Varieties of paternalism and the heterogeneity of utility structures

A principal source of interest in behavioral economics has been its advertised contributions to policies aimed at ‘nudging’ people away from allegedly natural but self-defeating behavior toward patterns of response thought more likely to improve their welfare. This has occasioned controversies among economists and philosophers around the normative limits of paternalism, especially by technical policy advisors. One recent suggestion has been that ‘boosting,’ in which interventions aim to enhance people’s general cognitive skills and representational repertoires instead of manipulating their choice environments behind their backs, avoids the main normative challenges. A limitation in most of this literature is that it has focused on relatively sweeping policy recommendations and consequently on strong polar alternatives of general paternalism and strict laissez faire. We review a real instance, drawn from a consulting project we conducted for an investment bank, of a proposed intervention that is more typical of the kind that economists are more often actually called upon to offer. In this example, the sophistication of current tools for preference attribution, combined with philosophical externalism about the semantics of preferences that makes it less plausible to attribute their literal self-conscious representation to people as propositional attitude content becomes more tightly refined, blocks applicability of the distinction between nudging and boosting. This seems to call for irreducible, context-specific ethical judgment in assessing the appropriateness of the forms of paternalism that economists must actually wrestle with in going about their everyday business.     

重塑自然资源管理新格局：目标定位、价值导向与战略选择

研究目的:立足新时代党和国家机构改革背景,分析自然资源管理改革目标定位和面临挑战,明确未来自然资源管理改革价值导向与战略选择。研究方法:文献研究法,综合分析法。研究结果:自然资源管理改革的目标定位是实现"五统一",即统一调查评价、统一确权登记、统一"多规合一"和用途管制、统一资产管理和统一督查监管。针对当前自然资源管理理论储备不足、开发利用伦理缺乏科学引导、开发和保护矛盾冲突长期存在、新管理体制效能有待实践检验等挑战,自然资源管理改革亟需注重"公平效率"、强调"永续利用"、融合"三资一体"、构建"有效市场",切实重塑自然资源管理新格局。研究结论:新时代自然资源管理改革应该以权籍为基础,完善自然资源市场体系;以规划为龙头,构建国土空间规划体系;以"三线"为底线,推进全域国土空间用途管制;以整治为抓手,推进"山水林田湖草"生命共同体综合治理;以法制为保障,构建自然资源管理法律体系,从而塑造"三体系一管制一治理"的自然资源管理新格局。     

Beyond classical van Westendorp: Assessing price sensitivity for variants of algae-based meat substitutes

Food product innovations are characterized by high flop rates. In an early development stage, manifold product formulations seem feasible. To determine the most promising product option, market research can help, but is frequently considered too costly and complex. We assess the applicability of the van Westendorp approach, an inexpensive and simple method, for guiding early product design and pricing decisions for novel foods. Findings from a between-subject experiment for meat substitutes consisting of different shares of micro-algae indicate that micro-algae, while a cost driver, has little effect on price preferences. Implications for novel food product design, market research, and retailing are discussed.     

A mixed behaviour equilibrium model with mode choice and its application to the endogenous demand of automated vehicles

This study develops a mixed behavioural equilibrium model with explicit consideration of mode choice (MBE-MC) in a transportation system where fully automated vehicles (AV) coexist with conventional human-driven vehicles (HV). For the mode choice, travellers select among three options, following a logit modal split: driving their private HV, or taking an AV mobility service provided by either a firm or the government. For the route choice, the HV drivers follow the random utility maximisation principle while central agents route the AV passengers following the Cournot Nash (firm agent) or Social Optimal (government agent) principles. We consider two types of travel costs (i.e. travel time and monetary travel cost) to characterise the new features (e.g. expanded link capacity and reduced value of time) of the mixed AV–HV transportation system. We model the MBE-MC problem in a combined mode–route choice framework and formulate it as a route-based variational inequality (VI) problem. We show the equivalence between the VI formulation and the MBE-MC problem, and the existence of a solution to the MBE-MC problem. Then, we modify a partial linearisation algorithm for solving the proposed model. Numerical results validate the equilibrium conditions and show the efficacy of the new model in capturing the features of the mixed AV–HV transportation system. The impact patterns of different parameters on (1) the network performance in terms of AV share and system cost and (2) on the solution efficiency are analysed.     

