水资源的两性分析与缓解两性的相关对策

针对我国日益严峻的水资源形势,用经济学理论和方法分析水资源的稀缺性和外部性,并根据科斯第三定理,提出明晰水权、建立水市场等缓解水资源稀缺性和外部性的对策。     

When natural resources run out,market knowledge steps in: Lessons on natural resource deployment from a longitudinal study in a resource-scarce region of Ethiopia

With the increasing scarcity of natural resources, the ability to maintain quality standards during resource-scarce times becomes more critical for business performance. Theories on managing resource scarcity cannot be easily tested in contexts where resources are still abundant. This study therefore turns to an emerging market context in which natural resource availability naturally varies strongly between seasons, namely, that of Ethiopian pastoralists who for many generations learned to adapt to natural resource scarcity. Central to our theory is the natural resource deployment capability, which is the ability of a business to make efficient and effective use of available resources to maintain business performance during resource-scarce times. Using three-wave longitudinal data from 120 pastoral family-based livestock businesses, the study shows that when resources are scarce or extremely scarce, market knowledge helps to better deploy the scarce natural resources, leading to higher product quality. The findings imply that businesses with a better understanding of markets have stronger natural resource deployment capability. The lesson for businesses that are confronted with approaching resource scarcity is therefore to strengthen their ability to deploy resources efficiently and effectively by strengthening their market knowledge in which such capability is rooted.     

Environmental versus Human-Induced Scarcity in the Commons: Do They Trigger the Same Response?

We study appropriation strategies in common pool resources where extinction is a credible threat. Here we present an experimental study of the appropriation of common pool resources in a dynamic setting where resource availability depends on the initial environmental characteristics of the common resource and on human-induced resource depletion due to users’ appropriation patterns. Our results show that initial resource scarcity limits appropriation by inducing an initial caution among users that persists throughout of the game. Additionally, we find that subjects restrain their appropriation strategies when scarcity increases. However, this concern for resource scarcity is not enough to prevent resource depletion. Agents do not counteract the previous rounds’ appropriation strategies but follow the appropriation trend. High appropriation levels are followed by higher appropriation strategies, thus promoting the well known tragedy of the commons. Often concern for resource preservation is not great enough to limit appropriation.      

Water pricing reform analysis: alternative scenarios

This paper compares alternative transition paths to efficient water pricing. The analysis is based on representative agent model, where two sources of water supply exist: exhaustible groundwater stock and a renewable substitute. Two alternative water pricing reforms are considered: gradual tariff increase and multipart pricing with first block sold at the initial pre-reform tariff and additional water sold at higher prices (block pricing reform). Under block pricing reform, the amount of water offered at low price gradually diminishes. The results of comparative analysis prove that under the same reform time horizon block pricing is preferred to the gradual tariff increase.     

Open access,common property and scarcity rent in fisheries

Open access resources are frequently not managed efficiently, resulting in falling stock levels and a declining income for fishermen. In the late 1970's, the policy response to this problem was the implementation of 200-mile fishing zones, which enabled the European Union to formulate and implement the Common Fisheries Policy, aimed at (among other things) conservation and distribution of available stocks. In Germany, this shift from an open access regime towards a common property regime had favourable outcomes. The trend of falling prices was reversed. The conclusion was that intertemporal efficiency had increased as a result of (inter)governmental policy. Apparently, a wedge was formed between price and marginal harvesting costs, implying that scarcity rent had returned as a component of prices.     

Diffusion of Products with Limited Supply and Known Expiration Date

In this paper, we provide a model for diffusion of products, which are available in limited quantity until a known expiration date, after which the unsold products have no value. We consider the case of a performing arts company. The model development is built on the foundation of classical product diffusion model by Bass (1969) and the psychological effect known as the scarcity principle (Cialdini, 1985). Our empirical analysis results show that the proposed model can provide significant improvement in prediction of the products characterized by the scarcity effect.     

信息不对称与电子商务的发展

本文认为,信息不对称引致的信用缺失是制约电子商务发展的重要因素,发展我国电子商务除了继续加强基础设施建设外,建立和完善社会信用体系,提高信用度是必不可少的重要方面。文章提出,要建立良好的信息沟通渠道和机制,使信息公众化、公开化;提高企业组织化程度;制定企业信用评价制度:健全法制,约束企业交易行为,提高其信用度;消除信息不对称,促进我国电子商务健康发展。     

The Ecology of Trade

Trading behavior occurs in many species but has a particularly elaborate form in humans. Trade is defined as the mutually beneficial, adaptive transfer of goods and services between organisms. Trade has a competitive element and responds to changes in relative scarcity. Trade is demonstrated to be a biological phenomenon rather than an artefact of human civilisation. Species’ characteristics that increase the likelihood of trade occurring are outlined. The evolution of trading strategies is most likely in humans and social arthropods. A formal model is presented to show that trade can simultaneously increase consumption among populations and reduce pressure on locally scarce resources. This allows a species to increase its density and escape the constraints imposed by local resource limitations. This represents a major ecological benefit to the trading species. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A STRUCTURAL RISK‐NEUTRAL MODEL FOR PRICING AND HEDGING POWER DERIVATIVES

We develop a structural risk‐neutral model for energy market modifying along several directions the approach introduced in Aïd et al. In particular, a scarcity function is introduced to allow important deviations of the spot price from the marginal fuel price, producing price spikes. We focus on pricing and hedging electricity derivatives. The hedging instruments are forward contracts on fuels and electricity. The presence of production capacities and electricity demand makes such a market incomplete. We follow a local risk minimization approach to price and hedge energy derivatives. Despite the richness of information included in the spot model, we obtain closed‐form formulae for futures prices and semiexplicit formulae for spread options and European options on electricity forward contracts. An analysis of the electricity price risk premium is provided showing the contribution of demand and capacity to the futures prices. We show that when far from delivery, electricity futures behave like a basket of futures on fuels.     

When less is more? The contingent effect of product supply limitation in the release of new electronic products

In the market of consumer electronics, firms often limit their product supply to create a scarcity effect to entice consumers to buy their product. However, the outcome of such a strategy is not always desirable. In this study, we propose the product configuration level as a contingent variable that works with the supply level to affect the outcome of a supply limitation strategy. With a vignette-based experiment, we find that for a product with a superior configuration, consumers' purchase intention is boosted only if the supply is very limited. For a product with an inferior configuration, however, the supply limitation strategy does not work at any supply level. Therefore, the supply limitation strategy works only for a superior product configuration and at a fine-tuned supply level.