ASSESSING INCENTIVE-BASED ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES FOR REDUCING HOUSEHOLD WASTE DISPOSAL

In residential solid waste management, the United States has a great deal of experience in applying incentive-based environmental policy in the form of unit pricing. This study examines the two most common forms of unit pricing practiced in the United States. It offers intuition and empirical evidence suggesting divergence of theoretical expectations and actual outcomes regarding the effects of switching to unit pricing. Data collected from households in Marietta, Ga. during a solid waste pricing experiment serve as the basis for the analysis.     

收藏与品鉴

《岭南精英》自创刊以来，如何让杂志饱含“艺术”和“文化”的气质，是我们一直努力追寻的目标。书画作为中华传统文化艺术的精髓，自然是我们不容忽视的一道风景。同时，弘扬传统书画艺术，传播中华文化精髓，我们肩担责任。于是，《收藏与品览》应运而生。     

THE DETERMINANTS OF HAZARDOUS WASTE DISPOSAL CHOICE: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF HALOGENATED SOLVENT WASTE SHIPMENTS

Disposal of hazardous waste is more complex than simply choosing the option with the lowest price: Legislation may hold a waste generator responsible for cleaning up a badly contaminated waste disposal site if the operator of that site goes bankrupt. This paper estimates conditional logit models of a generator's choice of waste management facility (TSDF) for shipments of halogenated solvent waste originating in California in 1995. The probability that a facility is selected as the destination of a shipment depends on the cost of shipping to and disposal at the facility, on existing contamination at the site, and on the track record of the facility, suggesting that generators do seem to balance current disposal costs with the likelihood of future liability. There is no evidence that generators prefer facilities owned by publicly traded firms, but when generators do choose TSDFs belonging to a publicly traded company, they prefer wealthier companies. (JEL Q21)     

EFFECTS OF DRUG ABUSE TREATMENT ON LEGAL AND ILLEGAL EARNINGS

Although recent research has shown that drug abuse treatment reduces drug use and criminal activity in some clients, the impact of treatment on clients' post-treatment labor market behavior is relatively unknown. This study uses data from a longitudinal survey to analyze annual legal and illegal earnings for 2,420 drug abusers. The analysis focuses on two different time intervals—one year before entering a drug abuse treatment program and one year after leaving the same program. It describes client characteristics, labor market variables, and treatment history, and estimates the effects of length of time in treatment on post-treatment earnings. The regression analysis shows that length of time in treatment had a positive (negative) and statistically significant impact on real legal (illegal) earnings following treatment for methadone and residential clients, but the magnitude was small; accounting for possible selection bias had little effect on the results. Although residential clients experienced the largest relative changes in earnings outcomes, simply comparing the direct cost of residential treatment with the benefits from improved legal earnings and lower illegal earnings suggests that additional residential treatment is not cost-beneficial.     

ILLEGAL MIGRANTS, TOURISM AND WELFARE: A TRADE THEORETIC APPROACH

Abstract.  Many countries receive illegal migrants but are reluctant to accept them due to possible negative externalities. We provide a rationale for not policing illegal migration by linking it to the tourism industry. By paying illegal migrants less than local workers, the relative price of the non-traded goods is shown to be lower than it would be in the absence of such workers. An expansion in tourist trade, under certain intensity conditions, necessarily raises resident welfare and employment. This tourist boom necessarily lowers the welfare of the illegal migrants. It is established that an increase in tourism increases the supply of illegal migrants.     

HARM REDUCTION, RATIONAL ADDICTION, AND THE OPTIMAL PRESCRIBING OF ILLEGAL DRUGS

Harm reduction (HR) policy is designed to reduce the social, medical and economic cost of illegal drug use to users and to society at large. It is the most important recent development in international drug policy. However, in the United States and elsewhere, some fear that HR facilities such as needle exchanges and methadone maintenance programs may increase drug consumption and the risk of addiction. This is most likely if users are rational, forward-looking utility maximizers as in the Becker-Murphy model (1988). The tendency for HR policy to increase drug consumption may be strong or weak, depending on the type of drug and the elasticity of demand with respect to the full cost of drug use. The model predicts that the effects will differ between social groups and that there is an optimal prescribing policy for addicts who legally receive drugs in treatment programs. Evidence suggests that clinicians tend to prescribe sub-optimally .     

ILLEGAL MUSIC DOWNLOADING AND ITS IMPACT ON LEGITIMATE SALES: AUSTRALIAN EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

This paper explores illegal music file‐sharing activity and its effect on Australian sales of singles in the physical and digital retail markets. Using fifteen weeks of Australian Recording Industry Association weekly chart rankings of physical and digital sales, combined with a proxy for download activity derived from the popular peer‐to‐peer (P2P) network Limewire, the evidence suggests no discernible impact of download activity on legitimate sales. Whilst significant negative correlation between chart rank and download activity is observed in the digital market, once download endogeneity is purged from the model and song heterogeneity is controlled for no significant relationship remains.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ILLEGAL DRUG PRICES AT THE RETAIL USER AND SELLER LEVELS

This article uses 1985–2000 DEA data on marijuana and cocaine prices in various metropolitan areas to empirically test two contrasting theories of the relationship between illegal drug prices at the retail seller and user levels. Regression results overwhelmingly reject a multiplicative model in which the ratio of prices at the two levels is constant, but strongly support an additive model in which the difference between these prices is constant. This finding reduces the attractiveness of policies aimed at raising wholesale prices, because retail price responses, and thus potential drug demand deterrence, would be substantially smaller than commonly assumed. (JEL D40 , I18 , K42 )     

