The Optimal Depletion of Exhaustible Resource under Different Commitment

There are few papers in the literature focusing on the issue of the optimal depletion of exhaustible resources in the framework of variable time preference. This paper attempts to analyze the pure consumption of exhaustible resource under hyperbolic time preference, and to discuss the optimal depletion rate and the effect of the protection of the exhaustible resource under different commitment abilities. The results of model show that the case of the hyperbolic discount with the full commitment of the government is equivalent to the case of constant discount of the social planner problem. In that case, the optimal depletion rate and the initial consumption of exhaustible resource are the slowest. On the contrary, they are the highest and the myopic behaviors lead to excessive consumption of exhaustible resources inevitably without commitment. Otherwise, in the case of partial commitment, the results are between the cases of full commitment and of no commitment. Therefore, with the hyperbolic time preference, the optimal depletion rate of resource depends on the commitment ability. Higher commitment ability leads to lower effective rate of time preference, and consequently, lower depletion rate and lower initial depletion value. The improvement of commitment ability can decrease the impatience and myopia behaviors, and contribute to the protection of the exhaustible resources.     

不同承诺能力下可耗竭资源的最优消耗

通过对可耗竭资源经济学的文献回顾,目前尚没有发现在可变时间偏好理论框架下探讨可耗竭资源的最优消耗等问题.该文尝试在双曲线贴现的可变时间偏好下,对一个可耗竭资源的纯消耗问题进行分析,讨论在不同承诺能力下资源的最优消耗速度及对资源的保护效果.模型结果证明,在国家的完全承诺能力下,资源的最优消耗速度最慢,选择的初始资源消耗最低,与时间偏好不变情况下的社会计划者问题等价.相反,在完全无承诺能力下,资源的最优消耗速度最快,选择的初始资源消耗最高,其短视的资源消耗行为必然会导致可耗竭资源的过度消耗.部分承诺能力下的情况则介于完全承诺能力情况与完全无承诺能力情况之间.因此,在双曲线贴现的时间偏好下,资源消耗的最优速度依赖于承诺能力,承诺能力的提高会导致更低的有效时间偏好率,从而导致更低的资源消耗速度和初始资源消耗.承诺技术纠正了人们的不耐心程度与短视行为,从而达到保护可耗竭资源的目的.     

Development of a framework for sustainable uses of resources: more paper and less plastics?

Taiwan's EPA has implemented a new guideline called the "Plastic Products Restriction Policy", prohibiting some industries to use plastics as packaging materials for the sake of sustainable use of resources. The significant effect resulting from this policy is the substitution of plastic products with paper products. Is this policy beneficial to achieve future sustainability? I attempt to analyze the resource choice between renewable resources and exhaustible resources for production of final products and services in case of exhaustion of natural resources. In this paper, I develop a framework to examine the dynamic responsiveness of a socio-economical system in facing a continual depletion of natural resources provided by an environmental system. In this framework, the status of an environmental system in terms of carrying capacity is affected by the cumulative impacts caused from human activities, including environmental pollution and resource exploitation. Conversely, it also affects the growth of renewable resources. This framework can serve as a guideline to construct indicators to measure the status of the environmental system and the socio-economical system in order to support a policy planner that formulates an appropriate environmental policy. Based on this framework, I also develop a mathematical model to determine the optimal ratio of resources choice between renewable resources and exhaustible resources.     

Could we remain simply applying discount rate to evaluate the life quality of our future generations?

When we try to estimate future environmental costs resulting from our current economic activities,we usually calculate the present value of the consequences for our future generations by utilizing a discount rate as a standard economic procedure.The popularity of this procedure is solely supported by its simplicity which assumes:(1)a perfect financial market over even 100 years,and(2)existence of a stable time preference between two consecutive periods for an individual consumer.An apparent deficiency of this approach is that the present value of life quality of future generations varies to a large extent along an arbitrarily chosen discount rate.As a matter of fact,the discount rate,which could reflect the time preference as2%or 5%,matters when we predict current strategies of environmental protection for future generations.Simply applying a discount rate to evaluate the quality of our future generation,without clarifying the actual production mechanism behind this,is almost to the same as ignoring the fact that all of the goods are produced through an actual production process and that environmental degradation reduces the efficiency of that process.The greatest concern for our future generations should not be given by an assumed discount rate,since the discount rate itself is determined by financial market conditions at certain points in time.     

