Federal tax policies,congressional voting and natural resources

Can abundance of natural resources affect legislators' voting behaviour over federal tax policies? We construct a political economy model of a federalized economy with district heterogeneity in natural resource abundance. The model shows that representatives of natural resource‐rich districts are more (less) willing to vote in favour of federal tax increases (decreases). This occurs because resource‐rich districts are less responsive to federal tax changes due to the immobile nature of their natural resources. We test the model's predictions using data on roll‐call votes in the US House of Representatives over the major federal tax bills initiated during the period of 1945–2003, in conjunction with the presence of active giant oil fields in US congressional districts. Our identification strategy rests on plausibly exogenous giant oil field discoveries and exploitation and narrative‐based aggregate federal tax shocks that are exogenous to individual congressional districts and legislators. We find that: (i) resource‐rich congressional districts are less responsive to changes in federal taxes and (ii) representatives of resource‐rich congressional districts are more (less) supportive of federal tax increases (decreases), controlling for legislator, congressional district and state indicators. Our results indicate that resource richness is approximately half as dominant as the main determinant, namely party affiliation, in driving legislators' voting behaviour over federal tax policies.     

Challenges for economic policy in sustainable management of marine natural resources

The sustainable management of marine natural resources presents particular challenges to the managers of those resources. While such management has typically been based on biological considerations, it is argued that this has resulted in overexploitation and destruction of important marine assets in industries such as fishing and tourism. Consequently, it is concluded that other approaches are needed, with the use of economic concepts and management tools particularly relevant. At the same time, the human welfare outcomes of the application of various policy instruments must be carefully considered. While biological information is critical to the formulation and implementation of successful management regimes, it is concluded that the application of economic instruments will become more attractive to resource managers, with these instruments underpinned by consideration of property rights and an appropriate allocation of economic rents. A greater focus on these economic matters will take resource managers further in the direction of sustainable management of increasingly scarce marine resources. The conclusions in the paper are supported by various case studies from fisheries and tourism.     

From natural resources and environmental accounting to construction of indicators for sustainable development

Norway has a long history in trying to develop management tools for sustainable development. From the early development of natural resources accounts in the 1980s, through discussions of the usefulness of indices like “green GDP” to efforts of developing sustainable development indicators, experiences have been gained. The paper seeks to both describe the landscape and discussions associated with the key terms, and to communicate some lessons drawn from the Norwegian experiences. The conclusion focuses on the fact that whatever information is collected and organised to support the relevant decision-making processes, the final outcome should always be judged in terms of its impacts on policy processes. Thus, we issue a warning against large-scale development of information systems, without due regard to the final utilisation of the output.     

西北地区自然资源可持续开发的对策

西北地区已被列入21世纪中国经济发展的重点地区及资源接替区。本文主要针对西北地区自然资源富集、经济相对落后、生态环境脆弱等现状，提出西北地区自然资源可持续开发的对策。     

Theory and practice of value management and its innovation for natural resources from the perspective of sustainable development

The supreme obstacle for sustainable development of natural resources is the scarecity, bottleneck. So how to promote the sustainable utilizing and increase the using efficiency of natural resources is worth studying. This paper suggests that we should improve the model and means of evaluating method and value management based on th~ theory of natural resource compensation. This paper discusses the User Cost Method based on the microeeonomicaspect which can change the evaluating method for natural resources. From the perspective of value managemen model, we should use the User Cost Method to realize the linkage and integration of micro and macro eompensation for natural resources. Based on the evaluating and aecounting idea User Cost Method, this paper presents a theo. retical framework to harmonize and link micro and macro compensation for natural resources. At present, we should seek the new approach and method to manage natural resources, so can we realize the capitalization managemen focusing on the vahte management for natural resources.     

