Increasing Block Tariff structures as a water subsidy mechanism in South Africa: An exploratory analysis

The primary goals of water pricing are to ensure that water is used sparingly and that sufficient revenues are earned. Pricing can, however, also be used to address equity concerns. One such policy often applied in developing countries is to charge a higher marginal price as consumption increases, to encourage a more efficient use of water, and to finance water subsidies by cross-subsidising water use. However, in reality water subsidies do not necessarily reach their intended beneficiaries. This paper explores the efficacy of such a pricing structure in subsidising water consumption for poor households in South Africa. The main finding is that this pricing structure does not ensure that water subsidies reach the intended targets; that is, the poorest. A further important result from these findings is that the magnitude of redistribution via the water tariff system is relatively small compared with other components of social spending.     

THE ECONOMICS OF PLASTIC BAG LEGISLATION IN SOUTH AFRICA1

In May 2003 South Africa introduced legislation intended to decrease plastic bag litter. It combined standards and price‐based economic tools in an attempt to reduce the public's demand for plastic bags. This paper analyses the short term effects of the legislation on bag demand. It also provides a background to these regulations and a theoretical overview. The assessment uses bag consumption data from four retailers, each representing a different consumer market. These are analysed, and respective price elasticities calculated. The results suggest that plastic bag demand is relatively price inelastic and imply that instruments utilising price alone, would have limited efficacy. However, the combination of standards and pricing successfully curbed plastic bag use in the short run. Further analysis suggests that the effectiveness of the legislation may be declining over time.     

Private Sector Participation in the Provision of Quality Drinking Water in Urban Areas of Ghana: What Do Households Want and Can Afford?

This study conducts a survey among households in three cities in Ghana on how water delivery should be managed. The contingent valuation method was used to estimate the willingness to pay for improved water delivery under private sector participation. Results indicate that most households will remain connected to their current water supplies if private sector is engaged to improve water delivery at higher monthly water bills. Given that the mean household monthly water bill of GH¢10.82, the results indicate that there is demand for water quality improvement, and private sector engagement is likely to provide these services. However, this policy measure marginalises the poor in terms of access to water. Therefore, private sector participation in water delivery may require a complementary programme to promote access to water.     

Food Demand Characteristics in Uganda: Estimation and Policy Relevance

Uganda was highly successful in reducing poverty over the past two decades but made little progress towards household food security. This underlines the need for designing food security interventions customised for household‐specific needs and behaviours. This study estimates Ugandan household demand behaviour with a focus on food consumption paying particular attention to household‐specific characteristics. The results show that preferences to increase calorie‐dense staple consumption, likely associated with food energy deficiency, extend far beyond the percentage of rural Ugandans officially deemed poor. Price elasticities indicate that poor rural households are largely well positioned to compensate staple price increases by substitution as long as they are not already concentrated on the cheapest foods. This flexibility applies less to urban households. The estimated demand elasticities generally vary widely between rural and urban households and depend on expenditure levels. Household‐specific characteristics have significant, sometimes pronounced, influences on demand, as do seasons and regions. The results reflect highly differentiated demand behaviour, which can be utilised to improve the design and evaluation of food security interventions.     

劳动力成本与产业结构升级

基于新《劳动合同法》实施引发的社会现象,提出社会经济活动的非良性循环：劳动者收入低→高技术含量、高附加值的商品需求不足→产业结构层级低→劳动密集型低端产品出口→竞争力弱→产业利润低→劳动者收入低;分析了劳动力成本、消费结构与产业结构三者的联系,深入挖掘了提高劳动力成本,促进企业推动产业升级以及有助于为产业升级储备高素质人才的机理;揭示了劳动力成本是影响产业结构升级的重要因素。提高劳动力成本能够从扩大内需、提高劳动力素质和企业综合竞争力等方面促进产业结构升级,是经济发展和社会进步的必然要求。     

Poverty and firewood consumption: A case study of rural households in northern China