可耗竭资源开采追加投资行为研究

目前,我国可耗竭资源开采回采率普遍较低,企业可以通过追加投资来提高资源的管理及技术水平,进而提高资源开采回采率,减少资源浪费.文中基于Hotelling横向差异化模型,构建了一个三阶段动态博弈模型,采用逆向归纳法的思路,分析了可耗竭资源开采企业追加投资的动态行为.首先在企业通过竞争形成的价格和市场份额给定的基础上,分析第三阶段实行价格歧视消费者的转移情况,得到两企业的竞争策略;接着将第三阶段的最优价格策略和利润考虑到第二阶段中,讨论两企业的价格竞争均衡问题,分别得到两企业的需求;最后将第二阶段的利润贴现到第一阶段,可得到企业追加投资的策略,给出了该动态博弈模型存在唯一子博弈完美纳什均衡的条件和企业最佳追加投资规模.研究结果表明,要使企业追加投资就必须要求追加投资的回报率足够高,当企业追加投资的回报率很高时,只要较小的追加投入就会产生较大的边际成本减少量,获得较大的竞争优势,甚至会将不进行追加投资企业挤出市场;当投资回报率给定时,企业追加投资的激励是取决于其耐心,即企业对未来收益关注越多,则追加投资的规模也越大.     

Trade and the environment: An application of the WIOD database

The new WIOD database allows for improved empirical analysis on a wide range of important environmental research questions.In this paper we demonstrate the scientific power of the WIOD database and analyze very urgent policy questions on the impacts of international trade and structural change on the environment.We apply recent econometric approaches to show the impact of international trade on the environment via its different channels as for instance to increase welfare and potentially affect environmental regulation as well as countries’sector.This approach has become known as the econometric structural decomposition method.In addition to these guidelines by the literature,an econometric panel data approach is offered to shed some light on the impact of structural change and international trade on environmental pressure,where we especially address and solve several endogeneity issues that add further complexity to the analysis.     

Analysis of Soil and Water Balance on the Land Arrangement Function

Abstract

The natural supply of land resources is limited, but the economic supply may change along with social and economic development, and its size is decided bye nature and social and economic body conditions. When the supplying ability of land resources threatens the development of society and the conflict between people and land becomes tense, it forced people to improve land utilization and to increase the effective supply of land resources. The paper made an overall consideration on the characteristics of the irrigated farming and the frail ecological environment in Fuhai County, Altay Area, Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region and explored land arrangement planning as well as water resource planning and environmental protection. The paper evaluated natural resources, land utilization and water resource of the case study areas and focused on the spatio-temporal balance between the utilization of water and land resources. In the end the paper a feasible plan was made out for the land arrangement project.     

How much real cost has China paid for its economic growth?

China’s economic growth has a serious impact on the environment and resources. How much real cost did China pay for its economic growth? This paper estimates the monetary costs of resource depletion, environmental pollution, and ecological degradation. The paper examines the geographic distribution of resource and environmental losses across 31 provinces. The findings allow us to reach the following conclusions. First, the national cost of resource depletion, environmental pollution, and ecological degradation in 2005 was 2.5 trillion RMB. It accounted for 13.5% of China’s gross domestic product (GDP). Secondly, the cost of resource depletion, ecological degradation, and environmental pollution has a different spatial distribution. The cost of resources depletion mainly distributes in the central area, the cost of environmental pollution is in the eastern area, and the cost of ecological degradation lies in the western area. Thirdly, the cost of natural resources depletion is 1,672.5 billion RMB, accounting for 67.8% of the total cost of resource and environment. It indicates that economic development has a high cost of resource depletion.     

