Global trade impacts of increasing Europe's bioenergy demand

European governments are rapidly turning to biomass to comply with the EU's legislated renewable energy targets for 2020 and 2030. To do so, EU member states will likely have to increase imports of biomass from timber rich regions, which will undoubtedly disrupt international wood product markets. In this study, a static global forest trade model of coniferous wood products is used to examine the effects of expanded demand for wood pellets in Europe to generate reliable electricity. Positive mathematical programming (PMP) is used to calibrate the model to 2012 bilateral trade flows. To assess the impact of increased wood-pellet demand on global forest products, we consider a scenario where EU demand for wood pellets doubles. Model results suggest increases in the world prices of industrial roundwood (1%), particleboard ($34/m³), fibreboard ($30/m³), pulp ($65/t) and pellets (71% to 128%), while the prices of sawnwood and plywood & veneer are projected to fall by $12/m³ and $4/m³, respectively. The gains and losses are unevenly distributed between timber rich and timber poor regions; Russia, Canada and the U.S. experience large net welfare gains of $706 million, $544 million and $416 million, respectively, while Asia loses $1.8 billion. In the forest products sector, the gains outweigh losses with economic benefits increasing by some $4.9 billion, but this is a cost to the consumers of electricity and/or taxpayers in the regions implementing these renewable energy policies. The price of wood pellets is projected to rise between $107 and $154 per tonne. The findings highlight the need to account for the interconnections among softwood forest products globally.     

京津冀协同发展下保定市建设用地对二三产业贡献的区域差异研究

作为京津冀核心城市之一,保定市土地供给与经济需求矛盾尤为突出。本文运用扩展后的柯布—道格拉斯生产(C-D)模型,测度2004-2013年保定市22个县(市)建设用地供给对二三产业的贡献,以期为保定市及各县建设用地科学管理提供依据。研究表明:2004-2013年保定市建设用地对二三产业的贡献值为12.69%,高于劳动力5.40%,低于固定资本78.47%;22个县市建设用地投入对二三产业发展贡献区域差异明显,这种差异主要受经济水平、区位条件、产业结构和资源条件等因素的影响。结论:保定市相关部门应因地制宜制定差异性建设用地供给指标,最大限度发挥有限土地资源产出水平,缓解土地供需矛盾。     

Tradable water saving certificates to improve urban water use efficiency: an ex‐ante evaluation in a French case study

This paper proposes a system of tradable Water Saving Certificates to improve the efficiency of water allocation between Drinking Water Utilities at river basin level. A market institutional set‐up, inspired from recent policy developments in the energy sector, is proposed. An original analytical price‐endogenous model is developed to simulate trade intensity, equilibrium price and efficiency gains in this urban water market. The economic model is implemented in a French case study using mathematical programming. It is used for conducting an ex‐ante evaluation of trade possibilities and efficiency gains, considering different spatial restrictions aimed at controlling environmental externalities. Our modelling exercise provides evidence of the benefits of the proposed Water Saving Certificate scheme.     

Financial functional analysis: a conceptual framework for understanding the changing financial system

The financial system is currently undergoing a revolution brought about by e-finance, digital convergence, new market entrants and government-encouraged competition. New market entrants such as Apple, Alibaba, Facebook and Google come from industries such as IT, retail, social media and telecoms, and, therefore, do not fit comfortably within traditional financial institutional structures. A functional perspective might provide more practical insights into this revolution; however, the functional perspective has had a limited impact. This paper will investigate the benefits and limitations of financial functional analysis; probe the underpinning principles of sociology’s structural functional analysis; revisit Merton and Bodie’s (1995) six core financial functions in relation to new entrants in the financial landscape; and, finally, argue that in the new financial environment, functional analysis provides a more coherent and explanatory framework of the financial system for students and practitioners alike.     

Preference purification and the inner rational agent: a critique of the conventional wisdom of behavioural welfare economics

Neoclassical economics assumes that individuals have stable and context-independent preferences, and uses preference satisfaction as a normative criterion. By calling this assumption into question, behavioural findings cause fundamental problems for normative economics. A common response to these problems is to treat deviations from conventional rational choice theory as mistakes, and to try to reconstruct the preferences that individuals would have acted on, had they reasoned correctly. We argue that this preference purification approach implicitly uses a dualistic model of the human being, in which an inner rational agent is trapped in an outer psychological shell. This model is psychologically and philosophically problematic.     

