The Successful Transition to a Knowledge‐Based Development Path of a Less‐Developed Region

This paper presents the case of a less‐developed EU region—the Pomeranian region of Poland—that is, an example of the successful transformation from a command to market economy and the creation of a new knowledge‐based development path thanks to the upgrading of its innovation model. This successful transformation was based, in part, on the region's specific innovation policy and the activities of pro‐innovative institutions; however, other factors were also important such as the diversified structure of the region's economy. New knowledge‐based industries have developed in the region, while the potential of traditional industries that have gone through a restructuring, has been maintained. The factors that existed prior to the innovation model's transformation included such aspects as the high quality of human and social capital, a strong academic center, a high quality of life, and an open economy and society. Supply factors in the form of qualified personnel were crucial for the growth of employment in new industries and R&D that determined the improvement of the regional GDP per capita. Moreover, the transition to a knowledge‐based economy stimulated an increase in the concentration of population in the metropolitan area of Tri‐City.     

Urban Development and Knowledge‐Intensive Business Services: Too Many Unanswered Questions?

ABSTRACT It is often assumed that future urban employment will be increasingly dependent on the knowledge‐intensive business services (KIBS). This underpins much of the current thinking about the development of the English “core cites.” Their example is employed to examine the more general validity of such assumptions, in terms of five critical questions to which research offers only partial and indefinite answers. For any city, how far are these activities really “knowledge intensive”? What markets do they serve? Is their future growth certain? And even when this is the case, how can they make a long‐term contribution to local urban economic success? Finally, how far do urban economic institutions and policies need to be adapted to foster knowledge‐based activities such as KIBS? It seems that, despite the growth of measured KIBS employment, most of the core cities possess few truly knowledge‐intensive KIBS, capable of serving national and international business markets, competitively adapting to future change, and adding to the competitiveness of the wider urban economy. Nationally such activities remain focused into the London region where, if anything, they have increased their concentration is recent years.     

黑龙江省生猪养殖规模经济效益研究

基于黑龙江省生猪养殖现状,运用柯布-道格拉斯生产函数,选取生猪养殖的投入产出指标,建立生猪规模经济效益模型。通过实证分析得出结论：黑龙江省生猪养殖数量是影响规模经济效益的重要因素。生猪养殖规模在100头以上时,会实现规模报酬递增。建议从合理规划、政策扶持、加强服务等方面提高黑龙江省生猪养殖规模经济效益。     

水稻规模化种植模式下产量及经济效益评估

水稻规模化种植已成为水稻集约化生产的重要标志,本研究对安徽省霍邱县300个种植大户展开系统问卷调查,分析水稻规模化种植者年龄结构分布、种植规模大小、种植模式及其产量水平以及经济效益。结果表明,种植者年龄分布主要介于40~60岁,合作社经营模式（H3）年龄更趋于年轻化,且H3模式的产量水平和经济效益均明显高于普通大户（H1）和家庭农场（H2）种植模式;平均种植面积以H3最大,其后依次为H2和H1。深入分析认为：年龄偏老龄化和种植面积过大是限制高产形成的重要因子之一。在机插及直播水稻条件下,经济效益分别较人工手插秧高出27.13%~36.85%和17.45%~22.40%。综上所述,在增大轻简栽培水稻（机插和直播水稻）比重基础上,以合作社经营模式为主的种植大户可能是进一步提高水稻规模化生产潜力的重要突破口。     

An Intertemporal Cross-Section Analysis of Economies of Scale in Mexican Manufacturing

Utilizing data from quinquennial industrial censuses for the period 1960-1975, this study examines economies of scale in a number of Mexico's manufacturing industries. A cross-sectional approach is used to estimate production functions by industry for each of four industrial censuses. In contrast to findings of relatively constant returns to scale for the United States, the Mexican data reveal substantial economies of scale at both the beginning and the end of the study period, suggesting that further opportunities for reduction in long-run costs exist. The resultant policy implications are that measures which promote larger scale manufacturing (incentives for expanded domestic production, export promotion, and selected tariff preferences) will speed up both short-term recovery and long-term growth of the Mexican economy. It is desirable, however, that these policies be harmonized with other designed to reduce the environmental contamination and congestion that has accompanied Mexico's industrial development.     

