如何搞好农村消费市场的调查

从农村消费市场调查的实际出发, 文章介绍了农村消费品市场调查在调查方法的选取、人员的培训、资料的获取等方面存在的一些问题及应注意的事项, 并分析了农村消费市场调查过程中存在的问题以及所造成的调查结果的特定性。为企业进行农村消费品市场的调查提供借鉴, 以便更有效地进行调查。     

农村税费改革后乡镇财政面临的困难与对策

农村税费改革一方面促进了乡镇财政的规范化,另一方面也使乡镇财政面临更加严重的收支缺口和债务压力,并最终影响农村基层政权的正常运行.税费改革对乡镇财政带来的负面影响并非改革本身所致,而是由于相关的配套改革没有及时跟上造成的.解决乡镇财政困难的思路和对策是,调整中央与地方财力分配比例,理顺政府间分配关系;合理划分中央与地方的税收管理权限,逐步建立相对独立和完整的地方税体系;尽快建立规范的政府转移支付制度,加大对困难地区的转移支付;审慎解决乡镇债务问题,化解乡镇财政风险;努力构建乡镇公共政府和公共财政.     

Lies,damned lies and statistics: the accuracy of survey responses

That survey research is error prone is not a new idea and different varieties of non-sampling error have been investigated in the literature as well as consideration being given in many statistics textbooks to the issue of sampling error. The paper here considers research upon corporate environmental reporting. It compares information provided by corporate environmental reports with information that survey respondents claim their organization’s environmental report contains. This enables the accuracy of the claims to be assessed. Consideration is given to two different industries the Water industry and the Energy industry. Errors due to inaccurate reporting by survey respondents are shown to be relatively infrequent and respondents appear just about as likely to claim they report information that they do not, in fact, report as to fail to indicate that they report information that is, in fact, actually reported.     

Environmental Taxation and Vertical Cournot Oligopolies: How Eco-industries Matter

This article specifies what an optimal pollution tax should be when dealing with a vertical Cournot oligopoly. Polluting firms sell final goods to consumers and outsource their abatement activities to an environment industry. It is assumed that both markets are imperfectly competitive. Thus, the tax is a single instrument used to regulate three sorts of distortions, one negative externality and two restrictions in production. Consequently, the optimal tax rate is the result of a trade-off that depends on the firms’ market power along the vertical structure. A detailed analysis of Cournot-Nash equilibria in both markets is also performed. In this context, the efficiency of abatement activities plays a key-role. It gives a new understanding to the necessary conditions for the emergence of an eco-industrial sector.      

Competition Policy: What are the Costs and Benefits of Measuring its Costs and Benefits?

Summary  Competition authorities are increasingly measuring the effects of their enforcement actions, seeking a robust justification for the proliferation of competition policy. We highlight the importance of identifying the right counterfactual against which to measure effects, and set out the relevant categories of costs and benefits. We then explore how a balance can be struck between the benefits and inherent limitations of these measurement exercises. Relatively crude analyses of cartel action benefits can be sufficient to achieve public legitimacy for competition policy. Assessing the effects of merger and conduct inquiries is often ambiguous, but could be used to improve decision-making processes. Director and Managing Consultant, respectively, at Oxera, Oxford and London. The valuable comments of Fod Barnes, Kerry Hughes and an anonymous referee are gratefully acknowledged. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors alone.