Regional Technical Efficiency and Technology Gaps in

¶ … Regional technical efficiency and technology gaps in rural China: evidence from CHIP surveys, by Wenjun Liu (2012) The current review is based on the assessment of Wenjun Liu's article on the technological efficiency in China. It starts out by briefly summarizing the contents of the article, and then moves on to the presentation of more specific elements, such as the methodology employed by the author and the primary findings of the research conducted.

Ultimately, the review culminates with the personal assessment of the reviewer, regarding the significance, usefulness, readability and overall quality of the article. The article acknowledges the people who helped him with the efforts to gather information, and assumes the responsibility of any errors for himself. Wenjun Liu (2012) seeks to analyze the usage of technology within the rural areas of China, and also to assess the gaps which exist in technology usage across various rural regions of the country.

The primary finding of this effort is that the usage of technology has increased significantly throughout the past recent years in the rural areas of China, and the increase has been a rather stable one across the regions; this virtually means that the gaps still exist. In order to assess the topic set out, Liu employed the stochastic metafrontier methodology, which is a quantitative research method based on the gathering of information and the statistical processing of the data.

The usage of this quantitative method of analysis ensures the objectivity of the results and the ability to extrapolate the findings in order to explain the phenomenon at a larger scale, outside the restricted sample which was initially selected (Vogt, 2007). The data employed in the statistical analysis included the levels of technologic efficiency, the technologic gap and their determinants in rural China and were collected with the aid of the CHIP, or the Chinese Household Income Project.

Some examples of data used include the number of households in the selected rural regions, income rations within the selected households, the level of economic development within the selected rural regions and so on. Based on the analysis conducted, Liu retrieved three important findings, as revealed below: First of all, Liu identified a negative relationship between the technology gap and regional technical efficiency for all assessed regions, except for the northwest. This virtually means that there does not exist a positive and direct relationship between technologic efficiency and technologic advancement.

Secondly, the findings indicate that the more technologically challenged regions (with higher gaps), need to focus more on the reduction of the technology gap from one household to the other. This would virtually be attained through the diffusion of technology within the selected rural regions. Last, the third finding reached by Wenjun Liu is represented by the ruling that the efficiency of technology within the selected rural areas of China increased throughout the years, yet the gaps have remained rather constant.

This virtually means that each region has evolved at the same pace and no major differences were observed in one relative to the other. The topic approached by Wenjun Liu is interesting and relevant in the context of the modern day society, which is more and more characterized by the advent of technology. In this setting, the population across the globe becomes more interested in technology and the academic community becomes more interested in assessing the levels of technologization, use of technology, benefits of technology and so on.

In this context then, Liu's article is a useful addition to the research community as it researches a specific topic related to technology and it creates new findings. From this angle then, the significance of the article is a highly theoretical one. The findings can nevertheless be assessed and utilized by technology creators and providers in China, meaning as such that Liu's article also has a practical applicability and significance.

For instance, the technology creators could use the findings to create technologies for agricultural activities, which respond to the specific needs of the Chinese farmers. Also from the academic standpoint, it has to be mentioned that the article is written in a highly formal manner, integrating a complex set of knowledge and a.