Defining viable recovery paths toward sustainable fisheries

This paper develops a formal analysis of the recovery process for a fishery, from crisis situations to desired levels of sustainable exploitation, using the theoretical framework of viable control. We define sustainability as a combination of biological, economic and social constraints which need to be met for a viable fishery to exist. Biological constraints are based on the definition of a minimum resource stock to be preserved. Economic constraints relate to the existence of a guaranteed profit per vessel. Social constraints refer to the maintenance of a minimum size of the fleet, and to the maximum speed at which fleet adjustment can take place. Using fleet size adjustment and fishing effort per vessel as control variables, we first identify the states of this bioeconomic system for which sustainable exploitation is possible, i.e. for which all constraints can be dynamically met. Such favorable states are called viable states. We then examine possible transition phases, from non-viable to viable states. We characterize recovery paths with respect to the time of crisis of the trajectory, which is the number of periods during which the constraints are not respected. The approach is applied to the single stock of the bay of Biscay Nephrops fishery. The transition path identified through the viability approach is compared to the historical recovery process, and to both open-access and optimal harvesting scenarios.     

A viability analysis for a bio-economic model

This paper presents a simple dynamic model dealing with the management of a marine renewable resource. But instead of studying the ecological and economic interactions in terms of equilibrium or optimal control, we pay much attention to the viability of the system or, in a symmetric way, to crisis situations. These viability/crisis situations are defined by a set of economic and biological state constraints. The analytical study focuses on the compatibility between the state constraints and the controlled dynamics. Using the mathematical concept of viability kernel, we reveal the situations and, if possible, management options to guarantee a perennial system. Going further, we define ‘overexploitation’ indicators by the time of crisis function. In particular, we point out irreversible overexploitation configurations related to the resource extinction.     

CREDIT CRUNCH AND HOUSEHOLD WELFARE,THE CASE OF THE KOREAN FINANCIAL CRISIS*

We examine how the credit crunch in Korea in the late 1990s affected household behaviour and welfare. Using 1996–1998 household panel data, we estimate a consumption Euler equation, augmented by endogenous credit constraints. Korean households coped with the negative shocks of the 1997 credit crunch by reducing consumption of luxury items while maintaining food, education and health related expenditures. Our results show that, in 1997–1998, during the crisis, the probability of facing credit constraints and the resulting expected welfare loss from the binding constraints increased significantly, suggesting the gravity of the credit crunch at the household level.     

The effect of environmental uncertainty on the tragedy of the commons

We model a common pool resource game under environmental uncertainty, where individuals in a symmetric group face the dilemma of sharing a common resource. Each player chooses a consumption level and obtains a corresponding share of that resource, but if total consumption exceeds a sustainable level then the resource deteriorates and all players are worse-off. We consider the effect of uncertainty about the sustainable resource size on the outcome of this game. Assuming a general dynamic for resource deterioration, we study the effect of increased ambiguity (i.e., uncertain probabilities pertaining to the common resourceʼs sustainable size). We show that whereas increased risk may lead to more selfish behavior (i.e., to more consumption), increased ambiguity may have the opposite effect.     

Storage and Viability of a Fishery with Resource and Market Dephased Seasonalities

In this study we analyse the role of the storageregulation in a fishery's production process when theresource exploited and the market to which theproduction is exported are characterized by seasonaldephased oscillations. For this purpose we built up adynamic model drawn from the French Guyana shrimpfishery example. The underlying objective of the modelis not the maximisation of a given criterion (as wouldbe in the optimal control approach), but merely themaintenance of the fishery's economical viability. Thefundamental principle is here to try to preserve asmany as possible viable control options. Theconditions to achieve and maintain this viability arecaptured in a certain number of constraints. Theanalysis points out periods and situations within theseason where the fishermen must anticipate theevolution of their storage to avoid violating thoseviability constraints. The study also indicates howthe fishery's viability can be ensured even if theexploitation costs exceed the commercial value of thelandings for a finite part of the year. However, whenthe resource's and/or market's oscillations are toolarge, the fishery may be not viable any longer and itappears that the crisis can not be removed byinvesting in larger storage capacities.     

The optimal depletion of exhaustible resources: A complete characterization

We provide the closed form solution to the Dasgupta–Heal–Solow–Stiglitz (DHSS) model. The DHSS model is based on the seminal articles Dasgupta and Heal, 1974, Solow, 1974 and Stiglitz (1974) and describes an economy with two assets, man-made capital and a nonrenewable resource stock. We explicitly characterize, for such an economy, the dynamics along the optimal trajectory of all the variables in the model and from all possible initial values of the stocks. We use the analytical solution to prove several properties of the optimal consumption path. In particular, we show that the initial consumption under a utilitarian criterion starts below the maximin rate of consumption if and only the resource is abundant enough and that under a utilitarian criterion, it is not necessarily the present generation that benefits most from a windfall of resources.     

