Provision Point Mechanisms and Field Validity Tests of Contingent Valuation

Past field validity tests of contingent valuation have relied on voluntary contribution mechanisms to elicit actual willingness to pay, and may overestimate hypothetical bias because of free riding in the actual contributions. This paper argues that provision point mechanisms are a preferred alternative for field validity tests of contingent valuation because they increase the proportion of demand revealed in cases in which public goods can be provided in a step function. The results of a contingent valuation validity study of participation in a green electricity pricing program that uses a provision point mechanism are reported, and hypothetical open-ended and dichotomous choice responses are compared to actual participation. Calibration of hypothetical responses is also explored.     

The Prosecution of Public Figures and the Separation of Powers. Confusion within the Executive Branch – A Conceptual Framework

Criminal investigation and prosecution of politicians, top civil servants and other public figures are topics frequently discussed in the media. The nature of the investigating or prosecuting authority varies between countries – from the general public prosecutor, through magistrates to independent counsels or parliamentary investigation commissions. This paper analyzes the role and status of public prosecutors within the separation of powers-concept. Prosecutors are usually part of the executive and not the judicial branch, which implies that they do not enjoy the same degree of independence as judges, and are ultimately subordinated to the directives of the minister of justice or the government. Conflicts of interest may hence arise if members of government can use the criminal process for their own or partisan interests. The incentives of public prosecutors in different jurisdictions are compared.     

Money as Social Exergy

Synopsis It has been proposed that open thermodynamic systems will act to dissipate available energy gradients by self-organizing into coherent structures that, with time, evolve and develop into nested hierarchies – panarchies – that adapt to internal and external changes according to a characteristic adaptive cycle. This paper seeks to apply these ideas in the purely societal realm by investigating the role of money in economic systems. Money represents the value embodied in goods; a value that is separate from the exact nature of those goods. We suggest that money thereby liberates the ‘free value’ of economic desire and that this free value has properties analogous to energy. The result is the self-organization of structures and systems (‘econosystems’) that dissipate this ‘free value’. Econosystems act at different scales, and nested levels of econosystems form a panarchy, having effects that can be observed. In particular, it appears that money facilitates the creation of relationships between econosystem actors, increasing the connectedness of the econosystems that envelop those actors. We have identified a phenomenon whereby freed social value (i.e. money) can aggregate, or pool, at a larger econosystem scale in structures such as banks. These pools act as gradients that actors at the neighborhood scale can exploit for self-organization in the econosystem. Thus, econosystem actors appear to be freed from thermodynamic constraints by using money as a means of self-organization. However, because of these pools of aggregated social exergy, connectedness is increased at the larger scale of the econosystem. The potential consequence of this dynamic is that money may act to push larger scale econosystems toward a state of heightened vulnerability to collapse, while freeing smaller scale actors from apparent constraints. In this way, we propose that money acts to skew information feedback loops between econosystem actors and larger scale structures such as economies and ecosystems.      

论马克思主义政治经济学理论创新——兼论政治经济学学科的发展方向

本文拟在三个既定前提条件下论证三个命题.三个既定前提条件是:1.中国新民主主义革命胜利、新中国和社会主义制度的建立,是马克思主义与中国实际结合的产物;2.1978年开始的改革开放和现代化建设,是在中国化的马克思主义指导下进行的;3.今后中国的改革发展还要以马克思主义为指导.要论证的三个命题是:1.马克思主义政治经济学必须创新;2.马克思主义政治经济学能够创新;3.马克思主义政治经济学创新的基本方向是:坚持实践第一,坚持把马克思主义基本原理与中国实际相结合,坚持吸收人类创造的一切文明成果.     

Economic Potential of Biomass Based Fuels for Greenhouse Gas Emission Mitigation

Use of biofuels diminishes fossil fuelcombustion thereby also reducing net greenhousegas emissions. However, subsidies are neededto make agricultural biofuel productioneconomically feasible. To explore the economicpotential of biofuels in a greenhouse gasmitigation market, we incorporate data onproduction and biofuel processing for thedesignated energy crops switchgrass, hybridpoplar, and willow in an U.S. AgriculturalSector Model along with data on traditionalcrop-livestock production and processing, andafforestation of cropland. Net emissioncoefficients on all included agriculturalpractices are estimated through crop growthsimulation models or taken from the literature. Potential emission mitigation policies ormarkets are simulated via hypothetical carbonprices. At each carbon price level, theAgricultural Sector Model computes the newmarket equilibrium, revealing agriculturalcommodity prices, regionally specificproduction, input use, and welfare levels,environmental impacts, and adoption ofalternative management practices such asbiofuel production. Results indicate no rolefor biofuels below carbon prices of $40 perton of carbon equivalent. At these incentivelevels, emission reductions via reduced soiltillage and afforestation are more costefficient. For carbon prices above $70,biofuels dominate all other agriculturalmitigation strategies.     

Feminist Ecological Economics and Sustainability

Synopsis New developments in feminist ecological economics and ecofeminist economics are contributing to the search for theories and policy approaches to move economies toward sustainability. This paper summarizes work by ecofeminists and feminist ecological economists which is relevant to the sustainability challenge and its implications for the discipline of economics. Both democracy and lower material throughputs are generally seen as basic principles of economic sustainability. Feminist theorists and feminist ecological economists offer many important insights into the conundrum of how to make a democratic and equity-enhancing transition to an economy based on less material throughput. These flow from feminist research on unpaid work and caring labor, provisioning, development, valuation, social reproduction, non-monetized exchange relationships, local economies, redistribution, citizenship, equity-enhancing political institutions, and labor time, as well as creative modeling approaches and activism-based theorizing.      

会计职务犯罪的心理学分析

近年来有的财会人员经不住种种诱惑,采取非法手段,侵害国家、集体和人民的利益,其突出表现为做假帐。本文从心理学的角度分析了会计职务犯罪产生的因素,会计职务犯罪对社会的危害。最后,对如何预防会计职务犯罪,运用制度经济学原理从宏观和微观两方面提出了建议。     

促进经济和谐与建设“和谐社会”探析

经济和谐是“和谐社会”的主要内容和重要支撑，由于特定时期中国存在经济结构不匀衡的各种矛盾。应从税收、公共支出和公共行政等方面采取相关措施。促进经济与社会的共同发展与繁荣。     

体制变革背景下的服务业增长：一个定量分析框架

1978-2006年，中国服务业的高速增长与经济体制变革存在着直接的关系。体制变革是过去20多年中服务业增长的一个最重要因素。体制变革一方面通过放松管制提高了服务业占GDP的比重，另一方面，体制变革通过民营化进程降低了服务业的内部产业X-无效率，提高了服务业的金要素生产率。     

创业投资退出方式的选择及影响因素研究综述

创业投资的成功退出有利于实现创业资本的循环发展。对与国外创业投资退出方式的选择相关的研究进行了回顾,内容涉及各种退出方式的比较与选择、不同国家退出方式选择受制度体系的影响以及同一国家退出方式选择受契约安排的影响。最后结合目前国内对创业资本退出的研究现状,对今后的研究方向进行了展望。