Towards Sustainable Consumption: Economics and Ethical Concerns for the Environment in Consumer Choices

The article examines individual action informed by ethical concerns for the environment as a strategy for moving toward more sustainable consumption. The article first employs a model of rational choice to analyze independent consumer choices among the usually assumed self- and welfare-centered consumers and then expands the model to analyze the implications of other than self- and welfare-centered motivations for consumer choice. The article next analyzes interdependent consumer choices informed by self- and welfare-centered values with the help of a simple game-theoretic model and then moves on to examine the implications of nonutilitarian environmental concerns for interdependent consumer choice in the same game-theoretic framework. The article concludes that although a strategy based on individual action may have limited promise when environmental concerns are widely shared, the case for collective action remains strong because of both efficiency and equity reasons.     

不同规模农户农业生产效率差异及影响因素研究——基于DEA-Tobit模型的实证分析

文章基于小麦主产区4个省份946个不同规模农户的调查数据,利用DEA模型和Tobit回归模型分析了小农户和家庭农场农业生产效率的影响机制。结果表明:家庭农场的农业生产效率明显高于小农户的农业生产效率,家庭农场的生产效率与经营规模呈倒"U"型变化特征;在影响因素方面,土地肥沃程度与农业技术指导对小农户和家庭农场的农业生产效率均有显著正向影响;家庭农场更倾向于通过提高受教育程度和增加单块耕地面积来提升农业生产效率;而小农户的农业生产效率对农户年龄和农户从事农作物种植年限呈现出较强的依赖性。基于此,建议有针对性地加大农业技术指导,适度扩大农业生产经营规模,加强小农户与新型农业经营主体之间的合作与联合,促进农业生产向高质量发展。     

On the relationship between population change and sustainable development

This paper investigates the relationship between population growth and economic growth, through the study of fertility choices and their effects on natural resources. It aims at analyzing the interactions between endogenous fertility choices and the environment and their link to the sustainable matter. We analyze a growth model driven by natural resources and without production, where agents have jointly to determine consumption and fertility, taking into account the effects of their decisions on the dynamics of natural resources. We adopt the most optimistic view on natural capital (it generates endogenous growth) and the weakest notion of sustainable paths (all variables are positive): in such a framework we expect that sustainable paths exist. We instead show that this is not always true. In fact, even if renewal capacity of natural resources is unbounded, not always can a sustainable path be found: this depends on the difference between the stationary fertility rate and the mortality rate. If the stationary fertility is lower than the mortality rate, a sustainable path will not be found, and in such a case public intervention is necessary in order to address the economy along a sustainable path. This can simply be done through policies affecting public attention to environmental protection or the intensity of the dilution effect.     

Travel patterns and environmental effects now and in the future:: implications of differences in energy consumption among socio-economic groups

Travel patterns among different socio-economic groups in Sweden are investigated. It is shown that elderly persons, persons with low incomes and women in general do not travel extensively. Middle-aged persons, persons with high incomes and men travel much farther. Cars are the dominant transportation mode for all population groups. Aeroplanes are used mostly by high-income earners and men, while public transportation is mostly used by young people and women. Energy consumption for the different travel patterns differs substantially. Men with high incomes consume the most energy, with 94 000 MJ during one year, while elderly women consume 12 000 MJ. When compared to a calculated sustainable level of energy consumption for travel, most population groups are in excess. The level for sustainable energy consumption is calculated based on an assumed global potential for renewable energy of 360 EJ per year, divided equally among the global population. A certain share of this energy potential is supposed to be used for travelling. A scenario for 2020 is presented in which vehicle energy efficiency has increased and travel patterns have changed from what they are today. Sustainability can only be reached when both travel patterns and vehicle technology have changed radically. Differences in energy consumption for travel due to age and gender are likely to remain in the future. Scientific knowledge from the social domains seems to be important for devising efficient strategies for a sustainable society. Current focus on policy measures has been mainly on technical issues.     

