Greenhouse gas emissions trading in the European Union — Background and implementation of a “new” climate policy instrument

Conclusions  The EU ETS is a grandiose experiment that could pave the way for the EU becoming a pioneer in market mechanisms to counter global change. The speed of its implementation has surprised seasoned observers of Brussels decision processes. However, a timid approach to the national allocation of allowances could reduce the credibility of the instrument and prevent learning that will be crucial for later, deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, it will reduce the private sector acquisition of emission credits from the CDM which is necessary to embark on a global strategy for emissions reduction. A short-term bow to powerful interest groups from sunset industries risks shutting off the way forward for the sunrise industries that will grow on mitigating global climate change.     

Emissions trading: Impact on electricity prices and energy-intensive industries

Under the EU-wide Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), CO₂ allowances have thus far been allocated largely free of charge. This paper presents a didactic synthesis on the impact of the ETS and argues that such a cost-free allocation will lead to an increase in electricity prices even when strong competition prevails in electricity markets. Electricity prices are also likely to increase as a consequence of the environmentally desirable fuel switch from coal to natural gas in the power sector when certifi cates are entirely auctioned in the power sector as of 2013. This tendency may be attenuated, but not outweighed, by the price decrease of CO₂ allowances over the long term.     

Slotting Allowances in China: Perspectives of a Large Manufacturer Versus a Large Retailer in the China Grocery Market

ABSTRACT

Slotting allowances and contractual marketing agreements pervade the retail environment in the United States. They represent a profit center for large retailers who exercise market power and represent a cost center for large manufacturers. Many manufacturers have alleged that they are “held captive” to procure prime retail space. Despite the influx of retailers and manufacturers based in the United States, the deployment of slotting allowances in China is less prevalent but does pervade the grocery sector. The purpose of this study is therefore to explore the attitudes of large Western manufacturers and retailers toward the issue of slotting allowances in the China grocery market through a qualitative study. In-depth interviews were conducted with key decision-makers from Coca-Cola (manufacturer) and Carrefour (retail hypermarket) to critically explore their attitudes toward slotting allowances. The interviews reveal principal differences grounded in cultural norms.     

产品质量、议价能力与通道费

零售商通道费的产生机理和福利效应是理论界研究的热点,而零售商现有货架上的在售商品对潜在厂商交易条件的影响却少有研究。文章在货架稀缺的视角下,以包含产品质量的经典效用函数为起点,基于现实中零售商普遍采用的预付费合约和相应商务谈判过程的实际,建立了量化零售商产品质量和议价能力的渠道博弈模型,考察了通道费的产生条件、作用机制和福利效果,并探讨了预付费合约本身的现实基础和例外情况。结果表明：当预付费模式是一种刚性的制度安排时,通道费是否产生取决于零售商的议价能力和现有产品质量,只有议价能力和产品质量都很低的零售商才无法收取通道费;当零售商有能力在预付费模式和买断模式之间选择时,预付费一定实现为通道费,代理费必然不会产生。对生产商而言,通道费迫使低质量厂商退出市场,客观上起到了产品质量筛选的作用。这一筛选机制也决定了消费者福利的损益。     

大型零售商收取通道费合理吗?——来自信号传递模型的解释

文章对通道费的相关理论进行了总结,并通过一个包含批发价格和通道费的信号传递模型,分析了非对称信息下通道费的渠道结构优化机制。在零售商的销售成本充分高的情况下,通道费构成了不完全信息动态博弈中剔除劣战略均衡的合约安排的必要条件,能够有效地区别高市场需求和低市场需求的制造商。因此,通道费并不必然是零售商滥用市场势力的工具,在众多的情况下通道费为合理配置货架空间,优化商品流通渠道,以及调整制造商的产品结构提供了有效的信息甄别工具。     

我国通道费的经济学分析与规制政策评述

零售商滥收通道费恶化了工商关系,阻碍了零售业的可持续发展.本文首先对我国的通道费进行了分类,并通过建立模型,认为通道费作为一种分担新商品风险的经营模式有其合理性;文章后半部分从供应商、零售商的竞争者、消费者三者福利盈亏角度,对各类通道费进行了经济学分析;最后对最近颁发的<零售商供应商公平交易管理办法>进行了评述,并提出规制建议.     

