Hedonic adaptation and the role of decision and experience utility in public policy

Many economists are becoming supportive of ‘soft’ paternalistic interventions that help people to avoid common decision errors without curtailing individual autonomy. To identify when such interventions could be beneficial, and to assess their success, requires a welfare criterion. However, traditional preference or choice-based criteria cannot serve this function because they assume that whatever people choose makes them better off. An alternative criterion that bases welfare on happiness rather than choice avoids this problem but has several of its own drawbacks. Most notably, people often adapt to serious chronic health conditions, and exhibit high levels of happiness, even though both those with and those without the condition agree that it is much preferable to be healthy. After reviewing different lines of research that shed light on the pros and cons of these alternative welfare criteria, we argue that no simple criterion based on either concept can surmount these problems. Instead, evaluations of welfare will inevitably have to be informed by a combination of both approaches, patched together in a fashion that depends on the specific context.     

西方结构型通货膨胀理论及其对我国的启示

我们正面临西方国家曾经出现并已解决的结构型通货膨胀,我们需要认真研究西方结构型通货膨胀产生的历史背景、成因及其对策,借鉴发达国家治理结构型通货膨胀的对策与措施:实行紧缩性的货币政策、价格管制政策、供给管理政策、根据国际收支和国际市场的具体情况灵活变动汇率等。     

武汉市科技投入结构分析及优化政策

本文通过对科技投入与经济增长的关系进行概括分析,在2002～2007年《武汉科技统计年鉴》数据的基础上,阐述了科技投入对武汉市经济和社会发展的重要意义;分析了武汉市的科技投入现状,并通过与国外一些发达国家及地区科技投入结构的系统比较,提出了优化武汉市科技投入结构的一些政策及建议。     

循环经济下企业环境责任的变迁与政策激励分析

随着经济模式的转化企业的环境责任由被动遵守环境法规和标准逐渐向主动承担环境责任转化,没有企业主动承担环境责任就没有循环经济的深入推进,循环经济的深化对企业的环境责任提出更高的要求。企业主动承担环境责任动力源于市场的导向和政府环境政策的激励,通过环境政策的调整均衡企业、个人和社会三者利益,促进企业主动承担环境责任和循环经济良性发展。     

Jan Tinbergen's statistical contribution to economic policy

In this article I claim that the Nobel Prize in Economics has not only set the economics discipline on a path‐dependent trajectory, but is itself an apotheosis of a development of what I would like to refer to as ‘the statistical turn in economics’. The case of Jan Tinbergen illustrates the argument and sketches the stages within the statistical turn in economics. The Nobel Prize in 1969 acknowledged this character of economics, and justified the continuation of this approach for the generation to come.     

通货膨胀与中国宏观经济政策的困境

2008年，中国经济再度经历了通货膨胀。通货膨胀成因复杂，属于一种混合型通货膨胀。在物价上涨的袁象下面，隐藏着经济制度的缺陷和经济结构的根本性失衡。受制度本身和一些内在因素的影响，宏观经济政策面临困境。必须采取短期和长期措施，在治理通货膨胀的同时，尽快转变经济增长方式，完善基本经济制度。     

Inflation targeting and monetary policy in Canada: What is the impact on inflation uncertainty?

Inflation uncertainty has been demonstrated both theoretically and empirically to lower real output. This paper examines the impact of inflation targeting in Canada on inflation uncertainty, as well as persistence. Our results indicate that inflation targeting lowered inflation persistence, but actually increased uncertainty. Such an effect may be due to the failure of the previous formal target, the M1 money supply, to successfully combat inflation.     

Road Transport Externalities

During the last decade much progress has been made in defining & measuring the external costs of transport. As the cost of tolling equipment falls, the set of realistic policy options to internalise these externalities will continue to grow. This will determine the research and policy agenda. We make three points. Firstly, empirical work is still necessary to better identify marginal external costs, including congestion, accident and environmental costs. Secondly, any assessment of policy options should treat externalities simultaneously. The use of pricing instruments and emissions standards are discussed within this framework. Thirdly, we emphasise the role of government. Designing the optimal road-pricing institutions requires consideration of horizontal and vertical tax competition, while double-dividend arguments are central to the question of securing public support.     

东南亚应对通货膨胀的经验与启示

面对2007年下半年以来不断恶化的通货膨胀形势,东南亚主要经济体积极运用市场干预政策、财政政策、货币政策等多种政策协调配合应对通货膨胀。短期内,东南亚的通货膨胀取决于国际大宗商品价格能否企稳和其国内政策能否稳定通货膨胀预期;长期内,则取决于社会生产技术发展水平和其企业对上游产品价格上涨的消化吸收能力。东南亚应对通货膨胀的经验与教训值得我们关注。     

An Application of an Integrated Transport Network– Multiregional CGE Model: a Framework for the Economic Analysis of Highway Projects

This paper develops a framework for the economic analysis of highway projects that is then used to estimate the dynamic economic effects of a highway project on the economic growth and the regional disparity in Korea. The framework is composed of a transport model and a multiregional Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model. The transport model measures a change in interregional shortest distances and the accessibility due to the highway project. The CGE model estimates the spatial economic effects of the project on GDP, the price, exports, and the regional distribution of wages and population. The simulation allows policy makers to determine which highway development deserves the priority for investment, based on consideration of economic growth and regional economic equity in the long run. The simulation found that all the highway projects have positive effects on GDP and export growth as well as regional equity in terms of wage and population.