虚拟耕地资源与农业经济增长：作用机理及贡献份额研

虚拟耕地资源被广泛认为是缓解国内耕地资源压力和促进农业经济增长的重要举措之一。在论证虚拟耕地资源贸易对农业经济增长作用机理分析的基础上,计算1996~2018年中国主要农产品虚拟耕地资源贸易量,并对虚拟耕地资源对农业经济增长中的贡献份额进行实证分析,为调整对外贸易战略及优化耕地资源策略提供参考。结果表明：虚拟耕地资源可以在更大范围内实现耕地资源的优化配置;主要农产品贸易的巨大逆差决定了中国是虚拟耕地资源净进口大国,其中,油料是虚拟耕地资源净进口量最大的品种;虚拟耕地资源对农业经济增长的贡献率为0.26%,观点得到了佐证。同时,还提出了要试点实施虚拟耕地资源,全力以赴做好贸易政策调整战略;充分利用国内外“两种资源、两个市场”,倒逼主要农产品进行结构调整;努力构建虚拟耕地资源管理新模式,推动农业“走出去”与市场多元化结合等政策建议。     

我国电解金属锰行业可持续发展探讨

电解金属锰作为一种重要的冶金、化工原材料,为我国工业快速发展做出了较大贡献。但在锰资源的开采和加工过程中，存在着资源利用效率低下、生产集约程度不足、资源管理不善等多方面的问题，这不仅严重破坏了资源基础，更加重了环境恶化的趋势。我国的电解锰行业面对着资源短缺和环境保护的严峻挑战。为此，在系统分析我国电解锰行业面临的资源压力、环境压力、安全压力的基础上，探讨了我国电解锰行业可持续发展的途径和对策。重点强调国家应实行限产，适度开发，加大找矿工作力度，充分利用国内外两种资源；加快电解锰工业产业结构调整，通过并购、重组等措施发展壮大一批生产规模大、工艺先进、资源利用率高的企业；以资源和环境确定和优化经济增长模式，制定和完善电解锰行业发展政策，鼓励企业推行清洁生产。     

火电燃料消费过程对资源环境的影响评估

我国以化石能源为主要燃料的火电生产导致了严重的资源枯竭和环境污染问题,定量评估火电燃料消费对资源环境的影响是区域可持续发展研究的重要内容。在估算火电燃料燃烧及运输、生产过程中排放的主要大气污染物的基础上,利用成分法计算相应的生态足迹,定量评估火电燃料消费过程对资源环境的影响。结果表明：我国1 kW〖DK〗·h火电的燃料消费过程中排放的CO2、CH4、NOx、SO2、烟尘分别为107 kg、993×10-3 kg、646×10-3 kg、260×10-3 kg、202×10-2 kg;全国火电燃料消费占用的生态足迹由2000年的50 67444万hm2,增加到2007年的123 84208万hm2,年均增长1362％;CO2和NOx的生态足迹平均比重高达836％,是影响资源环境的主要因子,SO2、烟尘与CH4三者合计仅164%,对资源环境的冲击相对较小     

Analysis of Soil and Water Balance on the Land Arrangement Function

The natural supply of land resources is limited, but the economic supply may change along with social and economic development, and its size is decided bye nature and social and economic body conditions. When the supplying ability of land resources threatens the development of society and the conflict between people and land becomes tense, it forced people to im- prove land utilization and to increase the effective supply of land resources. The paper made an overall consideration on the characteristics of the irrigated farming and the frail ecological environment in Fuhai County, Altay Area, Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region and explored land arrangement planning as well as water resource planning and environmental protection. The paper evaluated natural resources, land utilization and water resource of the case study areas and focused on the spatio-temporal balance between the utilization of water and land resources. In the end the paper a feasible plan was made out for the land arrangement project.     

Limitations on the renewability of renewable energy resources

The primary supposition about renewable forms of energy is that use of such resources will not result in depletion or exhaustion. While it is true that natural energy flows such assun and wind are not directly subject to degradation by use, there may still be indirect limitations on renewability. The exploitation of natural energy flows may require that systems of nonrenewable “support” resources be used to capture, store, and convert natural energy into useful forms. Poor resource management practices that degrade the support resources may therefore, in effect, endanger renewability. Biomass is an illustrative case of a renewable energy resource with nonrenewable support components. The soil and water management practices of American agriculture, a large-scale biomass production system, are resulting in serious degradation and depletion of these vital system elements. This degradation represents a threat to the future of biomass food and energy supplies.     