互补优势互利共赢--合理利用和开发非洲资源

中国与非洲国家虽然远隔千山万水,但中国人民和非洲人民之间自古以来就怀有深厚的情感,双方友好交往已有2000多年的历史。随着新中国的诞生和非洲国家相继独立,中非关系掀开了新的一页。自1956年中国与埃及首开中国与非洲国家建交纪录以来,中国先后与53个非洲国家中的51个国家建立了外交关系,目前同中国保持外交关系的非洲国家有46个。近50年来,中国与非洲的经济技术合作取得了卓有成效的发展,有力地支持     

Theory and practice of value management and its innovation natural resources from the perspective of sustainable development

The supreme obstacle for sustainable development of natural re,sources is the scarcity bottleneck.So how to promote the sustainable utili-ing and increase the using efficiency of natural resoures is worth studying.this paper suggests that we should improve the model and means of evaluating method and value management based on the theory of natural resource compensation.This paper discusses the User Cost Method based on the microeconomic aspect which can change the evaluating method for natural resources.From the perspective of value management model,we should use the User Cost Method to realize the linkage and integration (ifmicro and macro compensation for natural resources.Based on the evaluating and accounting idea of User Cost Method,this paper presents a theo retical framework to harmonize and link micro and macro compensation for natural resources.At present,we should seek the new approach and method to manage natural resources,so can we realize the capitalization management focusing on the vahte management for natural resources.     

The employment effects of sustainable development policies

This paper argues that it is time for ecological economists to bring the employment impacts of sustainable development policies to the forefront of the research agenda. Important conservation efforts continue to founder because of their perceived employment effects. The paper examines the evidence on the employment impacts of sustainable development policies and argues that maintaining or even increasing employment depends critically on appropriate policy design and attention to the political economy of implementation of policies. The paper concludes that a better understanding of these issues, fair labour market and structural adjustment programs, and especially forward planning to anticipate problem areas, must replace the piecemeal, ‘knee-jerk’ reactions to environmental issues, such as were evident in Australia during the last federal election.     

Redistributive policies with heterogeneous social preferences of voters

There is growing evidence on the roles of fairness and other-regarding preferences as fundamental human motives. Call voters with fair preferences, as in Fehr and Schmidt (1999), fair-voters. By contrast, traditional political economy models are based on selfish-voters who derive utility solely from “own” payoff. In a general equilibrium model with endogenous labor supply, a mixture of fair and selfish voters choose optimal policy through majority voting. First, we show that majority voting produces a unique winner in pairwise contests over feasible policies (the Condorcet winner). Second, we show that a preference for greater fairness leads to greater redistribution. An increase in the number of fair voters can also lead to greater redistribution. Third, we show that in economies where the majority are selfish-voters, the decisive policy could be chosen by fair-voters, and vice versa. Fourth, while choosing labor supply, even fair voters behave exactly like selfish voters. We show how this apparently inconsistent behavior in different domains (voting and labor supply) can be rationalized within the model.     

The determinants of household recycling: social influence,public policies and environmental preferences

Our article aims at understanding the determinants of households’ selective waste-sorting behaviours, based on data from an original survey of 694 individuals in the French Provence–Alpes–Côte d’Azur region. The applied literature focuses mainly on countries with high recycling rates. We focus on a region with the lowest recycling rate in France, a country that recycles less than the European country average. We first apply polychoric principal components analysis to reduce the number of explanatory variables to a set of six factors. In a second step, we use a probit model to estimate the probability of waste sorting as a function of these factors. This model tests several hypotheses emerging from the recent literature on behavioural economics applied to households’ selective sorting. This literature pays particular attention to the social influence on recycling behaviour, which has been studied mostly by sociologists and psychologists. The results of our empirical analysis confirm some of the findings in the literature. However, they also highlight some unique features, such as social influences having a negative impact on recycling. This finding contrasts with most of the literature, which finds a positive relationship of social influence on pro-environmental behaviour.     

给自然资源算笔账

我们平常所说的宝贵的大自然，在某种意义上，其宝贵程度是可以“计算”的。在经济学家和环境科学家眼中，一项自然资源所提供的产品和服务的价值是很多方面的。比如，一大片淡水或咸水湿地所提供的服务是这样计算的：许多鱼类在湿地中产卵，小鱼在那里度过生命的开始阶段，全世界每年捕鱼量为1亿吨，价值500亿到1000亿美元。湿地可能会有助于生产这种利润十分丰厚的产品。但是，一个湿地为全球捕鱼量所做的贡献可不只是这些。仅美国的淡水消遣性垂钓业的鱼类价值就高达160亿美元，另外还有460亿美元由该行业的相关雇员产生。因此，除了为你…     

