Convergence between satellite information and farmers’ perception of drought in rangelands of North-West Patagonia,Argentina

Drought is a complex natural hazard with social and environmental implications. Satellite information is increasingly used to support decision-makers in preventing or coping with the negative impacts of drought. The integration of local and scientific knowledge to support drought monitoring is still far from being the main procedure in the development of drought monitoring and early warning systems. This study aimed at assessing the degree of convergence between satellite information on the effect of droughts on rangeland vegetation, from time series analysis, and farmers’ perception of drought in North-West Patagonia, Argentina. We characterised the scientific evidence of drought in terms of duration, spatial distribution, most severe years and recovery for the period 2000–2018 by identifying inter-annual NDVI changes. Farmers’ perceptions and experiences of drought were studied with open-ending interviews, with respect to occurrence, duration and recovery for that period. Satellite information matched farmers’ perception of drought at a regional scale, emphasising the value of remote sensing tools in supporting regional policy decision-making. However, farmers’ perceptions and recall of past drought impacts were more diverse than satellite information at a local level, highlighting the need for knowledge integration at finer scales.     

Labor migration and the decoupling of the crop-livestock system in a rural mountainous area: Evidence from Chongqing,China

Massive out-migration of rural labor force brings both challenges and opportunities to crop-livestock integrated production system (crop-livestock system) in smallholder economy. Compared with previous researches that have paid major attention to the effect of labor migration on either crop production or livestock husbandry, this study considers the mediating role of crop production in predicting the effect of labor migration on livestock raising. Our econometric estimation based on a 2012 survey of 974 rural households in Chongqing, a mountainous region of China, showed the following. (1) The massive migration of rural labor force had led to significant increase in farmland abandonment and considerable changes in the pattern of livestock raising. (2) The livestock raising number per household began to differentiate, with the livestock system separating from the traditional crop-livestock system and becoming a specialized business. (3) In terms of the pathways through which rural labor migration exerts impact on livestock raising number, though the increased opportunity costs of rural labor greatly reduced farmers’ willingness to raise livestock, the decoupling of the crop-livestock system partly alleviated the declining trend in the livestock raising number because of the availability of household labor force freed from cropping via farmland abandonment. These findings have important policy implications for rural development and agricultural restructuring in mountainous areas of China, and provide references for other developing countries.     

Data revisions to German national accounts: Are initial releases good nowcasts?

Data revisions to national accounts pose a serious challenge to policy decision making. Well-behaved revisions should be unbiased, small, and unpredictable. This article shows that revisions to German national accounts are biased, large, and predictable. Moreover, with use of filtering techniques designed to process data subject to revisions, the real-time forecasting performance of initial releases can be increased by up to 23%. For total real GDP growth, however, the initial release is an optimal forecast. Yet, given the results for disaggregated variables, the averaging out of biases and inefficiencies at the aggregate GDP level appears to be good luck rather than good forecasting.     

Ecological Gentrification in Response to Apocalyptic Narratives of Climate Change: The Production of an Immuno-political Fantasy

Anxieties over the potential impacts of climate change, often framed in apocalyptic language, are having a profound, but little studied effect on the contemporary Western urbanscape. This article examines the ways in which current theorizations of ‘ecological gentrification’ express only half the process, describing how green space is used for social control, but not how ecology is used as a justification regime for such projects. As urbanites seek out housing and living practices that have a lower environmental impact, urban planners have responded by providing large-scale regeneration of the urbanscape. With the demand for this housing increasing, questions of inequality, displacement and dispossession arise. I ask whether apocalyptic anxiety is being enrolled in the justification regimes of these projects to make them hard to resist at the planning and implementation stages. The article shows that, in capitalizing on collective anxiety surrounding an apocalyptic future, these projects depoliticize subjects by using the empty signifier, ‘Sustainability’, leading them into an immuno-political relationship to the urbanscape. This leaves subjects feeling protected from both responsibility for, and the impacts of, climate change. Ultimately, this has the consequence of gentrification coupled with potentially worsening consumptive practices, rebound effects and the depoliticization of the environmentally conscious urbanite.     

Environmental policies,national culture,and stock price crash risk: Evidence from renewable energy firms

This study investigates the impact of country‐level environmental performance and national culture on the stock price crash risk of renewable energy firms. Employing a large sample of 626 renewable energy firms across 31 countries, we find a significant nonlinear relationship between country‐level environmental performance and crash risk. National culture dimensions are found to strongly predict the crash risk of renewable energy firms, particularly after the global financial crisis. On the contrary, national culture dimensions and environmental policies are observed to not exert any significance in explaining the crash risk of fossil fuel firms. Our results are robust with respect to alternative measures of stock price crash risk and the endogeneity of national culture dimensions. Overall, the findings of this paper contribute to the environmental economics literature by providing new evidence regarding the role of societal and environmental factors in explaining the stock price crash risk of energy firms.     