碳交易生产模型述评及应用探讨

随着《京都议定书》陆续在各国生效,碳交易应运而生并迅速得到发展。我国是国际碳排放权的主要供给方,但参与交易尚处于CDM项目阶段并且没有形成自己的交易体系,这不利于在碳国际市场上争夺定价权。低碳和减排是目前国际趋势,因此,开展我国的碳交易问题研究尤为必要和迫切。本文对Putty-Clay Vintage这一碳交易生产函数模型进行述评,揭示该模型的主要观点、贡献和缺陷,并结合我国国情,从企业生产优化安排、金融市场发展、国家宏观经济和排放配额分配角度探讨该模型在我国碳交易中的应用。     

Emission permits and the dynamics of clean and dirty firms in an evolutionary competition model

Emission Trading Systems (ETSs) are today regarded as the pillar of market‐based environmental policies in many countries. This paper studies the impact of an ETS on the dynamics of the market made up of two types of firms: clean and dirty. Using an evolutionary context, we study how the share of clean firms evolves at different parameter values, such as increasing values of the permits’ price floor, and show that an ETS can have positive effects on the diffusion of the clean technology. However, numerical simulations show that under specific parameter values the opposite result may emerge with clean firms leaving the market.     

Optimal dynamic regulation of carbon emissions market

In this article, we deal with optimal dynamic carbon emission regulation of a set of firms. On the one hand, the regulator dynamically allocates emission allowances to each firm. On the other hand, firms face idiosyncratic, as well as common, economic shocks on emissions, and they have linear quadratic abatement costs. Firms can trade allowances so as to minimize total expected costs, which arise from abatement, trading, and terminal penalty. Using variational methods, we first exhibit in closed form the market equilibrium in function of the regulator's dynamic allocation. We then solve the Stackelberg game between the regulator and the firms. The result is a closed-form expression of the optimal dynamic allocation policies that allow a desired expected emission reduction. The optimal policy is unique in the presence of market impact. In absence of market impact, the optimal policy is nonunique, but all the optimal policies share common properties. The optimal policies are fully responsive, and therefore induce a constant abatement effort and a constant price of allowances. Our results are robust to some extensions, like different penalty functions.     

通道费与大型零售商盈利模式研究:基于双边市场的视角

文章基于产业组织研究领域新兴的双边市场理论,分析在零售商主导的市场环境下消费者、零售商、制造商三者的利益关系,理论上证明了大型零售商已经演变为双边市场中的交易平台。在此基础上,构建主导零售商定价策略模型研究通道费的各种影响因素,并针对我国零售市场特点,提出了对通道费进行规制的相关原则。研究结果表明：通道费是大型零售商为平衡制造商与消费者利益,将外部性内部化的重要机制,具有一定的合理性。     

Kinderfreibeträge in der gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung

The future of the German pay as you go public pension system is dependent on families with children. In contrast to German tax law, there are no child allowances in the social insurance system. As a result, workers with and without children pay the same pension insurance contributions. This article analyses the introduction of a child allowance into the public pension system in Germany. We quantify the fiscal, distributional and behavioural effects of such a reform.     

最低收购价政策改革背景下小麦期货市场价格发现功能再检验

通过构建最低收购价政策影响下小麦期现货市场的价格传导机制的理论框架,并选取2015年我国小麦最低收购价政策改革前后两个时期各4年的周度数据,使用ADF单位根检验、Johansen协整检验、Granger因果关系检验和方差分解对最低收购价政策改革背景下小麦期货市场的价格发现功能进行实证研究。研究结果表明:无论是强麦还是普麦,最低收购价政策改革对于小麦期货价格与现货价格均衡关系的形成均具有促进作用;在最低收购价政策改革之前,强麦期货市场不具有价格发现功能,之后这种功能才得以形成,同时普麦期货市场的价格发现功能变得更为显著;小麦期货市场的影响力强于现货市场,在价格发现功能中占据主导作用。     

城市低保制度的“绿卡效应”及其反思

城市居民最低生活保障制度在实施过程中,城市贫困者视＂低保户＂为一种合法的弱者身份,把＂低保证＂当作＂绿卡＂,并因此而展开了针对低保审查的种种行动。分析＂绿卡效应＂产生的深层原因有助于反思制度的缺陷,推动城市低保制度的改革与完善。     

完善煤炭市场体系促进经济较快发展

本文认为,近年来推行的煤炭订货改革有效发挥了市场配置资源的基础性作用,加快了政府职能转变,初步形成了国家宏观调控指导下供需双方企业自主衔接资源、协商定价的新机制,为保障煤炭稳定供应、促进经济平稳较快发展奠定了重要基础。2007年是推进煤炭订货改革关键性的一年,为进一步推进改革,加强市场监管,规范市场行为,建立并完善统一开放、竞争有序的煤炭市场体系,煤炭订货改革要进一步引入市场机制,简化铁路运力配置框架;依法规范购销关系,企业自主签订合同;完善煤炭价格市场形成机制,供需双方协商定价;以提高运输效率为核心,优化运力配置。有关各方应认清形势,自觉适应并支持改革;把握原则要求,加快衔接进度;落实企业定价自主权,搞好价格协商;加强行业自律,规范企业行为,为建成既能实现市场主体自由交易,又有利于国家宏观调控、市场运作、规范运行、功能齐全、层次分明、方式多样、手段先进的现代煤炭市场化体系,搞好组织实施与衔接工作。     

