湖南西部旅游资源一体化开发战略研究

湖南西部地区有着丰富而独特的旅游资源,但旅游开发很不平衡。站在湖南省经济发展战略全局的高度,应当将西部的旅游资源进行有效的整合,实施一体化开发战略,从而形成以张家界为核心的旅游产业大发展的新格局,把旅游产业真正发展成为西部地区的龙头产业,全面带动西部地区的经济发展。     

Problems of private industrial economic development and its countermeasures for Zigong City,Sichuan Province,China

The differences of regional economic development between underdeveloped areas and developed areas are mainly embodied by different levels of private economic development. Since 20-year reform and opening-up to the outside world, the private industry of Zigong has developed gradually, become more and more economically competitive, and played a more and more important role in the economic structure of Zigong. This paper analyzes the problems of private economy and its countermeasures based on the research on its status quo.     

对外贸易对西部经济增长作用的实证分析

西部大开发实施以来,西部对外贸易对GDP的拉动度并没有发生显著变化,对GDP的贡献也远低于全国平均水平。促进西部经济增长,应优化出口商品的结构,提高进口增长率,保持进出口平衡,拓展边境贸易,发展西部各省的特色经济。     

中部崛起与西部开发的财政收支分析

本文研究表明，在西部开发进程中，国债投资占有较大比重，中部崛起需要充分调动地区的积极性；中部、西部与东部相比，地方企业上缴税收的能力相对不足；中部、西部对于行政收费和农业税收依赖较重，取消农业税后需要开辟新的财政收入渠道；优化中部、西部地区的财政收支状况，关键在于调整地方财政的收支结构。     

Extinction accounting and accountability: Empirical evidence from the west European tissue industry

Recently, human activities are more and more invasive with respect to biodiversity. Several studies highlighted the key role played by accountants in contributing to the development of tools able to support company in assessing, reporting, and disseminating, as well as accomplishing, the preservation of natural species and ecosystems (King and Atkins, 2016). Corporate reporting of environmental information might increase the credibility of forest certifications, given that some scholars argued that certified forests are not often run, in a sustainable way. Moreover, certifications sometimes cover harmful forest practices (Elad, 2014) and do not ensure a good quality of environmental reporting and performance. The research question therefore intends to explore how extinction accounting and accountability (EAA) is able to reflect ex post the company's business strategy and, at the same time, influence ex ante its formulation by easing the prevention of deforestation risk and addressing the issue of credibility through specific actions. In more detail, the “Emancipatory Framework for Extinction Accounting and Accountability” (EFEAA) (Atkins and Maroun, 2018) was tested using content and interpretative analyses based on the reports inherent to top four companies working in West Europe in the tissue industry, where the preservation of forest heritage is a “compulsory route” for assuring the business sustainability, in terms of both raw material renewal and brand reputation. The findings highlighted the first attempt to carry out a qualitative research over the management of forest issues. In our study, companies tend to report advantages arising from the use of forest, but this kind of disclosure is too generic without providing evidence over the ecosystem services forests produce. Moreover, firm size affects the quantity and the quality of disclosure. At last, managerial implications and future research avenues are outlined and discussed.     

Mapping changes in land use/land cover and prediction of future extension of bowé in Benin,West Africa

Desertification and land degradation are worldwide problems affecting soil, vegetation and the livelihoods of rural populations. Bowal (plural bowé) is a particular form of degraded land that occurs in tropical regions and leads to the exposure of ferricretes, which are unsuitable for farming. Bowé are more common on farmland and degraded savanna. Changes in land use/land cover were used to map a region of 6.7 million ha in northern Benin, West Africa in 1975, 1990 and 2010. The changes observed during these periods (1975–1990, 1990–2010 and 1975–2010) were used to predict the occurrence of bowé in the period up to 2050 using Markovian chain analysis. The results showed a considerable change in land use/land cover during the three periods. The types of land on which bowé occur (farmland and degraded savanna) increased in northern Benin by 5.4% per year during the period 1975–1990 and 9.5% per year during the periods 1990–2010, while the natural vegetation (forest, woodland and tree savanna) decreased by the same amount. The future scenarios also predicted the same trend. In the period 1975–1990, 1.28 million ha (26%) of natural vegetation was converted to degraded savanna and farmland while 2.23 million ha (53%) of natural vegetation was converted to degraded savanna and farmland in the period 1990–2010. Based on the dynamics recorded during the period 1975–1990 and 1990–2010 respectively, a total of 1.28 million ha (26% of the natural vegetation that was present in 1975) and 1.29 million ha (31% of the natural vegetation that was present in 1990) will be converted to farmland and degraded savanna in the study area by 2050.Thus bowalization will persist and increase in the period up to 2050. The natural vegetation could disappear if protection and restoration measures are not taken. It is thus important to take measures to stop the degradation and to implement programs to restore soils on bowé based on the soil and water conservation techniques used on highly degraded West African soils, such as zaï pit and stone rows with grass strips. Some native plants species adapted to bowalization and resistant to climate change in northern Benin (e.g. Asparagus africanus, Andropogon pseudapricus and Combretum nigricans) should be used in association with soil and water conservation techniques on bowé.     

A model of West African millet prices in rural markets

In this article we specify a model of millet prices in the three West African countries of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. Using data obtained from USAID’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) we present a unique regional millet price forecasting model that takes advantage of the panel nature of our data and accounts for the distance of rural markets from capital cities. Another novel aspect of our analysis is our use of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to detect and control for variation in conditions for productivity. We find that including NDVI information significantly improves price forecasts.     

Does ethnic diversity decrease economic interactions? Evidence from exchange networks in rural Gambia

Using a unique dataset collected in 59 rural Gambian villages, we study how ethnic heterogeneity is related to the structure of four economic exchange networks: land, labour, inputs and credit. We find that different measures of village‐level ethnic fragmentation are mostly uncorrelated with network structure. At a more disaggregated level, household heads belonging to ethnic minorities are not less central than those from the predominant ethnicity in any of the networks and, at the dyadic level, the fact that two households share ethnicity is not an economically significant predictor of link formation. Our results indicate that, in the particular setting of our study, the structure of the exchange networks is better defined by other variables than ethnicity and that ethnic heterogeneity is unlikely to be a driver for sub‐optimal economic exchanges.     

西方幼儿教育对我国幼儿教育发展的启示——以英国、美国为例

当今世界是幼儿身心全面健康发展的新时期,幼儿也将承担者本世纪建设祖国的主力军。因此,学习和借鉴西方幼儿教育的发展对促进我国幼儿教育的进一步发展具有一定的现实意义。本文试图通过分析西方幼儿教育的特点,结合我国幼儿教育的实践经验,以寻求最佳的幼儿教育新理念。