Building knowledge city in transformation era: Knowledge‐based urban development in Beijing in the context of globalisation and decentralisation

This study examines knowledge‐based urban development in Beijing with the objective of revealing the impact of the ‘synergetic’ forces of globalisation and local government intervention on knowledge‐based urban development in the context of the coexisting processes of globalisation and decentralisation. The findings in this paper show that due to the rapid growth of the cultural industry sector, knowledge‐based urban development has created various kinds of ‘cultural industry clustered areas’, which were recently promoted by the 2008 Olympic Games. ‘Synergetic’ global and local forces are leading knowledge‐based urban development, with the emergence of a local coalition regime in which local government manages local development, considered as ‘enterprises’ in the decentralisation process, while the State retains a significant influence on knowledge‐based urban development. The central and municipal governments tend to emphasise strategies to ‘facilitate the climate for growth’ rather than the centrally planned control they exerted prior to the 1980s.     

Returns to investment in new breeding technologies

Wheat breeding is an economic activity that has provided high returns on past investments. Recent developments include technologies that can lead to improved utilization of genetic resources, improved selection methods, more rapid fixed lines, improved statistical analysis, and improved targeting of production environments. They have the potential to allow for the development of new varieties more rapidly, and/or varieties with enhanced productivity in targeted environments, and varieties with novel characteristics. To ensure that future breeding investments also have high returns, breeding programs need to assess these new technologies to determine whether to incorporate them into their program. Clearly, given the extent of uptake by breeders, there are significant perceived gains from incorporating some of the new technologies. However, not all programs will want to invest in all the new technologies. This paper identifies the criteria needed to assess which technologies may be most gainfully utilized. In some cases, the technologies can lower costs for a given operation. In other cases, they allow the selection program to be restructured by providing additional information at an earlier stage of the program or by targeting specific traits. However, several of the new technologies require significant investment, either in the infrastructure itself if the operations will be conducted within the breeding organization, or funding for contracting if the operations are done by outside organizations. Access to these facilities and the size of the necessary investment can be important issues for breeders considering incorporating the new technologies in their programs. Where some significant gains can be achieved at relatively low cost, all programs can adopt the new technology. Where the investment is large, only select breeding programs will be able to afford to incorporate the new technology into their programs. Analysis of marker-assisted selection shows that some markers can enable some operations to be carried out at a fraction of the cost of phenotypic evaluation. Similarly, analysis of the stomatal aperture-related traits of leaf porosity and canopy temperature depression shows that both are low-cost options that can lead to significant cost savings in selecting for yield. If the resources saved with such technologies are reinvested in the program, the restructured programs are likely to produce markedly higher rates of gain from breeding, and consequently higher rates of return on the investment in wheat breeding.

No “Greek‐Letter Writing”: Local Models of Resource Economies

ABSTRACT In trying to understand resource economies, the article develops the idea of local models. A local model, in contrast to a universal model, is sensitive to the peculiarities of geographical context. Those peculiarities, rather than being reduced to some higher order of logic as in universal models, are kept intact, forming the very basis of understanding. Our approach to local modeling draws specifically on institutional economics. That tradition makes the argument that the economy is shaped by various institutions (not all of which are economic), which are continually changing and which take on different constellations in different places. By setting out a grid of central institutions operating in resource economies, and comparatively using the examples of the forest economies of British Columbia, Canada, North Island, New Zealand, and Tasmania, Australia, the article constructs three local models. Each has the same constituent elements, but how they are related and what eventuates are peculiar to the specific region.     

“Weakness” as “Strength” in the Scottish Life Sciences: The Institutional Grounding of Knowledge‐based Commodity Chains in a Less‐favoured Region

Despite all the talk of knowledge‐driven, knowledge‐based, and learning economies, it is not always clear or self‐evident whether all countries, let alone regions, will share the spoils of emerging technological trends and changes. In particular, less‐favoured regions (LFRs) like Scotland face a number of difficulties as a consequence of this emerging knowledge‐based economy (KBE) and the strategies necessary to overcome their existing uneven position in order to adapt to new global economic imperatives. More specifically, the KBE agenda invokes strategies that do not adequately address the existing uneven development of LFRs in relation to “growth” regions that have the institutional infrastructure and arrangements necessary to attract and embed new forms of employment, new knowledge capacities, and new industrial sectors. However, this article will explore the institutional grounding of the life sciences sector in Scotland in order to consider how particular institutional arrangements that may appear disadvantageous can also lead to new, potentially advantageous arrangements that can help LFRs to avoid continuing economic stagnation or decline.     

