Crowding-out effect of the current food stamp subsidy scheme

We construct a model to illustrate that the current food stamp subsidy scheme fails to achieve its stated aim due to the crowding-out effect. More specifically, if the household income is sufficiently low, only a corner solution exists, and a full subsidy is needed.     

Environmental impacts of changes to healthier diets in Europe

Food consumption causes, together with mobility, shelter and the use of electrical products, most life cycle impacts of consumption. Meat and dairy are among the highest contributors to environmental impacts from food consumption. A healthier diet might have less environmental impacts. Using the E3IOT environmentally extended input output database developed in an EU study on Environmental Impacts of Products (EIPRO), this paper estimates the difference in impacts between the European status quo and three simulated diet baskets, i.e. a pattern according to universal dietary recommendations, the same pattern with reduced meat consumption, and a ‘Mediterranean’ pattern with reduced meat consumption. Production technologies, protein and energy intake were kept constant. Though this implies just moderate dietary shifts, impact reductions of up to 8% were possible in reduced meat scenarios. The slightly changed food costs do not lead to significant first order rebound effects. Second order rebounds were estimated by applying the CAPRI partial equilibrium model. This analysis showed that European meat production sector will most likely respond by higher exports to compensate for losses on the domestic meat market. Higher impact reductions probably would need more drastic diet changes.     

家庭直接能耗的碳排放影响因素研究进展

家庭能源消费对环境的影响已经成为可持续发展领域热点研究课题之一。为了更好地开展家庭直接能耗的碳排放研究,对国际上近20年的研究进行总结分析,将国际上对家庭直接能耗碳排放影响因素的研究模型归纳为自上而下模型、自下而上模型及综合模型三大类,并对各种模型进行了评价;国际上对家庭直接能耗碳排放影响因素的研究集中于家庭外部环境、家庭特征及家庭成员3个方面。分析表明:家庭直接能耗碳排放影响因素的研究模型由简单走向综合;所用数据由历史统计数据到与微观住户调研数据相结合;研究的层面由国家(地区)、城市、社区向家庭内部全面展开;分析的视角由单一的宏观分析,到宏观与微观分析相结合。在基本反映家庭直接能耗碳排放影响因素研究的最新态势的同时,提出了我国家庭直接能耗碳排放影响因素研究中值得注意的几个问题。     

On the forecasting of the challenging world future scenarios

Logistic and power law methodologies for both retrospective and prospective analyses of extended time series describing evolutionary growth processes, in environments with finite resources, are confronted. While power laws may eventually apply only to the early stages of said growth process, the Allee logistic model seems applicable over the entire span of a long range process. On applying the Allee logistic model to both the world population and the world gross domestic product time series, from 1 to 2008 AD, a projection was obtained that along the next few decades the world should experience a new economic boom phase with the world GDP peaking around the year 2020 and proceeding from then on towards a saturation value of about 142 trillion international dollars, while the world population should reach 8.9 billion people by 2050. These results were then used to forecast the behavior of the supply and consumption of energy and food, two of the main commodities that drive the world system. Our findings suggest that unless the currently prevailing focus on economic growth is changed into that of sustainable prosperity, human society may run into a period of serious economical and social struggles with unpredictable political consequences.     

能源可持续发展能力评价——以黑龙江省为例

构建了能源可持续发展能力评价指标体系,运用层次分析法并结合专家打分确定指标权重。利用2002—2008年黑龙江省的相关数据计算评价指标分值,进而得出黑龙江省能源可持续发展度评价值,并从能源资源开发利用、社会发展、经济发展和环境保护这4个层面探究了黑龙江省能源可持续发展态势的形成原因。     

旅游者参与、服务质量、消费情感对旅游者忠诚影响

旅游者参与是旅游者重要需求,通过参与达到正面的情感体验;在激烈的市场竞争中,实现旅游者忠诚是旅游地重要目标,因此对旅游者参与及相关变量对旅游者忠诚的影响研究具有重要意义。文章构建了旅游者参与对旅游者忠诚影响的整合模型,并提出若干研究假设。通过对武夷山观光旅游者调查获取基础数据,实证了旅游者参与、服务质量、消费情感、旅游者满意等变量的相互关系及其对旅游者忠诚的影响。研究发现,旅游者参与对服务质量、正面消费情感、旅游者满意具有显著直接正向影响,对负面消费情感具有显著直接负向影响,并通过服务质量、消费情感、旅游者满意三个中介变量对旅游者忠诚产生间接影响;服务质量通过旅游者满意对旅游者忠诚产生产生间接影响;消费情感对旅游者忠诚既产生直接影响,又通过旅游者满意对其产生间接影响;旅游者满意是旅游者忠诚的直接前因变量。最后指出研究局限及未来研究方向。     

流通业对农村居民消费影响的实证研究

随着扩大内需政策的深入,如何进一步拉动农村消费成为中国经济增长的新热点。本文从流通角度研究对农村消费的影响,引入偏最小二乘法,通过运用乡镇企业批发和零售业就业人员数、乡镇企业批发和零售业单位数、农村批发和零售业固定资产投资完成额等指标来建立多元线性回归模型进行实证分析,量化研究农村消费品流通发展与农村居民人均消费之间的关系。模型结果表明,发展流通业能有效拉动农村消费市场,各项指标均对消费支出有着积极有效的促进作用。文章在此基础上提出了对策和建议。     

少数民族地区生态文明建设研究

工业社会以"大量生产、大量消费、大量废弃"为基本特征的工业文明时期,现代工业体系在创造出空前的物质财富和社会繁荣的同时,也不断地消耗、破坏着自然资源和人类的生存环境。我国少数民族群众整体和谐的自然观、敬畏生命的平等观以及循环再生的生产观等生态伦理思想与生态文明的本质是一致的,在生态文明建设中可发挥积极的作用。本文探讨了少数民族地区生态文明建设对策,包括传承少数民族生态伦理文化,发挥民族区域自治的政治优势、完善生态保护的法律法规,培养"生态公民"、提倡"绿色消费"以及发展循环生态产业和低碳产业为主导的特色经济等。     

我国居民消费水平影响因素研究

对我国居民消费水平的影响因素的研究表明,目前的物价水平、贫富差距等因素对消费水平有一定的约束效应。政府应采取相应的措施调控通货膨胀和收入分配,以提高居民的消费能力。     

消费与地位追求:一个演化论的分析视角

地位是人类永恒追求的目标,是人的存在性意义之源。不过,由于社会结构的制约,不同时代、不同阶级(阶层)的人们具有不同的机遇结构,他们使用消费来追求地位的方式也大异其趣。在传统社会中,由于存在制度性的不平等,社会地位相对稳定。统治阶级更多地使用消费来确证而非追求其社会地位。在现代(工业)社会中,人们更多的是使用炫耀性消费来炫耀其经济资本,从而来追求其社会地位。在后现代社会中,以文化资本为基础的品味消费则成为人们地位争夺的新方式。