Pricing a rural development program: uncertainty,indifference, and protest behaviors

This article presents an econometric approach to modeling uncertainty, unwillingness to pay, and protest behavior in contingent valuation studies. For that purpose, a mixture model with sample selection is developed for a multiple‐bounded uncertainty elicitation format. The proposed theoretical framework is applied to evaluate the social welfare impact of implementing a sustainable rural development program. Results show that a “naive” analytical approach that excludes protesters from the analysis would result in significantly higher willingness to pay estimates for those individuals who favor the implementation of the program and agree to reveal their true reservation prices.     

How much do alternative cookstoves reduce biomass fuel use? Evidence from North India

Despite widespread global efforts to promote clean cookstoves to achieve improvements in air and forest quality, and to reduce global climate change, surprisingly little is known about the degree to which these actually reduce biomass fuel consumption in real-world settings. Using data from in-house weighing of fuel conducted in rural India, we examine the impact of cleaner cookstoves ⿿ most of which are LPG stoves ⿿ on three key outcomes related to solid fuel use. Our results suggest that using a clean cookstove is associated with daily reductions of about 4.5 kg of biomass fuel, 160 fewer minutes cooking on traditional stoves, and 105 fewer minutes collecting biomass fuels. These findings of substantial savings are robust to the use of estimators with varying levels of control for selection, and to alternative data obtained from household self-reports. Our results support the idea that efforts to promote clean stoves among poor rural households can reduce solid fuel use and cooking time, and that rebound effects toward greater amounts of cooking on multiple stoves are not sufficient to eliminate these gains. We also find, however, that households who have greater wealth, fewer members, are in less marginalized groups, and practice other health-averting behaviors, are more likely to use these cleaner stoves, which suggests that socio-economic status plays an important role in determining who benefits from such technologies. Future efforts to capture social benefits must therefore consider how to promote the use of alternative technologies by poor households, given that these households are least likely to own clean stoves.     

Non-linear exchange rate relationships: An automated model selection approach with indicator saturation

This paper examines whether the explanatory power of exchange rate models can be improved by allowing for cross-country asymmetries and non-linear effects of fundamentals. Both appear to be crucial. The samples include the USD versus pound and yen from 1982:10 to 2013:10, and automated model selection is conducted with indicator saturation. Several non-linear effects are significant at 1%. Further, many of the indicators present in the linear models are eliminated once allowing for non-linearities; suggesting some of the structural breaks found in previous work were an artifact of the misspecified linear functional form. These conclusions are robust to estimation using principal components.     

集体林区资源异质性农户林业生产行为动态特征及差异研究——以湖南省为例

分别以商品林农户、公益林农户和兼有林农户作为研究对象,采用描述性分析从林业生产过程和投入产出两个维度客观揭示3类农户林业生产行为动态特征及差异。打破将林区农户作为同质整体的传统假设进行研究的结果表明:商品林、公益林和兼有林农户林业生产行为整体趋势比较积极,但在造林、管护、采伐行为及林业投入产出等方面存在明显差异。因此,建议通过政策引导、市场调剂等方式形成商品林、公益林差异化经营优势,确保农户利益的同时,更好的贯彻森林分类经营管理理念,维护国家生态安全。     

基于作业过程的园林绿化项目资源清单模型

结合生产要素六元理论，对园林绿化项目资源进行界定；以作业过程为信息关联节点，通过施工工序分解和资源特征匹配，构造园林绿化项目的“产出-作业”分配关系描述矩阵和“作业-资源”消耗关系描述矩阵。XX科技园林绿化企业的应用结果表明，项目资源清单模型解决了目前园林绿化企业资源信息分离使用的现状，是企业快速构建项目资源计划表、项目施工方案以及快速估算项目成本等的基础数据信息。     

Making sustainable sourcing decisions: practical evidence from the automotive industry

Achieving environmental and sustainable performance within an organisation’s supply chain and manufacturing operations will be feasible if upstream supply partners have the same commitments in performing their operations in a sustainable manner. Given the debate above, we propose a comprehensive framework to address the sustainable supplier selection and order allocation (SSS&OA) problem. The framework developed is practical, that starts by using an audition check-list specific for each sustainability dimension (environmental, economic and social), from which the weighted values of its comprised criteria are obtained. The weighted scores of the selected sustainable suppliers are utilised by a proposed bi-objective order allocation model in order to make sourcing decisions. The strength of the proposed framework is its practical applicability to provide a solution for SSS&OA problems which is validated through a real-world application. Finally, research findings, theoretical and managerial insights and also directions for additional research are presented.     

Revisiting Attributes: How Important Is Green in the Consumer Selection of Hotel Rooms?

Consumers’ buying behavior is not always consistent with their positive attitude, particularly toward environmentally friendly products. In a survey of 197 travelers, the relative importance consumers ascribe to the attribute of green was assessed. Through a multi-methods study involving interviews, focus groups discussions, and forced-choice experiments that simulate market buying situation, it was found that consumers’ selection of hotel rooms is still much dictated by traditional choice factors. Through a conjoint analysis, it was found that consumers highly prioritized the price attribute. The green attribute was assigned a low relative importance of 4% among the respondents. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed.     

我国台商投资大陆区位选择影响因素的实证研究

选取1991—2011年我国台商投资大陆地区各省(地区)相关变量的历史统计数据,采用面板数据分析方法,建立各时段面板数据模型,对我国台商投资大陆区位选择的影响因素进行实证分析。研究结果显示:影响我国台商投资大陆区位选择的因素主要有产业结构、政府政策、生产效率、基础设施、劳动力成本和开放水平等;其中,政府政策和开放水平是影响台商投资大陆区位选择的稳定且主要的因素;产业结构、基础设施和劳动力成本的影响次之,生产效率的影响并不显著;各因素对台商投资大陆区位选择的影响程度和方向不断变化,即产业结构的影响呈上升趋势,基础设施和劳动力成本的影响逐渐减弱。     

中国OFDI区位选择决定因素研究——基于2003-2014年28个经济体面板数据

在国别差异视角下选取2003-2014年28个主要国家和地区的面板数据，并将所有样本国家分为发达经济体和发展中经济体两类，借助于投资引力模型重点考察了东道国市场因素、资源禀赋因素和技术因素对我国对外直接投资区位选择的影响，研究发现，我国OFDI区位选择呈现出明显的国别差异，对发达经济体的投资同时受到市场规模因素和技术禀赋因素的影响，对发展中经济体的投资同时受到市场规模因素和资源禀赋因素的影响，另外还发现随着技术水平的提升和运输工具的革新，距离不再是我国OFDI区位选择的决定因素。