Productivity Gap Research Articles

Identifying opportunities to close yield gaps in China by use of certificated cultivars to estimate potential productivity

Even though China has increased grain output in the past decade and greatly contributed to reducing global hunger, the country is still confronted with intense food security pressure due to its huge population base and severe loss of farmland. It has become increasingly important to fully exploit yield gaps (the difference between potential and actual yields) of all staple grains and to identify priority areas in order to achieve the UN sustainable development goal of zero hunger by 2030. The objective of this study was to calculate the production and yield gaps for rice (Oryza sativa L.), wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), and corn (Zea mays L.) across 31 provinces of mainland China, and then to propose sustainable ways to exploit the production and yield gaps in relation to the availability of natural resources and the ecological conditions of the various regions. The yield potential was estimated by assuming that certificated cultivars were adopted in each agricultural ecological zone (AEZ) and that state-of-the-art technologies and best management practices were used. The results suggested that the gross potential productivity of the three staple grains of mainland China in 2016 was 8.86 × 108 tons, with a production gap of 2.99 × 108 tons. Corn exhibited the greatest yield gap. The highest potential productivity was observed in the Northeast Plain and the Huang-Huai-Hai/North China Plain, accounting for 26.35% and 35.91% of the country’s total potential productivity, respectively. The greatest yield gaps were also found in these two plains. To narrow yield gaps, farmland infrastructure, especially irrigation facilities, should be improved, and field management should be strengthened for the provinces with the greatest gaps. However, in view of natural resource constraints (e.g., water shortages in Northern China), water-saving measures and techniques have been encouraged throughout mainland China and the planting of high water-consuming crops such as rice has been discouraged and should be reduced and replaced by other crops in the North China Plain and Northwest China. Using presently available cultivars and field management technologies, China still has great potential to increase grain production and improve food security by closing exploitable yield gaps through the use of suitable production methods based on existing natural resource capacity and ecological status.

Structural change and economic growth in Ukraine

Deep structural shifts have been the leading feature of the modern world. The study considers the parameters and causes of structural change in the Ukrainian economy, as well as the relationship between structural change on the one hand, and labor productivity and economic growth on the other. The study shows that the accelerated reduction of the industrial sector, its technological simplification and narrowing the variety of industries were the key features of the structural changes model that occurred in Ukraine's economy after the global financial crisis. This was accompanied by increased dominance of the tertiary sector and the growth of the primary sector. Such a trend of structural shifts is not able to generate the necessary boost of economic growth. Comparison of parameters and trends of structural changes in Ukraine’s economy and in a comparable group of countries and the world as a whole shows that the changes in the structure of Ukraine’s economy were more intensive, but did not create sufficient potential for sustainable economic growth. The author analyzes the gaps in labor productivity between economic activities and sectors of Ukraine’s economy, as well as changes in their dynamics, which leads to the conclusions about the relationship between the rates of technological development of different sectors of Ukraine’s economy and the gradual slowdown of the already imperfect technological development of this country’s industry. Using the apparatus of econometric modeling, the author evaluates the dependence of the dynamics of GDP growth on the change of the indices of GVA in the sectors of this country’s economy.

English

Limited progress has been made in the area of risk management for small farmers in Pakistan. Thus, in this review based study, maximum efforts have been made to collect relevant information on the topic from available published sources over last two decades. The local information is supplemented by synthesis of information about regional as well as non-regional countries. In the country, wide gap in agricultural productivity exists between average and progressive farmers that is causing difficulty for small farmers in managing risks. Small farmers are unable to access and compete in high end agricultural markets. Profitability of major crops is quite low and producers’ shares in consumer rupee are also quite low for fruits and vegetables. It affects farmers’ capacity to invest in the sector. While, in the farming business, disbursement of right amount of credit at appropriate time is a key challenge. Similarly, cost of borrowing is inversely related to size of land holding. Thus, small farmers are to rely on informal sector for finances and bear high interest rate on small size loans. Their crop choices depend on productivity and price risks and prudent risk sharing among themselves. Furthermore, their choice to diversify farms also depends on consumption price risk. Illiteracy and inability to read or write make them susceptible to various personnel and human health risks. Crop and livestock insurance schemes, Kissan package, value chain contract financing are the initiatives taken by the public and formal sector banks to support small resource poor farmers. However, there is lack of coordination among agriculture related provincial institutions, provinces as well as with and within federal institutions. Similarly, absence of institutional arrangement and regulatory framework is resulting in vulnerability of livelihood for small farmers as well as undue pressure on natural resources

