Industrial Income Research Articles

Chemical Earnings Fall For Fourth Consecutive Quarter

Bludgeoned by imports, hobbled by prices, and undermined by weak sectors of the economy, the chemical industry staggered through a third quarter that resulted in most cases in lower earnings from operations than in last year's third quarter. For several companies, extensive restructuring charges reduced the bottom line even further. Taking into consideration operations alone, net income in the chemical industry declined an average of 19% in third-quarter 1985 from the year-earlier period, based on the results of 29 of the 30 largest chemical producers. (The other firm, Chesebrough-Pond's, is excluded from this and other composite calculations because its acquisition of Stauffer Chemical in March renders year-to-year comparisons meaningless at this time.) The group's aggregate sales were about the same as a year earlier. It was the fourth consecutive quarter in which the group's earnings total fell compared to the year before. ...

The Characteristics of Farmers' Response to the Rice Reduction Policy on the Marshy Lowland in Southern Ibaraki Prefecture

The rice reduction policy in Japan has been enforced since 1970 for the purpose of solving the problem of overproduction. This has largely influenced the paddy field land use throughout the country. Farmers' response to this policy varies by region. In this paper, the purpose of study is to consider both the factors making the variation among farmers' responses to this policy and the characteristics of one-crop farmers who have been influenced by the rice reduction policy. The areas of study are Miho and Azuma villages in Ibaraki Prefecture. The former is located in southern shore of Lake Kasumigaura and the latter in the lower plain of Tone river. These are typical one-crop areas, i. e., rice, in Kanto plain.Farmers have individually changed their crops in the Miho village. On the contrary, in the Azuma village, the crop changing is carried out by village community. The difference of these responses to the rice reduction policy largely depends upon the one of physical soil conditions and social conditions as follows:In the Miho village, soil of paddy field is drained or ill-drained. A lot of part-time farmers live in this region and they have farm fields under 1.5 ha. The main source of their income is not the farming income but full time salary in other industry. The influence of the rice reduction policy on household incomes is not so much as that of other one-crop paddy field regions. Consequently, individual farm household can allot other crops to their own drained paddy field at will. Moreover, these farmers get the same profit per 10 ares as that of rice growing by adopting both soybean growing which has a benefit of the crop changing subsidy, and wheat growing as a second crop.On the other hand, although most of the farmers are part-time employees in other industries in the Azuma village, their incomes mainly depend upon agricultural income and they can not expect so much other income. For this reason, they are much dependent on the paddy income. Most of the paddy field are consisted of ill-drained soil. Thus the farmer in this region took the passive attitude toward the early rice reduction policy. However, at the beginning of reinforcement of the rice reduction policy from 1978, a lot of farmers feared that the enforcement of this policy might diminish the farm house paddy income. In order to find a way out of these difficulties, it was proposed that the farmers should response to the rice reduction policy positively and change from one-crop farming to plural-crop farming to increase the income. For that reason, they carried out the land improvement and established the mutual cooperation system. Consequently, the crop changing area from paddy field exceeded double during the four years from 1978 to 1982. Mutual cooperation system means that the full-time farmers rent the crop changing area of paddy field from small part time farmers. As the result of the establishment of mutual cooperation system, the number of full-time farmers with plural-crop farming has increased. It clearly illustrates that mutual cooperation system played an important role in maintainnning and developing both full-time and part-time farming. However, the income of farmers with 2.0 ha farm has not increased after the establishment of the mutual cooperation system. Such problem will be an important subject for regional agriculture in the future.

Genèse protoindustrielle d'une région développée : l'Italie septentrionale (1800-1880)

Convient-il de parler de protoindustrialisation dans le cas italien de croissance économique ? Dans quelle mesure un modèle élaboré pour les Flandres s'adapte-t-il aux réalités industrielles des zones aujourd'hui développées de la péninsule, de la chaîne alpine à la plaine padane ? Si la ruine du tissu industriel urbain dans la crise du xviie siècle des textiles privilégiés a engendré son corollaire classique, le transfert des activités productives vers les campagnes, si l'industrie rurale constitue au tournant du xvme siècle l'essentiel de l'activité « secondaire » de la péninsule, un modèle de l'insertion de celle-ci dans un schéma de la croissance peut-il éclairer l'incertaine démarche de l'Italie septentrionale vers l'éclosion d'un « triangle industriel » désormais partie prenante dans l'axe développé européen ?

