Equity weighting and the marginal damage costs of climate change

Climate change will give rise to different impacts in different countries, and different countries have different levels of development. Equity-weighted estimates of the (marginal) impact of greenhouse gas emissions reflect these differences. This paper analyses the impact of equity weighting on the marginal damage cost of carbon dioxide emissions, and reaches four main conclusions. First, equity-weighted estimates are substantially higher than estimates without equity-weights; equity-weights may even change the sign of the social cost estimates. Second, estimates differ by two orders of magnitude depending on the region to which the equity weights are normalised. Third, equity-weighted estimates are sensitive to the resolution of the impact estimates. Depending on the assumed intra-regional income distribution, estimates may be more than twice as high if national rather than regional impacts are aggregated. Fourth, variations in the assumed inequality aversion have different impacts in different scenarios, not only because different scenarios have different emissions and hence warming, but also because different scenarios have different income differences, different growth rates, and different vulnerabilities.     

Data Envelopment Analysis of different climate policy scenarios

Recent developments in the political, scientific and economic debate on climate change suggest that it is of critical importance to develop new approaches able to compare policy scenarios for their environmental effectiveness, their distributive effects, their enforceability, their costs and many other dimensions. This paper discusses a quantitative methodology to assess the relative performance of different climate policy scenarios when accounting for their long-term economic, social and environmental impacts. The proposed procedure is based on Data Envelopment Analysis, here employed in evaluating the relative efficiency of eleven global climate policy scenarios. The methodology provides a promising comparison framework; it can be seen as a way of setting some basic guidelines to frame further debates and negotiations and can be flexibly adopted and modified by decision makers to obtain relevant information for policy design. Three major findings emerge from this analysis: (i) stringent climate policies can outperform less ambitious proposals if all sustainability dimensions are taken into account; (ii) a carefully chosen burden-sharing rule is able to bring together climate stabilisation and equity considerations; and (iii) the most inefficient strategy results from the failure to negotiate a post-2012 global climate agreement.     

Identification of national priority areas for adaptation to climate change in China

The problem of global warming has been identified as the first in the list of the top ten environmental problems in the world. As climate change will seriously affect the social and natural world that people live in, so it may lay serious repercussions on economic progress, social improvement, and sustainable development. International bodies everywhere and many of the countries＇ governments are responding urgently to this call In recent years, climate change has affected different regions in China in different ways. In its national agenda, the Chinese government should address the problem of climate change and its negative impact on socio-economic development. In this endeavor the nation should introduce policies which will help its people and economy to adapt to these effects and changes. Priority-fields of adaptation to climate change are the sensitive areas or departments which are more vulnerable to the negative influences of climate change. The negative impacts of climate change in some parts of China are considered to be very serious indeed as they affect the whole economy and community. As a result, priority should be given to these more affected regions for the limited state financing. This paper defines adaptation and discusses the basic principles and programs in the identi.fication of national priority areas where adaptation should be exercised. Based on the past studies, four priority areas in China are identified, namely, disaster prevention and mitigation, water resources, agriculture, and ecosystem. An analysis on the identification procedures, and the reasons and tasks involved are given for each.     

我国智能电网社会效益评价

近年来,由于科技与社会经济的发展,我国电力资源短缺缺口较大,传统电网无法缓解电力供需矛盾与人们对电能质量的高要求,智能电网应运而生。遵循全面性、对比性、一致性以及简捷性原则,将智能电网社会效益的定性分析与定量评估相结合,采用对比法对我国智能电网的社会效益系统梳理与评价,有利于促进我国智能电网的发展,推动清洁能源的利用与我国经济社会的可持续发展。     

The Private Benefits of Corporate Control:Evidence from China

By analyzing block share transfers in China during 1999-2006,this study provides estimates of the private benefits of corporate control in China.We find that those controlling blocks are usually priced at a significant positive premium compared to those comparable non-controlling blocks.The benefits of corporate control vary with shareholders structure,firm characteristics and institutional variables.In particular,targets with a high intangible asset ratio have less benefits of control,cross-listing in B or H shares curbs the extract of private benefits and companies acquired by private firms are associated with higher private benefits.Moreover,it is found that benefits of control are negatively associated with market economy and factor market development index.We argue that firms with higher private benefits experience more tunneling activities by their controlling shareholders.     

Access to Markets and the Benefits of Rural Roads

Roads play a central role in rural development, yet little is known about the size and distribution of benefits from such investments. This paper develops a method for estimating household-level benefits from road projects using the relationship between the value of farmland and its distance to agricultural markets. The empirical analysis, using data from Nepal, suggests that providing extensive road access to markets would confer substantial benefits on average, much of these going to poor households. However, the benefits would not be large enough or targeted efficiently enough to appreciably reduce income inequality in the population.     

