基于DEA模型的建筑业环境行为效率评价研究

对建筑企业进行环境行为效率评价是促进我国建筑行业健康可持续发展的重要手段。根据建筑行业特点及我国现有的企业环境信用标准,构建了建筑企业环境行为评价的投入产出指标体系,将改进的数据包络分析方法模型运用到企业环境行为效率评价领域,解决了现有企业评价研究主观性突出的问题,得出建筑企业评价分析方法。在此基础上对某代表性建筑企业2010—2017年环境行为数据进行了评价分析。分析结果表明该企业环境行为总体效率良好,但鉴于出现了奇数年和偶数年的效率波动情况,仍需提高环境行为效率。     

Hyperbolic normal stochastic volatility model

For option pricing models and heavy-tailed distributions, this study proposes a continuous-time stochastic volatility model based on an arithmetic Brownian motion: a one-parameter extension of the normal stochastic alpha-beta-rho (SABR) model. Using two generalized Bougerol's identities in the literature, the study shows that our model has a closed-form Monte Carlo simulation scheme and that the transition probability for one special case follows Johnson's distribution—a popular heavy-tailed distribution originally proposed without stochastic process. It is argued that the distribution serves as an analytically superior alternative to the normal SABR model because the two distributions are empirically similar.     

The role of corrosive internalisation and denial of responsibility in stabilising inequality in South Africa

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how capabilities inequality is stabilised through its consequences on those at both ends of the distribution. It outlines the development of the balance model, which is argued to help highlight these consequences. Specifically, how adverse environments associated with lack of access to resources and poor treatment can lead to internal consequences which further corrode capabilities. At the same time, denial of this corrosion or its importance is critical for those who benefit from the inequality. To avoid moral constraints being triggered it is important, necessary even, for them to see those who suffer as outside of their moral universe, or their suffering to be in no way associated with their advantage. Corrosion and denial work to stabilise the system. For those in the middle of the distribution, they may work to do so in combination. Appreciating these internalised consequences is key to addressing inequality in South Africa.     

An application of two-stage quantile regression to insurance ratemaking

Two-part models based on generalized linear models are widely used in insurance rate-making for predicting the expected loss. This paper explores an alternative method based on quantile regression which provides more information about the loss distribution and can be also used for insurance underwriting. Quantile regression allows estimating the aggregate claim cost quantiles of a policy given a number of covariates. To do so, a first stage is required, which involves fitting a logistic regression to estimate, for every policy, the probability of submitting at least one claim. The proposed methodology is illustrated using a portfolio of car insurance policies. This application shows that the results of the quantile regression are highly dependent on the claim probability estimates. The paper also examines an application of quantile regression to premium safety loading calculation, the so-called Quantile Premium Principle (QPP). We propose a premium calculation based on quantile regression which inherits the good properties of the quantiles. Using the same insurance portfolio data-set, we find that the QPP captures the riskiness of the policies better than the expected value premium principle.     

Assessing cost‐effectiveness when environmental benefits are bundled: agricultural water management in Great Barrier Reef catchments

Using economic analysis to prioritise improvements in environmental conditions is particularly difficult when multiple benefits are involved. This includes ‘bundling’ issues in agricultural pollution management, where a change in management action or farming systems generates multiple improvements, such as reductions in more than one pollutant. In this study, we conceptualise and compare two different approaches to analysing cost‐effectiveness when varying bundles of benefits are generated for a single project investment. Each approach requires data to be transformed in some way to allow the analysis to proceed. The index approach requires the transformation on the benefits side so that the effects of multiple pollutant changes can be combined into a measure for each project which can then be compared to costs. By comparison, the disaggregation approach requires the transformation on the costs side where costs for each project have to be apportioned across the different pollutants involved. The paper provides novel insights with an application to agricultural water quality improvements into the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, demonstrating that while both approaches are effective in prioritising projects by cost‐effectiveness, the disaggregation approach provides more insightful results and values that may be relevant for use as upper value guidelines in future project selection.     