The rediscovery of the division of labor

The division of labor is a central concept in social and economic thought. It provides the means by which the connections between economic processes and social relationships can be identified. It forms a basis of hierarchies of power and advantage. Yet the division of labor has for long been treated as a secondary phenomenon, at one remove from the main focus of analysis in both economics and sociology. Modem macroeconomic studies have been concerned primarily with its bearing on industrial structure or income distribution, while sociologists, even those according it considerable importance, have not subjected it to systematic analysis in its own right. In this paper I argue that the ingredients for an adequate analysis of the division of labor were provided by the classical political economists, and that a shift of interest away from this theme was the consequence of the demise of classical political economy and the emergence of economics and sociology as distinct academic subjects. The recent revival of interest in the subject has coincided with the emergence of a "new" political economy. This is largely an outcome of the reinvigoration of marxist theory. Its exponents, however, do not acknowledge their ultimate antecedents; they do not stress the line of continuity with the themes of the early classical political economists which Marx's writings provide. I argue that the fate of the division of labor in recent social and economic writings throws into question the usefulness of prevailing boundaries between the social sciences.

Effects of Alternative Specifications on the Policy Implications of a Model: an Illustration

Most agricultural economists involved in quantitative policy analysis would probably agree that the formulation and specification of the mathematical models they use has an important impact on the results of their policy analysis. Nevertheless it appears that agricultural economists have been less successful than economists studying macro-economic relationships, in evaluating models and subjecting them to the rigorous tests that reveal a model's inherent biases and internal dynamics. [3, 8,9, 131. The purpose of this note is to show how changing the specification of one equation in a simple econometric model can have a dramatic impact on the policy implications of the analysis.' I' The Model Zwart and Meilke [20,21] recently reported on research undertaken to evaluate the effects of alternative buffer stock proposals on the Canadian and Rest of World (ROW) wheat economies. The general conclusion of that research was that a wheat buffer stock program was not likely to increase the mean level of price, consumption, or industry income in the world wheat economy, but it could add to the stability of the industry. With a world buffer stock the within-year standard deviation of world price could be reduced by 21.4 percent and ROW consumer surplus by 8.9 percent.* Nothing in the following analysis changes the general conclusions of the study referred to above, nevertheless the careful reader of the previous work may have noticed the following: (1) the average price over the simulation period, with no stock, was $217.30 per ton with a standard deviation of $12.60 per ton; (2) policy 6 which was a world buffer stock employing a flexible price rule coupled with an inflexible quantity rule resulted in a mean price of $217.00 per ton and a standard deviation of $9.90; and, (3) the reduction in the standard deviation between the no

Rural-Urban Migration in Sierra Leone: Determinants and Policy Implications. By Derek Byerlee , East Lansing: Dept. of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University, 1976. Pp. x, 113, tables, figs, maps, bibl. Single copies free. - The Economics of Rural and Urban Small-Scale Industries in Sierra Leone. By Carl Liedholm and Enyinna Chuta. East Lansing: Dept. of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University,

Rural-Urban Migration in Sierra Leone: Determinants and Policy Implications. By Derek Byerlee , East Lansing: Dept. of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University, 1976. Pp. x, 113, tables, figs, maps, bibl. Single copies free. - The Economics of Rural and Urban Small-Scale Industries in Sierra Leone. By Carl Liedholm and Enyinna Chuta. East Lansing: Dept. of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University,

Industrial Growth and Income Distribution

Industrial Growth and Income Distribution

Eniac: The First Computer

The electronic digital computer is a war baby. The high-speed calculating and data-processing machines have led to the development of new ideas and methods in pure mathematics; they have made possible technological progress leading to interplanetary space travel; and they administer activities of daily life from traffic control and department store sales to industrial payrolls and income tax collection. The computer is truly a major contribution of American mathematics, science, and technology. Yet the stimulus for the production of ENIAC—as so often has been true throughout history — was the demand for ever more sophisticated military methods.

