环境规制的技术进步效应：基于省级面板数据的经验分析

利用2000—2010年中国内地30个省市面板数据,对环境规制与技术进步的关系进行实证研究。结果表明,基于全国层面的分析,环境规制对技术进步有正向影响;基于地区层面的分析,环境规制对技术进步的影响具有明显的区域差异,东部地区为正面效应,中部和西部地区为负面效应。在此基础上,验证环境规制对于技术进步的影响呈现倒“N”型曲线特征。针对研究结果,提出相应的政策建议。     

EU Policies on Bioenergy and their Potential Clash with the WTO

The paper outlines EU policy on bioenergy, including biofuels, in the context of its policy initiatives to promote renewable energy to combat greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. The EU’s Member States are responsible for implementing EU policy: thus, the UK’s Renewables Obligation on electricity suppliers and its Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation and road‐fuel tax rebates are examined. It is unlikely that EU policy is in conflict with the WTO Agreement on Agriculture or that on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, but its provisions on environmental sustainability criteria could be problematic.     

Non‐Parametric Modelling of CO2 Emission Quota

Dutch glasshouse firms are facing the introduction of a system of tradable CO₂ emission quotas. This paper employs a non‐parametric method for modelling tradable CO₂ emissions of Dutch glasshouse firms. The method is capable of generating shifts in CO₂ emissions across the sample of firms. Moreover, changes in volumes of outputs produced and inputs used are computed. Results show that firms using a conventional heating technology will be net purchasers of CO₂ emissions, whereas firms using more advanced heating technologies will sell part of their emission quota.     

Does employment before marriage exert autonomy after marriage? Evidence on female autonomy from India

This paper examines the determinants of female autonomy using data from India. We model female autonomy for movement as well as economic decision-making using a summative index approach. Our contributions to the literature include a careful examination of the regional differences, tests of economic and sociological hypotheses on female autonomy and the use of pre-marriage autonomy measures in terms of employment status to determine post-marriage autonomy. Our results suggest that economic, sociological and pre-marriage autonomy factors explain female autonomy. Regional differences regarding the economic, sociological and pre-marriage autonomy factors play a role in determining female autonomy.     

Payments for environmental services to promote “climate‐smart agriculture”? Potential and challenges

Payments for environmental services (PES) have gained wide popularity as approaches to promote environmentally friendly land use or agricultural production practices. Yet academics have also voiced concerns against seeing PES as a panacea. This article discusses whether PES is an appropriate and promising approach to promote so‐called “climate‐smart agriculture” (CSA) practices, which we define as agricultural production practices that contribute to CO₂ emission reductions and/or removals and provide benefits to farmers via increased productivity and profits and reduced vulnerability to climate change. PES appears most promising for the promotion of CSA practices in small‐scale farming contexts with low incomes. Effective design, however, requires solid estimates of cost and benefit flows from CSA adoption over time, accounting for differences in socioeconomic and ecological conditions, and addressing the risk of leakage. Funding for such PES will likely have to come from public sources, and seems most promising where synergies with other objectives such as agricultural development, food security, and climate adaptation or other environmental services exist. The potential of alternative approaches for CSA support such as taxation with rebates for CSA practices, CSA‐related investment support such as microcredits, and hybrid approaches such as conditional microcredit should be further investigated.     

RESPONSES OF ECONOMIC SYSTEMS TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE: PAST EXPERIENCES

Current discussions of climate change are overly focused on the science underpinning environmental impact, with little attention to socioeconomic consequences. The economics of environmental change in particular is insufficiently informed by the lessons that past experiences can yield. Drawing on case studies from Europe and Asia, this special issue underlines the importance of historical context, as well as markets, institutions, technology, and the role of international trade in understanding how economic systems have responded to environmental changes. Past economies have responded dynamically to environmental change rather than simply constrained deterministically by the climatic and ecological events that have engulfed them.     

Law and credit constraints in transition economies1

Using a survey of over 4,000 firms in 21 transition economies, this paper investigates how legal extensiveness (law on the books) and legal effectiveness (law in practice) affect availability of bank finance. Our findings suggest that both law on the books and law in practice are important, but that they impact firms of different sizes differently. Small firms appear to be the most credit constrained in countries with weak creditor rights and with weak contract enforcement, while large firms are the most credit constrained in countries with weak courts and unclear and inconsistent laws pertaining to firms’ business operations.     

MONOPOLISTIC LOCATION CHOICE IN A TWO‐SIDED HOTELLING MODEL

We analyse the optimal location choice of a monopolistic firm that operates two arbitrarily located platforms on a two‐sided market. By extending the traditional Hotelling framework, we show that the optimal platform locations are equivalent to the one‐sided benchmark if both sides are either restricted to single‐ or multi‐homing. In the mixed case (one side single‐homes, the other one multi‐homes), the optimal platform locations are in line with the respective symmetric case. If the monopolist is restricted to choosing the same location on either side of the market, the optimal locations are determined by the relative profitability of the market sides.     

URBAN HISTORY AND THE FUTURE OF AUSTRALIAN CITIES

Urban growth is a major theme in economic development and a policy imperative for developed countries that seek to create sustainable cities. We argue that the past weighs heavily on the ability of societies to sustainably manage urban environments. The policy implications of urban history are revealed in comparisons of cities across times and between places. The special issue presents some of the best recent work on the economic and social history of Australian cities. We aim to encourage historians to incorporate urban variables into studies of historical processes and to persuade policymakers to consider historical trends in their analysis.     

污水处理厂的脱氮除磷改造

结合城镇污水处理厂脱氮除磷改造工程实例，对老氧化沟进行功能区划分、设备改造：增加好氧区溶解氧浓度，降低缺（厌）区溶解氧浓度；同时适当增容，延长氧化沟水力停留时间和污泥泥龄。运行结果表明，系统出水主要指标稳定达到GB18918—2002一级A标准。