Impact of Growing Income Inequality on Sustainable Development in China： A Provincial-level Analysis

A growing body of literature has documented the rapidly increasing income disparities that accompanied China＇s economic growth in the 1980s and 1990s, and the driving factors behind this. Growing income inequality in its turn may have important implications for the accumulation of physical capital, human capital, and natural capital and as a consequence for sustainable economic development. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential impact of income inequality on savings, human resources and the environment in China. It starts with an overview of the different causal mechanisms through which income inequality may affect the accumulation of physical capital, human capital, and natural capital, and discusses to what extent these causal relationships may be relevant in the case of China. Next, provincial data for the year 2002 are used to explore the relationship between income inequality and different elements of sustainable development in China. It is found that income inequality does not affect aggregate savings levels. Rising inequality, however, contributes to lower health and possibly also to higher fertility levels. It also lowers the use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture and therefore is likely to reduce water pollution. Other types of environmental degradation are not affected.     

人力资本积累与地区经济增长的联动关系分析

人力资本积累与地区经济增长差距的关系问题,是国内外理论界关注的焦点之一.为什么中国的地区经济增长在经济转型期20世纪80年代呈现收敛而90年代后发散?人力资本究竟是怎样作用于经济增长的?已有的经验研究没有考虑人力资本积累自身的收敛性,因而没有考虑到人力资本积累与地区经济增长的联立互动关系.本文采用三阶段最小二乘法(3SLS)估计了中国地区经济增长与人力资本增长的联立模型,结果表明,人力资本积累存在自身收敛性,人力资本增长率与地区经济增长率存在同向变化特征;同时,人力资本水平对地区经济增长存在直接发散和间接收敛双重效应,欠发达地区较高的人力资本增长率是导致20世纪80年代地区经济增长收敛的一个重要因素.因此,加大欠发达地区的人力资本投入,促进人力资本积累,对于缩小地区间经济增长差异具有十分重要的意义.     

影响退耕还林农户返耕决策的因素识别与分析

可持续收入能力是西部贫困地区退耕还林农户返耕决策的关键。而可持续收入能力又可以表征为收入水平、途径和结构。以及决定其实现的各种条件。理论分析与调研结果发现．农户可持续收入能力受制于自身资本积累。当地自然条件和经济条件三方面。其中．人力和物资等资本存量不足限制了农户在可能的收入途径问的选择；自然条件影响农户依靠自然资源所获得的收入；基础设施落后、产业结构单一、就业机会缺乏等经济条件制约了退耕还林后短期内农户形成较稳定的收入途径和结构。本文提出政策调整的方向应该是消除这些限制因素的影响。为退耕还林农户可持续收入能力的提高创造条件。以确保退耕还林的长期生态效果的巩固和实现。     

中国收入差距与环境质量关系的实证检验--基于对环境库兹涅茨曲线的扩展

在对环境库兹涅茨曲线（EKC）假说扩展的基础上,分析和验证了收入差距与环境质量之间的关系。应用联合国统计司公布的中国1986—2002年度二氧化碳排放总量数据,通过计量模型论证收入差距与环境质量之间的假设。结果发现,收入差距扩大会刺激二氧化碳排放,收入差距越大这种影响的效果就会越恶劣。而且收入差距因素还会通过作用于经济增长,促使经济增长对环境的污染程度加强。延迟转折点的到来。因此,我国目前在促进经济增长的同时,要以提高社会整体福利为目的,缩小居民收入差距,这将有利于环境质量的改善和提高。     

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.     

人力资本积累、企业创新与中等收入陷阱

中国经济长期向好的基本面虽未改变,但2010年以来经济增速不断回落,一些阻碍经济可持续发展的不利因素不断积累,落入"中等收入陷阱"的风险有所上升。揭示中等收入陷阱的产生机制,显然对于政府形成规避中等收入陷阱的有效政策具有重要意义。本文根据社会再生产理论,建立了"世代交叠"模型,对中等收入陷阱的产生机制作出理论解释,并运用中国1998—2014年各地区经济数据进行了验证,结果表明:(1)人力资本积累和企业创新会在不同程度上促进经济增长,并且二者存在协同效应;(2)上中等层次人力资本积累与企业创新的协同效应可以带动经济增长;(3)下中等层次人力资本与企业创新的协同效应对经济增长的作用不显著。这意味着现阶段中国经济发展不仅应注重人力资本量的积累,更要保证质的提升。基于此,应从下三个方面着手推动中国经济实现中高速增长:(1)着力提升科技创新能力,科学构建产权保护法律体系,促进形成企业家倡导企业科研创新的机制,激发企业创新的主观能动性,维护创新企业对于运用和转让科研成果的合法权益;(2)着力培育高素质人才的教育体系,稳步提升高等教育入学率和办学质量,鼓励教育培训机构适度创新,推动培训方式项目化,针对岗位需求扩充劳动者知识和技术储备;(3)着力降低初中及以下人口的规模与比例,延长义务教育年限,鼓励优质教育资源向不发达地区适度转移,关注偏远地区贫困人群的入学情况,努力为穷人提供公平发展的机会。     