SOME ASPECTS OF INCOME STABILIZATION FOR PRIMARY PRODUCERS

The objectives of this paper are two‐fold. The first is to discuss the basic economics of an aggregate industry income stabilization policy for primary producers. The second is to examine post‐World War II income instability in Australian wool, wheat, and beef and to apportion it into its price and output components. This analysis provides a basis for discussing income stabilization in the Australian context.

Stepped Product Demand and Factor Supply Functions in Linear Programming Analyses

AbstractRegional adjustment studies encounter less than perfectly elastic demand and factor supply conditions. Producing firms are assumed to face perfectly competitive markets. This paper reviews procedures for incorporating product demand and factor supply functions into linear programming analyses. Perfectly competitive conditions including industry income value are considered.

The Demise of the Commercial Banana Industry in West Cameroon

Abstract In little more than 20 years, the banana industry in West Cameroon rapidly boomed, and just as quickly declined. The banana was selected by officials of the newly created Cameroons Development Corporation in 1946 to be its major money crop, and from 1947 to 1957, the industry's income steadily rose to a high of over $6,000,000 for a year's production. During the next dozen years, production declined to the point where no new plantings are contemplated, and for all intents and purposes, the industry is almost dead. Factors accounting for the demise of this banana industry include: unsuitable climatic conditions; seemingly inevitable blights; loss of Commonwealth preference on exports to the United Kingdom; and foreign competition. Producers of almost all commercial agricultural products in tropical Africa contend with precisely the same risks and/or problems that the Cameroon banana grower faced. As a case study, the Cameroon banana situation reveals that sometimes all risks were poor ones, and th...

Wages, Prices, and Imports in the American Steel Industry

T HIS paper presents an econometric analysis of the behavior of wages and prices in the American steel industry and the experience with steel imports during the 1950's and 1960's. The results presented are a portion of a larger, and as yet unfinished, effort to explain profit in the steel industry by estimating an equation for each economically meaningful component of the industry's income statement and then combining the equations to form a complete system. Modern empirical investigation of the determinants of wages, prices, and imports has developed in two distinct contexts. First, in response to widespread public concern over rising wages and prices during the 1950's, economists derived and tested a series of new formal models (generally embodied in a single central regression equation) to describe the processes at work. As time has passed more models have been proposed, early formulations have been elaborated and extended, and more data have become available for testing. In general, however, these models have stayed at the economywide level, and little has been done to disaggregate them by industry classification. Second, the wage-price subsections of large macro-econometric models have attempted to provide a complete explanation of the inflationary process, but as with the single equation studies, there has been little analysis of the mechanism in any individual sector. This paper draws upon the theories and models which have been developed for economy-wide studies, modifies them where necessary, and applies them to the steel industry. The next three sections present the formulation and estimation of equations for the steel wage rate, the wholesale price index for steel, and the ratio of imports to domestic shipments. Then, with the aid of the estimated relationships, some short-run projections are made; finally, the analysis is summarized.

An analysis of state air pollution control expenditures.

Air pollution control, a significant problem facing state governments, receives a varying amount of fiscal resources in each state. The purpose of this paper is to examine social, economic, and political factors that may be related to state air pollution control expenditures. The indicators of the social-economic factors are urbanization, industrial pollution potential, income, and industrialization. The indicators of the political system are interparty competition, malapportionment, voter participation, local control effort, and general state expenditure efforts. The findings show that the few states expending for air pollution control in 1963 were, for the most part, characterized by a high level of economic development. In 1967, states at all levels of economic development allocated revenues for air pollution, although the more developed continued to hold an edge. In neither year did the political variables differentiate between levels of expenditure. The reasons advanced for the expenditure behavior i...