Decentralization,agency costs,and the new economic constitution of China

This article examines the evolution of the rules that govern central-local government relations in the Chinese political economy. Although the federalism that accompanied China’s market reforms has substantially facilitated economic growth, it has also created powerful incentives for local authorities to abuse their powers, significantly increasing the agency costs to the central government of maintaining political stability and creating a national market. This article analyzes the institutional design of the nascent Anti-Monopoly Law (AML), known to officials and academics as China’s new “Economic Constitution”. It demonstrates that the major purpose of the AML is to break up the so-called “administrative monopolies”, or bureaucratic fiefdoms over local economies. In contrast to existing academic treatment, it will study the AML in the framework of competition for influence over economic policy between rent-seeking central and local actors. It argues that the AML, despite its stated purposes, is indeed designed to reduce the policy-making powers of the regions to the comparative advantage of the central government. The AML can thus be modeled as a new constitutional contract that the center wishes to enter into with the localities in order to repeal the existing rules of decentralization. It will be further shown that the AML, reflecting the allocation of power in the Chinese state, prioritizes the political imperatives of recentralization over the facilitation of competitive markets.     

气候变化经济学和气候政策

在气候变化经济学和气候政策的文献综述基础上,剖析了经济学原理在全球气候变化研究中的应用。在总结西方流行的气候变化的经济影响评估、预测、分析方法和模型的前提下,回顾了不同空间和时间尺度上温室气体减排成本估算的方法和结果,特别分析和强调了气候变化不确定性的特点对经济模型和政策设计的影响,提供了有效的基于市场的政策选择。     

The impact of endogenous tax treaties on foreign direct investment: theory and evidence

Abstract .  This paper investigates the effect of tax treaties on bilateral stocks of outward FDI. For this purpose we employ a numerically solvable general equilibrium model of trade and multinational firms to study the impact of tax treaties on both welfare and outward FDI. The model indicates under which factor endowment configurations countries gain in welfare when implementing a tax treaty. This motivates an empirical specification of the endogenous selection into implementing new tax treaties. Using data of bilateral OECD outward FDI between 1985 and 2000, we find a significant negative impact of newly implemented tax treaties on outward FDI stocks.     

我国公司控制权私有收益问题研究综述

控股股东利用控制权对中小股东实施侵害的现象在全球范围普遍存在，在我国更为突出。而控制权私有收益的大小代表着控股股东对中小股东的侵害程度，其影响因素则指明了抑制控股股东实施侵害行为的有效路径，在此情况下，我国控制权私有收益的研究具有理论和实践上的双重意义。本文对我国控制权私有收益的产生背景、测量方法、影响因素和抑制措施等四个方面的研究进行综述。     

Economies of scope in electricity supply and the costs of vertical separation for different unbundling scenarios

Motivated by the movement towards vertical unbundling in Europe this study measures the economies of scope for the U.S. electricity industry based on a multi-stage cost function. The paper analyzes three unbundling options and finds evidence for synergies that may be explained by coordination and risk effects. Separating generation from networks and retail appears to be the most costly alternative with an average cost increase of 19 to 26%. If generation and transmission remain integrated but are separated from distribution and retail, average scope economies amount to 8 to 10%. A split between the transmission level and the remaining supply stages leads to a cost increase of approximately 4%.     

我国农村集体土地增值收益分配研究进展

农村集体土地增值收益分配是土地管理中的重点和难点问题。文章基于近年来我国农村集体土地增值收益分配问题相关理论研究成果,对既有文献的研究热点、研究趋势及薄弱环节等进行了分析。通过文案调查法和对比分析法,梳理了近年来我国农村集体土地增值收益分配问题相关文献,研究发现现有理论文献主要集中在集体土地增值机理、集体土地增值分配现状与问题、集体土地增值收益分配方案优化等方面,通过构建理论模型和计量模型方式对农村集体土地增值收益分配问题开展研究成为趋势。文章认为既有研究成果较全面地涵盖了农村集体土地增值收益分配的问题,但在如何明确土地产权主体及产权内容等问题上可进一步深入研究。     

控制权收益与超控制权收益——基于企业能力理论的视角

多数文献将控制权收益定性为控股股东对中小股东利益的侵害,是一种掏空公司的行为。从企业能力理论视角来说,控股股东是基于其独特的组织资源和能力获取控制权收益,这种收益具有合理性,它是对控制性股东卓越组织能力的回报以及在组织过程中对控制权成本的补偿。而超控制权收益则是控股股东组织能力之外的滥用权力和钻法律漏洞所获得的一种非生产性回报,不具有系统性和可持续性,表现为对中小股东和其他利益相关者的侵害和掠夺。对控股股东侵害的规制,应在保护其合理控制权收益的基础上遏制其超控制权收益。     

