Alternative Environmental Regulation Schemes for the Belgian Power Generation Sector

This paper discusses the effects of alternative waysof using external cost estimates to regulateinvestments and generation in the electricityproduction sector. Starting from the existing system,four alternatives are considered: emission taxes forthe utility and for independent producers, emissiontaxes limited to the electric utility, emissionpermits limited to the electric utility and finally asystem where only investments are regulated, anddispatch is not. Taking external damage estimates fromthe literature, these alternatives are compared usinga dynamic partial equilibrium model of the Belgianelectricity market for the period 1995–2034. Theefficiency and distribution effects of the alternativeenvironmental policy instruments are quantified.     

An Environmental Macro-Economic Model for the Construction Sector

This article describes theeconomic-ecological model BASIS, which handles theconstruction sector, its consumption of materials,and the resultant environmental effects. The modelis a satellite model of the macro-economic modelADAM. The building materials examined are plastic,metal and concrete, each of which result in variousemissions that impact upon the environment andhealth. Materials consumption and energy consumptionare central environmental parameters, and can beconsidered both as indicators of environmentalpressure per se, and as explanatory variables forvarious types of emissions and waste generation. Thearticle documents BASIS and illustrates itscharacteristics through a number of scenarios. Thescenarios examine the effects of changes in variousmacro-economic variables and of environmentalpolicy-based levies.     

The Institutional Theory of Radhamakal Mukerjee: Lessons for Modern Nonprofit Economics

This paper examines the way the institutional economics of Radhamakal Mukerjee can inform modern nonprofit economics. A brief survey of Mukerjee's work highlights several elements of his theory that yield useful implications understanding the nonprofit sector. First, Mukerjee's theory implies that this sector's role is in helping the economies to better accommodate broader societal values, rather than in addressing market failure. Second, his theory suggests that the nonprofit sector provides an institutional framework for the pursuit of common interests that are not reducible to individual utility maximization. Finally, as he considered the state to be inherently coercive, he believed the nonprofit sector to be the only meaningful outlet for citizenship behavior, thus advancing an original theory of complementary state-nonprofit relationship. The paper concludes with calling for more institutionalist research on the economics of the nonprofit sector.     

An Input–Output Analysis of the Nonprofit Sector in the USA and Germany

This paper presents an exploratory input–output analysis of the nonprofit sectors in former West Germany and the USA based on the conceptual and data structure provided by the System of National Accounts. When compared with the USA, the West German nonprofit sector catered more to government demands. A higher proportion of West German nonprofit services went to government and a smaller proportion went to households. In terms of the multiplier effect of nonprofit output, we find that an additional dollar of nonprofit services delivered to households and/or government induced indirectly an additional 83 cents of business output in the USA. By comparison, West Germany's nonprofit sector had a lower multiplier effect, with 43 Pfennig per DM1. We also find that businesses have a much larger stake in nonprofit production as intermediate suppliers when compared to their role as intermediate consumers. The economic position the nonprofit sector occupies in both countries is that of a producing sector, taking inputs from businesses and providing outputs for households and governments. This general structural characteristic suggests that the nonprofit sector is particularly sensitive to changes in government policies as well as to shifts in private household incomes, yet relatively insensitive to demand changes in other industries.     

Regulation and administered contracts revisited: Lessons from transaction-cost economics for public utility regulation

This article reexamines the administered contracts approach to regulation in light of recent empirical research that establishes the importance of transaction-costs in the organizational choice and design decisions. After reviewing the fundamentals of transaction cost reasoning and the franchise bidding-versus-regulation debate, the study surveys the empirical literature on franchise bidding, contracting, and vertical integration. The implications of transaction-cost theories for current policies toward pubic utility regulation and deregulation are also addressed.We would like to thank Michael Crew, Victor Goldberg, Mark Lowry, Claude Menard, and Roger Sherman for helpful comments.     

