Willingness to Pay to Reduce Mortality Risks: Evidence from a Three-Country Contingent Valuation Study

Valuing a change in the risk of death is a key input into the calculation of the benefits of environmental policies that save lives. Typically such risks are monetized using the Value of a Statistical Life (VSL). Since the majority of the lives saved by environmental policies are those of older persons, there has been much recent debate about whether the VSL should be lower for the elderly to reflect their fewer remaining life years. We conducted a contingent valuation survey in the UK, Italy and France designed to answer this question. The survey was administered in these three countries following a standardized protocol. Our results suggest that the VSL is €1.022 million or €2.264 million, depending on whether we use median or mean WTP. The VSL is not significantly lower for older persons, but is higher for persons who have been admitted to a hospital or emergency room for cardiovascular and respiratory problems. Income is positively and significantly associated with WTP. The income elasticities of the WTP increase gradually with income levels and are between 0.15 and 0.5 for current income levels in EU countries. We use the responses to the WTP questions to estimate the value of an extension in remaining life expectancy. The value of a loss of one year’s life expectancy is €54,000 or €163,000.     

高等教育收费与教育公平问题的综述

高等教育学费制度改革作为我国教育领域的一项重大改革已经进行了20多年的实践，高等教育收费收入作为筹措高等教育经费的一个重要渠道，对高等教育的发展起到了关键性的作用，但关于教育实行了收费以后，有关教育公平的文题引起全社会的关注，本文就近些年的相关文章作了个综述。     

我国汽车滚装船运输发展的SWOT分析

汽车滚装船作为一种运输汽车的专业船舶,日益受到人们的重视。汽车滚装船运输在全球航运市场不景气的情况下却不断扩大,表现出汽车滚装船运输市场的发展潜力。应用SWOT分析法研究我国汽车滚装船运输的内部优势、劣势,外部机遇、挑战,对我国汽车滚装船运输业发展提出对策及建议。     

夯扩桩在软土地基中的应用

由于夯扩桩成桩方法成本低,具有桩径小,承载力大等优点,已逐渐成为软土地基中的一种新的理想桩基形式,近年来被广泛用于湖南衡阳的建筑工程中,文章对夯扩桩应用于衡阳黄白路商住楼进行了细致的描述和分析。     

试论中国审计文化的结构及其作用机制

随着改革开放的不断深化和市场经济体制的逐步完善,尤其是在加入WTO以后。中国审计面临着日益增大的挑战。在全社会重视文化的氛围中,审计文化的研究因之而成为当前审计理论研究的热点和创新点。在这一研究领域中,我国审计文化的结构及其作用机制无疑具有极其重要的地位。本文拟运用文化人类学和社会学的理论分析框架,对中国审计文化的结构及其作用机制进     

Forcing Firms to Think About the Future: Economic Incentives and the Fate of Hazardous Waste

What is the cost of off-site hazardous waste disposal? In addition to paying for disposal fees and shipments costs, generators of hazardous waste can potentially be held liable for the cost of cleanup if the waste disposal site contaminates the environment after closure or abandonment and thus falls under the federal or state Superfund legislation. This paper empirically examines the sensitivity of individual hazardous waste generators to these categories of costs, exploiting the variation across states in factors influencing disposal costs, and in the structure of the liability imposed on waste generators under certain circumstances by state laws. We fit nested logit models to predict the waste management method (incineration or landfill disposal) and the state of destination for shipments of halogenated solvent waste used for metal cleaning in manufacturing and reported in the Toxic Release Inventory in 1988–1990. Waste generators respond to transportation costs and to proxies for current disposal costs. Generators also find the concurrent presence of strict and joint-and-several liability a deterrent, but this deterrent effect does not vary with the wealth of the firm or the volume of the waste shipped.     

领导风格与员工工作态度——互惠和信任的中介作用的实证研究

互惠和信任是社会交换的普适准则。本文基于社会交换理论，以中国境内各类企业972位管理人员为样本，试图研究领导风格与员工工作态度之间的关系，尤其是组织与员工间的互惠和员工的组织信任在其中的中介作用。在初步研究的基础上，本文对变革型领导、事务型领导、广义互惠、平衡互惠、员工的组织信任、组织承诺和离职意愿各概念进行了系统的探索性分析和验证性分析，接着检验了这七个核心概念的区分效度。研究结论表明：（1）变革型领导不仅直接对员工的组织信任和组织承诺产生作用，而且通过组织对员工的广义和平衡互惠使员工产生对组织的信任，从而提高员工的组织承诺和降低员工的离职意愿；（2）事务型领导仅仅通过互惠对员工的组织信任和组织承诺产生作用；（3）广义互惠直接影响员工的组织承诺，平衡互惠通过组织信任影响员工的组织承诺。研究结论告诉我国企业领导者，首先，尽可能锻炼自己，努力成为变革型领导者。其次，要努力塑造互惠和信任的企业文化，并且特别着重于建设广义互惠的企业文化和制度环境。     

International Comparisons of Australia's Infrastructure Performance

International benchmarking has played a key role in the reform of Australia's infrastructure industries by promoting indirect or yardstick competition, in highlighting the need for further reform and building a consensus for implementing necessary changes. The international benchmarking of infrastructure performance by the Bureau of Industry Economics (BIE) between 1991 and 1996 did much to focus attention on the need for change. The BIE examined the performance of eight infrastructure industries relative to international best practice: electricity, rail freight, telecommunications, the waterfront, road freight, coastal shipping, aviation and gas supply. Performance comparisons concentrated on indicators of price, service quality, labour productivity and capital productivity. This paper reviews and summarises the performance comparisons the BIE undertook over the last three years of its infrastructure benchmarking program. The BIE international benchmarking program provides a useful role model for other countries wanting to seriously pursue reform of their infrastructure industries.     

放大民本经济

“民本经济”，这个带有春泥芬芳的经济名词，是经济体制转型的新产物。经济体制转型的本质，就是由原来的“官本经济”转向“民本经济”，在此过程中建立的“民本经济”的新概念，就是相对于“官本经济”而言的，是一种以民为本，民有、民营、民享的经济。民本经济有四大特点     

孙重贵城市诗摭论

素有“香港诗侠”之称的孙重贵，在他的城市诗中，富有感情地朗读香港，对现代都市整体生存环境的朗读，读出了“执著的迷恋与情爱”；对现代都市个体生存状态的解读，读出了浮华背后的“美丽悲哀”。他的城市诗具有鲜明的本土意识和浓厚的地方色彩。