Benefits and Dangers of EU Enlargement

A new macroeconomic evaluation of EU enlargement is undertaken with a world macroeconomic model taking into account all possible integration effects: trade effects, Single Market effects, factor movements (FDI, migration) and the costs of enlargement. Due to the differences in size of the regions involved, on average the CEEC – measured in terms of real GDP – will gain around 10 times more from enlargement than the EU. Hungary and Poland can increase their real GDP by around 8 to 9 percent over a 10-year period, the Czech Republic gains a little bit less (5 to 6 percent). The EU on average would gain around 0.5 percent of real GDP over a 6-year period. Although, on average enlargement is a win-win game, the impact is quite different in the separate EU member states, with Austria, Germany and Italy gaining the most and losses for Spain, Portugal and Denmark. Hence, EU enlargement may not only be beneficial but might be a risky undertaking. Due to the regional different impact, enlargement acts like an exogenous shock leading to asymmetric disturbances in the EU. This could pause the process of business cycle synchronisation and might impair monetary policy in Euroland at the beginning of the enlargement process. A two-step integration of the CEEC into the EU – first the participation in the Single Market and only later into the EMU – is therefore preferable under the aspect of macroeconomic stability in Euroland.     

Willingness to Pay for Ancillary Benefits of Climate Change Mitigation

Assessing the Willingness to Pay (WTP) of the general public for climate change mitigation programmes enables governments to understand how much taxpayers are willing to support the implementation of such programs. This paper contributes to the literature on the WTP for climate change mitigation programmes by investigating, in addition to global benefits, the ancillary benefits of climate change mitigation. It does so by considering local and personal benefits arising from climate change policies. The Contingent Valuation Method is used to elicit the WTP for ancillary and global benefits of climate mitigation policies in the Basque Country, Spain. Results show that WTP estimates are 53–73% higher when ancillary benefits are considered.     

Bankruptcy costs, liability dollarization, and vulnerability to sudden stops

Countries with intermediate levels of institutional quality suffer larger output contractions following sudden stops of capital inflows than less developed nations. However, countries with strong institutions seldom experience significant falls in output after capital flow reversals. We reconcile these two observations using a calibrated DSGE model that extends the financial accelerator framework developed in Bernanke, Gertler and Gilchrist (1999). The model captures financial market institutional quality with creditors' ability to recover assets from bankrupt firms. Bankruptcy costs affect vulnerability to sudden stops directly but also indirectly by affecting the degree of liability dollarization. Simulations reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between bankruptcy costs and the output loss following sudden stops.     

Terror and the costs of crime

This paper argues that terrorism, beyond its immediate impact on innocent victims, also raises the costs of crime, and therefore, imposes a negative externality on potential criminals. Terrorism raises the costs of crime through two channels: (i) by increasing the presence and activity of the police force, and (ii) causing more people to stay at home rather than going out for leisure activities. Our analysis exploits a panel of 120 fatal terror attacks and all reported crimes for 17 districts throughout Israel between 2000 and 2005. After controlling for the fixed-effect of each district and for district-specific time trends, we show that terror attacks reduce property crimes such as burglary, auto-theft, and thefts-from-cars. Terror also reduces assaults and aggravated assaults which occur in private homes, but increases incidents of trespassing and “disrupting the police.” Taken as a whole, the results are consistent with a stronger deterrence effect produced by an increased police presence after a terror attack. A higher level of policing is likely to catch more people trespassing, and at the same time, reduce the number of property crimes. The decline in crimes committed in private houses is likely an indication that the tendency for individuals to stay home after a terror attack further increases the costs of crime.     

Establishment and development of Ecological Economics in China over the past three decades

The establishment of China’s Ecological Economics was proposed by the famous economist Prof. XU Dixin in 1980. Over the past 34 years since its establishment, Ecological Economics has developed into an interdisciplinary subject combined with natural sciences and social sciences. Its emergence met the demand of human society for entering the Ecological Epoch. The past three decades has witnessed the foundation of eco-economic theories and the emergence of various guiding thoughts and policy suggestions which have made great contributions to China’s modernization and reform. The guiding ideology of "coordination between ecology and economy" has been widely acknowledged by governments and people, and the concept of "ecological economy" has enjoyed popular support among the general public, which both play increasingly important roles in guiding practice and have major infl uences around the world.     

金融自由化的利弊

金融压抑的兴起与民粹主义、国家主义和国家于上主义相联的。在金融压无抑的情况下,许多国家的经济状况进一步恶化。于是,随着金融业管制的放松,更为广泛的国内经济自由化和对外开放得以实现。但利率自由化经常伴随着危机的爆发或者引发危机。然而,对于任何一个希望完全分建设者经济增长利益的国家来说,建立一个实质性的金融自由化体系是惟一可行的出路。