OPTIMAL PROPERTY TAXATION IN CALIFORNIA: Is Greater Reliance on Land Values Feasible and Desirable?

Legal changes to Proposition 13 and fiscal imbalance provide, for the first time since 1978, the environment for serious consideration of restructuring property taxation in California. The background of the current situation is reviewed, and as a first approach to determining the optimal property tax system, Henry George's a priori case for taxing land is noted. Studies in the new public finance, especially optimal taxation theory and applications - for example, general equilibrium modeling in policy analysis - provide encouraging though limited support for greater reliance on site value taxation.     

How True Is True? Assessing Socially Desirable Response Bias

Health care professionals' (HCPs) opinions and perspectives are highly valuedbecause these individuals often play a major role in developing and implementingsupport and education services aimed at cancer patients and their families. Thepurpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of adding a substantive measurethat would be useful for determining socially desirable responses (SDRs) withoutadding unnecessary length to the questionnaire design. A total of 1180 nurses,physicians, and social workers specializing in oncology returned fully completedmailed questionnaires (61% response rate) originally intended to measure HCPs'awareness (i.e., knowledge, helpfulness, and recommendations) of cancer supportservices. SDRs were assessed by the inclusion of a bogus program that was comparedto actual support programs. Results indicated that relative to the bogus program, HCPswere significantly more likely to endorse programs that they knew about, thought helpful,and recommended. Evidence of SDR bias was lacking. These findings provide supportfor the inclusion of measures that can be used on brief questionnaires to strengthenresearch methodology.     

On the strategic use of risk and undesirable goods in multidimensional screening

A monopolist sells goods possibly with a characteristic consumers dislike (for instance, he sells random goods to risk averse agents), which does not affect the production costs. We investigate the question whether using undesirable goods is profitable to the seller. We prove that in general this may be the case, depending somehow on the correlation between agent types and aversion. This is due to screening effects that outperform this aversion. We analyze, in a continuous framework, several multidimensional cases.     

生态景观公园规划设计——玉湖公园规划设计探析

施甸县的玉湖公园作为展示施甸县形象的窗口,从城市公园园林植物造景的角度,结合园林建筑、园路和景点的土建规划设计对其现有绿化进行改造。文章基于笔者实际工作经验,根据规划的指导思想与规划理念,对公园绿化规划设计作了详细的分析。     

Evaluation of ecological systems and the recycling of undesirable outputs: An efficiency study of regions in China

A balance between environmental regulation and economic prosperity has become a major issue of concern to attain a sustainable society in China. This study proposes the application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for measuring the efficiencies of the ecological systems in various regions of that country. The proposed approach differs from most of the previous ecological systems models in that we view it in a two stage setting; the first stage models the ecological system itself, and from an economic perspective, while the second stage (decontamination system) models water recycling as a feedback process, and the treatment of other undesirable outputs coming from the first stage. There, we separate polluting gases and water into two parts; one part is treated, while the other is discharged. The model considers two major desirable outputs from the first stage, namely Population and Gross Region Product by expenditure (GRP), as well as undesirable variables in the form of consumed water, and certain pollutants, namely nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and soot. At the same time, these undesirable outputs from the first stage are inputs to the second decontamination stage. As well, recycled water is fed back into stage 1. Thus, intermediate variables such as consumed water and waste gas emission simultaneously play dual roles of both outputs and inputs in the ecological system.     

省级国土空间风貌规划方法的探索和思考——以宁夏特色风貌规划为例

随着我国生态文明建设的全面推进以及国土空间"五级三类"规划体系的构建,省(区)域尺度的景观风貌规划和管理成为新时期建设美丽国土、提升城乡生活环境品质的重点,对于加强全域全要素特色景观资源的保护和利用具有重要的纲领性、综合性和基础性作用.通过系统梳理和总结省(区)域型景观风貌概念、构成要素和技术要点,确定了风貌资源要素分...     

规划:走向存量改造与旧区更新——“三旧”改造规划思路探索

以《佛山市“三旧”改造专项规划》为例,在总结国外城市更新改造的共通性经验以及广东实践特点的基础上,梳理出一套“三旧”改造规划的技术方法与内容体系,从“两条红线、分别管理”的划定原则,到“适应发展、整体推进”的改造方向—“先总后分、六区联动”的规划布局—“科学评估、分层控制”的改造强度—“减量增绿、体现民生”的专项指引—“要素组合、分类指导”的改造策略—“全程引导、分区建议”的实施机制,以及建立“近期控制、远期引导”的实施计划与项目库等,对快速城镇化地区的转型升级途径进行了科学探索,为其他地区开展同类工作提供有益借鉴.     

Bayesian measurement of productivity and efficiency in the presence of undesirable outputs: crediting electric utilities for reducing air pollution

Many studies have measured productivity change and efficiency when an undesirable output is a by-product. We flexibly treat the bad as a technology shifter of an input distance function and model a system of nonlinear equations subject to endogeneity. Theory dictates that we impose monotonicity on all inputs, outputs, and the bad. Since a Bayesian full-information likelihood approach can easily be misspecified, we utilize the Kim (J. Econometrics 107 (2002) 175) limited-information likelihood (LIL) derived by minimizing the entropy distance subject to the moment conditions from the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator. This represents an extension of the Bayesian Method of Moments approach of Zellner and Chen (Macroeconom. Dyn. 5 (2001) 673), Zellner and Tobias (Int. Econom. Rev. 42 (2001) 121), and Zellner (in: Bayesian Analysis in Econometrics and Statistics: The Zellner View and Papers, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 1997; J. Econometrics 83 (1998) 185) which uses entropy maximization but does not incorporate a specific likelihood. Using Bayes’ Theorem we combine traditional priors with the LIL, which has a mode at the standard multiple-equation GMM estimator, yielding a limited-information posterior distribution. We generalize the approach of Kim (J. Econometrics 107 (2002) 175) by incorporating an unknown covariance matrix in a Gibbs sampling framework and applying the methodology to nonlinear equations. This allows us to estimate shadow prices, technical efficiency, and productivity change for a panel of electric utilities, yielding results that differ substantially from those obtained using standard GMM.     

