海洋环境规制、海洋科技创新与海洋经济绿色全要素生产率——基于DEA-Malmquist指数与PVAR模型分析

通过构建海洋环境规制、科技创新综合指数,运用DEA-Malmquist指数测算得到2006—2015年中国11个沿海地区(除港澳台外)海洋经济绿色全要素生产率,通过PVAR模型,考虑海洋经济期望与非期望产出,探讨海洋环境规制、海洋科技创新与海洋经济绿色全要素生产率之间的动态关系。研究结果表明:我国沿海地区间海洋经济绿色全要素生产率存在区域异质性,全国沿海地区宏微观层面存在"强"波特假说,具有时滞性,长江流域沿海地区只存在"弱"波特假说,就我国整体沿海地区而言,需要极大发挥政府引导作用,加强沿海区域间海洋环境规制强度与海洋科技创新协调度,进一步完善海洋保护税,促进海洋经济绿色全要素生产率,实现海洋经济高质量发展。     

技术进步偏向与中国工业行业全要素生产率增长

文章利用CES生产函数分析了技术进步偏向与全要素生产率增长之间的关系,运用1978—2011年中国工业行业数据核算全要素生产率增长和度量技术进步偏向情况。结果显示:1987年后我国工业及大多数行业技术进步明显偏向资本。工业全要素生产率的整体增长率比较低且1990年后主要呈下降趋势,其主要原因是劳动生产效率的上升速度小于技术进步偏向资本的速度,且资本生产效率下降的速度大于技术进步偏向资本的速度。同时,大多数行业资本偏向型技术进步越突出,则行业全要素生产率增长下降越明显。这说明我国工业及行业技术偏向的选择并非是适宜技术。     

科技创新促进中国海洋经济高质量发展了吗——基于科技创新对海洋经济绿色全要素生产率影响的实证检验

推动海洋经济高质量发展是建设海洋强国的必然选择。采用2001—2016年沿海省市面板数据，测算我国沿海省市海洋经济绿色全要素生产率，从线性和非线性角度研究科技创新对海洋经济绿色全要素生产率的影响。结果表明：总体上看，近年来我国海洋经济绿色全要素生产率呈先大幅波动后趋向平稳的状态，年均增长率为2.85%，海洋经济绿色全要素生产率增长主要源于技术进步指数而非技术效率指数；科技创新对于海洋经济绿色全要素生产率具有显著促进作用，有助于海洋经济高质量发展；科技创新对海洋经济绿色全要素生产率的影响存在单一门槛效应，越过门槛之后，对于海洋经济绿色全要素生产率的提升作用会更加显著。在海洋经济同样步入新常态背景下，必须坚持从要素和投资驱动转向创新驱动的海洋经济高质量发展道路。     

中国船舶工业绿色全要素生产率及影响因素分析——基于ML生产率视角对“波特假说”的再检验

选用船舶工业宏观数据和资源环境约束等作为基础数据,运用方向性距离函数和ML指数测算了中国船舶工业绿色全要素生产率(Total Factor Productivity),通过面板模型系统考察了环境规制、技术进步对中国船舶工业绿色全要素生产率的作用。发现从长远来看,绿色全要素生产率呈增长趋势且具有明显的收敛特征,技术进步和技术效率共同推动船舶工业绿色全要素生产率的增长,但整体上绿色全要素生产率低于传统全要素生产率。运用动态面板模型分析中国船舶工业绿色全要素生产率的影响因素,结论表明:较高的技术水平能显著提高绿色全要素生产率,而对国际市场的过度依赖阻碍了船舶工业绿色全要素生产率的增长。环境规制对船舶工业绿色全要素的增长已经带来"补偿效应"从而提高了中国船舶工业的国际竞争力,为考察船舶工业绿色竞争力提供了新的视角。     

我国纺织业技能偏向技术进步的计量分析

文章采用全要素生产率指数分解方法,对中国纺织业技术进步偏向性进行测度,发现整个纺织业并非都存在技能偏向技术进步,技术进步的技能偏向却呈现出较大的波动性,没有出现线性增长的趋势。通过对技能偏向技术进步演变机制的研究,得到了技能偏向技术进步受技能劳动供给增长影响,而国际贸易仅在高技术和低技术行业中对其有促进作用的结论。     

中国资源生产率和全要素生产率研究

本文引入物质流分析方法构建资源生产率的指标体系和经济分析框架,考察1978～2008年间中国资源生产率、全要素生产率及其阶段性特征。实证分析的结果显示,1998年以来,中国经济增长对要素投入的依赖性仍在增强,而全要素生产率及其对经济增长的贡献率却呈下降趋势。本文在此基础上引入资源因素进一步探讨中国全要素生产率的阶段性特征,有助于从资源效率、资源投入与技术进步间的替代关系等多个方面增进对中国经济增长的理解。     

金融发展与全要素生产率增长:区域差异重要吗?——来自中国省级面板数据的经验证据

基于1997-2008年中国省级面板数据以及分全国层面、沿海地区与内陆地区三个样本对金融发展与全要素生产率增长的联系及其中间渠道重新进行检验,结果发现:中国金融发展的全要素生产率增长效应与区域因素有关;中国金融发展促进全要素生产率增长的中间渠道是技术进步效应而非技术效率增长效应。这意味着,加快中国金融体系改革,从而推动金融发展对于经济增长质量的提高是非常重要的。     

