China's Anti‐dumping Problems and Mitigation through Regional Trade Agreements

The present paper explores the opportunities for China's regional trade agreement (RTA) initiatives to mitigate its anti‐dumping problems. The paper highlights the severity and discriminatory nature of China's anti‐dumping problems. The high concentration of the share of anti‐dumping actions taken by the top 4 and top 8 anti‐dumping initiators is noted. Our finding of a weak effect of existing RTAs on mitigating China's anti‐dumping problems supports the argument that China could become more active in mitigating anti‐dumping problems through RTA negotiations. An RTA can include a higher level of openness in exchange for an improvement in regional anti‐dumping provisions. Case studies on RTAs involving the EU, the USA and India offer some precedents for offering inducements and modifying regional anti‐dumping provisions. The approaches for China may lie in obtaining market economy status from intensive anti‐dumping initiators at RTA levels and also altering regional anti‐dumping provisions that could be put in place in exchange for some potential concessions.     

应对气候变化——农业减排和适应

农业在气候变化中的处境和作用是双向的。一方面,农业是大气中温室气体的主要来源之一;另一方面,气候变化带来的损害和风险,它又是最脆弱的部门之一。因此农业部门是否能够成功应对气候变化将具有重大意义。首先对农业减排和适应的策略选择和潜力进行分析,然后结合目前减排和适应的综合分析趋势来讨论农业减排和适应协同应对气候变化的必要性及可能性,最后将简单地分析中国农业应对气候变化问题。     

Analyzing the role of mutual guarantee societies on bank capital requirements for small and medium-sized enterprises

This paper analyzes the impact of the guarantee provided by mutual guarantee societies (MGSs) on the risk premium that banks should charge for small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) loans under the new Basel Capital Accords (Basel II and III). We also examine whether the foreseeable decrease in the theoretical credit risk premium would be compensated by the cost of the MGS guarantee. To do so, we develop a rating system for SMEs that uses a large sample of Spanish firms over the period from 2005 to 2009. We find that the final effect of the guarantee on the SME risk premium depends on the values taken by the credit variables of the MGS (essentially, the probability of default).     

The Income and Consumption Effects of COVID-19 and the Role of Public Policy*

We provide empirical evidence on the labour market impacts of COVID-19 in the UK and assess the effectiveness of mitigation policies. We estimate the relationship between employment outcomes and occupational and industrial characteristics and assess the effects on consumption. Seventy per cent of households in the bottom fifth of the earnings distribution hold insufficient assets to maintain current spending for more than one week. We compare the effectiveness of the UK's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and of Economic Impact Payments in the US. The EIPs are more effective at mitigating consumption reductions as they have full coverage, depend on household structure and are higher for low-income workers.     

From Davos,Switzerland to Mombasa,Kenya: a position paper on the adoption of the ‘Davos declaration’ by hotels

Climate change has been identified as a major challenge in the achievement of sustainable development especially for developing countries like Kenya. There has been a wide acknowledgement that there is a need for long-term strategies for the industry players to reduce their contribution to climate change in line with other industries. Industries and societal sectors have sought ways of mitigating the causes of climate change. The Second International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism, held in Davos, Switzerland, on 3 October 2007, provided practical guidelines for the industry in response to climate change. This paper seeks to evaluate the adoption of the ‘Davos Declaration’ among selected Mombasa hotels in terms of water, energy and waste management. Results indicate that despite wide knowledge among hoteliers on the impacts of climate change and the role hotels can play in its mitigation, most hoteliers are slow in adopting the mitigation measures.     

黑龙江省森林碳汇潜力分析

森林所具有的碳汇功能决定了林业生产在生态保护和生态建设工作中具有特殊重要的地位。本文在分析“后京都时代”森林碳汇问题及黑龙江省森林碳汇特殊性的基础之上,结合黑龙江省林业发展现状及发展规划,运用森林碳汇基本理论,提出了森林蓄积量扩展法,首次对黑龙江省森林碳汇容量和碳汇潜力进行了计算分析。计算结果表明:黑龙江省现有森林碳汇储量为17.38亿t,碳汇潜力巨大。     

新冠肺炎疫情对我国粮食安全的影响分析及稳定产量的建议

稳定粮食安全根基是应对各类黑天鹅、灰犀牛事件的有力保障。疫情期间,充足的粮食供给再次发挥了安天下、稳民心的作用。从目前调查的情况来看,疫情对粮食生产经营的影响是暂时的、局部的、有限的,疫情持续也带来农资价格上涨、物资到位迟缓等问题。但种粮效益低、农业气象偏差、传统病虫害与输入性虫害叠加、国际经贸形势日趋复杂等挑战交织,是确保全年粮食产量、供应稳定的主要挑战。要高度重视抗疫战线拉长带来的负面影响,积极疏通农资供应渠道、有序组织返田返工,更要稳住政策支持,完善设施装备配套,强化技术支撑,做好防灾减灾。     

Bringing competition to urban water supply*

This paper proposes a market‐based reform that would introduce competition into the provision of urban water. This proposal calls for a decoupling of infrastructure control and ownership of water whereby the property rights to water would be transferred to private hands. The proposal involves periodically allocation (e.g. by auction) of existing water stock held in urban catchments to virtual suppliers who then compete in providing bulk water. This change when coupled with effective third party access and retail competition would lead to a competitive market for the provision of urban water. The approach aims to address concerns over inefficient pricing and infrastructure provision under the current arrangement.