WHOSE LOSSES COUNT IN NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGES?

This article examines economic and legal constraints that determine whose losses are included in natural resource damages as a result of an oil spill or hazardous-substance release. For example, the article describes the circumstances under which use losses experienced by young children would not be included in natural resource damages. With respect to nonuse damages, the article advocates excluding the expressed losses of people who have no knowledge of the specific natural resources affected by a spill/release and who are unaware that the natural resources were injured. In the absence of such knowledge and awareness, these people could not have experienced a welfare loss. Finally, the article discusses legal constraints on whose losses count in natural resource damages with respect to statutory exclusions, public versus private uses of natural resources, uses of natural resources by foreigners, and damages in the absence of injuries.     

Exploring welfare implications of resource equivalency analysis in natural resource damage assessments

Resource equivalency analysis (REA) has become the dominant method for calculating natural resource damages for biological injuries from pollution incidents. This methodology compares resources lost as a result of an incident to benefits that can be gained from a habitat or wildlife restoration project. Compensation is evaluated in terms of resource services instead of market currency. Recently, this approach has been questioned regarding its ability to provide adequate compensation based on economic welfare principles. The following paper examines these critiques and develops a model to quantify the welfare implications of using REA when some of its implicit assumptions are violated.We focus on the situation where compensatory restoration projects provide services that are comparable to those lost as a result of an incident. We examine simulation scenarios where the public has heterogeneous preferences for resources and where resource values change over time. Using the Hicks-Kaldor criterion, we find that the traditional REA provides an acceptable approximation of aggregate compensation for a reasonably wide range of economic and biological parameter combinations.     

MONEY,WHO NEEDS IT? NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGE ASSESSMENT

A new natural resource damage assessment paradigm has been suggested that emphasizes direct analysis of compensatory restoration rather than analysis of compensating variation for damages. This article considers whether money can be avoided in damage assessment. The analysis of compensatory restoration leads to the conclusion that money should be considered when measuring preferences. Failure to consider money leaves trustees unable to judge the adequacy of compensatory restoration. The problem stems from heterogeneity over restoration scale.     

《专利法》法定赔偿下限修改对企业创新的影响机理研究

专利侵权诉讼与企业创新活动密切相关，侵权损害赔偿以经济补偿形式通过改变企业创新回报预期影响企业创新策略选择。构建司法救济社会成本模型与企业创新成本模型，分析法定赔偿下限修改对企业创新的影响机理，并探讨《中华人民共和国专利法》（以下简称《专利法》）第四次修订中提出的三项法定赔偿下限修改方案对企业创新的影响。研究发现，大幅提升赔偿下限能够激励企业突破性创新，但其对侵权的过度威慑将增加创新活动的无谓损失，并产生司法寻租空间；而取消赔偿下限将减少企业对累积性创新的投入，弱化《专利法》的侵权威慑力度，并增加法院裁判成本。在新修订的《专利法》中，3万元赔偿下限能够对企业累积性创新活动产生激励，但亦将导致低质量专利侵权诉讼挤占司法资源。据此，提出优化法定赔偿制度效果的政策建议。     

WHOSE LOSSES COUNT? EXAMINING SOME CLAIMS ABOUT AGGREGATION RULES FOR NATURAL RESOURCES DAMAGES

Compensation for natural resources damage may be provided, in principle, by a payment equal to the value of damage, a compensating restoration project, or partial restoration plus a compensating payment. Applicable laws have a pronounced tilt toward restoration. When determining the value of damage, no welfare-economic reason exists to count as an offsetting benefit any utility enjoyed by rubberneckers; nor should damages be excluded when incurred by those unaware of the injury, those whose motivations are thought "non-economic," those who are resource-loving passive users, or those who are parentalistic altruists. Money compensation required on behalf of nonparentalistic altruists drops to zero as active users are fully compensated. However, if (for whatever reason) active users cannot sustain a claim for full compensation, nonparentalistic altruists will suffer compensable losses.     

