Sphere of paid services to the population in the context of social and economic development

This paper examines the technical and economic situation in the sphere of services, long-term and recent tendencies, and the proportion of development among services in connection with the income of the population. Factors of the inequality in the consumption of paid services and the results of cross-country comparisons, as well as reasons for the slow growth of this sector, are investigated     

Economy of underconsumption

This paper studies the quantitative and qualitative indicators of nonfood consumption, house purchases, and the use of paid services on the basis of an analysis of domestic and external consumer resources, price levels, and household income differentiation.     

我国农村居民消费结构变动的实证研究

本文用改进的ELES模型和面板数据估计出我国农村居民2002～2005年对各类消费品的基本需求,计算出6种边际消费倾向。结果显示,各收入户的边际消费倾向均逐年增长;收入越高的家庭边际消费倾向越低;食品、交通通讯、居住、文教娱乐的边际消费倾向较大;交通通讯、食品、医疗保健、衣着、文教娱乐的边际消费倾向增长较快。     

Cultural Influence,Questionnaire Formation and Manager Response in Sino-American International Joint Ventures

This paper explores the differences in tendencies toward using middle-of-the scale responses between Chinese and American managers in Sino-American International Joint Ventures when questionnaire instruments were administered with an explicit midpoint. Results demonstrate that Chinese and American managers had different propensities to choose middle response alternatives when an explicit midpoint in questionnaire items was offered.     

The impact of financial development on the income and consumption levels of China’s rural residents

In this paper, we investigate the impact of financial development on rural residents’ income and consumption levels in China. We discover that the development of traditional financial services has little impact on the income and consumption levels of rural residents. In contrast, the development of emerging financial services has a significant positive impact on the income and consumption levels of rural residents. Traditional financial services, as is well known, require collateral and high expected future cash flows from customers, making financial inclusion difficult. Emerging financial services in China are special financial services promoted by financial regulators to support technological innovation, cultural development, environmental protection, and rural development. Our findings suggest that these emerging financial services are effective in increasing the income and consumption levels of rural residents. Interestingly, while emerging financial services that directly target rural development have no significant impact on rural residents' income and consumption, financial support for technological advancement and cultural development appears to be more effective in increasing rural residents' income and consumption.     

An integrated planning model for investment in urban infrastructure and pricing municipal services

This viewpoint proposes an iterative, cyclical and incremental model for preparing and pricing a capital investment programme and budget for municipal infrastructure services. South African towns and cities are used as case‐studies. The model links capital investment, operation and maintenance (supply) to the prices offered or paid by the beneficiaries (demand). Ignoring the conventional framework for the development of an area, this viewpoint concentrates on how capital investment for municipal infrastructure services could be planned and programmed and prices or tariffs determined. Given that socio‐economic trends in most municipalities in South Africa are unpredictable, short‐ to medium‐term capital investment planning is emphasised.     

Hidden inequality in household electricity consumption: Measurement and determinants based on large-scale smart meter data

Existing studies provide the estimates of climate change's impact on energy consumption, yet little attention has been paid to inequality based on fine-grained data. This paper takes advantage of the large-scale smart meter data to investigate the electricity consumption inequality and adaptation vulnerability issues. We find that there is a serious inequality underestimation issue arising from annual aggregate data. An average of 8.39% of the inequality is hidden every quarter, while the monthly hidden value reached 13.41% due to the seasonal offset effects. This inequality is the robust nonlinear inverted-N shaped relationship with temperature, which implies that the cold temperatures have a more severe impact on social inequality issues than hot. For cold days, one additional day in the range < 30 °F would result in an increase of 3.05% electricity consumption inequality. We also find households in high inequality cities have worse response ability when facing extreme temperature, indicating poor will suffer more from extreme temperature exposure. Policies to address climate-induced inequality issues would be more efficient if more attention be paid to the poor in cold winter.     