浙江省农业自然资源合理利用战略研究

针对浙江省自然资源利用程度高,资源环境压力大,资源浪费和污染等严重问题,根据浙江省资源构成特点,从资源,环境与经济协调发展的观点提出减少非农建设占用耕地,完善基本农田保护工作,绝不以牺牲现有耕地为调整农业产业结构。与此同时,积极开发后备土地资源,补充现有耕地面积;对于水资源必须依法治,管并重,节约与开源相结合,合理利用水资源,着重开发山,海资源和改善农业生态环境等战略措施。     

城镇化对工业能源消费的门槛效应研究——以长江经济带省份为例

高效能源利用是推动工业发展,进而促使城镇格局演化的重要催化剂,同时城镇化的高速发展对工业能源的消费结构和利用效率提出了进一步的要求,这必将影响到低碳城市建设和环境保护等生态责任目标的实现。选取2003—2012年长江经济带11个省份(直辖市)的相关数据,运用门槛模型对城镇化率、城镇居民人均总收入、能源工业投资、工业总产值、城市人口密度、产业结构等影响工业能源消费的因素进行分析,重点研究城镇化率和工业能源消费的非线性关系和相应的地区差异。结果表明:(1)长江经济带城镇化发展存在着明显的地区差异,上海、浙江等东部地区城镇化发展速度和水平明显优于云南、贵州等中西部地区。云南和贵州2012年的城镇化率远远低于2003年上海、浙江的城镇化率,显示出长江上游和下游之间存在着巨大的发展水平差距。(2)城镇化对工业能源消费存在显著的门槛效应,以城镇化率为门槛变量,存在两个结构变化点,分别为36.9%和48.3%。(3)在第一个门槛点前,城镇化对工业能源消费起抑制作用,前期城镇化的发展导致资源和人口的集聚效应明显,资源的利用效率和配置效率得到提升,从而抑制工业能源消费。在越过第二个门槛点后,城镇化对工业能源消费起正向作用,此时工业的发展和生活消费水准的提升对能源消费提出了更多的要求。最后为促进长江经济带城镇化和工业低碳化的协调发展,提出以下建议:加快长江经济带沿线各省份联动发展,缩小城镇化发展差异;针对城镇化率和工业能源消费的非线性关系,采取相应的措施引导和控制工业能源消费的变化趋势;协调城镇化进程和地区工业能源消耗,促进城镇化的健康发展。     

Equity and sustainability over the next fifty years: An exercise in economic visioning

A simplistic aggregate model of global economic activity supports a 50-year visioning exercise with targets defined in terms of aggregate measures of global equity (convergence) and sustainability (contraction). Some ambitious combinations of these targets turn out to be infeasible even under the most favorable modeling assumptions. No contraction target (no reduction in fossil fuel consumption relative to the present) was possible, for example, if international capital transfers pushed per capita incomes in low-income countries above 33% of levels achieved in high-income countries. Lower prices for renewable alternatives to exhaustible resources generally made sustainability targets easier to achieve, but lower prices for renewable resources also made equity targets more difficult to achieve. Improved substitution between capital and labor made equity targets easier to achieve in relative terms, but improved substitution between capital and labor could make any given sustainability target more or less difficult to achieve. All the results suggest that it is possible to overstate the purported conflict between achieving sustainability and equity targets. The very transfers of international capital that would promote relative equity between high-income and low-income countries could also work to spread the incidence of achieving any sustainability target more evenly across their boundaries.Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Research on Indicator System of Regional Eco-efficiency: A Case Study of Chengyang District

Abstract

Eco-efficiency is a valuable tool for managing and solving issues involving resource consumption and pollution emission in current production processes. Despite the popularity of the term “eco-efficiency” in business, limited attention has been paid to measuring and reporting regional eco-efficiency for local government policy makers. Based on the concept and method of eco-efficiency, an indicator system of regional eco-efficiency is established in this study. The indicator system comprises 22 indicators, which are divided in to three categories including socio-economic development, resources consumption, environmental pressure. As a promising statistical technique, principle component analysis is used to set the weight of indicators which attempts to calculate the eco-efficiency indices of Qingdao's Chengyang District. The results show that the eco-efficiency of Chengyang District has clearly improved 35.1% with small fluctuation from 1995 to 2003. Socio-economic development index and resources consumption index also represent obvious increasing trends. The correlation coefficient between soci-economic development index and resources consumption index is 0.979, which means the social progress and economic growth of Chengyang District depend on an extravagant consumption of resources. The environmental pressure index in- creased slowly before 1997 and declined gradually after 1997, due to more attention being paid to environmental protection by local government in recent years. Chengyang District still keeps the traditional economic development mode with a high consumption and high production, so the emphases of future development should put on improving the improving the efficient use of natural resources and promoting environmental management sustainability. The results show that the indicators system of regional eco-efficiency is a promising method to quantitatively evaluate resources and environmental efficiency and provide an effective decision-making support for local governments.     

