Guide the Construction of Ecological Province of China with the Ecological Economics Theory

A major issue in China‘s present ecological economic construction is to build the ecological province. In March of 1999,Hainan Province of China proposed setting up the first ecological province and was accredited by the Bureau of State Environment Protection as the pilot project. Up to now for only four years, Hainan, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Fujian, Zhejiang,Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu, eight provinces in the wholecountry, having launched the establishment of the ecological province. Meanwhile, the provinces such as Shaanxi, Hebei,     

Eco-economic research and construction of harmonious society in China：a survey of the 7^th Biennial Conference of Chinese Ecological Economics Society,2006

The 7th Biennial Conference of Chinese Ecological Economics Society （CEES） was held from 5th to 7th, Nov.2006 in Qingdao University. The paper summarizes the major viewpoint presented at the conference： eco-economicresearch and construction of a harmonious society in China. The conference put forward that it is an objectivity andinevitability for human being to enter the harmonious society, that eco-economics is one of the theoretical bases for theconstruction of the harmonious society, and that the research of eco-economics in China should reflect new contentsdeveloped in the process of modernization in China and make proper contributions to the construction of the harmonioussociety.     

The World Production and Trade of Rare Earth Elements： The Position of the Pacific Area

In this paper we analyze the characteristics of the so-called rare earth elements （REEs） and its industrial applications. We present the policy, or lack thereof, in the countries in the Pacific Rim for its mining and commerce, and the current and future weight that rare earth minerals will have in international trade. The technological revolution experienced over the last 25 years, has brought the REEs to the public＇s attention for being instrumental in obtaining catalysts, lasers and optical fiber, luminescent substances and LEDs, superconductors, permanent magnets, batteries and ultra-capacitors. China＇s leading position as the supplier of these minerals worldwide, and its recent export restriction policy for domestic industrial activities have driven up international prices. Price increase for REEs is leading to the need for both recycling and its replacement. It has also led other countries in the Asia Pacific Rim to prospect new potential sites on their own territories, or even to restart operations in deposits that had been previously abandoned. Those strategies will likely gain greater importance as environmental pollution problems associated with the exploitation, processing, and recovery of REEs increase.     

Ecological footprint of Gansu Province, China between 1997 and 2002： changes and inducement

The calculation of Ecological Footprint （EF） on the basis of Input-Output model （I-O model） was advanced by Bicknell, and modified and improved hy Ferng who corrected the footprint＇s aggregation to each sectors. For the lack of sufficient teehnique to deal with the trade between the research areas and the rest of the world, it it necessary to improve this method. And a dynamic analysis of the change of footprint based on I-O model, which could explore the factor impacting the footprint using the ,special advantage of I-O model, ought to be put into practice. After introducing the new method in detail, we calculate and compare the EF and the change of Gansu Province in the northwest of China in 1997 and 2002. The result shows that there was an increase of EF in 2002 caused by final domestic demand. Further; the inerement in EF export was 2.0 × 10^5 ha and 1.6 × 10^6 ha in import. The out-of- region support dropped from 22.6% to 18. 6%. We introduce three factors causing the EF change based on the character of I-O model： the productivity of the resourve which is explained by the change of resource used to obtain one unit output in a sector, the improvement of the economics and the final demand. Finally, we find that the effects of the three factors on the EF change are not identical except the industry sectors and the change of factors in the agriculture and the industry sectors works notably.     

From compensation to development： the application and progress of RwD in China

Involuntary resettlenment caused by project construction is a difficult problem over world. In the past, therestoration of livelihoods in the event of involuntary resettlementhas been based purely on providing compensation to those who are displaced. Evidence has shown that compensation-based involuntary resettlement can not realize the objective of restoring and improving resettlers＇ living standard. With a view to improve this outcome, the concept of Resettlement with Development （RwD） was envisaged and is now generally heralded as the means to mitigate catastrophic failures of the past. However, few developing countries have included the concept of RwD into th, ational policies and China is one of them. The Chinese government has taken resettlement as an opportunity to help resettlers restore and improve their living standards and develop economy in reservoir areas by implementing RwD olicy including giving compensation and subsidies at early stage and offering production assistance at late stage, citing up reservoir construction fund, initiating partnership programs and preferential policy as well as enhanc infrastruture construction. The preliminary experience from the TGP resettlement has verified that the transformation from compensation-based resettlement to RwD is a right policy, choice. Meanwhile. because ofthe changing political environment and the complexity of involuntary resettlement there is still room for china to improve its RwD policy.     

Ecological footprint analysis on the traditional rice-fish agricultural area： a case study of Qingtian County, Zhejiang Province, China

Qingtian County of Zhejiang Province, China has maintained the traditional rice-fish agriculture for about 2,000 years and formed exceptional cultural heritage based on this kind of production mode, so it was ed by FAO as a pilot site for the rice-fish agricultural heritage systems in 2005. This research has applied the indicators of ecological footprint and biocapacity to monitor the environmental conditions of Qingtian County, aiming to find the impact that the traditional agricultural production mode and the local inhabitants lifestyle have placed on the local environmental conditions as well as the role they have played in maintaining ecological balance, cultural inheritance and regional sustainable development. Results show that Qingtian County is characterized by a nearly breakeven total ecological balance, as opposed to Zhejiang Province, the world and other agricultural regions. However, compared with another rice-fish agricultural region, Congjiang County which enjoys a considerable ecological reserve, Qingtian County has consumed a greater amount of environmental resources. Specifically, about half of the ecological footprint of Qingtian County can be attributed to the cropland （50.8%） while the CO2 area only accounts for 11.2%, which is dramatically different from that of the modern industrialized regions. And a vast of percentage of energy is caused by the combustion of fuelwood which not only requires the land to absorb the CO2 emission it has generated but also occupies the forest where it has been chopped.     