Optimal Pricing and Price-Cap Regulation in the Postal Sector

This paper studies the optimal price structure in the postal sector when worksharing is available (e.g., for collection, sorting and transportation) and when the operator faces a break-even constraint. Users differ in opportunity and cost to engage in worksharing. We determine the optimal worksharing discount and provide sufficient conditions (on demand functions) under which it exceeds the ECPR level. Furthermore, we show that the optimal prices can be implemented through a global price cap imposed on a weighted average of the prices of all products. The appropriate weights are proportional to the market demand (evaluated at optimal prices) of the corresponding products.     

Environmental Regulation and the Eco-Industry

This paper re-examines environmental regulation, under the assumption that pollution abatement technologies and services are provided by an imperfectly competitive environment industry. It is shown that each regulatory instrument (emission taxes and quotas; design standards; and voluntary agreements) has a specific impact on the price-elasticity of the polluters’ demand for abatement services, hence on the market power of the eco-industry and the resulting cost of abatement. This implies that the optimal pollution tax will be higher than the marginal social cost of pollution, while a voluntary approach to pollution abatement may fail unless the eco-industry itself is willing to participate.We thank Dominique Bureau, Olivier Godard, Émeric Henry, Nicolas Marchetti, Alain-Désiré Nimubona, Anne Perrot, Gilles Rotillon, Katheline Schubert, the editors Michael Crew and Anthony Heyes, and two anonymous referees for helpful discussions and suggestions. We also acknowledge valuable comments from seminar audiences at HEC Montréal, the University of Paris I, the University of Toulouse, and the DG-Entreprise of the European Commission in Brussels.     

Lessons for Development from the Japanese Experience

Economic class, defined in relation to its actual control over the economy’s productive assets, is the most useful lens for examining power distribution in the post-Soviet transition and clarifying the neoliberal nature of its social provisioning processes. Using Ukraine as an illustration, I argue that only ownership empowerment of economically powerless classes can democratize the oligarchic transition economies. As an exit strategy from oligarchic capitalism, I recommend that state capitalism be implemented, as a transitory condition only, to divest oligarchs of unlawfully acquired economic power. Then, progressive restructuring of oligarchic companies must be conducted through broadening property ownership to include shared ownership and worker participation in economic decisions. I conclude that only by nurturing the democratic fundamentals of the economy and promoting a social democratic welfare state could a government in post-Euromaidan Ukraine initiate its own social control and create a genuine political and economic democracy.     

中国的环境效率与环境管制——基于1986-2007年省级水平的估算

环境效率是生产过程中潜在可实现的最少污染排放量与实际污染排放量之比,企业能否提高环境效率取决于环保投入的产出水平。文章在随机前沿生产函数基础上估算了中国1986-2007年省级水平的环境效率,结果显示:中国的环境效率较低且增长缓慢,其中中部地区环境效率最低,西部地区环境效率最高。目前的环境管制方式在东部较为有效,对中西部的影响则不显著。因此环境管制不但要针对污染物当量,还要综合考虑企业的成本、利润水平等因素,才能更好治理污染。     

Honesty in Environmental Regulation

This paper analyzes the determination of the optimal environmental regulatory policy under imperfect competition when the firms differ in their polluting technologies and degree of honesty. We show that more honesty does not necessarily imply lower social losses. The effect of honesty in social welfare depends not only on the degree of honesty measured by the proportion of honest firms and their particular cost features but also on the industry structure.     

货币政策在房地产调控中的不确定性

2007年货币政策调控力度之大前所未有,然而房地产业却呈现了少有的"四高"现象.本文从影响房价的供给与需求入手,探究货币政策在房地产调控的效应.既然旺盛住房需求发端于实体经济,货币政策并不是唯一的或决定的因素,坚持货币政策与土地、税收政策的协调,坚持短期应急措施与长远的住房保障、政策性金融体制建设的协调,才能营造使调控发挥效应的机制.     

