是判断我国经济增长可持续性的重要依据。使用超越对数生产函数估算1960—2014年碳排放的影子价格;利用Hall-Jorgenson租金公式测算剔除碳减排成本的中国资本回报率的动态演变趋势。对中国资本回报率重新估算克服了因忽略碳减排成本而导致的高估,估算结果更加科学可靠。研究结果:(1)中国碳排放的影子价格由1960年的56.34元/t上升到2011年的1651.69/t,根据影子价格计算的碳减排成本占GDP总量的份额年均为31%。(2)不考虑碳减排成本和税收因素的基础资本回报率变动趋势可以划分为三个阶段。1952-1983年为第一阶段,资本回报率在波动中由高位逐步回落。1984—2010年是第二个阶段,基础资本回报率保持平稳。2011年以来是第三个阶段,这一阶段中国的资本回报率呈台阶式下降趋势,特别是2012—2014年,税后的资本回报率已经难以抵补企业投资的机会成本。(3)考虑碳减排成本将导致资本回报率平均下降约12%。其中1960—1975年资本回报率呈下降趋势。1976—2008年资本回报率基本保持稳定,资本回报率平均值为15.2%。2009年以后,资本回报率则表现出逐年下降的趋势,2014年的估算值甚至降为-1%。本文仅考虑了碳减排成本,如果再考虑诸如二氧化硫等废气排放、废水与固废排放的成本后,绿色资本回报率的估算值将更低。建议:在当前的经济形势下,应实施激励企业技术创新以及减税(尤其是生产税)政策遏制资本回报率下降的趋势。另外,需要采取分阶段递增的环境规制政策,逐步实现企业环境外部成本的内部化。     

资源环境约束下的中国经济增长质量研究

现有对于资源环境与经济增长之间关系的研究主要是在经济增长数量分析的框架下展开分析,而很少从经济增长质量分析的框架入手进行考察。经济增长质量是指经济增长内在的性质与规律,具体包括经济增长的结构、经济增长的稳定性、福利变化与成果分配以及资源利用和生态环境代价四个维度。当资源利用效率不断提高和生态环境代价逐渐降低时,经济增长质量都将会得到提高。本文从经济增长质量视角出发,采用国际规范的逻辑实证主义分析方法,以中国经济转型时期的省级面板数据为样本对改革开放以来中国资源环境代价与经济增长质量之间的关系进行理论研究与实证考察。研究表明:模型的估计结果与理论研究的结论是一致的,中国经济转型期资源环境代价与经济增长质量之间存在显著的正向关系。因此,在中国经济发展进入新阶段的背景下,在经济增长数量不断扩张的同时,还需要不断改进经济增长的资源利用效率和生态环境代价,要实现经济增长的数量与质量的统一,追求中国经济发展的长期可持续性。     

Analysis and Modeling on the Spatial Structure of Urban Land Use: A Case of Jinan, China

Based on the data of urban land use obtained by remote sensing interpretation from aero images in 1986 and 2004, the spatial structure of Jinan is studied in this paper with the method of Geographic Information System (GIS). According to the proportion of land for residence, industry and commerce, the urban district can be distinguished into three rings. Compared with the traditional theory of the ring structure in Western coun- tries, they have many distinctive characteristics. The main func- tions of the inner ring include residence, business and banking, but the proportion of residential land (more than 50%) is considerably higher than that of the cities in Western countries. The land proportion for residence and industry in the intermediate ring is equal on the whole. The main land of the outside ring is for industrial use. From 1986 to 2004, great changes have taken place on the land proportion of different types of use. In the inner ring, the land for residential and industrial use has shrunk much while the land for commercial use has increased. In the intermediate ring, the changes of the three types of land use were not very much and the temporal variation was relatively stable. On the contrary, the structure in the outside ring varies acutely. Though most of it is also for industrial use, the proportion of residential land has in- creased much. The three rings can also be divided into several sectors respectively, according to the function of land use clusters. New trends and mechanisms of the changes of land use impacting the urban structure were proposed in the end of the paper.     

中国农村居民点用地变化的社会经济因素分析

基于2000-2008年省级单元的土地利用和社会经济统计数据,探讨来自区域、城镇和农村的社会经济因素对农村居民点用地扩张的作用机制,认为农村居民点用地扩张受到农村自身社会经济发展和城镇社会经济发展的双重作用,一方面区域和农村社会经济推动了农村居民点用地规模扩张,另一方面工业化和城镇化进程引起的城镇空间扩张,缓解了农村居民点用地扩张的趋势,在此"一增一减"双重作用下,农村居民点用地呈现缓慢增长趋势。相比于来自区域和城镇的社会经济因素,农村自身的社会经济发展因素对于省级单元的农村居民点用地扩张的影响更为重要。不论是对于来自城镇或是农村的社会经济因素,产出效应都比投资和收入效应更明显,在控制产出效应的情况下,来自于城镇和区域的投资和收入效应不再显著。为控制农村居民点用地过度扩张,政府应在健康快速的工业化和城镇化进程中,实施城乡建设用地增减挂钩政策,加大土地开发整理和复垦力度,积极投资农村,提高农用地产出,以有效引导农村居民点用地节约集约利用。     

Land use Systems and Erosion in the Uplands of the Central Coast, Vietnam

Soil erosion is a significant problem in the uplands of the Central Coast, Vietnam. It affects the livelihood of farmers and could hinder the long-term economic development efforts in the uplands. Yet, trapped in poverty, upland farmers, especially the ethnic minority, are still mining the soil using erosive land use systems to meet their urgent needs. This study demonstrates that the level of soil erosion varies across the typical land use systems. The fruit tree-based agroforestry (AF) system is least erosive and most financially profitable. The choice of land use system is influenced by farmers' attributes, land plot characteristics, and policy-related variables. The set of policy variables is important in explaining land use choice by upland farmers. Promoting the switch to AF system and the adoption of soil conservation is of great importance to reducing soil erosion and sustaining development in the uplands. However, it is a very challenging task.     