Policy reform and productivity change in Chinese agriculture: A distance function approach

Agricultural policy reform has been an important source of change in the Chinese agricultural sector. The reforms led to productivity growth and helped China to pursue its self-sufficiency goal especially in the grain sector. In order to analyze whether observable productivity growth stems from technologically induced components or from the market induced parts, a multi-input–multi-output model is derived by using an econometric distance function framework. A decomposition allows to distinguish allocative effects, scale effects, technological change, and technical efficiency change. Data on farms in Zhejiang from 1986 to 2000 are used to analyze the impact of policy reform.     

中国省区经济效率及其影响因素分析——来自2000～2005年的经验证据

探寻产生中国各省区之间越来越明显的经济发展水平差距的根源,对于构建和谐社会、维持经济的健康持续发展具有重要意义.而经济发展水平与区域内的投入产出紧密相连,为此借助数据包络分析方法,构建理论分析模型,测算省区经济发展效率,进而构建回归模型,分析影响效率的因素.基于理论分析框架,利用中国2000-2005年的统计数据对31个省区的X效率进行测算,并对影响效率的因素进行分析.研究结果表明,经济发展水平不同省区的效率存在显著差异,即各省区之间经济发展水平上的差距源于其利用现有资源禀赋获取最大化产出能力的差异.而对影响效率因素的分析则表明,人口素质与区位优势对效率具有显著的正向作用,而金融深化、外商直接投资在总体上却没有表现出理论上所认为的正向效果.最后,根据实证研究的结果,提出了一系列政策建议.     

Spatial planning of offshore wind farms: A windfall to marine environmental protection?

Wind farms are often planned offshore where wind conditions are favourable and the visual impact is less important. Wind farms have both positive and negative effects on the marine environment. Negative effects include bird collisions, underwater sounds and electromagnetic fields, whilst positive effects constitute functioning as artificial reef and acting as no-take zones for fish, with possible spill-over effects.This paper presents a spatially explicit framework to analyze effects of wind farms on the marine environment and aims to evaluate how wind farms can contribute to protection of the marine environment through strategic and economically viable location choices.The functioning and the applicability of the model are demonstrated in a numerical example for the Dutch exclusive economic zone. We find that the careful spatial planning of wind farms is a key factor for profitability and environmental protection, and that, if carefully planned, the environment can benefit from offshore wind farms.     

Environmental sustainability, nonlinear dynamics and chaos

Summary. This paper studies the possibility of nonlinear dynamics in a simple overlapping generations model with the environment – the John-Pecchenino (1994) model. We show that if people's concerns towards greener preferences and the maintenance efficiency relative to degradation are not sufficiently high, cyclically or chaotically fluctuating equilibria are more likely to exist; moreover, under a specific condition, a complicated topological structure might emerge. Our short-run analysis complements John and Pecchenino's long-run analysis and our findings suggest that the associated transition towards an environmentally sustainable state is not trivial. Received: September 10, 1996; revised version: October 2, 1997     

信息不对称、分成契约与超限额采伐--中国国有森林资源变化的理论分析和实证考察

本文回顾了改革开放以来国有林业企业管理体制的演变 ,通过多任务委托代理模型探讨了这一演变过程中利润分成和采伐限额两个不相容的政府政策激励对国有林业企业经营者激励的影响 ,特别是信息不对称条件下其对木材采伐的影响 ,从而解释了国有林业企业普遍存在的超限额采伐的经济原因。通过全国 2 8个省 5次全国森林资源普查的面板数据 ,通过使用国有林业企业的平均面积作为政府与国有林业企业委托—代理关系中信息不对称的代理变量 ,从实证上验证了信息不对称将会导致超限额采伐和国有林资源增长率下降的假说     

The effect of environmentally sustainable practices on firm R&D: International evidence

Using a comprehensive dataset covering 42 countries spanning 2002–2013, this paper empirically examines the effect of environmentally sustainable practices (ESP) on R&D intensity in firms. We use three separate firm-level ESP scores that distinguish between the mandatory and voluntary compliance of environmental regulations mandated within an industry and a country. Our main finding is that an increase in ESP increases R&D intensity. Therefore, ESP encourages a higher number of innovations and there is a negligible trade-off between these two factors of firm performance. Further, the positive effect of ESP is stronger in countries where institutional quality and R&D infrastructure supports are superior. Our results have important policy implications for firms, investors and national governments.     

