Environmental Market Failures: Are There Any Local Market-Based Corrective Mechanisms for Global Problems?

The paper reviews various policy tools that have been discussed in the literature, including legal, administrative and fiscal (tax) schemes, as well as tradeable emission permits, and concludes that none of them are really suitable for dealing with global problems. An alternative is suggested, namely the use of tradeable individual consumption quotas for traded commodities at the national level, to be extended later to the global level by trading quotas among nations (assuming agreement can be reached on the basis for determining quotas). This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

运用资源动态调控体系内化环境成本

生产、消费的环境成本外部性是全球性生态环境问题产生的重要根源之一。在体现资源生态价值的基础上，建立、运用资源动态调控体系(DRSR)、减少资源消耗、减轻环境负荷是绿化传统产业、实现可持续发展的重要经济手段之一。本文就运用资源动态调控体系，内化环境成本、改善环境状况的问题提出个人观点，以供商榷。     

Inefficient environmental instruments and the gains from trade

The primary result from the trade and environment literature is that countries never lose from trade liberalization as long as they implement optimal pollution targets or if they hold emissions constant. These results are derived in models where the regulators use efficient instruments such as tradable permits or emission taxes. Regulators, however, continue to prefer command and control instruments. I show that regulation under these inefficient instruments (such as design standards or concentration standards) can lead to net losses under trade liberalization even if emissions are optimally adjusted for trade. Furthermore, holding the line on emissions need not guarantee welfare improvements either. The problem is that institutional distortions, the excess costs of inefficient instruments, can rise with trade and offset the material gains from trade. Hence the presumption that we can achieve gains from trade by considering only the level of emissions fails to recognize that the mode of regulation also matters.     

Cd2+、Cu2+ 和Zn2+ 对5种单细胞藻酯酶基因表达调控的影响

在Cu^2 ,Cd^2 和Zn^2 的作用下，三角褐指藻（Phaeodactylum tricornutum Bohlin)，湛江叉鞭藻（Dicrateria Zhanjiangensis Hu)，绿色巴夫藻（Pavlova viridis Tseng,Chen et Zhang sp.nov.)青岛大扁藻（Platymonas helgolandica var.Tsingtaoensis Tseng et T.J.Chang) ,小球藻（Chlorella sp.) 等单细胞藻酯酶安生明显的变化，受高浓度的Cu^2 胁迫时三角褐指藻的Est-3座位的a基因，受中等浓度Cd^2 胁迫时的湛江叉鞭藻的Est-3座位的b基因，受低等浓度Cd^2 胁迫时的绿色巴夫藻的Est-1座位的a,b,两个,高浓度Zn^2 胁迫时绿色巴夫藻Est-1座位的b基因，受高浓度Cd^2 胁迫时青岛大扁藻的Est-2座位的c基因，受Cu^2 胁迫时小球藻的Est-1座位的b基因，受中低浓度的Cd^2 ,Zn^2 和低浓度的Cu^2 胁迫时小球藻的Est-2座位的b基因等基因的表达明显增强，而绝大部分位点的基因表达受3种离子的抑制。图5表5参9     

我国排污收费制度评析

我国排污收费制度大体经历了4个发展阶段，形成了由国家法律、行政法规、地方法规等5个层次组成的政策体系。针对其存在的问题，建议明确“排污收费，超标处罚”为基本原则．扩大征收范围，加强税费改革，加强环境执法队伍建设。     

Plant vintage, technology, and environmental regulation

We use data on productivity and pollution abatement costs at individual pulp and paper mills to test whether the impact of environmental regulation on productivity differs by plant vintage and technology. Plants with higher pollution abatement costs have significantly lower productivity levels. This relationship differs greatly based on a plant's technology, with productivity at integrated mills being greatly affected by abatement costs, while the impact at non-integrated mills is negligible. Plant vintage does not seem to matter, with older and newer plants showing similar impacts. Reported abatement costs appear to substantially understate the true costs of abatement. Accounting for the impact of technology differences makes some difference in the estimated overall impact of environmental regulation.     

Bayes methods for combining disease and exposure data in assessing environmental justice

Environmental justice reflects the equitable distribution of the burden of environmental hazards across various sociodemographic groups. The issue is important in environmental regulation, siting of hazardous waste repositories and prioritizing remediation of existing sources of exposure. We propose a statistical framework for assessing environmental justice. The framework includes a quantitative assessment of environmental equity based on the cumulative distribution of exposure within population subgroups linked to disease incidence through a dose-response function. This approach avoids arbitrary binary classifications of individuals solely as 'exposed' or 'unexposed'. We present a Bayesian inferential approach, implemented using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, that accounts for uncertainty in both exposure and response. We illustrate our method using data on leukaemia deaths and exposure to toxic chemical releases in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.     

Stochastic pollution, costly sanctions, and optimality of emission permit banking

This paper identifies a new economic motive for pollution regulations that allow polluting firms to bank and borrow emission permits over time. When aggregate pollution is stochastic, an intertemporal permit trading regime can provide firms with efficient incentives for pollution abatement without the need for costly government enforcement actions that would otherwise be required.