资源与环境的可持续发展观

本文阐述了资源、环境、生态三者间的相互关系，并从可持续发展观出发，讨论了它们在理论与实践上的指导意义。指出生态是生物资源（或称生命资源）与其环境的复合的系统的基本结构、形态、功能特征的总合。阐明在强自然主义或强人类中心主义指导下，人类社会经济与生态环境都不可能实现可持续发展，只有坚持人类与自然融为一体的生态主义，才实现整个生态系统的可持续发展，从而达到人类与资源、环境协调的可持续发展。     

Green monetary and fiscal policies: The role of consumer preferences

We establish a two-sector model to simulate the potential effects of green fiscal poli- cies and unconventional green monetary policy on the economy during a recovery or in case of a stimulus policy. We find that instruments such as a carbon tax, an implicit tax on brown loans, and a subsidy for the purchase of green goods are all beneficial to the green sector, in contrast to green quantitative easing. A carbon tax imposed directly on firms in the brown sector is the most effective tool to reduce pollution. More importantly, the marginal effects of green instruments on the economy depend on consumer preferences. Namely, the marginal effects are the most prominent when consumers start to purchase more green goods as an increasing part of their consumption basket. Furthermore, the effects of those green policies are more effective when the elasticity of substitution between green and brown goods increases. This finding suggests that raising consumers’ awareness and ability to consume green goods reinforce the effectiveness of public policies designed for low-carbon transition of the economy.     

The cost of natural capital consumption: Accounting for a sustainable world economy

The System for integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) has been criticized in this journal for ignoring the benefits of ecosystem services for human well-being. This paper argues that extended national accounts should not attempt measuring economic welfare. Rather, they could and should assess the environmental sustainability of economic activity as the cost of natural capital consumption. The global application of SEEA concepts and methods demonstrates the feasibility of international green accounting. For the world economy, sustainability costs run to about 3 trillion US$ or 6% of world GDP. Large variations at national and regional levels suggest that conventional economic indicators may significantly overstate economic progress in some parts of the world. Data gaps and lack of data comparability affect these first estimates. National and international statistical services should be more aggressive in greening the national accounts. More prudent and more sustainable economic policies might be the result.     

Incentives,regulations, and sustainable land use in Costa Rica

Deforestation in Costa Rica has proceeded at a rapid pace. Of the remaining 2,700 km² of virgin forests on privately-owned land, over 300 km² are being deforested each year. Pressure on National Parks, which cover about 27 percent of Costa Rica is likely to increase in the future. Preliminary information indicates that, contrary to our expectations, most of the deforestation at present is not being done by squatters, but driven by profit and asset maximization motives of the timber industry, banana companies, and large cattle ranchers. Setting aside 27 percent of the country's land as parks and reserves was a major policy decision. Aside from the removal of some perverse incentives operating inside park areas, the main issue there is one of sound management, including protection from intruders, strengthening enforcement, and controlled tourism. On the remaining primary and secondary forest areas on privately-owned land outside the parks, a key question is whether public interests connected with external costs of deforestation warrant public intervention. The paper suggests that a differentiated approach to this and other questions is needed, depending on the costs and benefits involved, and it discusses incentives and regulations which influence land use, and makes proposals for reforms.     

Soviet methodology for the valuation of natural resources

The article discusses recent changes in the methodology for valuing natural-resource products and resource deposits in the Soviet Union and discusses the probable efficiency consequences of the changes. It concludes that improved methods for monitoring and policing stock draw-down and the imposition of efficiency rents are equally important as potential sources of improved use of natural-resource stocks.     

Structural policies and growth: Time series evidence from a natural experiment

Documenting the long term impact of structural policies on economic performance has generated tremendous interest in the development literature. In contrast, contemporary effects of structural policies are difficult to establish. Structural policies seldom change sufficiently in the short run, and accepted instruments to control for endogeneity in cross sections are inappropriate for time series analysis. In this paper we utilize an eleven year panel of 26 transition countries to identify short term effects of structural policies that are large and significant. A ten percent change in the quality of structural policies (or the Rule of Law) towards OECD standards is shown to raise annual growth by about 2.5%. To control for endogeneity, we develop an instrument using the hierarchy of institutions hypothesis and find that it holds a robust explanatory power. We also document that early reformers reap the greatest benefits, but that it is never too late to begin structural policy reforms.