Voting on prices vs. voting on quantities in a World Climate Assembly

This paper posits the conceptually useful allegory of a futuristic “World Climate Assembly” that votes on global carbon emissions via the basic principle of majority rule. Two variants are considered. One is to vote on a universal price (or tax) that is internationally harmonized, but the proceeds from which are domestically retained. The other is to vote on the overall quantity of total worldwide emissions, which are then distributed for free (via a pre-decided fractional subdivision formula) as individual allowance permits that are subsequently marketed in an international cap-and-trade system. The model of the paper suggests that the majority-voted price is likely to be less distortionary and easier to enact than the majority-voted total quantity of permits. Some possible implications for climate-change negotiations are noted.     

Shrinking Cities,Shrinking Households,or Both?

Household size decline accounts for a substantial portion of population loss in shrinking cities, yet little research has focused on it. Much of the literature presents a simple growth/decline binary that is largely determined via population figures. In this paper, we highlight the importance and assess the impact of household size changes on population decline, and determine what types of household size declines are more acute in shrinking cities than other locales. We find that elderly households and households with school-aged children are under-represented in shrinking cities, while households with pre-school-aged children are over-represented. More tellingly, we find the biggest source of household-related loss in shrinking cities to be the growth of single-person households now living in houses that were once home to entire families. These findings puncture the binary on which much of the shrinking cities discourse is based. The population dynamics of most cities are subtler than either practitioners or critical scholars assert. We argue that plans and development strategies for shrinking cities should reflect a range of demographic changes, including outmigration and internal household restructuring.     

Creative Cities,Graffiti and Culture-Led Development in South Africa: Dlala Indima (‘Play Your Part’)

Creative cities and culture-led development discourses have come under increasing scrutiny as elite-centric economic development agendas tend to trump ‘civic creativity’ ideals as imagined by Charles Landry. In South Africa, culture-led development and cultural policy tends to primarily mimic that of the global North, largely focusing on culture as a catalyst for economic and property development. Public art commissioning processes tend to focus on decorative projects as part of urban upgrading, which are often associated with ensuing gentrification and displacement of the urban poor. In contrast to focusing on these kinds of regeneration strategies, this article investigates Dlala Indima, a hip-hop-led graffiti project in a rural township in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. This article situates graffiti as a critical social and spatial practice to argue that this case challenges normative cultural planning paradigms. Dlala Indima's work is an alternative approach to cultural development by and for young people who are usually marginalized by the mainstream practice of culture-led economic development. The project challenges dominant creative cities and culture-led development discourses in three ways: first, it challenges the normative processes of regeneration; secondly, it grounds participatory practice; and finally, it shifts participation from ‘tyranny to transformation’ through the ubuntu of hip-hop, the notion of ubuntu being based on the communitarian notion of ‘ubuntu, ngubuntu ngabantu’—‘I am because you are’.     

二级城市发展现代服务业的困境和解决途径--以苏州、无锡、杭州为例

近年来,我国大都市区中的二级城市在制造业的支撑下获得了快速发展,形成了制造业和首位城市水平分工,现代服务业高度依赖首位城市的产业分工格局.本文从维持二级城市经济持续成长的角度出发,以上海都市区的三座特大二级城市苏州、无锡和杭州为例,研究了二级城市现代服务业发展的现状,分析了二级城市现代服务业发展的限制性因素,从市场、优先发展的部门、产业组织、制度环境的营造等方面探讨了加速二级城市现代服务业发展的可能途径.     

小城镇经济辐射区研究--以重庆为例

本文以重庆为例,分析了小城镇经济辐射区范围的形成受行政范围、自然条件、人口规模、城镇用地规模、经济结构、经济规模、交通和市场等八个主要因素的影响,指出小城镇经济辐射能力弱、辐射范围小是欠发达地区普遍存在的现实问题,并在此基础上提出了相关建议.     

Competition in Turkish Banking: Impacts of Restructuring and the Global Financial Crisis

This paper investigates the evolution of competition in the Turkish banking industry by taking into account the transformation in the sector in the aftermath of the country's financial crisis of 2000 to 2001 and the global financial crisis. The results demonstrate that the level of competition in the system did not increase despite the restructuring that was undertaken and the increased foreign bank participation. In addition, the level of competition in the sector deteriorated during the global crisis. There is also some evidence that the market power of banks with different ownership characteristics varied and did not converge over time.     

A ‘Legislation-Check’ based on ‘3-D Sustainability’ - Addressing global precautionary land governance

This paper aims to provide a new and practical approach called ‘Legislation-Check’ to identifying shortcomings in national legislation in terms of how well it implements sustainable development, and ways of improving the legislation. National legislation was chosen as it represents a sort of ‘skeleton of society’ and defines the status quo, as well as setting the main environmental, societal and economic directions of the population covered.The approach presented is based on a new concept called ‘3-D Sustainability’, which focuses on the precautionary principle. 3-D Sustainability provides criteria in a flexible hierarchy for solving conflicts of interest between economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. In this paper, these criteria and dimensions are applied to various sectors of Austrian national environmental legislation to identify the shortcomings of the legislation and ways of addressing these shortcomings.This paper shows, by way of quantitative data, a significant increase in the use of sustainability related terms in generally applicable legal instruments (both federal and provincial) in Austria since 2003. In qualitative terms the results of the paper further indicate, using national environmental legislation, several hierarchical disorders between different legal acts and opportunities for improving them. Furthermore, inadequacies in the way that the legislation handles sustainable development and a total lack of overall objectives and targets in terms of sustainability are highlighted, which can jeopardise sustainable development.The concept of ‘3-D Sustainability’ has not previously focused on national legislation, despite the practical importance of the legal implementation and enforcement on this geographic level. Hence, this paper contributes, through scientifically-based decision support, to practical pathways for the innovation of institutional, procedural and substantive arrangements in existing legislation.The approach presented in this paper is not restricted to environmental issues, but is applicable to all thematic areas. It is also not geographically limited, but could be implemented in any country and also beyond national borders. Furthermore, the approach can be easily replicated and provides systematically gained results for global governance change towards sustainable development.     

支持资源枯竭型城市转型的财政政策探讨

随着主体资源的不断减少,资源枯竭型城市必然面临转型的路径选择。在转型的过程中资源枯竭型城市受到资源匮乏、产业结构单一、生态环境恶化、社会矛盾突出等问题的困扰,需要用产业政策、财税政策、环境保护政策、社会保障政策等构建公共政策支持系统,破解城市在转型中的困境,财政政策是其中重要的因素之一。     

智能城市创新生态系统发展研究

探讨了智能城市与城市创新之间的关系,在给出改进三螺旋模型和未来互联网发展内涵的基础上,总括出智能城市创新生态系统发展的实现机制,构建了以政府、企业、大学（研究机构）为主体要素的智能城市创新创新生态系统,提出了城市创新生态系统构建的途径和政策保障,为深化我国城市向着国际生态智慧型城市发展提供了新视角。