Differences In Endowments Research Articles

The economics of early inequality.

We examine three recent frameworks that attempt to explain early inequality. One explanation involves the emergence of dense and predictable resource patches in the Holocene, together with differential asset accumulation and inheritance by individuals or households. In this view, agriculture and pastoralism led to greater inequality because farmland and animal herds were readily inherited. Another explanation involves the distinction between ideal free and ideal despotic population distributions, together with factors that could trigger a transition from the former to the latter. We offer a third framework based on economic concepts. In our view, inequality initially arose across locations (insider-outsider inequality) and reflected geographical differences in resource endowments at those locations. As population densities increased, the barriers to individual migration across locations included fewer kinship linkages and the use of force by insiders to exclude outsiders. These barriers became important with the transition from mobile to sedentary foraging and predate agriculture. Insider-outsider inequality was followed by stratification within settlements (elite-commoner inequality), which arose at still higher population densities. We see these three theoretical approaches as distinct but complementary. While they overlap, each emphasizes some phenomena and processes ignored by the other two. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolutionary ecology of inequality'.

Does social capital matter? A study of hit-and-run in US counties

We investigate the relationship between social capital and a decision that has dire health consequences: fleeing after a road accident. This event is unplanned, and the decision is taken under great emotional distress and time pressure, thus providing a test of whether social capital matters for behaviour in extreme conditions. We merge data from the universe of fatality accidents involving pedestrians in the US over the period 2000–2018 with a dataset on social capital measures at the county level. Using within-state-year variation, our results show that one standard deviation increase in social capital is associated with a reduction in the probability of hit-and-run of around 10.5%. Several falsification tests based on differences in social capital endowment between the county where the accident occurs and the county where the driver resides are suggestive of a causal interpretation of this evidence. Our findings show the importance of social capital in a new context, suggesting a broad impact on pro-social behaviour and adding to the positive returns of promoting civic norms.

The moral benefits of coercion: A defense of ideal statism

This paper contributes to recent discussions on ideal anarchism vs. ideal statism. I argue, contra ideal anarchists, that coercive state institutions would be justified even in a society populated by morally perfect individuals. My defense of ideal statism is novel in that it highlights the moral benefits of state coercion. Rather than the practical effects on individual compliance or the distributive outcomes that follow therefrom, coercive state institutions are justified through the moral benefits they provide. The state is morally beneficial because it a) lessens the demands on the will that fall on agents under ideal anarchism, and b) counters the structural domination that follows from differences in natural endowments. By shifting the focus of the debate from feasibility to desirability, the paper exposes the flaws of ideal anarchism and provides new insights into the moral value of the state.

Does early disaster exposure affect household agricultural income? Evidence from China

As global climate change intensifies, reducing agricultural losses due to weather disasters caused by climate change has become a major concern. This study follows a cohort DID framework to explore the effects and mechanisms of early disaster experience on farmers' household agricultural income using the China Family Panel Studies data. This study finds that farmer households exposed to extreme disaster shocks early in life perform better in household agricultural income, but there are heterogeneities across households due to differences in resource endowments. Households with easier access to weather information, higher levels of cognition among household members, higher levels of household assets, better social capital, and less availability of non-farm employment opportunities performed better. Furthermore, climate change adaptive behavior is the main channel through which early disaster experiences affect household agricultural income. Households that experienced disaster shocks in earlier years tend to implement climate change adaptive behaviors such as reducing land rent out, increasing land rent in, and reducing participation in non-farm employment to increase household agricultural income. These findings provide evidence for farmers to adapt to climate change by learning from their disaster experiences. It also provides a reference for relevant authorities to design policies to help farmers adapt to climate change.

Sibling Differences in Genetic Propensity for Education: How Do Parents React?

Abstract We take advantage of recent advances in genomics to revisit a classic question in economics: how do parents respond to children's endowments and to sibling differences in endowments? We use an index based on DNA, which is fixed at conception and assigned randomly across siblings, as a proxy for educational endowments. We find that parents of nontwins display inequality aversion: given the absolute endowment level of one child, they invest less in him/her if his/her sibling has a lower genetic predisposition to education. In contrast, we find no evidence that parents of dizygotic twins react to endowment differences between children.

