After the Green Revolution Sustainable and equitable agricultural development

Despite impressive results, the Green Revolution has encountered major problems of equity, stability and sustainability, calling for a ‘new phase’ of agricultural research and development. In this article four indicators of agricultural performance—productivity, stability, sustainability and equitability —are defined. Agro-ecosystems are described as a hierarchy ascending from the level of the individual plant or animal all the way to national systems linked by international trade, and it is argued that development cannot be based on any one level. This is demonstrated with a discussion of international constraints on sustainable and equitable development, the necessary national policies, and the needs of rural households. In conclusion, the article summarizes the research and development priorities for the new phase of development.     

Automating german equity trading: Bid-ask spreads on competing systems

As a result of automating trading in the most active German stocks, data on bid-ask spreads on three competing system—IBIS, MATIS, and SEAQ International—have become available. The intraday pattern of spreads suggests a mid-session effect and a home-market effect. Contrary to what one might expect, the spreads for identical stocks differ substantially from system to system. Paradoxically, the system with the lowest spreads, MATIS, did not attract most of the volume. Actually, its market share declined. In an attempt to explain the MATIS paradox we hypothesize that bid-ask spreads compensate the market maker for a bundle of several transaction services of which providing immediacy is merely one. This complicates both national and international spread comparisons and has implications for the decomposition of observed bid-ask spreads.     

The role of objectives in curriculum development

This paper presents the case that continuous improvement in curriculum effectiveness should be based on a curriculum structure derived from a set of explicitly stated objectives. Although previous research on expanded competencies and assessment describes new curricula at a few institutions, little guidance has been provided that describes how to develop curricula that focus on these expanded competencies. We believe that it is possible to make significant strides in improving curricula in this way. An example for a curriculum structure that includes a business core, an accounting core, and a specialization area in a master of accountancy degree is provided in the paper. Our suggested approach involves specifying goals for the educational program, followed by stating assessable objectives for program subsets. One implication of such a curriculum structure is that assessment must take place primarily at the course level.     

Sustainable development: A co-evolutionary view

The challenges of sustainable development can be organized around three themes. First, modernization has been unsustainable because it has been supported by the use of hydrocarbon fuels and chemicals which are limited in availability and damaging to the atmosphere and terrestrial and aquatic systems. Sustainable development will require that the use of energy and chemicals be subservient to ecosystem maintenance. Second, political consensus and bureaucratic mobilization will be more difficult because we no longer believe that development is almost inevitable through the application of Western science. On the other hand, we may be less prone to make mistakes. The decline in belief in progress has also increased the opportunities for non-Western cultures to define development for themselves. Third, we are shifting from a mechanical to a co-evolutionary understanding of systems which helps explain why development has been unsustainable and what we must do to attain sustainability.     

Sustainable futures: policies for global development

Global sustainable development is the overarching challenge for social and economic policy today. The paper elaborates the concept of sustainable development, identifies some of the levers and policies that might help attain it, describes a modeling system used for analysis, and presents the results of evaluating the impacts of policies and an integrated scenario built upon them.Particular attention is given to measures related to research, technology development and the wider use of networking technologies, and to the hypothesis that investments in these areas offer a ‘triple-win’ opportunity for growth, greater equity and resource-efficiency. We show that the combination of policy initiatives in these areas can offer a valuable alternative and/or complement to constraints on businesses and life-styles that are commonly proposed for sustainable development.     

Sustainable development and the market : A framework for analysis

The environment has been confined to the margins of most research in the social sciences, particularly theoretical work on development. One consequence is that the environment has lacked an historical focus, which would allow us a broader, more comparative view of how nature is transformed under the impact of capitalist development. The object of this article is to sketch out such a framework, beginning with ‘autochtonous’ societies, in which sustainability, rather than development, is the key characteristic. The role of the market in transforming such societies is explored through a typology of social and environmental systems. In the light of the transformation of environmental goods, made necessary by market accumulation, the role of ‘environmental management’ is considered, and found to be inadequate. Sustainability, as a concept, needs to be related to the role of the market within the process of development itself.     

亚行认为中国须平衡交通发展与环境可持续性的关系

亚洲开发银行新近出版的一份报告称，中国快速展开的交通基础设施建设一直是其经济取得成功的核心所在，但现在中国需要更重视发展具有环境可持续性的交通体系，以帮助其减少对石油的严重依赖。     

美国农村、农业发展及启示——美国农业金融考察

文章通过对美国农村与农业的考察,介绍了美国农业的现实发展情况,尤其是农村金融政策,对我国农村发展有借鉴作用。     

实现财富管理行业可持续发展

在"中国财富管理50人论坛首届年会"上,中国证监会主席助理张育军则表示,没有投资人的价值成长,就没有财富管理行业可持续发展的基础,也就没有资本市场健康稳定的发展。他说近年来,随着中国经济、金融的快速发展,随着居民财富的不断积累与增长,中国财富管理行业取得了令人瞩目的成绩:机构日益多元,产品不断丰富,规模不断增长。截止2012年底,中国的基金管理公司     

Experiences of the development and use of scenarios for evaluating Swedish environmental quality objectives

This paper presents and evaluates a method for encouraging long-term thinking and for considering a variety of scenarios in environmental policy processes. The Swedish environmental policy is based on 16 environmental quality objectives (EQOs) that national authorities are obliged to observe. These objectives are reviewed annually and evaluated in depth every four years. Here we describe and explore a futures study project for introducing more long-term thinking into work on the EQOs, which we tested in the in-depth evaluation in 2008. We found it difficult to design a collective scenario for a case with a wide variety of objectives and individuals with different backgrounds. However, this difficulty makes it even more important to incorporate futures studies into the work of the relevant authorities. Scenario work is often subcontracted, leading to a constant lack of futures studies expertise and thinking within authorities. Despite the difficulties, we found that experts within the authorities did begin to recognise the opportunities provided by futures studies. The project revealed an interest and need for futures studies within the authorities in charge of Swedish environmental quality objectives and our findings show that the authorities need to build up their own skills in futures studies.     