中国转轨经济中的银行资产选择行为分析——一个将制度性因素内生化的银行资产选择模型

本文立足于中国转轨经济中的信贷市场,强调制度性因素对银行贷款决策和资产选择行为的影响,通过建立一个银行资产选择模型,将这些制度性因素的影响内生化,利用广义的边际分析,分析了在不确定性条件下,中国商业银行贷款变动的原因以及由此导致的结构性信贷配给机制,并且指出,在中国以银行间接金融为主导的金融市场上,银行决策者在不确定性条件下根据自身的偏好和效用函数而作出的相对独立的贷款决策和资产选择行为,不仅可能导致货币政策失效,还可能对经济运行和经济增长的质量产生独立的影响.     

以史促论 以论带史 史论结合——宗廷虎先生修辞学史与修辞史研究论析

宗廷虎先生的修辞学史与修辞史研究注重史论结合,取得了丰硕的成果。作为学术史,宗著表现为：史料丰富,搜罗详尽;视域宽广,所涉及的理论范畴丰富;取舍精到,主次分明,将最有理论价值的遗产介绍给学术界。表现在理论上的特征是：全局笼罩,将理论的触角深入到历史阐述的各要素中;现代阐释,以新的理论成果、新的理论框架对历史遗产作出符合原意的解释;卓识独见,表现出许多独创性学术洞见。     

东北亚地区物流合作的前景

本文认为,20世纪80年代以来,东北亚各国相互间贸易和投资规模的不断扩大及向纵深发展,有力地推动了本地区物流服务贸易的发展,特别是中、日、韩三国积极参与经济全球化进程,产业结构不断调整升级,迅速发展成全球制造业中心,成为世界物流合作最具活力和潜力的地区。文章提出,东北亚地区的物流合作已经具备了基本条件,应基于海运、空运的区位优势和物流的货物优势,建立东北亚地区海运物流体系、东北亚地区空运物流中心和类别相对集中的物流通道;东北亚地区的物流合作,要从整体上、战略上进行研究规划,制定出合作框架,确定合作的目标、原则、内容以及实现目标的途径和措施,建立合作交流机制,在互利互赢的基础上,提高东北亚地区物流合作的整体水平。     

西部投资的经济学分析和政策选择

从静态收益和动态扩展两方面分析西部投资及相关模型的政策,即我国西部正处于加速吸收的前 期,存在一定的障碍因素。所以,在资金吸收的政策安排上,应依靠国家经济政策,广开市场融资渠道, 建立资金回流机制,加速西部投资的政策选择机制。     

Correlates of Narrow Bracketing

Behavior often deviates from standard predictions because individuals evaluate the consequences of choices separately (i.e., narrow bracketing) rather than jointly. The main existing theories classify different narrow bracketing phenomena as either (i) choice errors caused by cognitive limitations, or (ii) strategies to achieve self‐control. Using an online experiment, we find consistent evidence for theory (ii): mental budgets and narrow goals are related to each other and to measures of self‐control, but are distinct from other forms of narrow bracketing. Evidence for the complementary theory (i) is less consistent: few choice bracketing phenomena are related to each other and to cognitive skills.     

The reversing influence of involvement on the framing effect: The role of emotions and negativity

The Asian disease problem (ADP), as a demonstration of the framing effect, revealed a preference reversal between options perceived as risky and those perceived as certain. This research identifies individuals' involvement level as a moderator of the framing effect. The framing effect in the ADP consisted of emotional choice outcomes regarding human lives. Two studies in this paper demonstrate that when based on emotional choices, the framing effect in high involvement conditions increases in size. Interestingly, this influence of involvement reverses when the framing effect is based on rational choices. The studies reveal that the negativity invoked by the certain loss option is instrumental in the underlying mechanism of the risky choice framing effect, such as that demonstrated by the ADP. Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.