Environmental tax policy in a model of growth cycles

Summary. The purpose of this paper is to consider environmental taxation which would control emissions of firms in a model of growth cycles. In the model presented below, the economy may experience two phases of growth and environmental quality: “the no-innovation growth regime” and “the innovation-led growth regime”. Aggregate capital and environmental quality remain constant in the no-innovation growth regime, while they perpetually increase in the innovation-led growth regime. The paper shows that the tax plays a key role in determining whether the economy stably converges to one of the two regimes or fluctuates permanently between them. It also shows that there is a critical level of the tax and that the economy obtains higher growth rates of capital and environmental quality by raising (or reducing) the tax if the initial tax is below (or above) the critical level. Received: April 2, 2001; revised version: March 21, 2002 RID="*" ID="*" This research reported here was conducted within the research project “Project on Intergenerational Equity” at Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University. I am deeply grateful to an anonymous referee for his or her insightful comments, which greatly improved the paper. I also thank Hiroshi Honda, Yasuo Maeda, Yuji Nakayama, and participants in workshops at Hitotsubashi University, Kyoto University, Nagoya University, Osaka University, University of Tsukuba, Yokohama National University, and University of Tokyo for their valuable comments and suggestions. Any remaining errors are mine.     

Art as an investment: Short and long-term comovements in major painting markets

This paper examines the short and long-term price linkages among major art and equity markets over the period 1976–2001. The art markets examined are Contemporary Masters, French Impressionists, Modern European, 19^th Century European, Old Masters, Surrealists, 20^th Century English and Modern US paintings. A global equity index (with dividends and capitalisation changes) is also included. Multivariate cointegration procedures, Granger non-causality tests, level VAR and generalised variance decomposition analyses based on error-correction and vector autoregressive models are conducted to analyse short and long-run relationships among these markets. The results indicate that there is a stationary long-run relationship and significant short and long run causal linkages between the various painting markets and between the equity market and painting markets. However, in terms of the percentage of variance explained most painting markets are relatively isolated, and other painting markets are generally more important than the equity market in explaining the variance that is not caused by innovations in the market itself. This suggests that opportunities for portfolio diversification in art works alone and in conjunction with equity markets exist, though in common with the literature in this area the study finds that the returns on paintings are much lower and the risks much higher than in conventional financial markets.The authors would like to thank delegates to the 14th Australasian Finance and Banking Conference, University of New South Wales, seminar participants at the Queensland University of Technology and Massey University, Masaki Katsuura, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. The financial assistance of a Queensland University of Technology, Faculty of Business Research Initiative Grant is also gratefully acknowledged.     

Indigenous livelihoods, slash-and-burn agriculture, and carbon stocks in Eastern Panama

Improved crop–fallow systems in the humid tropics can simultaneously sequester atmospheric carbon emissions and contribute to sustainable livelihoods of rural populations. A study with an indigenous community in eastern Panama revealed a considerable biophysical potential for carbon offsets in small-scale slash-and-burn agriculture through longer fallow periods, improved fallow management, secondary forest development, and agricultural intensification. Based on soil and biomass carbon measurements, estimated annual sequestration rates amount to 0.3−3.7 t C ha^− 1 yr^− 1. Despite such potential, the economic benefits of initiatives aimed at sequestration of carbon in the community are likely to be rather unequally distributed within the community. Heterogeneity in livelihood strategies and uneven asset endowments among households – factors often overlooked in the ongoing carbon and sustainable development debate – are expected to strongly affect household participation. Indeed, only the better-endowed households that have also managed to diversify into more lucrative farm and non-farm activities are likely to be able to participate in and thus benefit from improved crop–fallow systems that capture carbon. Economic, ethical, institutional, and technical concerns need to be taken into account when designing community carbon management and investment plans.     

Stone–Geary preferences in overlapping generations economies under pure exchange: A note

We incorporate Stone–Geary preferences into an overlapping generations economy under pure exchange, and explore stability, indeterminacy, and cycles with positive levels of saving and nonnegative public debt. A stable nontrivial steady state exists for parameter values, for which there does not exist equilibrium in the model with purely logarithmic utility function. We also show the possibility of a period-doubling bifurcation (a two-cycle).     

Commodity price cycles and heterogeneous speculators: a STAR–GARCH model

We propose an empirical commodity market model with heterogeneous speculators. While the power of trend-extrapolating chartists is constant over time, the symmetric impact of stabilizing fundamentalists adjusts endogenously according to market circumstances: Using monthly data for various commodities such as cotton, sugar or zinc, our STAR–GARCH model indicates that their influence positively depends on the distance between the commodity price and its long-run equilibrium value. Fundamentalists seem to become more and more convinced that mean reversion will set in as the mispricing enlarges. Commodity price cycles may thus emerge due to the nonlinear interplay between different trader types. The paper represents the authors’ personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Deutsche Bundesbank.     

创造力经济背景下的企业创业型战略管理

知识经济进一步深化,一种被称为创造力的经济形态开始出现,在创造力经济背景下,企业的战略管理需要加以调整,战略竞争优势的获取应该通过创造新的优势来实现而非简单的维持已有优势。     

知识经济与城市产业空间布局的调整

随着网络等高新技术的飞速发展，世界经济正在从工业经济向知识经济转变，阻碍生产素流动的控制壁垒和自然壁垒明显减少，产业空间区位选择的灵活性大在增强，产业布局将出现分散与聚集共存的趋势，那些以创新为基础的知识密集型产业将形成有规律的集群，大城市中心区也将日益成为跨国公司总部以及银行，保险，管理咨询等生产才高度集中的地区，成为协调全国仍至全球生产的信息和服务中心，根据产业空间演变化的新趋势和我国城市产业布局的现状，作者提出了我国城市产业空间布局的方向和思路。     

天津滨海新区区域经济特点、问题与对策

开发滨海新区是天津市经济发展的重大战略决策。经过7年的高速发展滨海新区已经形成了经济区的基本框架,成为天津市经济的龙头。本文综合分析了滨海新区的区域经济特点及其在发展过程中存在的矛盾和问题,在此基础上提出了加强区域经济持续发展能力建设的对策和建议。     

湖南八大公山国家级自然保护区国家重点保护和珍稀濒危植物区系分析

从属和种的水平上分析了八大公山国家级自然保护区国家重点保护和珍稀濒危植物的区系成分特点。结果表明,该保护区共有国家重点保护和珍稀濒危植物31科44属53种。其中有国务院1999年8月4日批准公布的I级重点保护植物4科4属6种,II级重点保护植物18科23属29种;有《中国珍稀濒危保护植物名录》(1987)和《中国植物红皮书》所列的濒危植物2科2属2种,稀有植物14科15属16种,渐危植物15科19属20种。其区系具有由亚热带植物区系向温带植物区系过渡,但热带性质比较明显的特点,而且中国特有成份是该区系中非常重要的组成部分。     

现行财务会计报告模式改进的探讨

随着信息技术的发展,现行财务会计报告模式正面临严峻挑战。如何建立适应经济发展和时代要求的财务会计报告模式已成为会计探讨的热点问题。本文从通用财务会计报告模式的分析入手,探讨了理想财务会计报告模式的设想和网络环境下以通用财务会计报告模式为基础,建立交互式按需报告模式的思路和联合按需报告模式的发展方向,旨在通过网络手段改进现行的财务会计报告模式,不断适应和满足信息使用者的需求。