江苏省城市化的空间格局及其演化

城市化的空间格局往往表现为一定的结构性和分异性。文章以江苏省为例,运用帕雷托(Pareto)模型和空间自相关校验,从城市体系的规模结构和城市化水平的空间分异两个方面,对近年来该省城市化的空间格局及其演化进行了定量分析。结果显示,江苏城市分布存在明显的空间梯度性,区域城市化水平的两级分化和空间收敛趋势明显。     

中国数字经济发展水平的时空格局与收敛性研究

基于数字经济理论内涵,构建中国省际数字经济发展评价指标体系,运用熵权加权法进行测度,并借助探索性空间分析法、时空跃迁法、空间杜宾模型对中国2011—2020年数字经济发展水平的空间格局及收敛性进行实证研究。研究发现：中国数字经济发展水平呈逐年上升态势,且区域差异显著,呈东部地区高、中西部地区低的空间分布特征;数字经济整体上存在空间外溢效应和空间格局锁定特征,较难实现跃迁;全国及区域层面的数字经济发展水平均存在α收敛、绝对β收敛和条件β收敛,空间因素可加速其收敛,收敛速度呈东部、西部、中部地区依次减弱。     

新型城镇化发展的时空差异及协调度分析

新型城镇发展的“新”主要在于“人”的城镇化,新型城镇化的核心价值是“以人为本”.本文通过耦合协调模型分析了我国不同区域新型城镇化发展水平的对空变化和协调程度.研究表明,我国各地区2003—2013年新型城镇化发展水平均呈现逐年上升的趋势,但区域差异较大.新型城镇化发展水平在空间分布上存在显著的正向空间自相关,整体上呈现东高西低的分布格局;各子系统的耦合协调度呈现不断上升的趋势,协调度较高的地区主要集中在东部沿海.因此,各地区应该通过体制机制改革和政策调整,促进城乡各方面的协调发展,进而提高新型城镇化发展水平.     

共同富裕视域下中国城乡融合水平差异及其收敛性

文章以共同富裕为视域构建城乡融合评价指标体系，测度2008—2020年中国城乡融合水平指数，运用核密度估计刻画了全国及四大区域城乡融合水平的时空差异特征，并利用空间面板收敛模型开展实证检验。研究发现，中国省际城乡融合水平总体明显提升且逐渐趋于聚集状态，但是也存在局部分化态势；中国省际城乡融合水平呈现空间正相关性，全国及东、中、西部地区表现出明显的绝对β和条件β收敛趋势，而东北地区呈现发散特征。鉴于此，建议优化城乡生产力布局、推动就地城镇化、健全农村公共服务、树立城乡共富典范，以此加速城乡融合、推动实现城乡共同富裕。     

中国人均GDP的空间相关与地区收敛：1978-2003

本文运用探索性空间数据分析方法研究了中国30个省份人均GDP之间的空间相关性,结果表明,自改革开放以来,中国各地区人均收入的空间相关逐年加强。通过计算局部空间自相关指标,本文进一步验证了中国经济中空间异质性的存在,即地区人均收入与地理位置密切相关。在此基础上,本文运用三种不同的空间经济计量模型研究了中国各省份人均GDP增长的收敛性。结果表明,空间自回归模型和广义空间模型不能正确拟合中国省级地区增长数据,而空间误差自回归模型能够满意地解释中国省级地区经济增长,这表明地理位置的影响尽管对各地区的经济增长造成了深刻的影响,但并没有改变地区经济增长的收敛趋势。空间误差自回归模型还显示劳动力和资本流动以及知识溢出在省级地区水平上是显著存在的,并且有利于地区经济增长的收敛。     

中国人均GDP的空间相关与地区收敛:1978-2003

本文运用探索性空间数据分析方法研究了中国30个省份人均GDP之间的空间相关性,结果表明,自改革开放以来,中国各地区人均收入的空间相关逐年加强。通过计算局部空间自相关指标,本文进一步验证了中国经济中空间异质性的存在,即地区人均收入与地理位置密切相关。在此基础上,本文运用三种不同的空间经济计量模型研究了中国各省份人均GDP增长的收敛性。结果表明,空间自回归模型和广义空间模型不能正确拟合中国省级地区增长数据,而空间误差自回归模型能够满意地解释中国省级地区经济增长,这表明地理位置的影响尽管对各地区的经济增长造成了深刻的影响,但并没有改变地区经济增长的收敛趋势。空间误差自回归模型还显示劳动力和资本流动以及知识溢出在省级地区水平上是显著存在的,并且有利于地区经济增长的收敛。     

