财政分权和环境规制促进了中国绿色技术创新吗？

基于我国2003-2017年省级面板数据测算财政分权水平和财政分权效率,结合两阶段关联网络DEA测算绿色创新效率、绿色技术研发效率、绿色技术成果转化效率。结合理论模型与实证模型,分析了财政分权、环境规制对我国绿色技术创新的影响。结果表明：从整体上看,财政分权水平、财政分权效率和环境规制都是推动我国绿色创新发展的积极因素,财政分权还通过影响环境规制对绿色技术创新产生积极间接影响;但也导致了地方政府不注重绿色研发的短视行为。从不同时段看,财政分权和环境规制对绿色创新影响发生了变化,一是国际金融危机以后,财政分权加大了经济刺激政策对绿色创新发展的挤出效应,但这在新时代以后得到缓解;二是2013年以后地方环境规制水平提升过快,在一定程度上反而不利于绿色创新。从发展处于不同分位的地区看,财政分权对高、低分位地区绿色创新发展支持都稍显不足,但提高财政分权效率则能显著带动高分位地区发展;环境规制只在高分位地区促进了绿色创新发展,但对绿色创新效率较低的地区而言,过高的环境规制并没有实际意义。     

PPP模式在政府债务危机中的应用研究

近年来,政府债务危机频频爆发,国务院办公厅下文要赋予地方政府适度举债融资权,规范地方政府的举债融资机制.政府与社会资本合作模式(P P P模式)被列入规范政府举债融资机制之中,该举措对于化解地方政府债务压力,缓解公用基础设施建设资金短缺发挥重要作用.因此需要对PPP模式适用于政府债务领域的可行性和必要性进行分析,在缓解政府债务的PPP具体模式中加以选择,并从法律层面保障PPP模式的实施.     

环境信息不对称、机构投资者实地调研与企业环境治理

基于信息不对称理论,本文以2013-2016年深交所重污染行业上市公司为研究样本,分析了机构投资者实地调研对企业环境治理的影响及其作用机制。研究发现,机构投资者实地调研对企业环境治理具有积极的推动作用;在环境信息披露较差以及本地子公司较多的企业中,机构投资者实地调研的环境治理作用更为明显。进一步考察实地调研对企业环境治理的影响路径发现,机构投资者实地调研推动了企业环境治理的资本市场监督和媒体监督。本文的研究验证了信息不对称理论在环境治理中的作用,拓宽了实地调研经济后果的研究领域,对于深入理解并推动我国企业环境治理具有重要的现实意义。     

Working-class ecology and union politics: a conceptual topology

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that Environmental Labour Studies may benefit from incorporating the perspective of environmental justice. We offer a theorization of working-class ecology as the place where working-class communities live and work, being typically affected by environmental injustice, and of working-class environmentalism as those forms of activism that link labour and environmental struggles around the primacy of reproduction. The paper’s theoretical section draws on a social ethnography of working-class ecology in the case of Taranto, a mono-industrial town in southern Italy, which is experiencing a severe environmental and public-health crisis. We show how environmental justice activism since the early 2000s has allowed the re-framing of union politics along new ways of politicizing the local economy. We conclude by offering a conceptual topology of working-class ecology, which situates different labour organizations (confederal, social/community, and rank-and-file unions) according to their positioning in respect to environmental justice.     

A CANONICAL ANALYSIS OF MANAGERIAL-ENVIRONMENTAL RELATIONSHIPS: IMPLICATIONS FOR METHODOLOGY AND POLICY*

The present study uses canonical analysis to examine the contingency model of organizations in the nursing home field. Data on environmental pressures and managerial practices relevant to the decision-making process are analyzed. Results support the theory that managerial practices are contingent on environmental pressures. The implications of these results for health-care decision makers and for future assessments of managerial-environmental relationships are discussed.     

Beyond ‘bikelash’: engaging with community opposition to cycle lanes

This article explores the phenomenon of ‘bikelash’, or organised community opposition to cycle lanes. Urban residents commonly cite bicycle lanes, a space on the road reserved for cyclists, as the infrastructure most likely to encourage them to cycle. Yet the introduction of cycle lanes is often controversial. This article explores the phenomenon of bikelash, asking: Why does it occur? And what are the best ways to respond to it? A critical review of the literature on ‘contested’ cycle lane projects is undertaken in order to explore how this phenomenon can best be conceptualised within a mobilities framework.     