Human Capital,Gender and Organisation in Transition Agriculture: Measuring and Explaining the Technical Efficiency of Bulgarian and Hungarian Farms

Based on survey data on Bulgarian and Hungarian crop and dairy farms, a double-peaked distribution of technical efficiency is observed. Several factors explain differences in efficiency. Human capital matters not only through age and education but also through gender, as farms with a higher proportion of women are more efficient. Contracting with upstream processors increases efficiency through facilitating the adoption of technology and access to credits. The superiority of family farms over corporate farms is confirmed for crops but not for dairy produce.     

Technical efficiency of small scale farmers: An application of the stochastic frontier production function to rural and urban farmers in Ondo State,Nigeria

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to estimate empirically the technical efficiency of rural and urban small-scale farmers in Ondo State, Nigeria, using the stochastic frontier production function. With the rapid urbanization being currently experienced in Nigeria, the socio-economic and the farming environment in both the rural and urban centres are undergoing transformation. This study involved collection and analysis of data on 200 food crop farmers from rural and urban centres in Ondo state of Nigeria. The results of analysis show that there are wide differences in the socio-economic and production inputs of the farmers from rural and urban centres. While farmers from rural centres have relatively larger farms, the urban farmers have better access to production inputs, especially, fertilizer. However, rural farmers, with a mean technical efficiency of 0.66 are found to be more technically efficient than urban farmers, who have a mean technical efficiency of 0.57. There is a wide confidence interval around the point estimates of the technical efficiency scores. Level of education, farming experience and land are found to have negative effects on technical inefficiency of both rural and urban farms. The marginal effect of inefficiency variables is, however, found to be highest for education among both rural and urban farms.     

基于演化博弈的生态供应链采购管理研究

生态采购是生态供应链管理中重要的一环,关系到整个供应链能否实现可持续发展,同时达到经济效益、社会效益与环境效益的最大化。文章运用演化博弈论来描述和分析生态供应链采购管理过程中制造商和供应商之间的合作博弈模型,进而得出供应链上企业采取生态策略所需的条件。     

经济发展和改革的历史性变化与增长方式的根本转变

我国经济发展和经济改革进展到新的历史阶段,向我们提出了一系列特殊的发展命题和改革命题。处理这种特殊的命题,重要的在于转变经济增长方式,经济增长方式的转变首先在于技术创新,而技术创新的根本又在于制度创新。技术创新和制度创新推动下的经济增长方式的转变,关键是使效率提高成为增长的首要动力。以效率为持续增长的首要动力,需要处理的重要矛盾是收入分配差距的扩大,因为在一定条件下,效率与公平之间往往会存在深刻的矛盾。对于收入分配差距的扩大,则应根据不同的原因,采取不同的相应的措施,以更妥善地协调公平与效率的关系。     

Ecological and economic sustainability in fishery management: A multi-agent model for understanding competition and cooperation

Recent studies have shown that many marine ecosystems are experiencing an accelerating loss of population and biodiversity. It is apparent that there is a growing disparity between the available supply of fish and the desire of the growing world population to catch them. Although studies have begun to question the ecological sustainability of managed fishery systems, they often omit the corresponding effects on the economic sustainability of fishery industries. This is particularly important in rural coastal areas where the fishing industry is often a dominant employer. In this article, we analyze the interactions between economic and ecological dynamic systems using a multi-agent dynamic model of fishery management. Multiple agents (fishers) harvest multiple fish species and adapt the amount and allocation of their effort to their value functions, which are given as net profits of the fish harvest sold for a market price. This is largely unique in fishery models, since many econometric studies view fishers as represented by homogenous ‘average’ agents. We introduce and compare two different decision rules governing the behavior of fishers engaged in a competitive market. We demonstrate a situation where both behaviors lead to a decline of all fish stocks, as well as profits for most fishers. As an alternative, we introduce a cooperative approach in which fisheries jointly set sustainable limits for total harvest and effort that are then distributed to the fishers according to distribution rules. The simulation reveals that fish stocks and profits can stabilize at significantly higher levels in the cooperative case, leading to a continuous accumulation of capital for all fishers. This model demonstrates key aspects of overfishing conflicts that can be overcome through planned fishing quotas and cooperative market mechanisms. It also demonstrates a novel approach for simulating the dynamic behavior of heterogeneous fishers.     