对促进可持续消费的思考

随着人们在可持续发展理论上的完善和实践中经验的积累,人们重新审视过去的手段,认为单一的依靠绿化和控制污染源的手段已不能解决问题,我们需要建立可持续消费的理念,这是实现可持续发展的重要途径。本文在阐述可持续消费概念和内涵的基础上对影响可持续消费的有利因素和不利因素进行了分析,对促进可持续消费的政策进行了评析。     

Housing market dynamics and macroprudential policies

In this paper, we analyze the implications of macroprudential and monetary policies for credit cycles, housing market stability and spillovers to consumption. We consider a countercyclical loan‐to‐value (LTV) policy that responds to a credit‐to‐income ratio, and we compare its effectiveness with a permanent tightening of the LTV ratio and a monetary policy rule that responds to credit. To this end, we construct a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with housing market, household debt and collateral constraints, and we estimate it with Canadian data using Bayesian methods. Our study suggests that a countercyclical LTV ratio is a useful policy to reduce spillovers from the housing market into consumption and to lean against housing market boom–bust cycles. It performs better than the permanent tightening of the LTV ratio—a policy that has been used in a number of countries—and the monetary policy rule, both in terms of the stabilization of household indebtedness and spillovers into consumption. Monetary policy that leans against the wind is the least desirable due to its large adverse consequences on the real economy.     

促进我国居民消费模式转变的税收政策选择

扩大居民消费对我国经济增长的拉动作用,已成为"十二五"规划的一个重点。但是,目前我国在居民消费不足的同时,却又存在"高物质、高消耗、高排放"现象。为了促进经济发展方式的转变,实现可持续发展,充分发挥税收政策引导市场主体行为的作用就至关重要。因此,可以根据"低物资、低消耗、低排放"可持续消费模式的三元结构,提出了贯穿消费模式的生态、环保、节约各个环节,并集引导、调节、鼓励、惩罚于一体的税收政策体系建议,以促进我国可持续消费模式的建立。     

Liquidity constraints and labor supply

In this paper we shed some light on how restrictions in financial markets, the so-called liquidity constraints, might act in affecting labour supply decisions of Italian workers. One way to neutralize the existence of binding liquidity constraints is simply by supplying additional labor, instead of reducing consumption. We estimate whether resorting to additional labor supply as a smoothing consumption device is at work by using the Italian Survey of Households Income and Wealth (SHIW). The longitudinal dimension of the SHIW dataset allows us to control for individual unobserved heterogeneity. We also use an IV strategy to address the endogeneity of our measure for credit constraints in labor supply equations due to time varying factors.Our results show that liquidity constraints increase the intensity in the supply of men׳s labor. Constrained men work, on average, 4 hours more than their unconstrained counterpart. Self-employed workers turn out to be more sensitive to binding liquidity constraints, possibly because they are more flexible in adjusting the intensity of their labor supply.     

Financial Constraints and the Extensive and Intensive Margin of Firm Exports: Panel Data Evidence from China

Some theoretical work suggests credit constraints to hamper exports while other work suggests that they deter firms' sales at large. Hence, credit constraints might reduce the export–sales ratio or not. This paper assesses the role of credit constraints for the export–sales ratio at the firm level. We explore this hypothesis empirically, using cross‐section and panel data on Chinese enterprises compiled by the National Bureau of Statistics of China. We approximate credit constraints by a firm's ratio of liquid debt to sales and, alternatively, the ratio of liquid assets to total assets. In particular, we estimate the impact of these financial fundamentals on the extensive and the intensive margins of firm‐level exports in two‐part fractional response models. Fixed effects panel regressions point to a negative relationship between export–sales ratios and credit constraints only at the extensive margin.     

Seigniorage and public good in an OLG model with cash-in-advance constraints

This paper is a contribution to the theory of the optimal monetary policy in overlapping generations models with a cash-in-advance constraint applying on old age consumption purchases. We are particularly interested in the study of seigniorage when the latter is used to finance public goods valued by consumers. Assuming that a public good enters the utility function and the existence of cash-in-advance constraints, we find a Laffer curve of seigniorage at steady-state. We also analyze the dynamic optimal monetary policy when the government maximizes an intertemporal social welfare function and can only resort to seigniorage to finance the purchases of the public good. We show that the optimal rate of money growth may be strictly higher than the one which maximizes steady-state seigniorage: the optimal amount of seigniorage may lie on the decreasing part of the Laffer curve of seigniorage. We finally suppose that the government can use lump-sum taxes in addition to seigniorage. Then, the Friedman rule prevails and public expenditures are only financed through lump-sum taxes.     

Uncertainty,inequality and consumption preferences in urban China

In this paper we present an uncertainty–inequality–consumption model and empirically investigate the effect of uncertainty on the consumption behaviors of urban households with varying levels of socio-economic status in China. We observe that the condition of households that suffered from socio-economic inequality with respect to total consumption, educational expenditures, medical expenditures, and durable consumption worsened relative to other households when faced with income uncertainty. Income uncertainty did not affect the housing consumption of households that suffered from socio-economic inequality, but it substantially decreased their ability to consume other durables. As a result of the introduction of the modern enterprise system and the reform of the housing distribution system, households with a member employed in a management position suffer larger shocks of income uncertainty in total consumption, educational expenditures, medical expenditures, and housing consumption relative to household with all members employed in worker positions in 2002. Uncertainty with respect to medical and educational expenditures had more substantial effects on the non-durables consumption of low-income households than that of other households in 2002.     

