A discussion of the market and policy failures associated with the adoption of herbicide-tolerant crops

Weed control in the U.S. Midwest has become increasingly herbicide-centric due to the adoption of herbicide-tolerant (HT) crops in the 1990s. That integrated weed management (IWM) practices, including ecological and mechanical controls, are scarcely used is concerning. IWM would be a more sustainable form of farming for two reasons. First, it would reduce the negative health and environmental externalities associated with herbicide use. Second, it would reduce the selection pressure on weed populations and the development of weed resistance to some herbicides, thereby reducing the uncertainty of the long-term effectiveness of herbicidal weed control. In this context, we develop an economic framework to clarify the interplay among the different market failures that either contribute to the herbicidal ‘lock-in’ or make it problematic. We then analyse the evidence for and perceptions of these market failures based on twenty-four semi-structured interviews with farmers and experts conducted in 2017, as well as on discussions in the academic literature. To this end, we put into perspective the possible self-reinforcing effects in the adoption path of HT crops, such as increasing farm size, changes in farm equipment, increasing incentives for simplified crop rotations, and the loss of practical knowledge of IWM practices.     

By What Criteria Do We Evaluate Accounting? Some Thoughts on Economic Welfare and the Archival Literature

The economic role of an accounting regime is to increase welfare through its effects—in conjunction with complementary institutions—on firm and household behavior. I review three major streams of the archival literature (real effects; price effects, including value relevance; and costly contracting), in terms of what they can and cannot reveal as proxies for welfare effects. One conclusion is that the partial correlations and average effects that predominate in this literature have provided valuable insights into the role of accounting in the economy, but provide limited and misleading proxies for welfare effects. A major concern is that teachers, students, and researchers—indeed, regulators and standard setters—raised on this literature could lose sight of, and underestimate, the fundamental contribution of accounting to aggregate welfare.     

The effects of agglomeration externalities on urban green total-factor productivity in China

For China's urban industrial layout and green development, determining which types of agglomeration externalities are most advantageous to the rise of green total-factor productivity has both theoretical and practical relevance. This research experimentally studies the effects of three types of agglomeration externalities on urban green total-factor productivity using the data of 285 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2018. The findings demonstrate that urban green total-factor output is rising, albeit with certain differences during different time periods. Both the Jacobs externality and the Porter externality are favorable for increasing urban green total-factor production when all cities are evaluated together, although the latter has a stronger promoting influence. The effect of the Marshall-Arrow-Romer externality, on the other hand, is not significant. Furthermore, these effects also depend on the stage of economic development and population size.     

Should public policy respond to positional externalities?

A nice suit is one that compares favorably with those worn by others in the same local environment. More generally, a positional good is one whose utility depends strongly on how it compares with others in the same category.¹A positional externality occurs when new purchases alter the relevant context within which an existing positional good is evaluated.² For example, if some job candidates begin wearing expensive custom-tailored suits, a side effect of their action is that other candidates become less likely to make favorable impressions on interviewers. From any individual job seeker's point of view, the best response might be to match the higher expenditures of others, lest her chances of landing the job fall. But this outcome may be inefficient, since when all spend more, each candidate's probability of success remains unchanged. All may agree that some form of collective restraint on expenditure would be useful.In such cases, however, it is often impractical to negotiate private solutions. Do positional externalities then become legitimate objects of public policy concern? In attempting to answer this question, I employ the classical libertarian criterion put forth by John Stuart Mill³, who wrote the state may not legitimately constrain any citizen's freedom of action except to prevent harm to others. I argue that many positional externalities appear to meet Mill's test, causing not just negative feelings but also large and tangible economic costs to others who are ill-equipped to avoid them. I also discuss an unintrusive policy remedy for positional externalities, one modeled after the use of effluent charges to curb environmental pollution.The paper is organized as follows. Section 1 notes the deep similarity between the conditions that give rise to positional arms races and those that give rise to conventional military arms races. Section 2 follows with a review of evidence concerning the strength of concerns about relative position. Section 3 describes some of the tangible economic costs that people experience as a result of positional externalities arising from such concerns. Section 4 takes up the question of whether collective action directed against positional externalities is consistent with respect for individual rights. Section 5 describes how a progressive consumption tax could neutralize many of the most costly effects of positional externalities.     

