Trust via disasters: the case of Chile's 2010 earthquake

Chile has a long‐standing history of natural disasters and, in particular, earthquakes. The latest big earthquake hit Chile on 27 February 2010 with a magnitude of 8.8 on the Richter scale. As an event that had a profound impact on significant portions of the population, the earthquake could theoretically have served to build trust by promoting new trust networks through the enhancement of distant family ties and the interaction between affected neighbours. This study offers an empirical analysis of this theory in the Chilean case. It finds that if initial social capital is very low (thus allowing for post‐disaster looting and violence), then the impact of the trust‐increasing effect is smaller. It also shows that the effect of the disaster was not transitory, but that it persisted and actually increased over time.     

基于比较思维的安全经济学研究

为探究比较思维对安全经济学发展影响,以扩展安全经济学的研究领域,基于比较学与安全经济学的基本理论,提出比较安全经济学的定义和内涵,并阐述其研究意义,描述其基础理论和研究层次。基于比较安全经济学的属性,提出研究比较安全经济学的10个角度,总结比较安全经济学的应用领域,构建比较安全经济学“方法—知识—步骤—逻辑”四维结构体系,举例阐述其研究步骤及其安全应用。研究表明:比较安全经济学是安全经济学与比较学交叉融合形成的一门新兴安全科学分支学科,其研究旨在为企业安全资源优化配置提供理论基础。     

关中城市群生态足迹演变趋势及公平性评价

自然资本与人造资本的分配公平与配置效率是可持续共享区域生态资源的保证。论文在测算2005—2014年关中城市群生态足迹的基础上,以生态足迹、生态承载力、GDP分别表征区域内自然资本需求、自然资本收益、人造资本收益,采用基尼系数、时空分析指标、生态承载系数、经济贡献系数分析区域资源分配公平与配置效率的程度。结果显示,2005—2014年,关中城市群生态承载基尼系数、经济贡献基尼系数、综合基尼系数分别置于 [0.18, 0.20]、[0.24, 0.29]、[0.23, 0.28]区间。同时,结果表明,关中城市群GDP上升趋势显著快于生态足迹,生态要素匹配较好,其中,咸阳市、宝鸡市、铜川市属相对“高生态承载贡献、低经济贡献”城市,西安市、杨凌示范区属相对“高经济贡献、低生态承载贡献”城市。     

重庆市中小型企业实现规模经济的举措

中小型企业要在激烈的市场竞争中占据主动并获取良好的经济效益,实现规模经济是较佳的选择,其途径是内在规模和外在规模同时并举.基于此,通过对重庆市中小型企业的现状特点分析,认为实现规模经济不但能增强企业的市场竞争力,而且还能为重庆市创造更多的就业机会,并在转移农村剩余劳动力、推动城镇化建设等方面具有重要的现实意义.     

VISITOR VALUES AND LOCAL ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF RIPARIAN HABITAT PRESERVATION: CALIFORNIA'S KERN RIVER PRESERVE1

ABSTRACT: Preservation of the few remaining ecologically vital riparian areas in the southwestern United States is a significant policy concern. This article reports on two economic aspects of preserving a nationally renowned riparian birding area in Southern California. First, the article examines visitor willingness to pay (WTP) for habitat restoration and estimates an annual WTP of US $77 per visitor to preserve the habitat, about a half‐million dollars a year for estimated visitor numbers in 2000 and 2001. Second, it documents visitor expenditures in the local economy to be approximately three‐quarters of a million dollars per year. This direct visitor spending attributable to the riparian habitat generates around US $1.3 million in increased local business activity in this relatively remote rural area.     

