Household savings constraints,uncertainty and macroprudential policy

We investigate the impact of macroprudential policy on Irish households' perception of savings adequacy, with a particular focus on households intending to purchase a home. These measures tighten loan-to-value ratios and raise the entry cost for home purchase. We find that the measures have had a significant impact on savings constraints. Indeed, constrained potential buyers, who are planning to purchase, but not presently saving to buy a home, are the group most affected as the macroprudential rules increase the downpayment size required. Heterogeneous effects across households indicate younger, private renting households, and those with relatively uncertain cash flows.     

我国农作物秸秆综合利用产业促进政策研究

［目的］深入地分析了我国秸秆综合利用产业现行促进政策，阐述了存在的主要问题，并提出针对性解决方法，以期为促进秸秆综合利用政策体系建设提供政策建议。［方法］按照法律法规、目标引导和考核、财税补贴、技术研发和推广、信息统计等进行分类，综合评述各类现行政策的特点、使用范围和有效性，并采用相关者利益分析等方法分析存在问题，提出政策建议。［结果］随着我国秸秆露天焚烧问题日益突出，国家加大了对秸秆综合利用重视的程度，出台一系列关于秸秆综合利用等方面的法律、法规和激励政策等，初步构建了秸秆综合利用政策体系，呈现出聚焦关键环节、关键技术和重点地区的趋势。但是，还存在着政策的有效性有限，未形成合力； 农民参与度低； 使用环节缺乏激励政策等问题。［结论］建议出台区域生态补偿制度，落实耕地地力保护补贴政策，鼓励终端产品使用和消费等政策。     

江苏省农业绿色发展水平区域差异及趋势分析

［目的］农业绿色发展是保证我国农业可持续发展的有效方式，探究江苏省农业绿色发展水平和地区差异，为我国其他地区农业绿色发展研究提供参考。［方法］文章采用熵权法和层次分析法确定农业绿色发展水平评价指标权重，运用锡尔指数对区域内和区域间农业绿色发展水平差异进行测度。［结果］2012—2017年江苏省农业绿色发展水平有明显提高，绿色供给的得分最高，环境友好和生态制度的得分最低。各市农业绿色发展水平综合指数分析结果表明，苏州农业绿色发展水平最高，南京、无锡次之，连云港、淮安和宿迁农业绿色发展水平较低。锡尔指数分析结果表明江苏省区域内农业绿色发展水平差异都在逐渐缩小。［结论］农产品绿色供给是江苏省农业绿色发展的最大优势，资源节约利用和环境友好发展方面较低，由于经济发展对资源利用强度在持续增加，资源节约利用仍是绿色发展的短板，因此江苏省资源效益利用仍有上升的空间，且区域内发达地区农业绿色发展的带动效应明显。     

农产品供应链重构风险传导SIR建模与仿真研究

[目的]利用动力学SIR模型模拟农产品供应链重构内生风险传导过程,以期在有效把握核心重构风险传导规律基础上为整体管控重构进程风险提出前瞻性思路。[方法]基于农产品供应链重构风险整体构架和重构进程风险传导复杂网络,以湖北省243家大型连锁超市生鲜农产品供应链2007—2017年重构样本数据为研究对象,建立重构进程内生风险传导SIR模型和规划演化模式,利用Matlab软件对模型仿真得到有效管控状态下演化趋势。[结果]在以战术性重构为主导组织结构战略性重构中进程风险传导安全边际X1s超过50%,决定了其净风险阈α0(i)、β0(i),相应的业务单元和功能模块重构进程风险预警和风险恢复能力提高值是主控指标,对进程风险传导感染率x1(i)和恢复率x2(i)起主导作用。[结论]近年来土地流转驱动农产品供应链重构中组织结构重构整体具有战略性,在以战术性重构为主导风险传导管控中重点应加强业务单元和功能模块重构进程在重构易感状态(S)、感染传播状态(I)管控能力,能有效降低波动幅度。     

