NIT picking: The macroeconomic effects of a Negative Income Tax

I study a revenue-neutral reform of the U.S. income tax and welfare system that involves the adoption of a Negative Income Tax (NIT). The reform is undertaken in a life-cycle economy with individual heterogeneity and uninsurable idiosyncratic labor risk. The optimal NIT consists of a 22% rate and a transfer equivalent to 11% of per-capita GDP. The ex-ante average welfare gain is a 2.1% annual increase of individual consumption. I show that a NIT outperforms a flat tax reform (income tax plus deduction) by a considerable margin. The key consequence of the reform is that high-productivity agents increase their relative importance in the labor supply at the expense of low-productivity agents.     

城市交通碳排放分析及实证研究

城市经济发展使得城市交通迅速发展,同时也造成了能源消耗过多、排放污染加剧。文章构建数学模型对城市交通子系统碳排放进行分析,并以西安市为例进行实证分析。结果表明,城市私人载客汽车和道路运输营运部门是主要交通碳排放源,占总排放的67%以上,并且有序发展私人交通、改变交通需求结构、提高能源利用率能有效降低城市交通碳排放。     

贸易中隐含碳问题溯源及其研究进展

随着经济全球化和贸易自由化进程的加快,环境问题逐渐成为全球共同关注的问题。同时贸易与环境的相互影响也在加剧,有关气候变化等国际环境问题的探索日益成为理论与政策研究的热点,随着2009年哥本哈根第十五次缔约方大会的召开,CO2等温室气体的控制减排已不再是个纯科学议题,而成为国际政治经济关系的重要话题,贸易中隐含碳的排放成为研究的焦点。本文旨在通过文献梳理探索隐含碳问题的渊源,并对目前国内外有关隐含碳问题的研究进行综述,以便更好地开展研究,正确合理界定中国实际CO2排放量并从外贸角度为缓解碳排放压力提供有利依据和指导。     

Enhanced network effects and stochastic modelling in generation expansion planning: Insights from an insular power system

Electricity generation capacity expansion is driven by both economic and socio-political realities. Policy makers determine public infrastructural decisions, such as climate and renewable targets, and transmission infrastructure, and the optimal generation capacity expansion follows. Policy makers therefore require planning models that can determine the optimal generation capacity mix in the long run under various scenarios, including policy choices. This work presents a planning model based on linearised alternating current optimal power flow which determines optimal generation capacity expansion and operation, in a least-cost manner, given global and local technical constraints, as well as policy decisions. We apply the model to a test case of the island of Ireland, which has two weakly interconnected systems, high renewable generation targets and low storage and interconnection. We determine the optimal generation expansion and operation out to 2030 considering the effects of increased multi-area interconnection, existing fossil fuel generation phase-out and increased renewable generation targets and carbon prices. Our results find that costs and emissions are driven primarily by the decommissioning of old inefficient generation units. High renewable targets, on the other hand, render increased carbon prices relatively ineffective in reducing system emissions. Furthermore, high renewable generation targets crowd out low-carbon power generation options such as carbon capture and storage (CCS). The strategic north-south interconnection has little effect on renewable energy source installations required to achieve renewable power generation targets but does impact on security of supply and the congestion level across the island.     

Impacts of an EC carbon/energy tax and deregulating thermal power supply on CO2, SO2 and NOx emissions

Emission of CO₂, SO₂ and NO_x are all closely linked to the burning of fossil fuels. Here we report on simulations done by linking a Sectoral European Energy Model (SEEM), covering energy demand in nine Western European countries, with the emission-transport-deposition model RAINS developed by IIASA. The study analyses emissions of CO₂, SO₂ and NO_x, deposition of sulphur and nitrogen and the extent of areas where the critical load for sulphur is exceeded in year 2000 under four different energy scenarios. Two different sets of future behavioural patterns for the thermal electric power production sector are considered. In one regime, called the plan-efficient regime, the sector is assumed to follow official plans with regard to investment in new capacity. In the other regime, called the cost-efficient regime, the thermal power sector is assumed to behave in a cost minimizing manner. The effects of the proposed EC carbon/energy tax are studied under both regimes, giving rise to altogether four scenarios.In both regimes the effect of the EC tax is to reduce emissions by between 6 and 10 per cent in year 2000 relative to the scenarios without the tax. A change of regime, from the regulated, plan-efficient regime to the market-based, cost-efficient regime, will, by itself, reduce emissions of CO₂ and NO_x by approximately 3 per cent, while SO₂ emissions are reduced by 13 per cent. The EC tax will reduce sulphur deposition by more than 5 per cent in the nine model countries under the plan-efficient regime. A change of regime further reduces the total deposition by 9 per cent. The area where depositions exceed the critical load is reduced by approximately 6 per cent in year 2000 by the tax in both regimes. Changing from the plan-efficient to the cost-efficient regime has a similar impact.Although the emission reductions due to the EC tax may seem modest, they are shown to have a sizeable effect on the technological abatement costs of reaching targets like those prescribed in the Sofia protocol on the stabilisation of NO_x emissions, and the Helsinki protocol on SO₂ emission reductions. This is part of what can be considered to be secondary benefits of the EC carbon/energy tax.     

Logarithmic quasi-homothetic preferences

We study a class of quasi-homothetic preferences, which result in demands that are logarithmic in own prices when these have a negligible impact on aggregate prices (as in monopolistic competition models). Thus marginal revenues are computationally friendly and well behaved.     

商誉会计主要争论综述及启示

近百年来 ,会计理论界对商誉会计问题研究成果丰硕。本文对商誉的本质、自创商誉的会计确认、外购商誉的会计处理、负商誉性质等问题的主要争论进行了综述。     

价值工程在低碳建筑节能减排中的应用

文章结合价值工程在低碳建筑中的应用瓶颈及Dell Isola专家对价值工程的改进,引入建筑碳排放指数,推出应用于低碳建筑的低碳价值工程,并具体阐述了碳排放指数的计算方法。通过对低碳建筑的详细功能分析,文章继而介绍了采用AHP层次分析法计算价值系数的应用步骤,最终选择出满足功能良好、成本合适、碳排放量最少的方案,实现低碳作用。     

基于环境库兹涅茨模型的江西省物流业碳排放分析

介绍了江西省物流业的发展现状和碳排放现状,以环境库兹涅茨模型(EKC)对江西省物流业碳排放进行分析,并提出相应对策。