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.     

金融危机下的我国财政风险测度

次贷危机影响了我国的经济和财政态势,经济增长放缓使得财政的收支压力逐步凸显,风险增大。本文采用在国际上得到广泛采纳的风险指标法对我国当前的财政风险状况进行了度量,结论是短期内风险虽有所增加,但仍处在可控范围内;中长期则需要对政策作出适当调整,以降低未来的风险。     

Determinants of Current Account Imbalances in 16 OECD Countries: An Out-Of-Sample Perspective

We employ panel data as well as country-specific models to uncover empirically the determinants of current account imbalances. We find evidence of slope heterogeneity likely rendering the fixed-effect estimator inconsistent. Mean group estimation is followed to overcome the latter difficulty. Both estimation techniques are evaluated by means of in- and out-of-sample criteria. The mean group estimator outperforms the fixed-effect approach and, moreover, only three economic variables are found to impact on the current account balance significantly. These are the government budget balance, the domestic output gap and the changes of the terms of trade. We finally propose a parsimonious dynamic model of the current account, including only these variables and illustrate that it has similar predictive accuracy as country-specific benchmark models. JEL no. F32, C23, C53     

优化化工过程 提高综合效益

化工行业是我国国民经济的支柱产业之一,其发展直接关系到整个国民经济的繁荣,化工工业具有原料,产品,工艺,技术多方案性的基本特征,这种多方案性深刻蕴含着经济的盈亏,社会效益的大小与环境保护的优势,即综合效益。本文有效的利用优化技术解决化工工业中的实际问题,增加综合效益。     

Tourism as an alternative source of regional growth in Portugal: a panel data analysis at NUTS II and III levels

The role of tourism is of vital economic importance, particularly for small countries with a privileged geographical location and favourable weather conditions. This paper examines the importance of tourism as a conditioning factor for higher regional growth in Portugal by employing the conditional convergence hypothesis of Barro and Sala-i-Martin, associated with the endogenous growth theory. The panel data estimation approach provides evidence of the positive impact of tourism (through the accommodation capacity) on the growth in per-capita income among the Portuguese regions, increasing the rate of convergence. Therefore, tourism can be considered as an alternative source for stimulating higher regional growth in Portugal, if the supply characteristics of this sector are improved.     

西部收入偏低亟待改革

改革开放以来，由于各种原因使得我国地区之间的经济发展水平和收入水平有了很大的差距。对于这些差距，我们可以通过对人均经济收入、人均财政收入、城镇居民可支配收入、农民人均纯收入、人均国际收入等五个指标的分析中详细地看到。从客观性和可行性的意义上讲，西部地区要在短时期内消除这些差距，是根本不可能的。因此，作为西部地区来讲，应该选择实事求是的态度，既要正视这些差距的长期存在，又要通过体制创新、政策创新、战略创新等，努力探索试图缩小差距的途径和对策。