Analysis on the Spatial Structure and Interaction of Aviation Network and Tourism Efficiency Network in Major Cities in China

Tourism efficiency is crucial for measuring sustainable tourism development. Examining the relationship between aviation and tourism efficiency networks is key to promoting their synergistic development in China's urban areas. This study employs various methods, such as complex network analysis method, entropy-weighted TOPSIS, tourism efficiency gravity model, and quadratic assignment procedure, to analyze the networks' spatial structure evolution characteristics and interaction effects. Results show that (1) China's major cities' aviation network has improved its organizational efficiency and formed a "double rhombus-single axis" spatial evolution pattern of the axis-spoke network. The number of intermediary networks and hub cities in the central and western regions has increased. (2) The tourism efficiency network adopts a "honeycomb" structure pattern with the simultaneous layout of "point-to-point" and "star" networks. The network's tourism efficiency follows "Pareto's Law," and tourism cities above the second level form a club group development. The tourism efficiency development potential area is shifting to the southwest. (3) The aviation and tourism efficiency networks exhibit a clear trend of synergistic evolution with a "path locking" phenomenon between them. Differences in tourism resource endowment, labor advantage, and capital advantage positively impact the aviation network's structure. Conversely, differences in revenue capacity and market scale negatively impact the structure. The aviation scale advantage, openness, intimacy, and influence exhibit decreasing positive effects on the tourism efficiency network's structure.

Impact of R&D Investment and Network Penetration on Human Development: Evidence from China.

This paper measures the human development indices of 31 inland provinces (municipalities) in China in a continuous time series during 2000-2017 according to the 2010 HDI compilation method. It uses a geographically and temporally weighted regression model for conducting an empirical study on the effects of R&D investment and network penetration on human development in each province (municipality) of China. There is significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the impact of R&D investment and network penetration on human development across provinces (municipalities) in China due to differences in resource endowments and economic and social development. For R&D investment, eastern provinces (municipalities) have mostly positive effects on human development, and central regions have mostly weak positive or negative effects. In contrast, western provinces (municipalities) show different development paths, with weak positive effects in the early stage and significant positive effects after 2010. Most provinces (municipalities) show a continuous and increasing positive effect for network penetration. The marginal contributions of this paper are mainly in improving the shortcomings in research perspectives, empirical methods, and research data in the study of human development influencing factors in China relative to the study of HDI itself in terms of measurement or application dimensions. This paper constructs a human development index for China, analyzes its spatial and temporal distribution, and explores the impact of R&D investment and network penetration on human development in China, with the hope of providing lessons for China and developing countries to promote the level of human development and cope with the pandemic.

Efficiency and Potential Evaluation to Promote Differentiated Low-Carbon Management in Chinese Counties.

Low-carbon management plays an important role in mitigating climate change and adapting to it. Localities should adopt differentiated low-carbon management policies according to the state of their environment. To help formulate specific and realistic low-carbon management policies, this paper took into account specific low-carbon management sectors. Likewise, it carefully considered the differences in various resource endowments and proposed a method for evaluating low-carbon management efficiency and potential. The method was applied to an empirical study from 2015 conducted on 1771 Chinese counties. Significant spatial heterogeneity was found during the research. The counties bordering central and Western China and the ones in the southeast coastal areas showed higher efficiency in the industrial sector. Southern and Northern China had higher efficiency in the housing and transportation sector, respectively. Moreover, counties in remote areas showed more potential in the industrial sector. Central China had higher potential in the housing sector, while counties bordering provinces had more potential in the transportation sector. Therefore, Chinese counties were divided into eight management zones where differentiated management strategies were identified to shape low-carbon management policies.

