Estimating the commuting cost and commuting time property price gradients

In this paper, we estimate the property price gradients in Hong Kong. We distinguish our effort from previous studies on the subject by directly measuring the economic distance, i.e., the monetary commuting cost and commuting time, instead of merely the physical distance. Our results are generally supportive of the prediction of a negative property price gradient. In one specification, the estimated capitalization of the savings of commuting cost in property prices appears to be just right. The expected negative effect of commuting time on property values, however, can only be detected among observations with larger commuting times. Nevertheless, over the range where the effect of commuting time has the expected negative sign, the values of time implied by the estimates agree well with the results reported in the transportation economics literature.     

Transport improvements,commuting costs,and residential location

This paper develops a theoretical framework for evaluating one of the long-run or secondary effects of a transport improvement. The familiar model of residential location is manipulated to derive an estimating equation relating changes in travel costs to changes in the household's preferred location. When estimated for a particular transport situation the major finding is the importance of the price effect. Although direct cost savings are important, especially in the short-run, in the long-run and especially for innovations with substantially increased speed or reduced operating costs the price effect may completely dwarf the income effect.     

Stochastic endogenous time preference

Preference for flexibility arises inherently in sequential decision making. However, a majority of the literature has limitations to capture a changing preference for flexibility across time in the sense that such an attitude is independent of past actions. This study incorporates the histories of past actions into an infinite-horizon extension of Dekel et al. (2001) and models a decision maker whose attitude toward flexibility evolves over time from the uncertainty of future time preference or discount factors. Moreover, we provide behavioral comparisons of the degree of patience across different histories and characterize the shift of subjective beliefs about discount factors in the sense of an increasing convex and concave stochastic order.     

论物业税开征对我国城市发展的影响

物业税属于地方税种,统一的物业税开征对于提高中国城市发展的效率和水平具有积极意义.我国的物业税体制改革应注意与地方公共服务的发展联系在一起,通过开征统一的物业税,构建公共财政框架,规范政府土地管理,改善城市公共服务,促进城市房地产业健康发展.     

Strategic interaction and dynamics under endogenous time preference

This paper presents a strategic growth model with endogenous time preference. Due to the potential lack of concavity and the differentiability of the value functions associated with each agent’s problem, we employ the theory of monotone comparative statics and supermodular games based on order and monotonicity properties on lattices. In particular, we provide the sufficient conditions of supermodularity for dynamic games with open-loop strategies based on two fundamental elements: the ability to order elements in the strategy space of the agents and the strategic complementarity which implies upward sloping best responses. The supermodular game structure of the model lets us provide the existence and the monotonicity results on the greatest and the least equilibria. We sharpen these results by showing the differentiability of the value function and the uniqueness of the best response correspondences almost everywhere and show that the stationary state Nash equilibria tend to be symmetric. Finally, we numerically analyze to what extent the strategic complementarity inherent in agents’ strategies can alter the convergence results that could have emerged under a single agent optimal growth model. In particular, we show that the initially rich can pull the poor out of the poverty trap even when sustaining a higher level of steady state capital stock for itself.     

Tax enforcement policies,tax evasion and time allocation

Several studies examine the effect of tax rates on households’ labor supply decisions in attempts to account for observed differences in work hours across countries. Interestingly, these studies fail to consider a fundamental action associated with taxation: tax evasion. This paper introduces, into a general equilibrium model of household labor supply, the possibility that households can evade labor income taxes. We show that the relationship between tax-enforcement policies, the elasticity of substitution between consumption and leisure and the elasticity of substitution between formal and informal work is key to explain formal labor supply in major OECD countries. In a model without informal work, there is a positive relationship between the elasticity of substitution and the tax rate on formal income and people tend to work more. This is the case for the United States, Greece, Finland and the United Kingdom. This relationship becomes negative once informal activities are introduced and the model can explain formal labor supply better in countries where agents work relative less, i.e., in Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, Norway and Sweden. We also obtain estimates of hours worked in the informal sector for these countries.     

Local tax interaction and endogenous spatial weights based on quality of life

This paper studied the role of municipal quality of life as a driver of strategic tax interactions among local governments. A number of studies point out the existence of strategic interactions using spatial econometric models in which the spatial weights are mostly based on non-economic criteria or basic economic variables such as per capita gross domestic product (GDP). We propose the more sophisticated well-being indicator of municipal quality of life as the driver for these interactions. To deal with the potential endogeneity, we rely on instrumental variable estimators. The empirical analysis focuses on the main local tax in Spain (property) and on municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, and it confirms the relevance of differentials in quality of life for the understanding of tax choices.     

Optimal highway design and user welfare under value pricing

This paper investigates the optimal design of highways operated under a form of congestion pricing called value pricing. Value pricing involves dividing a highway into free and priced lanes so that in equilibrium the highway effectively operates at two levels of service, with those users placing a higher value on travel time savings selecting the faster, priced route. A tractable analytical framework is developed which allows analysis of equilibrium and welfare on value priced highways when users vary in their value of time. The model is used to characterize optimal toll and capacity policies, as well as investigate the fiscal implications of value pricing. The analysis concludes with results on how welfare changes induced by value pricing are distributed over the population of users when the government finances any funding shortfall through a non-discriminatory taxing mechanism. A realistic numeric example is used to illustrate how the model can be applied to evaluation of actual and proposed value pricing implementations.     