Natural Resource Damage Assessment Methods: Lessons in Simplicity from State Trustees

When natural resource damages are caused by releases of hazardous materials into the environment, government trustees must conduct Natural Resource Damage Assessments (NRDAs) to support claims to recover the value of lost or damaged resources. This article sets forth theoretical arguments that support efforts to develop unbiased simplified NRDA methods for use by government trustees and proposes a set of criteria that can be used to evaluate the quality of any such simplified method. The authors then describe the simplified methods being used by five states across the country, affording academic economists a rare view of the kinds of methods state agencies use in-house. The article evaluates those methods against the criteria set forth and discusses the potential of other nonstate-specific simplified NRDA methods (benefit transfer and Type A models) to do the job better. The new framework established can guide future research to design simplified methods that are less biased than the simplified methods currently in use by some states without compromising ease of implementation. (JEL Q5 , K32 )     

Managing the quality of a resource with stock and flow controls

We consider a class of problems, which we call “SFQ” problems, in which both stocks and flows can be controlled to promote the quality of a valued resource, such as environmental quality or public infrastructure. Under the optimal policy, periodic restoration of the stock of quality complements positive but variable abatement of the flow of damages. When deterioration is more rapid or highly variable, or when abatement is more expensive relative to restoration, the optimal policy relies relatively more on restoration.When deterioration is due to private firms or individuals, a flow tax equal to the present value of marginal damages provides efficient incentives for abatement. This tax rises at first as quality worsens, but eventually falls as restoration nears. The revenues raised by such a tax approximates the cost of restoration, with the two quantities converging as the variance of flows goes to zero.We discuss the implications of the SFQ model for a range of real-world problems in the environmental arena, and for the management of public infrastructure. But the lessons are general, and we briefly discuss how they apply to private stocks of physical and human capital.     

NONMARKET VALUATION AND THE COURTS: THE CASE OF THE EXXON VALDEZ

This paper examines a natural resource damages case, the Exxon Valdez, and contrasts the use and acceptance of market and nonmarket valuation methods in two related sectors: commercial fishing and Alaska native subsistence use of fish and wildlife. Much economic literature focuses on how, in principle, one should value environmental injury. These principles and methods have been codified in the Department of Interior and National Oceanic and Atmospheric and Administration natural resource damage regulations that implement the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act and the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. However, these liability rules are fairly new, and thus little evidence exists on the acceptance of valuation methods by the courts and juries. In this regard, the Exxon Valdez case is of particular interest because substantial resources were at stake and much of the case went all the way through to a jury verdict. The two major plaintiff classes—commercial fishermen and Alaska natives—are market and nonmarket versions, respectively, of otherwise fairly similar economic sectors. However, the court's acceptance of the "correct in principle" valuation methods appropriate to each sector was asymmetric. The court accepted as admissible the market valuation procedures (primarily "diminution in market price") used by the commercial fish experts but rejected the nonmarket valuation procedure applied to subsistence uses (a hedonic price model).     

填海造地外部生态成本补偿的关键点及实证分析

针对填海造地的生态环境损失,文章探讨了生态成本补偿问题的几个关键点。文章认为,由于填海造地行为彻底改变了海洋资源的自然属性,并造成资源和生态环境损失,需要一种补偿来弥补填海造地的负外部性,补偿的主体是填海造地的开发者,补偿对象是海域的所有权方,补偿的标准应以被填海域资源和生态环境损失成本为依据,补偿的手段应为征收生态补偿金。文章以福建某填海造地工程为例,对补偿标准的计算进行实证分析,得出该项填海造地工程的外部生态成本为377.70元/m2,计算结果可为国家征收填海造地的生态补偿金提供决策依据,以实现填海造地的有偿化和有序化。     

Human rights issues and employee benefit plans

Canadians have human rights protections at both provincial and federal levels of government. At the federal level, the most important legislative enactments are the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the "Charter") and the Canadian Human Rights Act. Provincially and territorially, human rights are legislatively safeguarded primarily by provincial human rights codes. Both federally and provincially, human rights may also be impacted by a variety of other statutes and regulations such as employment standards acts, workers' compensation acts, occupational health and safety acts, and pay equity legislation.     

