Collective empowerment: A comparative study of community work in Mumbai and Stockholm

Mumbai and Stockholm are worlds apart in terms of public services, infrastructures and standard of living. However, both cities have known common problems of social exclusion and marginalisation related to neo‐liberal globalisation. Social workers are facing similar challenges regarding collective empowerment as a strategy for community work. This comparative study explored how collective empowerment is undertaken by community workers. The research participants were 13 informants from community‐work organisations in the two settings. Semi‐structured interviews were used and were analysed with the help of Atlas‐ti 6.2 (ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH D‐10623 Berlin Germany). Social work in Mumbai is in a context of extreme poverty and mainly within the informal sector, whereas in Stockholm most social work is done in relation to a public welfare model. In Stockholm, interventions are aimed towards strengthening social networks, without direct aim at social change. In Mumbai, community workers organise people for collective empowerment to strengthen marginalised groups and achieve social change.     

Exercising Property Rights to Pollute: Do Cancer Risks and Politics Affect Plant Emission Reductions?

This paper examines whether firms' decisions about reductions in toxic emissions depend on the magnitude of dangers arising from their pollution and on who bears pollutant risks. Controlling for the quantity of air toxics released in 1988, this article finds that plants whose emissions generated higher numbers of expected cancer cases did reduce their emissions more between 1988 and 1991. The nature of the community bearing the pollution risk also affected firm decisions. The higher the voter turnout in the area, a proxy for residents' likelihood of collective action, the greater the reductions in a plant's release of air carcinogens.     

论道德的供求关系

如同经济学的供求关系一样,社会道德水平的状况与道德的有效供给之间有着内在的关联.道德的多元化特征与社会利益的多元化需求是一致的,多元化的利益需求引发多元化的道德需求,缺乏有效的道德供给,特别是缺乏有效的主流道德供给,是道德危机产生的原因.而主流道德的有效供给取决于社会当前及未来的政治、经济走向和社会文化底蕴,以及宣传教育等等手段.     

Resolving complex community problems: Applying collective leadership and Kotter's change model to wicked problems within social system networks

How does collective leadership within social networks resolve chronic and complex problems common to communities? Unfortunately, sometimes it does not, but when it does, the outcome may be truly extraordinary. We use a case study approach to explain how one Midwest community within the USA applied collective leadership within a community network to reduce teen births. It took ten years of what many identified as provocative media campaigns and comprehensive sex education programs to reduce teen births by 65%, significantly exceeding the stated goal. Using Kotter's change model as a backdrop, powerful strategies and provocative creativity reveal courageous leadership within a social network of diverse people and organizations focused on improving the social well being of their community.     

Between Neo-liberalism and Neo-indigenismo: Reconstructing National Identity in Mexico

Heightened integration with the US coupled with the rise of an indigenous movement have challenged and strained long-held images regarding the US and the indigenous within Mexico. As a result, Mexico finds itself facing the difficult task of re-evaluating and reconstructing its national identity. This paper explores the traditional images of the US and the Indian shaping national identity in Mexico and the challenges posed today by neo-liberalism and neo-indigenismo. It sets out a range of current issues, explores the linkages and contradictions, and examines the state of national reform. Fundamentally, the paper strives to raise important theoretical questions and hence set the stage for further research into these issues.     

基于面板数据模型的能耗与固定资产投资关系的实证研究

首先,对我国固定资产投资与能源消费之间的关系进行了机理分析,认为大规模的固定资产投资活动是造成能耗快速增长的主要原因,并且固定资产投资与能源消费之间存在一种循环关系.然后,采用面板数据模型对我国8个主要行业的固定资产投资与能源消费关系进行了实证研究.研究结果表明,固定资产投资是我国能耗增长的格兰杰原因,固定资产投资与能耗增长之间存在显著的正相关性.最后,对遏制我国能耗高速增长给出了相应的政策建议.     

流动性约束与消费行为关系的实证研究

流动性约束是指资本市场的资金流动具有单向性,流动性约束的存在可以提高储蓄水 平,降低当期累积消费. 通过三阶段生命期界的最优消费模型,证明了流动性约束的定量存在, 并通过实证检验发现,我国消费总量中受流动性约束影响的比例达到83. 46 %. 因此,增强信 贷市场的流动性,对于扩张有效需求将起重要作用.     

基于投入产出技术的能源效率新指标——生产能耗综合指数

随着全世界对能源需求的增加,以及全球气候变化之于人类的负面影响逐渐加剧,能源效率的高低已成为衡量一国经济、政治和环境发展的重要标志。但是现有的能源效率指标在国内国际比较中并不能更好的发挥作用,鉴于此,本文在投入产出技术框架下,提出生产能耗综合指数这一比较能源效率的新指标,以此能更加完善我国能源效率的评价体系,更加科学合理的指导经济建设,指明节能工作的主要方向。     

Temptation and Taxation

We study optimal taxation when consumers have temptation and self‐control problems. Embedding the class of preferences developed by Gul and Pesendorfer into a standard macroeconomic setting, we first prove, in a two‐period model, that the optimal policy is to subsidize savings when consumers are tempted by “excessive” impatience. The savings subsidy improves welfare because it makes succumbing to temptation less attractive. We then study an economy with a long but finite horizon which nests, as a special case, the Phelps–Pollak–Laibson multiple‐selves model (thereby providing guidance on how to evaluate welfare in this model). We prove that when period utility is logarithmic, the optimal savings subsidies increase over time for any finite horizon. Moreover, as the horizon grows large, the optimal policy prescribes a constant subsidy, in contrast to the well known Chamley–Judd result.     

房价波动、 收入水平对住房消费的影响——基于SYS-GMM估计方法的区域差异分析

基于生命周期-持久收入假说,在一般随机Ramsey模型的基础上,推导包含房价、收入和财富的住房消费函数,利用2002年至2013年31个省直辖市的面板数据,采用两步System-GMM估计方法考察我国房价波动和居民收入水平对住房消费的影响.实证结果表明:房价波动对全国居民住房消费具有显著的抑制作用;其中,滞后期和当期房价波动与当期住房消费负相关,挤出效应明显;未来一期房价波动与住房消费变化方向一致,存在积极的财富效应;此外,房价波动对东中西部各地区居民住房消费的抑制作用存在较大差异,西部地区抑制效应最为明显;滞后期住房消费与当期住房消费变动方向一致,人均可支配收入波动和人均年底储蓄余额对我国人均住房消费都起着重要的支撑作用.