The Provision of Nonaudit Services by Accounting Firms to their Audit Clients*

Abstract. There has been a strong growth in accounting firms' provisions of nonaudit services to their audit clients. To date, however, there have been few studies into the determinants of this joint provision of audit and nonaudit services. One reason for the paucity of research is the lack of publicly available data with which to empirically examine relationships and test theories. However, recent legislation in the United Kingdom requires publication of nonaudit fees paid to a company's auditor, and this disclosure provides the data with which to investigate the joint provision of consultancy and audit services. A model is developed that seeks to explain a company's decision to hire nonaudit services from the auditor. The model argues that companies that face potentially high agency costs purchase relatively smaller amounts of nonaudit services from their auditor. High agency-cost companies require independent audits in order to reassure investors and creditors; the provision of joint services, which increases the economic bonding of the auditor to the client, may jeopardize independence or the appearance of independence. The model is tested using data observations from 500 companies, and the results indicate that companies that have higher agency-cost proxies are associated with smaller purchases of nonaudit services from their auditors.     

South African food resources for the future∗

Internationally, Government action has failed to resolve problems of agriculture, and has proved expensive. Views on the long‐term ability of agriculture to produce sufficient food have varied between optimism and pessimism. Pessimism prevailed in the seventies, but the same period experienced rapid increases in food production, with stocks reaching record volumes by 1986. Food production has outstripped population growth over the long run. Food shortages and famines are caused by distribution problems rather than low aggregate production. Differences in income levels cause problems in the entitlement of poorer people to food. South African agriculture exhibits dualism in production, both in terms of quantities produced and sophistication in the array of foodstuffs produced. Dualism is as prevalent in consumption. In South Africa, some have food in abundance, and others live below the breadline. This is a function of revenue, and has a racial content as well as security implications. South African food industries should cope with dualism by accepting raw materials of differing quality and delivering foodstuffs with differing attributes. This calls for deregulation and a small degree of concentration. Sanctions may aggravate affairs.     

Effects of farmer support programmes on consumption and investment

Effects of farmer support programmes (FSPs) of the Development Bank of Southern Africa on consumption and investment are determined by utilising cross‐sectional survey data from the Mashamba and Khakhu areas of the Venda homeland in South Africa. Income elasticities indicate that the demand for goods (staple food) produced by households increases less than the demand for purchased goods. A discriminant analysis of surplus versus deficit producers indicates that surplus production is associated with farmers who participate in the FSP (ie farmers using chemical fertilizers and purchasing inputs on credit). The existence of soil erosion, availability of ploughing services, expenditure on transport education, medical and personal items, and the existence of a savings account also play important roles in explaining the difference in production performance between surplus and deficit food‐producing households.     

威海市消费需求问题研究

消费是经济发展的动力源泉,对于经济增长具有不容忽视的积极作用。威海市消费需求受收入相对较低、城乡收入差距大、社会保障不完善、居民消费倾向下降等问题影响,对经济的拉动作用偏弱。拓宽就业渠道,稳步提高居民收入;推进城乡一体化,缩小城乡差距;营造良好的消费环境,积极引导消费;组织大型购物活动,促进居民消费。这是促进经济增长的良策。     

重庆市制造业中间投入分析

以2002—2010年重庆市投入产出表数据为基础,运用投入产出分析的方法,通过计算直接消耗系数指标,从制造业分行业与服务业、制造业与服务业、制造业与生产性服务业三个方面分析了重庆市制造业对服务业的直接消耗水平。结果表明:近年来重庆制造业对服务业的直接消耗水平比较低,低于全国平均水平。     

承接服务业国际转移与制度变迁研究——基于中国1992~2008年数据

随着服务业国际转移的发展,我国承接服务业国际转移不断增多,其对我国制度变迁的影响也受到越来越多的关注。文章首先从微观和宏观两个方面分析承接服务业国际转移影响制度变迁的理论基础和传导机制,进而通过实证检验证明了承接服务业国际转移促进了我国的制度变迁,并在此基础之上提出了我国为更好的承接服务业国际转移的相关政策建议。     

Analysis of interregional differences in inflationary developments in the economy of Central Russia

The article presents an analysis of regional characteristics of inflationary developments in the economy of Central Russia. An analysis of the annual dynamics of base regional consumer price indices, as well as price indices for food products, nonfood items, and services during 2000–2011, is provided. An extrapolation inflation rate forecast for the regions of Central Russia for 2013–2014 is also presented. An econometric model that relates regional consumer price indices in 2008–2011 to price indices for food products, nonfood items, and services has been constructed. A typology of the regions of Central Russia is suggested based on multiple base regional consumer price indices for food and nonfood products, as well as services in 2008–2011.     

