ON CONSUMERS' VALUATION OF NUTRITION INFORMATION

The European Union (EU) is contemplating regulations requiring mandatory provision of nutritional information on food products. This study analyses consumers' valuation of nutritional information using data collected from a field survey. The results generally suggest that consumers value and are willing to pay about 5.9 percent of the original price for nutritional information on the food product we studied. Individuals who are non-price-sensitive, nutritionally knowledgeable and with longer time horizon are willing to pay more for nutritional information than others. Considering consumers' willingness to pay for nutritional information on food products and an EU impact assessment study, the costs of provision of this information are not prohibitive to firms. We estimate that the least conservative cost of labelling to the firm for a specific food product can be as much as €29,431, whereas the average economic value of nutrition information is estimated at €17,064. The firm can therefore recoup the associated costs in less than two months.     

A CONTINGENT VALUATION STUDY OF UNCERTAIN ENVIRONMENTAL GAINS

Acid deposition in a present and future cause of biodiversity losses in vulnerable upland areas of Scotland important for nature conservation. However, the exact nature of damages under the status quo, and both the timing and extent of recovery of upland ecosystems if deposition is reduced, are subject to uncertainty. this uncertainty complicates damages cost estimation. In this paper, we have explored the use of CVM to measure the willingness to pay (WTP) of the Scottish population for uncertain recovery/damage scenarios from reduced acid rain deposition. An optimally-designed referendum format was used utilising the distribution of open-ended bids from a pilot study to determine bid amounts and sampling size for each bid amount. Eight explanatory variables, including future damage level were selected in a non-linear step-wise regression analysis. Average household WTP for abatement of acid rain was £247 and £351 per year when faced with low and high future damage levels respectively. Recovery level and recovery time did not significantly influence WTP. When faced with risky outcomes regarding future damage and recovery level, respondent were found to be risk averse to both environmental gains and losses.     

中原经济区经济发展水平综合评价及时空格局演变

通过构建区域发展水平评价指标体系,引入熵权TOPSIS法对中原经济区2000、2005和2009年各地经济发展水平评价与比较;进而采用马尔可夫链和ESDA法对中原经济区经济发展水平空间格局及演变特征进行探讨。研究表明：中原经济区经济发展水平存在显著的“俱乐部趋同”现象,区域差异不断拉大,两极分化趋势增强;经济发展水平呈现出较为显著的空间自相关,发展水平相似的地区呈集聚分布;从热点区分布看中原经济区区域差异主要表现为东西差异,从热点区演变看中原经济区尚未形成稳定的空间发展格局;给力培育地区经济增长极和主导发展轴、优化空间开发格局,深化区域分工与合作,着力提升对外开放水平是实现中原经济区协调发展的有效途径。     

我国海岸带经济环境与经济走势分析

在阐述海洋带资源开发和经济发展的重大战略意义的基础上,揭示了海岸带经济环境的边缘效应、枢纽效应、依托效应、扩延效应和复合效应,以及它们对经济活动的影响：并从可持续发展的观点探讨了海岸带的经济走势及其存在的问题：最后从经济发展与生态环境关系方面讨论了促进我国海岸带经济发展的若干措施。     

淮海经济区经济发展差异演变

以淮海经济区126个县级行政单元为研究对象,采用锡尔系数分析方法对以淮海经济区为案例的省际边缘区经济发展差异进行定量测度,发现省际差异对淮海经济区经济发展差异的影响大于省内差异和市内差异的影响,是构成淮海经济区整体区域经济发展差异的重要组成部分.     

VALUATION OF HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTION AT MARKET PRICES AND ESTIMATION OF PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS

This paper estimates household production functions directly, considers their characteristics, and compares them with previous indirectly estimated functions. Interviews with 135 Missoula, Montana area married couple households provided the data. The results suggest that endogeneity and a previous lack of output and capital data which led to the use of the indirect methodology are not insurmountable problems. The results tend to confirm the feasibility of directly measuring household outputs since the production function results are reasonable. Directly estimated household production functions offer the possibilities for estimation of short-term household output changes and testing hypotheses about households' economic behavior.     

成渝经济区经济发展差异的时空演变分析

以县域为基本单元,以1995—2008年人均GDP和GDP为基础数据,结合传统区域差异的统计方法与空间计量经济学软件GEODA,对成渝经济区区域经济差异的时空演变进行了定量分析。结果表明,成渝经济区整体经济趋同趋势不明显,经济发展的二元化结构严重且空间惯性强,形成了以成都市为核心的发达区及川北、渝东北落后地带区,核心区的经济极化作用占主导且极化趋势有所加深。川渝内部差异和五个次级经济区之间差异及成都经济区内部的差异分别是成渝经济区总体差异的在行政区划和经济区划上的主要贡献者。     

城市发展用地评价指标体系及方法研究

在城市化发展进程加快的形势下,城市发展用地空间布局问题,已经摆在我们面前。本文对城市发展用地选择、评价提出一套可行的评价指标体系,并利用层次分析法建立数学模型,并结合一个例子进行实证研究。     

关中经济区经济联系测度与财政体制调整政策研究

以财政管理体制如何配合关中经济区的组建和发展为研究对象,对城市联系测度和相应的财政体制调整政策问题进行研究。首先借鉴国内外学者在分析城市间联系测度模型,分析关中经济区主要城市的中心等级划分,计算城市间的可达性系数和空间相互吸引强度;其次,对关中经济区经济联系度低的原因进行剖析,客观分析陕西现行财政管理体制中对城市联系的制约问题;最后从财政体制角度提出促进关中经济区城市经济联系的相关政策建议。     

中国上市银行市价影响因素实证分析

银行业由于存款来源丰富,贷款风险和定价均存在较大的不确定性,与一般生产企业相比,其价值评估存在难点,选取了5家上市银行采用统计软件进行实证分析,结果显示:我国银行仍然以传统业务为主要利润来源,并且较大程度受制于政策.     

AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF PERSONAL DEBT

The treatment of debt in conventional economic theory is considered and compared with recent writings on the economics of self-control and cognitive dissonance. The paper considers factors influencing the level of debt, conditional on debt being greater than zero and goes on to report a multivariate analysis of a sample of individuals in this position. The data comes from the case records of money advisers in Citizens Advice Bureaux (CABS) in Staffordshire. The amount of debt is found to be correlated with indicators of life cycle and a measure of the exercise of self-control.     

INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMIC MODELS OF CRIME

This introduction to the IER symposium on economic models of crime briefly reviews the articles in this issue and tries to put them in the context of the current research on the economics of crime.