Regulation and Public Sector Development: A Post-Transition Perspective

The article is devoted to the changing role of the major public policy function of regulation and the changing role of the public sector in various phases of systemic change in central and eastern Europe. It surveys the consequences of bloodletting for the civil service and state capactiy in a world increasingly dominated by delocalisation and dematerialisation. Meanwhile a large part of the economy is unlikely to be transformed into purely asset value maximising units, thus the importance of regulating the intermediate forms of activity between public and private firms is going to gain in importance. Limitations of the current EU model, based on traditions rather than attending tasks of the future are highlighted in both the administrative and the enonomic spheres.     

生态环境服务付费的国际经验及其对中国的启示

生态环境服务付费在国际上引起关注的三个背景是:(1)生态问题的凸显;(2)新古典经济学意识形态的流行;(3)保护环境和减少贫困一石两鸟的期望。与生态环境服务付费理念相似的概念,在我国一般被称为生态补偿。生态补偿在我国受到重视是国情使然。这一国情与上述三个背景有共通之处,也有独特之处。这决定了生态环境服务付费的国际经验对我国生态补偿有潜在的借鉴意义,同时生态补偿又有中国特色。生态环境服务付费的国际经验对我国的主要启示是:(1)需要提高下游(环境服务需求方)的生态补偿意识;(2)公平的生态补偿机制要求考虑上游保护生态环境的机会成本;(3)权属明晰化是使生态补偿机制长久可持续的前提;(4)政府应鼓励地方创新形式多样的补偿形式;等等。     

Lessons from the transition process

The illusions that market mechanism would transform former communist countries easily into welfare states were gradually replaced by disappointments. Major problems are common to all countries in transition; they all endured an unprecedented fall in measured output and rise of unemployment. Four countries: former Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia constitute a group in which the fall was the lowest and which also have reached the bottom. While the mechanisms of depression in these countries differ basic links of the vicious circle seem to be similar. The transition is reflected in constitutional provisions on property rights; new constitutions depart radically from their socialist predecessors, return to the principles of French revolution, and provide more than adequate protection of private property. Equally important are legal frameworks for market activities, and privatization aimed to improve efficiency, enable fairness, and serve in the abolition of the monoparty system.     

新兴市场应从波兰大变革中吸取的七条经验教训

人们普遍认为,后社会主义的转型是从波兰开始的。但这种说法并不全面。虽然促成1980年代深刻变革的各个进程确实在波兰获得了最大的推动力,但是其他中欧和东欧国家也并不是一成不变。另外,人们普遍认为,后社会主义的转型是从1989年开始的,发轫于波兰,然后在整个区域产生了连锁效应。对这个巨大转型带来的挑战,波兰在许多方面都比其他国家做得更好。其他国家,尤其是所谓的新兴市场国家必定能从波兰的转型中吸取到不少经验。对什么起作用,为什么起作用？什么不起作用,为什么不起作用等问题作更深入的考察,是有价值的。     

Ramsey Pricing and Environmental Regulation

The optimal pricing rule for public enterprises maximizing welfare under a profit constraint is well known. The paper extends the analysis to the case of production externalities and considers price regulation under various forms of environmental regulation which is assumed to be performed by a separate environmental agency. The modified Ramsey prices depend on the institutional setting. If the enterprise is liable for the damages it causes the externality is fully internalized. If an environmental tax is imposed the way its revenue is spent turns out to be crucial. The connection to Pigouvian taxes under imperfect competition is illuminated.     

农业发展与环境规制

中国农业产业正处于战略转型时期,从追求数量增长型向质量安全环保型转变,由生存农业向多功能农业转型,由市场型农业向支持型农业转移,在这样的转型过程中政府的产业治理模式亟待转变。中国政府环境规制的重点往往是工业产业,对于农业的环境治理则鲜有研究。针对农业发展与环境治理之间潜在的矛盾冲突,提出了环境规制的一般框架,并进一步提出了促进农业发展的环境规制政策建议。