Congestion, ownership, region of operation, and scale: Their impact on bus operator performance in Norway

The goal of this paper is to determine the impact that inputs such as fuel consumption and total number of workers employed have on operators’ efficiency in the Norwegian bus industry. Further, we investigate operations characteristics that are associated with the inefficient use of inputs in bus operations. This information is highly relevant for the subsidizers (decision-makers) since resource inefficiency leads to greater costs (ceteris paribus). We use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to explore these issues. The results suggest that there is, in general, a potential for input saving in the sector of about 21%. No significant differences were found between urban and bus rural operators with respect to efficiency scores; neither were there any performance differences with respect to ownership. This latter result deviates from previous international studies, and can likely be explained by the lack of competition in the Norwegian bus industry. A particularly interesting result suggests a formidable degree of input congestion in the Norwegian bus industry, which is in contrast to previous international studies on such congestion.     

世界大城市交通发展策略的规律探讨与启示

解决城市交通拥堵问题,理论上存在交通供给、交通需求和空间政策三类策略.对于世界六个大城市交通策略的实践分析则显示出很强的规律性:三类策略的综合应用是世界大城市的共同选择;在实施交通供给策略的基础上,世界大城市大多同时采取交通需求管理策略和空间引导策略;在需求管理方面,不仅倡导公交优先,而且还对个体机动车辆的使用和拥有加以控制;空间策略方面主要是通过新城的建设疏解中心城的人口,以达到缓解交通拥挤的目的.而国内特大城市仅仅热衷于交通供给策略即道路的建设,改变当前交通效率低下的局面,就必须科学运用三类策略尤其是交通需求管理策略和空间引导策略.     

供应链下集并运输的技术方法研究

介绍一种新的运输方法——集并运输,列举了集并运输的一些相关方法,分析了各种方法的特点,为能够更好地为客户提供运输服务提供了参考。     

石油设备物资国际海洋运输管理

目前,国际海洋运输已经成为国际间物流最重要的运输方式之一,石油行业的发展致使石油设备物资的国际海洋运输业务越来越多,石油设备物资的国际海洋运输主要分为四个步骤,分别是确定物流供应商、石油设备物资装船、石油设备物资离港和到港及最后的清点入库。     

改革开放前我国营业税发展变迁

营业税政策的制定和改革是随着国家政治经济的发展而不断变化,文章重点阐述了改革开放前我国营业税政策的变迁。     

The impact of public service values on services of general interest reform debates

Abstract

Competing values complicate debates on the reform of public services. Attention for competition and efficiency is balanced by concerns for equity and universality in service delivery. These potential value conflicts are best visible in the reform of services of general interest. Despite debates at the European and the national level, current research on services of general interest has been limited to scholars in law and economics. Citizens' opinion on the guiding principles of service delivery is generally disregarded. In this article, we analyse a number of Eurobarometer surveys dealing with services of general interest, as well as a general survey of citizens' perceptions of the public sector in Belgium. We delineate clusters of citizens' public service delivery value orientations, and show that one-sided or ideology-based reform strategies probably negate many of the continuing dilemmas in public service delivery.     

交通项目的公众参与社会评价——以安徽中等城市交通项目为例

论文以“安徽省中等城市交通项目”的公众参与社会评价为例,对该项目的经验进行归纳.首先,识别了项目的利益相关者,主要包括业主及项目设计和施工单位、交通相关的政府机构、公共交通运输部门和项目城市居民,其中,项目城市居民是最主要的受益者;其次,根据不同利益相关者的特点,分别采用了深度访谈、座谈会、问卷调查和绘制交通图等方法,以问题为导向,了解各市交通路网建设、基础设施、交通管理和交通安全存在的问题;第三,深入剖析发现问题的原因,积极与项目办、业主、设计单位展开协调和沟通,赋予各利益相关者参与项目设计的权利,特别是弱势群体需求的表达,来完善项目的设计和后续管理,提出了可融入项目设计的规避风险措施,即社     

关于土地出让金纳入物业税的探讨

本文分析了有关土地出让金管理的两种看法,认为将土地出让金纳入物业税是物业税改革的方向和目标.但是应当分步完成,第一步是将土地出让金改为土地补偿金,由税务机关征收;第二步是将土地出让金全部纳入物业税管理.     

中国城市低碳交通建设的现状与途径分析

提出并阐述了城市低碳交通概念及其内涵,分析了2000年以来中国城市交通能源消耗与碳排放的状况,分析表明:中国城市交通能源消耗和CO2排放总量增加迅速,公共交通是各类机动交通工具中碳排放强度最低的,中国城市低碳交通建设面临着公共交通发展速度滞后、居民出行结构的非机动化程度大幅降低、缺乏有效的需求管理、节能减排意识淡薄、城市交通管理体制与城市低碳交通建设不相适应等主要问题。基于现状分析,提出了中国城市低碳交通建设的三大战略方向和五项主要措施。     

The winners and losers of tax reform: An assessment under financial integration

I quantify the macroeconomic and redistributive effects of the unilateral elimination of the capital income tax in a two-country, heterogeneous-agent incomplete markets model with progressive labor income taxes. Home, by implementing the reform, induces government responses where labor income is taxed in Home and mostly subsidized in Foreign. In addition, post-reform price dynamics reduce Home’s wealth and suppress households’ ability to do consumption smoothing, with negative effects on the majority—particularly on the poor. In turn, Foreign accumulates wealth, and price movements work particularly in favor of the poor. As a result, a large majority in Home prefers the status quo whereas Foreign supports the reform unanimously. These findings are robust to alternative scenarios where (i) the borrowing constraints are relaxed, (ii) both countries jointly eliminate capital income taxes, (iii) foreign interest income is taxed, and (iv) Home capital income tax is reduced from 40% to 35%.