Voluntary development of environmental management systems: motivations and regulatory implications

Encouraging firms to develop voluntarily more comprehensive environmental management systems (EMSs) is touted as a policy tool to augment mandatory environmental regulations. Using a unique dataset of environmental management practices of Japanese manufacturers and controlling for self-selection bias in survey responses, we find that proxies for regulatory pressures and consumer pressures are the most important factors that motivate firms toward more comprehensive EMSs. Despite the oft-claimed “voluntary” nature of EMS development, our results show that the government may have a role to play in both directly and indirectly affecting EMS development by firms.      

海洋环境污染损失的货币价值估算——以珠江入海口为例

近年海洋经济的高速发展及海洋资源的不合理开发利用，给广东省的海洋资源与环境带来了一系列问题，有必要对海洋环境污染损失的货币价值进行估算，以更好地进行环境的投入与产出比较，将环境保护纳入经济核算体系。通过比较并应用各种货币化计量方法，分别算出珠江入海口海域的海洋渔业价值、水质净化价值等，对珠江入海口海域的生态系统经济价值进行评估，在此基础上，结合计量模型对海洋环境污染损失进行货币化综合计量，得到海洋环境污染造成的经济损失量的保守估计范围为 87.4~106.9 亿元/年。最后，提出广东省应充分使用财政资金的金融手段，建立多渠道、多层次和全方位的海洋环境保护体系，最终达到保护海洋生态环境和资源的目的。     

Environmental liability and the capital structure of firms

This paper analyses the impact of environmental liability regimes on the capital structure of firms. We show that imposing environmental liability only on polluting firms, with limited liability, increases use of bank debt. Extending environmental liability to banks lowers bank borrowing relative to liability only on firms, with an ambiguous effect relative to no liability. Using US industry-level data we estimate a reduced-form model of bank borrowing by firms and show that the introduction of environmental liability only on firms increased bank borrowing by 15–20%, but when liability was extended to banks, borrowing returned to a level slightly higher than with no liability.     

我国农村工业化的环境经济特性分析

本文从经济要素的形成角度分析了我国农村工业化过程中环境污染的导向型特征、循环和多重污染特征以及生态环境问题的“贫穷污染”性质和“环境不公平”的特点。     

关于全面实行政府采购审计的研究

实行政府采购审计制度存在认识不足,审计不全面,未形成独立审计项目,业务不熟悉等问题,需要完善有关法律、法规和制度,围绕其特点、目标、方式等确定审计对象,以政府采购资金的运动过程为审计主线进行全面审计,规范审计程序.提高审计质量,防范审计风险。     

冲动性购买行为的实证分析及其营销策略

消费者的冲动性购买行为是多种因素共同作用的结果。其中，外在刺激起主要影响作用，个人内在因素也有不可忽略的影响。这一研究结果对企业的意义在于：消费者的冲动性购买行为是可诱导、可激发的；企业可以针对冲动性购买行为的影响因素采取相应的营销措施和手段，有效地引导或诱导消费者冲动性购买欲望，从而推动和促进冲动性购买行为的最终实现。     

浅议油田设备采购管理

阐述了油田设备采购的重要性，分析了油田设备采购的特点、现状以及存在的问题，提出了加强和完善设备采购管理的措施。指出，在招标采购中，一是要制定好详细的设备技术参数，二是制定好招标文件，三是制定好评标办法及标准。     

An optimization approach to business buyer choice sets: How many suppliers should be included?

In many new or repeat purchasing situations, business buyers must decide how many suppliers to consider (a “choice set”) in determining which supplier(s) to actually buy from or contract with. This paper develops an optimization approach to determining the size of the choice set, taking into consideration buyer utility and search and evaluation costs. A theoretical model is developed for both one-time and repeat purchase situations. The model is estimated using empirical data received from bids received for procurement auctions. In these auctions, suppliers provide bids for steel pipe based on two product attributes (price and delivery time). Model sensitivity to small changes in parameters is also tested.     

Purchasing power parity in ASEAN-5 countries: revisit with cross-sectional dependence and structural breaks

This paper re-examines the purchasing power parity (PPP) hypothesis for a panel of ASEAN-5 countries. The panel unit root and cointegration tests, which incorporate cross-sectional dependence and multiple structural breaks, are innovatively used for testing the PPP hypothesis. We could not find evidence that supports the existence of a long-run equilibrium between the relative price ratio and the nominal exchange rate for the whole period. Nevertheless, there is evidence of a cointegrating relationship for the post-crisis period. Our finding implies that a flexible exchange rate regime is suitable for the individual ASEAN countries.     

Wetland mitigation banking: Negotiations with stakeholders in a zone of ecological-economic viability

Wetland mitigation banking (WMB) is an organizational form that attempts to balance the ecological goals of wetland conservation and the economic goals of development with the aim of improving the implementation of wetland offsetting. Given the resulting tension, it is important to understand how the way stakeholders employ the WMB regulatory framework affects the goal of No Net Loss of wetlands. In this study, we interviewed WMB stakeholders in Florida in the United States to identify their strategies during negotiations around different aspects of defining wetland mitigation credits (e.g. service areas, types of credit and credit release schedules). Using the approach of New Institutional Economics, we found that within a framework of well-defined rules that nonetheless allow flexibility, WMB enables a field of action for negotiating within a zone of ecological-economic viability – in part due to the stakeholders’ interest in maintaining a good reputation in this field. Outside of this zone of viability a wetland mitigation bank proposal collapses for economic or ecological reasons.