Sustainable development in a natural resource rich economy: the case of Chile in 1985–2004

Searching for practical means to assessing economic growth’s sustainability, we extend a standard theoretical model to calculate “true” income measures for Chile, during the 1985–2004 period, and use estimates of natural capital depreciation to obtain genuine national saving measures. We found that, for the period, Chile’s economic growth was sustainable, even when approximately 2.5% of the income recorded by national accounts corresponded to depreciation of natural resources plus costs of atmospheric pollution. This performance can be partially explained by policies implemented to force fiscal responsibility and to assure wise public investment and expending during a natural resource driven growth. This evidence reinforces recent findings contradicting the natural resource curse, and the indirect negative effect of resource abundance over growth that would operate through the quality of institutions.     

What has caused regional income inequality in China? Effects of 10 socioeconomic factors on per capita income

This study analyzes the driving factors behind regional income inequality to provide an important reference for China and other developing countries and to support the formulation of more effective regional development policies. The study used data from 625 county-level administrative units in China in 2017 and conducted a total factor analysis of China's regional income based on 10 economic dimensions using spatially explicit regression methods. The results show that commerce, population footprint, industrialization, and investment are the main factors that affected a Chinese region’s income, but different factors have different degrees of influence in different regions. The impact of economic institutions (developing an institutionally diverse market economy) on income cannot be ignored. Based on our findings, China should give local governments more autonomy, so they can formulate strategies that account for local constraints and opportunities, thereby increasing their chances of decreasing regional income inequality.

     

The idea of sustainable development

In this lecture, I demonstrate how very different macroeconomic history begins to look if Nature is included as a capital asset in production activities. The tentative conclusions I draw from the evidence are: (1) high population growth in the world’s poorest regions (South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa) has been an obstacle to the achievement of sustainable economic development there; relatedly, (2) when population growth is taken into account, the accumulation of manufactured capital, knowledge, and human capital (health and education) has not compensated for the degradation of natural capital in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa and, in all probability, even in the UK and the US; (3) China is possibly an exception to (1) and (2). This article is based on the Keynote Lecture delivered at the international symposium on “Sustainability in an Unequal World”, held in Tokyo on November 24, 2006. The exposition relies on my book, Economics: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007. The author is the Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge.     

The effects of globalization on Ecological Footprints: an empirical analysis

Whether globalization is sustainable is a contested issue. The quantitative literature on the Maastricht Globalization Index (MGI) and the KOF index of globalization shows that globalization contributes positively to economic and human development, environmental performance, mortality, gender equality and physical integrity rights. However, globalization also drives within-country income inequality, especially in developing countries. Evidence on the effects of globalization on the ecological environment does not provide clear patterns; various dimensions of globalization have different effects on various pollutants. This article analyzes the statistical relationship between the most recent MGI (2012 edition) and the ecological dimension of sustainable development. The latter will be operationalized by considering four variants of the Ecological Footprint. The relation between globalization and sustainable development will be controlled for GDP per capita as a proxy for affluence and report the results for Pearson’s correlations and multivariate regressions for up to 171 countries. We conclude that the overall index of globalization significantly increases the Ecological Footprint of consumption, exports and imports. The decomposition of globalization into different domains reveals that apart from the political dimension, all dimensions drive human pressures and demands on the environment. Globalization needs to go into new directions if it is to make a contribution toward all aspects of sustainable development.     

Study on the Comprehensive Tourism Development Pattern in Periphery Minority Area: A Case Study of Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Gansu Province,China

Abstract

The paper took the human-land relations as a basic point, and the theories of tourism industry system and sustainable development as the guidance, with Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (Gannan) as the case study area. From microcosmic and macroscopic viewpoints, the author carried out function orientation and evaluation to the tourism industry development, and research on the comprehensive tourism industry development pattern of Gannan. Results show that the fragile ecological environment and the traditional economic growth pattern have restricted regional sustainable development, and made Gannan to become a representative of the periphery minority areas in Northwest China. Tourism development of Gannan is at the primary phase, with the characteristics of short industry chain and low economic efficiency. It is an inevitable choice to transform the way of regional economic growth and the development pattern of tourism industry from the traditional pattern to the pattern of sustainable development. Simultaneously, Gannan's natural, national and religious culture makes Gannan a broad prospect on the comprehensive tourism development. Gannan should choose the comprehensive tourism industry as its scientific pattern to realize sustainable development, promote harmonious social, economic and ecological development, alleviate the human-land contradictory, and realize dual goals in terms of ecology construction and economical development. For Gannan and the similar areas in China, studies on the sustainable development pattern of tourism have extremely important strategic sense with respect to tourism development and the sustainable development of regional economy.     