新农科建设背景下江西高校涉农专业人才培养的思考

新农科建设是新农业新乡村新农民新生态建设的必然要求,顺应了新时代社会的发展规律,致力于培养爱农业、懂技术、善经营的高水平实用技能型卓越农林新人才。"新农科"建设宣言的提出对高等院校涉农专业人才的培养提出了更高的期许和要求。目前江西高校存在涉农专业人才数量紧缺且离农化趋势严重,涉农专业精品课程少、设置不够合理,涉农专业人才培养结构与行业需求脱轨,科研成果转化率不高的问题。本文从新农科建设的角度出发,针对江西高校在涉农专业人才培养过程中出现的问题提出了相应的对策。     

Comparing Compliance Behaviour of Students and Farmers. An Extra-laboratory Experiment in the Context of Agri-environmental Nudges in Germany

Increasing popularity of economic experiments for policy impact analysis has led to an on-going debate about the suitability of students to substitute professionals as experimental subjects. To date, subject pool effects in agricultural and resource economics experiments have not been sufficiently studied. In order to identify differences and similarities between students and non-students, we carry out an experiment in the form of a multi-period business management game that is adapted to an agri-environmental context. We compare the compliance behaviour of German agricultural students and German farmers with regard to water protection rules and analyse their responses to two different green nudge interventions. The experimental results reveal that the direction of the response to the policy treatments is similar. Even unexpected behaviour could be reproduced by the student sample. Nevertheless, the magnitude of the treatment effects differed between the two samples. This implies that experimenters in the field of agricultural and resource economics could use the subject pool of students to analyse the direction of nudge policies. If predictions should be made about the magnitude effects, we suggest using a professional subject pool.     

土壤污染防治法背景下的城乡绿地系统建设：趋势与对策

《中华人民共和国土壤污染防治法》的颁布标志着中国将形成完善的土壤污染防治法律体系，建立从污染土壤调查、修复、风险防控、监测到场地再利用，从环境标准到规划管理的全方位制度。生态文明制度建设的宏观背景，再加上中国土壤污染严重、规模大、修复难、成本高、周期长等特征，将导致大量污染场地转变为绿地或生态用地，最终对绿地系统的数量与规模、布局与功能、规划与管理、环境质量标准等多个维度产生实质性影响。分析这一趋势，对其影响提出预判，最终提出对策建议。     

Short-termism,shareholder payouts and investment in the EU

Investor-driven 'short-termism' is said to harm EU public firms' ability to invest for the long term, prompting calls for the EU to better insulate managers from shareholder pressure. But the evidence offered—rising levels of repurchases and dividends—is incomplete and misleading: it ignores large offsetting equity issuances that move capital from investors to EU firms. We show that, over the last 30 years and the last decade, net shareholder payouts have been moderate and investment and cash balances have increased. In sum, the data provide little basis for the view that short-termism in the EU warrants corporate governance reforms.     

Banking sector reactions to COVID-19: The role of bank-specific factors and government policy responses

This paper examines the impact of bank-specific factors and variations in the context of stringency of government policy responses on bank stock returns because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A sample of 1,927 publicly listed banks from 110 countries is used for the period of the first major wave of COVID-19, that is, January to May 2020. Our findings indicate that stock returns of banks with higher capitalization and deposits, more diversification, lower non-performing loans, and larger size are more resilient to the pandemic. While banks’ environment and governance scores do not have a significant impact, higher social and corporate social responsibility strategy scores intensify the negative stock price reaction to COVID-19. We further observe that the pandemic-induced reduction in bank stock prices is mitigated as the strictness of government policy responses increases, mainly through economic responses such as income support, debt and contract relief, and fiscal measures from governments.     

Is it still economic to build a new coal-fired power plant in the U.S.? A real option analysis

In the U.S., virtually no new coal-fired power plants have been built in recent years. Both industry experts and academics seem to believe that no rational firm will build a new coal-fired plant. Will such a trend continue in the future? To provide insights into this question, we investigate the optimal decision of an electricity company with an irreversible and deferrable opportunity to build either a new coal-fired or natural gas-fired power plant as its new base-load resource. According to our real option analysis, the optimal decision depends on the location. In the case of the eastern U.S., it is optimal to choose a natural gas plant if a firm is given a choice among a new natural gas plant, a new coal plant and deferring the investment. However, contrary to the common sentiment in the industry and academia, building a new coal plant in the western U.S. is still more economical than building a new natural gas plant in the absence of emission pricing. Furthermore, introducing carbon pricing to western U.S. states, as California did, can substantially increase the probability that a firm will optimally choose a natural gas plant over a coal plant.