Since july 1991, major economic policy changes have been made under the economic reforms programme. The new policies have relaxed or removed many government controls on production capacity, imported capital goods, intermediate inputs and technology. These reforms have altered the economic environment in which the companies operate. This paper makes a comparative analysis of productivity growth ...

The National Robotics Engineering Consortium and UltraStrip Systems Inc. have developed a highly flexible and productive robot to strip paint from large ships and other large ferro-magnetic structures based on the patents obtained by UltraStrip Systems, Inc. (US patents: 6,425,340; 5,849,099; 5,628,271). Removal of corrosion and coatings from large vessels has become a serious economic and envi...

Abstract- In this research, the performance measures of water equity and productivity have been optimizedin the entire DoroodzanIrrigation Network by using genetic algorithms. Results indicated thatirrigation water management improvement at field scale[increasing irrigation application efficiency (Ea) and water reduction fraction (WRF)] has much more impressive impact on raising the performance...

The major thesis of this article is that combining the resource-based theory of the firm with Austrian economics and heterogeneous demand theory provides the foundations for a new theory ofcompetition, the resource-ativantage theory. This new theory has macro and public policy implications. Specifically, when compared with neoclassical perfect competition theory. the resource-advantage theory b...

The Earth's atmosphere will continue to be enriched with carbon dioxide (CO2) over the coming century. Carbon dioxide enrichment often reduces leaf transpiration, which in water-limited ecosystems may increase soil water content, change species abundances and increase the productivity of plant communities. The effect of increased soil water on community productivity and community change may be ...

The gross-output multifactor productivity index for U.S. food manufacturing grew 0.19 percent per year between 1975 and 1997. This productivity growth is low when compared with an estimate of 1.25 percent per year for the whole manufacturing sector. Low investment in research and development (R&D) could be one reason. Although productivity has been relatively low, food manufacturing output has ...

An anti-capitalist cultural bias, through directed within-family human capital transmission, adversely affects the supply of entrepreneurial talent and risk-taking. This limits economic progress if aggregate productivity is low. When productivity is high, economic incentives can overcome cultural inertia. Though the income level depends on culture, the growth rate in this case does not. JEL Cod...

In Algeria, liberalization reforms undertaken since the 1990s have resulted in negative effects on the development and management of irrigation schemes, as well as on the conditions of farmers. Reforms have been undertaken to improve the performance of irrigation schemes, such as the national plan of agricultural development (PNDA) in 2000 and the water pricing policy of 2005. However, after im...

a r t i c l e i n f o The current mode of production in China is extensive and inefficient and has caused great stress on both resources and the environment. This paper focuses on analyzing the sources of production inefficiency and productivity growth in China. Here, a developed slacks-based measure is utilized to decompose production inefficiency into three components: input inefficiency, eco...