Valuing nature: From environmental impacts to natural capital

Economic valuation of natural and environmental assets is now a well established practice. Economic analysis provides several methods for discovering the impact on social welfare associated with changes in the ability of these assets to provide different goods and services. In general terms, these valuation exercises have been performed in the framework of Environmental Impact Assessment or, more generally, Cost Benefit Analysis. There is, however, an increasing demand nowadays to go beyond this framework and to value natural capital (natural resource stocks, land and ecosystems) as such. There are two main reasons for this new demand. On the one hand, sustainability requires that proper account should be taken of capital depreciation and, therefore, there is a need to value natural capital changes. This valuation process, nevertheless, only makes sense when some kind of substitution between natural and other forms of capital is allowed. On the other hand, there is also an increasing tendency to demand that the stock of natural capital present in a given territory be valued, either to discover one of the main components of social wealth or to help adequately plan changes in land use. Yet, whereas conventional valuation methods are probably adequate to fulfill the first task, this is less true in the case of the second, while even more difficulties arise in connection with the third one. Even if at first sight the process appears conceptually identical, these tasks are of a different order of magnitude, as the experience of both the World Bank and the Statistics Division of the United Nations in this respect clearly shows.     

Price clustering and natural resistance points in the Dutch stock market: A natural experiment

This paper focuses on the tendency of stock prices to cluster at round numbers (like 10, 20, 30, etc. and to a lesser extent 5, 15, 25, etc.) and the related effect of round number price barriers (prices pass round numbers less frequently than other numbers). Two competing hypotheses are tested, using data from the Dutch stock market of the period 1990–2001. After 1 January 1999 stock prices were listed in euros, while guilders were still the currency of daily life until 2002. The aspiration level hypothesis predicts that round number effects in guilders will only slowly disappear. The odd price hypothesis predicts an abrupt change in round number effects after 1 January 1999. Generally, the results are consistent with the odd price hypothesis.     

论自然资源的价值

本文在比较了已有的几种自然资源价值观后，认为自然资源的价值问题应该从社会生态经济再生产的角度，应用马克思主义的再生产劳动价值理论来研究。自然资源的价值是由再生产其使用价值所必需的社会必要劳动时间决定的。     

人民币自然均衡实际汇率:1978—2004

均衡汇率是判断汇率水平是否失调及汇率政策是否需要调整的主要客观依据。长期自然均衡实际汇率是基本经济因素决定的、保证经济内外均衡和充分就业的实际汇率水平。本文根据自然均衡汇率理论和中国宏观经济特点,提出估计人民币自然均衡实际汇率的结构方程,采用1978—2004年的年度数据,利用全息极大似然法进行系统估计,得出人民币中、长期自然均衡实际汇率,测算出人民币实际汇率失调程度。实证分析结果表明,近几年人民币存在一定程度低估,但汇率失调程度趋向收敛。目前人民币升值压力主要来自金融经济层面。应整合中央银行和外汇管理部门职能,协同利用宏观经济政策,进一步完善人民币汇率市场形成机制。     

美英对公用事业的管制

本文简要地介绍了美国和英国对公用事业实行管制的由来、做法和经验。作者指出．由于生用事业的自然垄断性质及其与公共福利密切相关的缘故，使得美英两国在公用事业各部门建立了管制体系。实践表明，管制既有利于保障公众福利，又有利于改善公用事业的经营管理。他们的经验可为中国改革公用事业的管理体制提供有益的参考。     

Can modeling the natural gas futures market as a threshold cointegrated system improve hedging and forecasting performance?

The calculation of the hedge ratio, and therefore the effectiveness of the hedge, is dependent upon the correct specification of the relationship between the futures and spot price. Likewise, a forecast of the future spot or futures price is dependent upon the model specification. This article investigates the appropriateness of using a threshold cointegrated model of the natural gas markets as the basis for hedging and forecasting. The findings suggest that the threshold model is more appropriate for longer contract length and that the threshold model does not offer much improvement in hedging or forecasting efficiency.     

我国"西气东输"产业化的政策分析

本文根据我国天然气工业发展的实际情况，分析了当前我国天然气工业发展所面临的问题，并通过借鉴研究国外天然气产业在项目投资、税收、价格政策以及管理等方面的成功经验，对我国西部大开发的标志性工程项目“西气东输”工程建设和营运的相关经济政策进行了探讨，提出了促进我国天然气工业发展和“西气东输”产业化的一些具体政策措施。     

自然资源与区域经济增长:一个文献综述

自然资源是影响区域经济增长的重要因素,但是一直以来资源问题却没有引起主流经济学界的重视,包含有自然资源因素的增长模型是对区域经济增长模型的扩展。经验数据表明自然资源在某种程度上会挤出物质资本,并影响效率,从而形成区域经济增长过程中的"资源陷阱"现象,西方学者对此做出了理论上的解释。     

Development of the SEEA 2003 and its implementation

The preparation of the System of Environmental and Economic Accounts 2003 marks an important milestone in the world of official statistics. Just as the development of the original guidelines for national accounting in the 1950s was the first step toward today's robust, internationally comparable economic statistics, the System of Environmental and Economic Accounts 2003 offers hope to bring order and comparability to environmental statistics. How the system came to be and why it is an important achievement are outlined. This is followed by an overview of its accounting structure. A discussion of the implementation of the SEEA 2003, both in ideal terms and as actually practiced in statistical offices, concludes.     

Exploring welfare implications of resource equivalency analysis in natural resource damage assessments

Resource equivalency analysis (REA) has become the dominant method for calculating natural resource damages for biological injuries from pollution incidents. This methodology compares resources lost as a result of an incident to benefits that can be gained from a habitat or wildlife restoration project. Compensation is evaluated in terms of resource services instead of market currency. Recently, this approach has been questioned regarding its ability to provide adequate compensation based on economic welfare principles. The following paper examines these critiques and develops a model to quantify the welfare implications of using REA when some of its implicit assumptions are violated.We focus on the situation where compensatory restoration projects provide services that are comparable to those lost as a result of an incident. We examine simulation scenarios where the public has heterogeneous preferences for resources and where resource values change over time. Using the Hicks-Kaldor criterion, we find that the traditional REA provides an acceptable approximation of aggregate compensation for a reasonably wide range of economic and biological parameter combinations.