交叉网络外部性在证券交易所定价中的应用分析

本文利用双边市场理论对证券交易所进行实证检验和模型研究,采用格兰特因果检验方法对上海交易所数据进行了实证分析,研究结果表明相比上市公司而言,投资者是“鸡蛋相生”问题的关键点,因此根据实证结果提出扩大投资者规模是证券市场发展的关键所在.然后针对上市公司和投资者的自网络外部性特征及投资者内部之间交易的特点,采用模型研究得出较强的负自网络外部性使得交易所会降低上市公司的注册费来吸引公司;当注册费太高时,交易所会降低交易费来保留住投资者,反之亦然.     

我国食品安全问题的管制经济学分析

管制经济学是经济学的一个重要分支,是解决市场失灵的有效手段之一。近年来,由食品安全问题引发的各种恶性案件不断发生,令人触目惊心。这是经济市场失灵在食品安全方面的具体表现。本文立足于政府管制理论,运用经济学的分析方法解释食品安全的外部性和信息不对称问题,重申市场自身调节的局限性,并由此得出政府进行适当管制的必要性,最后提出相应的政策建议。     

Recurrent crises in global games

Global games have unique equilibria in which aggregate behavior changes sharply when an underlying random fundamental crosses some threshold. This property relies on the existence of dominance regions: all players have a highest and lowest action that, for some fundamentals, is strictly dominant. But if the fundamental follows a random walk, it eventually spends nearly all of its time in these regions: crises gradually disappear. We obtain recurring crises by adding a single large player who lacks dominance regions. We also show that in order to obtain recurring crises, one must either relax dominance regions or restrict to fundamentals that continually return to or cross over a fixed region.     

Consumption externalities with endogenous time preference

This paper shows that in a model with inelastic labor supply, consumption externalities have impacts on stationary consumption and capital. The key element in observing the effects of consumption externalities on stationary consumption and capital is the endogeneity of the time preference rate, which depends on future-oriented resources rather than on private consumption. We conclude that when individuals experience jealousy, they become more impatient, leading to a lower level of capital stock and a higher level of consumption relative to those of the social optimum, while when they experience admiration, these relationships are reversed. We examine an optimal tax policy that replicates the socially optimal path in the centrally planned economy. Finally, using numerical analysis we explore how this economy evolves through time.      

城市集聚经济微观机制及其超越:从劳动分工到知识分工

本文在区分集聚机制与集聚效应、劳动分工与知识分工、成本外部性与技术外部性的基础上,使用统一的分析框架解释了城市集聚经济的发生机制,特别是将知识创造、知识溢出和知识积累结合起来,分析了知识分工与技术外部性促进城市集聚经济的发生机制。知识分工通过协作机制、结构匹配机制和循环累积机制促进知识的创造和积累,交流外部性条件下技术外部性的创新集聚效应和动态累积效应实现了知识在更大空间范围内的低成本使用,二者共同促进了城市收益递增。     

基于网络外部性的价值模块整合与兼容性选择

本文分析了价值模块的网络外部性特征，并基于网络外部性研究了价值模块整合过程中的兼容性选择和价格竞争行为。研究结果表明：当由进入厂商选择兼容度时，兼容性越高进入厂商的市场份额越大，并能够获得更高的市场价格；当由在位厂商选择兼容度时，兼容度增加将减少消费者的转移成本，使更多的模块需求商转向购买进入厂商的产品，减少了在位厂商的市场份额；当转移成本的兼容性敏感系数较低时，在位模块供应商能够获得更高的价格，而当转移成本对兼容性很敏感时，较高的兼容度将迫使在位模块供应商降低价格。价值模块的网络外部性加剧了模块供应商之间的竞争，进一步促进了价值模块整合和产业融合的过程。