从征税环节谈对我国消费税改革的质疑

从今年4月1日起,我国开始实行新的消费税政策。新政策对消费税的税目、税率进行了必要的调整。这是自1994年设立消费税之后的最大一次政策调整。此次改革在社会上引起了强烈反响,同时也引起了一些质疑和争论。文章分析了目前消费税征税环节错位产生的负面影响,对此次消费税改革提出了质疑和进一步的改革建议。     

1995—2007年我国城镇居民消费需求的实证研究

文章利用1996-2008年《中国统计年鉴》提供的数据,运用扩展线性支出系统等模型对1995—2007年我国城镇居民的消费支出情况进行了总量和结构的实证分析,具体包括城镇居民的基本消费支出、主要消费项目的需求收入弹性以及需求分配系数。通过对上述指标的定量分析可以准确地把握我国城镇居民的消费支出结构以及总体变化趋势。研究结果表明1995—2007年我国城镇居民生活水平正从小康阶段向富裕阶段过渡,食品和衣着支出占总支出的比重不断下降。医疗卫生制度和住房制度改革以及教育产业政策对城镇居民人均消费影响很大,其中人均医疗保健支出增幅最高,文教娱乐和居住的支出增幅也大大超过城镇居民平均可支配收入的增幅。基于上述研究。文章提出了相关的政策建议。     

资产财富和居民消费——来自中国省际面板数据的经验证据

随着"双循环"发展战略的提出，如何提升我国居民消费成为研究热点。与已有研究不同，文章首先从省际视角研究了居民消费行为的影响因素，证实了金融资产和住房资产分别对消费产生的促进作用和抑制作用，且金融资产的促进作用大于住房资产的抑制作用。其次，文章探讨了两种资产对不同种类消费品的影响，金融资产增加主要促进教育娱乐医疗等改善性消费，住房资产增加则主要抑制基本品消费。最后，文章对不同省份居民消费的影响因素进行异质性分析，发现金融资产对消费的促进作用随收入、资产增加先上升后下降，而住房资产对消费的抑制作用随收入、资产增加先上升后下降，金融资产和住房资产在东部地区影响小于西部地区，且受区域教育、人口和收入结构影响。综上来看，提升居民收入水平，改善居民收入结构，控制房价过度上涨，改善资本市场在资产分配中的作用，加大政府在教育、医疗、养老等公共服务方面的投入能够有效改善家庭资产结构，提升居民消费水平。     

Estimation and Determinants of the Philippines' Household Carbon Footprint

Estimation of a household carbon footprint in developed countries is abundant in the literature but there are few studies from developing countries. This paper presents an estimation of household carbon emission from the consumption of various goods and services in the Philippines. We estimate household emissions by combining input–output analysis with household expenditure for 2000 and 2006. After controlling for household characteristics, the analyses reveal that income has a significant nonlinear relationship with emissions, depicting an inverted U‐shaped with a turning point beyond the current income distribution. Unless consumption patterns change, it is likely that there will be further increases in emissions as households become more affluent.     

Residential responses to service-specific electricity demand: Case of China

Understanding the diversity of the residential demand for various electrical services is critical for utilities and policymakers in conducting effective demand side management and narrowing urban-rural inequality. Previous research has usually treated the household as a unit of analysis, and thus may have ignored the fact that household electricity consumption is derived demand driven by specific services, which fails to examine the heterogeneous behavioral responses. Therefore, this paper presents a new pattern of residential demand for various electrical services and quantifies the impacts of socioeconomic determinants in China. The conditional demand analysis is performed on the unique dataset of the Chinese Residential Energy Consumption Survey of 2014 to estimate the electricity demand distribution in eight types of services and to investigate the effect of socioeconomic variables on service-specific electricity consumption. The results show that, together, entertainment and food refrigeration account for about half of the total annual electricity consumption, followed by laundry, lighting, space cooling, and hot water. Rural households use about 7.2% of total electricity for cooking purposes, while urban counterparts hardly use electricity to cook at all. Electricity consumption for space heating is negligible for both urban and rural households. Heterogeneity in socioeconomic determinants is found not only among different electrical services but also between urban and rural households.