Testing for cointegration with threshold effect between unemployment and stock prices

Under the dominant role of a belief function, Farmer argues that the stock market is the Granger cause of the unemployment rate, which implies that the natural rate hypothesis is an outdated idea. This article provides some new empirical evidence supporting this view using threshold cointegration and asymmetric error correction models. The results show that these models can assess asymmetric dynamics between unemployment and the stock market. Moreover, regime switches of the momentum threshold autoregressive adjustment specification are highly consistent with recessions in the US economy during the last 60 years.     

中国农产品对荷兰出口实证研究

本文运用出口量、出口金额、出口均价等综合指标对我国出口荷兰的农产品进行了总量、结构的统计分析,重点研究了动物类产品、蔬菜类产品、水果类产品的品种构成和出口变化,提出政府应积极发展农产品加工业,培育拳头产品的出口,同时建立起对荷兰农产品标准和贸易法规的跟踪系统,以及对国内生产和出口企业的完备监控体系。     

Reducing crimes against wildlife through promoting animal–human continuity beliefs: The role of consumers' religiosity

Wildlife crime is a worldwide issue, but marketing research has been mostly silent on the topic. In particular, research has yet to understand how a consumer's level of religiosity may help to explain views toward and participation in crimes against wildlife. Thus, through three studies, these challenges are addressed. Study 1 shows that religiosity positively influences acceptability views and participation in crimes against wildlife, and this relationship is mediated by animal–human continuity beliefs (i.e., believing animals and humans are one of the same). Study 2 primes religion to show that religiously primed consumers are more likely to view crimes against wildlife as acceptable, thereby supporting religiosity as a primary mechanism in explaining crimes against wildlife. Additionally, animal–human continuity beliefs again mediate this relationship, with religiously primed consumers reporting lower animal–human continuity beliefs. Lastly, Study 3 provides practical implications through marketing messaging aimed at reducing attitudes toward and participation in crimes against wildlife. Findings reveal that religious-based messaging is the most effective. Findings build on belief congruence theory and provide implications for marketing practice and the preservation of wildlife.     

低碳经济下畜牧业发展问题与对策研究

发展低碳经济对畜牧业健康可持续发展和促进粮食安全具有重要意义。文章利用文献分析和统计数据分析法对低碳经济发展内涵和重要性进行阐述,并分析畜牧业发展对环境和粮食安全的影响。结果显示,传统畜牧业向低碳畜牧业的转型过程中存在农村居民的环保意识薄弱、干部对环保工作重视程度不够、自主研发技术水平低、相关政策法规不健全、监管存在漏洞等瓶颈问题。并从加强政策引导,增强低碳意识;加强营养调控,改进饲料加工工艺;加大科技创新力度,增加对畜牧业资金扶持;加强畜禽污染废弃物的资源化利用;大力发展循环畜牧养殖模式等方面提出促进低碳畜牧业发展的对策建议,以期为我国畜牧业的健康可持续发展奠定理论基础。     

Proximity and animal welfare in the context of tourist interactions with habituated dolphins

The long-term sustainability of wildlife tourism depends on integrating visitor demands with resource management, requiring an understanding of tourist motivation. Managing the conflict between access to the animals and welfare, however, may diminish the experience for tourists. This paper identifies trade-offs tourists are willing to make between access and animal welfare, associated with feeding habituated bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) in Monkey Mia, Western Australia. Using a choice modelling technique, we were able to determine monetary values of visitor experiences. Compared to the current guaranteed interaction with dolphins (and a daily resort entrance fee), respondents were willing to pay significantly higher hypothetical entrance fees to avoid a decrease in proximity to, or probability of, the dolphin interaction. However, negative impacts on dolphin welfare had a negative impact on visitor utility. Over 80% of visitors (n = 244) accepted management regulations resulting in decreased time with and proximity to dolphins, if those addressed welfare concerns and were communicated clearly. Thus, while visitors placed the greatest value on the proximity and predictability, they were willing to trade off these aspects if they improved dolphin welfare. We provide management suggestions based on these results.     

