Natural resource accounting for Indian states — Illustrating the case of forest resources

Our main objective is to set out and apply a SEEA-based methodology to reflect the true value of forest resources in India's national and state accounts. We establish that a “top-down” approach using available national databases is both feasible and desirable from a policy perspective. In this paper, we address four components of value creation in forests: timber production, carbon storage, fuelwood usage, and the harvesting of non-timber forest products. The results of our analysis suggest that prevailing measures of national income in India underestimate the contribution of forests to income. The income accounts of the Northeastern states in particular are significantly understated by these traditional (GDP/GSDP) measures. We are also able to identify some states which performed poorly in the context of our sustainability framework, reflecting natural capital losses due to degradation and deforestation. Our results highlight the need to integrate natural resource accounting into the national accounting framework in order to generate appropriate signals for sustainable forest management and for the conservation of forest resources which are widely used by the poor in India, as well as being significant stores of national wealth.     

Expressive Constitutionalism

We argue that the standard Constitutional Political Economy defence of constitutionalism, that derives from an argument relating to the shift from narrowly self-interested motivations in the in-period context to relatively general-interest decision making in the constitutional context, is flawed precisely because it is intended to relate to essentially political settings where decision making must be construed as collective in nature. We suggest an alternate account of expressive constitutionalism that points to a specific defence of constitutional conventions that are insulated from popular voting.     

东西部地区之间公益林生态补偿负担与分摊

由于东部和西部地区之间自然和社会经济条件的差别，在公益林生态补偿问题上将会存在严重的地区之间生态建设责任与利益不平衡．因此需要建立地区之间的财政支付方式来平衡这种不公平状况．以利于公益林生态补偿制度的建立和完善。     

地理邻近在区域创新中的作用机理及其启示

由于隐性知识需要直接交流的特性与创新的背景依赖,邻近性在创新研究中越来越受到重视。文章从知识流动和集体学习的视角,探讨了地理邻近在区域创新中的作用机理。地理邻近是"距离产生美",太多或太少的地理邻近都不利于集体学习和区域创新,地理邻近与其它类型的邻近之间相互促进,并可以相互替代。最后给出了研究结论带来的启示。     

农村合作组织、集体行动和公共水资源的供给——社会资本视角下的渭河流域农民用水者协会绩效分析

通过运用交易成本理论、社会资本理论等方法,对农民用水者协会这种制度创新的思路进行可行性分析和绩效评价,并论证了农民用水者协会作为一种农村合作组织,是一种有效的制度创新和制度安排.     

New Technology in Unionized Firms: Advantages of Mandatory Bargaining

U.S. Labor Law currently allows employers whose work forces are unionized to introduce new technologies without bargaining over the decision to do so. This forces unions to adopt inefficient strategies when negotiating collective bargaining agreements in an effort to minimize the impact of technological change on their members. Allowing unions to bargain over the decision to introduce new technologies would obviate their having to resort to these inefficient strategies. In addition, it might increase the likelihood of employees suggesting alterations in production processes that would increase the rate of technological change. For these reasons, this article advocates amending U.S. labor law to require employers to bargain over the introduction of new technologies.     

Labour unions and leverage: evidence from firm-level union data

ABSTRACT

Using firm-level labour union data from Japan, this paper investigates the effect of labour unions on firm leverage. We find that as union coverage increases, both the level of and extent of change in leverage decreases. These relations remain robust when a firm falls into deficit. We also find that firms with higher union coverage have a higher interest coverage ratio. In addition, we find that firms with higher union coverage are less likely to choose issuing debt compared to issuing equity when they face financial distress. Our results imply that significant employee influence enhanced by labour unions increases fixed costs, crowds out the firm’s debt capacity and consequently reduces the firm’s leverage.     

Recovering Hicksian Consumer Surplus within a Collective Model: Hausman's Method for the Household

The purpose of this paper is to describe the implications of the collective model of household behavior for the methods used to estimate the economic value of non-marketed environmental resources. After demonstrating how the separability restrictions inherent in the collective model allow individual preference and household income allocation choices to be distinguished, the paper demonstrates how the framework can be used to recover Hicksian consumer surplus. An algebraic example is used to illustrate how the framework can be used in valuing environmental resources.     

农村教育发展的财政保障

长期以来农村教育的特征，说明教育经费短缺一直是农村教育发展的突出矛盾。要对农村教育实施财政保障，须以整顿农村教师队伍为前提，在教育观念、国民经济结构、教育结构、政府预算结构及财政体制等五个方面作战略性调整，同时制止对学生的乱收费。