Gendering excellence through research productivity indicators

ABSTRACT As the importance of ‘excellence’ increases in higher education, so too does the importance of indicators to measure research productivity. We examine how such indicators might disproportionately benefit men by analysing extent to which the separate components of the Norwegian Publication Indicator (NPI), a bibliometric model used to distribute performance-based funding to research institutions, might amplify existing gender gaps in productivity. Drawing from Norwegian bibliometric data for 43,500 individuals, we find that each element of the indicator (weighting based on publication type, publication channel, and international collaboration, as well as fractionalization of co-authorship) has a small, but cumulative effect resulting in women on average receiving 10 per cent fewer publication points than men per publication. In other words, we see a gender gap that is not only caused by a difference in the level of production but is also amplified by the value ascribed to each publication.

EFFECTS OF EMPLOYEES ATTITUDE TO WORK ON PRODUCTIVITY

Workplace attitude will have an impact on the presence of innovation and creativity, which can lead to a gradual increase in the productivity of an organization. Workers with a positive attitude toward their job and the company are more likely to make helpful suggestions and they make the ideas that help in the growth of the business. On the other hand, workers with a negative attitude may only be concerned with producing enough to get by while having little interest in innovation and they are least bothered about the improvement of the company. Companies that experience high employee turnover levels not only incur the high costs associated with hiring workers, they also experience reduced productivity until the new workers are up to speed. Employees who feel good about their jobs and workplace may be less likely to leave for greener pastures, helping companies to minimize the productivity gap associated with turnover. Employees with negative attitudes may eventually seek an improved work situation, decide to leave the company. Keywords: Work place, Organizations, Job satisfaction, Co-Workers, Client Interaction

Design refinement and evaluation of a mobile manual standing wheelchair

Purpose There are no manually propelled wheelchairs on the market that are mobile in both seated and standing positions. In response to this product gap, our group formerly designed a mobile manual standing wheelchair (MMSW) and gathered stakeholder feedback. The purpose of this study was to refine the MMSW based on feedback, including weight and width reduction, and evaluate its performance. Materials and methods The MMSW was subjected to ANSI/RESNA stability testing, and three male participants completed a subset of the wheelchair skills test, including a 100-m roll test in the MMSW (seated and standing) and in their ultralight wheelchair. Results The MMSW met ANSI/RESNA stability safety standards. During the 100-m roll test, participants reached speeds with the MMSW in both the standing and sitting postures similar or greater than those typical of moving in the home environment (1.11 m/s seated; 0.79 m/s standing). Mobility speeds in the MMSW in the standing position were about three times faster than average walking speeds in exoskeletons (0.26 m/s exoskeletons). With the addition of chain drive bracing to the MMSW, one user was able to reach speeds in the standing position similar to average neurotypical walking speeds indicating the possibility for wheelchair users to be able to move in pace with family and friends. Conclusion All participants expressed interest in the MMSW to facilitate improved quality of life. Further work is needed to test the utility of the MMSW in home and community settings, and its potential effects on standing time and health outcomes. Implications for rehabilitation Manual standing wheelchairs with standing mobility may increase functional utility and length of standing time for manual wheelchair users Increased standing time may lead to several health benefits for manual wheelchair users

Increasing production of various garlic local cultivars in off season by gliocompost