从目标规划到过程规划--城市规划的技术特征与政策特征

城市规划的功能正从作为城市未来空间构架向政策形成与实施工具的方向转变,城市规划的成果也逐渐由科学蓝图的形式向政策法规的形式转变,随着经济体制与政治体制改革的不断深入,政府对城市发展与建设的影响也逐渐由计划经济体制下的以目标引导为主转向市场体制下的以政策控制为主,在规划文本中,以对规划实施过程进行控制的强制性条文相对于以目标预测和蓝图描绘为主的引导性条文而言将显得越来越重要.本文从对城市规划的技术特征与政策特征两方面的深入分析,提出了城市规划工作由"目标规划"向"过程规划"转换的必要性与紧迫性.     

“收缩型规划”背景下的城市交通规划策略探析——基于情景分析及动态规划理念的启示

在市场力量为主导的土地开发过程中,法定规划目标被屡屡突破,部分城市居住建筑体量超过了城市发展实际需求,与此同时,规划管理上没有有效的制度与技术约束机制,在此背景下,提出"收缩型规划"的概念,分析其主要特征及发展趋势。进而指出传统的交通规划以总规或控规静态规划目标为主要规划依据,存在资源配置错位等诸多问题,例如,交通设施在城市新区的超规格供给扭曲城市自然生长机理、交通设施规模供给大于实际需求、过大的规模误导城市交通战略及模式的确定、使得城市建设用地开发呈现更加琐碎化的特征且不利于低碳城市建设等问题。最后,提出利用情景分析法,研判城市可能发展情景,并以此制定多个方案或着重研究最可行方案。蕴含了倡导性规划的先进理念,适应了动态规划的要求,能充分融合政府、市场、公众及规划编制单位各方诉求。     

The cost of strikes in the Spanish mining sector: modelling an undesirable input with a distance function

In some contexts, firms have to deal with certain elements or factors that affect the production outcome but which are non-market in nature and therefore do not have a price. In this paper we propose a new use of a production economics tool, the input distance function, to empirically measure the effects of these factors. Although we suggest a general use of this methodology, it has been developed in the context of measuring the effects of labor disputes in a particular declining industry, that of Spanish coal mining. We have estimated an equation system comprising an input distance function and cost share equations to calculate the cost generated by strikes.

“乡”“镇”之分——《城乡规划法》颁布后的乡规划思考

对"乡"和"镇"的概念以及功能进行辨析,分析《城乡规划法》对乡规划和镇规划的不同要求,并从职能要求、发展条件和水平等层面研究当前"乡"与"镇"不同的发展特点。在此基础上,提出应建立针对农村地区生产和生活特点、围绕农业、农民与农村的发展的乡规划体系和技术规范,以完善城乡规划理论体系,促进城乡社会经济的全面协调发展。     

规划支持系统:现状与思考

首先从数据处理、分析模型、成果展示、管理平台四个角度分析我国规划支持系统的研究和应用现状,指出几个突出问题:(1)GIS数据处理瓶颈;(2)专用软件分析功能单一或过于复杂;(3)可视化效果不尽人意。文章提出新一代规划支持系统框架是从构建系统,发展为搭建定量分析科学,最后走向为公众和管理服务,并以Whatif2.0为例,指出当前可操作的规划支持系统应着重解决:(1)支持多源数据的输入输出;(2)模型操作的简洁易懂;(3)配套情景规划的实施;(4)分析结果的可评价性。     

方案规划:市场经济体系下城市总体规划的有效工具

城市规划方案的核心内容包括对下列问题的回答:哪种土地利用类型,多大土地开发强度,在哪里,什么时候,为什么开发,同时如何通过交通发展将新开发的土地有机地联系起来,如何提供城市基础设施满足新增的城市空间发展.当然,城市规划也要回答如何将城市经济发展与环境保护,社会发展,文化和历史文物保护等连接起来.本文介绍方案规划,内容,要素,及其评价.指出方案规划定量地模拟未来城市发展,客观定量地评价不同的城市规划方案,避免或减少规划方案评价的主观因素,提高决策的科学性.     

On Actual Effects of Eco-city's Planning:A Probe into Antinomy and Complexity of Eco-city's Planning

我国各地区的生态城市规划建设正如火如荼地进行,但实践效果堪忧,成为制约生态城市长远可持续发展的一个突出问题.基于自然辩证法视角,从生态城市规划建设活动的基本属性出发,对生态城市规划建设的矛盾性与复杂性进行了分析和讨论,阐明了生态城市规划实效性难以提高的内在原因.进而借鉴复杂性科学理论,提出了改进生态城市规划建设活动的若干启示.     

论“原乡规划”及其乡村规划思想

原乡规划借鉴老庄哲学顺应自然的无为自化思想,强调在规划过程中以无为作为最高境界,尊重自然,以实现自然境域下人们生活与生产的原真性,规划理念和方法强调人与自然的和谐,主张以自然为本,以居民为本,主张保持好原住民的生活方式,主张为人们提供本色的自然体验和生活体验。原乡规划运用于乡村规划的思想,是拒绝乡村的城市化,使乡村保持好乡村景观和乡村意象,是拒绝让城市病蔓延到乡村。