Constant per capita consumption paths with exhaustible resources and decaying produced capital

We introduce decay in produced capital and exogenous technical progress to the recent “Solow Model” of Asheim et al. with population growth and observe the possible collapse of the economy given too high a rate of decay. “Enough” technical progress can restore sustainable per capita consumption.     

Debt Overhang and Deleveraging in the US Household Sector: Gauging the Impact on Consumption

Using a novel data set for the U.S. states, this paper examines whether household debt and the protracted debt deleveraging help explain the dismal performance of U.S. consumption since 2007 in the aftermath of the housing bubble. By separating the concepts of deleveraging and debt overhang—a flow and a stock effect—we find that excessive indebtedness exerted a meaningful drag on consumption over and beyond wealth and income effects. The overall effect, however, is modest—‐around one sixth of the slowdown in consumption between 2000–06 and 2007–12—and mostly driven by states with particularly large imbalances in their household sector. This might be indicative of non‐linearities, whereby indebtedness begins to bite only when misalignments from sustainable debt dynamics become excessive.     

How strong is the causal relationship between globalization and energy consumption in developed economies? A country-specific time-series and panel analysis

We examine the causal relationship between globalization, economic growth and energy consumption for 25 developed economies using both time series and panel data techniques for the period 1970–2014. Due to the presence of cross-sectional dependence in the panel (countries from Asia, North America, Western Europe and Oceania), we employ the cross-sectional augmented IPS test to ascertain unit root properties. The cointegration test results indicate the presence of a long-run association between globalization, economic growth and energy consumption. Long-run heterogeneous panel elasticities are estimated through the common correlated effects mean group estimator and the augmented mean group estimator. The empirical results reveal that, for most countries, globalization increases energy consumption. In the USA and UK, globalization is negatively correlated with energy consumption. The causality analysis indicates the presence of the globalization-driven energy consumption hypothesis. This empirical analysis suggests insightful policy guidelines for policy makers using globalization as an economic tool to utilize energy efficiently for sustainable economic development in the long run.     

The nexus between electricity consumption and economic growth in Bahrain

This paper explores the relationship between electricity consumption, foreign direct investment, capital and economic growth in the case of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Cobb–Douglas production is used over the period of 1980Q1–2010Q4. We have applied the ARDL bounds testing approach and found that cointegration exists among the series. Electricity consumption, foreign direct investment and capital add in economic growth. The VECM Granger causality analysis has exposed the feedback effect between electricity consumption and economic growth and the same is true for foreign direct investment and electricity consumption. This study suggests government authorities to explore new sources of energy to achieve sustainable economic development for the long run.     

A framework of disruptive sustainable innovation: an example of the Finnish food system

Disruptive innovations are perceived necessary for accelerating sustainability transitions. However, it is not always clear what exactly is meant by it, what is to be disrupted, and by whom. Socio-technical transition research on pays too much attention at the technological niche-innovations in the production, and overlooks business model innovation and user practices in the consumption, whilst management literature on disruptive innovation falls short in the scale and scope of disruption in terms of systemic outcome. Thus, the first aim of the paper is to synthesise the extant literature and put forward a general practice-based view on disruptive sustainable innovation. The second aim of the paper is to use empirical data to elaborate the theoretical framework in the Finnish food system context. Four firm-level cases provide empirical scrutiny to each type of disruptive sustainable innovation in the food system and shed light on the interlinked practices of producer-entrepreneurs and citizen-consumers.     

Employment and Environment in a Sustainable Europe

major challenges in Europe. The EuropeanTreaties require an integration of environmental, economic and social policies in orderto allow for a Sustainable Development. This is of special importance for the linkbetween environmental and employment policy. This paper starts with a definition of thethree pillars of sustainable development, the viability (resilience) of environmental, economicand social systems. With regard to economic development and the social field,these objectives are relatively easy to operationalise: GDP and employment are generallyused headline indicators of sustainable development. The total material input into aneconomy can be seen as an indicator showing the environmental impact.This view brings about major challenges for economic theory:We include the total material input along with resource productivities to describe, explainand evaluate possible developments of economic and environmental variables.With the help of the results from a German research project weshow the relationships between the indicators, the productivities and how they can beinfluenced by policy measures. The simulation results indicate the possibility ofwin-win situations concerning the environment and employment. Additionally, we investigatewhether the developed minimum conditions of sustainable development are valid for Austria.     

R&D AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN A CASH‐IN‐ADVANCE ECONOMY

R&D investment has well‐known liquidity problems, with potentially important consequences. In this study, we analyze the effects of monetary policy on economic growth and social welfare in a Schumpeterian growth model with cash‐in‐advance (CIA) constraints on R&D investment, consumption, and manufacturing. Our main results can be summarized as follows. Under the CIA constraints on R&D and consumption (the CIA constraint on manufacturing), an increase in the nominal interest rate decreases (increases) R&D and economic growth. We also analyze the optimality of Friedman rule and find that Friedman rule can be suboptimal due to a unique feature of the Schumpeterian model.