Garlic in off season will be faced low production with poor quality tubers. Gliocompost which contains active ingredients of gliocladium can function as a biocontrol and biofertilizer. The aim of this research was to increase the bulb production of various cultivars of garlic in off season by using gliocompost. The research was conducted in Cianjur Regency, West Java, Indonesia, with an altitude of 1,320 m above sea level from August 2018 to January 2019 at -6.75908, 107.02897, 1334, 318. The research used a factorial randomized block design with two factors. The first factor of garlic cultivar consisted of five cultivars, namely Lumbu Putih (LP), Lumbu Kuning (LK), Lumbu Hijau (LH), Tawangmangu Baru (TB), and Sangga Sembalun (SS). The second was gliocompost, namely with and without gliocompost with six replications. Gliocompost application was given before planting at a dose of 5 kg per 200 kg of manure for 1 ha. The data observed were shoot emergence (%), plant height (cm), bulb diameter (cm), yield per ha (ton), yield per plot (ton), live plants (%), and production gap (%). Data were analyzed by analysis of variance and if there was a significant difference, then it was followed by the Duncan test at the 95% confidence level. Heatmap analysis was performed using the R Studio program. The results showed that the use of gliocompost did not affect the yield per ha of LK and SS, but it could increase yield per ha of LH, TB, and LB, increase yield per plot and decrease percentage of production gap of LP. Gliocompost increased bulb diameter. LP had a higher bulb diameter and percentage of live plants than LK.

Using cognition and risk to explain the intention-behavior gap on bioenergy production: Based on machine learning logistic regression method

Bioenergy production is a certain economy energy utilization mode, which is of great economic and ecological benefits. Only when pig farmers have consistent intentions and behaviors to participate in bioenergy production, can the intentions play their role in effectively predicting behaviors. Based on the machine learning logistic regression method, taking biogas produced by swine manure as an example, we explore the role of cognition and risk in bridging the intention-behavior gap in bioenergy production. Unlike previous studies, we find that for bioenergy production, a pro-environmental behavior with positive externalities, an individual's perception of environmental policy plays a better role in driving the intention-to-behavior transition than the individual's perception of bioenergy production. From the risk perspective, our results also suggest that the key factor hindering an intention to change behavior is the individual's risk preferences rather than the degree of risk associated with bioenergy production. Policy makers could consider this observed heterogeneity when it comes to aspects such as greater highlight on environmental policy advocacy, and collaboration with insurance companies to develop products for bioenergy production.

California aquaculture in the changing food seascape

California consumes the most seafood of all the states in the United States, and is thus an important influence on the national seafood landscape. Like the nation as a whole, California relies on trade for seafood, which can have effects on livelihoods, food security, human rights and environmental justice. Expanding aquaculture could contribute to food supply and security and provide a more sustainable way to produce food in the future. The United States has recently expressed an interest in increasing domestic production of seafood, in the Executive Order Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth, with the direct desired results of increased local and sustainable food, decreased foreign dependence, and increased jobs. California is re-examining its seafood sector and needs to reconcile disparities in production and consumption as the state navigates a changing seafood landscape. Understanding the current seafood landscape is necessary for making informed decisions to secure a resilient, sustainable, and equitable seafood sector. To reflect the goals recently stated in the Executive Order, we ask 1) what is the state of seafood production and consumption in California, 2) what is the trade landscape for seafood within California, both domestic and international, and 3) how have people in California experienced this interaction between production, trade, and consumption, through the lens of employment. We find California consumes upward of three times more seafood than it produces by volume, and relies heavily on international imports to make up the production gap, with roughly half of imported production likely coming from aquaculture. This reliance has radiating effects, such as displacement of environmental burden to other, often poorer and less regulated countries, and to places where seafood production is likely associated with human rights violations. Wild capture is unlikely to increase, so any increase in domestic production will come from aquaculture. To meet this call, California has a choice along a spectrum of increased state production via aquaculture or increased dependence on aquacultured imports, both foreign and domestic. Currently, the state has the capacity to be proactive rather than reactive as it charts a path forward.

Large-Scale Crop Production for the Moon and Mars: Current Gaps and Future Perspectives

In this perspectives paper, we identify major challenges for space crop production: altered convection in the microgravity environment, scheduling and logistics, crew time and the need for advanced automation, robotics, modeling, and machine learning. We provide an overview of the existing space crop production gaps identified by the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) space crop production team and discuss efforts in current development in NASA projects to address these gaps. We note that this list may not be exhaustive but aims to present the baseline needs for space crop production implementation and a subset of current solutions to the greater scientific community in order to foster further ingenuity.

