Do we really care about Biodiversity?

This paper addresses from an economic perspective the issue of global biodiversity conservation. It challenges the perception that the world really cares a great deal about biodiversity and is prepared to pay the full cost of maintaining this stock of natural capital. Despite the existence of a plethora of international agreements there still seems to be a global ‘deficit of care’ surrounding efforts to combat challenges such as those posed by global warming and biodiversity conservation. More light can be thrown on the degree of care by measuring both the actual expenditures and the stated willingness to pay for biodiversity conservation. However, actual expenditures are much lower than willingness to pay estimates recorded in the published literature. Using the criteria that the ‘right’ amount of conservation effort is one where the marginal economic benefits from conservation just equal the marginal costs of conservation, the paper explores the biodiversity conservation conundrum and concluded that, on the available evidence, the world does not care too much about this natural capital stock and bequests to future generations. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Is Meta-Analysis a Noah's Ark for Non-Market Valuation?

This paper describes meta-analytical methods as they have been appliedto non-market valuation research. These studies have been used to reviewand synthesize literature and, more recently, in benefit transfer. Thissecond use imposes a higher standard on the consistency in economicconcepts being summarized and in the resources included in ameta-analysis. To meet this need, the paper proposes and illustrates astructural framework using a generalized method of moments estimator toestimate the parameters of a preference function with the benefitsestimates usually encountered in meta-analytic summaries.     

建湖县林农人工复合系统工程与生态经济效益浅析

建湖县运用生态学原理，充分发挥资源潜力，建立了几种林─农复合生态系统，结构合理，能流物流流通合理、利用充分，取得了很好的生态效益与经济效益。     

农村税费改革中存在的问题及对策

农村税费改革后,农民的负担减轻了,但税费改革中新出现的一些问题严重影响了税费改革的进程和效果。我国农村税费改革存在着城乡之间、城区与非城区农民之间负担不均衡、农村义务教育投入严重不足、村级经费短缺等亟待解决的问题。为此,应采取加大农村政府机构改革的步伐和力度、加大对农村义务教育的投入、加大中央和省级两级财政转移支付力度等措施,进一步完善农村税费改革。     

以宏观经济学方法研究现实问题

随着改革开放的深入,我们所面临的问题也在不断变化.当前宏观经济需要研究的主要问题是"四化",即利益多元化、发展科学化、社会和谐化、经济全球化.改革开放过程中有许多问题要研究、要争论、要探讨,当前,理论界和实际部门争论的重大问题主要是关于改革、开放、工人阶级的地位和农民问题.研究宏观经济学,掌握正确的研究方法很重要,坚持以马克思主义为指导的思想,要理论联系实际,并掌握各方面的知识.     

城市园林绿地的生态效益

从生态学角度论述了城市园林绿地的生态效益,论证了绿色植物对城市环境的重要性.     

产品内贸易、技术创新与中国企业可持续发展

在科技革命和经济全球化的共同作用下，特别是随着FDI的增长和跨国公司的全球布点，传统意义上的以商品贸易为基础的国际分工正在被打破，国际分工逐步深入到企业内部，分工方式由产业间分工向产业内部产品分工和要素分工延伸。本文以当前新贸易现象为实践基础，以贸易分工理论为理论基础，初步构建产品内贸易的理论模型及其利益分配机制，从产品内分工视角分析产品内贸易模式对发展中国家贸易条件的影响，并认为中国企业应该在国际分工价值链上进行攀升，进行技术创新，提升在国际贸易中的地位，化比较优势为竞争优势，实现企业的可持续发展。     

现代物流业实施战略联盟的利益分析

在经济蓬勃发展的21世纪，物流行业作为一个集商流、资金流、信息流为一体的新兴产业，已经是国民经济必不可少的一部分，并与其社会经济发展总体水平密切相关。文章通过探讨物流及物流管理的概念，分析了现代物流行业的特点。从供应链管理的角度来说，“战略联盟就是物流渠道中两个独立实体为实现特殊的目标和利益确立的契约关系。”物流行业实施战略联盟可以获得的利益主要有适应企业外部环境的变化、满足供应链管理的内部机制的要求、弥补战略缺口、寻求战略优势，提升客户价值、降低交易成本、获取战略资源等等。     

论制度变迁的成本约束

制度变迁的关键是成本约束，这是制度本身产生的根本性要求。制度变迁是成本和收益相权衡和比较的产物，制度设计和安排必须充分考虑到制度变迁的成本和收益，减少制度变迁的阻力，提高制度运行的效率。     

Declining Discount Rates: The Long and the Short of it

The last few years have witnessed important advances in our understanding of time preference and social discounting. In particular, several rationales for the use of time-varying social discount rates have emerged. These rationales range from the ad hoc to the formal, with some founded solely in economic theory while others reflect principles of intergenerational equity. While these advances are to be applauded, the practitioner is left with a confusing array of rationales and the sense that almost any discount rate can be justified. This paper draws together these different strands and provides a critical review of past and present contributions to this literature. In addition to this we highlight some of the problems with employing DDRs in the decision-making process, the most pressing of which may be time inconsistency. We clarify their practical implications, and potential pitfalls, of the more credible rationales and argue that some approaches popular in environmental economics literature are ill-conceived. Finally, we illustrate the impact of different approaches by examining global warming and nuclear power investment. This includes an application and extension of Newell and Pizer [‘Discounting the benefits of climate change mitigation : how much do uncertain rates increase valuations?’ Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 46 (2003) 52] to UK interest rate data.