Determinants of technical efficiency of crop and livestock farms in Poland

Poland, one of the candidate countries for European Union membership, is currently experiencing acute structural problems within its agriculture sector. This article analyses technical efficiency and its determinants for a panel of individual farms in Poland specialized in crop and livestock production in 2000. Technical efficiency is estimated with stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and confidence intervals are constructed. Determinants of inefficiency are also evaluated. The SFA results are compared with results using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). On average, livestock farms are more technically efficient than crop farms. For both specializations, the size–efficiency relationship is positive, that is large farms are more efficient. The SFA findings are generally supported by the DEA results. Soil quality and the degree of integration with downstream markets are highly important determinants of efficiency. The use of factor markets (land and labour) is important for crop farms, while livestock farms can rely on family labour and own land. Also, education is a constraint to efficiency particularly for crop farms.     

市场竞争、银行市场势力与流动性创造效率—来自中国银行业的证据

商业银行是中国社会融资的主要渠道,银行向社会提供流动性的效率直接决定了社会融资的效率.为弥补流动性创造研究在效率和中观层面的不足,文章采用中国商业银行2000?2015年微观数据,探讨了市场竞争、银行市场势力与流动性创造效率之间的关系,得到以下结论:(1)市场竞争与流动性创造效率之间存在倒U形关系,中国银行业存在最优的市场结构;(2)银行市场势力过强是中国商业银行流动性创造效率较低的重要原因,银行市场势力越强,其流动性创造效率越低;(3)市场竞争程度与市场势力的流动性创造效率系数之间存在不显著的负相关关系,寄希望于通过增强中国银行业竞争程度来改善银行市场势力过强所导致的流动性创造效率过低,作用可能非常有限.中国应沿着"增强商业银行流动性创造能力,扩大直接融资规模"的改革方向继续前进.文章的研究丰富了已有文献,而且为中国银行体系改革的顶层设计提供了重要参考.     

黄淮海平原农业水资源绿色效率时空差异与影响因素研究

提高农业水资源绿色效率对促进黄淮海平原农业可持续发展和保障粮食安全极其重要。通过超效率SBM模型和Tobit模型对黄淮海平原农业水资源绿色效率和其影响因素进行了研究。结果发现:黄淮海平原农业水资源绿色效率整体趋于上升且存在明显的地区差异;技术进步变化是导致农业水资源绿色效率变化的主要动因;除农作物种植结构外,经济发展水平、节水农业发展水平、供水结构等因素均对农业水资源绿色效率有着显著影响。基于以上结论,提出以绿色发展理念指导农业产业结构和用水结构升级、充分发挥节水潜力提高农业水资源绿色效率水平和完善水价水权市场机制优化农业水资源配置等对策建议。     

Uncertainty and sustainability in the management of rangelands

We analyze a dynamic and stochastic ecological-economic model of grazing management in semi-arid rangelands. The ecosystem is driven by stochastic precipitation. A risk averse farmer chooses a grazing management strategy under uncertainty such as to maximize expected utility from farming income. Grazing management strategies are rules about which share of the rangeland is given rest depending on the actual rainfall in that year. In a first step we determine a myopic farmer's optimal grazing management strategy and show that a risk averse farmer chooses a strategy such as to obtain insurance from the ecosystem: the optimal strategy reduces income variability, but yields less mean income than possible. In a second step we analyze the long-run ecological and economic impact of different strategies. We conclude that a myopic farmer, if he is sufficiently risk averse, will choose a sustainable grazing management strategy, even if he does not take into account long-term ecological and economic benefits of conservative strategies.