长沙市公立与民办高校人力资源成本比较研究

随着市场经济的不断发展,高校人力资源成本问题不仅关系到高校的发展,而且关系到整个国家和社会的发展。本文通过分析长沙市公立与民办高校人力资源成本现状,并进行实证研究,对公立和民办高校人力资源成本进行比较,得出公立高校人力资源成本的最主要影响因素为人力资源使用成本,而民办高校人力资源成本的最主要影响因素为人力资源保障成本和人力资源使用成本,公立和民办高校的人力资源成本构成不尽相同的结论。并从人力流动机制和人力资源成本角度提出了降低高校人力资源成本的政策建议。     

专利惩罚性赔偿构成要件的适用控制与解释进路

修改后的《中华人民共和国专利法》（以下简称《专利法》）自2021年6月1日起施行，其正式引入了惩罚性赔偿制度。在专利惩罚性赔偿制度建立之后，当下的重点应是在民法典和专利法确定的框架内解决司法适用中的进阶性问题，并在法教义解释中推动制度落地。基于域内外双向视角，运用多种法律方法释明以“故意”为表征的主观要件并细化以“情节严重”为要义的行为要件，分析比较基数计算的不同方法、倍数确定的实践要素以及惩罚性赔偿与法定赔偿的适用关系。分析发现，基于利益衡量考量应将主观状态限定为“故意”并作出合理解释，发挥FTO（FreetoOperate,专利自由实施分析）的作用以限制“故意”的适用范围。同时，在区分认定要素和赔偿要素的前提下对“情节严重”作出整体判断。在计算基数时合理考虑“差额利润法”的适用空间，在倍数确定时主客观双向考量实践因素，并将法定赔偿定位为纯粹的补偿性赔偿。解释论路径下构成要件的适用控制应当秉持积极审慎的司法原则，适时调适司法实践与专利政策的互动关系，实现要件之间的功能分隔与适法统一。     

所有权结构、自私性努力与投资阻塞问题

许多学者基于代理人和代理人之间的关系分析了国有企业的"内耗"和地方政府的"内拼",但他们分析的只是次级"内耗"和次级"内拼",是给定所有权安排下的"内耗"和"内拼",他们没有注意到委托人和代理人之间的初级"内耗"和初级"内拼"。本文从投资阻塞的视角分析了国有企业的初级"内耗"和地方政府的初级"内拼"。我们的分析表明,通过议价力量配置来解决国有企业的初级"内耗"问题是可以奏效的,但是通过议价力量配置来解决地方政府的初级"内拼"问题却是很难奏效的,必须在"立宪"层次上界定好中央政府和地方政府的控制权边界,否则就会带来不断重复的试错性成本(比如宏观调控成本)。     

中国新型工业化与资源环境管理

新型工业化强调通过现代技术不断深度开发和广度拓展自然资源在工业生产过程中的利用价值,实现资源利用的高效率和可持续利用,使中国工业从资源消耗型转变为资源节约型和技术导向型."环境成本内化"发展模式的构建是新型工业化的内在要求,它具体包括:建立"成本内化"的科技创新体系;大力发展循环经济,制定和完善促进循环经济发展的法律法规体系;探索新的城市发展模式,强化城市区域生态建设和环境治理.     

ACCOUNTING FOR EXHAUSTIBLE RESOURCES IN THE CANADIAN SYSTEM OF NATIONAL ACCOUNTS: FLOWS, STOCKS AND PRODUCTIVITY MEASURES

The paper shows that the Canadian System of National Accounts includes exhaustible resources but treats them as if they were produced goods. Thus, the claim that conventional accounts ignore the contribution of exhaustible natural resources is partly true. To fully account for exhaustible resources, we present an alternative national accounting framework that incorporates natural resource flows and stocks. The framework modifies the measure of the net domestic product by a factor that differs from the Hartwick-Solow-Weitzman rule and leads to different estimates of GDP, national wealth, and productivity growth. An application to the Canadian oil and gas industry shows order-of-magnitude effects.     

