Complementary currencies: what role should they be playing in local and regional government?

The current climate of fiscal austerity has seen a resurgence in ‘complementary currencies’ as local and regional governments look for ways to use under-utilized assets, maintain employment and avoid local economic decline. The authors explore how local and regional governments can facilitate complementary currencies to reduce the impact of external economic shocks and enable their economies to continue to function in the face of austerity. They recommend that localities consider participating in existing complementary currency ‘circles’.     

农村普惠金融发展空间差异与集聚效应

基于中国农村普惠金融发展的空间地理特征,依据2006-2015年30个省市相关数据,测算农村普惠金融水平;建立空间自回归模型(SLM)和空间误差模型(SEM)检验普惠金融发展空间集聚效应.结果发现:各省市农村普惠金融指数总体呈上升趋势,农村普惠金融发展空间相关性逐年增强,局部空间差异逐渐缩小.普惠金融集聚与农民收入变化之间存在正空间相关性,普惠金融水平的提高能够促进农民收入水平的提高.鉴此,应加强区域空间金融合作,提高保险业普惠度;加强地方政府之间交流合作,发挥普惠金融集聚辐射作用,推动农民收入水平进一步提高.     

Hybridizing local and generic information to model cropping system spatial distribution in an agricultural landscape

For quantitative water management, fine analysis of spatial and temporal interactions between cropping systems and water resources helps identify time and site-specific withdrawal situations. However, it is a methodological challenge to provide fine-resolution analyses at the scale of large watersheds used for crises management. In this study, we present a methodology based on multiple methods and mixed sources of information to finely model an agricultural landscape (AL) that represents the spatial distribution of cropping systems. Our approach is based on progressively hybridizing databases and local actors' and experts' knowledge to produce a spatially explicit and dynamic model. The Land Parcel Identification System database, which resulted from the European Common Agricultural Policy, is crucial for our method since it provides the spatial and temporal basis of our model (i.e., geographic delineation of islets and information about crop sequences). Local knowledge is used to identify factors determining spatial distribution of cropping systems and to build a generic model that simulates farmers' crop-management strategies. The model was qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated using a multi-agent simulation platform (MAELIA). We asked local experts on quantitative water management to evaluate the ability of the platform to reproduce intra- and inter-annual dynamics at different levels when using our model of the AL as input. The experts were satisfied with the results; they validated the predicted dynamics of the variables, and some discussed the objectivity of the values. We discuss the method’s contribution to current challenges in modeling large agricultural areas and the associated tradeoffs. The approach is promising for policy makers who wish to develop integrated, locally adapted land-management strategies.     

区域化党建视域下流动党员政党认同现状及提升途径研究--以宁波北仑为例

流动党员个体在政党认同强度上的差别，一定程度上影响着全党政治行为的整合性和驱动力。根据当前流动党员在政党认知、政党情感、政党评价及政党认同的行为四个层面的两面性分析，应从价值内化、情感维系、社会引导等三方面进行运作，以提高流动党员政党认同度。     

The determinants of FTA use in Southeast Asia: A firm-level analysis

The spread of free trade agreements (FTAs) in Southeast Asia has ignited a debate about their impact on enterprises including the business costs from the Asian ‘noodle bowl’ effect. This paper undertakes a comparative and firm-level analysis of the determinants of FTA use in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. The likelihood of firms using important ASEAN+1 FTAs (e.g. the ASEAN-China FTA, the ASEAN-Japan FTA and ASEAN-Korea FTA) is positively associated with acquiring knowledge about FTAs, building technological capabilities, and membership in industrial clusters. Non-use of FTAs is explained by a lack of information about FTAs and the absence of FTAs with major trading partners. Key policy implications are the need to improve business support for FTAs, to conclude FTAs with major trading partners, and to create a database on FTA preference use.     

