Altruism and the Economic Values of Environmental and Social Policies

Altruism is a type of non-use value which can have different definitions depending on the type of goods entering the utility function of the altruists and their expectations about the contributions of others. The purpose of this paper is to measure the trade-offs between different types of altruist values originating from social and environmental policies. Environmental policies are concerned with reducing health effects from a power plant while social policies involve both the attainment of public facilities for education and leisure and an increase in the income of the affected population. The empirical application utilizes a choice experiment technique which allows for valuation of multiple goods. Health effects are decomposed into the values of the risk of becoming ill, the duration of the episodes and the limitations imposed by illness. Altruist values are elicited from a population that is not affected by pollution. Results show that altruism is significant for policies directed to reducing health effects and improving the income level of the affected population, whereas there is egoism for a policy aimed at improving public facilities in the polluted suburb. The value of altruism is significantly influenced by the expectations of net benefits to be received by the affected population.     

Investment, uncertainty and irreversibility

This paper investigates the irreversibility of investments and the impact this has on the nature of the relationship between investment and uncertainty. The empirical analysis uses firm‐level data and is based on a survey of 210 rice‐milling firms in the Mekong River Delta in Vietnam, which was carried out during the year 2000. We show that uncertainty reduces investment of rice millers in the presence of irreversibility, as is predicted by the real options approach to investment. We do not find evidence that the negative association between uncertainty and investment is influenced by the degree of irreversibility.     

Price–Cost Margins and Structural Change: Sub-Contracting within the Salmon Marketing Chain

Some recent studies have benefited from advances in time series econometrics in order to evaluate price transmission mechanisms along the marketing chain. Due to the length of time series, structural changes may affect the evaluation of price–cost margins. In the case of the fresh salmon trade between Norway and France, the gross margin between producers and retailers has changed in level between January 1988 and December 1999. This article accurately identifies the date of a structural change using a range of recent ADF testing procedures (Gregory–Hansen tests, forward and backward recursive tests), before looking for the causes of the change through a survey. Two major factors can be identified: the product form and the marketing channel. Interestingly, both the increasing level of processing and the development of supermarket chains have resulted in a new role for the intermediaries, shifting from mere commercial intermediation to sub‐contracting for the big retailers.     

我国刑罚轻缓化的经济分析——兼论罚金刑和自由刑的适用

刑罚轻缓化已经成为刑罚结构改革的总体趋势,通过对刑罚轻缓化的经济分析,我们可以挖掘出刑罚轻缓化背后深层次的原因,那就是＂高概率的惩罚与轻刑化＂的组合是预防和控制犯罪最为经济有效的方式,而轻刑化即我们所谓的刑罚轻缓化。在刑罚轻缓化的背景之下,透视罚金刑与自由刑的适用,我们可以发现罚金刑更符合刑罚轻缓化之意旨,应提升到主刑的地位,未来我国的刑罚结构改革也应以罚金刑为主导,而自由刑只起辅助的作用。     

SEM图像分形维数的影响因素研究

以玻璃光纤、碳纤维纸和两种机加工表面样本的扫描电子显微镜图像为对象,运用盒维法研究了不同的放大倍数和采集过程中受到的噪声干扰对分形维数的影响.研究结果表明,随着放大倍数增大或随着椒盐噪声密度和高斯随机噪声方差的减小,分形维数下降.放大倍数和噪声对分形维数都有较大影响.在扫描电子显微镜图像分形维数的计算中,可以依据试样的结构特征选择合适的放大倍数,进行去噪处理后再计算图像的分形维数.     

地方高校办刊中的马太效应

马太效应普遍存在于社会各领域,地方高校办刊也必定受到它的影响.马太效应对地方高校办刊的影响主要表现在稿源分流、核心期刊的评定等方面.我们在办刊中要尽量发挥马太效应的正面影响,避免其负面影响,努力办好地方高校学报.     

词汇化探索

词化过程是语言领域的自然过程,是一个类似写作过程的(thinking aloud)过程,而且具有基因特点;词化过程是认知过程中语言的自然过程,其结果是词权的确立。     

宋代商人地位的提高及商业弊政

宋代"重商",是政府鉴于商品经济进一步发展,商业税收为国家财政带来大幅增加的现实,重视商人和商业而采取的政策.一方面,政府给商人以支持,提高部分商人的社会地位,商人可以入仕,有识之士对"商"的态度也有所改变.另一方面,继承了古代社会重农抑商的传统,官府对商业的发展也给予控制和抑制.这表现在对商人实施的重税政策.     

"生态文明"人类社会的第四次选择

以人类社会进化的角度去审视,党的十七大提出的"生态文明"建设是传统发展思维观念上的一次更新和飞跃。按历史学的定义,迄今为止人类的发展经历了三个文明阶段:石器时代的原始文明,这个时代长达100万年,严格地说,原始文明时期的人类还不具备社会属性;铁器的出现和使用,把人类送进了农业文明,并经历了长达1万年的悠久历史;这是一次具有本质意义的社会进步,因为它使生产力和生产关系都     

数字普惠金融对高技术制造业创新韧性的影响——基于系统GMM与门槛效应的检验

基于2011—2019年中国内地30个省份面板数据,运用系统GMM和门槛效应模型,检验数字普惠金融对高技术制造业创新韧性的影响以及消费升级和研发投入强度的门槛效应。结果表明,数字普惠金融及其覆盖广度、使用深度和数字化程度均对高技术制造业创新韧性具有显著正向影响;消费升级、研发投入强度分别在数字普惠金融对高技术制造业创新韧性的影响中表现出单一门槛效应和双重门槛效应。进一步的地区异质性研究发现,数字普惠金融仅对中西部地区高技术制造业创新韧性起到提升作用,消费升级在东部和中西部地区分别表现出双重门槛效应与单一门槛效应,研发投入强度在东部和中西部地区均表现出单一门槛效应。研究结果有助于丰富数字普惠金融应用于高技术制造业相关研究,为高技术制造业利用数字普惠金融提升创新韧性提供实践启示。