中国区域绿色创新效率收敛性研究

将环境污染、创新失败因素列为非期望产出指标,运用2006—2016年中国内地30个省份面板数据,构建SBM—DEA模型对中国绿色创新效率及其区域差异进行测算,进而采用σ收敛模型、绝对β收敛模型、条件β收敛模型考察中国区域绿色创新效率的收敛性。结果表明：中国区域绿色创新效率整体上呈现上升趋势,但存在较大区域差异,东部地区绿色创新效率远高于中、西部地区;全国及东、中、西部地区绿色创新效率均不存在明显的σ收敛,但存在显著的绝对β收敛和条件β收敛,且影响收敛的显著性因素各不相同。     

我国保险密度空间收敛的实证研究

文章运用空间计量方法分析了我国省际保险密度的空间相关性,发现我国省际保险密度在呈现出区域集聚特征的同时,全国趋同的趋势也在迅速增强.在运用三种空间经济计量模型研究了我国省际保险密度增长的收敛性后,发现空间误差模型是研究我国省际保险密度空间收敛性的合适模型,全国保险密度的收敛速度大约为1.5%.虽然加入WTO等对我国保险密度的区域集聚性与整体收敛性都带来了冲击,但整体收敛的趋势依然稳定,表明区域保险业发展水平会随着经济发展水平的趋同而趋同.     

旅游技术效率、旅游绿色生产率收敛性及其影响因素

旅游业在推动国民经济发展的同时,不可避免地引发了环境污染和生态破坏等问题,提升旅游绿色生产率已成为推动旅游生态文明建设和旅游经济高质量发展的重要举措。文章运用基于非期望产出的Super-EBM模型、全域Malmquist-Luenberger指数和收敛性模型,从静态和动态视角出发对2005—2019年中国旅游业技术效率和旅游绿色生产率进行测算,分析其收敛性及其影响因素。研究发现：(1)2005—2019年中国旅游技术效率均值为0.433,距离生产前沿面仍然存在56.7%的改进潜力,旅游绿色生产率GML指数总体上存在小幅度增长且动力主要源于技术变动。(2)旅游绿色生产率增长总体上存在σ收敛,且具有显著的绝对β收敛和条件β收敛特征。(3)市场经济水平、区域产业结构、环境规制、交通基础设施投入、政府干预、创新水平等因素对中国旅游绿色生产率增长及收敛的影响存在显著空间异质性。     

城市化水平的综合测度及空间效应研究

本文以中国30个省市区地级以上城市为研究对象,对其2002-2011年间城市化水平进行综合测度,并经验测度其空间效应,得到如下结论:首先,2002-2011年间中国城市化水平总体呈现上升的趋势,但仍低于当前中国一般意义上的城市化发展水平;与三大经济板块的发展相类似,出现东部高于中部和中部高于西部的格局,且各板块内部也存在特定的差异.其次,城市化水平的空间溢出效应经历着“M”型发展趋势,各区域城市化发展水平的空间依存度整体呈现下降的状态.最后,从三大区域城市化发展的空间溢出效应来看,东、中部地区呈现上升的趋势,西部地区处于下降的趋势;东部地区城市化发展的空间溢出效应明显高于中、西部地区;在区域内部,劳动力、资本及技术水平均对城市化发展的影响存在着较大的差异.     

Forecasting the price of gold

This article seeks to evaluate the appropriateness of a variety of existing forecasting techniques (17 methods) at providing accurate and statistically significant forecasts for gold price. We report the results from the nine most competitive techniques. Special consideration is given to the ability of these techniques to provide forecasts which outperforms the random walk (RW) as we noticed that certain multivariate models (which included prices of silver, platinum, palladium and rhodium, besides gold) were also unable to outperform the RW in this case. Interestingly, the results show that none of the forecasting techniques are able to outperform the RW at horizons of 1 and 9 steps ahead, and on average, the exponential smoothing model is seen providing the best forecasts in terms of the lowest root mean squared error over the 24-month forecasting horizons. Moreover, we find that the univariate models used in this article are able to outperform the Bayesian autoregression and Bayesian vector autoregressive models, with exponential smoothing reporting statistically significant results in comparison with the former models, and classical autoregressive and the vector autoregressive models in most cases.     