Regional Marginal Costs and Cost Savings from Economies of Scale in Municipal Waste Treatment: An Application to the Chesapeake Bay Region

Marginal costs of removing effluent from waste treatment facilities are defined under different assumptions about regulatory policies. Marginal costs are different under a policy of uniform treatment for all plants compared to a least-cost policy, where different plants treat at different levels. The cost savings under these alternative policies are compared for river basins of the Chesapeake Bay when there are economies of scale in treatment costs. Current regulations for treatment plants in the Bay, which are not entirely uniform, are also compared to both the uniform and least-cost solutions. The potential savings from a least-cost policy are substantial for some basins.     

Mapping Regional and Sectoral Characteristics of Knowledge‐Intensive Business Services: Evidence from the Province of Quebec (Canada)

ABSTRACT The study presents original evidence on the characteristic features and innovation activities of knowledge‐intensive business services (KIBS). Based on a wide‐scale survey of 1,124 KIBS firms in Quebec (Canada), we explore empirically the extent to which KIBS from various sectors and regions differ in their characteristics and their uses of innovation practices. The results from the sectoral analysis reveal that KIBS display different characteristic features and innovation behaviours across sectors, thus suggesting that inter‐sectoral differences are important when explaining innovation activities in KIBS. The comparison between KIBS in large, medium, central, and resource regions shows that the characteristic features and the innovativeness of KIBS are rather similar, and little or no significant statistical differences were found between the different regions in the province of Quebec. Thus, overall, the results of our study seem to suggest that a location does not tend to make a difference in respect to characteristic features and innovation performance of KIBS.     

Increasing pre‐acclimation temperature reduces the freezing tolerance of winter‐type faba bean (Vicia faba L.)

Autumn‐sown winter‐type faba bean (Vicia faba L.) has been shown to have a yield advantage over spring sowing. Still, adoption of this overwintered pulse crop remains limited in temperate locations, due to inadequate winter hardiness. This research sought to understand how the prevailing temperature during emergence and seedling development, that is pre‐acclimation, influences freezing tolerance. Seedlings grown under a controlled “warm” 17/12°C (day/night) pre‐acclimation environment were initially less freezing tolerant than those grown under a “cold” 12/5°C temperature treatment. Stem and particularly root tissues were primarily responsible for slower cold acclimation, and there was a genotype specific response of above‐ground tissues to pre‐acclimation treatment. Both above and below‐ground tissues should be tested across a range of pre‐acclimation temperatures when screening faba bean germplasm for freezing tolerance.     

Introducing host‐plant resistance to anthracnose in Kyrgyz common bean through inoculation‐based and marker‐aided selection

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is one of the most important legume crops for human consumption. However, its grain yield can be reduced by up to 90% by the seedborne disease, anthracnose. Fungicide treatment is costly and time‐consuming. The introduction of host plant resistance against this disease appears, therefore, to be crucial for enhancing the productivity of this crop in Kyrgyzstan. The use of DNA‐based markers in backcrossing programmes may help speed up the breeding for resistance. In this study, we used a combination of inoculation tests and a DNA marker (SCAreoli marker) to track the transfer of host‐plant resistance (Co‐2 gene) from two donor cultivars, ‘Vaillant’ and ‘Flagrano’, to susceptible Kyrgyz cultivars ‘Ryabaya’, ‘Kytayanka’ and ‘Lopatka’, which are widely grown in the country. The segregating offspring were evaluated to test the reliability of the SCAreoli marker as selection aid for host‐plant resistance to anthracnose. Our study showed that a co‐dominant DNA marker can successfully be used in backcross breeding to distinguish segregating material in different market classes of common bean.     