A contested agenda: Energy transitions in lower-income African countries

Both at last year's COP26 and at the recent COP27, a conflict erupted between Western and African governments over the reduction in development finance for fossil-fuel projects. The controversy points to the need for a better understanding of the role of politics and power in energy transitions in lower income African countries. Based on a literature review and data, this paper argues that concerns over energy security and a focus on developing domestic sources of energy are similar across countries, but also that differences in resource endowments decisively influence the potential for energy transitions. While countries that are rich in fossil fuels develop their power sectors using these forms of energy, other countries display a greater openness to developing sources of domestic renewable energy. Resource endowments in turn influence the finance that can be mobilized and the types of coalitions that can be forged between international development donors, international finance, governments and other domestic actors. This implies that, if a transition to more sustainable forms of energy is the goal, diversified and context-specific approaches and a willingness to work across energy sources and technologies are required.

Labor Endowment Change, Regional Difference, and Agricultural Production Location Adjustment: Evidence from China

The outflow of the rural labor force has a great impact on the location distribution of agricultural production, which has not attracted enough attention in existing studies. This article describes the mechanism of agricultural production location adjustment and further studies the influence of a regional difference in labor endowment on agricultural production location adjustment. Based on commodity and province-level panel data calculation, the results show that the agricultural production location in China has been adjusted from the East to the Central and then to the West with accelerating transfer speed. Furthermore, it is found that the regional differences in labor endowment are the main driving force for the shift of low alternative crop production. The more labor-intensive the crop varieties are, the more obvious the influence of the regional differences in labor endowment is on the crop production location adjustment. Moreover, regional differences in labor endowment have little effect on the location adjustment of vegetable production, as expanding the vegetable market demand may offset the effect of labor supply shortage on the adjustment of vegetable production location. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate a regional industrial development plan consistent with the trend of agricultural production location adjustment, as well as promote the construction of agricultural circulation facilities and socialized services in less developed areas.

Differentiated Improvement Path of Carbon Emission Efficiency of China’s Provincial Construction Industry: A Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis Approach

Promoting carbon reduction in the construction sector is crucial to achieving China’s ‘double carbon’ target. However, due to the interaction of multiple factors, the carbon emission efficiency of Chinese construction industry (CEECI) varies from province to province, and the path to efficient CEECI is not uniform. This study aims to analyze the combined effects of multiple factors on CEECI and to explore the underlying logic behind the formation of efficient CEECI in the province, which measures the CEECI for 2018 and 2019 for 30 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government of China using the super-slack-based measure (Super-SBM), which includes non-desired outputs. From a group perspective, the qualitative comparative analysis method is applied to analyze the common mechanism of the regional economic development level, energy consumption structure, business management level, market openness, science, and technology innovation level on CEECI. The results show that the regional construction industry has three equivalent low-carbon development paths: “low energy management”, “scale management”, and “scale market opening”. Finally, according to the differences in regional resource endowments, differentiated paths suitable for the low-carbon development of the construction industry in different regions are proposed.

Model experiment research on HPTL anchoring technology for coal-rock composite roof in deep roadway

Since the western region of China, which is typical of extraordinary resource endowments, has gradually emerged as the major mining zone in China, the mining of thick coal seams and roadways with coal-rock composite roof have become more and more common in this region. However, it is extremely difficult to realize safe and effective maintenance and control of such roadways due to the differences in natural endowments of coal-rock masses. With the roadway with coal-rock composite roof of Hulusu Coal Mine in western China as the engineering background, experiment research on large-scale similarity model was conducted through comprehensive measures such as the pneumatic loading system, the surrounding rock stress monitoring system, the roadway deformation monitoring system, the bolt load monitoring system, and the displacement field monitoring system in this paper. According to the results of the experiment, the control effects of the three support systems on the roadway with coal-rock composite roof were significantly different. When the single support of short anchor bolts was applied, the comparatively low initial anchor-hold failed to constrain the initial micro deformation of the roof. Consequently, wide-range fractures of the roof were triggered at a loading pressure of 0.8 MPa. In the meanwhile, the deep surrounding rocks witnessed a downward inflection point in stress, accompanied by the possibility of the collapse of the thin-layer anchorage zone at any time. As for the support combining both short anchor bolts and long anchor cables, though a reinforced effect on the bolt anchorage zone could be achieved with the help of the cables, the active reinforcement capacity of the bolt was limited. The bolt anchorage zone was the first to be damaged at a loading pressure of 0.9 MPa, which would subsequently affect the effective bearing capacity of the deep surrounding rocks. In the application of the single support of high-strength long anchor bolts, the long bolts with high pre-tightening force were able to lock multiple groups of coal-rock strata to form a thick-layer anchorage bearing structure capable of withstanding a load as high as 1.0 MPa. The crash and collapse of the coal wall eventually caused the subsidence of the roof. Based on the intense dynamic load experiment and the feedbacks of engineering application outcomes in the field, it was concluded that the high-pretension thick-layer (HPTL) anchoring technology can effectively constrain the deformation of roadways with coal-rock composite roof with favorable application outcomes.

