Updating the Debate on Intergenerational Fairness in Pension Reform

This article examines the arguments involved in claims about the fairness or unfairness of government policies that would require current working generations to bear the full impact of their lower fertility on the costs of retirement pensions. The analysis is set in the context of a wider review of debate on the role of the idea of generational fairness in assessing options for reform under conditions of population ageing. The article considers three questions: whether generational fairness poses a serious problem for pay‐as‐you‐go pension schemes; whether it is reasonable to assess the generational fairness of pension policy in isolation from other kinds of generational transfer; and whether there is a good case for redistribution from future generations in favour of the baby boom generation.     

The Value of Safety as Revealed in the Swedish Car Market: An Application of the Hedonic Pricing Approach

In this article the hedonic regression technique is used to estimate the value of traffic safety, using information from the Swedish market for automobiles. The results from the study show that the market price of an automobile is negatively correlated with its inherent risk level, i.e. Swedish car consumers pay a safety premium for safer cars. In comparison to previous Swedish stated-preference studies, this study reveals a lower willingness to pay for additional car safety, which might be a result of the interaction between government interventions and individual self-insurance and self-protection.JEL Classification: C51, D61, J28     

Altruism and Market-Like Behavior: An Analysis of Willingness to Pay for Recycled Paper Products

The contrast between self-interested behavior guided by rational choice and altruistic behavior guided by normative considerations is a central theme in the social sciences. This study suggests that market and market-like behavior, the context where self-interest is expected to dominate, is in fact often motivated by altruism. This argument is tested by examining a willingness to pay measure, a surrogate for the market that is finding substantial use in analyses of public policy. In particular, the ability of the Schwartz model of altruism to explain willingness to pay for recycled products is examined. Findings indicate that even as the Schwartz model has explained many purely altruistic behaviors, it also can explain self-reported willingness to pay. While economists often have noted the importance of rational choice in even the most intimate of human decisions, this study notes the importance of normative altruism in even the most calculated.     

Stochastic Bounds with a Low Rank Decomposition

We investigate how we can bound a discrete time Markov chain (DTMC) by a stochastic matrix with a low rank decomposition. In the first part of the article, we show the links with previous results for matrices with a decomposition of size 1 or 2. Then we show how the complexity of the analysis for steady-state and transient distributions can be simplified when we take into account the decomposition. Finally, we show how we can obtain a monotone stochastic upper bound with a low rank decomposition.     

Corporate collective action and the market cycle of the cloth industry in Nieuwkerke,Flanders, 1300–1600

This article addresses the connections between corporate collective action and economic development in the pre-industrial Low Countries. It focuses on a micro-historic case study: the textile industry of the village of Nieuwkerke in the county of Flanders. This rural cloth centre witnessed an exceptional industrial expansion between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Following the recent proposition by Bas van Bavel that market economies follow a fixed pattern of development, the chronology of the evolution of Nieuwkerke’s cloth industry can be discussed in terms of three phases. This article argues that the first phase of development (1358–c.1500) was characterized by limited success because of pressure from the city of Ypres. The second phase (c.1500–c.1550) was marked by an industrial boom, predicated upon successful corporate collective action intertwined with the perception of social equality among the village’s cloth entrepreneurs. The third and final phase (from c.1550) was one of stagnation and decline, caused by the breaking down of the collective and concomitant social polarization. The case study thereby closely conforms to van Bavel’s theory about market cycles. Yet, the correlation between economic decline and social polarization should in this case be understood in terms of changing perceptions of inequality, rather than increasingly unequal opportunities.     

英国的“低碳转型计划”及其政策启示

作为低碳经济的先行者,近来英国正式颁布了低碳转型计划。该计划对电力部门、家庭与社区、工作场所和就业、交通系统、农业等领域的碳排放都给出了详细的应对措施,将减排目标具体量化,并在此基础上提出了明确的时间表。与此同时,计划还突出强调政府在低碳转型中的定位和作用。该计划对我国发展低碳经济具有重要启示。     

Promoting Gender Equality without a Gender Perspective: Problem Representations of Equal Pay in Finland

The current locus of promoting equal pay in Finland is the workplace. Legal instruments, like gender equality planning and its pay surveys, are to be implemented in workplaces. This development raises important questions about the central role of the local trade union representatives as promoters of equal pay. This article analyses how local trade union representatives construct the problem of unequal pay and their role in narrowing the gender pay gap and their possible agonistic adversaries in negotiations on equal pay. Different problem representations concerning equal pay are analysed and evaluated on the basis of their potential to fracture the gender‐blind wage bargaining culture and ability to cash in on the promises made towards narrowing the gender pay gap.     

基于DEA的我国省级噩域低碳经济的效率评价研究

本文针对我国30个省级区域低碳化进程中的效率评价问题,以DEA综合效率为主体,技术效率与规模效率为辅助进行测算,结果表明各省级区域低碳经济的综合效率差异明显,总体来看,中部最高,西部次之,东部最低。进一步考察各省级区域低碳经济的规模效率,发现我国多数地区投入水平处于规模效益递增阶段,具有较大发展潜力。通过DEA投影分析,以投入冗余度为依据,对效率水平相对落后地区提出了重点改进建议。     

投射偏差视角下的服务类品牌消费--以农村信息消费支付意愿为例

现将投射偏差模型框架引入服务类耐用品消费者均衡中,从理论上阐述投射偏差如何会导致消费者在服务类商品消费时无法达到效用最大化。研究采用实验和实地调研的方法,一共有251名人员参与了实验与调研,分析上网体验对于未来一年宽带的支付意愿影响。研究结果发现,人们在体验上网前后对于信息的认知状态有显著差异,没有上过网的人会基于当前的认知状态而低估未来一年宽带的效用,其支付意愿明显低于上过网的人,投射偏差在服务类耐用品的消费均衡中发挥了重要作用。     

对中国消费者非转基因菜油支付意愿的研究

有关中国消费者关于转基因食品接受度的资料非常有限.本文则首次尝试对中国消费者关于非转基因(non-GM)食用油的支付意愿(WTP)问题进行评估.通过对北京的671个消费者进行调查采访,运用假设评价方法(contingent valuation),可推导出消费者对非转基因菜油的支付意愿.为避免调查者无响应引起的偏差,运用了双变量概率选择模式对调查数据进行分析.研究结果表明,消费者对非转基因菜油的支付意愿受到了许多因素的影响,比如价格、风险意识、受教育程度和知识水平等等.计算所得的WTP显示,平均而言,被调查者愿意支付33%的额外费用来消费非转基因菜油.这一结果表明,中国消费者对转基因油持有相当怀疑的态度.