生态足迹的实证分析--中国经济增长中的生态制约

本文通过中国生态足迹的实证分析，讨论了生态系统资源供给方面对经济增长的制约，资源生态足迹是生态足迹的主要部分，反映了经济系统的资源消费，计算发现，1961-1999年中国资源生态足迹持续增长，从1961年的3.3亿hm^2年递增到1999年的16.8亿hm^2年平均增长率为4.4%，资源生态足迹的增长支持了同期的经济增长，但是，实证比较发展资源生态承载力大大低于资源生态足迹，这些实证结果表晨；一方面，中国经济持续增长造成了资源消费持续增加，而另一方面，中国生态系统资源供给能力有限，不能支持当前的资源消费及其增长，由于自然资源是经济系统进行生产的特质基础，其供给不足必然成为经济增长的制约因素。     

The Zambian Resource Curse and its influence on Genuine Savings as an indicator for “weak” sustainable development

The empirical evidence that economies predominantly reliant on their natural resources are characterized by slower economic growth—the so-called Resource Curse (RC)—is in many ways confirmed by the case of Zambia. Haber and Menaldo (Am Polit Sci Rev 105(1):1–26, 2011) identify Zambia’s extreme dependence on copper exports as one of the worldwide most striking examples for a country suffering from this “curse.” In topical literature, the RC is traced back to the generation of natural resource rents regardless of economic performance, which among other problems leads to suboptimal reinvestment. The World Banks indicator for the “weak” sustainable development of a country—the so-called Genuine Savings (GS)—considers exactly this reinvestment of rents from the depletion of natural capital rents into physical or human capital. Although it has been shown empirically that countries dependent on primary exports on average feature negative GS rates and that the determinants of the RC influence both present economic growth and future sustainability as measured by GS, no case studies have been conducted to confirm this. Against this background, we qualitatively survey the relationship between the most discussed determinants causing the RC in Zambia and the country’s GS rate. We show that all theoretical relationships between the GS rates of a country and RC determinants such as consumption behavior, volatile world market prices, the so-called Dutch disease as well as political and institutional structures apply to Zambia between 1964 and 2010: an extreme dependency on copper exports and insufficient reinvestments of income from the depletion of Zambia’s natural capital constitutes one of the main reasons for slow growth and negative GS until the copper price booms in the second half of the 2000s.     

少数民族贫困地区生态文明建设路径选择及优化

摘 要：少数民族贫困地区由于其地理条件、人文环境和经济发展等因素制约,生态文明建设更为艰巨。从人口、社会、经济、资源、环境5个子系统构建该地区生态文明建设系统动力学模型,通过调节14个控制变量设计5条路径,模拟2018~2030年生态文明建设的演变趋势。结果表明：（1）协调发展路径更能促进生态文明建设。但该路径模拟结果显示2020年后资源供需平衡指数与生态环境质量下降,利用耦合协调模型检验得出该路径2018~2030年间人类与自然系统未达到真正协调,需进一步优化路径;（2）根据该地区经济发展与资源供需间的矛盾,设计了以加快资源开发为主的优化路径Ⅰ和在放缓经济增长速度的同时加大资源开发力度的优化路径Ⅱ,其中优化路径Ⅱ耦合度较高,能够更好地帮助该地区摆脱经济发展与内外部资源支撑不足的困境,故将其确定为有效路径。研究发现,该地区资源开发、环境保护任务艰巨,在完成脱贫任务的同时,需要适当调整经济增长速度保证与其资源环境间的协调发展。我们认为提升脱贫的内生动力、发展多元经济、提高资源利用率、增强生态环境保护是今后工作的重点。