A ＂Paradox＂ in China＇s Environmental Management： An Argument From a Comparative Study on Waste Recycling Policies Between China and Japan

China appears to have a ＂paradox＂ in its environmental management policies. For example, China＇s recycling policies appear paradoxical. With its rapidly expanding economy, China is now the world＇s largest emitter of urban waste. Under such a situation, China is aiming to build up a recycling economy by enacting a number of related laws. Despite the development of waste recycling regulations, however, the load on the environment by continuously increasing waste has not reduced in China so far. What explains this seemingly paradoxical situation of waste recycling in China？ It has been pointed out in the previous study on China＇s climate change policies that environment protection falls under the rubric of sustainable development in China. The question here is whether the same story can be applied to areas other than climate change in China＇s environmental management. This paper examines it in the area of its waste recycling policy. This paper conducts an evaluation of waste recycling regulations in China by comparing it with the experience of Japan, China＇s next-door advanced country. It concludes that the waste recycling regulations in China do not primarily aim at reducing the environmental load by reducing the amount of waste but rather for the main purpose of recycling and reusing resources effectively for the sake of economic development.     

Behavioural Economics,Hyperbolic Discounting and Environmental Policy

This paper reviews some recent research in “behavioural economics” with an application to environmental issues. Empirical results from behavioural economics provide a reminder that human behaviour is context-dependent, implying that policy may go awry if based upon models of behaviour which are inappropriate to the contexts in which decisions are made. Recognizing that agents may, in some contexts, systematically make mistakes raises challenging questions about the role of “paternalism” in government policy. The paper considers the research into hyperbolic discounting, and examines the implications for environmental policy. We develop a model of resource management under hyperbolic discounting, which shows that if a planner is unable to commit to a policy, the temptation to re-evaluate the policy in future could lead to an inadvertent collapse in the stocks of a natural resource.     

Two Cheers and a Qualm for Behavioral Environmental Economics

Behavioral economics can gain more in-roads into environmental economics if we better understand why exchange institutions fail, more effectively reduce health risks and environmental conflicts, encourage more coordination and cooperation, design better incentive systems, more accurately estimate economic measures of value, and promote more protection at less cost. Behavioral economics deserves two cheers for advancing ideas of context-dependence and social preferences, which we illustrate with two examples of recent research.     

论生态经济学与环境经济学的区别与联系

生态经济学与环境经济学既有区别又有联系。本文对二者进行了全面比较,并进一步阐述了对生态经济学与环境经济学学科地位和发展的一些观点和建议。     

A Machine Learning Analysis of the Recent Environmental and Resource Economics Literature

We use topic modeling to study research articles in environmental and resource economics journals in the period 2000–2019. Topic modeling based on machine learning allows us to identify and track latent topics in the literature over time and across journals, and further to study the role of different journals in different topics and the changing emphasis on topics in different journals. The most prevalent topics in environmental and resource economics research in this period are growth and sustainable development and theory and methodology. Topics on climate change and energy economics have emerged with the strongest upward trends. When we look at our results across journals, we see that journals have different topical profiles and that many topics mainly appear in one or a few selected journals. Further investigation reveal latent semantic structures across research themes that only the insider would be aware.

     

Uncertainty,Learning and International Environmental Policy Coordination

In this paper we construct a simple model of global warming which captures a number of key features of the global warming problem: (i) environmental damages are related to the stock of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere; (ii) the global commons nature of the problem means that these are strategic interactions between the emissions policies of the governments of individual nation states; (iii) there is uncertainty about the extent of the future damages that will be incurred by each country from any given level of concentration of greenhouse gases but there is the possibility that at a future date better information about the true extent of environmental damages may become available; an important aspect of the problem is the extent to which damages in different countries may be correlated. In the first part of the paper we consider a simple model with two symmetric countries and show that the value of perfect information is an increasing function of the correlation between damages in the two countries in both the cooperative and non-cooperative equilibria. However, while the value of perfect information is always non-negative in the cooperative equilibrium, in the non-cooperative equilibrium there is a critical value of the correlation coefficient below which the value of perfect information will be negative. In the second part of the paper we construct an empirical model of global warming distinguishing between OECD and non-OECD countries and show that in the non-cooperative equilibrium the value of perfect information for OECD countries is negative when the correlation coefficient between environmental damages for OECD and non-OECD countries is negative. The implications of these results for international agreements are discussed.     

Promoting Active-Student Learning Using the World Wide Web in Economics Courses

During the past 10 years, teaching with computer technology, such as e-mail and the Web, has become customary throughout undergraduate economic education. The authors review the literature on the implications for student learning, present specific educational activities that use a number of different computer technologies, and discuss growing problems, such as "cyber-plagiarism," along with suggesting potential solutions. The future of using technology for teaching economics will be the continuation of recent trends: increased portability in the access to instruction and increased opportunities for interaction, including students' interaction with the material and with the instructor and other students.     

Strategic Environmental Policy, Clean Technologies and the Learning Curve

In the political discussion, it is often emphasized that the environmental service industry (which produces a clean factor of production) benefits from an early and strong environmental policy. This is especially likely if the costs of production are decreasing over time due to learning curve effects. Surprisingly, the environmental service industry has not been integrated into the theory of strategic environmental policy yet. Our main question is whether a national leadership in environmental policy can pay off if profits of the environmental service industry are taken into account. We consider a two-period model with one firm in each country competing on a third market. Emissions can be substituted by the clean factor when deciding upon the production technology. The unit costs of producing the clean factor in the second period are decreasing in the quantity produced in the initial period. We derive the optimal environmental policy for both periods from a national point of view and show that the presence of the environmental service industry can indeed lead to a national leadership in pollution control.