资本禀赋与农户耕地保护支付意愿关系 ——基于城镇近郊区与城镇远郊区的对比分析

在对资本禀赋与农户耕地保护支付意愿的关系进行文献综述并提出研究假说的基础上，基于武汉“1+8”城市圈483份农户调研数据，利用order logistic模型，实证检验两者之间的关系。结果表明：（1）有33.5%的农户愿意每月支付20元左右资金来保护耕地，整体水平偏低；城镇远郊区农户有更强的耕地生计依赖，相比于城镇近郊区，支付意愿更强。（2）从各个模型中的显著型变量来看，除经济资本中的家庭年总收入外，其余资本禀赋对耕地保护支付意愿存在显著正向影响。（3）整体上，相比于经济和文化资本，社会资本对农户耕地保护支付意愿的影响效应更强。（4）城镇近郊区和城镇远郊区农户资本禀赋对耕地保护支付意愿影响存在显著差异：相比城镇远郊区，除与亲朋邻里关系状况外，城镇近郊区其余农户资本影响效应较大；进一步分析发现，经济资本中的家庭年总收入、家庭劳动力总人数以及社会资本中在群众会议中的发言情况只对城镇近郊区农户影响效应显著；对村集体信任程度等村庄型和与亲朋邻里关系程度邻里型社会资本都对城镇远郊区农户耕地保护支付意愿产生重要影响，而城镇近郊区仅是与亲朋邻里关系程度邻里型社会资本产生效应。应积极组建各类农村合作经济组织，提升农户储蓄水平；大力发展农村教育，尤其是职业教育和继续教育；鼓励农民积极参与农村社会集体活动组织以加强农户之间、农户与村干部之间的交流；尤其加强城镇远郊区农村集体组织建设等来加强农户资本禀赋积累；进一步加强农户农业生产补贴；以此增强农户耕地保护支付意愿，促进更好的保护耕地。     

绿色经济新理念及中国开展绿色经济研究的思考

联合国里约20周年世界峰会的重要内容之一是倡导绿色经济。绿色经济的概念最早在1989年由英国环境经济学家Pearce提出,但现在的绿色经济却具有全新的意义。本文基于参加联合国有关绿色新政和绿色经济的政策咨询和研究报告,论述了绿色经济的基本背景、三重效益、研究模型以及绿色经济与生活质量的关系,对如何开展中国绿色经济研究进行探讨。首先,文章认为在深入探讨绿色经济前,需要了解当前发展绿色经济的基本背景,明确为什么要发展绿色经济、什么才是我们所需要的绿色经济,以及怎样促进绿色经济发展三个基本问题。其二,绿色经济与褐色经济的情景模拟表明,绿色经济发展模式具有更好的三重底线效益。联合国的T-21模型对过去40年(1970-2010)及未来40年(2010-2050)进行了绿色情景与褐色情景两种模拟,认为在自然资本的环境收益方面,绿色经济发展情景下自然资本的退化得到了基本遏制,而褐色经济发展情景下自然资本的退化会进一步增强;在物质资本的经济收益方面,绿色经济发展情景下,2020年以前经济增长率(2.5%)会低于褐色经济(3%),但从长期平均增长率看绿色经济发展模式(2.5%)可以带来比褐色经济发展模式(2%)更好的经济增长;在人力资本的社会效益方面,在2030年以前绿色经济发展情景下就业机会有小幅减少,但长期来看,绿色经济能够创造与褐色经济同样多的就业机会,甚至可以有小幅的增加(0.6%)。其三,绿色经济研究模型表明,绿色经济投资于自然资本可以实现所需要的经济社会发展与自然资本消耗的脱钩。绿色经济假说是:将资金投资于提高资源能源效率与扩大自然资本两个方面,是否能够导致更好的经济社会发展。基于该理论假设,联合国等国际组织将自然资本引入生产函数,建立了Threshold-21模型,证明绿色经济即投资于自然资本可以实现所需要的经济社会发展与自然资本消耗的脱钩。其四,绿色经济发展模式不仅有利于经济增长,同时能够增加生活质量。绿色经济假说,强调了绿色投资对生活质量有正的影响。通过生态绩效模型、结构方程模型以及典型案例研究等三种方法进行分析,研究表明:减少自然资本消耗可以减少生态环境的治理成本和维护成本、维持与增加自然资本对人类的功能;可以提高自然资本的生产效率,用较少的自然资本投入达到社会稳定所需要的人造资本;可以提高人造资本的服务效率,用一定的物质存量为更多的人服务。其五,开展深化中国绿色经济理论与绿色发展模式的系统研究。联合国等国际组织倡导的绿色经济可以给我们发展中国的绿色经济带来新的启示,笔者认为对中国绿色经济理论与绿色发展模式开展深入和系统的研究,应该包括理论内涵、实证分析、发展情景、行动领域、政策体系等五个依次递进、前后照应的研究模块。     