Optimizing nitrogen fertilizer inputs and plant populations for greener wheat production with high yields and high efficiency in dryland areas

Bridging yield gaps in staple crops is widely reported as a highly efficient means for improving grain production. However, changes in production efficiency and the environmental footprint remain less investigated when narrowing these gaps. In this study, we collected data from 299 wheat plots on the Loess Plateau of China to identify changes in nitrogen efficiency, nutrient balance, and environmental risks when narrowing the yield gaps. The low-yielding (LY) and high-yielding (HY) plots had an average yield gap of 1936 kg ha–1 (33.5%) and nitrogen partial factor productivity gap of 10.3 kg kg–1 (30.1%) that were simultaneously narrowed under similar fertilizer inputs. Optimizing sowing date improved spikes per m2 (27.4%) and grains per head (12.9%), key measures to improving wheat grain yields. The high-yielding high-efficiency (HYHE) plots produced on average 43.0% and 14.6% higher nitrogen partial factor productivity and grain yield, respectively than the high-yielding low-efficiency (HYLE) plots. Appropriate nitrogen fertilizer inputs significantly enhanced nitrogen use efficiency and maintained grain yield on HY plots. Grain yield and nitrogen partial factor productivity gradually increased with year of cultivar release (1995–2019) (P < 0.05). However, soil organic matter, pH, available phosphorus, mineral nitrogen, and available potassium had no significant effect on grain yield or nitrogen use efficiency. The HYHE plots had the lowest nitrogen surplus (25 kg N ha–1), phosphorus surplus (31 kg P ha–1), and greenhouse gas emissions (2327 kg CO2-eq ha–1) of the surveyed plots. In the HY plots, moderate potassium fertilizer should be supplemented to balance wheat production. In conclusion, excellent cultivars and high plant density are key for bridging the yield gap between LY and HY plots. Optimizing fertilizer management could further promote HY plots from low to high production efficiency. This research provides farmers with the knowledge and methods to sustainably bridge field-level yield gaps in dryland wheat production.

Wanted: Strong supply chains

Anyone who has worked in a pharmacy over the past few years knows that medication shortages have continued to become more of a problem, with no apparent end in sight. Because the pharmaceutical supply chain is a highly complex global enterprise, there are likely no quick solutions to this growing problem. This often leaves pharmacists and technicians feeling frustrated when trying to order medications that are high in demand and short in supply. So, what can pharmacies do to be better prepared for future and continued medication shortages? And, more importantly, is anything being done on a national or global level to help mediate this ongoing issue? In 2018, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists published in-depth guidelines on how to prepare for managing drug product shortages. These guidelines offer recommendations that are more specific to health systems’ pharmacists on how to plan and prepare for drug shortages that will occur. Even though these were published specifically for a health systems audience, there are a number of transferrable pieces that could be used by pharmacists in most practice settings. One of the key recommendations is to identify and create a drug shortage team. The guidelines recommend an interdisciplinary team within a health care system, but in other practice settings it would still be beneficial to designate several key people who will oversee keeping track of product shortages, ordering products that are in short supply, and communicating the status of these shortages to the rest of the team. The importance of communication when shortages occur is also discussed—communication is important both within the pharmacy as well as with patients or caregivers who will be affected by the shortages. Talking with impacted patients or caregivers in an outpatient setting is crucial to ensuring that they are still receiving the care they need. Another potentially useful recommendation is to work with other health systems or pharmacies in the area to strategize on how to best serve the community during times of supply chain issues. This could be particularly helpful if allotments differ between pharmacies. The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health published a white paper in November 2020 titled The Pandemic and the Supply Chain: Addressing Gaps in Pharmaceutical Production and Distribution. The paper highlights 6 problems the authors believe must be addressed including unexpected increases in demand for critical medications, the disruption of production of critical medications, an interruption of global trade, and inadequate supply chain planning and management. In addition to discussing some of the actions that had been taken by the White House administration, Congress, and FDA, the authors offer 7 policy recommendations they believe will help alleviate supply chain issues. These recommendations include increasing production capacity by expanding the mutual production agreement between the U.S. and Europe, having Congress incentivize domestic production of pharmaceuticals, and having the government create a way to monitor and manage the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain. The good news is that the current administration has listened to stakeholders about the seriousness of the pharmaceutical supply chain problem and has taken steps toward mitigating it. The administration is working with a task force to increase onshore manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients, improve pharmaceutical supply chain transparency, ensure that essential drugs are available, and collaborate with global allies and partners to strengthen the global supply chain. Three simple steps to help your pharmacy navigate medication shortages▪Designate 2 or 3 team members to be responsible for monitoring shortages and communicating any changes to the rest of the pharmacy team.▪Have a simple plan or protocol in place listing how your pharmacy team should navigate potential medication changes that may be necessary during a shortage.▪Develop an understandable way to communicate medication shortages to your patients. ▪Designate 2 or 3 team members to be responsible for monitoring shortages and communicating any changes to the rest of the pharmacy team.▪Have a simple plan or protocol in place listing how your pharmacy team should navigate potential medication changes that may be necessary during a shortage.▪Develop an understandable way to communicate medication shortages to your patients.