Using Multi-destination ZTCM to Evaluate the Recreational Values of Cultural Sights：an Application to Jiayuguan,China

This study explained the importance of environmental protection in tourism development and illustrated the relationship between recreational resource valuation and environmental consideration. We compare different models of travel cost method and reiterates long-time existing problems of multi-destination and treats of time opportunity cost (TOC). Taking Jiayuguan's cultural sights as an example, we establish an updated method called multi-destination zonal tourism cost method to evaluate the recreational values (RVs) of selected three cultural sights. We divide trip packages of Jiayuguan's tourists into 11 portfolios. Each portfolio can be seen as a separate commodity, and each commodity has its own demand curve. According to demand curves we can calculate consumer surplus (CS) of different portfolios of tourist destinations and later we sum up the total travel costs (including travel expenditure and TOC) and CS to come to the RVs of each portfolio. We then apply suitable proportions to calculate the RVs between different destinations in the portfolio. In the end, we add up all the RVs calculated for the objective destination. Using this method, we draw conclusions that Jiayuguan's RV in 2006 includes national and international values, summing up to 738.4762 million yuan. The tourist expenditure, CS and TOC of Jiayuguan is proportionating 62.96, 32.28 and 4.76%, respectively. This study is also an example of non-market valuation of cultural tourism resources.     

Using Multi-destination ZTCM to Evaluate the Recreational Values of Cultural Sights: An Application to Jiayuguan,China

Abstract

This study explained the importance of environmental protection in tourism development and illustrated the relationship between recreational resource valuation and environmental consideration. We compare different models of travel cost method and reiterates long-time existing problems of multi-destination and treats of time opportunity cost (TOC). Taking Jiayuguan’s cultural sights as an example, we establish an updated method called multidestination zonal tourism cost method to evaluate the recreational values (RVs) of selected three cultural sights. We divide trip packages of Jiayuguan’s tourists into 11 portfolios. Each portfolio can be seen as a separate commodity, and each commodity has its own demand curve. According to demand curves we can calculate consumer surplus (CS) of different portfolios of tourist destinations and later we sum up the total travel costs (including travel expenditure and TOC) and CS to come to the RVs of each portfolio. We then apply suitable proportions to calculate the RVs between different destinations in the portfolio. In the end, we add up all the RVs calculated for the objective destination. Using this method, we draw conclusions that Jiayuguan’s RV in 2006 includes national and international values, summing up to 738.4762 million yuan. The tourist expenditure, CS and TOC of Jiayuguan is proportionating 62.96, 32.28 and 4.76%, respectively. This study is also an example of non-market valuation of cultural tourism resources.     

Effects of social capital on the health quality of the rural elderly in Xihaigu,China: a hierarchical linear model analysis

Based on the analysis and measurement of the social capital and the health quality and structure of the elderly people, this paper examined the effects of social capital on the health quality of the elderly as well as its composition. The examination was conducted by applying a hierarchical linear model (HLM) and using survey data obtained in the Xihaigu area of Ningxia Province in 2017. The empirical results showed that individual social capital had a significant influence on the health of the rural elderly, but the impacts were different on its composition. Village social capital should improve both the physical and mental health quality of the elderly through building mutual trust and promoting stability, unity and a harmonious living environment. In addition, factors such as mode of habitation, diet, medical approaches, intergenerational interactions, and village geographical location also affect the health quality of the elderly.     

Characteristics of Rural Labor Emigration in Minority Areas of Honghe, Yunnan and Its Impact on New Socialist Countryside Construction in the 21st Century

China is a country with multinationalities. The political, social, and economic significances of the economic and social development in the minority areas have a very close connection with the modernization of the whole China's politics, society, and economy. The movement of minority rural migrants to the urban areas or to the nonagricultural industries is one of the key issues in the economic and social development in the minority rural areas. The rural population migration in the minority areas was taken as the important research topic, hoping to be of benefit to the deeper understanding of the current migration movement in China.     

东北农牧交错带典型区土地利用变化及其生态效应

东北农牧交错带是典型的生态环境脆弱区，具有敏感性强、退化趋势明显等生态脆弱性特征。本文利用1986、2002年两期TM/ETM影像，揭示了吉林西部16年来土地利用／覆被的时空变化规律，并依据Costanza R．等人对全球生态系统服务价值的评估方法。分析了土地利用变化对区域生态系统服务价值的影响。结果表明：16年来，吉林西部土地利用／覆被发生了剧烈变化。耕地、盐碱地面积大幅度增加，草地、水域和湿地的面积大幅度减少，区域生态系统服务功能出现明显的衰退。生态系统服务价值显著地减少。吉林西部生态系统服务价值由1986年的767．1亿元／a下降到2002年的624．1亿元／a，减少幅度达18．6％，年均递减速率达1．6％。16年来该区域生态环境恶化和以经济利益为目的的土地利用结构调整，给区域生态系统服务功能和可持续发展能力带来巨大负面影响。