PREDICTIVE ASSESSMENT OF SEVERITY OF AGRICULTURAL DROUGHTS BASED ON AGRO-CLIMATIC FACTORS1

ABSTRACT: Past historical evidence indicates that droughts have had great impacts on human life. Drought (or scarcity of water) is assessed based on two key factors, namely, the estimated water demand, and the expected water supply. The formulation of these key factors for a region largely depends on the agro-climatic and economic conditions. Consideration of one such key factor is the relationship between the crop yield and water deficit in the assessment and prediction of agricultural droughts. The varying nature of this relationship from crop to crop adds to the complexity of agricultural drought analysis. To overcome this difficulty in analyzing agricultural droughts of a region, it is adequate to consider and place emphasis on a single crop (i.e., an index crop) grown homogeneously over the major area of the region. From one year to another year, the pattern of water requirement during the growing season of an index crop is rather stationary, and the water supply in arid and semi-arid area is mainly from seasonal random precipitation. In a region, grain yield of the index crop and, in turn, assessment of the severity of drought can reasonably be predicted as a function of the time of crop sowing and the distribution of rainfall, provided that temporal and spatial effects of other contributing factors (crop variety, soil fertility status, crop disease, pest control, cultivation practices etc.) on grain yield are considered to be uniformly distributed (i.e., stable). A predictive method of assessing agricultural droughts in an arid area of western India is presented. The major crop (Pearl Millet) of this region is grown from. July through September. The formulation of the proposed predictive method inherently implies that the grain yield of the main crop is a reliable indicator of agricultural drought. In the development of this predictive relationship (i.e., a regression type model) a number of potential yet simple variables affecting the grain yield in the region were investigated. The soil moisture index, although generally considered significant compared to the simple variables, has been found to account for insignificant variation in the grain yield. Results of our investigations suggest that it would be advisable to exclude the soil moisture index variable from the model. The proposed regression model can be used in the prediction of grain yield of the main crop several months ahead of crop harvesting operations and, in turn, the assessment of agricultural drought severity as mild, moderate, or severe. Such an assessment is expected to be helpful to planners for arranging appropriate measures to effectively combat agricultural drought situations.     

COST MINIMIZATION OF NUTRIENT REDUCTION IN WATERSHED MANAGEMENT USING LINEAR PROGRAMMING1

ABSTRACT: Linear programming is applied to identify the least cost strategy for reaching politically specified phosphorus and total suspended solids reduction targets for the Fox-Wolf river basin in Northeast Wisconsin. The programming model uses data collected on annualized unit reduction costs associated with five categories of sources of phosphorus and total suspended solids discharge in each of the 41 sub-watersheds in the basin to determine the least cost management strategy. Results indicate that: (1) cost-effective nutrient reduction requires careful selection of geographic areas and source categories to address throughout the watershed; (2) agricultural sources are the most cost-effective to address in the basin; and (3) care should be exercised in setting nutrient reduction targets, given that there are likely to be significantly increasing marginal costs of nutrient reduction; the model predicts that lowering the most restrictive target by 33 percent would cut reduction expenditures by about 75 percent. Policy implications of the model include support for the investigation and potential development of institutional arrangements that enable cost-effective nutrient reduction activities to occur, such as the creation of an agency with authority over a given watershed, coordinated watershed management activities, or nutrient trading programs.     

Grab versus composite sampling: A primer for the manager and engineer

Effluent subsamples are usually aggregated into flow or time proportional samples before analysis. Although this provides information on average process conditions, that on process variability is lost by compositing. Fisher's information is defined and used to estimate the loss due to compositing. The results of simulations based on parameters derived from actual waste streams support the fact that random grabs serve as well as composite samples for monitoring purposes. These findings favor changes in regulatory practice to allow compliance to be demonstrated by grab sample averages. Reporting requirements based on moving averages are shown to be inferior to those based on averages taken over nonoverlapping time periods.     

THE ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF CHANGES IN WATER USE IN THE TUCSON BASIN,ARIZONA1

ABSTRACT: The ground water in the Tucson basin is being drawn faster than it is replenished by nature. The water table is falling, giving rise to several conflicts between water users in the basin. At present, several lawsuits are in progress, including an action by the Papago Tribe against some of the major water users in the basin. Largely because of these difficulties, the State Legislature has established a commission to make proposals for the reform of Arizona's ground water law. The pattern of water use in the basin will undoubtedly be changed by the outcome of the present litigation and the coming reform of Arizona's ground water law. This paper describes how water use in the basin might be affected by changes in the availability of water and gives an account of the effects that these changes in water use could have on the region's economy. The paper concludes that the water problems of the Tucson basin will have little effect on the region at large and that these problems are simply a matter for the Indians and the other water users in the basin to sort out amongst themselves.     

AN APPROACH TO MARGINAL ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF HYDROMETRIC DATA COLLECTION1

ABSTRACT: A procedure for computing the benefit/cost ratio of a hydrometric network is outlined. It consists of two steps: firstly, establishing a relationship between hydrometric station density and error in hydrologic parameters and, secondly, relating hydrologic eror to changes in project cost. The procedure was applied to both the whole Canadian hydrometric network and the provincial networks.