城市经营者还是市场监管者？——市场波动下地方政府土地供给非对称行为研究

研究目的:分析市场监管激励对于地方政府土地供给决策的影响。研究方法:通过建立模型对市场监管激励的影响机制进行理论分析,并基于2004—2014年中国30个省的面板数据构建门限模型进行实证检验。研究结果:地方政府的土地供给决策同时受到经济绩效和市场监管双重激励的影响,在不同的市场波动下存在非对称性:在市场较平稳时,地方政府会通过减少土地供给、提升土地价格实现其经济绩效目标;而在市场波动较大时,地方政府则会兼顾"市场监管者"的职责,通过增加土地有效供应、维持土地价格实现其经济绩效目标。研究结论:市场监管激励在地方政府的土地供给决策机制中具有显著作用,可以通过加强政绩考核中市场监管的权重来规范地方政府的土地供给行为。     

Impacts of Market Reform on Spatial Volatility of Maize Prices in Tanzania

Maize is one of the major staples and cash crops for many Tanzanians. Excessive volatility of maize prices destabilises farm income in maize‐growing regions and is likely to jeopardise nutrition and investment in many poor rural communities. This study investigates whether market reform policies in Tanzania have increased the volatility of maize prices, and identifies regional characteristics that can be attributed to the spatial price volatility. To achieve the objectives, an autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity in mean (ARCH‐M) model is developed and estimated in this study. Results show that the reforms have increased farm‐gate prices and overall price volatility. Maize prices are lower in surplus and less developed regions than those in deficit and developed regions. Results also show that the developed and maize‐deficit regions, and regions bordering other countries have experienced less volatile prices than less developed, maize‐surplus and non‐bordering regions. Our findings indicate that investments in communication and transportation infrastructures from government and donor countries are likely to increase inter‐regional and international trade, thereby reducing the spatial price volatility in Tanzanian maize prices in the long run.     

Integrating local ecological services into intergovernmental fiscal transfers: The case of the ecological ICMS in Brazil

Local conservation efforts are often related to benefits at higher governmental levels. On the one hand, these efforts are strongly connected to local land-use decisions. On the other hand, activities such as sustainable water management or biodiversity conservation are associated with regional, national or even global public goods. Therefore, spatial externalities or spillovers exist, which—if not adequately compensated for—lead to an underprovision of the public goods and services concerned. This article investigates intergovernmental fiscal transfers as an innovative instrument for compensating local jurisdictions for the ecological goods and services they provide across local boundaries. From a public finance perspective, fiscal transfers are a suitable instrument for internalising spatial externalities. However, most federal states use this instrument predominantly for social and economic public sector functions rather than for ecological ones. This article investigates the case of the ecological “ICMS” that was first introduced by a few states in Brazil during the 1990s. Part of the revenue from this value-added tax is redistributed to the local level on the basis of ecological indicators. In this way, the state level uses fiscal transfers to compensate municipalities for the existence of protected areas and other ecological services provided within their territories. The Brazilian experience illustrates that such fiscal transfers can represent both a compensation for land-use restrictions and an incentive to value and engage in more conservation activities at the local level.     

城市LUCC时空格局对地表温度的影响效应研究 ——以广西柳州市为例

研究目的:定量分析中国西南典型重工业城市——柳州市的土地利用、地表温度时空演化特征以及不同土地利用类型对地表温度的联合影响效应。研究方法:利用1991年Landsat 5的TM影像和2013年Landsat 8的OLI/TIRS影像数据,通过遥感技术反演提取研究区归一化植被指数(NDVI)、归一化差异建筑指数(NDBI)、改进的归一化差异水体指数(MNDWI)以及地表温度(LST)等遥感参数,基于遥感指数叠加分类法获取城市土地利用/覆盖(LUCC)信息。研究结果:(1)柳州市22年间LUCC变化剧烈,受人为因素影响强烈的地物类型为建筑用地、耕地和裸地。其中,建筑用地变化幅度最大,面积增加了126.71%,新增建筑用地主要源于城市中原有的耕地类型。(2)两期地表温度数据均显示,城市建筑用地的地表温度最高,水体的地表温度最低,建筑用地升温效果显著,是造成城市热岛效应的主要原因之一。(3)影响因子相关性与多元回归分析揭示,城市中各地物类型面积比与地表温度均具有一定的相关性,但差异性较大。其中,建筑用地、裸地与地表温度呈正相关,林地、水体与地表温度呈负相关。研究结论:城市各种LUCC类型的地表温度差异较大,水体和林地在缓解城市热岛效应方面作用十分显著,两者比较,水体的降温效果要优于林地。     

Nonparametric fixed effects model for panel data with locally stationary regressors

We develop methods for inference in nonparametric time-varying fixed effects panel data models that allow for locally stationary regressors and for the time series length $T$ and cross-section size $N$ both being large. We first develop a pooled nonparametric profile least squares dummy variable approach to estimate the nonparametric function, and establish the optimal convergence rate and asymptotic normality of the resultant estimator. We then propose a test statistic to check whether the bivariate nonparametric function is time-varying or the time effect is separable, and derive the asymptotic distribution of the proposed test statistic. We present several simulated examples and two real data analyses to illustrate the finite sample performance of the proposed methods.     