要素结构变迁对要素生产率的影响——技术进步偏态的视角

技术进步向来是内生经济增长理论关注的焦点,但文献普遍忽视技术进步方向和要素结构对经济效率的影响,其中产业技术进步方向更是本领域的研究空白。文章通过CES生产函数,采用三方程标准化系统法测算我国产业技术进步偏向性,并考察技术进步偏态下要素结构变迁及其对要素生产率的作用。结果发现:(1)我国各产业技术进步都呈偏向特征,要素禀赋不同引致技术进步方向呈阶段性变化趋势和产业差异,金融业与其他产业资本和劳动偏向交替变化特征不同,技术进步总体呈现劳动偏向性。(2)产业要素结构变化趋势及其动力来源差异明显,其中产业资本投资结构变动更多源于投资效益的变化,劳动力结构变动则主要来自投入效益和产业结构的共同作用。(3)将技术进步偏向性和要素结构对要素边际生产率的交互作用分解后发现,各产业资本与劳动相对边际生产率都在下降,这主要归因于要素结构效应的下降,且除金融业外,其他产业技术进步偏向性都具有提升资本与劳动相对边际生产率的作用。     

东、西部地区1996—2005年全要素生产率变动分析

文章在分析比较了全要素生产率不同估算方法的基础上,估算出了我国1996—2005年间东、西部地区的全要素生产率增长率,并对不同地区的全要素生产率增长和经济增长源泉做了简要分析。分析表明：实施西部大开发战略后,我国东部地区全要素生产率发展呈现一种相对下降的趋势;我国西部地区的全要素生产率呈现出一种相对上升的趋势,这种上升的趋势要好于东部地区下降的趋势。具体分析不同地区全要素生产率增长的源泉会发现,东部地区全要素生产率增长是技术进步和技术效率共同作用的结果,而西部地区的全要素生产率更多的是技术效率推动的结果。     

中国全要素生产率的估算:1979—2004

本文在分析比较了全要素生产率四种估算方法的基础上,估算出我国1979—2004年间的全要素生产率增长率,并对我国全要素生产率增长和经济增长源泉做了简要分析。分析表明(1)1993年以前,我国的全要素生产率增长率总体呈现出涨跌互现的波动情形且波动较为剧烈频繁,1993年以来,则呈现出逐年下降趋势,直到2000年才得以缓解,此后全要素生产率增长率总体呈现出逐年攀升势头;(2)1979—2004年间我国全要素生产率增长率及其对经济增长的贡献率较低,表明我国经济增长主要依赖于要素投入增长,是一种较为典型的投入型增长方式;(3)我国全要素生产率增长率较低的原因在于技术进步率偏低、生产能力没有得到充分利用、技术效率低下和资源配置不尽合理。     

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.     

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.”     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Bayesian estimation of duration models: An application of the multiperiod probit model

The multiperiod probit model is presented and Bayesian estimation using the Gibbs sampler with data augmentation is described. As an empirical illustration, the multiperiod probit model is then used to estimate a duration model using employment duration data for the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Bayesian estimation with unobserved heterogeneity is shown to be a simple extension of estimation of a duration model with no unobserved heterogeneity. More importantly, perhaps, some numerical problems encountered by other authors using Maximum Likelihood are avoided.I would like to thank M. Baker, G. Koop, A. Melino and D. Poirier for helpful comments and discussions. I would also like to thank M. Baker for providing his data.     

Scenarios and creativity: Thinking in new boxes

To be creative and make change happen, leaders must do more than simply ‘think outside the box’, as the traditional business manuals suggest, using the popular American expression. After all, the space outside the box is infinitely expansive. Moreover, there can be no guarantee that a solution to the problem will be found. The answer: ‘Think in new boxes.’ This requires developing the right new box; in other words, useful new models, a helpful new approach to a problem. That is the real art of practical creativity. This short article outlines the approach (Thinking in New Boxes) and its application to classic scenario planning with a few examples. The authors also present the ‘Expressway to Scenarios’, an approach that wins in impact and practicality what it loses in deep analysis, by having top executives involved in key steps.     

On the Role of Paradigms in Understanding Economic Globalization

Any adequate analysis of economic globalization necessarily requires fundamental understanding of the worldviews underlying the views expressed with respect to the nature and role of economic globalization. This paper is based on the premise that any worldview can be associated with one of the four basic paradigms: functionalist, interpretive, radical humanist, and radical structuralist. It argues that any view expressed with respect to economic globalization is based on one of the four paradigms or worldviews. It, therefore, discusses four views with respect to the nature and role of economic globalization which correspond to the four broad worldviews. The paper emphasizes that the four views expressed are equally scientific and informative; they look at the nature and role of economic globalization from a certain paradigmatic viewpoint. Emphasizing this example in the area of economic globalization, the paper concludes that there are opportunities for each paradigm to benefit from contributions coming from the other three paradigms.