Climate Change Taxes and Energy Efficiency in Japan

In 2003 Japan proposed a Climate Change Tax to reduce its CO₂ emissions to the level required by the Kyoto Protocol. If implemented, the tax would be levied on fossil fuel use and the revenue distributed to encourage the purchase of energy efficient equipment. Analysis using the MIT Emissions Prediction and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model shows that this policy is unlikely to bring Japan into compliance with its Kyoto target unless the subsidy encourages improvement in energy intensity well beyond Japan’s recent historical experience. Similar demand-management programs in the US, where there has been extensive experience, have not been nearly as effective as they would need to be to achieve energy efficiency goals of the proposal. The Tax proposal also calls for limits on international emission trading. We find that this limit substantially affects costs of compliance. The welfare loss with full emissions trading is 1/6 that when Japan meets its target though domestic actions only, the carbon price is lower, and there is a smaller loss of energy-intensive exports. Japan can achieve substantial savings from emissions trading even under cases where, for example, the full amount of the Russian allowance is not available in international markets.     

Making green discourses matter in policy-making: Learning from discursive power struggles within the policy area of car taxation

This paper is about stability and change in the policy-making discourse of a traditional neoclassical policy area, the area of car taxation. Stability is here related to the unquestioned continuation of a traditional neoclassical economics perspective in policy-making, whereas change is related to the introduction and impact of environmental concerns. The aim of the paper is to investigate, what makes green discourses matter in traditional policy-making. It is based on an in-depth study of policy-making processes related to car taxation in two environmental front-runner countries, Sweden and Denmark.Making green discourses matter in policy-making is an important contemporary environmental challenge. Therefore, as Tian Shi argues, we need more research into the institutional setting of the policy-making process. Ecological economics as a policy science has to have a broad understanding of the political economic nature of the policy process. Taking this standpoint as the point of departure, the paper seeks to uncover questions such as, what is the policy-making reality in which Swedish and Danish green discourses have to make a difference? How do existing neoclassical regimes react, when green actors attempt to influence policy-making from an environmental point of view? And to what extent can green discourses actually have an impact on the policy world within the area of car taxation?The paper concludes that the traditional neoclassical economic discourse is particularly robust and resistant against alternative green discourses. Stability rather than change is the dominating picture. This does not imply that environmental concerns will not be taken into account in the future. Rather it implies that only the changes, which keep up the existing order, or enhance the narrow power-related interests of the dominating actors, will materialise more or less easily. The rest is a power struggle in which timing, coalition-building, persistence and thorough knowledge about the field in question is of importance. In this struggle change agents will also benefit from the ability to rethink dominating ways of thinking and doing in an environmentally benign way. A rethinking that is based on environmental values while at the same time holding positive visions that are ‘compatible’ with the existing dominating discourse.     

Does accessibility to local public employment agencies matter? Answers from a French quasi-experiment

We question whether accessibility to local public employment agencies impacts exits from unemployment. We deal with the potential endogeneity of the residential location of jobseekers by using the unanticipated creation of a new agency in the French region of Lyon as a quasi-natural experiment. We use exhaustive and geo-located individual data on jobseekers and local public employment agencies. Contrary to past evidence based on aggregated data, we find no evidence that jobseekers with improved accessibility to the local public employment services experience an improvement of their probability of exiting unemployment. We however find evidence of transitory organizational effects. These findings strongly question the costly strategy of a fine distribution of local public employment agencies across the territory while suggesting that institutional issues are key.     

就业体制改革不应忽视内部劳动力市场

本文吸收了西方劳动经济学和企业理论的新成果，论述了内部劳动力市场的基本原理，重新审视了我国以往的就业体制改革思路及其成本与收益．提出发展内部劳动力市场是当前深化我国就业体制改革亟待解决的一个重要问题，并阐述了若干具体的操作思路。     

Uncertain Climate Change in an Intergenerational Planning Model

A three-generation planning model incorporating uncertain climate change is developed. Each generation features a production activity based on capital and an exhaustible resource. An irreversible climate change may occur in period two or three, reducing the productivity for this and the remaining generation. The model is solved by stochastic dynamic programming. If the climate impact and climate change probability is constant, the optimal period one (and two) resource extraction is larger than for the reference case of climate stability. If, however, climate impact and climate change probability increases with increased aggregate resource use, this result is reversed.     

中国经济体制改革时期制度变迁的特征分析

从实质上说，中国经济体制改革的过程就是一个制度的重建过程，即以适应市场经济的制度安排取代适应计划经济的制度安排取代适应计划经济的制度安排的过程。在这一制度重建的进程中，市场取向的制度变迁表现出八个方面的典型特征：一是制度变迁需求的内性性；二是制度变迁供给的滞后性；三是制度变迁目标的动态性；四是制度变迁过程的渐进性；五是制度变迁轨迹的路径依赖性；六是从单项制度变迁向制度结构变迁演进；七是强制性制度变迁与诱致性制度变迁相结合；八是宏观经济制度变迁与微观经济制度变迁同步进行。     

FDI引入对中国就业效应分析

伴随着我国开放政策的深化和加入WTO,FDI的就业效应日趋成为学者们的重要研究课题。本文通过对FDI较为系统地分析,认识到FDI的就业效应更应该是一种间接和长远的效应,且其具有空间性和时间性特征。因此本文从FDI的关联性和长远的动态特征等方面对其就业效应进行分析。     

文化变迁与教育价值观

文化变迁是历史发展的必然。我国文化现代变迁的主要特征为开放性、多元性。在重视人与人之间的关系、轻视人与自然之间关系的中国传统价值观的直接影响下,传统的中国教育价值观具有如下特点:重视教育的工具价值,轻视其内在价值;群体利益高于个人利益;重视教育的道德伦理价值,轻视其认知价值。当前,我们要注意科学价值观与人文价值观的有机结合,做好教育价值观的转型工作。     

制度变迁对中国汽车工业增长贡献的实证分析

中国汽车工业增长是粗放型的，技术的贡献极低，而制度变迁贡献的潜力非常大。为此，一方面，要加快汽车工业的技术创新进程；另一方面，要深化汽车工业领域的市场化的制度变迁进程，以推动汽车工业走上高效、集约武增长之路。     

西部产业结构调整的有关问题和对策建议

1990年以来，西部地区产业结构正在按专业化方向加速变动，但是其产业结构的综合素质仍然普遍较低，并且与东部的差距拉大。影响西部产业发展的比较优势向竞争优势转化的因素，主要包括市场条件、制度条件和技术条件。促进西部产业结构调整，就当加快转变政府管理经济的方式，创造良好的体制条件；探索市场经济条件下产业结构调整的新途径；走适合区情的产业发展路子。