Permit markets,carbon prices and the creation of innovation clusters

Innovation clusters combining public and private effort to develop breakthrough technologies promise greater technological advances to slow down climate change. We use a multi-country model with an emission trading system to examine whether and how international climate policy can incentivize countries to create such innovation clusters. We find that a minimal carbon price is needed to attract applied research firms, but countries may nevertheless fail to invest in complementary research infrastructure. We construct a mechanism that leads to innovation clusters when emissions targets are set before uncertainty surrounding technological developments is resolved. It is a combination of low permit endowments for the country with the lowest costs to build the needed infrastructure, compensation for this country by profits from permit trade, and maximal possible permit endowments for the remaining countries. We outline how the EU-ETS can be further refined according to this mechanism.     

众筹平台双边市场特性与竞争策略研究

当前,众筹平台逐渐分化为综合型与垂直型众筹平台,其用户规模和交易费率都存在显著差异,需要制定有针对性的竞争策略。根据众筹模式特征,构建了Hotelling竞争模型,分组实证考察了综合型和垂直型众筹平台双边用户交叉网络外部性、支持者自网络外部性和平台定价的综合影响。结果表明,在综合型众筹平台中,支持者规模对支持者投资需求产生了显著正自网络外部性;而在垂直型众筹平台中,支持者规模对发起者筹资需求、发起者规模对支持者投资需求均产生了显著的正交叉网络外部性,且平台定价显著负向影响发起者筹资需求。     

Foreclosure externalities: New evidence

Policy makers have used externalities to justify government intervention in the foreclosure process. Using a new dataset that covers 15 of the largest metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S. and a novel identification strategy, this paper provides new evidence on the size and source of these externalities. Our results show that a property in distress affects the value of neighboring properties from the time when the borrower becomes seriously delinquent on the mortgage until well after the bank sells the property to a new owner. Properties with seriously delinquent loans within 0.1 miles are found to decrease transaction prices of non-distressed properties by approximately one percent on average. The spillovers are found to dissipate rapidly with distance and completely disappear one year after the bank sells the property to a new homeowner. Importantly, we find that the size of the externality is sensitive to the condition of foreclosed properties, as bank-owned properties in poor condition lower nearby transaction prices by 2.6% on average while those in good condition marginally raise prices. We argue that the measured price spillovers are physical externalities caused by a lack of property maintenance and not pecuniary externalities that reflect local supply or demand shocks.     

现代会计理论的产权基础

会计作为一种微观计量机制,在维护产权权能、实现产权利益和内部化外部性过程中处于最基础、最重要和最具操作性的地位。外部性内部化的"结果"产生了"产权",而外部性内部化的"过程"则催生了"会计"。会计对外部性内部化的贡献与生俱来:会计的本质是外部性内部化,会计的目标是内部化外部性,会计的职能是界定财权和保护财权,会计的对象是财权流。会计是以货币为主要量度,依据公认标准来界定财权(产权)和保护财权(产权)以内部化外部性的微观计量系统。     

Enterprises,incentives and networks: The formative years of the electrical network in Portugal, 1920–1947

Path-dependence, the formation of technological irreversibilities and ownership patterns, have recently been salient aspects in the study of historical networks. This article analyses the formative years of public utilities in a period where the advantages of co-ordination, interconnection or integration between enterprises was still incipient. The purpose is to understand what happens when the competition to expand the physical extensions of nodes and links is suddenly blocked, and the enterprises can only compete to increase supply. The theme is thus of network enterprises operating without some of the standard incentives to economies of scale. The allocational and distributional consequences of this particular situation are exposed through an examination of the case study of Portuguese electrification in the first half of the twentieth century.     

Disclosure and Recognition Requirements: Corporate Investment Decisions with Externalities*

This paper examines the effects of disclosure and recognition requirements on investment decisions when shareholders have limited liability. Firms' investment projects have either high initial pollution prevention costs or high subsequent clean‐up costs, and their liability for clean‐up costs may be either individual or joint and several. Even with individual liability for clean‐up costs, shareholders' limited liability creates an incentive to select the latter project type and to impose costs on the rest of the economy. This tendency is exacerbated when clean‐up liability is joint and several. We show that a disclosure requirement cannot have an unambiguous effect on the selection of the “cleaner” project. However, an accrual requirement, together with an accounting‐based dividend restriction, is shown to promote choice of the project that imposes lower expected costs on the rest of the economy. Moreover, we find that it is possible for a recognition requirement to have a greater impact in a joint‐and‐several liability regime than in an individual liability regime.     

中央政府供给地区生态补偿的内生性缺陷——多数规则下的分析

我国现在实施的生态补偿以财政补偿为主,其中中央对地方的财政补偿所占的比例最高.从地方公共品供给的角度看,在多数规则下,中央政府供给地区生态补偿具有内生性缺陷.在政府供给诸如环境保护类型的正溢出性地方公共品方面,中央政府的纵向转移支付有存在的必要,但若占居主导地位则弊大于利.地方政府之间应该加强横向联系,以更多地承担地区生态补偿的责任.     

Diversity, persistence and chaos in consumption patterns

In this paper we present a model from which discretionary consumption dynamics can be analyzed as global properties emerging from the endogenous transformation of a society inhabited by boundedly rational interactive consumers. By considering local and global interactions among consumers, we show that behavioral diversity plays a central role in the evolution of consumption patterns. The analysis of the model reveals the existence of a regime characterized by the persistence of different social standards, and a time evolution of the social distribution of behavioral patterns towards a heteroclinic cycle. In some cases the evolution seems to be chaotic, generating unpredictable, erratic dynamics of the aggregate social indices (average or social propensity for discretionary consumption).      

地方财政支出的空间外部效应研究

财政行为的空间外部性是应用公共经济学的重要研究课题。目前，国内既有文献多是集中于对税收竞争的考察。对于地方财政支出空间外部效应的研究还非常缺乏。依据Case和Rosen（1993）的思路，本文采用空间计量方法对我国地方财政支出的空间外部性进行了经验研究。结果表明，总体上看，地方财政支出具有显著的正外部效应。但进一步对建设支出和教育科技支出这两个细分项目的分析则显示，后者并未表现出显著的空间外部效应。上述结论的得出为最优分权规模的确定提供了一个新的观察视角。