Abstract

This paper studies the effects of a large reduction in transport costs on agricultural development in a developing country, with a focus on the interactions among the comparative advantage and transport costs of a location, and the transport intensity and value of a commodity. The paper extends the von Thunen model of land allocation to incorporate costly technology adoption and comparative advantage based on land productivity. The theoretical analysis predicts spatial non-linearity in cropland allocation. A reduction in transport costs leads to adoption of productivity-enhancing inputs in the newly-connected region, and an increase in the share of land devoted to the high-value transport-intensive crop. The strongest effect is felt in areas that are not too near or too far from the center and have a higher land productivity in transport intensive crop. The empirical context of the analysis is the Jamuna bridge in Bangladesh, which opened in 1998 and reduced the transport costs from the poor hinterland in the northwest to the capital city (Dhaka) by more than 50 percent. Using sub-district level panel data, the paper implements doubly robust estimators in a difference-in-difference design. The analysis finds that the construction of Jamuna bridge led to increased adoption of technology (fertilizer, irrigation, greenness, and cropping intensity) and reallocation of land from low-value and nonperishable rice to high-value crops, pulses, and vegetables. The evidence indicates spatial nonlinearity in the effects on cropping intensity and the reallocation of land in areas with comparative advantage in vegetable production. For cropping intensity, the magnitude of the effect is large in the intermediate distance (130-150 kilometers) from the bridge. In areas with relatively higher vegetable productivity, land allocated to rice declined, and land was reallocated from high-yielding variety rice to vegetables in the intermediate distance (110-150 kilometers). This improved productive efficiency by aligning the cropping pattern more closely with comparative advantage. The bridge thus led to agricultural development through technology adoption, higher cropping intensity, and reducing the spatial mismatch between land suitability and crop choice. Document type: Book

Abstract

Battery Electric Vehicle as an environmental friendly transportation alternative has already emerged as well as fade out of the market twice. It has been reintroduced along with the increasing concern about the environment issue. This recent diffusion is surrounded by lots of dynamic changes and uncertainties. However, most current studies focus on political, financial as well as infrastructure factors but neglect factors like the technology especially how people perceived it. Therefore, this study mainly research into how the technology development impact on the diffusion of battery electric vehicle.To achieve this aim, a model based study was conducted targeting Swedish electric vehicle market. In the research, customers are considered to be the target objective because they are the one  who perceive the technology and make decision for adoption directly. In order to know the relationship between them, researches have been conducted through qualitative and quantitative approach. Empirical work including interviews and survey were conducted through tripartite aspect to investigate the customer needs and related technology. The investigation indicates the environmentally friendly performance is the key driving force perceived by the early adopters. Meanwhile, range issue, total cost of ownership and safety & technology reliability are identified as the top three critical concerns that  hold back customer purchasing decision. A modified classic model for the innovation diffusion has been proposed which is used to evaluate the technology’s perception based on historical data. Two BEV- related technologies were chosen as examples to prove and illustrate the relationship between technology development and electric vehicle diffusion.The results showed that the BEV-related technologies, which have potential ability to address critical customer demand, are able to impact on the customer adoption positively through valid perception by customer. Taking technology development and perception into consideration, the diffusion process should be accelerated to some extent. Technologies which can be more easily perceived tend to have more impact in the diffusion process. Batteridrivna elektriska fordon(BEV) som ett miljövänligt transportalternativ redan har dykt upp, liksom försvunnit från marknaden två gånger. Det har återinförts tillsammans med den ökande oron för miljöfrågan. Denna nya diffusion är omgiven av dynamiska förändringar och osäkerheter. Men de flesta av dagens studier fokuserar på politiska, ekonomiska och infrastrukturella faktorer, men försummar faktorer relaterat till tekniken framför allt hur människor uppfattar det. Därför undersökte denna studie främst hur den tekniska utvecklingen påverkar spridningen av batteridrivna fordon.För att uppnå detta syfte, gjordes en modell baserad kring en studie av den svenska elbilsmarknaden. I forskningen anses kunderna vara målet målgruppen eftersom de är de som uppfattar tekniken och tar beslut om införandet direkt. För att veta förhållandet mellan dem, har kvalitativa och kvantitativa undersökningar genomförts. Empiriskt arbete inklusive intervjuer och undersökningen genomfördes genom tre olika aspekter för att undersöka kundernas behov och relaterad teknik. Undersökningen visar att miljövänlig prestanda är den viktigaste drivkraften som uppfattas av early adopters. Samtidigt har räckviddsproblematiken, totala ägandekostnaden och tillförlitlighet i säkerhet och teknologi identifierats som de tre kritiska problemen som tillbakahåller kunden från ett köpbeslut. En modifierad klassisk modell för innovationsspridning har föreslagits som används för att utvärdera teknikens uppfattning baserad på historiska data. Två BEV-relaterade teknologier valdes som exempel för att bevisa och illustrera förhållandet mellan teknikutveckling och elbilsdiffusion.Resultaten visade att BEV-relaterad teknologi, som har potential förmåga att ta itu med den kritiska efterfrågan från kunderna, kan påverka kundacceptans positivt genom giltig uppfattning av kunden. Om teknikutveckling och uppfattning beaktas, bör diffusionsprocessen påskyndas i viss utsträckning. Teknik som lättare kan uppfattas tenderar att ha mer genomslag i diffusionsprocessen.

Abstract

This article analyzes the educational use of digital educommunication media (DEM) by four groups of professors working at the faculties of Philosophy and Letters and of Engineering at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua (UACH) and at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Seven hypotheses and three research questions were posed, which were related to the use of DEM (specifically: images, animations, and video; presentations (PowerPoint/Prezi); digital texts; the Cloud; social media/instant messaging; and email), their qualities and the differences regarding their use, among the different groups studied. A two-phase mixed-methods explanatory sequential approach was employed, with a first phase of quantitative data collection and a second qualitative phase. A stratified sample of 177 professors was selected, which was distributed proportionally between the two selected faculties and universities. All professors completed a 144-item questionnaire in the first phase, and on the basis of their answers, ten professors were selected to be interviewed in the second phase, to ensure the diversity of the interviewed group in terms of sex, age, faculty, and educational level at which they teach, as well as their teaching experience and experience in the use of DEM. Among the results, we found that: a) the choice between using DEM or traditional media in class was not determined by teachers’ perception about their students’ learning with technology; b) the characteristics of each DEM determined its use, but the use of a given DEM was not related to the activities that it could enable; c) the professors exclusively teaching in graduate programs, the younger ones, those from UNAM, or those of Engineering did not present significant differences to their counterparts in terms of their use and assessment of DEM; and d) the qualitative data reaffirmed these trends and helped typify the challenges and opportunities of using DEM, particularly those that arose from the period of the exclusively online education model that was adopted owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.