EMU and Labour Market Reform: Needs,Incentives and Realisations

Despite improving labour market conditions in recent years, a number of EMU countries still suffer from high and persistent unemployment. It could therefore be expected that labour market reform would be given a prominent position on the political agenda. The new constraints associated with the common monetary policy only increase the pressure for reform. Relying on the introduction of the single currency as a trigger for labour market reform may be a risky strategy. EMU generates a complex set of re‐optimising strategies of the players on the labour market, which makes it difficult to get a clear idea what impact it will have on labour market reform. Evaluation of recent reform measures does not make one confident either. The empirical analysis confirms to some extent the idea that countries with higher unemployment rates have carried out more labour market reform. This finding holds, however, only for countries that do not belong to EMU. EMU countries have on average carried out no more reform than countries outside EMU and any link between the initial unemployment level and the labour market reform indicators seems to lack. It may become apparent that more reform is needed once the macroeconomic environment becomes more unfavourable.     

政府财政层级改革探讨

随着市场经济体制改革的深入发展,我国现行的政府层级与之相对应的财政层级构架已不符合市场经济体制的要求,阻碍了我国经济的发展和经济体制改革进程。然而政府层级改革,关系到国家政权的稳定,只能循序渐进稳步推行。目前试行的"省管县"财政体制和"乡财县管"财政管理方式的改革,为我国政府层级改革创造了条件,加快了我国构建三级政府的步伐。     

Trade and the (dis)incentive to reform labor markets: The case of reform in the European Union

We study the relation between international trade and the gains to reform labor markets by removing firing restrictions. We find that trade linkages imply substantially smaller benefits to reform than those calculated in the closed economy general equilibrium model of Hopenhayn and Rogerson [Hopenhayn, Hugo, Rogerson, Richard, 1993. Job Turnover and policy evaluations: a general equilibrium analysis. Journal of Political Economy 101 (5), 915–938 October]. When economies trade, labor market policies in one country spill over to other countries through their effect on the terms of trade. A key finding in the open economy is that the share of the welfare gains from domestic labor market reform exported substantially exceeds the share of goods exported. Thus, with international trade, a country retains little to no benefit from unilaterally reforming its labor market. A coordinated elimination of firing taxes yields considerable benefits. We also find that the U.K. benefits from labor market reform by its continental trading partners. These insights provide some explanation for recent efforts toward labor market reform in the European Union.     

Klimaschutz und industrielle Wettbewerbsfähigkeit – Synergien nutzen,Konflikte entschärfen

It is often argued that ambitious domestic climate policies would jeopardize the competitiveness of German and European industry, possibly leading to industrial relocation and carbon leakage. Upon closer scrutiny, however, such concerns are widely unsubstantiated. Instead, economic prosperity and climate protection can be reconciled and even reveal synergies. This requires that relief from energy and climate policy-related burdens is well-targeted and maintains strong incentives for GHG reductions as well as energy efficiency improvements. The upcoming reform of the EU ETS offers an opportunity to make progress towards this end.     

Review of the Housing Allowance Program

Housing allowances are being touted as the popular solution to the low-income housing problem. This article briefly examines the historical background, past research, factors, and issues which must be considered in designing an effective program. Major household concerns considered are: equity, eligibility and allowance formulas. Attention is given to program goals and their influence on the amount and kind of subsidy, definition of income and allowance formula selected. The response of the housing market to the new demand created is examined along with related factors such as requirements that recipients live in standard dwelling units and collusion opportunities for landlords and recipients. Based on research conducted on the food stamp program, household expenditure change is projected. Finally the impact of a housing allowance on other support programs and the need for program integration and administrative simplicity is considered.     

我国外汇市场动量效应的实证研究——基于改进的MA交易规则

本文构建了改进的MA交易规则,运用13600种策略对我国外汇市场上的动量效应进行了实证检验,发现存在着显著的动量超额收益,证明“有效市场”理论在中国外汇市场上并不成立。同时,这种超额收益也受到了人民币汇率形成机制改革的显著影响,机制改革后随着汇率弹性的增加和市场供求关系的逐渐体现,动量效应有所减弱,市场逐渐向“理性”发展。