Economics and underdetermination: a case study of urban land and housing economics

Underdetermination, associated with the Duhem–Quine thesis,is a familiar if under-researched theme in economics. In thelight of this, we examine the development of urban land andhousing economics. Through its Cartesian dualistic delineationof theory and data, the contemporary mainstream approach appearsunable to circumvent the problem of underdetermination. In effect,it employs the strong version of Duhem–Quine in its retentionof the assumption of a single, unitary competitive market (andassociated access–space trade-off). Conversely, we highlightthe affinity of Ely's (and the later Columbia School's) approachto pragmatists Dewey and Peirce, which provides a more fruitfulbasis for explanation.     

Who's in charge of the central city? The conflict between efficiency and equity in the design of a metropolitan area

A circular metropolitan area consists of a central city surrounded by a suburb. Households sort over the two jurisdictions based on public service levels and their costs of commuting to the metropolitan center. Using numerical simulations, we show that (1) there typically exist two equilibria: one in which the poor form the voting majority in the central city and the other in which the rich form the majority in the central city; (2) there is an efficiency vs. equity trade-off as to which equilibrium is preferred; and (3) if the central city contains only poor households, equity favors expanding the central city to include rich households. The third result arises not because of a fiscal subsidy from rich to poor households induced by a property tax but rather because of a change in house price capitalization.     

PLANNING MULTIPLE LOCATION INVENTORIES

Supplying customer demand from comparable alternate inventory locations when an item is out of stock at its primary stocking point creates a virtual inventory for that item. The expectation is that if more inventories can be drawn upon, the inventory for an item would be lower, the fill rate would be higher, or both. While generally true that safety stocks will be lower, regular stocks, on the other hand, may rise with such cross filling of demand. In this study, a methodology is developed that balances the cross filling effects on both regular and safety stocks for determining whether an inventoried item should be cross‐filled. An example and guidelines are given to show how the methodology can be simplified and applied in practice.     

The topography of metropolitan employment: Identifying centers of employment in a polycentric urban area

While it is well recognized that US metropolitan areas are polycentric, there is little consensus as to the appropriate method for identifying concentrations of employment within them. Existing methods suffer from strong assumptions about parametric form, misspecification, or reliance on local knowledge to calibrate model parameters. This paper introduces a new nonparametric method for identifying subcenters. Results indicate that this, more flexible, nonparametric approach yields greater accuracy with regard to both urban and suburban centers compared with other approaches. This approach should provide better data for the numerous topics that depend on the spatial accounting of employment within metropolitan areas.     

我国城乡耐用消费品市场用户构成差异的研究——一个创新扩散的视角

创新扩散理论按照用户采用新产品的时间先后顺序将市场细分为创新者、早期采用者、早期大多数、晚期大多数和落后者五种类型。本文在扩散经典理论和中国市场特征的基础上,提出城镇市场和农村市场耐用消费品用户构成差异的假设。研究结果证实了全部假设:城镇的创新者比例显著高于农村,农村的早期采用者比例显著超过城镇,而各类型采用者的采用持续时间农村全面长于城镇。这些结论为更加深入地了解二元经济结构下中国市场的特征提供了有益启示。     

中国城市住宅市场的结构差异性分析

市场价商品房、经济适用住房和廉租房构成了目前中国城市住宅市场的供应体系.依据中国30个主要城市的房地产开发统计数据,选择吸纳率作为评价住宅市场供需均衡状态的指标,利用固定影响变截距模型,重点研究了商品房和经济适用住房供给结构的城市差异性.研究发现,在城市住宅市场中,经济适用住房市场和商品房市场具有很强的相关性.作为具有政府资助性质的经济适用住房建设,存在典型的地域性特征,其政策的设定和实施会对整个住宅市场产生影响,地方政府应在利用比较全面的住宅市场指标体系进行综合分析基础上,制定适合本地的经济适用住房政策.     

Study on the planning principles of urban forest

The urban forest is the main body for the urban forestry management. There are not unified rules and standards for the planning of the urban forest yet in China. This paper discusses the planning principles of the urban forest： the priority of the ecological function, the adaptation to local condilions, the optimization in the whole system, the mutual dependence of forest and city, the culturecontinuance and recreation satisfaction, sustainable development and operability, etc. This paper takes Changsha as an example to elaborate the planning principles of the urban forest. Firstly, Changsba urban forest ecosphere is composed of the eco-garden, the round-the-city forest belt, the ecological isolation belt, the green channel, the landscape of the rivers and streams, the forest park, the biodiversity reserve and the eco-forest in suburb area. It aims to make every kind of ecological essential factors organically merge into the complex city ecosystem to build an eco-city, to strengthen the connection of wide-open space with various habitats spots, to promote resident＇s accessibility, to perfect landscape ecology, and to make full use of the ecological function of urban forest. When we construct the urban forest, we must optimize the comprehensive benefit and make the urban forest structure and the layout in the best condition in order to buiM the harmonious green city for both man and nature to realize the whole optimization of the city system by the complex functions of the urban forest in ecology, environmental protection, landscape, recreation, etc.     

北京市农村集体建设用地规划管理研究

通过分析北京农村集体建设用地规划管理现状,明确农村集体建设用地规划管理工作中存在的问题以及根源,提出符合北京实际的农村集体建设用地规划管理体系建议,为进行社会主义新农村建设构建良好的制度框架,保障新一轮北京城市总体规划在部区的有效实施.     

中国城市中的三种贫困类型

我们课题组在 1 999年进行了一次覆盖六省市的住户调查。本文利用这次调查数据对中国城市贫困的性质和特点进行了考察。通过综合考虑收入标准和消费标准 ,我们把中国城镇贫困分为三种类型 ,即持久性贫困、暂时性性贫困和选择性贫困。在贫困人口中 ,有一大部分是属于选择性贫困 ,即他们的收入高于贫困线而消费低于贫困线。我们对贫困户的消费函数进行了估计 ,其结果显示以下几个因素对贫困状况产生重要的影响 :修匀收入的效应 ;人们防备外部环境不确定性的心理 ;人们为将来投资而进行储蓄的行为 ;家庭对子女教育和医疗服务的特别需要。我们还对三种贫困类型进行了比较分析 ,从中发现预测的金融资产和预测的收入 ,以及教育和医疗的特殊需要都对不同类型的贫困户的消费行为起到重要的影响作用     

用科学发展观指导城市土地整理

用科学发展观指导城市土地整理工作,处理好城市发展与城市用地总量与结构平衡、生态环境保护的关系,统筹人与自然的和谐发展。为此,要建立健全城市土地整理市场准入机制,完善城市土地整理市场规则,实行政企分开、政事分开,体现市场经济公开、公平、有序、竞争原则,以实现城市土地整理区的社会经济协调发展。