Testing The Pearl Hypothesis: Natural resources and trust

Do natural resources reduce social trust? This paper reviews the literature on natural resources and on trust. The existing theoretical and empirical literature suggests that natural resources can reduce trust through several indirect mechanisms. Notably, studies show that natural resources lead to institutional degradation, corruption, inequality, and civil war, all of which have been associated with reduced trust. In addition, game theoretical work on windfall gains suggests that there may be direct effect of natural resources on trust. This paper tests empirically whether there is a direct effect of natural resources on trust (The Pearl Hypothesis), using cross-country data. The results indicate that no such direct effect exists, but we find a significant effect on trust of intermediate variables affected by natural resources, such as institutions, corruption, inequality and/or civil war. Importantly, the relationship between corruption and trust turns out to be non-linear, indicating that the effect of natural resources on trust depends on the initial corruption level of a country. In highly corrupt societies, institutional improvements that reduce corruption may also undermine trust, which poses difficult challenges for anti-corruption policy.     

Assessment of the Enabling Rural Innovation (ERI) approach: Case studies from Malawi and Uganda

This paper presents lessons from applying an innovative action research approach for linking smallholder farmers to markets, in eastern and southern Africa. The Enabling Rural Innovation (ERI) approach aims to strengthen social organization and entrepreneurial capacity in rural communities. It focuses on fostering community‐based capacity for the inclusion of rural women and the poor in analyzing and accessing market opportunities. Using case studies from Malawi and Uganda the paper assesses the outcomes of ERI on rural communities with a focus on human capital, gender issues and investment in natural resource management. Results show that households are benefiting significantly from linkages to markets in terms of increasing household incomes, and accumulating assets. Skills in analyzing markets and in negotiating with traders have increased among smallholder farmers. The integration of gender in the approach has led to changes in gender decision making patterns at household and community level towards a more shared decision‐making process. The results however show a difference in skills between men and women, with women showing lower levels of skills acquisition. Farmer participatory research has increased investments in improved technologies such as fertilizer applications for soil fertility management.     

Theoretical Analysis and Restructuring of Capacity Building for Sustainable Development

1Connotation of capacity building for sustainable development( CBSD)Sustainable development emphasizes the coordination between man and nature,the upgrading ofliving standards,the potentiality of development and the role of natural ecosystem in supportinghuman life.All this depends on the improvementand elevation of sustainable developmentcapaci-ty.In other words,capacity building is important to achieving sustainable development.Agenda2 1 gave an interpretation of capacity building for sust…     

可持续发展能力建设的理论分析与重构

本文从《２１ 世纪议程》所述的可持续发展能力的解释出发,首次定义了可持续发展能力建设的概念,全面阐术述了能力建设的基本概念和实质内涵;同时,从理论上论述了能力建设的现实意义、能力建设的途径以及能力建设在实施可持续发展战略中基础作用。     

风险投资:一种发现企业价值型的投资

风险投资已经被各国公认为中小企业尤其是高科技企业成长的"推进器"。为了深入理解风险投资的本质,从风险投资的行为和基本特征入手,通过对价值理论的回顾和企业价值表述方式的描述,揭示了风险投资作为发现价值型投资的本质,即通过发现投资对象的潜在价值并通过不断的增值服务使潜在的价值逐步显化,从而得到大多数投资者认可后实施股权转让获得丰厚回报的投资本质。     

古代黄河中游的环境变化和灾害——对都城迁移发展的影响

都城的选址、建设和迁移发展必须以环境资源为基础。我国古代的国家都城在黄河中游反复迁移，以至最后东迁南迁。在这个过程中，环境变迁和灾害一直是重要的驱动因素之一。通过统计分析历史时期洪涝和干旱灾害，以及气候水文变化资料，结合古都所在地的环境资源条件分析讨论，揭示了黄河中游环境变化和灾害对都城迁移发展的影响。都城在长安与洛阳之间的反复迁移，以及后来的东移开封，和南移到长江下游平原，环境的变迁是重要的驱动力之一。     

高校固定资产管理新探

目前，高校资产管理工作在管理意识、管理方法和管理手段等方面都明显滞后，难以适应高校建设与发展的要求。切实加强高校固定资产管理，就要树立全新的固定资产管理理念，建立科学、合理的保障制度，充分发挥财会、审计部门的重要作用，实现资源共建和共享，同时也要建立可行的资产管理绩效考核制度。     

A CODED ALGORITHM FOR CAPACITY EXPANSION OF A WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM1

ABSTRACT: This paper describes a mathematical model, an algorithm and a computer program that were specially developed to study the problem of a water quality management system undergoing a rapidly increasing environmental stress. The model output will determine the locations, sizes and the timing of construction of new treatment plants plus an overall treatment plant operating policy so that environmental standards are maintained at a minimum cost. The model, as formulated, is a 0-1 mixed integer programming problem which is solved by decomposing it into a capital budgeting problem (solved by Little's branch and bound algorithm) and an operational policy problem (solved by linear programming). The coded algorithm (in FORTRAN 10) has been tested with a semi-realistic example.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Thomas Drabek, Disaster-induced Employee Evacuation
Hugh Brammer, Agricultural Disaster Management in Bangladesh
Boris Porfiriev, Disaster Planning and Emergency Management in Russia
Patrick Bracken and Celia Petty, eds, Rethinking the Trauma of War
R. Cohen and F. M. Deng, eds, The Forsaken People: Case Studies of the Internally Displaced
Tom Trier and Lars Funch Hansen, eds, Conflict and Forced Displacement in the Caucasus: Perspectives, Challenges and Responses     

生态脆弱区榆林三维生态足迹动态变化及其驱动因素

榆林能源丰富但生态脆弱,是生态工程的重点实施区域。分析榆林自然资本存量及流量的利用状况,有利于揭示自然资本占用的成因、探讨生态脆弱区环境保护与经济社会可持续发展的问题。在测算榆林2005—2014年人均生态足迹、人均生态承载力、生态压力指数等的基础上,以足迹深度和广度描述了自然资本存量消耗与流量占用的变化关系,并以偏最小二乘法分析了驱动生态足迹变化的因素。结果显示：10 a来榆林人均生态赤字增长幅度为274.18%,其中,能源消耗账户贡献率最高;人均生态承载力增加了61.81%,体现出生态建设的正向作用。榆林对资本存量消耗的速度大于资本流量占用的速度。影响生态足迹变化的显著因素是经济增长和社会消费。这些结论不仅对榆林自然资本利用与经济协调发展具有参考意义,而且对生态脆弱区核算自然资本、探讨生态系统与经济社会系统间的关系有一定的学术价值。