The impact of climate change on labour demand in the plantation sector: the case of tea production in Sri Lanka

Limited opportunities for crop switching and lengthy preharvesting periods make the plantation sector particularly vulnerable to climate change. Surprisingly, however, the economic consequences of climate change on plantation crops are seldom analysed. Drawing on a unique primary panel data set from a representative cross section of 35 tea estates in Sri Lanka over the period 2002–2014, this study implements a structural model of estate profit maximisation to estimate the elasticity of labour demand with respect to different components of weather. Results indicate a negative relationship between labour demand and rainfall in the south‐west monsoon, the north‐east monsoon and the second inter‐monsoon. A positive relationship is found between labour demand and rainfall in the first inter‐monsoon. Overall, predicted changes in rainfall by 2050 are anticipated to reduce labour demand by approximately 1,175,000 person‐days per year across Sri Lanka's tea plantation sector. This is likely to have considerable social and welfare implications, particularly for the Indian Tamil women who comprise the majority of the sector's workforce.     

巢湖派河流域清水廊道技术产业推广模式的构建

派河为巢湖一级支流，水质差，针对派河流域开展了多项研究，产生了多项清水廊道技术，尚缺乏有效的产业化推广模式，基于此，构建了多层次、多元化清水廊道技术产业推广模式（“2S”VIP）。该模式包括组织机构、运行机制、推广模式平台、保障措施等。其中清水廊道技术推广模式平台包括综合技术信息平台、综合服务平台、产业化推广平台，以综合技术信息平台为支撑，以互联网+、大数据等为手段，综合服务平台为依托，产业化推广平台实现技术与市场的衔接。在政府的引导和监督下，通过一系列保障措施使各平台能顺利运行，达到产、学、研、用的有机融合。     

基于双重约束的区域耕地整理适宜性评价研究

[目的]科学合理的适宜性评价是确保耕地整理能够有效开展的前提条件,同时对于我国的耕地保护与粮食安全保障也具有极为重要的意义。[方法]该研究首先选取可以反映区域耕地整理适宜性的指标因子,然后参考胡学东提出的约束条件评价模型,引入区域生态安全和社会经济双重约束,对研究区域在双重约束下的耕地整理适宜性进行评价,并通过K-Means聚类法将研究区域的耕地整理适宜性分区进行合理划分。[结果]生态安全约束和社会经济约束对区域耕地整理适宜性水平具有重大影响,高生态安全约束与高社会经济约束会降低耕地整理的适宜性,低生态安全约束与低社会经济约束会提高耕地整理的适宜性。[结论]引入生态安全约束和社会经济约束后,可以在一定程度上反映山地区域在社会经济与生态安全双重约束状态下的耕地整理适宜性情况,耕地整理适宜性评价结果更加符合当地实际情况,约束条件评价模型可以更加合理准确地对处于约束条件下的耕地整理适宜性进行评价,是对耕地整理适宜性评价方法的丰富与完善。     

基于经济新常态的长春市水资源开发利用潜力评价

以长春市为研究对象,基于未来经济处于新常态的发展态势,构建包含水资源、社会、经济、生态环境4个子系统的评价指标体系,并确定各指标的评价等级标准;基于模糊数学理论以及层次分析法构建包括目标层、准则层、指标层的3层模糊综合评价模型,以2015年为现状水平年,应用模型对长春市水资源开发利用潜力进行综合评价。结果表明:长春市水资源开发利用程度处于中等偏上水平,各辖区水资源开发利用规模不平衡,可通过产业结构调整提高全市用水效率,为经济持续增长提供保障。     

Cooperative membership and farmers’ choice of marketing channels – Evidence from apple farmers in Shaanxi and Shandong Provinces,China

Cooperatives are established to improve farmers' production conditions, to increase their bargaining power and to enable them to benefit from modern value chains. In China, farmers are members of a cooperative for multiple reasons. Little is known on whether and how cooperative membership affects farmers’ choice of marketing channels. This paper examines determinants of farmers’ choice of marketing channels, especially how cooperative membership impacts upon this choice. Our analysis is based on survey data collected in 2015 among 625 apple growing farm households in the provinces Shaanxi and Shandong. We employ endogenous switching probit models to deal with potential endogeneity of membership in estimating the determinants of marketing channel choices. We find that cooperative membership has a positive impact on selling to wholesalers and a negative impact on selling to small dealers, but no significant impact on selling to the cooperative itself. As products sold through cooperatives generally comply with relatively stringent food quality and safety standards, these results imply that policies promoting cooperative members to sell their products through cooperatives are likely to have a significant impact on food quality and food safety in China.