This paper discusses the determinants of firewood consumption in a poor township in rural northern China, with a special focus on the relationship between households' economic wealth and firewood consumption. We find strong support for the poverty–environment hypothesis since household economic wealth is a significant and negative determinant of firewood consumption. Firewood can therefore be considered as an inferior good for the whole population in the rural area under study, although further evidence shows that at the top of the wealth distribution, there might be a floor effect in the decreasing firewood consumption. Besides economic wealth, our analysis also shows that the own-price effect is important in explaining firewood consumption behavior, the price effect gaining importance with rising incomes. Finally, increasing education is also found to be a key factor in energy consumption behavior, especially when dealing with energy source switching behavior.     

Public services for basic needs in Malaysia

This paper reports on results with respect to meeting basic needs from a larger study of the distribution of public expenditure in Malaysia. Both the paper and the larger study heavily rely on a household survey providing data on consumption of public services. The analysis shows that the poorest categories of Malaysians, namely the Malays, rural dwellers, and those living in the North, are the least well served by public utilities. But they are well represented in use of public medical care and primary education. What also emerges is that many of the poor are unable to avail themselves of certain services because their incomes are too low. If more of the poor are to have their children educated to higher levels, the out-of-pocket costs that constitute such a heavy burden for them probably will somehow have to be subsidized. If the poor are universally to have pure water and electricity it appears that fundamental changes will have to be made in policies for pricing the consumption of these services to reduce their rates to the poor.     

COLONIALISM AND LONG‐RUN GROWTH IN AUSTRALIA: AN EXAMINATION OF INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE IN VICTORIA'S WATER SECTOR DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Institutional change in water rights in the nineteenth century Australian colony of Victoria raised institutional efficiency, which contributed to long‐run economic growth. High‐quality human capital and the extension of voting rights (franchise) were crucial for efficient institutional change in the water sector. Quality human capital (literacy) appeared to increase the rural population's awareness of the economic impact of the existing structure of water rights that may have constrained growth in the agricultural sector and reduced investment incentives. Extension of the franchise allowed the rural population to exert political pressure for enactment of change in water rights, which resulted in efficiency‐enhancing policies and efficient institutions. The findings show these two factors were more important than Victoria's British colonial heritage in determining whether growth‐enhancing institutional change took place.     

为什么中国文娱消费偏低?基于人口年龄结构的解释

促进文娱消费对于拉动文化产业高质量发展、满足人民精神文化需求至关重要，但我国居民文娱消费增速偏低，对此学界还欠缺足够的经验论证。文章基于人口年龄结构视角，利用中国家庭追踪调查数据（CFPS2016）考察中国城镇居民人口年龄结构变迁对文娱消费的影响。实证结果发现：整体而言，城镇家庭少儿人口占比具有显著的文娱消费需求效应，但家庭老年人口占比增加对文娱消费需求形成挤压；进一步研究发现，文娱消费需求效应伴随少儿的成长表现更为旺盛，而老年阶段的文娱消费需求随着年岁增长愈加不敏感。进一步机制分析表明，家庭收入水平和教育程度能够正向调节家庭老龄化的文娱消费需求效应，在收入水平更高、教育背景更好的家庭，人口老龄化对文娱消费的挤出效应愈不明显；在教育背景、健康状况更优的家庭，少儿抚养数量增加带来的正向文娱消费需求会被部分挤出。旨在促进城镇居民文娱消费的政策应该顺应我国人口结构变动规律，充分尊重不同年龄消费群体的文娱消费选择及习惯，重点关注"多子化"、高收入、高学历家庭的文娱消费需求，在全面提高居民收入水平的基础上，培育发展壮大细分文娱产业和消费市场，让更多居民对文娱"能消费"、"愿消费"。     

