The relationship between people's activities and values with the protection level and biodiversity

We investigated how people's recreational activities, values, and land use preferences are related to the protection level, biodiversity and cultural heritage values of nature-based tourism areas in northern Finland. We assessed peoples' opinions using a public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) and analyzed the data together with spatial biodiversity and cultural heritage data from the same area. Associations between the PPGIS place markings with the protection level and biodiversity values were quite low, and for the cultural heritage sites they were altogether missing. Negative preferences were often marked in areas with high numbers of sites rated as pleasant and they overlapped with each other, indicating conflicting preferences. Since most activities are not noticeably related to the protection level or biodiversity values of a site they can be planned so as to protect the biodiversity of the area.     

清洁生产在新疆地区推行过程中的问题探究

本文着重分析探讨新疆地区的清洁生产在推行过程中遇到的问题,并提出建议。     

社会资本视角下我国环保市场的激励机制研究

社会资本是一种无形资本。本文通过分析我国环境保护市场的发展现状，明确社会资本视角下促进环境保护市场的意义，最终提出以内部社会资本为导向的环境产权激励措施，以外部社会资本为导向的财税激励措施，有利于我国环境保护市场的进一步完善。     

Investor protection,regulation and bank risk-taking behavior

This paper examines whether the influence of investor protection on banks’ risk is channeled through banking regulation, and vice-versa, using panel data from a sample of 567 European and US banks for the 2004–2015 period. As banking regulatory factors, we consider capital stringency, activity restrictions and private monitoring, whereas as investor protection factors, we consider the level of shareholder and creditor protection. We find that banking regulation moderates the positive direct influence of investor protection on banks’ risk, while investor protection reinforces the negative direct influence of banking regulation on risk. Moreover, we show that the negative effect of national regulations on banks’ risk is more pronounced during systemic crisis years. Finally, taking into account market competition, we argue that private monitoring only has a direct effect on banks’ risk, whereas the effects of capital stringency and activity restriction are channeled through market competition.     

自然灾害背景下农村金融消费者权益保护问题探讨

目前，农村金融消费者权益保护工作力量薄弱，自然灾害对农村金融消费者影响较大；同时，金融产品设计对农村金融消费者权益保护考虑不足。为保护农村金融消费者权益，并最大限度地规避自然灾害给农户带来的经济损失，应循序渐进、阶段性地推动金融消费立法，完善农村金融服务体系，构建农村金融消费者自然灾害权益保护机制，开展针对农村金融消费者的常态化宣传教育活动。     

大兴安岭森林火烧对土壤生境质量影响研究

森林火烧是一种自然或人为因素产生的干扰,能够改变当地土壤的物理性质、化学性质及生物指标,对土壤的性质与土壤的肥力影响较大,对农业生态系统的结构与功能影响深远。作为我国重点的国有林区,大兴安岭地区林地面积广阔,森林覆盖率高,是我国生态安全的重要保障区,拥有丰富的林业资源,林下适生农业经济作物有500多种,林木、柞蚕、林果及中草药等绿色种养产业的资源十分丰富,是当前大兴安岭发展现代农业的主要模式。大兴安岭是我国森林火灾的多发区,文章对近年来国内专家学者对火烧影响森林土壤的理化性质与生物指标等众多研究成果进行综合评述,近年来,研究者从大兴安岭不同地区、不同林火种类与林火强度系统分析并研究了火烧对土壤生境质量的影响,该文通过对其进行归纳总结,旨在为该地区的火烧迹地植被恢复及农业林下经济的科学经营管理提供科学依据。     

Intellectual property rights in a quality-ladder model with persistent leadership

This paper analyzes the effects of intellectual property rights in a quality-ladder model of endogenous growth in which incumbent firms preemptively innovate in order to keep their position of leadership. Unlike in models with leapfrogging, granting forward protection, and imposing a non-obviousness requirement reduces growth. In the main case where entrants and incumbents have free access to the same R&D technology, infinite protection against imitation, granted independently of the size of the lead, maximizes growth. If entrants have to engage in costly catch up before they can undertake frontier R&D, growth is maximal for a finite (expected) length of protection against imitation.     

Do economic institutions matter for trade liberalization? Evidence from China’s Open Door Policy

Trade liberalization can promote export by inducing better resource allocation and more advanced technologies. Although the literature emphasizes the mechanism of geographic proximity, this paper identifies an institutional effect. Using infant mortality rate as an instrument that is irrelevant to export and geographic effects, we confirm that the openness due to China’s Open Door Policy promotes firm exports. We further document that the positive relationship between openness and firm exports is mediated by property rights protection and corporate autonomy, either of which reflects institutional quality at the constraint on the government’s strategic behavior. In particular, our estimates are robust to different samples, different estimation methods, and endogeneity bias.     

政府补贴、国际知识产权保护与企业创新——来自战略性新兴产业上市公司的证据

政府补贴对企业创新的影响存在争议,在美国重点打击中国战略性新兴产业的背景下,补贴这一产业政策的有效性再次引起热议。本文以2012-2017年沪深A股战略性新兴产业上市公司为样本,研究在国际知识产权保护加强的背景下政府补贴对战略性新兴产业创新绩效的影响。研究发现:中国政府实施的补贴政策有利于促进战略性新兴产业创新,但国际知识产权保护加强约束了中国政府补贴的规模和空间,从而抑制了补贴政策对战略性新兴产业创新的激励作用;此外,基于企业和产业异质性视角,国际知识产权保护的加强主要抑制了补贴对国有企业、内资企业和新材料产业创新的促进作用。进一步完善补贴政策和国内的知识产权保护制度,有利于提升中国在构建国际经济新秩序中的话语权。     

The risk-based approach under the new EU data protection regulation: a critical perspective

Abstract

The first broad reform of personal data protection legislation in the European Union entered into force in May 2018 (Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the General Data Protection Regulation). Remarkably, with this reform a risk-based approach has been introduced as the core data protection enforcement model, while data protection authorities see their regulatory role significantly weakened. The risk-based approach is to be implemented by the data controllers (i.e. the operators) via data protection impact assessments (evoking the established environmental impact assessment procedure) and notification of breaches, among other procedures. Hence the scope of both the concepts of risk and risk regulation spread beyond conventional domains, namely the environment, public health or safety, i.e. physical risks, to encompass risks to intangible values, i.e. individual rights and freedoms, presumably harder to assess and manage. Strikingly, the reform has been accompanied by a confident discourse by EU institutions, and their avowed belief in the reform’s ability to safeguard the fundamental right to data protection in the face of evolving data processing techniques, specifically, big data, the Internet of Things, and related algorithmic decision-making. However, one may wonder whether there isn’t cause for concern in view of the way the risk-based approach has been designed in the data protection legislation. In this article, the risk-based approach to data protection is analysed in the light of the reform’s underlying rationality. Comparison with the risk regulatory experience in environmental law, particularly the environmental impact assessment procedure, is drawn upon to assist us in pondering the shortcomings, as well as the opportunities of the novel risk-based approach.