Theoretical analysis and model design of search for ecological conservation redlines based on the sensitivity assessment of ecosystem services

Most small-scale social economies are characterised by their deficiency, lack, and/or difficulty in matching natural data. Against this backdrop, this paper builds a relatively uniform theoretical framework and designs a more economical and objective method for demarcating ecological conservation redlines (ECR) based on sensitivity assessment of ecosystem services. The results show that the sensitivity assessment model designed in this study can identify sensitive zones effectively, and that the ECR in Hubei Province are well within the sensitive zones so identified. The delimited areas based on the sensitive assessment of ecosystem services have great similarities (95%) with the actual ECR areas in Hubei Province. The most ecologically important functional zones (EIFZ) can also be identified using the regional ecological sensitivity coefficient. When the threshold of EIFZ is set higher, the probability that it falls within the ecologically sensitive areas is greater and the ECR delimited by the method proposed in this study will be more reliable. Theoretically, the delimitation of ECR can be inserted at any evaluation level with a grid resolution higher than that of the land use data, which can be used as a supplement to the ECR delimitation method in ecology or geography.     

城市化进程中的“资源尾效”和“资源诅咒”——基于中国27个煤炭城市的面板数据分析

传统城市化理论往往强调自然资源对城市发展的正面作用,却对城市化的约束和反向作用问题考虑不够。文章基于"资源尾效"和"资源诅咒"两种假说,利用1997-2012年中国27个典型煤炭城市的数据对其煤炭资源开发与城市化发展的关系进行正负效应检验。结果表明:27个煤炭城市中有16个城市出现"资源尾效",其尾效数值为0.001 755;其余11个城市出现"资源诅咒",其煤炭资源对城市化发展的影响系数为-0.207 2。可见,自然资源的开发强度要处于一个合适的水平,并同时注意资本投入、教育和制度等因素才能最大程度上提高城市化水平。     

Hong Kong's growth synchronization with China and the US: A trend and cycle analysis

This paper investigates the synchronization of Hong Kong's economic growth with mainland China and the US. We identify trends of economic growth based on the permanent income hypothesis. Specifically, we first confirm whether real consumption in Hong Kong and mainland China satisfies the permanent income hypothesis, at least in a weak form. We then identify the permanent and transitory components of income of each economy using a simple state-space model. We use structural vector autoregression models to analyze how permanent and transitory shocks originating from mainland China and the US affect the Hong Kong economy, and how such influences evolve over time. Our main findings suggest that transitory shocks from the US remain a major driving force behind Hong Kong's business cycle fluctuations. On the other hand, permanent shocks from mainland China have a larger impact on Hong Kong's trend growth.     

Direct Democracy and Local Public Finances under Cooperative Federalism

In this paper, we exploit the introduction of the right of local initiatives in the German state of Bavaria in 1995 in order to study the fiscal effects of direct democracy. Our identification strategy combines difference‐in‐differences and regression discontinuity methods: we compare municipal expenditure and revenue between pre‐ and post‐reform periods at population thresholds where the signatures needed to launch initiatives and minimum quorum requirements decrease discontinuously (difference‐in‐discontinuities design). The results suggest that stronger direct democratic institutions lead to an expansion of local government size.     

基于特征增量的新类识别方法研究

在分类应用的过程中,经常会出现新的类别,导致数据分布发生显著变化,使得原分类模型不再适用。如何识别新的类别使分类模型能适应其出现已经成为一个亟需解决的问题。本文提出基于特征增量的SVDD(支持向量数据描述)新类识别方法。该方法在SVDD算法的基础上,通过增加新特征,扩大特征空间维度从而提高模型对于新类的识别能力。在多个数据集上的实验结果表明,该方法能有效识别新类,使更新后的模型具有更高的准确度。     

On the volatility spillover between lslamic and conventional stock markets: A quantile regression analysis

This paper aims at analyzing the degree and structure of interdependencies in terms of volatility (transmission, contagion) between Islamic and conventional stock markets on calm periods and at times of financial fragility and crisis. We focused on the recent financial instability periods and used the Quantile Regression-based GARCH model. Main results lead to very interesting conclusions. First, it has been found that Islamic stock markets are not totally immune to the global financial crisis. Second, a very strong interdependence is sensed from the conventional to the Islamic stock markets, especially, from the conventional developed markets to the Islamic Emerging and Arab markets and to the Islamic developed markets. Finally, it has been proved that the interdependencies from conventional to Islamic markets are propagated between Islamic markets. Our findings suggest that the Islamic finance industry does not seem able to provide cushion against economic and financial shocks that affect conventional markets.     

工业集聚与污染排放强度——基于固定效应门限回归模型的再检验

为研究工业集聚对污染排放强度的影响，本文选取2000~2015年全国30个省市（自治区）的面板数据，以工业集聚为门槛变量，利用固定效应门限回归模型，实证分析了不同工业集聚水平对污染排放强度的影响。结果发现：工业集聚对废水排放强度的影响存在显著门槛效应，在达到门槛值前，工业集聚很大程度降低了废水排放强度，在跨过门槛值后，这种作用会减弱。工业集聚与废气排放强度呈显著倒“U”型关系，在工业集聚水平小于门槛值时，工业集聚会加剧废气排放，大于门槛值后，工业集聚会降低废气排放强度。工业集聚会降低废物排放强度，但未出现显著门槛效应。     

企业社会责任表现、报告质量与企业声誉——基于中国上市公司的实证研究

近年来，越来越多的企业通过发布企业社会责任（CSR）报告与利益相关者沟通CSR表现的情况。在CSR与企业声誉之间的关系备受关注的背景下，CSR报告质量在其中发挥着什么样的作用呢？梳理现有文献，将CSR表现划分成责任管理、市场责任、社会责任以及环境责任，通过实证检验，分别探讨各自与企业声誉之间的作用机理，并研究CSR报告质量在二者之间关系中的调节效应。研究结果显示CSR表现正向作用于企业声誉，相较于责任管理，责任实践的正向作用更强。同时CSR报告质量在二者之间的关系中具有调节效应，能够进一步提升企业声誉，并且对环境责任的调节效应最为明显。     

How should Engel's law be formulated?

Engel's law expresses a “negative stochastic association” of income and the proportion of income that is spent on food. However, there are many quite different notions of “negative stochastic association” and consequently there are different ways of defining Engel's law. We relate these different concepts to Engel's original statistical analysis and show that one must give credit to Engel for the first non-parametric statistical analysis of budget-data.