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The purpose of this paper is to review the theoretical background, methodological extensions, and empirical applications of the Engel curve, which is applied to the research of the change in farmers’ welfare and food demand in China after the economic reform in 1978, compared with the statistics of income and food consumption.

This paper mainly uses the traditional method of Engel curve, which is compared with income growth and food consumption, to study farmers’ welfare improvement in rural China.

The Engel coefficients identify three different stages for farmers’ welfare change after 1978. The first stage is the period between 1978 and 1988, in which farmers’ welfare has been continuously enhanced due to the institutional bonus of the 1978 economic reform and increased government purchase price of agricultural products. The second stage is the period between 1989 and 1995, in which farmers’ welfare has been slightly deteriorated mainly due to the end of institutional reform bonus, suppressed food prices, relative high inflation, and instable political situation. The third stage is the period after 1995, in which farmers’ welfare returns to a growing path, as the dual price system was abolished, the transition from a planned economy to a market economy had been completed, and the government carried out protective policies for agriculture and started to heavily subsidize agriculture. The Engel coefficient still remained at a very high level at 0.59 in 1995, but it continuously decreased to 0.33 in 2015. The welfare enhancement for farmers mainly results from deepened market-oriented reform, protective policies for agriculture, and prevalent off-farm employment. The Engel coefficient is also linked to food demand elasticities. Along with the decreasing Engel coefficient in the past 40 years, income elasticities also continuously decrease from 0.55 in 1978 to 0.08 in 2015. Food demand is very inelastic now, and any further increase in income will not substantially increase food demand any more.

Inequality has not been analyzed.

This paper reviews the methodological advantages of the Engel curves, and uses it to identify different stages of welfare change and estimate income elasticities of food demand for farmers in China after the 1978 economic reform.

The contribution of this study is both methodological and empirical. It provides a method of estimating preference consistent true cost of living indices and demonstrates the use of unit values (food items), adjusted for quality and demographic effects, as prices. Using NSS data, changes in living standards (measured by per capita real expenditure) in India are examined between 1999/2000 and 2009/2010. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

From the adjusted unit values, “exact” price indices are computed using QAIDS-based preference consistent methods that allow between-item substitution effects and variation across states.

A comparison of the nominal and price deflated real expenditures under alternative temporal price scenario during 1999/2000-2009/2010 shows that the states largely preserve their ranks over the periods, in spite of differential temporal price movement. However, comparison of the nominal and price-deflated real expenditure growth reveals that the rankings are sensitive to the price deflator used.

The results question the wisdom of the treatment of large countries with heterogeneous preferences, e.g. India, as single entities in PPP calculations as in the ICP project. Hence, the results have methodological and empirical implications that extend beyond India.

The study provides evidence on the issue of spatial difference in the temporal movement in prices, where no such evidence exists, and contains the first evidence on living standards in India in the post global financial crisis era. Also, this is the first attempt to base calculation of temporal movement in prices, as measured by the “exact” price indices, on the adjusted unit values of food items.

This study aims to examine the role of an overall model fit assessment in the context of partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM). In doing so, it will explain when it is important to assess the overall model fit and provides ways of assessing the fit of composite models. Moreover, it will resolve major concerns about model fit assessment that have been raised in the literature on PLS-PM.

This paper explains when and how to assess the fit of PLS path models. Furthermore, it discusses the concerns raised in the PLS-PM literature about the overall model fit assessment and provides concise guidelines on assessing the overall fit of composite models.

This study explains that the model fit assessment is as important for composite models as it is for common factor models. To assess the overall fit of composite models, researchers can use a statistical test and several fit indices known through structural equation modeling (SEM) with latent variables.

Researchers who use PLS-PM to assess composite models that aim to understand the mechanism of an underlying population and draw statistical inferences should take the concept of the overall model fit seriously.

To facilitate the overall fit assessment of composite models, this study presents a two-step procedure adopted from the literature on SEM with latent variables.

This paper clarifies that the necessity to assess model fit is not a question of which estimator will be used (PLS-PM, maximum likelihood, etc). but of the purpose of statistical modeling. Whereas, the model fit assessment is paramount in explanatory modeling, it is not imperative in predictive modeling.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the methodology proposed in Majumder et al. (2012) for the estimation of the item-specific purchasing power parities (PPPs) within countries, to the cross-country context. It estimates item-specific intra-country PPPs (i.e. spatial prices) and inter-country PPPs in a unified framework using unit records of household food expenditures from three Asian countries: India, Indonesia and Vietnam, covering contemporaneous time periods. The study addresses a key limitation of the International Comparison Program (ICP) exercise, namely, that it treats all countries, large and small, as homogeneous entities. Moreover, it directly calculates bilateral PPPs between countries based on their expenditure patterns and prices alone and directly estimates the price-level indices (PLI) and their standard errors, allowing formal tests of the hypothesis of PLI being unity. The usefulness of the estimated PPPs is illustrated by applying them to comparisons of real food expenditures between the three countries, and benchmarking the comparisons with those using the ICP PPPs.

