Modelling the supply of ecosystem services from agriculture: a minimum‐data approach*

We argue that to support agriculture–environmental policy decision making, stakeholders need ‘quantitative back‐of‐the‐envelope’ analysis that is timely and sufficiently accurate to make informed decisions. We apply this concept to the analysis of the supply of ecosystem services from agriculture. We present a spatially explicit production model and show how it can be used to derive the supply of ecosystem services in a region. This model shows that the supply of ecosystem services can be derived from the spatial distribution of opportunity cost of providing those services. We then show how this conceptual model can be used to develop a minimum‐data (MD) approach to the analysis of the supply of ecosystem services from agriculture that can be implemented with the kinds of secondary data that are available in most parts of the world. We apply the MD approach to simulate the supply of carbon that could be sequestered in agricultural soils in the dryland grain‐producing region of Montana. We find that the supply curve derived from the MD approach can approximate the supply curve obtained from a more elaborate model based on site‐specific data, and can do so with sufficient accuracy for policy analysis.     

禁伐背景下林区最低生活保障制度探析——以大兴安岭国有林区为例

通过对大兴安岭林区最低生活保障制度的调查发现:大兴安岭林区最低生活保障制度存在城乡保障标准水平差距大、保障标准确定不合理以及动态调整机制不健全等问题。在全面禁伐实施后,这种情况将会更加严重。因此,应提高林区人民的低保保障水平,使之不至于因"禁伐令"的实施而使生活陷入困难。基于此建议:提高农村低保标准,缩小城乡差距,逐步实现低保制度城乡一体化,不断完善动态调节机制,加强中央财政转移支付力度。     

中国统一的最低养老保险制度实现路径、挑战和机制

中国养老保险制度以缴费型的第一支柱为主体、统账结合和城乡差距明显的现实,决定了将现有的城镇职工养老保险、灵活就业人员养老保险和新农保制度中基本养老金确定为最低养老金,将城乡最低养老金按照不同的速度逐渐调整为统一的最低养老金并使其覆盖全体老年人,就成为了中国统一最低养老保险的现实路径。要实现统一的最低养老保险,就要在待遇端构建城乡基础养老金的调整及统一机制,在缴费端优化统账结构并构建中国养老保险个人缴费减免补偿机制。     

Taxable treatment of the subsistence level of income in German Natural Law

Natural Law has influenced German tax theories up to the present day. It has also influenced the request for the subsistence level exemption and the granting of a basic allowance, which only developed their full persuasiveness when derived from Natural Law. This paper shows that Natural Law tax theory (mid 1600s to early 1800s), based the subsistence level tax exemption on the right to live, the individualistic state contract theory and the ability-to-pay principle. It also reveals that Adam Smith's view regarding ability-to-pay as a basis for taxation was already contained in British Natural Law and in older German traditions.     

劳动福利政策的经济学分析

旨在造福广大劳动者的劳动福利政策，实质上由劳资双方共同负担，某种情况下其对劳动者工资和就业的回挫效应还很大。劳动福利政策可行与否，取决于所产生的社会福利增加与成本之间的比较。若带来的社会福利超过社会成本，就可推行，社会感受到的福利越大，则该政策推行的必要性越大，反之则宜慎行。     

Descriptive statistics of large data sets by scatter plots, an exploratory approach

In the analysis of large tables of M variables on N observations one is interested in the relations between the variables and it is usual to inspect the M(M-1)/2 scatter plots of N points. Clearly, the scatter plot approach relies on visual inspection and is to be preferred in so far as applicable to detect simple relations, namely when M is small. Other approaches are needed for large values of M .
We consider that only the relatively few scatter plots that present a 'structure' are of interest for an exploratory analysis and, by 'structure', we mean a domain of specially high local density in the plot. Based on this concept, we propose a method constructed around two steps: the selection of the possibly interesting pairs of variables and the validation of the corresponding scatter plots. The selection of the pairs results from an algorithm based on a binary partitioning tree. The validation of the corresponding scatter plots enables the production of only those where a structure is found the recognition of a structure is derived from a statistic based on the length of the Minimum Spanning Tree constructed on the N points of the candidate scatter plot.
For illustration, we report on an industrial application where the method is routinely applied for exploratory purposes.     

Market Liberalization,Regulatory Uncertainty,and Firm Investment

This paper analyzes the effects of regulatory uncertainty regarding labor costs on investment in a liberalized market. We distinguish between the external investment margin (market entry) and the internal investment margin (technology), and establish that regulatory uncertainty affects these margins differently, encouraging market entry, but discouraging technological investment. As a consequence, the impact of regulatory uncertainty on competition in liberalized markets is a combination of these two countervailing forces.     

失地农民低保制度建设的分析探讨

伴随着城市化的步伐,承包给农民的部分农村集体土地被征用,不少失地农民因此成为"种田无地,上班无岗,低保无份"的"三无"人员。目前全国各地针对失地农民中的贫困者的制度设计和救助水平不同,由此也对低保制度构成挑战,这其中有制度性原因,也有地方规划等政策导向因素。总体来说,将贫困失地农民纳入城市低保制度体系是社会发展的趋势,需要从调整土地安置政策、加强全面的社会救助制度、加强社会管理等方面来解决贫困失地农民的生存和发展问题。     

最低工资、就业弹性及就业效应研究

最低工资标准的提升对于就业的效应究竟是正是负,目前理论界并没有一致的论证结果。本文首先从市场结构和企业应对措施两个角度,梳理了西方学界关于最低工资对就业影响的作用机理,然后建立一个涉及农民工、企业和政府三方的博弈模型,推导出行业就业弹性对劳动参与的关键作用,并利用全国各省市六个行业的面板数据进行了实证分析。本文的主要结论是,最低工资的实施标准按行业设置比目前按地区＂一刀切＂的模式更具科学性。