The emergence of sustainable industries: building on natural capital

This paper focuses on the emergence and growth of sustainable industries, specifically analyzing the rise of the wind energy industry in California. Based on a favorable institutional environment and the presence of abundant natural capital, the wind energy industry took root and flourished in California during the last two decades. This paper analyzes this phenomenon by exploring the determinants of where and when wind energy projects would be established. Findings suggest that in locations where natural, social, and economic influences converged, greater wind energy activity followed. The paper advances a simple framework that uses natural capital, site specificity, and institutional environments to predict which sustainable industries will enjoy growth in coming decades. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Electricity: Changes and Issues

This paper surveys recent developments in therestructuring and deregulation of the electric utilityindustry. New federal and state legislation isreviewed together with commission actions designed to carry out restructuring. The Department of Energy's highly controversial attempt to measure the netbenefits of electricity deregulation is noted, alongwith the response of DOE's critics. Five major factorsthat will affect the success or failure ofrestructuring and deregulation are examined at length. These include: growing industry concentration, theincreased risk premium attached to the market trading of electricity, the transition costs that will beincurred, the organization and governance of thetransmission network, and the adequacy of consumer and environmental protection in the new setting.     

Who Benefits from Deregulating the Separation of Banking Activities? Differential Effects on Commercial Bank,Investment Bank,and Thrift Stock Returns

We analyze the deregulation impact on commercial banks, investment banks, and thrifts associated with four major events progressively integrating commercial and investment banking activities in the United States during the 1990s. We find that commercial banks are the only group to react favorably to Federal Reserve announcements relaxing firewalls and easing restrictions on commercial bank revenues from investment banking activities. These regulations primarily benefit large banks. The Bankers Trust acquisition announcement of investment bank Alex Brown is associated with increased wealth for each of the three types of financial service institutions. At the eventual deregulation of the financial services industry, with the passage of the Financial Services Modernization Act in 1999, the values of commercial banks and investment banks increase significantly although thrifts are not affected.     

Economic determinants of deregulation in the gas distribution market

Many state public commissions have deregulated their utility markets. However, evidence of welfare or efficiency improvements under deregulation is ambiguous. It is also unclear why different states adopt consumer choice, price caps, sliding-scale plans, or retain rate-of-return regulation. This study evaluates several economic factors behind deregulation in gas distribution markets using a survey of state commissions. Logistic and hazard models show that utilities’ prices and capacity, and states’ stock of own gas wells, prices of competing fuels and the regulatory climate, help explain the pattern of deregulation. Demonstration effects from surrounding markets also contribute. These factors make the propensity to use price caps versus restructuring vary regionally.     

放松管制与规制重建—中国基础部门引入竞争后的政府行为分析

随着基础部门逐渐引入竞争,政府在放松管制的同时,为确保有效竞争的实现,还需要重建规制。规制重建包括两大方面,一是规制机构本身的重建,重点是要实现政企分开和保持规制机构的独立性;二是规制内容体系的完善,重点是要建立包括激励性规制、不对称规制、反垄断规制与社会性规制在内的“四位一体”的规制体系。     

Expansion and consolidation of bancassurance in the 21st century

Bancassurance has received much attention from both researchers and policymakers, as it is a major step towards the creation of universal financial markets in the 21st century which are no longer segregated based on industry operations. This study is the first comprehensive study to identify and measure the determinants of bancassurance using a sample of firms from 28 developed and developing countries. Our results complement the existing literature on bancassurance demand, insurance demand, and international insurance services, while also providing additional insight in key areas. The empirical results, based on panel analysis, indicate that reduction in company risk, the size of the company, reductions in company costs and increases in company revenues, the size of the national banking industry, the level of financial deregulation within a country, and the national inflation rate all play significant roles as determinants of bancassurance.     

英国电信业放松规制研究及对我国的借鉴

本文详细介绍了英国电信业放松规制的历程,从这个放松规制的案例分析中证明了放松规制有利于提升产业绩效。随后通过介绍我国电信业放松规制的事实,批驳了我国行政垄断行业不能放松规制的观点。基于此,笔者提出我国需要进一步放松仍在行政垄断的产业,放松规制势在必行。     

利率市场化对我国商业银行的影响和对策

随着我国利率市场化改革的不断深化，对国内商业银行资产负债管理、风险管理、内部控制制度等各方面均产生深远的影响。本文通过对我国利率市场化改革进程的回顾，重点分析了利率市场化给国内商业银行带来新的经营压力和风险挑战，以及面临的变革和发展机遇，进而探讨了在此新形势，商业银行需要采取的应对措施。     

Property,Power, and Public Choice: An Inquiry into Law and Economics

This article briefly describes the evolution of the recent economic crisis based on different theories toward my own interpretation of it. The deregulation wave of the last decades has created new profit opportunities in various contexts — from labor flexibility to privatization and from financialization to globalization — so promoting a renewed process of capitalist accumulation after the stagflation of the 1970s. This has taken place at the cost of a wide-ranging increase in inequality and instability, thus bringing a cascade of crises, including the latest one of 2008.     

Deregulation of Shopping Hours: The Impact on Independent Retailers and Chain Stores

This paper studies shopping hour decisions by retail chains and independent competitors. We use a Salop‐type model in which retailers compete in prices and shopping hours. Our results depend significantly on efficiency differences between the retail chain and the independent retailer. If the efficiency difference is small, the independent retailer may choose longer shopping hours than the retail chain and may therefore gain from deregulation at the expense of the retail chain. The opposite result emerges when the efficiency difference is large. Then, the retail chain may benefit whereas the independent retailer loses from deregulation.