Minimum Quality Standards under Asymmetric Duopoly with Endogenous Quality Ordering: A Note

In this note, we revisit minimum quality standards (MQS) under a vertically differentiated duopoly. We generalize the model in Ronnen (1991) and Valletti (2000) by introducing asymmetry into the fixed cost of quality improvement and by explicitly taking into account the endogeneity of quality ordering. In the generalized model, we show that the results derived by Ronnen (1991) and Valletti (2000) are largely robust.     

非国有经济发展对中国经济增长质量影响机理研究——来自VEC模型的新证据

转轨以来,中国非国有经济的发展促进了经济增长的数量扩张.这是因为,经济非国有化改革作为一种制度创新,是一种增量式改革.这种改革使得体制内利益在未受影响的条件下,实现了帕雷托式的增长.然而,非国有经济的发展并没有带来中国经济增长质量的同比改善.这是因为,中国民营企业发展一般都过分强调以利润为中心,忽略环境成本,并且由于融资困难等因素导致了其技术创新能力的弱化;其次,中国引进的外资不仅在技术和管理创新的扩散效应上没能达到预期效果,而且日益增加的加工贸易通过转移定价方式使中国经济不能充分享有出口增长带来的利润贡献.     

Economic Valuation of Health for Environmental Policy: Comparing Alternative Approaches. Introduction and Overview

Protecting human health is a primary goal of environmental policy and economic evaluation of health can help policy-makers judge the relative worth of alternative actions. Economists use two distinct approaches in normatively evaluating health. Whereas environmental economists use benefit-cost analysis supported by monetary valuation in terms of willingness-to-pay, health economists evaluate interventions based on cost-effectiveness or cost-utility analysis (CEA), using quality-adjusted life-years (QALY) or similar indexes. This paper provides background on the controversy about the relative merits of these approaches and introduces the remaining papers in the special issue. These papers (with one exception) were presented at a conference sponsored by the Department of Economics at the University of Central Florida with support from the US Environmental Protection Agency. Although CEA might not lead to substantially different implications for environmental policy than benefit-cost analysis, and QALY may provide a benefit transfer tool to fill gaps in the morbidity valuation literature, the papers in this issue raise serious concerns about the suitability of QALY-based CEA for environmental regulatory analysis. QALY does not in general appropriately represent individual preferences for health and CEA is neither independent of income distribution nor adequate to assess efficiency.     

Effect of credible quality investment with Bertrand and Cournot competition

We show how credible revelation and ability to commit to quality choice effect equilibrium qualities and welfare when product market is either Bertrand or Cournot competition. We show that results depend on the type of competition but not generally on the cost of quality function. We show that with Bertrand competition, the equilibrium qualities are lower with credible commitment. Competition is moderated and producer surplus is higher and consumer surplus lower. With Cournot competition, higher quality will be better but lower quality will be worse with credible commitment. Consumer surplus is always greater with credible commitment and if cost does not increase too quickly with quality, producer surplus will also increase. Thus credible commitment is a collusive device with Bertrand competition but it can improve social welfare with Cournot competition. Received: February 8, 2000; revised version: February 14, 2002 RID="*" ID="*" The idea of this paper originated in the weekly workshops of Mordecai Kurz at Stanford. I am forever in debted to Mordecai and fellow students – Luis Cabral, Peter DeMarzo, John Hillas, Michihiro Kandori, Steve Langois, Patrick McAllister, Steve Sharpe, Peter Streufert, Steve Turnbull and Gyu-Ho Wang – for their criticism and encouragement. I also benefited from comments from Yi-Heng Chen, Jin-Li Hu, Kala Krishna, Jinji Naoto, Thomas J. Prusa, and Shyh-Fang Ueng at various later stages of this work. Last but not least, I am grateful for the detailed comments of the referee.     

退耕还林（草）生态补偿实施现状与问题分析——以甘肃省定西市安定区为例

为了建立合理的国家生态补偿机制，了解现阶段生态补偿中存在的问题，我们运用PRA（Participatory rule appraisal）即参与性农村评估和传统的问卷调查相结合的方法，通过对研究区内生态建设补偿措施实施过程中的现状研究、问题分析，发现本区在实施退耕还林（草）生态补偿中的主要问题是仍然没有有效解决生态补偿的三个基本问题：补偿主体、补偿强度、补偿资金来源。生态补偿处于初级阶段，没有形成制度化、法律化，有必要在政策、法律层面建立比较完善的生态补偿机制。     

非审计服务、盈余管理与审计质量——来自中国证券市场的经验证据

本文以2001～2004年A股上市公司为研究对象,在国内首次验证了会计师事务所向审计客户同时提供审计与非审计服务,是否会允许管理当局有较大的盈余操纵空间,以探讨非审计服务的提供是否会影响注册会计师独立审计的质量。实证研究结果显示:在我国,控制了其他影响因素后,非审计服务的提供与异常应计数正相关,但不具有统计显著性。这表明,在我国,没有证据显示,非审计服务会的提供会损害注册会计师审计独立性及审计质量。     

公司治理与会计信息质量:一项经验研究

文章以盈余管理程度的反向作为衡量会计信息质量的标志,构建了一个会计信息质量的综合指数,采纳“泊松回归”分析方法,对公司治理的六个层面(包括股权集中度、高层管理当局薪酬、最终控制人性质、高层管理人员数量、高层管理当局持股比例、公司治理中的会议频次等)对会计信息质量的影响进行相应的经验研究。     

Mapinfo在区域城市环境质量评价中的应用

本文探讨了基于Mapinfo的城市环境质量评价研究思路,在明确评价单元划分和评价方法的基础上,以各个省区地级以上城市作为分析样本,通过对评价区城市环境质量状况的综合评价实证研究,结果表明:Mapin-fo的应用可以有效支持这一评价过程,它能够将数值计算与图形处理有机的结合起来,使评价工作更加简洁、直观、高效和易于操作。     

广西乡村──城市转型与协调发展研究

本文揭示了“八五”期间广西乡村──城市转型发展的特征及其地理动力机制．预测未来15—25年内乡村──城乡转型发展的趋势、提出了促进乡村──城市转型与协调发展的一些对策建议。     

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.