The methodology is based on the fact that a spatial price index can be viewed as a true cost of living index (TCLI). Using a general cost function underlying the Rank 3 quadratic logarithmic systems, the TCLI is calculated for a reference utility level.

The study provides formal statistical tests of the hypothesis of item invariance of the PPPs. The usefulness of the proposed methodology is illustrated by applying the estimated PPPs in comparisons of food expenditures between subgroups in the three countries. The sensitivity of the expenditure comparisons to the use of item-wise PPPs underlines the need to provide price information on highly disaggregated PPPs to a much greater extent than the ICP has done to date.

The choice of these three Asian countries was dictated by the fact that, though comparability of items between them remains an issue as with all cross-country comparisons. Also, in the absence of price data, this study followed the practice in Majumder et al. (2012, 2015a, 2015b) in using as proxies the raw unit values of the food items, but adjusted for quality and demographic factors using the procedure introduced by Cox and Wohlgenant (1986) and extended by Hoang (2009).

It addresses some limitations of the ICP, namely, ICP treats all countries as single entities with the purchasing power of the country’s currency assumed to be the same in all regions within the country, ICP uses the US dollar as the numeraire (this ignores the fact that the PPPs required in bilateral welfare comparisons between developing countries with vastly different consumption habits from the “international norm” are quite different from the ICP PPPs) and ICP uses distribution invariant prices to calculate PPPs, which overlooks the fact that the poor pay different prices from the “representative” individual.

This study highlights the importance of estimating and using item-specific PPPs in cross-country comparisons by formally testing and rejecting the assumption of item invariant PPPs and by providing empirical evidence that they do make a difference to the welfare comparisons between countries. This study provides PPPs based on food items only, which may be more relevant for poverty comparisons.

It introduces, for the first time, the concept of item-specific PPPs between countries as estimable parameters and operationalizes this concept by using them in cross-country welfare comparisons.

This study aims to explore the influence of postdisaster tourism development on the objective quality of life (QoL) of residents in Wenchuan County, simulate the long-run trend of postdisaster tourism development and QoL based on three proposed policy scenarios and formulate some practical suggestions to promote sustainable tourism development.

This study uses the system dynamic approach to develop a system dynamics (SD) model called “tourism–economy–environment–living” (TEEL) by using four subsystems: “the economic subsystem,” “the tourism subsystem,” “the environmental subsystem” and “the living subsystem.”

The results show that the influence of postdisaster tourism development on QoL is complex. Based on Butler’s destination life cycle theory, the influence of postdisaster tourism on objective QoL exhibits a nonlinear change closely tied to the development stages of tourist destinations. It showed that the QoL index increased after an initial decrease in the early stage (2009–2013) and then decreased in the later stage (2013–2019). Simulations of TEEL based on three different scenarios show that the current development path of tourism development is not ideal. The synergy scenario, highlighting the importance of the harmonious development of the TEEL, is the optimal scenario.

This study fills the gap in the literature on the influence of postdisaster tourism development on objective QoL from the perspective of SD. Modeling tourism development and objective QoL will contribute to a comprehensive understanding of whether and how tourism development can enhance residents’ QoL in disaster-affected areas.

本研究旨在探讨灾后旅游发展对汶川县居民客观生活质量（QoL）的影响, 并基于三种拟议的政策情景模拟灾后旅游发展和生活质量的长期演化趋势, 并制定一些切实可行的建议, 以促进旅游业的可持续发展。

本研究运用系统动力学方法, 通过使用四个子系统, 即“经济子系统”、“旅游子系统”“环境子系统”和“生活子系统”, 建立了一个称为“旅游-经济-环境-生活”（TEEL）的系统动力学模型。

研究结果表明, 灾后旅游发展对客观QoL的影响是复杂的。根据巴特勒的目的地生命周期理论, 灾后旅游对目标QoL的影响呈现非线性变化, 与旅游目的地的发展阶段密切相关。结果表明, QoL指数在前期（2009–2013年）出现初始下降后上升, 而后在后期（2013–2019年）下降。基于三种不同方案的TEEL模拟表明, 当前旅游发展路径并非最佳。协同方案强调了TEEL和谐发展的重要性, 是在所有方案中最佳。

本研究填补了从系统动力学角度研究灾后旅游发展对客观生活质量QoL影响的文献空白。构建旅游发展和客观QoL的系统动力模型将有助于全面了解旅游发展是否以及如何提高灾区居民的生活质量。

Este estudio tiene por objetivo explorar la influencia del desarrollo del turismo post-catástrofe en la calidad de vida (CdV) objetiva de los residentes del condado de Wenchuan, simular la tendencia a largo plazo del desarrollo del turismo tras la catástrofe y la CdV basándose en tres escenarios políticos propuestos, y formular algunas sugerencias prácticas para promover el desarrollo del turismo sostenible.o.