Trends in the Relationship between Industry Structure and Income

Trends in the Relationship between Industry Structure and Income

Regional Planning in France

THE problem of uneven regional development has long been recognized in France. It was dramatically outlined in I948 by J. F. Gravier in his work Paris and the French Desert. There are two main aspects to the problem. First, there is the extremely heavy and increasing concentration of population, industry and employment in the city of Paris and the surrounding dipartements. Secondly, there is the disparity in population, employment and income levels between the regions north and east of a line from Le Havre to Marseilles and those to the south and west. The latter regions, 'le desert frangais', are predominantly agricultural and since the war have suffered as a result of heavy migration from agriculture to industry and low levels ofper capita income due to the absence of high-productivity industries. This is the situation throughout the south-west. In Brittany there is the additional factor of a high population density and as a result relatively heavy unemployment. The population of the Paris region has grown by 29 per cent since the war, while the increase in total population has been only I5 per cent. Between I954 and I962 the Paris region grew by I5 per cent while total population rose by 8 per cent. Three-fifths of the increase in Paris was the result of immigration from other regions and from abroad. The i962 census showed that i8 per cent of the population and 29 per cent of urban population lived in the Paris region. The importance of Paris is further magnified by the absence of other urban areas of comparable size. In I962 the population of the city of Paris was 7.4 million. The next largest urban area was Lyon with 87I thousand inhabitants. The total working population in France showed no increase at all between I954 and I960. But in Provence and the Paris region employment grew by 6 per cent, the largest increases registered. In Paris this was entirely due to immigration both from abroad and other regions: the natural movement of working population showed a fall of II8 thousand, but this was offset by immigration from abroad of I73 thousand and from other regions of 200 thousand.1 A study by the Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques indicated a lessening of the disparities in income per head between the various regions between I 95I and I 958.2 The

CORROSION RESEARCH LABORATORIES—11: Fulmer Research Institute

Fulmer Research Institute was founded in 1947 by the late managing director of Almin Ltd., Colonel W. C. Devereux, its object being to provide confidential research facilities for industry, on the results of particular investigations, including patents, belonging solely to the individual sponsors. No grant related to industrial income is received from the D.S.I.R., nor are any dividends distributed to the parent company, any excess of income over expenditure being converted into new equipment to increase and improve the available research facilities. Although equipped and staffed to deal primarily with metallurgical problems, many investigations outside this field yet falling within the competence and experience of the staff have been undertaken. Studies on glass, plastics reinforcement, properties of insulating materials, asbestos, cosmetic emulsions etc. have been or are being undertaken.

Reliability of Soviet Industrial and National Income Statistics

Reliability of Soviet Industrial and National Income Statistics

Reliability of Soviet Industrial and National Income Statistics

Reliability of Soviet Industrial and National Income Statistics

Research and Finance

IN the leading article in NATURE of July 11, there were, we regret to say, two inaccuracies which should be corrected. The system of grants in aid of the research associations and styled “the datum line system”, described on p. 52, was superseded, some two years ago, by another system which, for the sake of brevity, may be called “the block grant system”. The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research now makes an annual block grant to an association, provided that a definite sum is assured, in the form of subscriptions, by the industry concerned. The block grant and the industrial income have no rigid mathematical relationship; the ruling principle being that, added together, they must provide such a sum as will, in the opinion of the Advisory Council of the Department, form an adequate financial nucleus for a co-operative research organization for the industry in question. In order to encourage further expansion, the Department offers £ for £ on sums subscribed over and above the initial industrial income, up to a stated maximum, which, again, is fixed on the advice of the Advisory Council. This new system was the outcome of the big appeal made to industry a few years ago to play its part in expanding the operations of the research associations. The other inaccuracy was the parenthetical statement, on p. 52, that the woollen industry raises its contributions to co-operative research by means of a statutory levy. It is a fact that for some years now the woollen industry has been conducting propaganda in favour of the institution of such a statutory compulsory levy, but no measure for the attainment of this object has yet been introduced into Parliament. On the other hand, it may be remembered that a Rubber Industry Bill, having for its object the institution of a statutory levy, was introduced into Parliament and finally dropped owing to the defection of a prominent firm in the industry.