The Welfare Economics of a Biofuel Tax Credit and the Interaction Effects with Price Contingent Farm Subsidies

A framework is developed to analyze the effects of a biofuel consumer tax exemption and the interaction effects with a price contingent farm subsidy. Ethanol prices rise above the gasoline price by the amount of the tax credit. Corn farmers gain directly while gasoline consumers only gain from any reduction in world oil prices due to the extra ethanol production. Domestic oil producers lose. Historically, the intercept of the ethanol supply curve is above the gasoline price. Hence, part of the tax credit is redundant and represents rectangular deadweight costs that dwarf triangular deadweight cost measures of traditional farm subsidies.     

The use of ex-ante modelling tools in European Impact Assessment: What role does land use play?

Impact Assessment was introduced by the European Commission in 2002 in order to make policy development more transparent and improve the ‘quality’ of European policies. Cross-sectoral consultation, broad participation and the quantitative assessment of the impacts of policies are significant elements of this process. This article specifically addresses the role of tools modelling the impact of policies on land use in Impact Assessment. The choice of a specific modelling tool is conceptualised as an action situation interlinked with other action arenas. The article aims to uncover the institutions structuring the action situation. The outcome of the empirical work suggests that two types of Impact Assessments can be distinguished. Impact Assessments either substantively contribute to the specific policy that the Commission proposes or they legitimise policy choices ex post that have already been adopted. The legislative procedure that applies to a specific policy sector, the policy making culture in the DG and the stakes that are at issue seem to influence whether Impact Assessments contribute to policy development, or legitimise it. Furthermore, the article describes the situation in which desk officers choose a modelling tool throughout Impact Assessment. To advance their careers desk officers aim to produce policy proposals which respond to the issues raised by the actors involved in Impact Assessment and specifically in policy development and, later on, adoption. Therefore, desk officers’ preferences are shaped by the community that is involved in policy development and Impact Assessment. The article describes what role modelling tools play in European Impact Assessment procedures and it names the heuristic of criteria which desk officers use to choose a modelling tool. Besides several technical and data problems of modelling land use impact, it seems to be unlikely that land use will become a significant dimension of Impact Assessment and modelling as it is confronted with an unfavourable institutional environment at the European level.     

The evolving concepts of land administration in China: Cultivated land protection perspective

This paper presents a holistic method by integrating three concepts (land resources management, assets supervision and political governance for sustainability) for investigation of land administration in China, taking into consideration of cultivated land protection for a testimony with econometric method. Theoretically, in this self-organizing integrated method, land resources management focuses on the productivity of land; land assets supervision centralizes on the realization of land usufruct rights in land transference; land political governance for sustainability concentrates on harmonious linkage of economic efficiency, social stability and environmental safety of land use. Their interrelations are complex. Methodologically, the results indicate that the theoretical model is feasible to explain variations of cultivated land protection with these three concepts. Cultivated land decreases with increasing land value increment multiples, and is positive with political governance concept, but not in a linear fashion. Finally the results suggest that roles of government in land administration need to be changed and strengthened, supporting complete compensation for land expropriation and modification to policies of cultivated land.     

竞争促进、市场扩张与消费者福利增进——基于我国移动语音通信市场的面板数据

利用2002—2008年我国31个省(自治区、直辖市)电信市场的面板数据,采用对数差分两阶段最小二乘法,估计了我国移动语音通信市场的Marshall需求函数,进而测算了我国移动语音通信市场的消费者福利变化。结果表明:2002—2008年期间我国移动语音通信市场的消费者福利经历了一个持续增加的过程,但消费者福利增加呈明显的减缓趋势;消费者福利的持续增进主要是竞争导致的市场不断扩张和价格持续下降的结果,而价格下降速度变慢导致消费者福利增加趋缓;与发达国家相比,我国移动语音通信服务的价格仍然明显偏高,因此可进一步降低价格来增加消费者福利。     

