Overlapping Generations or Infinitely-Lived Agents: Intergenerational Altruism and the Economics of Global Warming

Do we need an overlapping generations model for the economics of global warming? To answer this question, an infinitely-lived agent (ILA) approach and an overlapping generations (OLG) model are contrasted. ILA and OLG can be viewed as polar representations of intergenerational altruism. With ILA an immortal agent acts through his investment/savings decisions as trustee on the behalf of the future generations. With OLG, agents need not behave altruistic. They simply save during working years and dissave completely during retirement. Nevertheless, ILA and OLG must not differ in their implication for greenhouse policy. Greenhouse gas abatement is a straightforward alternative to physical capital formation and, even without altruism, each age cohort has an incentive to provide current abatement in order to reduce future damages attributable to climate change. Indeed, under reasonable assumptions and parameter values, our simulations reveal such an invariance result. Provided carbon taxes are the only policy tool and tax revenues are recycled through socially mandated rules, projections of economic growth, climate change and energy consumption are only insignificantly affected by the choice of approach.     

Coping with Technological Change: The Role of Ability in Making Inequality so Persistent

This study provides an explanation to the evolution of wage inequality over the last 30 years and supports this explanation with evidence. A faster rate of technological progress introduces new unknown elements at the workplace. The need to cope with the unknown accentuates the role of ability and thus increases wage inequality within and between education groups. Inasmuch as education is an irreversible investment project the rise in within group inequality BOOSTS UP the rise of between group inequality. Guided by this theory we turn to the PSID for evidence. Using parents' education to approximate child's ability we show the following set of results: (a) Controlling for education of the child, parents' education contributed much more in the 1980s to his wage growth than in the 1970s. (b) The correlation between the parents' and the child's education increases from the 1970s to the 1980s. (c) The return to college education for an individual with no ability rents did not change—it remains steady at the 23 percent. (d) Facts (a)–(c) CANNOT be attributed to the impact of parent's income. It is parents' education and not parents' income that is more relevant for son's economic outcomes in the 1980s.     

环境保护的国际合作：以SARS为例

SARS危机反映了当前环境问题日渐国际化的趋势,其根源是资源紧缺和经济全球化之间的矛盾。面对这一问题,各国应通力合作、寻求对策,实现环境保护的国际合作。但环境责任在各国间的分配问题阻碍了国际环境合作的进展。本文指出,基于环境和国力的全球合作机制可合理分配各国的代际责任和代内责任,有利于促进环境保护的国际合作,是一种可行的环境保护国际合作模式。要实现这一目标,首先要各国在代际和代内责任的问题上达成共识,二是要增加国际机构、国际公约对合作各方的约束力。     

自然资本代际配置研究--可持续发展的产权制度设计

自然资本配置不仅涉及当代人利益,也涉及后代人利益,即涉及代际利益问题。现代产权理论,对于说明市场机制配置资源产生帕累托最优效率,提供了反传统的论证,但是缺乏代际利益均衡理念,无法令人信服地说明可持续发展框架下的自然资本的最优配置问题。本文以罗尔斯的代际正义论为伦理基础,提出自然资本代际产权理论,以期对现代产权理论加以修正并对可持续发展进行产权制度设计。     

代际角度下农民工市民化差异分析与政策诉求的变化——基于襄阳市农民工的调查

通过对襄阳市100位农民工的深度访谈,了解到两代农民工在家庭生活、职业发展、社会融入、心理期待、价值观念等方面还存在着较大代际差异及政策诉求的变化。认为应从户籍制度、职业技能培训、住房制度改革、政治参与等政策调整来应对农民工代际差异所产生的新诉求。     

中国居民家庭收入代际传递性分析

本文通过对父子收入代际弹性和家庭收入代际弹性的研究,发现子女收入很大程度上受到父亲收入或家庭收入的影响,证明了中国居民收入代际之间存在着较为明显的传递效应,特别是低收入群体。通过内外因分析,可以发现教育成为影响中国居民收入代际传递现象的重要因素。教育是一种重要的代际流动机制,个人教育水平提高和教育环境的公平可以使低收入群体有机会流向更高收入阶层。     

