Agriculture and economic development in India

The expansion in agricultural production is inevitable if India is to meet the food requirements of its increasing population. Today's utilization and consumption of the major economic crops, endeavors to improve these, and future needs are discussed.     

Nature's role in sustaining economic development

In this paper, I formalize the idea of sustainable development in terms of intergenerational well-being. I then sketch an argument that has recently been put forward formally to demonstrate that intergenerational well-being increases over time if and only if a comprehensive measure of wealth per capita increases. The measure of wealth includes not only manufactured capital, knowledge and human capital (education and health), but also natural capital (e.g. ecosystems). I show that a country''s comprehensive wealth per capita can decline even while gross domestic product (GDP) per capita increases and the UN Human Development Index records an improvement. I then use some rough and ready data from the world''s poorest countries and regions to show that during the period 1970–2000 wealth per capita declined in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, even though the Human Development Index (HDI) showed an improvement everywhere and GDP per capita increased in all places (except in sub-Saharan Africa, where there was a slight decline). I conclude that, as none of the development indicators currently in use is able to reveal whether development has been, or is expected to be, sustainable, national statistical offices and international organizations should now routinely estimate the (comprehensive) wealth of nations.     

Agriculture and economic development in Indonesia

Like occasional other articles in Economic Botany, this one is little concerned with botany or plant utilization. Instead, it is a study in agricultural economics and social development in a part of the world where plant products, long produced under colonial management, have been significant items in development.     

The threat premium in economic bargaining

Costly punishment is thought to have evolved because it promotes cooperation and the equitable sharing of resources, but the costs associated with punishment – for both the punisher and the punished – limit the efficiency of this enforcement system in economic interactions. Reputation may also guide decision-making, but this information is not always available (e.g., in interactions involving strangers). Across several bargaining studies, we provide evidence of an efficient and flexible “threat-based” bargaining system that can influence the division of resources without the need for costly punishment and reputational information. We found that participants, without prompting, dynamically adjusted bargaining based on the perceived threat-potential (resource holding power and aggressiveness) of the bargaining partner, giving larger offers to individuals who appeared more threatening. These effects of perceived threat-potential were strongest among participants who were most vulnerable to harm in physical contests (women vs men and weaker men vs stronger men), despite that offers were made on-line and anonymously to photographs of the individuals rather than in face-to-face interactions. These results may reflect an overgeneralization of a real-world threat heuristic that allows low threat individuals to extract resources when possible, while avoiding physical retaliation and harm, and high threat individuals to appropriate larger shares of a resource through static facial cues of threat rather than by physically expressing their propensity to punish. Previously, researchers have highlighted the monetary advantages of attractiveness (the “beauty premium”), but the effects of threat either trumped, devalued, or were equivalent to those of attractiveness.     

大山示范区经果林复合经营模式及其生态和经济效益分析

运用生态学和经济学理论,对大山村经果林的主要经营模式进行调查研究.结果表明,柑桔(9年生)-茶叶,柿(5年生)-马铃薯-西瓜,梨(7年生)-马铃薯-大豆,梨(7年生)-桔梗,具有明显的生态、经济和社会效益.纯收益分别达8 700.00、12 351.00、12 337.50和22 500.00元·hm^-2,均高于仅种农作物.林内郁闭度0.3～0.4,光能利用率比纯林提高了20%～30%.     

What behaviour in economic games tells us about the evolution of non-human species' economic decision-making behaviour

In the past decade, there has been a surge of interest in using games derived from experimental economics to test decision-making behaviour across species. In most cases, researchers are using the games as a tool, for instance, to understand what factors influence decision-making, how decision-making differs across species or contexts, or to ask broader questions about species’ propensities to cooperate or compete. These games have been quite successful in this regard. To what degree, however, do these games tap into species'' economic decision-making? For the purpose of understanding the evolution of economic systems in humans, this is the key question. To study this, we can break economic decision-making down into smaller components, each of which is a potential step in the evolution of human economic behaviour. We can then use data from economic games, which are simplified, highly structured models of decision-making and therefore ideal for the comparative approach, to directly compare these components across species and contexts, as well as in relation to more naturalistic behaviours, to better understand the evolution of economic behaviour and the social and ecological contexts that influenced it. The comparative approach has successfully informed us about the evolution of other complex traits, such as language and morality, and should help us more deeply understand why and how human economic systems evolved.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Existence and prevalence of economic behaviours among non-human primates’.     

基于能值理论的贵州省生态经济系统分析

运用能值理论和方法,详细分析了贵州省1992—2008年生态经济发展状况。对其环境负载率、废弃物能值比率、能值-货币比率、人均能值用量、能值使用强度、电力能值使用量比、能值投入率、净能值产出率、能值自给率、人口承载力等指标进行了研究,并与其他地区的有关指标进行了比较研究。结果表明:贵州省生态经济发展主要依赖于本地资源,输出能值中仍以原材料输出为主,缺乏深加工和高附加值的产品。环境负荷率由1992年的2.15上升到2008年的3.82之间,表明贵州省环境和资源系统的负荷率在增大。能值-货币比呈现下降趋势,其值在3.82×1013sej/$到2.47×1013sej/$之间,下降的主要原因是由于贵州省的GDP增长较快造成的,受总能值使用量和人口数量的制约,人均能值使用量在13.6×1015sej和11.4×1015sej之间波动。能值使用强度呈上升趋势,其值在1.07×1011sej和1.57×1011sej之间,说明贵州对省内资源利用的不断增强。电力能值使用量比呈上升趋势,这与贵州省加快水电资源开发有关。能值投入率由1992年的0.049上升到2008年的0.107。净能值产出率非匀速下降,在25.3—10.9之间变动,此值高于新疆、四川、甘肃的净能值产出。能值自给率呈现一种波动状态,其比例从1992年的95.7%下降到2008年的88.6%。     

Energy intensities in ecological and economic systems

The concept of energy intensity (the energy needed, directly and indirectly, to effect the production of a “modity” an be applied to both economic and ecological systems. Hannon (1979) and Constanza (1980) have remarked on the lack of variation of energy intensity between different commodities for an ecosystem and an economic system, respectively. T This is particularly surprising for the ecosystem, since it seems to violate the traditional pyramid view of trophic systems. I show rigorously that Hannon's result is a mathematical consequence of his assumptions which are physically unjustified. I present a similar intuitive argument for Costanza's result, which is based on controversial but not physically unacceptable assumptions. The discussion brings out common threads of input-output economics and ecosystem analysis.     

Name changes in fungi of economic importance

International Commission on the Taxonomy of Fungi (ICTF)