信用的生态学诠释与信用生态链的构建

生态学有逐渐与经济学相渗透、相融合的趋势，从而扩展了经济学的研究边界。本文从生态学的视角对信用加以研究，首先介绍了信用生态的理论内涵，其次研究了良好的社会信用生态环境的评价标准，最后对构建和谐的社会信用生态链提出了具体的对策措施。     

Towards an improved understanding of farmers' behaviour: The integrative agent-centred (IAC) framework

An effective approach to research on farmers' behaviour is based on: i) an explicit and well-motivated behavioural theory; ii) an integrative approach; and iii) understanding feedback processes and dynamics. While current approaches may effectively tackle some of them, they often fail to combine them together.The paper presents the integrative agent-centred (IAC) framework, which aims at filling this gap. It functions in accordance with these three pillars and provides a conceptual structure to understand farmers' behaviour in agricultural systems.The IAC framework is agent-centred and supports the understanding of farmers' behavior consistently with the perspective of agricultural systems as complex social–ecological systems. It combines different behavioural drivers, bridges between micro and macro levels, and depicts a potentially varied model of human agency.The use of the framework in practice is illustrated through two studies on pesticide use among smallholders in Colombia.The examples show how the framework can be implemented to derive policy implications to foster a transition towards more sustainable agricultural practices.The paper finally suggests that the framework can support different research designs for the study of agents' behaviour in agricultural and social–ecological systems.     

国家生态文明建设与空气质量改善——来自合成控制法与DID的双重验证

生态兴则文明兴,生态环境关系着生态文明体系的构建。2014年,我国设立第一批生态文明先行示范区,为生态文明建设在环境质量方面的成果评价提供了准自然实验环境。为了评价我国生态文明建设在空气质量改善方面的绩效,将江西、福建、贵州、云南和青海这5个省级生态文明先行示范区设定为处理组,运用合成控制法和DID模型对空气质量改善状况进行双重检验。结果表明:整体上,生态文明先行示范区建设对空气质量改善具有显著的效果;江西、贵州和云南的生态文明先行示范区建设均表现出对环境质量的改善作用,其中江西生态文明建设对空气质量改善成效尤为显著。因此,我国设立生态文明先行示范区对于空气质量改善具有显著效应,这对今后国家生态文明试验区建设尤其是在社会经济、资源环境等方面的协调发展具有重要的参考价值。     

Transaction costs,collective action and adaptation in managing complex social–ecological systems

With the escalating uncertainties and surprises faced in responding to environmental and natural resource challenges has come growing recognition of the need to manage such issues as social–ecological systems and value the capacities that enable adaptation to these changes. Adaptations in environmental management often involve complex, including wicked, problems of collective action. Institutions introduced to reduce the transaction costs of solving these problems do not come for free.A cost effectiveness framework designed to provide a comprehensive and logical structure for economic evaluation of path dependent institutional choices in this context, and a procedure for boundedly rational empirical application of the framework, are proposed and illustrated in this article — including for the choice between water buy-back and infrastructure upgrade programmes for accumulating the ‘environmental water’ needed to sustain the ecosystems of Australia's Murray–Darling Basin. Also outlined is a research strategy designed to help identify the heuristics needed for application of this procedure.     

The Sensory Order and other Adaptive Classifying Systems

Synopsis Hayek’s cognitive theory, which seeks to describe the operation of a particular order, in fact provides a paradigmatic account of knowledge-generating orders in general. We claim that this paradigm provides a fertile conceptual framework for exploring a variety of problems in economics and social theory. In particular, we shall show that Hayek’s conception of the ‘map’ and the ‘model’, which he uses to explain the operation of the complex adaptive classifying system called ‘mind’, are promising analytical devices with applications extending to social structures of various kinds and complexity. We use Hayek’s notion of the map and model to analyze how different social structures – regarded as classifying systems – work in terms of their input, processing, and output capabilities. The adaptive characteristics of such systems, via communicative routines, multi-level classification, and feedback, form central motifs for our discussion of markets, science, and other social structures. We show that by analyzing the knowledge-generating characteristics of such structures we are also able to gain insights about the circumstances affecting their adaptive properties.     