Planned adaptation in risk regulation: An initial survey of US environmental, health, and safety regulation

In principle, we want regulatory programs to be based on current realities, as reflected for example in the best knowledge of relevant experts. That would imply that old rules now on the books should be consistent with today's knowledge base, not just what was known when a rule or standard was originally set. This paper reports on a survey of US programs, examining how often existing rules are actually updated in light of better knowledge, and identifies five programs that attempt to make policy routinely adaptive. These programs exhibit what we term Planned Adaptation: they both revise rules when relevant new knowledge appears, and take steps to produce such improved knowledge. While Planned Adaptation is rare, it is used in several nationally prominent programs, including air pollution, airplane safety, and drug safety. Planned Adaptation is a policy tool that deserves more attention.     

Pleasure and belief in Hume's Decision Process

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to introduce explicitly pleasure and belief in what aims at being a Humean theory of decision, like the one developed in Diaye and Lapidus (2005a). Although we support the idea that Hume was in some way a hedonist – evidently different from Bentham's or Jevons' way – we lay emphasis less on continuity than on the specific kind of hedonism encountered in Hume's writings (chiefly the Treatise, the second Enquiry, the Dissertation, or some of his Essays). Such hedonism clearly contrasts to its standard modern inheritance, expressed by the relation between preferences and utility.

The reason for such a difference with the usual approach lies in the mental process that Hume puts to the fore in order to explain the way pleasure determines desires and volition. Whereas pleasure is primarily, in Hume's words, an impression of sensation, it takes place in the birth of passions as reflecting an idea of pleasure, whose “force and vivacity” is precisely a “belief”, transferred to the direct passions of desire or volition that come immediately before action. As a result, from a Humean point of view, “belief” deals with decision under risk or uncertainty, as well as with intertemporal decision and indiscrimination problems.

The latter are explored within a formal framework, and it is shown that the relation of pleasure is transformed by belief into a non-empty class of relations of desire, among which at least one is a preorder.     

The greenhouse effect: Damages,costs and abatement

The buildup of so-called greenhouse gases in the atmosphere — CO₂ in particular-appears to be having an adverse impact on the global climate. This paper briefly reviews current expectations with regard to physical and biological effects, their potential costs to society, and likely costs of abatement. For a worst case scenario it is impossible to assess, in economic terms, the full range of possible non-linear synergistic effects. In the most favorable (although not necessarily likely) case (of slow-paced climate change), however, it seems likely that the impacts are within the affordable range, at least in the industrialized countries of the world. In the third world the notion of affordability is of doubtful relevance, making the problem of quantitative evaluation almost impossible. We tentatively assess the lower limit of quantifiable climate-induced damages at $30 to $35 per ton of CO₂ equivalent, worldwide, with the major damages being concentrated in regions most adversely affected by sea-level rise. The non-quantifiable environmental damages are also significant and should by no means be disregarded.The costs and benefits of (1) reducing CFC use and (2) reducing fossil fuel consumption, as a means of abatement, are considered in some detail. This strategy has remarkably high indirect benefits in terms of reduced air pollution damage and even direct cost savings to consumers. The indirect benefits of reduced air pollution and its associated health and environmental effects from fossil-fuel combustion in the industrialized countries range from $20 to $60 per ton of CO₂ eliminated. In addition, there is good evidence that modest (e.g. 25%) reductions in CO₂ emissions may be achievable by the U.S. (and, by implication, for other countries) by a combination of increased energy efficiency and restructuring that would permit simultaneous direct economic benefits (savings) to energy consumers of the order of $50 per ton of CO₂ saved. A higher level of overall emissions reduction — possibly approaching 50% — could probably be achieved, at little or not net cost, by taking advantage of these savings.We suggest the use of taxes on fossil fuel extraction (or a carbon tax) as a reasonable way of inducing the structural changes that would be required to achieve significant reduction in energy use and CO₂ emissions. To minimize the economic burden (and create a political constituency in support of the approach) we suggest the substitution of resource-based taxes in general for other types of taxes (on labor, income, real estate, or trade) that are now the main sources of government revenue. While it is conceded that it would be difficult to calculate the optimal tax on extractive resources, we do not think this is a necessary prerequisite to policy-making. In fact, we note that the existing tax system has never been optimized according to theoretical principles, and is far from optimal by any reasonable criteria.During the academic year 1989–90 Dr. Ayres was at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria.During the summer of 1989 Mr. Walter was a member of the Young Scientists' Summer Program at IIASA.     

SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY: TRACING THE FLOW OF BASIC RESEARCH THROUGH MANUFACTURING AND TRADE

This paper describes flows of basic research through the US economy during the late 20th century. In addition, the paper studies the effect of the flows on scientific papers in industries and fields. This article differs from others in its use of measures of science rather than technology. Together, its results present a picture of the structure of basic research flows in a modern, science-intensive economy. Basic research flows are large within petrochemicals and drugs, and within software and communications. Flows of chemistry, physics, and engineering are common throughout all industries – biology and medicine are almost confined to petrochemicals and drugs; and computer science is nearly as restricted to software and communications. In general, basic research flows are more concentrated within scientific fields than within industries. Our findings concerning the production of scientific papers indicate that the effect of a 1% change in academic R&D spillovers significantly exceeds that of industrial spillovers. In addition, within-field effects exceed effects between-fields, while within- and between-industry effects are roughly equal. It follows that scientific fields limit basic research flows more than industries do, perhaps because large firms implicitly span a range of industries.     

Globalization,Neoliberalism and the attack on social security

Neoliberal political movements advocate privatization of public pension systems. Globalization imposes pressure on nations to conform to neoliberal policy views with respect to the design and structure of social insurance, including public pension systems. The paper begins with an investigation of the economic, ethical and ideological dimensions of the privatization debates in the U.S.; it argues that privatization advocates may be largely moved by ideology, since the other reasons advanced appear weak or unfounded. The second part discusses the history of Social Security, the purposes for its creation, and some of its economic effects. Differences between public and private pension systems are considered. A brief international comparison of some aspects of public pension system finance and benefit structures is presented. The final section considers the ethical, macroeconomic and distributional implications of privatization, prefunding and payroll tax funding, and argues for a pay as you go system financed with income taxes. In order to promote equity, economic security, community, and social cohesion, public pension systems should be universal in coverage. In order to reduce the inequality, income insecurity, and aged poverty generated by market economies, public pension systems ought to be progressive: benefit/contribution ratios should be inversely proportional to income, and progressive income taxes should finance the system. To promote economic growth, the systems should be financed on a pay-as-you-go basis, and should not be prefunded except for an emergency reserve. The fiscal policy recommendations partially depend upon the theory developed by Abba Lerner in the 1940s, and recently advanced by Wynne Godley and Randy Wray: Lerner's “principle of functional finance.”     

Valuing Mangrove-Fishery Linkages – A Case Study of Campeche, Mexico

This paper explores the value of mangrove systems as a breeding and nursery habitat for off-shore fisheries, focusing on mangrove-shrimp production linkages in Campeche State, Mexico. We develop an open access fishery model to account explicitly for the effect of mangrove area on carrying capacity and thus production. From the long-run equilibrium conditions of the model we are able to establish the key parameters determining the comparative static effects of a change in mangrove area on this equilibrium. We then estimate empirically the effects of changes in mangrove area in the Laguna de Terminos on the production and value of shrimp harvests in Campeche over 1980–90. Our findings suggest that mangroves are an important and essential input into the Campeche shrimp fishery, but that the low levels of deforestation between 1980 and 1990 mean that the resulting losses to the shrimp fishery are still comparatively small. Over-exploitation of the fishery due to open access conditions remains the more pervasive threat, and without better management any long-run benefits of protecting mangrove habitat are likely to be dissipated.     

Interest on reserves and inflation

The payment of interest on reserves has been a common practice in inflationary economies. This policy may seem paradoxical since it involves returning part of the seigniorage, generated by the inflation process, with the intention to finance the fiscal deficit. This paper argues that the motivation for this policy can be captured by the discretionary regime, where the policymaker pays interest on reserves because he is concerned with the erosion of real liquidity by inflation, which is in part beyond his control. However, this policy is an unlikely outcome in the commitment regime, where the policymaker is in full control of inflation.     

An Economic Analysis and Simulation of Woodfuel Management in the Sahel

This paper presents an economic framework and a computationalmethodology for assessing the evolution of woodfuel supply costsand the spatial distribution of biomass in a Sahelian woodlandsetting. Spatial data on standing stock and the costs oftransport to market are used to construct a supply curve for fuelto a fuel-consuming location. Given an exogenously specifieddemand, the model simulates, period by period, the extraction,regeneration, and transport of wood fuels. The model is appliedto evaluate the benefits and ecological impacts of scenarios forwoodland management around the city of N'Djamena, Chad.