Rural market imperfections and the role of institutions in collective action to improve markets for the poor

Many countries in sub‐Saharan Africa have liberalized markets to improve efficiency and enhance market linkages for smallholder farmers. The expected positive response by the private sector in areas with limited market infrastructure has however been very limited. The functioning of markets is constrained by high transaction costs and coordination problems along the production‐to‐consumption value chain. New kinds of institutional arrangements are needed to reduce these costs and fill the vacuum left when governments withdrew from markets in the era of structural adjustments. One of these institutional innovations has been the strengthening of producer organizations and formation of collective marketing groups as instruments to remedy pervasive market failures in rural economies. The analysis presented here with a case study from eastern Kenya has shown that marketing groups pay 20–25% higher prices than other buyers to farmers while participation was also positively correlated with adoption of improved dryland legume varieties, crops not targeted by the formal extension system. However the effectiveness of marketing groups is undermined by external shocks and structural constraints that limit the volume of trade and access to capital and information, and require investments in complementary institutions and coordination mechanisms to exploit scale economies. Successful groups have shown high levels of collective action in the form of increased participatory decision making, member contributions and initial start‐up capital. Failure to pay on delivery, resulting from lack of capital credit, is a major constraint that stifles competitiveness of marketing groups relative to other buyers. These findings call for interventions that improve governance and participation; mechanisms for improving access to operating capital; and effective strategies for risk management and enhancing the business skills of farmer marketing groups.     

家具市场室内环境监测及污染控制措施

室内环境污染已成为人们关注的热点,室内环境污染毒性大,严重危害人体健康。本文通过对沈阳市家具市场室内环境质量的监测结果分析,指出建筑装饰、装修材料是造成家具市场室内环境污染的重要原因。并提出采取技术支持保障和加强行政管理等措施,以达到改善室内环境质量的目的。     

水资源持续利用的价值评价与配置问题

综述了水资源价值评价与配置的基本问题。水价值阐释了四方面内容 :( 1 )权属 ,( 2 )评价者 ,( 3)多元性及相应的评价方法 ,( 4 )地域性。就三方面分析了水配置 :( 1 )制度配置 ,( 2 )市场配置 ,( 3)保障基本需求。并就水资源持续利用提出了一些建议。     

建立水污染物排污权交易框架的探讨

为了制定上海水污染物排污权交易的整体方案，以及在环境管理和流域管理中更多地运用环境经济手段,根据国外排污权交易的经验。以及上海在黄浦江上游地区开展水污染物排污权交易示范项目中获得的经验和存在的问题。结合上海社会，经济的实际情况。分析了建立水污染物排污权交易基本框架中应涉及的基本因素，包括产权归属，法律法规，边界设定，容量控制，污染物特性，地理因素，准入标准，初始分配体系，初始分配价格体系，交易收费体系，政府的宏观调控和监督，排污权银行的建立，监测工作和公众参与等。     

我国排污权交易制度的相关问题探析

随着经济的快速发展,工业生产中排放的废弃物越来越多,由此造成的环境压力也越来越大,随着可持续发展概念的不断提出,排污权交易制度也被逐渐确定下来,该制度在我国的施行不但具有可行性,更加具有必要性。本文对我国当前排污权制度实施的不足之处进行了详细分析,并提出了我国排污权制度未来的完善路径。     

试论市场经济条件下的全民安全意识

阐述安全意识的作用和市场经济条件下全民安全意识的实质，分析全民安全意识的内容及与劳动者、企业、国家三者安全意识的相互关系，指出提高全民安全意识的方法和途径     

The Impact of Policy and Institutional Environment on Costs and Benefits of Sustainable Agricultural Land Uses: The Case of the Chittagong Hill Tracts,Bangladesh

As in other mountain regions of Asia, agricultural lands in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh are undergoing degradation due primarily to environmentally incompatible land-use systems such as shifting cultivation (jhum) and annual cash crops. The suitable land-use systems such as agroforestry and timber tree plantation provide benefit to the society at large, but they might not provide attractive economic benefits to farmers, eventually constraining a wide-scale adoption of such land-use systems. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate agricultural land-use systems from both societal and private perspectives in the pursuit of promoting particularly environmentally sustainable systems. This article evaluated five major land-use systems being practiced in CHT, namely jhum, annual cash crops, horticulture, agroforestry, and timber plantation. The results of the financial analysis revealed the annual cash crops as the most attractive land use and jhum as the least attractive of the five land-use systems considered under the study. Horticulture, timber plantation, and agroforestry, considered to be suitable land-use systems particularly for mountainous areas, held the middle ground between these two systems. Annual cash crops provided the highest financial return at the cost of a very high rate of soil erosion. When the societal cost of soil erosion is considered, annual cash crops appear to be the most costly land-use system, followed by jhum and horticulture. Although financially less attractive compared to annual cash crops and horticulture, agroforestry and timber plantation are the socially most beneficial land-use systems. Findings of the alternative policy analyses indicate that there is a good prospect for making environmentally sustainable land-use systems, such as agroforestry and timber plantation, attractive for the farmers by eliminating existing legal and institutional barriers, combined with the provision of necessary support services and facilities.

Early action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions before the commitment period of the Kyoto protocol: advantages and disadvantages

Current “business as usual” projections suggest greenhouse gas emissions from industrialized nations will grow substantially over the next decade. However, if it comes into force, the Kyoto Protocol will require industrialized nations to reduce emissions to an average of 5% below 1990 levels in the 2008–2012 period. Taking early action to close this gap has a number of advantages. It reduces the risks of passing thresholds that trigger climate change “surprises.” Early action also increases future generations' ability to choose greater levels of climate protection, and it leads to faster reductions of other pollutants. From an economic sense, early action is important because it allows shifts to less carbon-intensive technologies during the course of normal capital stock turnover. Moreover, many options for emission reduction have negative costs, and thus are economically worthwhile, because of paybacks in energy costs, healthcare costs, and other benefits. Finally, early emission reductions enhance the probability of successful ratification and lower the risk of noncompliance with the protocol. We discuss policy approaches for the period prior to 2008. Disadvantages of the current proposals for Credit for Early Action are the possibility of adverse selection due to problematic baseline calculation methods as well as the distributionary impacts of allocating a part of the emissions budget already before 2008. One simple policy without drawbacks is the so-called baseline protection, which removes the disincentive to early action due to the expectation that businesses may, in the future, receive emission rights in proportion to past emissions. It is particularly important to adopt policies that shift investment in long-lived capital stock towards less carbon-intensive technologies and to encourage innovation and technology development that will reduce future compliance costs.     

论城市环境基础设施市场化运营中的政府规制

本文分别从市场准入、价格、服务质量以及风险等方面，对城市环境基础设施市场化运营中的政府规制进行了具体分析。     

我国的环境投入现状及分析

本文首先对我国环保投入的现状及存在的问题进行了分析,然后提出了确定环保投入的三项原则,在此基础上,对我国未来的环保投入运行机制进行了较为深入的分析。