Analysis of the differences in green farming behavior of operating agents in grassland pastoral areas

Green farming is the inevitable path to solving the problem of pasture ecological protection and a fundamental guarantee to realize the high-quality development of grassland animal husbandry. This study explores the differences in green farming behaviors of different operating agents in grassland pastoral areas. The mechanism of the formation of the differences is based on 274 working agents’ survey data from Xilin Gol league pastoral areas in Inner Mongolia, China, by constructing the Logit model and Fairlie decomposition method. The results show that family ranch is the primary operating agent of green farming in China’s grassland pastoral areas. The green farming behavior is 2.115 times more extreme than that of traditional pastoralists. Differences in the intensity of green farming behavior of the operating agents were significantly and positively correlated with differences in their ecological consciousness and differences in resource endowment. Differences in ecological consciousness and participation in training were the key factors contributing to the differences in the intensity of green farming behavior among the operators, with ecological consciousness contributing 51.34% and participation in training contributing 46.65% to the differences in the intensity of green farming behaviors. Therefore, to enhance the effective transformation of traditional pastoralists’ green farming behavior, we should guide them to raise ecological consciousness, focus on the role of resource endowment, and gradually form a new grassland animal husbandry development where green farming behavior fully landed.

Applying GeoDetector to disentangle the contributions of the 4-As evaluation indicators to the spatial differentiation of coal resource security

The detection and attribution of spatial differentiation in coal resource security (CRS) is a prerequisite for energy governance and regional scientific decision-making. Here we constructed a 4-As framework for CRS evaluation and screened indicators, evaluated the CRS of 598 counties in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) in 2017 through the entropy-cloud model, analyzed the spatial autocorrelation of CRS, and quantified the effects of 4-As indicators on CRS using the GeoDetector method. We discovered that (1) the spatial pattern of CRS is highly consistent with the basic geographic pattern. The coal resource security indexes (CRSIs) have apparent spatial differentiation. CRS shows differences in coal endowment and circulation, supplemented by differences in economic activities and environmental impacts. (2) The CRSIs have spatial autocorrelation, and the overall agglomeration trend is apparent. Due to coal development and administrative attributes differences, the CRSI shows different agglomeration types in each county. (3) Degree in coal aggregation, etc., are the dominant indicators for spatial differentiation of CRS in the whole basin of the YRB. The factor driving forces are significantly different. The driving force of two-factor interaction is more vital than that of single-factor interaction, and the interaction type is mainly nonlinear enhancement.

Trade Openness and Regional Inequality: Case of Tunisia

Since the 1990s, Tunisia has experienced an increasingly pronounced trade openness and has adopted a multitude of reforms to reinforce it through a large number of agreements with different foreign partners. However, this openness has gone simultaneously with an increase in regional inequalities wish have continued to grow, that is why we are interested in verifying, on one side, how this openness affects economic growth and, on the other one, whether it increases regional disparities within the country over the period (1990-2018). We start from the hypothesis that if trade openness manages to boost economic growth, its positive outcomes can have a contrasting effect at the regional level, benefiting some regions to the detriment of others. By crossing this double effect openness can accentuate territorial imbalances. We will use panel data econometrics to estimate our model. We will test the effect of openness on territorial disparities for the Tunisian case, especially between the 24 governorates where, there is no measure of regional inequalities yet, hence the interest of this study. Our econometric analysis clearly shows that the differences in endowments and characteristics at the level of the regions, such as differences in infrastructure or human capital, positively affect regional inequalities. Openness also appears to be a factor of positive influence, in particular by enhancing the polarization of economic activities and FDI within certain regions to the detriment of others.