Block Rate Pricing of Water in Indonesia: An Analysis of Welfare Effects

Block rate pricing of piped water in Indonesian cities has a progressive structure: the marginal price paid increases with the volume of demand. This paper estimates household water demand in Salatiga city using the Burtless and Hausman model, and finds that its distribution is not unimodal—that data cluster around kinks. The main estimation results are a price elasticity of approximately–1.2 and an income elasticity of 0.05. These elasticities are mutually dependent. The estimated model is used to investigate the social welfare consequences of a shift to uniform pricing. The principal beneficiaries would be large households, which are not necessarily wealthy. While replacing the complex rate structure by a uniform marginal price would have positive effects on average welfare, the equity consequences would be small. To improve equity, water companies could reduce installation fees, giving low-income households access to water connections, or reinvest profits in network expansion to unserviced areas.     

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.     

基于双边市场理论的互联网定价模式与反垄断问题研究

文章首先厘清中国电信业的双边市场特征,然后通过构建双边市场模型分析了垄断平台和竞争性平台的均衡价格,同时考虑了不同收费形式下中国电信业的定价策略,最后分析了其双边市场中反垄断政策的含义.研究主要结论是:双边市场定价通常对需求价格弹性较小一边的价格加成比较高;网络外部性越强,价格结构越不对称;价格结构与用户数量或平台交易量是动态相互影响;差异化程度越大,平台对用户的价格加成越大.这对于我国“三网融合”的背景下电信产业市场结构、定价策略和反垄断问题具有一定的借鉴意义.     

再议启动农村居民消费

开拓农村消费市场、启动农村居民消费是扩大内需、拉动经济发展的重要一环。文章在介绍农村居民消费现状的基础上,就制约我国农村居民消费发展的因素进行了简要分析,其中包括收入水平偏低、收入增长缓慢、消费环境较差、基础设施落后、消费结构不合理等等,并相应指出了开拓农村消费市场、启动农村居民消费的对策建议,如增加农村居民收入、改善农村消费环境、改善农村市场的产品供应、加快小城镇建设等等。     

DISCOUNT RATE DISTORTIONS AND THE RESOURCE CURSE

Empirical evidence has suggested a “resource curse” exists, in which countries with abundant resources may have higher initial consumption but then grow more slowly. The effect appears to be dependent on a country's political structure. Theoretical models not typically accounted for historical exceptions, or have not shown the effect exists in a dynamic growth setting. We derive the resource curse effect in an optimal growth model augmented with a political process. The economy has a finite nonrenewable resource, and the government planner can choose to over‐extract natural resources relative to the efficient path by distorting the discount rate, but in so doing incurs political costs that depend on the presence of democracy. Government planners in non‐democratic countries usually have more autonomy in policymaking than those in democratic countries; therefore, the political cost is lower for non‐democratic countries. We show that the incentive for the planner to distort the extraction path is larger, the higher is the initial resource endowment. Consistent with empirical evidence, the distortion raises short‐term consumption but lowers the long‐term growth rate, and institutional differences create corner solutions that explain why some resource‐abundant countries avoid the curse. These results are robust to the inclusion of autonomous technological change.     

后世博时期促进上海经济长效增长的地方税研究

文章分别从需求与产业两个视角对影响后世博时期上海经济长效增长的决定因素进行实证分析,结果表明:(1)消费需求是直接带动上海经济增长的主力军;(2)产业结构优化调整与经济增长存在长期稳定关系;(3)产业结构优化调整是促进上海经济增长的重要原因.在此实证结论的支持下,文章提出运用税收政策引导和支持新兴产业发展、加快地方税体系建设、完善和实施有利于消费结构升级的财税政策等建议,以促进上海市经济长效增长.     

CREDIT DEMAND AND CREDIT RATIONING IN THE INFORMAL FINANCIAL SECTOR IN UGANDA1

This paper investigates the household and individual characteristics that influence the demand and supply of informal credit in Uganda, which credit is important for improving the welfare of the poor. Informal credit demand is positively and significantly influenced by age, sex, education level, dependency ratio, household expenditure, and regional location. On the supply side, informal lenders' credit rationing behaviour is negatively and significantly influenced by age, sex, asset values, and regional location. Government policies should focus on increasing both the productive capacity and wealth of households in order to enhance the poor's creditworthiness and make them less susceptible to credit rationing by lenders.     