Construction and validation of a scale to measure tourist motivation to consume local food

Although the importance of the role of local food in tourism has begun to form an academic debate in the last decade, little effort has been invested in understanding what tourist motivations influence consumption of local food and beverages in a tourist destination and to develop a measurement scale for those motivations. Thus, this study adopted the comprehensive procedures of measurement scale development recommended by prior studies. The scale development procedure yielded a five factor measurement scale with acceptable levels of reliability and validity. Five underlying motivational dimensions of local food consumption were labelled: cultural experience; interpersonal relation; excitement; sensory appeal; and health concern. The outcomes and applications of the developed scale are discussed both in terms of theoretical and managerial implications.     

The relationships between food-related personality traits,satisfaction, and loyalty among visitors attending food events and festivals

This study applies the concept of food-related personality traits to hospitality and tourism and identifies relationships between personality, satisfaction, and loyalty. An on-site survey was carried out with 335 visitors attending the Gwangju Kimchi (local food) Festival in South Korea between 15th and 19th of October, 2008. The relationships between 4 latent constructs (food neophobia, food involvement satisfaction, and loyalty) and 16 indicators were measured using structural equation modelling. The findings showed that food neophobia had a negative effect on satisfaction and loyalty, food involvement had a positive relationship with loyalty, and satisfaction and loyalty showed a significant positive relationship.     

The potential for marrying local gastronomy and wine: The case of the ‘fortunate islands’

For centuries, the Mediterranean and other regions have become icons for their food, wine, laid-back lifestyle and benign weather, with each of these components ideally complementing the other three. The availability of a local cuisine and local wines provides consumers with memorable experiences. However, in many other regions little is known about ways in which the local cuisine and wine could be ‘married.’ This study examines the views of 55 small winery operators in a region that for decades has been widely known as a mass tourism destination: the Canary Island in Spain. While most operators recognise the potential for a perfect local cuisine–wine marriage, many also mention the missing link between the local hospitality and wine sectors. For instance, respondents argue that restaurateurs are not promoting local wines enough in favour of cheaper imports. The study also discusses the implications of the findings and identifies areas of future research.     

倒边盖挖逆作法基坑支护结构可靠性分析

为了解决采用标准Monte Carlo法计算复杂基坑工程上常见小概率失效,导致计算效率低的问题,以南京市湖南路地下商业街工程为工程背景,首先,将随机响应面法与基坑工程三维模型相结合,求解极限功能函数的响应面方程,并用标准Monte Carlo法计算失效概率和可靠指标,探讨采用倒边盖挖逆作法作为基坑支护结构施工方法的可行性;其次,基于该响应面方程,以土体的弹性模量为随机变量参数,采用马尔可夫链蒙特卡罗子集模拟法(MCMC子集模拟法)计算基坑支护结构的失效概率,并与标准Monte Carlo法结果进行对比分析。结果表明：当支护结构最大侧移控制指标为25 mm时,计算得到的可靠指标均大于4.6,即采用倒边盖挖逆作法施工过程中基坑是安全的;10万次和50万次标准Monte Carlo法计算得到的失效概率均为零,说明对于标准Monte Carlo法,在计算小概率失效问题时10万与50万的样本量是不足的;而MCMC子集模拟法用2.98万个样本计算出的结果与标准Monte Carlo法采用100万个样本计算的结果相对误差仅为1.7%,表明MCMC子集模拟法对于小概率失效问题求解的优势。所提算法在一定...     

Alternatives to local content requirements in resource-rich countries

This paper discusses whether and to what extent resource-rich developing countries should introduce local content policies, i.e. requirements to include local inputs in petroleum extraction activities of multinational corporations. We argue that local content needs to be seen as a public expenditure question, since local content requirements increase multinational costs, and hence reduce the taxes which can be extracted from these companies. This implies that there are opportunity costs in imposing local content requirements, since the forgone taxes can be used in others ways which could potentially do more to improve development prospects. Moreover, past experiences of resource-rich developing countries suggest that local content policies can exacerbate key problems of patronage and rent-seeking which resource rents generate, increasing the chance that the resource wealth will prevent rather than help development. These arguments suggest that an optimal local content policy in the context of flawed institutions is a more limited one than those typically pursued by developing countries with recently discovered petroleum reserves. Using qualitative data from Tanzania, a country with recent discoveries of substantial natural gas deposits, we analyze why local content tends to become such a central issue in debates and policy processes, despite its potentially problematic aspects.