Este estudio utiliza el enfoque de dinámica de sistemas para desarrollar un modelo de dinámica de sistemas denominado “turismo-economía-medioambiente-vida” (TEMV) utilizando cuatro subsistemas: “el subsistema económico”, “el subsistema turístico”, “el subsistema medioambiental” y “el subsistema de vida”.

Los resultados muestran que la influencia del desarrollo del turismo post-catástrofe en la CdV objetiva es compleja. Basándose en la teoría de Butler sobre el ciclo de vida del destino, la influencia del turismo post-catástrofe en la CdV objetiva presenta un cambio no lineal estrechamente vinculado a las etapas de desarrollo de los destinos turísticos. Se demuestra que el índice de CdV aumentó después de una disminución inicial en la primera etapa (2009-2013) y luego disminuyó en la etapa posterior (2013-2019). Las simulaciones de TEMV basadas en tres escenarios diferentes muestran que la actual trayectoria de desarrollo del turismo no es ideal. El escenario de sinergia, que destaca la importancia del desarrollo armonioso del TEMV, es el escenario óptimo.

Este estudio llena la brecha existente en la literatura sobre la influencia del desarrollo del turismo post-catástrofe en la calidad de vida (CdV) objetiva desde la perspectiva de la dinámica de sistemas. La modelización del desarrollo turístico y la CdV objetiva contribuirá a una comprensión integral de si el desarrollo turístico puede mejorar, y cómo, la CdV de los residentes en las zonas afectadas por catástrofes

This study aims to apply a proposed methodology for calculating spatial prices in a heterogeneous country setting such as India with limited price information. Based on the empirical evidence, the study plans to draw the spatial price map of India with different colours denoting states and districts with varying level of spatial prices.

This study shows that a procedure proposed by Lewbel (1989), based on the idea by Barten (1964) that household composition changes have “quasi-price effects”, can be used to estimate spatial prices in the absence of information on regional prices.

The evidence on spatial price differences in India, which is the most comprehensive to date because it goes down to district level, shows that the proposed procedure has considerable potential in future applications on other data sets with limited price information. The policy importance of the results is underlined by the sensitivity of the demand elasticities to the inclusion/omission of spatial price variation.

The study uses “pseudo unit values” based on household composition and demographic effects on demand as proxy for the missing price information. While the work of Atella et al. (2004) suggests that such proxies are accurate representations of true prices, nevertheless, they are proxies and the results should be treated with caution.

The evidence on spatial prices in India that point to a high degree of price heterogeneity between regions implies that welfare applications such as income distributional and poverty studies must take account of the price heterogeneity within the country. The implications extend beyond India to cross-country exercises such as the purchasing power parity calculations undertaken by the International Comparison Project.

This is one of the first studies that provide evidence on spatial price heterogeneity within a country without requiring regional price information. Methodologically, the paper builds on the suggestion of Lewbel (RES, 1989) in showing how the demographic effects on household expenditure pattern can be used to estimate spatial prices. The value of the contribution lies in the use that the estimated spatial prices can be put to in calculating inequality and poverty rates and in standard of living comparisons between regions in the country.

The process by which technological innovations developed in one institution are discovered, acquired, and adapted for use by another institution.

Purpose – The aim of this chapter is to examine the constant proportion portfolio insurance (CPPI) method when the multiple is allowed to vary over.

Methodology/approach – A quantile approach is introduced under the dependent return hypothesis. We use for example ARCH-type models.

Findings – In this framework, we provide explicit values of the multiple as function of the past asset returns and other state variables. We show how the multiple can be chosen to satisfy the guarantee condition, at a given level of probability and for particular market conditions.

Originality/value of paper – We show in this chapter that it is possible to choose variable multiples for the CPPI method if quantile hedging is used and in the case of dependent log returns. Upper bounds can be calculated for each level of probability and according to state variables. This new multiple can be determined according to the distributions of the risky asset log return and volatility.