资本禀赋对农户绿色生产投资意愿的影响——以秸秆还田为例

作为一种典型的绿色生产方式,秸秆还田兼具环境污染治理与资源循环利用之效,但现实中农户响应并不积极。个体的意愿选择通常会面临着个人及家庭资本禀赋的约束,为探究农户在秸秆还田问题上是否也面临着相同的境况,本文基于相关理论分析,提出了资本禀赋水平和结构会对农户秸秆还田投资意愿产生作用的假说,利用实地调研数据,运用熵值法和CVM方法对农户的资本禀赋水平和结构、秸秆还田投资意愿与水平进行了评价分析,以Probit和Tobit模型实证检验了资本禀赋及其结构对农户秸秆还田投资意愿的影响效应。结果表明:(1)农户的资本禀赋水平存在较大差异,各类资本禀赋按照水平排序为:社会资本(97.99)自然资本(95.42)物质资本(94.88)经济资本(94.23)人力资本(90.01),结构方面以社会资本占优型农户居多,占比40.49%,人力资本占优型的农户个数为0。(2)仅有35.26%的农户愿意投资秸秆还田,但投资意愿水平分布较为均衡,平均投资意愿约为5.62—15.94元/666.7m2·季。(3)自然资本(地形)、物质资本(家电数量)、人力资本(性别比例)、经济资本(收入稳定性和融资能力)和社会资本(制度信任)等水平的提升以及资本禀赋结构的优化均被证明可显著增强农户秸秆还田的投资意愿,可见农户秸秆还田投资意愿不高或因资本禀赋约束所致。由此提出了加强农户资本禀赋积累,优化农户资本禀赋结构的政策建议,以促进秸秆还田等绿色生产方式的推广应用。     

生态脆弱区自然资本可持续利用及驱动机制--以宁夏为例

自然资本的分类测度和分区管理是可持续发展领域的核心议题。文章基于改进后的三维生态足迹模型,分析了2008—2017年宁夏及其各地级市自然资本利用的时空演变特征,并运用偏最小二乘法揭示了自然资本利用演变的驱动机制,旨在为生态脆弱区自然资本的可持续利用、社会经济的协调发展和生态文明建设提供参考。结果显示:①10年来宁夏人均生态足迹以年均5.01%的速率从3.146 hm²增至4.564 hm²,人均生态承载力相对稳定,人均生态赤字由2.462 hm²扩大至3.839 hm²,自然资本的供需矛盾愈加尖锐;市域尺度上,除固原市外其他各市生态赤字明显,总体上呈由南向北递增趋势。②足迹深度和足迹广度表明流量资本已无法满足需求,对存量资本的消耗成为社会经济发展的常态;市域尺度上,足迹深度呈“北高南低”的分布特征,而足迹广度的空间分布与其相反,二者存在显著的地域互补性。③从地类组分构成来看,林地、草地和水域是全区存量资本消耗的主要方式,耕地尚处于流量资本占用状态,建筑用地已过渡为存量资本;市域尺度上,自然资本利用的可持续性呈“南强北弱”格局,各地类间自然资本利用差异显著。④偏最小二乘回归模型揭示能源消耗、社会消费、经济发展和资源禀赋条件是影响宁夏自然资本利用的显著因素,而人口规模、对外贸易、生态建设、科技进步和产业结构演化对自然资本利用的影响程度较轻;市域尺度上自然资本利用的驱动力差异显著。最后,基于自然资本利用空间分异特征,从供需视角提出了自然资本可持续利用的对策建议和优化路径。     