Sustainable Growth Drivers: Unveiling the Role Played by Carbon Productivity.

In global climate change, improving carbon productivity holds great importance for China’s sustainable growth. Based on panel data of 30 Chinese provinces and cities from 1997–2017, the drivers, spatial effects, and convergence characteristics of carbon productivity in China are explored by combining a factor decomposition framework and a spatial panel model. The findings show that (1) China’s carbon productivity shows continuous positive growth, and the substitution effect of capital for energy dominates this changing pattern; (2) There is a β-convergence trend and club convergence in China’s carbon productivity, and the spatial technology spillover accelerates the convergence rate; (3) With its accelerated industrial transformation and technological upgrading, China’s current carbon productivity converges faster than its earlier stage, and the role of physical capital investment has gradually shifted to suppression. In contrast, the positive push of human capital investment has been strengthened; (4) From the perspective of the realization mechanism, the convergence of carbon productivity in China mainly comes from the convergence of energy restructuring and capital-energy substitution. These findings can help China narrow the inter-provincial carbon productivity gap in terms of improving factor structure, upgrading technology, etc., and provide references for sustainable growth decision making in China and around the world.

Exploratory Investigation of Gender Differences in School Psychology Publishing Before and During the Initial Phase of COVID-19

Although many disciplines saw increases in manuscript submissions coinciding with lockdown measures, numerous studies have documented widening gender gaps in academic productivity. Chi-squared analyses of gendered trends in first author manuscript submission in three school psychology journals during the initial phase of COVID-19 compared to the same time frame in the preceding 3 years did not reveal any significant associations. There was a significant increase over time in the gender gap, with a trend of more female authors than male authors. Women school psychology researchers may not have experienced similar detriments to productivity as in other disciplines, or such detriments were not reflected in submission patterns during this time frame. Limitations of the study and implications for school psychology are provided.

Why Income Gaps Persist: Productivity Gaps, (No-)Catch-up and Industrial Policies in Developing Countries

Driven by productivity gaps, absolute income gaps between developing and developed economies have remained persistent hindering catch-up. Export products mostly consisting of low value-added products; developing countries suffer even when they are part of global value chains. The so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution may further exacerbate their position. As a result, many developing countries have been in low- or middle-income traps for decades and this is likely to persist. So, why has the traditional productivity explanation not been able to explain the no-catch-up phenomenon? To explain lack of catch-up, we decompose productivity into price and technical efficiency components. Adopting a product differentiation strategy, the developed countries focus on price, while developing countries focus on technical efficiency; prices of products of advanced firms in developed countries are determined not in perfectly competitive markets but rather in monopolistically competitive markets granting them with pricing power through three tools: technology (R&D), design, and branding. By virtue of this pricing power, advanced firms generate non-zero economic profits and “pseudo-productivities” which drive the income gaps. We suggest key lines of industrial policy sets such as focusing on design, branding, and product differentiation strategies, fast cycle technologies, and development-based public procurement coupled with educational policies.

