Search Results (6)

Family structure has long been regarded as an important determinant of household saving, yet the empirical evidence for developing economies remains limited. Using the 2018–2022 panels of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), a nationwide survey that follows 16,519 households across three waves, the present study investigates how family size, the elderly share, and the child share jointly shape saving behavior. A household fixed effects framework is employed to control for time-invariant heterogeneity, followed by a sequential endogeneity strategy: external-shock instruments are tested and rejected, lagged two-stage least squares implement internal instruments, and a dynamic System-GMM model is estimated to capture saving persistence. Robustness checks include province-by-year fixed effects, inverse probability weighting for attrition, balanced-panel replication, alternative variable definitions, lag structures, and sample filters. Family size raises the saving rate by 4.6 percentage points in the preferred dynamic specification (p < 0.01). The elderly ratio remains insignificant throughout, whereas the child ratio exerts a negative but model-sensitive association. A three-path mediation analysis indicates that approximately 26 percent of the total family size effect operates through scale economy savings on quasi-fixed expenses, 19 percent is offset by resource dilution pressure, and less than 1 percent flows through a precautionary saving channel linked to income volatility. These findings extend the resource dilution literature by quantifying the relative strength of competing mechanisms in a middle-income context and showing that cost-sharing economies dominate child-related dilution for most households. Policy discussion highlights the importance of public childcare subsidies and targeted credit access for rural parents, whose saving capacity is the most constrained by additional children. The study also demonstrates that fixed effects estimates of family structure can be upward-biased unless dynamic saving behavior and internal instruments are considered. Full article

The project-based construction industry finds itself in a paradoxical situation: while it weighs heavily in the world economy, it does have a history of low productivity. One important issue that plagues the industry is related to the challenges that stem from collaborative efforts (or lack thereof) between actors. The objective of this paper is to explore how actors of the construction industry organize their inter-firm relationships while examining the characteristics of such interactions and the elements affecting them (drivers, barriers, facilitators, outcomes). These interactions and elements were uncovered using a systematic literature review. A qualitative content analysis was carried out to categorize these elements and to generate dimensions describing the forms. The 139 articles retrieved depicted 12 relational forms established between construction companies (in descending order of citation): partnering, alliancing, project delivery methods, supply chain integration, joint ventures, integrated project delivery, joint risk management, collaborative design, contingent collaboration, quasi-fixed network, resource sharing, and collaborative planning. A multitude of drivers, barriers, facilitators, and outcomes were found. An analysis of the results led to the conceptualization of a multidimensional profile, which allows for a practical and flexible identification of the relationship form potential partners in the construction sector intend to establish. To provide guidelines for the implementation of this profile, a three-step framework was developed. Full article

This paper applies the context-dependent total-factor energy efficiency (CD-TFEE) to determine the multi-layer disaggregate energy efficiency frontiers of twenty administrative regions in Taiwan for the year of 2016. The CD-TFEE overcomes the shortcoming of conventional TFEE index that TFEE is not able to find the “closest target” for each inefficient region in the short run. Furthermore, the CD-TFEE scores here deal with four types of energy inputs (electricity for production, electricity for household and non-household lighting, diesel sales, and gasoline sales), illustrating that multi-layer TFEE frontiers for each energy input in the case of Taiwan can be computed. Empirical results indicate that there are three levels of TFEE frontiers for electricity for production and four levels for other types of energy inputs. In addition, New Taipei City, Taipei City, Keelung City, and Penghu County are at the top level of TFEE frontier for all four energy inputs. This paper also demonstrates that the CD-TFEE procedure generates results different from the CD-DEA introduced by Seiford and Zhu (2003). Full article

This paper conducts a comprehensive analysis of the agricultural sector’s resource allocation and production decisions. This paper uses the differential systems with quasi-fixity to evaluate the complete agricultural production system, which examines the input and output linkages in terms of elasticities. The differential systems are estimated using the maximum likelihood estimation technique based on the two-step profit-maximizing procedure in theory. The results reveal that livestock production requires more intermediate inputs, but crop production depends on all the inputs, such as labor, capital, and intermediate inputs. In addition, the results show that input demand is inelastic, indicating that the agricultural sector has little flexibility in adjusting the demand for inputs in response to changes in input prices. Substitutable relationships among labor, capital, and intermediate inputs exist, which may reduce the pressures on production costs when input prices rise. Regarding the quasi-fixed input, land expansion changes the composition of labor and intermediate inputs, showing that the agricultural sector reduces the intensive margin when it pursues the extensive margin. Furthermore, the results show that agricultural supply is not very responsive to the respective price changes. Along with the inelastic output supply, there exist substitutable relationships between livestock and crop supply, showing that relative price changes can alter output composition in supply. The agricultural sector also reallocates more land areas into crop production rather than livestock production. Full article

China’s high-tech manufacturing industry has become the mainstay of the country’s domestic industrial transformation and upgrading. However, in recent years, the industry has experienced huge blind expansion under policy stimulus, which is not good for long-term industrial development. Therefore, this article attempts to explore the extent to which such an important and critical industry in China utilizes its production capacity and provides a basis for future policymaking. Coupled with the country’s increasing emphasis on the green and low-carbon development of the industry, this article extends the green and low-carbon thinking based on capacity utilization, namely green capacity utilization (CU). On this basis, the study empirically investigates the green CU of the high-tech manufacturing industry in 28 provinces in mainland China from 2010 to 2015. In performing the investigation, the inputs were divided into (quasi-)fixed and variable inputs, and an assessment framework was established based on the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method. Moreover, optimal variable inputs are also available as by-products within the assessment framework. The results were as follows: First, China’s high-tech manufacturing industry showed an excellent overall performance in green CU. Moreover, half of the provinces were at fully utilized capacity, and half were under-utilized. On average, there was a slight deterioration in green CU. Second, the results showed regional differences. The western region had the highest green CU followed by the middle and northeastern regions, and the eastern region had the lowest green CU. Third, regarding the optimal variables inputs, the total amount of labor in China’s high-tech manufacturing industry met the demand, but the distribution was uneven. Fourth, the scale of traditional energy consumption needs to be reduced both in individual provinces and in general. These conclusions have implications for the formulation of policies to promote the green development of China’s high-tech manufacturing industry. Full article

This study employs the directional distance function in the meta-frontier model by expanding outputs, contracting inputs, and fastening quasi-fixed inputs simultaneously on a dataset of 170 observations obtained from the annual reports of international tourist hotels. Empirical results show that the meta-efficiency and technology gap (TG) of foreign-owned hotels are better than those of domestic hotels. In addition, employees of foreign-owned hotels are more productive than those of domestic hotels. The findings imply that Taiwan’s tourist hotels should structure a plan to augment their operating scales. Full article