THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF PREVENTING RESPIRATORY AND CARDIOVASCULAR HOSPITALIZATIONS

This article provides estimates of the economic benefits of reducing respiratory and cardiovascular hospitalizations based on cost of illness and willingness to pay. The willingness-to-pay estimates indicate that individuals value prevention of a five-day hospitalization event at an average of approximately $2,400. Average total costs of illness per hospitalization are $22,000–39,000. A comprehensive cost-of-illness estimate that includes value of time losses for the hospitalization and at-home recovery periods provides a close approximation of total costs borne by third parties plus individual willingness to pay. Both exceed previous cost-of-illness estimates by about 10–25%. (JEL D61, I18, Q25 )     

长江三角洲经济空间结构最新发展及空间集聚合理度判断

目前长江三角洲经济空间结构的演化进入了由计划空间向外向型空间转化的转型阶段。区域经济空间结构的新特征主要体现在基本形成了具有城市等级体系的核心—外围空间格局,但网络结构和辐射轴还不健全。经过20余年的开放,初步形成了一些具有重要增长功能的空间单元。从多方面考察,长江三角洲区域仍然是我国未来重要的空间集聚区域,集聚仍然是主要的空间结构过程。     

区域生态环境服务功能经济价值评价的理论与方法

生态系统服务功能是地球生命支持系统的重要组成部分，通过分折生态经济研究的意义、研究内容和生态环境服务功能，论述了生态功能效益经济价值评价的理论和方法，提出了评价的指标体系与方法体系，以促进我国区域生态价值的研究，为我国生态经济帐户建立和生态损失价值评估建立基础。     

中国区域公立科技创新资源与经济发展水平相关性分析

各国各政府相继开展了创新系统建设,而"创新型城市"、"创新型区域"的建设成为国家创新体系的重要组成部分。利用突变级数法综合考虑地区生产总值、年末总人口、人均地区生产总值、经济密度,对地区经济发展水平进行评价;并基于地区公立科研机构对地区科技创新资源进行评估,研究区域公立科技创新资源与经济发展水平之间相关性。中国区域经济发展水平与公立科技资源之间并无明显的正相关关系。由二者决定的散点图,呈现较弱的抛物线分布。因此,区域公立科技投入如何与经济发展水平进行匹配,以提高科技产出效率,有待进一步研究支撑。     

MEASURING THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF VOLUNTEER WORK GLOBALLY: CONCEPTS,ESTIMATES, AND A ROADMAP TO THE FUTURE

ABSTRACT: This article explores alternative approaches for measuring the economic value of volunteer work, develops a methodology for producing global estimates of this value using existing data sources, and identifies a new data source that promises to yield significantly improved data on which to base such estimates in the future at both the global and national levels. Both volunteering through organizations and directly for individuals are considered. Different approaches to valuation, including the replacement cost, opportunity cost, and social benefits approaches and both observed and reported market proxies, are examined. Based on a number of criteria, the replacement cost method using observed market wages is recommended. Using this method, the article estimates that ‘volunteerland,’ if it were its own country, would have the second largest adult population of any country in the world, and would be the world's seventh largest economy. The article concludes by discussing a new International Labour Organization Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work that adopts the basic method for defining and valuing volunteer work outlined here and promises to generate a much more robust and coherent body of data on volunteer work than has ever been available both globally and nationally.     

SIZE MATTERS: THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF BEACH EROSION AND NOURISHMENT IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Despite the widespread use of nourishment in California, few studies estimate the welfare benefits of increased beach width. This paper relies on panel data funded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies. Beach choices of respondents were combined with beach attribute data to reveal how changes in width affect choice and the economic value of beach visits. We use a random‐utility approach to show that the value of beach width varies for different types of beach uses: water contact, sand‐, and pavement‐based activities. We also find that the marginal value of beach width depends on initial beach width. (JEL Q50)     

