The Nexus of Population,Energy, Innovation,and Complexity

For the past 200 years, humans have benefited from the abundant, inexpensive, and easily obtained energy of fossil fuels. Energy surpluses such as this are unusual in human history. In systems with little surplus energy, population growth is low and complexity emerges slowly due to the energetic costs it carries. On the rare occasions when energy is readily available, societies respond by growing rapidly. They must become more complex in response to the social, economic, and resource challenges of dense population. More complex societies are more expensive, requiring greater energy per capita. The process of increasing complexity necessitates greater energy production, creating a positive feedback cycle. Past societies have collapsed under such pressures. Population and complexity grew rapidly when the Industrial Revolution replaced economies based on annual solar radiation with economies fueled by fossil energy. The Green Revolution of the 20^th century is credited with preventing mass starvation, but it has made food production and sustaining population ever‐more dependent on high‐energy (low‐entropy) inputs. Some believe innovation will overcome the limitations of resources and permit unchecked growth. However, increases in complexity, innovation, and fossil energy are all subject to diminishing returns, and cannot continue to support population at current levels.     

我国人口资源环境与经济的可持续发展

为了保持经济又好又快的发展,应该正确处理人口、资源、环境与经济的关系;必须长期坚持计划生育的基本国策,控制人口增长的数量,提高人口的质量,减轻过多的人口对资源和环境的压力;提高自主创新能力,转变经济增长方式,发展循环经济,节能减排,建设资源节约型、环境友好型社会,走新型工业化道路,实现可持续发展战略。     

Transversals, systems of distinct representatives, mechanism design, and matching

A transversal generated by a system of distinct representatives (SDR) for a collection of sets consists of an element from each set (its representative) such that the representative uniquely identifies the set it belongs to. Theorem 1 gives a necessary and sufficient condition that an arbitrary collection, finite or infinite, of sets, finite or infinite, have an SDR. The proof is direct, short. A Corollary to Theorem 1 shows explicitly the application to matching problems. In the context of designing decentralized economic mechanisms, it turned out to be important to know when one can construct an SDR for a collection of sets that cover the parameter space characterizing a finite number of economic agents. The condition of Theorem 1 is readily verifiable in that economic context. Theorems 2–5 give different characterizations of situations in which the collection of sets is a partition. This is of interest because partitions have special properties of informational efficiency.     

ICP测定土壤中的K,Na,Ca,Mg,Fe

本论文采用等离子体发射光谱法(ICP-AES)土壤中的K,Na,Ca,Mg,Fe进行了测定,样品以四酸体系溶矿,不经分离杂质,即可直接测定。本法通过优化实验条件确定了最佳分析波长,该测定方法检出限为:0.006~0.0186mg/ml,RSD%为:0.5032%~1.030%,双差均小于1,回收率为99.41%~100%。准确度和精密度较高,方法快速简单,预处理简单,分析流程短,完全满足地质工作要求。     

Structural estimation of caloric intake,exercise, smoking,and obesity

The escalating rate of obesity in the US highlights the importance of understanding the causes for this rise. In this paper I employ the First, Second, and Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys to estimate a structural model of the determinants of adult obesity. To control for the potential endogeneity of some explanatory variables, such as caloric intake (adjusted for activity level) and smoking, a set of reduced form equations for these outcomes is estimated simultaneously with the obesity equation. To identify each equation, I use an array of state-level characteristics as instrumental variables. Trends in these variables shed light on the sources of the rapid increase in obesity since 1980.     

Exploring the exit,voice, loyalty,and neglect typology: The influence of job satisfaction,quality of alternatives,and investment size

The current theory proposes that responses to dissatisfaction differ in constructiveness versus destructiveness and activity versus passivity, defining four categories of response: exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect. The manner in which employees react to job dissatisfaction is determined by three variables: overall job satisfaction; quality of job alternatives, and magnitude of investments in the job. This article presents a meta-analysis of the results of five studies in a program of research designed to test the current theory. Ten of 12 theory predictions received good support: Greater job satisfaction was associated with greater tendencies toward voice and loyalty, and with lesser exit and neglect. Superior alternatives were associated with greater tendencies toward exit and voice, and with lesser neglect. Greater investment size was associated with greater tendencies toward voice and loyalty, and with lesser neglect.     