ANSI认可标准制定组织以及美国国家标准批准程序

美国作为市场化程度高、技术水平先进的国家，其标准化管理体制和运行模式遵循了标准化的自身规律。能够快速响应不断变化的市场需求、政府监管的需要，同时又能支持技术创新、促进经济、贸易发展，提升美国的竞争实力。美国国家标准是自愿性的，并且由美国国家标准学会（ANSI）认可的标准制定组织制定。本文分析了ANSI的基本情况、ANSI认可标准制定组织的管理程序、美国国家标准批准和废止的条件及程序。希冀对中国的标准化改革有所借鉴。     

外资企业的要素属权结构与出口增加值的收益归属

在生产全球化的时代大背景下,外资企业积极参与一国的生产和出口,并从所在国的出口中获取收益。外资企业的出口增加值中既包括了本国要素所产生的增加值,也包括了外国要素所产生的增加值,形成了外资企业出口增加值中的要素属权结构。研究外资企业出口增加值中的要素属权结构,一方面,有助于学术界理解外国要素流入对于本国要素出口增加值的拉动效应;另一方面,有利于学术界厘清外国要素流入所形成的要素收益分配效应。本文运用微观企业数据测算发现:2000—2013年在外资加工出口企业中,中国属权要素出口增加值占属地出口增加值的平均比重为65.85%,两者之间的平均背离程度为34.15%。本文进一步运用区分异质性企业的投入产出表进行测算发现:2012年在外资加工贸易企业和非加工贸易企业出口中,中国属权要素出口增加值与属地要素出口增加值的背离相对值分别为30.13%和25.32%。本文认为属地出口增加值已经不能充分反映外资企业出口中的本国要素收益,研究外资企业出口增加值中的要素属权结构有利于学术界认识增加值贸易中国内要素的实际收益,也可以为一国政府的对外贸易谈判提供科学依据。     

电力市场效率评估与碳市场价格设计——基于电碳市场关联视角下的传导率估计

厘清并量化电力市场与碳市场间的关联关系,是深化电力市场改革与实现"双碳"目标的重要抓手。本文基于2006—2018年中国100个地级及以上城市的面板数据,使用似不相关回归模型评估了电力市场效率,在此基础上研究了电、碳市场关联条件下碳价对电价的传导率,并对不同场景下全国碳市场的碳价进行了优化设计。研究发现:(1)与非试点地区相比,碳市场试点地区中电力市场的无谓损失率更低,并且市场效率的提高具有更高的碳减排作用。(2)电、碳市场关联条件下,碳价对电力市场中居民电价的传导率高于对工业电价的传导率,但均远低于完全竞争条件下的传导率水平。(3)传导率的提升能够缓解"降电价"与"碳减排"之间的矛盾。当前传导率下电力市场效率目标与碳减排目标的协同实现需要碳价的大幅提升,而在完全传导的理想情况下最优碳价约为40元/吨。(4)长期而言,当前传导率下碳排放总量下降场景、经济增速放缓场景对应的最优碳价分别为255.05元/吨、173.63元/吨,而人口老龄化场景并未对最优碳价的设置形成约束。本文的研究不仅为电力市场与碳市场之间的关联奠定了理论基础,也为全国碳市场价格机制的优化设计提供了政策参考。     

中美两国地方政府治理的行政生态环境比较分析

行政生态环境与地方政府治理具体行为选择存在交互影响。中美两国地方政府治理存在典型性的行政生态环境差异。从两国政党与国家渊源上来分析,政党原则及其在国家政治生活中的地位与作用的差异影响着两国地方政府的治理方针选择;从两国的经济发展与基本国情来分析,社会生产力与经济实力的差距影响着两国地方政府所追求的治理需要;从两国社会结构特点与民族来源来分析,差序格局与个人主义、民族融合与种族主义影响着两国地方政府的治理结构与治理标准;从两国教育文化水平与舆情环境来分析,教育体系以及现代信息科技影响着两国地方政府治理工具的选择以及对于治理主体与治理行为的监督力度。     

产业集群生态化发展模式研究

产业集群是促进区域经济发展的有效组织形式,其发展程度成为了世界各国经济实力的重要体现。但是一些产业集群在发展过程中也造成资源大量消耗和环境污染等问题。随着对生态环境的重视,产业集群生态化问题被提到日程上来。采用扎根理论确定评价指标体系,对辽宁省制造业产业集群生态化发展水平进行实证分析,可以据此提出产业集群生态化发展模式,以促进辽宁省产业集群生态化水平的提高,实现经济的可持续发展。