Agriculture, Development and Sustainability in the Covid-19 Era

Domestic and international mobility restrictions helped to reduce the numbers of confirmed Covid-19 cases until the end of 2021. Indonesia entered 2022 with caution, however, as Omicron cases began to rise. Recent success in managing the pandemic has coincided with what might be the start of an economic recovery, in no small part driven by high commodity prices—mainly for coal and palm oil—improving the fiscal and trade balances. The new tax harmonisation law is intended to lower the fiscal deficit to less than 3% of GDP by 2023, and a carbon tax will be implemented in April 2022—starting with a cap-and-tax scheme for coal power plants, before more sectors are included. Agriculture has played a key role in helping Indonesia to weather the pandemic, with the sector’s growth supporting employment and food consumption during the crisis. A resurgence in the palm oil price, together with rising agricultural wages and a narrowing of the labour productivity gap, has helped the agriculture sector lead the recovery, but concerns remain over the sector’s environmental footprint. Against recent food and environmental policy commitments, a renewed focus on increasing on-farm yields is a critical area for policy. We conclude with some reflections on the national palm oil replanting program and how better benefits might be delivered for smallholders and the environment.

Productivity and wage effects of the Iso9001 certification for leader and laggard companies in Italy

In this paper I study whether the adoption of the Iso9001 certification in Italy, between 2011 and 2019, has helped small firms to reduce the gap in productivity, profitability and wages paid to the workers, with the leading group of firms operating on the frontier. After a pooled OLS estimation, a difference-in-difference model with fixed effects has been applied. I find that Iso9001 certification does support firms below the frontier to partially recover the gap in terms of multifactor productivity incorporating the mark-up and profits, while no robust effect has been detected for the mark-up corrected productivity and wages.

Import Competition, Formalization, and the Role of Contract Labor

Using the case of the Indian manufacturing sector and exploiting plausibly exogenous variation from Chinese imports, we provide causal evidence that higher import competition increases the share of the formal enterprise employment. We find an increase in the level of formal enterprise employment, driven by the high productivity firms, and in contrast, a fall in the informal enterprise employment. This labor reallocation is enabled by contract workers, who do not carry stringent ring costs. Our estimates imply that Chinese import competition led to an increase in the share of formal sector employment by 4.1 percentage points between 2000 and 2005. We calculate the labor productivity gap between the formal and informal sector, adjusting for differences in prices and worker characteristics and find them to be salient in explaining the observed gap. Our preferred estimate of the productivity gap implies an increase in labor productivity by 3.19% in response to Chinese import competition.

Investigating the Relationship between Economic Growth and Production Gap with Unemployment in Iran: New Evidence of Continuous Wavelet Transformation

Investigating the Relationship between Economic Growth and Production Gap with Unemployment in Iran: New Evidence of Continuous Wavelet Transformation

Yield gap in bitter gourd production: A perspective of farm-specific efficiency in Narsingdi district in Bangladesh

The concept of yield gaps arose from IRRI experiments undertaken in the 1970s. The yield gap in this study refers to the discrepancy between prospective farm yield and actual average farm yield. This study aims to find the yield gap by studying the efficiency, abiotic and biotic factors. Simple random sampling techniques were used to collect data, and a total of 72 respondents were interviewed for this purpose. The study revealed that 90.70%, 80.30%, and 73% of farmers were technical, allocative, and cost-efficient for bitter gourd production. The yield gap was 15, 245 kg/ha due to the non-transferable component of technology, whereas 3914 kg/ha was due to existing inefficiency at the farm level. Moreover, combined biotic and abiotic factors were responsible for the 19.91 percent yield loss, constituting a mean yield gap of 6598 kg/ha. Low price of bitter gourd, high labor wage rate, and high input price was the main socio-economic constrain for improving bitter gourd production where excessive rainfall, attack by insect and disease, lack of quality seed, and lack of proper utilization of irrigation facilities were identified as main biophysical constraints for bitter gourd production. Government intervention by providing training, maintaining an effective marketing system, and ensuring quality input can greatly remove the problem mentioned by farmers.