Scrambled systems: the (im)mobilities of ‘storm Desmond’

This article examines a 3-day blackout, triggered by a ‘1-in-100-year’ rainfall event. Storms and floods account for almost three-quarters of weather-related disasters, and are typically accompanied by cascading infrastructure failures, which pattern and amplify their effects in highly significant ways. Such disruptions reveal aspects of everyday life that ordinarily remain obscure, including capacities for resilience embodied in people, cities and infrastructure. The article proposes that disruption events be understood in terms of ‘scrambles’, as they involve abrupt demobilisation and remobilisation of a range of people and materials. The article firstly examines the astonishing capacity for failure latent in ‘pervasively powered’ arrangements, as well as the many ways in which people and things were ‘scrambled’ in response. The article then proceeds to explore the ways in which vulnerabilities result in part from mobilisation in response to previous disruption events, before examining the ‘circuits’ that link far-flung places in mobile disaster geographies, global patterns of electricity dependence, the rise of data overload in the ‘cloud’ to carbon overload in the atmosphere. The article concludes by presenting further evidence in support of the thesis that disruptions and disasters are part of a ‘new normal’, and what this means for prevailing sociotechnical arrangements reliant on ‘sunk’ infrastructure.     

Assessing state substance abuse prevention infrastructure through the lens of CSAP's Strategic Prevention Framework

Although the organizational structures and operating procedures of state substance abuse prevention systems vary substantially across states, there is scant empirical research regarding approaches for rigorous assessment of system attributes and which attributes are most conducive to overall effectiveness. As one component of the national cross-site evaluation of the SPF State Incentive Grant Program (SPF SIG), an instrument was developed to assess state substance abuse prevention system infrastructure in order to measure infrastructure change and examine the role of state infrastructure in achieving prevention-related outcomes. In this paper we describe the development of this instrument and summarize findings from its baseline administration. As expected, states and territories were found to vary substantially with respect seven key characteristics, or domains, of state prevention infrastructure. Across the six domains that were assessed using numeric ratings, states scored highest on data systems and lowest on strategic planning. Positive intercorrelations were observed among these domains, indicating that states with high capacity on one domain generally have relatively high capacity on other domains as well. The findings also suggest that state prevention infrastructure development is linked to both funding from state government and the presence of a state interagency coordinating body with decision-making authority. The methodology and baseline findings presented will be used to inform the ongoing national cross-site evaluation of the SPF SIG and may provide useful information to guide further research on state substance abuse prevention infrastructure.     

Process evaluation of an environmental walking and healthy eating pilot in small rural worksites

Small Steps are Easier Together (SS) was a pilot environmental intervention in small rural worksites in Upstate New York in collaboration with Extension educators. Worksite leaders teamed with co-workers to select and implement environmental changes to increase walking steps over individual baseline and to choose healthy eating options over 10 weeks. Participants were 226 primarily white, women employees in 5 sites. A mixed methods process evaluation, conducted to identify determinants of intervention effectiveness and to explain differences in outcomes across worksites, included surveys, self-reports of walking and eating, interviews, focus groups, and an intervention log. The evaluation assessed reach, characteristics of recruited participants, dose delivered, dose received, and context and compared sites on walking and eating outcomes. Emergent elements of participant-reported dose received included: active leadership, visible environmental changes, critical mass of participants, public display of accomplishments, accountability to co-workers, and group decision making. Participants at sites with high reach and dose were significantly more likely than sites with low reach and dose to achieve intervention goals. Although this small pilot needs replication, these findings describe how these evaluation methods can be applied and analyzed in an environmental intervention and provide information on trends in the data.     

Conflict or consensus: An investigation of stakeholder concerns during the participation process of major infrastructure and construction projects in Hong Kong

Public participation in the planning and design of major public infrastructure and construction (PIC) projects is crucial to their success, as the interests of different stakeholders can be systematically captured and built into the finalised scheme. However, public participation may not always yield a mutually acceptable solution, especially when the interests of stakeholders are diverse and conflicting. Confrontations and disputes can arise unless the concerns or needs of the community are carefully analysed and addressed. The aim of the paper is to propose a systematic method of analysing stakeholder concerns relating to PIC projects by examining the degree of consensus and/or conflict involved. The results of a questionnaire survey and a series of interviews with different entities are provided, which indicate the existence of a significant divergence of views among stakeholder groups and that conflicts arise when there is a mismatch between peoples’ perception concerning money and happiness on the one hand and development and damages on the other. Policy and decision-makers should strive to resolve at least the majority of conflicts that arise throughout the lifecycle of major PIC projects so as to maximise their chance of success.