Environmental Policy in Open Economies and Monopolistic Competition

This paper analyses the implications of international trade for non-cooperative environmental policy in the case of local production externalities. A particular focus is on the potential effects of regulations on the variety of goods and the resulting international spillover caused by trade. A tougher domestic standard negatively affects the utility of the households abroad, since such a policy reduces their variety of imports (due to fewer domestic product inventions) or their consumption of each imported brand (due to higher import prices). Ignoring the negative spillover, non-cooperative governments implement inefficiently strict standards in equilibrium. In contrast to this clear-cut inefficiency result, the impact of international trade on the state of the environment is ambiguous.     

我国构建绿色税制问题探析

我国环境污染问题日益严重,令人担忧.绿色税制作为政府宏观调控的重要手段,在许多国家的环境保护过程中发挥了重要作用,如法国、美国等均建立了比较完善的绿色税制.目前,我国的税制框架中虽然包含了一些绿色税种,如资源税、消费税等,但在设计、征收与管理过程中仍然存在很多问题,政府和公众还没有充分认识到绿色税制在环境保护中的重要性,因此,树立新的税收观念,建立与完善我国绿色税制势在必行.     

基于循环经济理念的珠江三角洲环境保护规划战略探讨

环境保护规划的可持续发展需要有先进理念的指导,应用循环经济理论框架来指导环境保护规划对区域可持续发展具有重要意义。本文通过分析循环经济的内涵、原则及其层次性,并结合我国珠江三角洲地区环境保护规划目标和对策进行了深入研究和探讨。分析得出,应用循环经济理念框架来指导环境保护规划是一种适宜的选择,与传统环境保护规划相比,基于循环经济理论框架指导下的区域环境保护规划更强调污染废气物排放减量化、企业生产清洁化、工业生态化以及区域固体废物的循环再利用。     

清洁生产评价在造纸行业环境影响评价中的应用研究

造纸工业是我国的重要产业之一,但同时又是污染较为严重的行业,造纸行业是环境影响评价关注的重要类别。为此,本文从清洁生产的角度,通过对某造纸企业的生产从原材料、产品、资源消耗和污染物排放为指标的清洁生产全过程进行综合评价,定量分析与评定出企业清洁生产的总体水平。以此为例,探讨和研究了造纸企业清洁生产评价方法、一般程序和评价内容。     

An Empirical Investigation of the Resource-based Antecedents of Customer Value in Turbulent Environments in China

With the increasingly turbulent environment and the significant role of customers in business success, creating and delivering superior customer value by deploying unique competences of a firm has been winning more attention. However, studies of customer value seem rather divergent and fragmented, and few studies, if any, have been conducted to identify the distinctive capabilities that determine the effective and efficient creation and delivery of customer value. This paper tries to bridge such gaps and explores the fundamental antecedents of customer value in turbulent environments in perspective of a resource-based theory. Based on the structural equation models developed, we find that technological competences, integrative competence and strategic flexibility are the key resource-based antecedents of customer value while no evidence is found to support the impact of marketing competences on customer value. Furthermore, only the moderating role of marketing turbulence in the relationship between customer value and strategic flexibility is detected and supported.     

How efficient are national environmental standards? A benefit-cost analysis of the United States experience

This paper summarizes the results of the first systematic, geographically-specific efficiency assessment of the U.S. experience with national environmental standards and with alternative approaches to establishing those standards. This ex-post evaluation assessed the net benefits that resulted from EPA's regulation of conventional air and water pollutants from the pulp and paper industry between 1973 and 1984. The paper compares the benefit-cost efficiencies of the three dominant regulatory approaches: technology, ambient, and benefits. Unlike previous studies, which assessed benefits and costs on a national basis, the study estimates both costs and benefits on a facility-by-facility basis. The analysis shows how the efficiency of national environmental regulations can vary dramatically at local levels. The authors conclude that the technology-based standards for water pollution management failed as an efficient environmental strategy. The costs clearly exceeded the benefits in the aggregate, as well as in the specific in most situations. Benefits exceeded costs at only 11 of the 68 mills investigated. The ambient based standards for air pollution management succeeded as an environmental strategy in the aggregate, but succeeded in the specific for only one-third of the mills (22 of 60 mills). The benefits-based standards for air pollution management also succeeded in the aggregate as well as in the specific for about one-half of the mills. Benefits exceeded costs at 29 of the 60 mills investigated. The results of the study point to two major conclusions. First, a regulatory policy that is based on some measure of environmental results, either ambient-based or benefits-based, will be more efficient than a policy that ignores environmental results. Second, truly efficient policies for reducing environmental risks require pollution mitigation decisions that take into account local conditions. These include not only the changes in local ambient conditions, but also the number of people who will benefit from pollution reduction decisions. This latter conclusion suggests that national environmental standards per se may be inefficient.Dr. Luken is currently Senior Environmental Advisor to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in Vienna, Austria. He is on leave from the U.S. EPA where he was Chief of the Economic Analysis and Research Branch of the Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation (OPPE). Mr. Clark is President of Environmental Economics Associates of Traverse City, Michigan. He was formerly Chief of EPA's Cost and Economic Impact Analysis Branch in OPPE. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.     

环境库兹涅茨曲线假说及其在中国的检验

经济与环境协调发展是我国经济发展中的重大课题。本文从环境库兹涅茨曲线假说出发,利用中国各个省市区1989～2004年数据建立面板数据模型,运用固定效应模型和随机效应模型对其进行估计,以此剖析我国经济增长与环境污染水平的演变规律。结果表明,环境库兹涅茨曲线假说在我国并不成立。因此,我国不能盲目重复发达国家"先污染,后治理"的传统模式,而应该走环境与经济持续协调发展的道路。     

Collaboration, peer review and open source software

Open source software development may be superior to proprietary development because the open source organizational form naturally minimizes transactions costs associated with privately distributed information. This manifests itself in the ability of open source communities to encourage critical peer review and the sharing of ideas. When these activities are important, the open source organizational form may do better than a proprietary organizational form. My results suggest why open source is particularly powerful when maintainability of software is critical, and also suggest that the founder of a software project may be more likely to choose open source if there is an existing dominant proprietary software project.     

城市环境外部性的经济分析与对策研究

本文将就环境外部性的特点进行经济分析,提出运用经济学、伦理学及政治学综合性知识,在追求高效率、确立道德约束、建立政治规则和明确衡量标准的基础上,制定治理环境外部性的积极对策。     

成都创建国家环境保护模范城市的启示

成都市创建国家环境保护模范城市活动进一步改善了城市创业环境和人居环境,全面提升了城市服务功能与综合价值,提高了公众生活质量,使成都市初步走上了环境和经济相互促进,人与自然和谐共生的可持续发展道路,呈现出经济快速发展、环境清洁优美、生态良性循环的良好态势。从成都创建国家环境保护模范城市实践中,我们可以得到以下启示:创建国家环境保护模范城市是构建和谐社会,落实科学发展观,全面建设小康社会,提高城市综合实力与城市竞争力的前提;创建国家环境保护模范城市必须承担发展经济和保护生态的双重任务,并且需要建立持续增长的投入机制;国家环境保护模范城市建设更需要注重生态型社会的建设。