Impact of hybrid variety adoption on the performance of rice farms in Bangladesh: A propensity score matching approach

Cultivating hybrid rice variety has the potential to fulfill the ever-increasing demand for rice in Bangladesh due to its high yield. This study is intended to explore the determinants and impact of hybrid rice variety adoption on the yield and technical efficiency (TE) of Bangladeshi rural rice farms. The stochastic frontier production has been employed to approximate production frontier and TE using 15,952 rice plots from Bangladesh. This study has addressed self-selection into the hybrid variety choice by using propensity score matching (PSM) that adjusts observed selection bias, potentially influencing decisions to choose a hybrid variety and TE. The marginal effect of the Probit model reveals that farm size, education, subsidy card, irrigation access, irrigation machinery ownership, and non-farm business have positively while drought risk and household head age have negative influences on choosing a hybrid variety. We found that the hybrid rice variety adopters is significantly 6.24% more efficient and 12.03% higher frontier predicted yield than their counterparts. The average treatment effect on the treated also confirms that adopting a hybrid variety significantly impacts rice yield and TE. The primary and significant source of the varietal yield gap (19.3%) was differences in endowments (6.7%) and coefficients (12.1%). Fertilizer, irrigation, seed, clay, and clay loam soil have significantly contributed to explaining the difference and is critical in closing the existing yield gap. Policy implications include introducing hybrid rice varieties by motivating farmers through extension services, price policies, and irrigation services can help achieve desirable yield and enhance farm efficiency.

Can Mechanization Promote Green Agricultural Production? An Empirical Analysis of Maize Production in China

This study systematically analyzes the impact of China’s maize Green Total Factor Productivity (GTFP) and mechanization on GTFP, providing a reference for reasonably playing the role of mechanization and improving China’s agricultural GTFP. Based on the difference in crop types and regional applicability of agricultural mechanization, this study selects maize as the research crop to analyze the impact of agricultural mechanization level on GTFP. In this study, the SBM-ML model is used to measure China’s maize GTFP, reveal the temporal and regional change characteristics of maize GTFP, and clarify the optimization direction of maize GTFP from the perspective of regional differences and resource endowment differences. This study uses the threshold regression model to systematically analyze the impact of agricultural mechanization on GTFP and its mechanism. Results are given as follows: (1) The growth of China’s maize production GTFP fluctuates greatly in each year, and the growth of maize GTFP depends on the alternate promotion of technical efficiency and technical progress. Greenhouse gas emissions have a significant impact on GTFP. Excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers is the biggest obstacle to the improvement of maize GTFP. (2) There are also specific regional differences in the factors that affect the improvement of maize GTFP efficiency in different regions. The impact of mechanization on agricultural GTFP varies among regions. (3) The development level of agricultural mechanization at different stages has different promotion effects on maize GTFP. Agricultural mechanization has a two-way effect on maize GTFP. The factors of land type and land area will not limit the promotion of agricultural mechanization to maize GTFP. (4) Agricultural financial investment, environmental pollution control efforts, agricultural science and technology expenditure and other factors play a positive role in improving GTFP. (5) In future production, we should pay attention to the combination of agricultural mechanization and regional production characteristics, optimize the allocation of agricultural machinery, and strengthen the coordination between agricultural mechanization and moderate scale operation. The findings of our study provide useful policy implications for the promotion and development of agriculture in China.

