Are international environmental policies effective? The case of the Rotterdam and the Stockholm Conventions

This is the first paper to show that participation in an international environmental agreement has some effectiveness. Our identification strategy consists of applying difference-in-differences techniques in a panel data framework to various levels of data aggregation. We find that ratification of the Rotterdam Convention (RC) and the Stockholm Convention (SC) leads to a reduction in trade of hazardous substances from OECD to non-OECD countries. In particular, we find that when the exporter ratifies the RC, there is a reduction in the import of hazardous chemicals of about 7 percent. In the case of the SC, the results show significant reductions of around 16 percent in trade shipments of persistent organic pollutants. This reduction is more than double the effect found for the RC, which was expected due to a more restricted obligation imposed by the SC convention.     

Impacts of Australia’s free trade agreements on trade in agricultural products: an aggregative and disaggregative analysis

The importance of free trade agreements (FTAs) has been increasing as such agreements help reduce barriers to trade. This paper estimates the agricultural trade creation and export diversion effects of Australia’s free trade agreements (FTAs) at the aggregate and disaggregate levels, using the Poisson pseudo‐maximum‐likelihood (PPML) estimator. It includes 24 of Australia’s major trading partner countries comprising FTA and non‐FTA members and covers 22 years from 1996 to 2017. The heteroscedasticity robust regression error specification test (RESET) confirms the relevance of PPML over the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) estimator. Results showed that China–Australia, Korea–Australia, Australia–USA and Japan–Australia have larger trade creation effects in the agricultural sector. At the commodity level, variation in trade creation effects is estimated from the different trade agreements. Among the selected commodities, the larger effects were generated in trade in sugar and wine by the implementation of the majority of the trade agreements. Overall, the trade creation was greater than the export diversion of the FTAs. The findings of the study have implications for Australia’s future trade agreements.     

Stability of international environmental agreements under isoelastic utility

There is now a growing consensus that ratifying International Environmental Agreements (IEAs) is the most effective way to tackle transboundary pollution problems. While the social benefit function (SBF) critically affects emission choices as well as decisions to ratify IEAs, the related economic literature has mainly concentrated on scenarios where the marginal SBF is linear. Using climatic data, I find that the linear marginal SBF case does not match data and isoelastic SBFs fit data better. In the more realistic, but not yet explored, context of isoelastic SBFs, I reconsider incentives to ratify IEAs. My analysis gives rise to novel conclusions. For instance, changes in the scale of damages do not affect the level of cooperation. When the scale of damages is small, variations of the SBF parameter reveal that large coalitions including the coalition of all countries are stable, but only when the potential gain from cooperation is sufficiently high.     

Granting preferential market access in services sequentially versus jointly with goods

Despite the cost and resource‐effectiveness of joint trade negotiations and complementarities between goods and services‐trade flows, more than 12% of the 132 WTO‐notified services‐trade agreements (STAs) in force until August 2015 were entered into effect sequentially to goods‐trade accords. This stylised fact motivates our study of the determinants of joint versus sequential negotiation/accession of goods and services accords, a subject hitherto unexplored in the growing literature on the determinants of STA membership. Our results suggest larger marginal effects of fundamental economic, geographic, institutional, doing business and services regulatory factors on the propensity of joint negotiation/accession compared to STA formation alone. Moreover, cultural‐distance variables are only found to affect the likelihood of joint preferential liberalisation of goods and services trade, without influencing STA‐only membership.     

The welfare effect of a free trade agreement in the presence of foreign direct investment and rules of origin

This paper investigates the welfare effect of forming a free trade agreement (FTA). To receive tariff‐free treatment, firms must comply with the rules of origin (ROO). Outside firms could undertake either market‐oriented or export‐platform foreign direct investments (FDIs). ROO have the following effects: (i) An infeasible FTA may become feasible by deterring outside firms' FDIs, (ii) an FDI of a less efficient firm could replace that of an efficient firm, or (iii) FDIs made before the FTA is concluded might be eliminated. These potential effects complicate the welfare effect of the FTA and could decrease the consumer surplus.     

气候变化视野中的自愿环境协议

气候变化问题的综合性和广泛性决定整个社会每一分子都直接或间接地对气候变化有不可分割的作用。传统环境治理思想过多地将环境管理和提高义务置于诸如政府、环保团体等公共利益卫道士之手,单纯依靠公共利益团体的力量在气候变化背景下已不足以形成有效的社会约束机制,许多高瞻远瞩的企业已意识到自身环境责任与社会形象的重要性,通过自我约束行为为缓解气候变化添砖加瓦,自愿环境协议为此提供了制度平台。国际上早已有将自愿环境协议作为气候变化应对战略的一项重要措施的实践,我国的相关试点工作也已悄然铺开。因此,如何正视自愿环境协议的柔性治理功能,以及如何促进其在我国气候变化应对机制中发挥正面作用,成为我国环境治理面临的新问题。     

我国自愿环境协议的第三方主体选择及其职能安排刍议

自愿环境协议在环境管制的实务中得以流畅运用,政府与企业以外的第三方主体对企业环境绩效所进行的评估功不可没。在我国,可由政府对从事环境服务业的法人实体开展资质认证,依此判断这些组织机构是否具备为协助政府与企业实施自愿环境协议所必要的环境审计能力,并根据所获得的结论建立第三方协议参与者官方认证资源库。通过认证的第三方在自愿环境协议中负责对企业进行环境审计、环境目标执行计划书评审和履约绩效监督,企业购买此类环境服务的费用享受公共财政的支持。     

农民专业合作社自愿供给机制分析

农民专业合作社在产品(和服务)的供给上是具有"自我决策—自我筹资—自我提供"特征的自愿供给。从需求发现、供给决策、服务提供、绩效评价与监督激励、信息反馈等五个密切联系、相互呼应的环节分析农民专业合作社的自愿供给机制,发现因其具有简洁有效的需求发现机制、公开民主的决策机制、公平有效的提供机制、直接有效的绩效评价与监督激励机制、及时有效的信息反馈机制,在及时有效地满足社员的公共需求上具有独特优势,能够更迅捷、准确地了解农民的需求,实现供需均衡。     

为部控制信息自愿披露水平的影响因素研究——基于沪市A股上市公司的经验证据

以2009沪市A股上市公司为样本,采用多元回归分析等方法对上市公司内部控制信息自愿披露的影响因素进行了实证研究。研究发现：上市公司的内控信息自愿性披露主要受地区治理环境、上市公司自身的内部控制质量和上市公司的股权特征等三大因素的影响;更多进行内部控制信息的自愿性披露的公司可能也暗示了其本身的内部控制质量较高。