Illegal waste disposal: Enforcement actions and decentralized environmental policy

Environmental non-compliance is affected by the decentralized shaping of environmental policy by local governments and enforcement actions by public bodies. Illegal waste disposal is examined in a relevant national case, by means of an original regionally disaggregated panel dataset for Italy, a country which witnesses heterogeneous environmental performances across regions and a decentralized policy system. Our empirical analysis produces two main insights of strong policy interest. First, commitment to a more stringent waste policy tends to increase illegal disposal of waste. Second, a nonlinear bell shaped relationship exists between the number of inspections and the quantity of illegal disposal. The key message is that deterrence might only result after a relatively high level of controls is implemented.     

ZB25型软盒卷烟包装机商标纸吸风管路的改进

针对ZB25型软盒卷烟包装机位于动力传动箱内部的商标纸吸风气管容易破裂、漏气、维修耗时长的问题,文章阐述了合理改变并重新设计商标纸吸风管路的安装位置等措施,使商标纸吸取性能更为稳定,维修操作更加方便快捷,极大地降低了工人的劳动强度和材料的消耗。     

中小跨径双曲拱桥拱上建筑最优拆除方案研究

本文以矿山桥(东)为例,综合考虑桥梁所处地理位置和经济成本并利用有限元软件对控制截面进行计算,介绍中小跨径双曲拱桥最优拆除方案,对今后类似桥梁的拆除工程具有借鉴意见。     

Firm-level determinants of tax evasion in transition economies

Business tax evasion is an important issue for governments. Yet the factors that determine business tax evasion have not been sufficiently examined in the literature in general, and in transition contexts in particular. To address this gap, this study uses the WB/EBRD Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) database with a sample of over 12,692 firms from 26 transition economies. Applying various modelling strategies, we argue that tax evasion is a function of firm-level and institutional-level variables. We contribute to the literature by providing robust evidence showing that the perceived tax burden has a positive impact on tax evasion. We also find that the tax evasive behaviour of firms is positively influenced by low trust in government and in the judicial system as well as by higher perceptions of corruption and higher compliance costs. We find that smaller firms, individual businesses and firms in sectors that are less visible to the tax administration are more likely to get involved in evasive behaviour. Overall, institutional factors play an important role in determining firms’ tax evasion behaviour in transition economies. This finding has important policy implications.     

Risk spillover analysis across worldwide ESG stock markets: New evidence from the frequency-domain

With the increasing global awareness of green environmental protection, the international environmental, social, and governance (ESG) stock markets are developing rapidly together with rising risk linkages across worldwide markets. Therefore, this study explores the risk spillover characteristics of international ESG stock markets in the time and frequency domains and constructs a risk linkage network to further explore the risk contagion mechanism. The results show that in most cases, the developed North American market is the core of outward risk spillover in international ESG stock markets. The entire system presents a small-world structure, and the internal regions display different risk spillover characteristics. Moreover, international ESG markets generally have strong time–frequency spillover and medium-frequency (a month to a year) spillover. In contrast, the high- (a day to a month) and low-frequency (more than one year) spillovers are located at relatively low levels, but they will rise significantly under sudden financial events. The empirical results expand the ESG stock market's theoretical framework and provide a reference for investors and market regulators to reduce the investment risk of ESG.     

Evaluating Projects in a Dynamic Economy: Some New Envelope Results

Abstract. This paper deals with the modern theory of social cost–benefit analysis in a dynamic economy. The theory emphasizes the role of a comprehensive, forward-looking, dynamic welfare index within the period of the project rather than that of a project's long-term consequences. However, what constitutes such a welfare index remains controversial in the recent literature. In this paper, we attempt to shed light on the issue by deriving three equivalent cost–benefit rules for evaluating a small project. In particular, we show that the direct change in a net national product (NNP) qualifies as a convenient welfare index without involving any other induced side effects. The project evaluation criterion thus becomes the present discounted value of the direct changes in NNP over the project period. We also illustrate the application of this theory in a few stylized examples.     

OPTIMAL GROWTH, GENUINE SAVINGS AND LONG-RUN DYNAMICS

Green accounting theories have shown that negative genuine savings at some point in time imply unsustainability. Consequently, recent studies advocate the use of the genuine savings measure for empirical testing: a negative index implies that sustainability be rejected. However, this criterion cannot ascertain sustainability, because positive current genuine savings do not rule out genuine dissaving in the future. This paper derives a one‐to‐one relationship between the sign of long‐run genuine savings and the limiting condition for sustained utility in the capital‐resource growth model, assuming technical progress and resource renewability. This result suggests to extend the genuine saving method to include a test of the limiting condition: if this condition is empirically rejected, positive current genuine savings are delivering a false message.     

非理性股价与企业投资行为：来自中国上市公司的经验证据

股票价格的非理性变化是否会对资本配制产生重要影响呢?本文试图从实证的角度回答这一问题。利用一个面板VAR模型,我们发现,对于高流通股比例的企业,与基本因素相正交的Tobin's Q冲击对投资有显著影响。但是,方差分解显示,投资波动中可由Tobin's Q解释的比例很低。这些证据意味着,非理性的股价变化虽然会对真实投资产生影响,但其作用相当有限。结果还显示,股价的非理性变化主要通过迎合渠道,而非股本融资渠道影响投资。     

ISO 14001 and the Reduction of Toxic Emissions

ISO 14001 is an international standard for Environmental Management Systems, adopted by over 36,000 organizations worldwide. This paper attempts to determine the length of time after which a given company has implemented ISO 14001 experiences emission reduction. The sample used is a group of 264 manufacturing facilities in the USA, which represent 23 percent of all the ISO 14001 certified organizations in the US, analyzed throughout the period from 1996 to 2001. The results show that 75 percent of the companies experienced a reduction in their emissions, among which 53 percent had already done so just one year after obtaining ISO 14001.     

Characterizing the sustainability problem in an exhaustible resource model

We provide a general condition under which consumption can be sustained indefinitely bounded away from zero in the continuous time Dasgupta–Heal–Solow–Stiglitz model, by letting augmentable capital substitute for a non-renewable resource. The assumptions made on the production function are mild, thus generalizing previous work. By showing that Hartwick?s rule minimizes the required resource input per unit of capital accumulation, and integrating the required resource input with respect to capital, we obtain a complete technological characterization without reference to the time path. We also use the characterization result to establish general existence of a maximin path.