Short sales,destruction of resources,welfare

A reduction in the output of productive assets (trees) in some contingencies may expand the range of risks spanned by the payoffs of assets and allow for better risk sharing; which may compensate for the loss of output and support a Pareto superior allocation. Surprisingly, if short sales of assets are not allowed, improved risk sharing that results from the destruction of output does not suffice to support a Pareto superior allocation.     

The Who,Where, What,How and When of Market Entry

This introductory, along with the eight articles contained within this Special Issue, highlights and brings greater clarity to entrant‐incumbent interactions and to firm movement – when entrants traverse market territories for the creation and/or delivery of offerings, where ‘markets’ include service or product categories, technology or resource spaces, industries, sectors and/or geographies. Collectively, this Special Issues explains that firm movement across market boundaries is highly consequential, influencing resource‐capability mixes inside firms, interfirm relations, market logic and industry value chains, and of course, people, communities and even nations. Specifically, we develop a field‐wide perspective of market entry by expanding on the framework of market entry that Zachary and his colleagues developed (Zachary et al., 2015) – i.e., the who (players such as incumbents, entrants, suppliers, etc.), when (the timing and sequence of entry), how (the strategy, resources, capabilities, etc.), where (the space of entry) and what (product, service, business model, etc.) – to include two additional categories: complements (networks, platforms, ecosystems) and non‐market elements (government, political, social and cultural arrangements). We also summarize the eight highly diverse and insightful articles that make this Special Issue, and conclude with a discussion to highlight foundational questions that point to new directions in future research in this field. In sum, we hope to inspire scholars to go beyond counting outcomes (e.g., entry/exit rates, or profiling successful versus unsuccessful entrants), to consider contexts, processes and contingencies (e.g., cost, time, collaboration, competition, interfirm relations, etc.) and to discover boundary conditions that inform a theory of market entry.     

企业文化的“势”、“道”、“法”、“术”、“气”

一、关于企业文化的模式 企业文化是企业在成长发展过程中形成的一系列基本价值观和核心理念以及受此影响和制约的组织行为方式和员工行为方式。关于企业文化的模式,国内外均有较多的论述和实践。     

Globalization,political institutions,financial liberalization,and performance of the insurance industry

This paper investigates the impacts of globalization, political institutions, and financial liberalization on the performance and risk-taking of insurance firms covering 1324 individual firms in 30 selected OECD countries. We find that greater globalization and a stable political institution lead insurance companies to exhibit a better performance—i.e., insurers adjust their strategies while being aware of institutional changes. By contrast, financial liberalization has an inverse impact on insurance company performance. Thus, greater globalization and a stable political environment both drive less risk-taking for insurers. These findings are particularly important to insurance markets’ competitors and national policymakers.     

Pigou, Tiebout, property taxation, and the underprovision of local public goods

Pigou's proposition that the use of distorting taxes rather than neutral head taxes reduces public service levels is examined in this paper. A simple model with a national system of competing local governments is utilized to demonstrate that the use of a distorting property tax on mobile capital decreases the level of residential public services. The case where public services are an intermediate producer good is also considered.     

"三农"国情、问题和出路

中国解决三农问题的难点在于: 农村人口太多,农村剩余劳动力太多,而劳均耕地太少,与发达国家绝大多数城市人口支持很少量的农业人口不同,我们40%的城市人口要支持60%的农民人口;与发达国家相比,生产力发展水平低,能支持农业和农村发展的能力毕竟有限。因此,从根本上解决“三农”问题,还要出台综合措施,多管齐下。     

Workfare,welfare, agency,and well-being

Workfare programs are state-instituted programs that require able-bodied persons with children of school age who wish to claim welfare payments to participate in job training programs, and, eventually, to enter the work force. The philosophy of workfare is based on the value of work and the goal of self-determination. However, as a mandatory program for welfare recipients, workfare requires of those recipients certain duties which, according to those who challenge workfare, interfere with the freedom to choose what one will do with one's life. Whether some form of workfare will be adopted as part of our national welfare system remains to be seen. What the debate about such a program suggests is that welfare, in itself, by ignoring the necessity of security and education for full human agency, neither satisfies basic needs nor prepares its recipients for any life other than that of dependency. With all its difficulties workfare nevertheless presents an alternative to welfare that, at least in theory, more closely identifies its purpose with the values of our society.