我国城乡低保标准现状评估研究

我国城乡低保标准现状如何，为社会各界广泛关注。有人认为目前的城乡低保标准偏高，有人认为目前的城乡低保标准偏低，存在一定争议。对各省份2010年到2012年的城乡低保标准进行量化分析表明，我国城乡最低生活保障标准的替代率呈总体上升趋势，大致在合理区间；但城乡之间、地区之间的差距较大，不平衡问题突出，形势不容乐观。     

河南省林果业循环经济发展趋势

河南作为国家发改委确定的循环经济建设试点省份,近年来积极探索适合该省省情的循环经济发展模式,取得了一定成效,但同时也存在发展水平不高、区域发展不均衡等问题。文章就河南省林果业循环经济发展的优势、必要性、存在的问题及未来发展趋势进行简要的分析与探讨。该文指出了河南林果业循环经济发展面临的问题:一是林果业循环经济基础发展薄弱;二是循环经济相关法律有待完善,政府调节作用有待加强。对于未来河南林果业循环经济发展趋势,一是需要政府协调引导,形成发展合力;二是需要龙头企业带动,延长产业链条;三是需要农户积极参与,践行循环经济。让更多农户掌握生态林果栽培技术,将更多新技术与高效节能新装备与产品推广下去,促进林果业循环经济在更广阔的范围开展下去,让循环经济真正深入人心,实现河南林果业种植地区户户参与、人人参与的良好局面。     

Value of hedge and expected returns

We demonstrate how it is possible to generate value for an investor with a hedge attached to the buy-and-hold strategy of an S&P 500 index fund. We study the S&P 500 index portfolio (not including dividends) and the value-weighted S&P 500 index portfolio (including dividends) of the Center for Research in Securities Prices for 1967:01–2011:12, using the capacity utilization and the unemployment rates in real time to determine if a hedge position should be initiated or closed. A hedge is initiated if the capacity utilization, the unemployment rate or a combination of the two signals a contraction in the real economy. The hedge position is closed if it signals otherwise an expansion. We use utility gains (Campbell and Thompson 2008), the manipulation-proof performance measure (MPPM) statistics (Ingersoll et al. 2007) and the P-Sharpe ratio (Bailey and López de Prado 2012) to evaluate the performance of a particular hedge strategy. The empirical results show that there are infinitely many hedges that can generate positive utility gains, higher MPPM statistics and higher P-Sharpe ratios.     

我国畜禽养殖污染分区治理研究

随着我国畜禽养殖业的迅猛发展,畜禽养殖污染已经成为我国重要的污染源,威胁着我国的水环境和土壤环境等。文章利用我国各省畜禽养殖污染统计年鉴数据,依据各区的畜禽养殖污染总量压力、土地负荷压力和地表水负荷压力以及经济负荷压力等级对我国主要畜禽养殖污染区域特征进行了分析。结果表明,黄淮海地区为H-H-H-H型畜禽养殖污染区,是我国畜禽养殖污染压力最大的地区;青藏高原区为L-L-L-L型畜禽养殖污染区,是我国畜禽养殖污染压力最小的地区;东北区和东南区畜禽养殖污染压力也较大,分别为H-M-M-H型畜禽养殖污染区和H-H-L-M型畜禽养殖污染区;蒙新高原区和黄土高原区畜禽养殖污染压力中等,分别为H-M-M-H型畜禽养殖污染区和H-H-L-M型畜禽养殖污染区;西南山地区畜禽养殖污染压力中等偏低,为M-M-L-L型畜禽养殖污染区。基于上述研究,该文对各区畜禽养殖污染的分区环境治理提出了若干针对性建议。     

高职思政课教学现状调查及改进策略分析

通过对北京地区高职思政课教学状况的调查发现，思政课教学质量及教学效果与预期有一定差距。根据高职教育与普通本科教育在培养目标、学生基础等方面的差异性，编写高水平的高职思政教材，完整配备责任能力强和专业水平高的师资队伍，提高课堂教学水平，是改进高职思政课教学的有效策略。