农村居民收入分化及其对消费结构影响的实证分析——以福建为例

基于农村居民收入分化视角下,对福建农村居民消费结构影响进行有效探究,通过分析福建农村居民收入的内部结构及其演变,从群体性差异的角度考虑,运用现代经济学关于边际、弹性的分析同最小二乘法有机结合的方法和灰色关联法,探讨福建农村居民家庭按人均收入分组后的收入特征和消费内在规律,为政府制定福建农村消费促进政策中实施分类管理提供理论依据和细则考量。     

WATER BILL ESTIMATION WHEN PRICE IS CRYPTIC: EXPERIENCE FROM WINDHOEK,NAMIBIA

For water policy to be effective, policy makers must know how water users perceive and respond to changes in water prices. However, it is not uncommon for water prices faced by consumers to be unclear. In Windhoek, Namibia, the marginal and average water price is difficult to calculate from the information provided in users' utility bills. This paper applies a hedonic pricing approach to investigate price perceptions of water users in a setting with cryptic price information. Using self‐reported water charges as the dependent variable, the pricing model utilises reported utility characteristics and other factors that may affect perceived price. Low‐income standpipe water users report a weighted average monthly charges of N$24.68, whereas users in high income segments report N$521.34. This reflects differences in service levels, possible subsidies to low‐income users and potential errors in respondents' understanding of their water price. Average price per litre (N$11.78 for the low‐use segment; N$1.89 for the highest segment of Tier 1 water use) tends to be perceived as higher by those with lower water use even though average prices in the relevant range should generally be identical.     

基于SPA数据结构的四川省贫困地区农村居民消费结构研究——对7个国家级贫困县（市、区）的调查与分析

文章将农村住户总支出看成是一种系统,并运用集对理论（SPA）,对四川省贫困地区农村居民消费结构的16项消费支出及其消费水平进行同异反态势分析,探讨贫困地区农户消费需求重点,并提出保障其消费水平的政策建议。     

Sustainable natural resource use in rural China: Recent trends and policies

In this paper we provide an overview of recent trends in the availability and quality of land and water resources in rural China, and examine the common presumption that rural resources are rapidly degrading in China. Data based on consistent definitions and measurement methods that have recently become available are used to that end. In addition, we analyse the impact of new policy initiatives to introduce market-based instruments and new institutions to address land degradation and water scarcity problems.We find that the decline in cultivated area has accelerated in the beginning of the new century. Ecological recovery programs, not urbanization and industrialization, are the major factors causing this decline. Ecological recovery programs are also a major force behind the increase in forest land area and the reduction of water erosion. Modest successes can be observed in the protection of wetlands and (until the mid-1980s) for the average quality of cultivated land. On the other hand, degradation of natural grassland and wind erosion have become much more severe in recent decades.In northern China, particularly in the 3-H (Hai and Luan, Huai and Huang) river basins, the availability of water has tightened. Groundwater tables have fallen considerably in the Hai river basin, because farmers increasingly rely on groundwater for irrigation. Evidence on other parts of northern China is mixed. Pollution of surface water is getting worse since the beginning of the 1990s in two major lakes in southern China and until recently in the rivers in northern China. Water quality problems in the larger rivers in southern China are less severe and getting less. These problems are to a large extent caused by agriculture-based non-point source pollution, especially in the major lakes and reservoirs.The sloping land conversion program, water pricing, and the establishment of water user associations and payments for environmental service projects are used as cases to examine the introduction of market-based instruments and new institutions. We argue that less government interference in the implementation of these instruments and institutions is likely to enhance ecological as well the economic benefits. Moreover, supportive measures to improve the functioning of land and labor markets are usually needed to ensure the sustainability of the impact of interventions.