Gender,generation and sustainable consumption: Exploring the behaviour of consumers from Izmir,Turkey

This study investigates the relationship between consumers’ sustainable consumption behaviour and both gender and generation‐related individual differences in a sample of Turkish consumers. A total of 393 participants from different generations and gender took part in the study. To measure sustainable consumption behaviour, we used four‐dimensional sustainable consumption behaviour scale. The results showed that generation is associated with unneeded consumption as a dimension of sustainable consumption behaviour. Consumers who are Baby Boomers found to have the highest level of unneeded consumption behaviour while Gen‐Zers have fewest. Additionally, data supported the association between gender and sustainable consumption behaviour. Women showed a higher level of sustainable consumption behaviour both in overall behaviour and tendency to reuse products. Taken together, the findings suggest that gender and generation of consumers can differentiate sustainable consumption behaviour. The implications of these findings, as well as the limitations and future directions, are also discussed.     

Use of quadratic terms in Type 2 Tobit models

A Type 2 Tobit model with a common set of regressors in the selection and regression equations is identified by the nonlinearity of the distribution function. The estimates are relatively less precise than in cases where there are at least some distinct regressors in the two equations. In an attempt to overcome this problem, some authors introduce quadratic terms into one or both equations. As this does not add any new statistical information, just a deterministic function of an existing regressor, the sceptic would question how this could improve the reliability of the estimates. This article shows that arbitrary use of quadratics is not without consequence. It increases the chances of getting either multiple roots, no root or a local root where a global does not exist. The nature of this problem is illustrated with Monte Carlo methods as well as several examples from the literature.     

Law and Finance Revisited: Evidence from African Countries

The law and finance theory essentially states that legal origins are a significant determinant of financial development. The conclusion from the law and finance theory is that countries whose legal traditions derived from British Common Law have better developed financial markets than countries following French Civil Law. This study conducted an empirical investigation of the law and finance theory for African countries. Our empirical results showed that legal origins are insignificant in explaining financial development but rather, legal effectiveness significantly explains cross‐country differences in financial development in Africa. We concluded that the law and finance theory does not hold in African countries.     

冷作模具钢D2探伤合格率低的原因分析

通过对探伤不合格的D2模具扁钢的金相、电镜观察发现,粗大的碳化物碎裂是探伤不合格的根本原因。分析了粗大碳化物以及其碎裂的原因,降低了浇注温度,改进了锻造加热及变形工艺,控制了开坯总时间,最终使模具钢的探伤合格率由72.6%提高到94.5%。     

Bribery solicitations and firm performance in the Latin America and Caribbean region

This study shows that for firms in the Latin America and Caribbean region, bribery significantly distorts firm growth. Firms that were solicited for bribes when conducting business transactions – such as applying for permits, electricity, or water connections – have 23% lower annual sales growth than firms that do not face such solicitations. Moreover, these distortions are more severe for low-revenue-generating and young firms. Using the instrumental variables method on cross-sectional data as well as evidence from panel data, the authors show that these results are robust to different specifications and the use of different sub-samples.     

企业减少二氧化碳排放的技术风险评估

在2009年的根本哈根会议上,中国政府承诺到2020年,单位国内生产总值二氧化碳排放将比2005年下降40%到45%。为了逐步实现这个目标,中国政府从2012年已经开始在国内七省市试行强制性碳交易系统。企业可以选择减少二氧化碳排放,碳市场上购买碳配额,或者接受政府的惩罚性碳税。对于选择减少二氧化碳的企业而言,技术风险是其在降低排放时不可避免也是最难预测的,本文结合降低二氧化碳排放的技术特点和企业的经营特性,构建了一个评估概念模型,为企业在实施减排时候提供测量风险的参考。     

Disentangling the Poverty Effects of Sectoral Output,Prices, and Policies in India

This paper attempts to disentangle the poverty effects of key policy variables that directly affect the poor (namely the government‐led channel of development spending and financing) in both agricultural and non‐agricultural sectors after accounting for the effect of respective sectoral per capita income and prices, using data from India over five decades. The paper emphasizes the sectoral composition of income and prices as mechanisms influencing the level of poverty and establishes empirically that it is the rise in non‐agricultural per capita income that reduces rural poverty via the channel of internal migration, after having controlled for the variation in key components of fiscal spending and monetary/financial policy via the availability of credit. Uneven sectoral growth pattern explains why urban poverty becomes a spill‐over of persistent rural poverty when the agricultural sector shrinks. While checking for robustness, there is evidence that the rise in non‐agricultural income alone may not reduce rural poverty, when measured in terms of rural infant mortality rate as a non‐income indicator of well‐being.     

Debt Crises and Risk‐Sharing: The Role of Markets versus Sovereigns

Using a variance decomposition of shocks to gross domestic product (GDP), we quantify the role of international factor income, international transfers, and saving in achieving risk‐sharing during the recent European crisis. We focus on the subperiods 1990–2007, 2008–2009, and 2010 and consider separately the European countries hit by the sovereign debt crisis in 2010. We decompose risk‐sharing from saving into contributions from government and private saving, and show that fiscal austerity programs played an important role in hindering risk‐sharing during the sovereign debt crisis.     

Soil CO2 emission and carbon budget of a wheat/maize annual double-cropped system in response to tillage and residue management in the North China Plain

To investigate the impacts of tillage and crop residue managements on soil CO₂ emission and C budget in a wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)/maize (Zea mays L.) double-cropped system in the North China Plain (NCP), a field experiment was conducted consisting of four treatments: tillage with crop residues retention (CT+), tillage with crop residues removal (CT?), no-till with crop residues retention (NT+), and no-till with crop residues removal (NT?). Daily soil CO₂ fluxes changed with crop growing stage and peaked during the most vigorous growth of period, fluxes in maize season were higher than those in wheat season. Compared to the tilled soils, cumulative CO₂ emissions were significantly lower under no-till treatments. The largest cumulative CO₂ emission occurred under CT+ (65?g CO₂-C m^?2 y^?1) and the smallest was under NT+ (39?g CO₂-C m^?2 y^?1). After 5 years of the experiment, soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration were greater with crop residues retention (CT+ and NT+) than with crop residues removal (CT? and NT?), the maximum SOC stock was in NT+ (5940?g C m^?2) while the minimum was in CT? (3635?g C m^?2). NT+ could help to mitigate CO₂ emission in the annual wheat/maize double-cropping system of the area.     

中国二氧化碳排放及影响因素分析

气候变化和二氧化碳减排问题已经引起了世界性的关注。文章对1995年~2014年我国30个省份的二氧化碳排放量进行测算,并对其进行了LMDI加和分解分析。研究中可以发现:总体上我国碳排放的最主要的驱动因素是经济增长效应,其次是人口规模效应,最后是产业结构效应,但影响较小。基于上述,提出减少二氧化碳排放的相关政策建议,以适应中国的低碳经济道路。