美国国家公园公益性建设的启示

通过对美国国家公园管理体系、理念的介绍,并结合实际,指出了在中国国家公园建设中应体现出公益性特征。现阶段应通过对各类景区门票价格的适度控制来体现公益性,并逐渐对现有景区管理制度进行整合,最终取消景区属地管理,建立国家公园制度,实行国家公园与地方公园两级遗产管理体系,最终促使各类遗产景观门票价格设置在合理水平,保障公民的游览权益,体现其公益性。     

经济快速发展地区农业土地利用变化驱动机制研究--以无锡市东亭镇、安镇镇和羊尖镇为例

以长江三角洲地区无锡市东亭镇、安镇镇和羊尖镇为例，通过应用德尔菲法和主成分分析法选择农地利用变化影响因素的基础上，构建了区域农业土地利用变化的驱动模型，并据此着重分析了区域农地数量变化与区域经济发展、城市化水平、农业集约化、城市(上海市)辐射力以及耕地保护政策变化之间的相互关系。研究结果表明，区域农业土地利用变化是上述因素综合作用的结果，并且在不同的乡镇，农地数量变化的驱动因素是有所差异的，而且区域社会经济发展的不同时期，各驱动因素的重要程度也是动态变化的。最后，作者就经济快速发展地区农业土地可持续利用管理提出若干政策建议，合理保护农地尤其是耕地资源；重视耕地质量占补平衡；依据农业产业发展态势，积极调整农地利用结构；推进非农产业升级，合理控制非农用地规模；进一步完善土地利用的经济约束机制和土地利用决策体系；加强区域合作，避免产业结构的趋同导致的土地利用结构的趋同；促进产业科技进步，提高土地利用占用效率。     

Analyzing Daqing＇s Urban Spatial Form Evolution： Basing on the Technology of RS and GIS

以我国目前最大石油城市——大庆市为研究对象,选取1984、1995、2007年3个城市建设关键时间节点,以Landsat MSS、TM卫星影像为主要数据源,利用GIS技术提取城市建设用地规模、形态、增长幅度、区位坐标等信息,计算城市空间扩张速度、强度、城市空间形态紧凑度、分维指数、城市增长理性程度等空间特征量,分析大庆市1984年以来城市空间扩张现象和特征,并结合经济社会统计相关数据及区域分析方法,探究其因果关系。研究认为,大庆市城市空间扩张与形态演化具有石油城市发展的典型性和一般规律,表现出建设用地总量大、扩张速度快、强度高、增量分布不均衡、空间形态不规则、紧凑度低、城市中心地迁移方向与用地扩张基本一致等特征。这些现象和特征的主要形成原因包括石油开发战略指向、自然环境约束、交通设施引导、城市规划调控、中心地功能变迁等五个方面。     

国际贸易中的动物福利问题研究及我国的对策

动物福利的出现,一方面是经济发展和社会进步的表现;另一方面,是由于发达国家和发展中国家之间存在着巨大的差异。文章对动物福利和动物福利壁垒内涵作深入的剖析,从市场准入限制、产业竞争力影响和贸易抑制影响等方面分析了动物福利壁垒所产生的经济效应;指出动物福利壁垒对我国出口贸易的影响越来越明显。因此,正确认识动物福利问题、增强动物福利意识、加强动物福利立法、建立预警机制、改革农牧业的生产方式、加大投入和依法抵制新贸易保护主义是我国应对动物福利壁垒的主要策略和措施。     

Seize the Moment: Financial Crisis and the Making of the Finnish Competition State

In this paper we examine how Finnish Governments dismantled the Nordic welfare state paradigm from the 1990s onwards and adopted Schumpeterian ideas of a competitive workfare state. In the early 1990s, Finland went through a financial crisis that was the most severe in OECD countries since the Second World War and came to play a major role in the paradigm change. In the crisis, the Ministry of Finance gained a central role as a consensus-building power broker, and formulated a political strategy of national competitiveness, which was adopted as a rationale of power for consensual governments and has been maintained since. We suggest that financial crises can become formative moments in which new ideas are adopted and policies are reformulated. They can also become moments which provide opportunity to overcome citizen opinion. In Finland, the wide popular and party support for the Nordic welfare model was not reflected in the new paradigm.