收藏：马子恺

当代国学艺术名家。生于济南，现居北京。幼承家学，读经习艺，广拜南北名宿高师。作为白石再传弟子，年未弱冠即已在书画界颇有嘉誉。曾先后在首都师范大学和北京大学攻读硕士研究生——书法及艺术理论。2006年起任职于中国国家画院教育培训中心。2008年受任中国书法学术研究院副院长。     

FISCAL CONSTRAINTS, COLLECTION COSTS, AND TRADE POLICIES

The last two decades witnessed trade liberalization in many developing countries. What caused this trend, and why have trade barriers been so ubiquitous when economic theory overwhelmingly supports free trade? This paper proposes that governments' revenue needs are the driving force. Governments may rely disproportionately on trade taxes because they are inexpensive to collect. Trade liberalization is an integral part of a tax reform: a tax base expansion is necessary to allow governments to reduce tariff rates. This hypothesis is supported by a panel data analysis of 27 developing countries.     

PRICE AND SUBSTITUTION IN RESIDENTIAL SOLID WASTE

Many per-unit curbside recycling and garbage collection pricing systems were implemented in the 1990s. A detailed data set is used to estimate the effect of an increase in the per-unit price change for a long-running pricing system across time in one city. A fixed-effects regression controls for collection district and explanatory variables including weather, time, and employment changes. The elasticity estimate is within the range of previous work but with a higher cross-price elasticity to recycling. This shift to recycling results in significant financial benefits to the city and a small decrease in social welfare. ( JEL Q5, Q53)     

THE DETERMINANTS OF ILLEGAL DRUG USE

An extensive set of self-reported survey data exists on illegal drug use. The survey data show that drug use is quite frequent among the younger adult population, relatively infrequent among those of high-school age, and rare among middle-aged and older adults. Drug use varies by occupational category in ways that are difficult to rationalize. This study utilizes a model in which an individual's time is allocated among labor, non-drug consumption, leisure, and drug use, where the individual is cognizant of the effect of drug use on his wages. The study analyzes comparative static results and then uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to estimate a probit model of the individual decision to use drugs. The findings of the study are that non-economic factors dominate the decision for both harder drugs and drugs more broadly defined. One must consider this finding tentative, however, since usable drug price data were not available.     

ESTIMATING VALUE ADDED OF ILLEGAL PRODUCTION IN THE WESTERN BALKANS

Several economists continue to assert that the official national accounts of many countries do not cover a large “hidden” or “underground” economy. This article looks at one component of the underground economy, namely illegal activities. According to the UN System of National Accounts, production of goods and services that are illegal should be included in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) if both the producers and consumers are willing partners to the transactions involved. We examine the estimates of illegal production recently made by several countries in the Western Balkans and conclude that, if illegal activities were fully included in their official GDP estimates, they would increase by about 1 percent. Trade in narcotics and prostitution are the two most important kinds of illegal activities in most countries and we look in detail at how estimates for these activities were made by the Western Balkan countries.     

南京城市游憩者时空分布规律与活动频率分析

由参与游憩活动的本地居民和外来游客共同构成城市游憩者。城市游憩者空间行为特征影响城市游憩设施和游憩资源的开发与管理。本文通过实地问卷调查获得基本数据,运用使用曲线分析技术,研究南京城市游憩者时空分布模式与活动频率特征,探讨不同动机的游憩者的活动空间。     

试论国有企业改革中土地资产处置的方式及其选择

合理处置国有企业划拨土地使用权，对盘活国有土地资产、发挥国有土地资产效应、促进国有企业改革、国民经济的布局调整和企业科技进步等，具有十分重要意义。本文在分析当前我国国有企业改制中各土地资产处置方式及其土地权能和优缺点的基础上，提出了以出让为基础、租凭为主导、限制作价出资（入股）和授权经营使用、严格控制划拨用地范围作为其未来的发展选择。     

循环型社会导向下的日本废弃物管制体系及其启示

循环型社会是成为全球实现经济、社会与环境可持续发展的社会经济范式。发达国家十分重视循环经济的立法问题,尤其是象日本这样经济发达而自然资源匮乏的国家,从基本法、综合法、专项法等多个层面制定了循环社会法律法规。文章对日本循环社会型导向下的废弃物管制体系构建的特征进行了分析,借鉴发达国家循环型社会导向下的废弃物管制过程中形成的经验,提出了强化中国废弃物管制立法的若干启示。     

非价格策略与消费者购买行为-以会员积分制为例

会员积分制是目前零售业普遍采用的一种非价格竞争策略,其对于销售的作用也日渐受到经济学的普遍关注。本文通过采用大连市某一知名大型购物中心会员购买记录的扫描数据,对会员积分制的实际效果进行实证研究,结果表明积分能够对消费者的购买行为产生显著影响。积分弹性及交叉积分弹性表明,一种商品的积分促销不仅增加本商品的需求量,而且对其他商品的销售存在正外部性。积分促销可以起到与价格促销同样的作用;本文进一步得出积分与价格相互替代性的大小,为厂商在两种策略的权衡使用上提供参考。     

关于打击地下六合彩的策略研究

我国广大地区盛行着"地下六合彩",并愈演愈烈,带来了许多社会问题.该文通过对符合现实的数学模型推导,比较不同彩票市场结构以及各种打击地下六合彩策略的效果,提出加强公立彩票的营销力度和对地下六合彩的负面宣传,树立公立彩票的信誉,影响消费者对于两者间的偏好,提高对地下六合彩的打击有效性,实现公立彩票经营企业化和产业化,为人们增加正常娱乐方式和稳定投资渠道,才是解决"地下六合彩"的有效途径.