Experiences of the development and use of scenarios for evaluating Swedish national environmental objectives

The aim of the present paper is to present and evaluate a method for encouraging long-term thinking and considerations of a variety of scenarios in environmental policy processes. The Swedish environmental policy is based on 16 environmental objectives that national authorities are responsible for. They are evaluated annually and also in-depth every fourth year. Here we describe and explore a futures study project for introducing a more long-term thinking in the work with the environmental objectives, tested in the in-depth evaluation 2008. An experience was that it is difficult to design a collective scenario work in a case with a wide variety of objectives and with individuals with different backgrounds. However, this difficulty makes it even more important to incorporate futures studies in authorities work. Scenario work is often subcontracted, leading to a constant lack of futures studies competence and thinking at the authorities. Another experience is that despite the difficulties, experts at the authorities did start thinking more in terms of opportunities with futures studies. A general conclusion from the work was that there is an interest and need for futures studies at the authorities in charge of the environmental objectives. The possibly most important conclusion from this project was that the authorities need to build up their own competences in futures studies.     

Accounting systems in organisational contexts: A case for critical theory

This paper starts from the view that accounting systems in organisational contexts are more than technical phenomena and that to understand and change these technical elements the social roots must also be both understood and changed. To develop these insights, it is argued, requires major changes in the methodologies we adopt. This paper is addressed to arguing a case for a methodological approach to further these purposes which is derived from a German philosophical school of thought called “critical theory” — more specifically from Jürgen Habermas' interpretation of this thinking which gives particular emphasis to the social and technical aspects of societal phenomena which includes accounting systems.     

Sustainable development: The impact of political risk,macroeconomic policy uncertainty and ethnic conflict

We examine the impact of political risk, macroeconomic policy uncertainty, and social risk on sustainable development for a panel covering 47 developing economies from 1991 to 2020. We present an augmented green Solow growth model linking policy risk and uncertainty to sustainable development through their interaction with pollution abatement activities. We employ a political risk index to capture the composite impact of risk factors relevant to political rule and regulation, a macroeconomic policy index to evaluate the uncertainty associated with inflation, exchange rate, and fiscal policies and an index of ethnic fractionalization to appreciate social risk. The empirical results confirm that all the risk and uncertainty factors examined exert significant negative short- and long-run impacts on sustainable development. The findings highlight the importance of risk management as a key control policy when designing sustainability policies promoting pollution emissions abatement.     

论农业发展银行转轨时期的信贷管理——谈农业发展银行改革与发展中应处理好的十大关系

本文对粮棉油流通体制市场化改革进程中的信贷管理进行了深入探讨,认为要重视并处理好十大关系.     

The objectives of financial reporting: a historical survey and analysis

This article is a survey and analysis of the succession of writings on the objectives of financial reporting during the past 90 years. Its aim is to contribute towards an understanding of the origins, significance, and limitations of conceptual frameworks. The article begins with a review of the extensive literature, including the series of recommended and approved conceptual frameworks, in the USA and then proceeds to examine the corresponding literatures in Great Britain, Canada, and Australia, followed by a discussion of the framework issued by the International Accounting Standards Committee in 1989 and Chapters 1 and 3 of the framework issued by the International Accounting Standards Board and Financial Accounting Standards Board in 2010. Summary remarks about Continental Europe conclude the survey. Attention is drawn to the criticisms of the objectives approach as well as to its possible perverse consequences for the remainder of the framework. In the course of the survey, there is an attempt to trace the evolution of stewardship and conservatism, or prudence, in the series of frameworks.     

Investment decisions: The trade-off between economic and environmental objectives

While there are broader socio-political, psychological, and structural factors that influence investment decisions (see Harris et al., 2016), in line with the critical approach, this study provides an empirical insight into the notion that financialization, specifically the tendency to prioritise economic over environmental objectives, has a strong bearing on how managers view investment trade-off decisions in relation to sustainability issues. The study empirically investigates this notion by examining the investment trade–off preferences of Australian managers in relation to three decision attributes – economic outcomes (i.e. financial returns), environmental impact (i.e. carbon emissions) and stakeholder pressure to consider environmental issues. We use the discrete choice experimental method to quantify the trade-offs between the above mentioned three attributes. In addition, we also investigate the potential effect of three contingency factors on individual's preferences. Specifically, at the organisational level, we explore the effects of financial and environmental rewards and at the individual level, we explore the effect of environmental consciousness. In line with the financialization hypotheses our results indicate that managers prioritise financial returns over carbon emissions and stakeholder pressures with the preference for financial returns found to be positively associated with rewards for financial performance. However, in line with the pragmatic approach and despite the overall dominance of financial returns, there is evidence that manager's focus on financial returns can be influenced, with the preference for financial returns negatively associated with rewards for environmental performance and environmental consciousness. In addition, while stakeholder pressure was not found to be associated with any of the three contingency factors and, manager's emphasis on carbon emissions was not associated with financial rewards, manager's emphasis on carbon emissions was found to be positively associated with both rewards for environmental performance and environmental consciousness. Therefore, our findings suggest that corporate management have an important role to play, both in respect to the design of performance rewards systems and the recruitment of environmentally conscious managers, in order to promote the sustainability agenda.     

城市农业政策金融业务拓展问题研究——以武汉市城区行为例

文章探讨城市农业政策性金融业务拓展问题。