A coevolutionary framework for analysing a transition to a sustainable low carbon economy

This paper proposes a coevolutionary framework for analysing a transition to a sustainable low-carbon economy, based on the coevolution of ecosystems, technologies, institutions, business strategies and user practices, within a multi-level micro-meso-macro perspective. This builds on and develops previous coevolutionary analyses of long-term technological and industrial change, and recent renewed interest within ecological economics on coevolutionary approaches. Previous work has analysed how the coevolution of technologies and institutions has led to the lock-in of current high-carbon energy systems; and how the coevolution of physical and social technologies and business strategies has brought significant material and welfare benefits to the minority of the world's population living in industrialised countries. The coevolutionary framework proposed here may be used to undertake: (1) detailed empirical analyses at a micro-meso level of the challenges relating to the innovation and adoption of particularly low-carbon technologies; (2) as a framework for analysing the multi-level interaction of social and technological elements within potential transition pathways to a low carbon energy system; (3) to assess the implications for economic growth and prosperity of a transition to a low carbon economy; and (4) to assist in the development of more formal, multi-level evolutionary economic models.     

An instrument for interactive setting development goals of a socio-environmental system

Decision making to reach for sustainable development of a region can be seen as a debate about the possibilities to integrate social, economic, physical, ecological, and cultural development goals. To make this integration successful, it is necessary to consider a region as a socio-environmental system (SEnS). We use this system concept to make sure that different types of goals and their adverse side effects will be taken as much as possible into account in decision making for regional sustainable development. For setting development goals, we have constructed a framework that we present here.First, we formulate the requirements for goal setting for sustainable development. This results in a kind of framework as search-and-check instrument. This framework can be used to translate people's development goals into valuable characteristics of the socio-environmental system considered. Then we present a case to illustrate the use of the framework in regional development plans. The case shows that the instrument can provide a more balanced survey than usual in practice. For the people involved, it shows which type of goals is missing in the debate about the development of their region.     

Socio-ecological accounting: DPSWR,a modified DPSIR framework,and its application to marine ecosystems

In contrast to institutionally focussed environmental accounting, socio-ecological accounting frameworks organise information concerned with human–environment interactions at scales relevant to ecosystem change and thus encapsulate information more relevant to ecosystem-based management. The DPSIR (Driver–Pressure–State–Impact–Response) framework has been used to identify relevant information in a number of ecosystem contexts but suffers limitations in terms of its definitional clarity and conceptual foundations, which undermine comparability between studies. These limitations are addressed in the DPSWR (Driver–Pressure–State–Welfare–Response) framework, which defines information categories based on a synthesis of concepts in DPSIR and its predecessors so as to more clearly identify the object of measurement in each category and isolate information relating to social systems. Consequently, its categories dealing with social systems are better suited to assessing anthropocentric trade-offs in environmental decision-making, such as through cost–benefit analysis. A conceptual input–output analysis is used to highlight measurement issues connected with the inter-relations between information categories, particularly with regard to scale, and the application of the framework is illustrated by reference to issues affecting marine ecosystems included in a Europewide study for the European Commission. However, DPSWR's definitions are designed to be sufficiently general as to support application in other ecosystem contexts.     

Let There Be Light: Social Enterprise,Solar Power,and Sustainable Development

Energy poverty is a major problem in the developing world, with nearly 1.3 billion people lacking household electricity. Strikingly, the electrification rate is not only low, but is falling in many countries as population growth outpaces efforts to give more people access to electricity. Seizing the opportunities presented by rapid changes in technology and the availability of renewable energy at continually falling costs, social enterprises have begun to light the darkness and fill in the gap between the public and private provision of electricity. We review the extent of energy poverty and explain why neither the public, nor the private sector has successfully addressed this problem. We also discuss institutional factors that have created an environment conducive to the spread of solar power. To illustrate the social enterprise response, we explain the sector’s three most common approaches to solar electrification. Since the potential benefits of any social innovation revolve around its scalability, we discuss various paths to scale before outlining A.T. Kearney’s “Social Enterprise Accelerator” model as a template for scaling up individual social businesses. To enable greater consistency with an institutional economic framework, we suggest an adaptation of the model. We conclude by highlighting potential benefits and challenges facing solar electrification, including the limits of social enterprise as a stand-alone solution to utility provision.     

