生态村——生态居住模式概述

生态村是在工业高度发展、科技高度进步的现代社会中,为了应对产生的各种问题而发展出的全新的生活理念。随着生态村运动的发展和生态实践的增多,人们开始转变以往将生态技术作为生态村主导的观念,开始尝试探索更加全面地认识和发展生态村及生态理念的方法。在生态村社中建立无秩序管理体制以达到社员平等、建设交流空间以满足其精神元素的需求、构建能源和物质的循环利用系统,防止污染和浪费,采用传统技术与现代科技相结合的方法建造房屋,这种基于传统工艺和小尺度的模式对于构建宜居聚居区域具有启发性。文章对生态村的理念及相关操作过程进行分析,说明生态村的工作原理及其意义。     

No-envy and Arrow's conditions

This paper analyzes the concept of envy-freeness in the framework of Arrovian social choice theory. We define various no-envy conditions and study their relationships with Arrow's condition of independence of irrelevant alternatives. We also propose a new condition, called Minimal Equity, that says that each individual must have the conditional power to veto at least one social state (for instance, a social state which is particularly unfair to him). We show that, under unrestricted domain, Pareto Optimality and a weak independence condition, Minimal Equity leads to an impossibility result. Received: 9 October 1997/Accepted: 27 May 1998     

EVALUATING PENSION PORTABILITY REFORMS: THE TAX REFORM ACT OF 1986 AS A NATURAL EXPERIMENT ABSTRACT

This article exploits a change in the vesting rules for employer‐sponsored pension plans introduced by the Tax Reform Act of 1986 to identify the causal effect of pension portability legislation on workers' voluntary mobility decisions. We pool data from different years of the Survey of Income and Program Participation to estimate the impact of this reform using difference‐in‐differences methods. Our results suggest that the reform had a positive and significant impact on voluntary job mobility of the treatment group. (JEL J24, J44, J62, J63, J68)     

Nash Bargaining Theory,Nonconvex Problems and Social Welfare Orderings

In this paper we deal with the extension of Nash bargaining theory to nonconvex problems. By focussing on the Social Welfare Ordering associated with a bargaining solution, we characterize the symmetric Nash Bargaining Solution (NBS). Moreover, we obtain a unified method of proof of recent characterization results for the asymmetric single-valued NBS and the symmetric multivalued NBS, as well as their extensions to different domains.     

Some further results on nonbinary social choice

The theory of nonbinary social choice deals with cases where choice over two-element sets may not be possible. In this paper we extend the two main approaches to this problem, initiated respectively by Fishburn (1974) and by Grether and Plott (1982). The difference between the two approaches lies essentially in the structure of the family of feasible sets of alternatives. Nonbinary versions of Arrow's General Possibility Theorem and of Gibbard's oligarchy result are established using weak feasibility conditions. The method of proof relies on deeper (fixed agenda) impossibility theorems.     

Aversion to inequality in Italy and its determinants

The main goal of this paper is to estimate the preferences of the Italian society towards equity in order to verify whether preferences (i) have changed across the years, and (ii) can be related to specific socio-demographic characteristics. Introducing equity concerns in the implementation of economic policies is a fundamental problem faced by both economists and policy makers. This paper uses a social welfare function à la Jorgenson and Slesnick to estimate societys aversion towards inequality by implement in a voting scheme for compiling individuals equity preferences in to a social choice by majority rule. The results show that preferences are highly polarized toward a low and a high concern for equity aversion and that this concern is significantly related with several sociodemographic characteristics. Among them, income plays an important role with richer people tending to favor less equity. Results also show that preferences towards equity have changed across the years.     

The effectiveness of remedial courses in Italy: a fuzzy regression discontinuity design

Skills are important for many social and economic outcomes. Whereas interventions during childhood are considered crucial to increase the skills of disadvantaged individuals, in this paper, we try to understand whether interventions which take place later in life can also be effective. With this aim, we evaluate the effects on student achievement of a number of remedial courses provided by an Italian university. We use a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to identify the causal effect of remedial courses relying on the fact that students were assigned to the treatment if their performance in a placement test was below a certain cutoff point. We deal with partial compliance by using the assignment rule as an instrumental variable for the effective attendance to remedial courses. From our analysis, it emerges that students attending the remedial courses whose results were just below the cutoff point acquire a higher number of credits than students whose results were just above the cutoff. We also find that remedial courses reduce the probability of dropping out from an academic career.     

EXPERT OPINION AND PRODUCT QUALITY: EVIDENCE FROM NEW YORK CITY RESTAURANTS

We analyze whether consumers' quality perception and/or producer investment of New York City restaurants, measured by Zagat scores, responds to newly appearing expert opinion, measured by Michelin scores. Answering this question is of general economic interest as it applies to all markets with information asymmetries. Employing a difference‐in‐differences approach as well as a propensity score matching approach we find significant Michelin treatment effects on food and décor quality. Based on these changes, we find a Michelin‐induced price increase of approximately 30% per Michelin star. To examine whether the improved food and nonfood quality is based on restaurant investments or is merely imagined, we analyze nonfood investments by referring to Wine Spectator wine list awards. Our analysis suggests that Michelin‐reviewed restaurants are significantly more likely to invest in their wine list than others. As a result, Michelin reviewed restaurants are more likely to improve food and nonfood (esp. décor) quality leading to significant price increases. However, while restaurants that increase prices only due to décor and service improvements are more likely to go out of business, food improvements appear to secure a restaurant's survival. (JEL D11, L15, L66)     

Cooperation among competitors as status-seeking behavior: Network ties and status differentiation

Status-based affiliation represents a valuable resource in economic exchange. However, affiliation strategies introduce a status ordering paradox: whereas higher status actors seek to maintain status hierarchies, lower status actors strive to affiliate with more prestigious actors. In this paper, using original data on the network of social and professional ties among 72 hotel managers clustered in an Italian hotel district, we develop a theory of status-seeking behavior that involves the exchange of status for valued resources.