Tax avoidance and ex ante cost of capital

This study examines the association between tax avoidance and ex ante cost of equity capital. Based on prior research, we develop two proxies for investors’ expectations of tax avoidance and explore whether deviations from those expectations result in higher ex ante cost of equity capital. We find that the ex ante cost of equity capital increases with tax avoidance that is either below or above investor expectations and that the increase is larger for tax avoidance that exceeds investors’ expectations. We then examine whether firms that alter their future tax avoidance exhibit a lowering of their ex ante cost of equity capital and find that tax avoidance decreases (increases) from the prior year for firms that were above (below) investors’ expectations in the prior year. These results are consistent with the trade‐off suggested by the Scholes and Wolfson framework and reinforce the notion that balancing tax benefits and non‐tax costs is an important feature of firms’ tax planning.     

Unveiling Urban Sprawl in the Mediterranean Region: Towards a Latent Urban Transformation?

The relationship between form and function in European Mediterranean cities has been widely addressed from various perspectives. A number of studies indicate that, until the 1980s, compactness was a key trait of several cities of the Northern Mediterranean. However, after the ‘compact growth’ period, these cities experienced patterns of urbanization that differed from their traditional trends. Since the 1990s, sprawl, coupled with population decline in the inner cities, has become the main pattern of urban development. This article explores the key features of exurban development in the Mediterranean region in order to provide material for a discussion based on the differences and similarities in the characteristics of sprawl processes originating in the US and Northern Europe. It concludes that any debate on policy responses to sprawl must be specifically formulated according to the scope, administrative level, housing and planning system, territorial and socioeconomic characteristics of the urban system under examination. It is our belief that sprawl requires site‐specific analyses and policy strategies for the region being studied if the process is to be effectively controlled.     

维吾尔族民众信任的权威格局分析——以四个地区个案为基础的实证研究

权威格局是各种权威要素因地位差异构成的功能互补的社会秩序协调机制，对权威格局的研究是从合法性角度对社会政治稳定必须具备的民众基础的考量。调查结果显示：新疆社会政治稳定具备牢固的维吾尔族民众基础。维吾尔族民众信任的权威格局中。以领导干部为代表的法理型权威在个人和社会事务两个领域普遍受到信任，占据权威格局的主导地位，辅之以在社会事务方面越来越受到信任的知识能力型人才代表的新型权威。经济愈发达的地区，情况愈是如此。宗教人士所代表的传统权威能够发挥的作用主要局限在社会事务领域中的道德规范，在经济欠发达地区的作用相对更大。     

区域产业发展视角的农业综合开发影响评估——基于对蔬菜产业的干预效应分析

【目的】通过定量方法准确评估农业综合开发对区域优势产业发展的影响有重要意义。【方法】从农业综合开发对蔬菜产业的项目干预效应入手,以县级为单位,将当年农业综合开发项目扶持内容包括蔬菜产业的县级单位划分为干预组,其他为控制组。采用可以有效解决样品选择偏差的倾向得分匹配方法,通过引入协变量、平衡检验、匹配等步骤,在控制组中找到与干预组成员单位特征相似的成员,构建反事实研究框架。【结果】结果得出,项目干预组比控制组区域的蔬菜播种面积占比高出1~3个百分点,说明农业综合开发项目对蔬菜产业的扶持对蔬菜播种面积的扩大有促进作用,利于蔬菜产业壮大。通过协变量影响力分析得出,地区的蔬菜生产优势是最重要的影响因素,从侧面证明了农业综合开发项目的扶持方向紧跟区域优势的政策宗旨。【结论】可见,通过有方向性的农业综合开发项目实施扶持特定产业对促进区域优势产业发展和实现农业结构优化是有效的。     

Why the Development of Health Insurance Is Regionally Imbalanced: Evidence from China

As China adopted an imbalanced development strategy to obtain rapid economic growth, it is getting more and more urgent to find out a feasible way to balanced development of social safety network. This study measures the degree of regional disparities in China’s health insurance industry and explores the rationales by a thorough examination of health insurance purchasing behavior. An empirical analysis is conducted, based on a panel data of 31 provinces from 2004 to 2014, to test the hypothesis. We find that the regional disparities would be significantly affected by the variables including age structure, education, income, availability of health resources, density of population, and substitutes.