Economic Progress,Social Regress?

A central issue in the debate regarding the relevance of social capital is whether the decline in social embeddedness that has attended modernization over the last 40 years in the United States is as harmful as Putnam, among others, claim it to be. Critics of Putnam's thesis argue that various arms‐length institutions fulfil the roles performed by social capital thereby mitigating the negative impact of its recent decline. We develop a framework that provides insight into when such institutions may be adequate and when they might not. We find that if market (economic) and non‐market (social) interactions differ in their payoffs but are interlinked through the modernization of the economy, the optimal level of modernization in market interactions will be higher than that in non‐market interactions. Further, market supporting institutions are likely to increase the divergence between economic and social interactions since analogs for market institutions that constrain opportunistic behavior are usually nonexistent in social contexts. In this sense, economic progress may be accompanied by social regress.     

The poverty of money:: Marxian insights for ecological economists

Karl Marx's philosophical, political and sociological analysis of the workings of capitalism provides insights regarding the character of monetary value (price) and the role of the market that are relevant to ecological economists. Ecological economists are divided over the utility of pricing components of ecological systems and the potential role of the market in achieving ecologically sustainable societies. In the Marxian-influenced socialist movements of the 19th and 20th centuries, similar issues were raised by those preoccupied with organising state policy and manipulating the market to achieve social justice. For example, at particular points in the Russian and Cuban revolutionary processes, the potential and limitations of monetary pricing and market exchange were debated in a heated and detailed way. In as much as ecological economists hold certain interests in common, it is worth reflecting on Marx's view of the human role within nature and analysing the discussions and experiences of Marxian experimenters in social transformation that relate specifically to exchange.     

Symbolic values, occupational choice, and economic development

Channeling human resources into occupations with high social productivity has historically been a key to economic prosperity. Occupational choices are not only driven by the material rewards associated with the various occupations, but also driven by the esteem that they confer. We propose a model of endogenous growth in which occupations carry a symbolic value that makes them more or less attractive; the evolution of symbolic values is endogenously determined by purposive transmission of value systems within families. The model sheds light on the interaction between cultural and economic development and identifies circumstances under which value systems matter for long-run growth. It shows the possibility of culturally determined poverty traps and offers a framework for thinking about the transition from traditional to modern values.     

生态安全与治理：基于复杂系统理论 嵌入经济学视角的分析

本文从复杂系统理论整体与适应的研究视角出发,在方法论、核心假设、发展目标三个方面指出了以新古典经济学理论为代表的传统经济社会发展理论存在的生态缺憾。在此基础上,借鉴和汲取现代经济学、新制度经济学的有用成分,探讨了生态安全长期得不到关注的多重致因,搭建起一个生态安全与动态治理的理论框架。笔者指出,以往的生态治理制度之所以未能发挥效能,主要是单维和静态的治理制度是有适用界域和有限效率的,因此,多维度、动态的、相对完整的生态治理制度框架,为提升生态治理制度持续的治理效率提供了一个可供选择的思路。     

2000年以后福利国家养老金体系发展趋势考察——基于“去商品化”的分析框架

文章根据"去商品化"的分析框架,对2000年以后三种福利模式国家的养老金体系发展趋势进行了考察。研究发现,社会民主主义福利模式国家的养老金体系表现出去商品化的趋势,体现了社会民主主义福利模式对社会权利及普惠主义思想的回归;自由主义福利模式国家的养老金体系呈现出继续商品化的趋势,是对1990～2000年间再商品化趋势的继续和发展,体现了自由主义福利模式对市场作用的信奉;保守主义福利模式国家的养老金体系同样表现出一定的商品化趋势,但这是各个社会群体博弈后,选择商品化手段对养老金体系进行调整的过程。     

BEYOND GDP—NEW APPROACHES TO APPLIED STATISTICS

New social concerns and priorities–beyond the economic growth paradigm–pose a challenge to the established statistical systems. The initial response of developing overall welfare measures and social indicators of the human quality of life had little impact on official statistics. Environment statistics, on the other hand, has become accepted as a new branch of applied statistics, maturing from exclusive pollution monitoring to cover various aspects of natural resources and the man-made environment. Still, a rather artificial separation between ecological monitoring and modeling and anthropocentric environmental statistics and accounting persists. The assessment of complex and interrelated socioeconomic and environmental concerns requires comparable inter-disciplinary information. The provision of such information should be facilitated by a flexible framework approach to statistical coordination and integration.     

