Urban forest biomass estimates: is it important to use allometric relationships developed specifically for urban trees?

Many studies have analyzed the benefits, costs, and carbon storage capacity associated with urban trees. These studies have been limited by a lack of research on urban tree biomass, such that estimates of carbon storage in urban systems have relied upon allometric relationships developed in traditional forests. As urbanization increases globally, it is becoming important to more accurately evaluate carbon dynamics in these systems. Our goal was to understand the variability and range of potential error associated with using allometric relationships developed outside of urban environments. We compared biomass predictions from allometric relationships developed for urban trees in Fort Collins, Colorado to predictions from allometric equations from traditional forests, at both the individual species level and entire communities. A few of the equations from the literature predicted similar biomass to the urban-based predictions, but the range in variability for individual trees was over 300%. This variability declined at increasingly coarse scales, reaching as low as 60% for a street tree community containing 11 tree species and 10, 551 trees. When comparing biomass estimates between cities that implement various allometric relationships, we found that differences could be a function of variability rather than urban forest structure and function. Standardizing the methodology and implementing averaged equations across cities could be one potential solution to reducing variability; however, more accurate quantification of biomass and carbon storage in urban forests may depend on development of allometric relationships specifically for urban trees.     

碳交易国际管理制度的理论梳理

建立在"共同但有区别责任原则"基础上的碳交易国际管理制度,由于工业发达国家和发展中国家对责任分配方式上存在严重分歧,从而难以实现国际环境公约的预期目标。对发展中国家实行激励的无约束力减排计划将有助于碳交易国际管理合作。     

Women’s status and carbon dioxide emissions: A quantitative cross-national analysis

Global climate change is one of the most severe problems facing societies around the world. Very few assessments of the social forces that influence greenhouse gas emissions have examined gender inequality. Empirical research suggests that women are more likely than men to support environmental protection. Various strands of feminist theory suggest that this is due to women’s traditional roles as caregivers, subsistence food producers, water and fuelwood collectors, and reproducers of human life. Other theorists argue that women’s status and environmental protection are linked because the exploitation of women and the exploitation of nature are interconnected processes. For these theoretical and empirical reasons, we hypothesize that in societies with greater gender equality there will be relatively lower impacts on the environment, controlling for other factors. We test this hypothesis using quantitative analysis of cross-national data, focusing on the connection between women’s political status and CO₂ emissions per capita. We find that CO₂ emissions per capita are lower in nations where women have higher political status, controlling for GDP per capita, urbanization, industrialization, militarization, world-system position, foreign direct investment, the age dependency ratio, and level of democracy. This finding suggests that efforts to improve gender equality around the world may work synergistically with efforts to curtail global climate change and environmental degradation more generally.     

中国非正规金融的庞氏融资特征

民间借贷作为中国非正规金融的主要表现形式,曾经对经济发展产生积极作用。但是,近年来非正规金融表现出越来越明显的庞氏融资特征。按照海曼.明斯基的金融不稳定理论,庞氏融资将增加金融体系的脆弱性,给金融体系和经济运行造成极大危害。对中国而言,庞氏融资将吞噬实体经济的经营成果,加大通货膨胀并提高失业率。因此,推动金融监管改革,规范非正规金融已经刻不容缓。     

“COMPANY FORECAST ACCURACY FOR EXPONENTIAL SMOOTHING MODELS OF EARNINGS-PER-SHARE DATA FOR FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING”: A COMMENT

The practice of abandoning all but the most accurate among a set of alternative forecasting methods is shown to result in the loss of potentially useful information. The particular case of two forecasts is considered in detail. It is demonstrated practically that the inclusion of even a relatively poor forecasting method can enhance a superior one significantly.     

金融支持青岛文化产业发展的实践与思考

随着社会经济的发展,文化产业的经济效益和社会效益日益凸显,金融支持文化产业的问题已提到议事日程。当前,青岛市文化产业的发展也面临着同样的问题,找准金融支持文化产业发展的切入点,突破文化产业发展的瓶颈,是青岛市文化产业发展过程中亟待解决的重要问题。     

浙江城乡基本公共服务均等化问题探讨

城乡基本公共服务均等化是确保城乡居民生存和发展的起点平等、机会均等的基本要求.浙江的基本公共服务在城乡之间呈现出制度保障不均衡、公共服务资源配置不均等、基本公共服务受益程度不均等的非均衡态势.推动浙江城乡基本公共服务均等化必须建立健全推进城乡基本公共服务均等化的动力机制、以城乡基本公共服务均等化为导向的财政资金投入结构、基本公共服务管理体制以及推进城乡基本公共服务均等化的工作机制.     

浅析公共财政与转移支付制度

公共财政与转移支付制度的建设，是我国经济界和理论界讨论的热点话题。借鉴发达国家发展经验，建立公共财政体系框架，可以说是改革开放以来中国财政发展史上的一座里程碑。建立与市场经济体制相适应的公共财政，必须有与预算管理体制相适应的转移支付制度。转移支付制度是实现公共财政的最佳选择，也是国家干预调节经济运行、抑制市场经济自发冲动的最佳途径。在这方面，我国理论界的认识与发达国家相比是有差距的，还有待于加强和深化改革。     

论公司财务管理在公司治理结构中发挥的作用

公司制企业财务管理存在着三个层次,即出资者财务、经营者财务和专业财务;它们在公司治理结构中发挥着不同的作用.出资者财务以资本的终极所有权为依据,以资本的安全和增值为目的,对其出资及运用状况进行管理,是一种间接约束机制;经营者财务以法人所有权为依据,在出资者的监控下,以直接控制的方式对企业的资金运行进行管理,发挥在治理结构中的纽带作用,处于财务管理的核心地位;专业财务以现金流转为管理对象,保证经营者财务决策的顺利执行和预期效益的实现.三者的辩证统一是实现公司有效治理的关键.     

India's surge in modern services exports: Empirics for policy

India's exports of modern services have grown consistently over the last three decades and more so since 1991. Sustaining modern services exports (MSEs), which in India enjoy comparative advantage, is important for sustaining service-led growth and maintaining stability on the external sector. In this context, we examine key drivers of India's surge in MSEs which have important implications for policy. The results reveal that endowment factors such as human capital, tele-density, financial development, physical infrastructure and institutions are the key drivers of India's MSEs along with the world demand, exchange rate and foreign direct investment. Therefore, India needs to focus on and speed up the ongoing reforms to improve supply side factors such as education, infrastructure, financial sector deepening, governance and broad-band tele-density to improve competitiveness of India's modern services exports.