Redistribution based on willingness to cooperate promotes cooperation while intensifying equality in heterogeneous populations

Public resource redistribution is an important means of social income regulation, which maintains social income equality by transferring payoffs to low-income groups, usually in the form of taxes and social services. Originally studied as a means of maintaining social equality, redistribution has also been used to address social dilemmas through evolutionary game theory in recent years. However, the definition of low-income groups in previous studies is not comprehensive. They are used to studying the inequality generated by participants during the game but ignore the inequality caused by initial endowment differences. At the same time, is it beneficial to the whole that redistribution requires the rich to subsidize the poor, but leads the rich to choose defection (tax evasion, etc.)? How should the redistribution mechanism work to reduce inequality while facilitating the spread of altruistic behavior? To explore whether the redistribution mechanism can reach a balance between promoting cooperation and maintaining equality of payoffs, we develop a generic public resource redistribution framework based on heterogeneous populations by a spatial public goods game model. We control redistribution preferences for willingness to cooperate and initial endowments by parameters α and β. With a heterogeneous population, we find that helping the poor through redistribution mechanisms does not have significant positive effects and may even result in exploitation of the rich; focusing on participants’ willingness to cooperate rather than total investment can promote cooperation, enhance overall payoffs and reduce inequality.

Drivers of global carbon emission changes: A heterogeneity perspective of decomposition and attribution analysis

Due to the differences in economic development, resource endowment, and historical accumulation, different types of countries have significant technical heterogeneity in carbon emissions. Identifying the driving factors of carbon emission changes, under the premise of distinguishing national heterogeneity, can provide a basis for the formulation of the “Differentiated Responsibilities” emission reduction policies. Therefore, this study introduces the idea of Meta-frontier into the traditional production-theoretical decomposition analysis, and constructs a new influencing factor analysis framework. Based on the newly built method, the empirical study of 60 representative countries draws the following three meaningful conclusion: 1) Different types of countries have obvious heterogeneity in technology, efficiency and change trend of energy use. Specifically, countries with higher energy intensity values generally have a quicker decline rate than those with lower energy intensity values. There exists “catch-up” effects for the backward to the advanced countries. 2) Decomposition results show that potential energy intensity (PEI) is the dominant factor reducing carbon emissions, especially for those large economic output with large energy consumption (Group-L) countries (0.604). Economic activity effect (ECA) is the most significant driving force for countries with small economic output and small energy consumption (Group-S), reaching 1.806. Meanwhile, the attribution results showed different characteristics in different groups of countries. The impact of various factors that reflect the heterogeneity of production process on carbon emissions mainly comes from the contribution of Group-L. 3) We suggest that, in the process of carbon reduction, large energy consumption countries should pay more attention to the gap between the development and speed of the world’s cutting-edge technologies.

Economic Loss Assessment and Spatial–Temporal Distribution Characteristics of Forest Fires: Empirical Evidence from China

Forest fires are a type of disaster with both human and natural factors; they differ from other forest disasters, in that they can cause significant damage not only to the ecological environments but also to the economy and society in many irreversible ways. While the risk factor of forest fires has been large, systematic studies on economic losses caused by forest fires have been lacking in recent years, and there is also a lack of analysis on forest fire economic losses in both spatial and temporal dimensions. Therefore, based on the forest fire data from 2006 to 2018, this paper establishes a forest fire economic loss evaluation system to calculate the economic losses in China and analyzes the spatial distribution characteristics and change trends of the forest fire economic losses in each province through thermal mapping. The results show the following. (1) The economic loss from forest fires in China is generally characterized by a fluctuating decline, but anomalous values due to human factors may occur. (2) The spatial heterogeneity of economic loss in China’s provinces is limited by many factors, such as the differences in resource endowments, showing the characteristics of “low in the eastern and western regions and high in the central region”. (3) Forest fires in China cause the most serious losses to forest ecological benefits. (4) Forest resources and fires are not independent of each other between regions, and areas with similar economic losses related to forest fires are often found in blocks. (5) Although the overall economic losses caused by forest fires in China are fluctuating and decreasing, some provinces are showing signs of increasing economic losses, most notably in Inner Mongolia. Therefore, this paper suggests targeted recommendations based on forest fires in different regions and with reference to the changing trends of economic loss caused by forest fires. For low-loss areas, we can further reduce the economic loss per unit area while ensuring that the losses do not increase any further. For high-loss areas, the main focus should be to find the weak points in the adaptation to forest fires. The right way to permanently reduce the damage caused by forest fires is to improve the adaptive and symbiotic capacity of the ecosystems and residential communities in relation to fires in a targeted manner and to improve the capacity for quick economic recovery after a fire.