Consumption Over the Life Cycle

This paper estimates a structural model of optimal life‐cycle consumption expenditures in the presence of realistic labor income uncertainty. We employ synthetic cohort techniques and Consumer Expenditure Survey data to construct average age‐profiles of consumption and income over the working lives of typical households across different education and occupation groups. The model fits the profiles quite well. In addition to providing reasonable estimates of the discount rate and risk aversion, we find that consumer behavior changes strikingly over the life cycle. Young consumers behave as buffer‐stock agents. Around age 40, the typical household starts accumulating liquid assets for retirement and its behavior mimics more closely that of a certainty equivalent consumer. Our methodology provides a natural decomposition of saving and wealth into its precautionary and life‐cycle components.     

Does Market Incompleteness Matter?

This paper argues that incompleteness of intertemporal financial markets has little effect (on welfare, prices, or consumption) in an economy with a single consumption good, provided that traders are long–lived and patient, a riskless bond is traded, shocks are transitory, and there is no aggregate risk. In an economy with aggregate risk, a similar conclusion holds, provided traders share the same CRRA utility function and the right assets are traded. Examples demonstrate that these conclusions need not hold if the wrong assets are traded or if the economy has multiple consumption goods.     

Fishing in Urban New Jersey: Ethnicity Affects Information Sources,Perception, and Compliance

Recreational and subsistence angling are important aspects of urban culture for much of North America where people are concentrated near the coasts or major rivers. Yet there are fish and shellfish advisories for many estuaries, rivers, and lakes, and these are not always heeded. This paper examines fishing behavior, sources of information, perceptions, and compliance with fishing advisories as a function of ethnicity for people fishing in the Newark Bay Complex of the New York–New Jersey Harbor. We test the null hypothesis that there were no ethnic differences in sources of information, perceptions of the safety of fish consumption, and compliance with advisories. There were ethnic differences in consumption rates, sources of information about fishing, knowledge about the safety of the fish, awareness of fishing advisories or of the correct advisories, and knowledge about risks for increased cancer and to unborn and young children. In general, the knowledge base was much lower for Hispanics, was intermediate for blacks, and was greatest for whites. When presented with a statement about the potential risks from eating fish, there were no differences in their willingness to stop eating fish or to encourage pregnant women to stop. These results indicate a willingness to comply with advisories regardless of ethnicity, but a vast difference in the base knowledge necessary to make informed risk decisions about the safety of fish and shellfish. Although the overall median income level of the population was in the $25,000–34,999 income category, for Hispanics it was on the border between $15,000–24,999 and $25,000–34,999.     

Kumulation von Mikrodaten – Konzeptionelle Grundlagen und ein Vorschlag zur Realisierung

Zusammenfassung: In dieser Studie wird ein Konzept zur Kumulation von laufenden Haushaltsbudgetbefragungen im Rahmen des Projektes Amtliche Statistik und sozioökonomische Fragestellungen entwickelt und zur Diskussion gestellt. Dafür werden die theoretischen Grundlagen und Bausteine gelegt und die zentrale Aufgabe einer strukturellen demographischen Gewichtung mit einem Hochrechnungs–/Kalibrierungsansatz auf informationstheoretischer Basis gelöst.Vor dem Hintergrund der Wirtschaftsrechnungen des Statistischen Bundesamtes (Lfd. Wirtschaftsrechnungen und EVS) wird darauf aufbauend ein konkretes Konzept für die Kumulation von jährlichen Haushaltsbudgetbefragungen vorgeschlagen. Damit kann das Ziel einer Kumulation von Querschnitten mit einer umfassenderen Kumulationsstichprobe für tief gegliederte Analysen erreicht werden. Folgen sollen die Simulationsrechnungen zur Evaluation des Konzepts.

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Summary: In this study a concept for cumulating periodic household surveys within the frame of the project Official Statistics and Socio–Economic Questions is developed and asks for discussion. We develop the theoretical background and solve the central task of a structural demographic weighting/calibration based on an information theoretical approach.Based on the household budget surveys of the Federal Statistical Office (Periodic Household Budget Surveys and Income and Consumption Sample (EVS)) a practical concept is proposed to cumulate yearly household surveys. This allows a cumulation of cross–sections by a comprehensive cumulated sample for deeply structured analyses. In a following study this concept shall be evaluated.

     

农村居民消费不平等的微观结构分析

提出了个体微观数据基尼系数的组群、要素统一分解式,并利用该分解式考察消费结构、区域结构和收入不平等对农村居民消费不平等的影响.采用了2009年福建省农村居民生活状况调查数据进行分析,得出结论:食品、衣着类消费的增长可以降低农村居民的消费不平等,其中谷物、薯类、食用油、蔬菜及制品、肉禽蛋奶及制品的消费增长对消费公平性的提高产生积极的作用;组内不平等在总体消费不平等中占80％以上,消费差异主要表现为内部的差异;农村居民的消费不平等受收入不平等影响显著.     

基于能源消耗的综合运输结构优化

为充分考虑综合运输结构优化的过程中能源消耗的因素,在运用完全分解模型对影响综合运输能耗的因素进行因子贡献率分析、利用SPSS软件对GDP和运输周转量进行回归分析的基础上,采用情景分析法,通过设定不同的综合运输结构,构建了基于能源消耗的综合运输结构优化模型;以陕西省为研究对象对构建的模型进行了验证,验证了模型的可操作性和正确性,可为陕西省综合运输的发展方向提供借鉴。     

日本《低碳投资促进法》述评

日本参议院于5月18日通过了《低碳投资促进法》,该法是日本建设低碳社会的最新立法,规定了对从事适合能源环境的制品开发与制造的特定事业者提供筹资支持,需求开拓支援法人承保租赁合同等措施,对我国的相关立法有一定的借鉴意义。     

中国国际能源合作若干问题论析

改革开放以来,我国对外能源战略实施历经着重引进西方资金技术的引进来开放、开拓海外能源市场的走出去国际化经营以及新能源安全观指导下全面多元的国际能源合作三阶段.当今中国的国际能源合作呈现出令人注目的新特征,包括能源合作对象与方式的多元化、合作渠道和路径的长期化和机制化,以及平等互利、共同受益的合作原则和价值取向;但同时面临西方国际竞争的压力、中国威胁论的危害、资源国合作环境的不利和周边国家的同构竞争与领土资源争议等一系列现实与潜在的严峻挑战和障碍.经济全球化的推进、全球金融危机的冲击也为我国互惠共赢的对外能源合作带来新机遇.     

以绿色金融政策促进绿色消费发展

在市场经济条件下促进经济绿色化发展,金融机制是推进绿色消费的基本手段。通过发展绿色金融、创新绿色消费金融机制、完善绿色信贷制度、建立绿色保险体系、构筑绿色社会信用体系等,并配以相应的环境经济政策和产业准入政策,促进绿色消费发展,发挥其引导和促进作用。