Theory and practice of value management and its innovation natural resources from the perspective of sustainable development

The supreme obstacle for sustainable development of natural re,sources is the scarcity bottleneck.So how to promote the sustainable utili-ing and increase the using efficiency of natural resoures is worth studying.this paper suggests that we should improve the model and means of evaluating method and value management based on the theory of natural resource compensation.This paper discusses the User Cost Method based on the microeconomic aspect which can change the evaluating method for natural resources.From the perspective of value management model,we should use the User Cost Method to realize the linkage and integration (ifmicro and macro compensation for natural resources.Based on the evaluating and accounting idea of User Cost Method,this paper presents a theo retical framework to harmonize and link micro and macro compensation for natural resources.At present,we should seek the new approach and method to manage natural resources,so can we realize the capitalization management focusing on the vahte management for natural resources.     

Theory and practice of value management and its innovation for natural resources from the perspective of sustainable development

The supreme obstacle for sustainable development of natural resources is the scarecity, bottleneck. So how to promote the sustainable utilizing and increase the using efficiency of natural resources is worth studying. This paper suggests that we should improve the model and means of evaluating method and value management based on th~ theory of natural resource compensation. This paper discusses the User Cost Method based on the microeeonomicaspect which can change the evaluating method for natural resources. From the perspective of value managemen model, we should use the User Cost Method to realize the linkage and integration of micro and macro eompensation for natural resources. Based on the evaluating and aecounting idea User Cost Method, this paper presents a theo. retical framework to harmonize and link micro and macro compensation for natural resources. At present, we should seek the new approach and method to manage natural resources, so can we realize the capitalization managemen focusing on the vahte management for natural resources.     

专利侵权惩罚性赔偿问题研究

我国《专利法》规定了4种专利损害赔偿方式，司法解释对此也进行了细化。但总体而言，对专利损害赔偿的规定较为原则，实际操作中存在许多难以解决的问题，如赔偿数额低、诉讼时间长、举证困难等，难以遏制故意侵权和多次侵权，有必要引入惩罚性赔偿制度。最新的《专利法修订草案》第六十八条规定故意侵犯他人专利权处以一倍以上三倍以下赔偿数额。但是，对于什么情况下是“故意”、一倍以上三倍以下赔偿数额如何确定等还没有具体规定，缺乏可操作性。阐述专利侵权损害赔偿概念及计算方法，比较美国、日本、中国台湾地区专利惩罚性赔偿制度对我国的启示，分析我国专利侵权损害赔偿制度及存在的问题，并提出相关政策建议。     

Common property, information, and cooperation: Commercial fishing in the Bering Sea

A substantial theoretical and experimental literature has focused on the conditions under which cooperative behavior among actors providing public goods or extracting common-pool resources arises. The literature identifies the importance of coercion, small groups of actors, or the existence of social norms as conducive to cooperation. This research empirically investigates cooperative behavior in a natural resource extraction industry in which the provision of a public good (bycatch avoidance) in the Alaskan flatfish fishery is essential to the duration of the fishing season, and an information provision mechanism exists to relay information to all individuals. Using a mixed logit model of spatial fishing behavior our results show that conditionally cooperative behavior is prevalent but deteriorates as bycatch constraints tighten.     

加快我国自然资源管理市场化的对策探讨

对自然资源的利用必须符合可持续发展的原则。针对我国自然资源的浪费和破坏现象,只有从产权入手,加快自然资源市场化管理的步伐,才能从根本上解决自然资源利用中的严重问题。本文提出了加快自然资源管理市场化的途径,主要包括自然资源的有效补偿、优化自然资源产权市场、加快自然资源立法、加强政府的宏观管理。