AID, ECONOMIC FREEDOM, AND GROWTH

Foreign aid has often been intended by donors to entice recipient nations into policy and institutional reforms favorable to private sector economic development. In this study, we investigate the relationship between aid and changes to economic freedom in recipient nations over the 1990–2000 decade. The evidence is mixed. In general, we find that foreign aid has no significant effect on economic freedom overall. However, using a hedonic approach on the different categories of economic freedom, we find that aid has still managed to contribute toward a policy and institutional environment favorable to growth, as the different categories of economic freedom improved by aid more than offset those which are harmed by aid, in terms of their impact on growth . ( JEL 010, 019)     

何以加速增长 惟解自生难题-《前10年的转轨-东欧和前苏联的经验和教训》述评

原社会主义国家的计划经济体制内生于许多大中型国有企业缺乏自生能力,向市场经济转轨成功的首要前提是重新配置原国有大中型企业占有的存量资产,调整其产业和技术结构,使这些企业不需借助外部的扶持,即可在开放、竞争的市场中获得可接受的利润的能力。惟其具备了这个前提,政府     

UNDERSTANDING ECONOMIC GROWTH AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Review of Explaining Growth: A Global Research Perspective, edited by Gary McMahon and Lyn Squire and Productivity Growth, Inflation, and Unemployment: The Collected Essays of Robert J. Gordon by Robert J. Gordon     

区域经济发展差距:新经济地理、要素流动与经济政策

改革开放后,中国区域经济发展差距主要表现为区域间差距的扩大,而非区域内部差距的扩大。这一现象的发生是多方面原因共同作用的结果:在新经济地理因素的影响下,具有区位优势的东部沿海地区吸引了中西部地区大量的生产要素进行跨区域流动,加上中央政府的政策导向作用,使得中国经济发展差距呈现出逐步扩大的趋势。因此,中央政府应该采取有力措施,以便在全国形成合理的区域分工,进而达到缩小区域经济发展差距的目标。     

ENERGY UTILITIES, CONSERVATION, AND ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY

Academic and policy debate has centered around an apparent "underinvestment in conservation." This paper outlines traditional explanations for underinvestment and presents a prospect theory analysis of individual conservation behavior. On the basis of investment criteria, individuals seem to discriminate against conservation investments. While these decisions might appear rational as life style decisions, individual choice across different household appliances shows little consistency. For policymaking purposes, understanding and modeling actual behavior is crucial to maximizing social welfare. The insight of certain positive models of human behavior supports economic efficiency arguments for marketplace intervention. This paper argues that because individuals making conservation investment decisions apparently do not act according to the dictates of utilitarian economics, utility sponsored conservation programs are justified on economic efficiency grounds. Finally, in light of prospect theory considerations, the paper suggests marketing guidelines for conservation investments sponsored by electric utilities.     

VOTER PREFERENCES,INSTITUTIONS, AND ECONOMIC FREEDOM

The enormous impact that economic freedom can have on economic outcomes makes an understanding of the factors or forces affecting its level paramount. To what extent do citizen preferences regarding the role of government in the economy drive the level of or changes in economic freedom? We explore this question using a new index of voting in the U.S. Congress constructed consistent with the Fraser Institute indices of economic freedom. We use voting on national legislation to examine state‐level economic freedom to clearly separate the measurement of preferences from policies that at least partly reflect these preferences. We find that Congressional votes, both from the House and Senate, are related to increases in state economic freedom, and that the result is generally statistically and economically significant, and robust to inclusion of a variety of socioeconomic control variables. (JEL D72, H10, H50)     

FACTOR SUBSTITUTION,MECHANIZATION, AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

This paper tries to explain the polarization of economic growth through mechanization. We derive a complementary relationship between capital accumulation and mechanization. While we assume an external effect that occurs as a result of mechanization, given the external effect, mechanization yields a constant‐elasticity‐of‐substitution production function in which the elasticity‐of‐substitution is greater than unity as the envelope of Cobb–Douglas production functions. When mechanization is difficult, which implies a low value for the elasticity‐of‐substitution, and the external effect is weak, there is potential for multiple steady states to exist.