社会资本和环境资本在可持续发展中的作用

本文分析了经济、社会、环境体系中社会资本与环境资本对经济的影响,用可持续发展观点修正了传统的经济增长理论。     

The disappearing sustainability triangle: community level considerations

This article challenges the application of the sustainability triangle to conceptualise sustainable development by looking at how weak sustainability can be obtained via the reinforcing increase in social capital and natural capital. Sustainable development is often visualised as a triangle consisting of social, environmental, and economic aspects. Would it be possible to conceive a flattened system, with diminishing economic resources or without refilling financial resources? The possibility involves mutual reinforcement between social capital and natural capital. The consideration of the diminishing economic dimension relates to the concept of development without economic growth, such as degrowth, zero-growth, and sustainable growth, that has been revived in the face of the recent economic crisis. Several countries have imposed extreme budget cuts in development collaboration and in other government expenditures. When the economic resource is not at a satisfactory level, can we rely on the reinforcement between social and environmental aspects for sustainability? Although it is not new to acknowledge the contribution of social capital to environmental conservation, research has long ignored the reinforcing relationship between environmental and social dimensions. This article provides a prototype model to demonstrate how social capital and natural capital can reinforce each other. The prototype is studied and verified at the community level using a comparative method. This article concludes with principles and practices that may encourage sustainability with merely the reinforcement between social capital and natural capital.     

不平衡增长中寻求和谐发展——论河南省国土空间战略思路

近年来,河南省经济的高速发展不仅面临着资源环境压力大、综合承载力不足等一系列问题,而且面临着省域内部区域间和谐发展的压力,选择适宜的国土空间战略对河南未来的经济社会发展意义重大。运用GIS空间分析等手段,通过对河南省县域经济空间结构演变分析,通过河南省和广东省不同时段经济和人口的空间集聚规律对比分析,通过对省内区域间及城乡间收入差距的分析,结果发现：河南省经济和人口集聚水平比较低,且并未朝着集聚的方向发展;河南省两种收入差距均较大,区域发展不平衡。最后,提出在不平衡增长中寻求和谐发展的河南省国土空间战略新思路,提出河南省国土空间战略应继续向着经济、社会和人口集聚的方向发展,大力完善基础设施建设缩短经济空间距离,调整省域福利格局,实现和谐发展。
     

The Green Economy: Reconceptualizing the Natural Commons as Natural Capital

The green economy is an emergent approach to sustainable development launched at Rio+20. Herein environmental decision-making is increasingly achieved through economistic processes and logic. The natural commons are quantified and managed as natural capital. This paper summarizes the trajectory of the project and its ideological framework. It examines various conceptualizations of economic approaches to the environment and considers philosophical, methodological, and political problems associated with the green economy project. In the face of very different definitions of what constitutes a green economy, environmental communicators face a situation characterized by discursive confusion as the complexity of natural capital accounting processes conceal new political configurations. Counter movements argue that the green economy program is performing ideological work that uses language of environmentalism to obscure an intensified agenda of neoliberal governance and capital accumulation. The concept now has contradictory meanings. Environmental communicators have an important role to play in exposing the contested nature of the project and in helping to define the emerging green economy.     

土地流转与农民收入变化研究

土地流转作为我国农村土地制度改革的重点受到了广泛的关注,但土地流转能否显著增加农民收入,达到改善农村内部收入差距的目的,现有研究并未得到一致结论。本文在文献回顾和总结的基础上,依据中国家庭追踪调查(CFPS)数据,运用倾向值匹配(PSM)方法和基于回归的夏普里值分解(Shapley Value)方法,从收入水平和收入差距两个维度实证分析土地流转对农民收入的影响。研究结果表明:(1)参与土地流转能够显著提高农户家庭收入水平。土地流转使转入户家庭人均总收入和农业收入显著提高18.18%和72.46%,并且大规模转入的农户人均总收入的增加程度显著高于小规模转入农户,说明土地流转存在规模效应。土地流转对转出户的收入水平没有显著影响,可能的原因一方面由于土地流转市场发育不完善,没有显化租金;另一方面劳动力转移先于土地流转,使土地流转对农户家庭劳动力的释放作用不显著。(2)土地流转对农村内部收入差距的贡献度为4.19%,排名第五,表明土地流转不是造成农村内部收入差距拉大的主要原因。人力资本和村庄特征对农村内部收入差距影响较大。根据研究结论提出三点政策建议:第一,通过完善农地流转市场,稳定土地租金水平,使转出户获得合理的租金收入;第二,促进农地适度规模经营,提高转入户农业经营收入,缩小农户与非农经营户之间的收入差距;第三,提高农户就业竞争力,促进劳动力转移,增加转出户非农务工收入。