Education Subsidies, Social Security and Growth: The Implications of a Demographic Shock

We develop a three-period overlapping-generations model in which individual decisions about education are the engine of growth. In this setting, we investigate the normative role of education subsidies and old age pensions. Calibrating this model on empirical data, it is shown that the case for positive pension benefits is rather weak on the optimal path. An important part of education subsidies should be financed by lump-sum taxes on retirees. We also examine how these transfers should be adjusted in the presence of a baby boom-baby bust demographic shock. It turns out that an appropriate policy could be to increase education when the baby-boom generation is at work. Labor productivity will then be higher when aging peaks so that the pension bill can be financed without reducing welfare for the baby-bust generations.
JEL classification : O 41; J 24; E 62     

中国城镇代际收入流动实证研究*——基于Jorgenson Fraumeni未来终生收入的估算

本文运用中国家庭收入项目调查（CHIP）1988年、1995年、2002年及2007年独生子女样本,使用Jorgenson Fraumeni未来终生收入法,旨在更加精确地估算中国城镇的代际收入流动水平,并分析其时间趋势、群体分布特点。研究发现：第一,基于该方法得到的未来终生年收入均值可最大程度显著减小父代收入测量误差导致的向下偏误。第二,我国城镇代际收入流动水平趋于下降,收入结构趋于固化,1988年、1995年、2002年、2007年代际收入弹性系数范围分别为（大于0262）、(大于0483)、（0466,0544）以及（0483,0554）。第三,中国城镇的代际收入流动水平呈现非线性特征,不同收入水平的家庭之间代际收入流动差别较大。     

Do pensions foster education? An empirical perspective

The paper examines the effect of population ageing on public education spending. On the one hand, ageing is expected to have a negative effect on education, as an increasing number of retirees results in ‘intergenerational conflict’ and, hence, the condemnation of education expenditure. On the other hand, ageing, in combination with pay-as-you-go pension systems, offers incentives for the working-age generation to invest in the public education of the young in order to ‘reap’ the benefits (that is, higher income tax/contributions) of their greater future productivity. Empirical evidence derived from the application of a fixed effects approach to panel data for OECD countries shows that the increasing share of elderly people has a non-linear effect on education spending. This indicates a certain degree of intergenerational conflict. Nevertheless, we find that future population ageing, which reinforces the mechanism linking public education and pensions, reflects positively on education expenditure. Furthermore, by disaggregating total education expenditure by educational levels, we observe that this effect is led by levels of non-compulsory education, probably as a reflection of the direct connection to labor productivity.     

生态产品供给的内生动力机制释析 ——基于完整价值回报与代际价值回报的双重视角

研究目的：从生态产品完整价值回报和代际价值回报两个视角,应用资源价值构成理论和外部性理论,探究生态产品供给内生动力不足的原因以及提升内生动力的策略。研究方法：成本效益分析方法和情景模拟方法。研究结果：生态产品供给的内生动力缺失的原因在于供给主体缺乏合理的完整价值回报和代际价值回报：一方面,由于生态价值评价体系的缺失和地方政府的职责推诿抑制了生态价值的实现,部分地区人力资本和人造资本的短板约束了社会文化价值的实现;另一方面,缺失适用于生态产品供给的社会折现率体系和相关的代际补偿机制导致了生态产品供给在当前收益与未来收益间存在转换偏差,降低了供给行动的代际回报。研究结论：提升生态产品供给的内生动力可从两方面着手：一方面需要建立不同类型的价值评价体系,拓宽生态价值实现渠道,明晰政府在价值实现中的职责;另一方面需要建立符合生态产品特点的新代际折现率体系,参照新代际折现率和传统折现率核算得到的净现值差额制定代际补偿标准,探索考虑代际影响的代际金融产品,根据价值替代难度建立健全生态产品价值实现机制。