A multi-level analysis of sustainable mobility transitions: Niche development in the UK and Sweden

A wide range of intractable problems such as polluting emissions, noise, accidents, resource depletion, and inaccessibility of amenities are associated with the current transport regime. Given the slow movement towards a more sustainable mobility system, more radical, systemic innovation - a ‘transition’ - is required. Broadly speaking, this may be achieved via three routes: technological change, modal shift, and reduced travel demand. Drawing on concepts from the transitions literature (e.g., [Geels, F.W.: Technological Transitions and System Innovations: A Co-evolutionary and Socio-Technical Analysis, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2005.]), we conceptualise each of these routes as a bundle of niche activities within an Area of Innovation, deviating to differing degrees from the current mobility ‘regime’. We present empirical evidence and indications of ongoing development of niches in these three areas within the UK and Sweden, and explore processes of co-evolution, divergence and tension within and between niches. Findings indicate recent market penetration of novel transport technologies, more advanced than modal shift or demand management activities; however, different transport technologies are more successful in each country. We also identify examples of a close relationship between development of radical vehicle/fuel technologies and provision of mobility services; and information technology as a driver in all three areas of innovation. We conclude that future innovation in transport depends on diversity, hybridisation, and co-evolution of niches. Finally, policy implications are discussed.     

外汇储备剧增导致的货币政策困境

外汇储备是体现和制约货币政策有效性的重要因素。根据“三元悖论”,中国政府为确保汇率稳定,同时实现资本准自由流动,必定要以牺牲货币政策独立性为代价。外汇储备超常增长、大量外汇占款导致央行货币政策的实施陷入被动和效果趋弱的困境,给宏观调控政策的选择提出更加复杂的难题。基于此现状,本文对该困境形成的原因和不利影响加以分析,尝试寻求解决办法。     

制度变迁与内生经济增长

本文将制度变迁引入了内生增长模型,刻画了制度影响经济增长的内在机制,求解了社会计划者问题的均衡解,并对解的经济含义进行了讨论。模型的基本结论是,制度变迁是经济增长的决定性因素,政府可以通过合理配置人力资本来促进经济增长。     

治理理论视阈下交通运输社会管制制度分析

改革开放以来,我国交通运输业取得了令人瞩目的成就,但与此同时,交通安全、环境污染等问题也日益突出。在交通运输行业我们的社会管制制度存在着错位、越位和缺位等问题,为此本文运用了新制度经济学的制度变迁理论和公共治理理论对我国交通运输社会管制制度进行了分析探讨,认为传统的交通运输行业政府管理模式具有强大的惯性作用,决定了我国交通运输社会管制的制度变迁表现出比较明显的“路径依赖”性,正处于制度从均衡状态——不均衡状态——均衡状态中的不均衡状态即锁定状态,要实现交通运输社会管制制度的创新,我们必须要改革交通运输行业政府管理模式,由交通运输行业政府单极治理模式向社会、公众和政府的交通运输多元治理模式转变。     

Embodying Embodiment in a Structural,Macroeconomic Input-Output Model

In this paper, I develop a regression-based system of labour productivity equations that account for capital-embodied technological change and I incorporate this system into IDLIFT, a structural, macroeconomic input-output model of the US economy. Builders of regression-based forecasting models have long had difficulty finding labour productivity equations that exhibit the "Solowian' property that movements in investment should cause accompanying movements in labour productivity. The production theory developed by Solow and others dictates that this causation is driven by the effect of traditional capital deepening as well as technological change embodied in capital. Lack of measurement of the latter has hampered the ability of researchers to estimate properly the productivity-investment relationship. Recent research by Wilson (2001) has alleviated this difficulty by estimating industry-level embodied technological change. In this paper, I utilize those estimates to construct capital stocks adjusted for technological change and then use these adjusted stocks to estimate Solow-type labour productivity equations. It is shown that replacing IDLIFT's former productivity equations, based on changes in output and time trends, with the new equations, results in a convergence between the dynamic behaviour of the model and that predicted by traditional (Solowian) production theory.     

Position limit for the CSI 300 stock index futures market

The aim of this study was to find the optimal position limit for the Chinese stock index (CSI) 300 futures market. A low position limit helps to prevent price manipulations in the spot market, and thus keeps the magnitude of instantaneous price changes within the tolerance range of policymakers. However, setting a position limit that is too low may also have negative effects on market quality. We propose an artificial limit order market with heterogeneous interacting agents to examine the impact of different levels of position limits on market quality, measured as liquidity, return volatility, efficiency of information dissemination, and trading welfare. The simulation model is based on realistic trading mechanisms, investor structure, and order submission behavior observed in the CSI 300 futures market.Our results show that on the basis of the liquidity status in September 2010, raising the position limit from 100 to 300 could significantly improve market quality and at the same time keep the maximum absolute price change per 5 s below the 2% tolerance level. However, the improvement becomes only marginal if the position limit is further increased beyond 300. Therefore, we believe that raising the position limit to a moderate level can enhance the functionality of the CSI 300 futures market, which should benefit the development of the Chinese financial system.     

Local Government Modernization: UK and Comparative Analysis from an Organizational Perspective

This article analyses three strands of local government modernization. The first takes an overview of the development of 'modernization' and 'improvement' of local government in the UK under the Labour government since 1997 and the overall programme of reform. We discuss both the shifts and the continuities with the previous decade and a half of the 'new public management' of Conservative administrations. We examine the implicit assumptions about how to achieve organizational and cultural change, arguing that much modernization is premised on a mechanistic metaphor of organizational change. The second section of the article examines other metaphors and theories of organizational change, arguing for the need to consider institutional and organizational perspectives in analysing local government modernization. The third section of the article then applies some organizational concepts to the comparative analysis of local government modernization.     

POLICY MAKING FOR INDUSTRIAL COMPETITIVENESS IN PORTUGAL - Patterns of change in a traditional bureaucracy

In Portugal the EEC membership represented a major change in Portuguese Administration functioning. This article uses the new institutionalism approach and the concept of path-dependence to analyse the change in the functioning of a central directorate reponsible for industrial policy. It argues that despite the external pressures for change has altered the directorate operations, there are patterns of continuity which are path-dependent. The response to change shows institutional reproduction in traditional features which is partly due to the reluctance to change traditional methods and partly because of the routines, procedures and norms embedded in the culture.     

政府采购制度变迁的双层次互动进化博弈模型

宏观层次和微观层次的博弈具有互动性,政府、财政部门和微观主体的博弈行为可以用这种互动博弈联系起来。正是宏观层次中央政府与各级财政部门、微观层次各级财政部门和微观主体的重复博弈,而使得双层次互动博弈模型为一个动态的模型,从而得到了进化安定策略(ESS),达到进化安定均衡。