Accounting for Cross‐Country Differences in Wealth Inequality

There is considerable cross‐country variation in levels of household wealth and in wealth inequality. This paper assesses the extent to which these differences can be accounted for by differences in the distributions of households' demographic and economic characteristics. A counterfactual decomposition analysis of micro data from five countries (Italy, U.K., U.S., Sweden and Finland) is used to identify the effects of characteristics on component wealth holdings, their value and their distribution. The findings of the paper suggest that the biggest share of cross‐country differences is not attributable to the distribution of household demographic and economic characteristics but rather reflect strong unexplained country effects.     

Land management for erosion prevention: A case study for a Turkish nature reserve

As a result of landslides and soil erosion, a substantial amount of soil has been lost in Turkey. Particularly, fertile lands have long been faced with the threat of erosion, largely as a result of traditional (unplanned) land use practices. This threat is more evident in the Black Sea Region with its rough topography and rainy climate. The basic reason for this threat is the lack of organization in land use planning and control. Although proposals, in the context of this requirement, are included in national development plans, they have not been implemented. Accordingly, in this study research based on spatial data evaluation was carried out for Sera Lake located in Akcaabat, Trabzon, Turkey. For this purpose, temporal area, depth and volume changes of the lake were determined by utilizing topographic maps, aerial photographs and hydrographical measurements. To evaluate determined changes in the size of the lake and to produce suggestions to legislators for required sustainable land management activities, information on land use/cover types, land ownership and climate in the vicinity of the lake was utilized. As a result, it was determined that the area, depth and volume of the lake were significantly decreased during the last decades, as a consequence of erosion mainly caused by traditional land use practices; thus, the lake is threatened with the danger of extinction due to erosion. Precautions required for the alleviation of erosion and other adverse environmental effects which largely seem to be caused by harsh physical properties (caused basically by topography) of the region were discussed. In support of the information inherent to the region, traditional arable land use was logically determined as the basic non-natural factor (which is directly prone to erosion) to be rearranged in the context of sustainable land management. In this context, beyond nationwide actions (national agricultural policy and Soil Protection and Land Use Law), which may provide the required land management tools in the long term, it is proposed that planning and accordingly land management activities specific to the study area (Sera Valley) should immediately be commenced in close collaboration with the related public (owners or farmers). However, behaviours of different types of land users (engaged in commercial, subsistence and semi-subsistence farming) and also high number of owners and/or farmers (caused by small pieces of land parcels owned/used in shares) make the desired collaboration almost impossible. This socio-economical problem may be solved by further developing the current land registry and cadastre system in terms of customary land use rights, land use/cover changes and updating procedures.     

上海市外来务工人员的归化管理:反思与建议

大量的外来务工人员进入对上海市的城市管理体制提出了挑战,应重新定位政府的归化管理思想,多管齐下,和谐归化,构建统一的户籍身份制度,多方位促进群体间沟通与理解,同步增强市民与流动人口的现代意识,致力于建立一套新型的回应人口广泛流动的社会服务与社会管理相结合的吸纳体系.     

The Responsiveness of Households to Energy Demand Management Initiatives: Segmenting by Household Types

Segmentation is often a complex and costly process, which commonly involves identifying groups with differing attitudes and behaviors or demographics. However, the segments generated may not adequately explain differences between consumers, or it can be difficult to identify households for target marketing, which consequently makes it difficult to use segmentation in practice. In this paper we present segmentation by household type as a simple method of segmentation, accessible to nonprofit organizations with limited resources and able to be employed using a secondary data set or with relatively simple data collection and analysis. Despite its simplicity, our findings show that this form of segmentation differentiates well between segments in terms of their actual electricity use, their past efficiency behaviors and preferences for efficiency programs. The results of focus groups and a survey of 4,000 households reveal, among other things, the effect of having children and of marital status on energy use and efficiency behaviors, the high curtailment but low investment behaviors of single parent households, and the low efficiency behaviors of shared households.     

城市分户供暖系统刍议

作者指出 ,城市分户供暖系统实现了单户循环和分户控制 ,有利于转变 5 0多年来的采暖包烧制 ,可杜绝“搭车”采暖。文中以沈阳实践为例指出了一些存在的问题 ,并提出了具有可操作性的若干建议。     

A novel methodology for designing a household waste collection system for insular zones

This paper addresses the problem of designing a household waste collection system for rural insular areas using a barge for transportation, based on a novel mixed integer programming model that simultaneously integrates decisions of waste collection sites selection within the islands to be served, visit schedule for each selected collection site, and multi-period vehicle routing. An application to a real-world instance consisting of small rural islands located in the south of Chile shows the effectiveness and complexity of the model, along with the advantages of using a waste compactor instead of transporting the waste using bins onboard a barge.     

中国农户教育投资的实证分析

本文首先分析了20世纪90年代以来农户教育投资变动的趋势和特点，并重点分析了收入、教育投资的价格、风险和收益率对农户教育投资需求的影响。分析结果表明，农户教育投资不足的主要原因是农户收入较低，教育投资价格偏高，以及教育投资风险较高和收益率偏低。本文认为，必须加大农村的公共教育投资、完善劳动力市场、降低农村教育投资价格，才能从根本上促进农户教育投资的持续增长。