Small–Scale Entrepreneurship and Access to Capital in Peripheral Locations: An Empirical Analysis

This paper presents an analysis of a public assistance program for small–scale entrepreneurship in peripheral areas. Public assistance compensates for market inefficiencies where the decision rules of financial institutions discriminate against otherwise viable small firms in capital markets. Lending institutions perceive high risk in providing debt capital when little information is present. Using empirical data from Israel, the determinants of this risk are estimated and the role of location in creating this information asymmetry is stressed. These results empirically establish that (1) location matters in determining the risk profile of the firm, (2) locationally targeted programs can reduce the information asymmetries that make peripheral firms unattractive to lenders, and (3) these programs can also generate positive welfare effects. Finally, there is speculation on the potential role of ICT (information and communications technology) in increasing the visibility of small firms in remote locations and creating a more symmetrical flow of information.     

Field‐grown Cotton Exhibits Seasonal Variation in Photosynthetic Heat Tolerance without Exposure to Heat‐stress or Water‐deficit Conditions

Thermotolerance acclimation of photosystem II to heat and drought is well documented, but studies demonstrating developmental impacts on heat tolerance in field‐grown plants are limited. Consequently, climatic variables, estimated canopy temperature, predawn leaf water potential (Ψ_PD), and the temperature responses of maximum quantum yield of photosystem II (F_v/F_m), variable fluorescence (F_v/F₀), quantum yield of electron transport (φ_Eο) and efficiency of PSI electron acceptor reduction (REο/ABS) were characterized for Gossypium hirsutum at three sample times during the growing season (21 June, 2 July and 18 July 2013) under well‐watered conditions. The temperature decreasing a given photosynthetic parameter 15% from the optimum is referred to as T₁₅ and served as a standardized measure of heat tolerance. Ambient and estimated canopy temperatures were well within the optimal range for cotton throughout the sample period, and leaves were verified well watered using Ψ_PD measurements. However, T₁₅ varied with sample date (highest on July 2 for all parameters), being 2 °C (F_v/F₀) to 5.5 °C (φ_Eο) higher on July 2 relative to June 21, despite optimal temperature conditions and predawn leaf water potential on all sample dates. These findings suggest that even under optimum temperature conditions and water availability, heat tolerance could be influenced by plant developmental stage.     

Top‐cross vs. poly‐cross as alternative to test‐cross for estimating the general combining ability in potato

Test‐crosses for estimating combining ability in potato although useful are difficult to make being labour intensive and time consuming, and due to the problem of sterility. The objective of the present study was to test methods for estimating general combining ability (GCA) of parents based on fewer matings. The GCA of 12 females estimated based on matings with specific single testers (top‐cross) and three types of bulk pollen (poly‐cross) were compared with those estimated by 72 (12 × 6) test‐crosses, using common testers in three types of matings. The study was conducted for 2 years at each of the two locations representing short‐days subtropical conditions in plains and long‐days temperate conditions in hills of India. Analysis of variance of test‐crosses showed that both general and specific combining ability effects were important for tuber yield, late blight resistance as well as general impression, the characters studied. Correlation coefficients among three types of matings showed that bulk pollen matings had poor effectiveness in predicting the GCA of the females, whereas matings with selected individual testers resulted in GCA estimates similar to those based on six testers. Thus use of top‐cross involving selected tester could substantially reduce the number of matings required for estimating the GCA. Among the six testers used, the tester CFK69.1 could estimate the GCA of the females with reasonably high accuracy both for tuber yield and general impression, and ‘Tobique’ for reaction to late blight.     

Photosynthetic Apparatus Responses to Short‐term low‐temperature Flooding May Contribute to Freezing Tolerance Changes in Forage Grasses

Winter conditions are subjected to rapid climate changes. Increased precipitation and snow melting during warmer winters may result in low‐temperature flooding. These factors probably affect plant overwintering strategies. This study investigated the relationships between the photosynthetic adjustment and freezing tolerance following a short‐term low‐temperature flooding in two forage grasses (Lolium perenne and Festuca pratensis). The effect of flooding on the photosynthetic apparatus acclimation to cold was determined using chlorophyll a fluorescence measurements. Freezing tolerance was estimated using an electrolyte leakage test. It has been shown that genotypes activating non‐photochemical mechanisms of photosynthetic acclimation to cold during low‐temperature flooding may show increased freezing tolerance. Freezing tolerance reduction observed in Festuca pratensis was probably connected with decreased photochemical activity and photoinhibition of photosynthesis. It can be concluded that photosynthetic apparatus response to low‐temperature flooding may contribute to changes in the freezing tolerance. The direction of the changes is associated with different photosynthetic apparatus performance.