Chinese tourists' views of nature and natural landscape interpretation: a generational perspective

This study investigates Chinese tourists’ views of nature, interest in animal experiences and their preferred natural landscape interpretation content from a generational perspective. Eight hundred and eight self-administered questionnaires were collected at Wulingyuan, a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site, in China. It suggests that overall Chinese traditional cultural values and beliefs, notably the thinking of tian ren he yi (oneness of nature with humans), still have considerable impacts on Chinese tourists. They were found to have a strong sense of connection with nature and a preference for cultural interpretations of natural landscapes. Meanwhile, Chinese might be reaching a point of convergence in terms of attitude towards nature and animals with their Western counterparts, as reflected by their weak anthropocentric view, and strong ethical and aesthetic appreciation of animals, regardless of generation cohorts. Yet, the study shows significant generational gaps: older generations have a stronger connection with nature, are more concerned about environmental issues and show more support for the Western approach towards nature protection; the younger generations hold weaker anthropocentrism, and are more interested in animals, yet are less likely to learn about nature through tourism interpretation.     

Situating the wildlife spectacle: ecofeminism,representation, and polar bear tourism

This paper presents a critical investigation of power relations circulating in promotional materials associated with polar bear tourism in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. Drawing on precepts of ecofeminism, critical discourse analysis, and the content of cultural texts (websites, souvenirs) produced by tourism operators, businesses, and crown corporations, the study interprets how representations of polar bears re-inscribe regimes of truth that marginalize non-human animal others and are complicit with patriarchal ideologies. Focus in our analysis is placed first, on illustrating the portrayal of “performing spectacle bears” – a socially constructed subjectivity designed to serve the desires of wildlife tourism producers and consumers – and, second, on diagnosing the privileged discourses that work to maintain and normalize this construction, along with the interspecies dynamics they support. In effect, the paper sheds light on the complex and recurrent effects of anthropocentric and instrumentalist orientations in tourism, including their contingency upon masculine systems of value and rationality. The paper also points out the potential of ecofeminist ethics of care for enhancing interspecies relationships in sustainable tourism.     

松辽平原农牧结合循环农业技术研究现状及展望

松辽平原是我国重要的种植业和畜牧业生产基地,发展循环农业是其实现农业现代化的重要战略选择。根据循环农业内涵、技术目标和基本原理,结合松辽平原农业发展现状,分析了其发展农牧结合循环农业的必要性。最后,在循环农业研究实践基础上,探讨了未来松辽平原循环农业科技的重点研究方向。     

On the Differences between English- Chinese Animal Language Connotation and Its Translation

英、汉语言中,动物词汇常发生语义重叠现象,即词汇对应关系。但是由于英、汉两民族长期生活在不同的文化背景中,对同一动物词汇产生不同联想而赋予不同文化内涵,因此,研究和发掘动物习语所承载的文化信息和语言功能,在跨文化交际及翻译中有很大的实用价值。本文采用大量的实例,探讨英汉动物类象征词的语义差异现象,指出动物类词语的内涵在不同的文化中不同之处以及不同动物词的翻译方法。     

Measuring the consumer benefits of improving farm animal welfare to inform welfare labelling

Policy makers in the European Union are envisioning the introduction of a community farm animal welfare label which would allow consumers to align their consumption habits with their farm animal welfare preferences. For welfare labelling to be viable the market for livestock products produced to higher welfare standards has to be sufficiently segmented with consumers having sufficiently distinct and behaviourally consistent preferences. The present study investigates consumers’ preferences for meat produced to different welfare standards using a hypothetical welfare score. Data is obtained from a contingent valuation study carried out in Britain. The ordered probit model was estimated using Bayesian inference to obtain mean willingness to pay. We find decreasing marginal WTP as animal welfare levels increase and that people’s preferences for different levels of farm animal welfare are sufficiently differentiated making the introduction of a labelling scheme in the form of a certified rating system appear feasible.