Relating the philosophy and practice of ecological economics: The role of concepts, models, and case studies in inter- and transdisciplinary sustainability research

We develop a general and unifying methodology for ecological economics which integrates philosophical considerations on the foundations of ecological economics with an adequate operationalization. We argue that the subject matter and aims of ecological economics require a specific combination of inter- and transdisciplinary research, and discuss the epistemological position on which this methodology is based. In accordance with this understanding of inter- and transdisciplinarity and the underlying epistemological position, we develop an operationalization which comprises simultaneous analysis on three levels of abstraction: concepts, (generic) models and case studies. This provides a systematic and integral view on ecological economics, and thus allows one to see the relationship between contributions to the field that have so far been perceived as very heterogeneous and largely unrelated. At the same time, this methodological framework may provide orientation for the further development of ecological economics.     

Designing social security - a portfolio choice approach

Public social security systems may provide diversification of risks to individuals’ life-time income. Capturing that a pay-as-you-go system (paygo) may be considered as a “quasi-asset”, we study the optimal size of the paygo system as well as the optimal split between funded and unfunded pension saving by means of a theoretical portfolio choice framework. A low-yielding paygo system can benefit individuals if it contributes to hedge other risks to their lifetime resources. Numerical calculations indicate that optimal social security systems should be at least partly paygo financed in many economies. The optimal magnitude of the paygo system depends on the specified risk concept as well as the stochastic properties of stock market returns and implicit paygo-returns.     

GLOBALIZATION AND SOCIAL SPENDING

Abstract. We provide evidence indicating that countries with well developed social security systems do not necessarily face a trade‐off between social spending and competitiveness. On average, countries that spend a lot on social needs score well in the competitiveness league. We investigate the importance of a reverse causality from competitiveness to social spending, and find that this is weak. We also present some possible explanations for our empirical finding. Finally, we interpret our findings in the framework of a theoretical model in which risk affects the size of the social sector and social spending affects the production function of the private sector.     

陕北退耕还林区产业发展方式探讨——以吴旗为例

生态治理是陕北社会经济发展的根本所在。生态治理为产业发展提供了前提,而产业发展又可巩固和扩展生态治理的成果.两者需协调推进。陕北退耕还林地区的特殊性就在于资源富集和生态脆弱同在.这要求其产业发展既不能是以能源开发为核心的资源主导型,也不能是脱离开农畜资源、劳动力资源的技术带动型。研究表明.陕北地区应该而且能够发展宽泛意义上的农畜产业集群,而后再形成新型农畜产业集群。     

The Spanish livestock model: A coevolutionary analysis

Coevolution is a wide theoretical framework that enables the study of socio-ecological transformations in different contexts and, specifically, in agrarian systems. This article analyses coevolutionary changes in Spanish livestock over the last 50 years, from the so-called “traditional” livestock model, in which ecological, social and economic elements co-evolve in closely interconnected relationships, to the currently dominant industrial livestock model, governed by “ecologies at a distance”. Not only meat consumption grew significantly as a consequence of the change in the prevailing livestock production model, Spain also became one of the most important meat producers in the European Union. Simultaneously, dependence on imported cereals and soya increased dramatically. Nevertheless, in spite of the prevalence of industrial logics, extensive livestock farming, that follows hybrid logics incorporating features from both models, still exists in Spain and, particularly, in Andalusia (Southern Spain). This locally based model is characterised by higher environmental standards, as well as its contribution to the preservation of a singular agro-ecosystem (dehesa). However, its long-term transformation and, therefore, the social construction of more sustainable local livestock systems, must be understood as a co-evolutionary process in which agency and social selection of innovations are essential elements.