Incommensurability and property rights in the natural environment

Cost–benefit analysis has been criticised on the grounds that it cannot compute the value of environmental goods whose value constitutively defies monetary valuation. Two forms of incommensurability make monetary valuation problematic: constitutive incommensurability and quantitative incommensurability. These pose a threat only to shadow pricing, and not the formation of prices in an actual market. Where property rights to environmental goods are appropriately assigned, the prices that form reflect the actual uses persons put them to, given their value commitments. In a real market, the formation of prices does not depend upon the assignment of cardinal values via monetary valuation; rather, the formation of prices is a side effect of the way in which environmental goods are used. A property right gives one the right to reject terms of exchange one deems inappropriate. Where sale of an environmental good is deemed inappropriate, it is kept out of the cash nexus. Incommensurability therefore precludes cost–benefit analysis, but not markets in environmental goods where property rights are appropriately allocated.     

Is risk-sharing resource taxation in society's best interests if prices are log-normally distributed?

This paper contributes to our understanding of the perceived benefits for society of risk-sharing resource taxation. In the particular context of log-normally distributed prices a model is developed which enables comparison of risk-sharing resource taxation with an alternative in determining the overall return to society from auctioning an extraction lease. The main finding of the paper is a potential exception to the general preference for risk-sharing resource taxation if the bidding firms are effectively risk neutral. This exception is illustrated numerically in the context of the impact of increased price uncertainty, but it is shown not to be robust with respect to divergences from risk neutrality in the risk attitudes of firms. Consequently, it is concluded that the choice of risk-sharing resource taxation is likely to be in society's best interests, regardless of the probability distribution of prices.     

公共租赁住房项目建设生态环境影响评价——以济南市西蒋峪片区为例

在分析济南市西蒋峪片区公共租赁住房评价区生态环境现状的基础上,从土地利用、生物、水土流失和景观类型等方面分析了施工期和运营期项目对生态环境的影响,在此基础上提出了公租房建设中的景观生态建设和植被保护与恢复等生态保护和恢复的对策。     

Trends in real commodity prices: How real is real?

Testing for the existence of downward trends in real commodity prices has been the focus of several studies since the Prebisch–Singer hypothesis was formulated back in 1950. In this article, we focus on annual and monthly series of various commodity categories and consider alternative price deflators. Based on the methodology of Harvey et al. (2010), which is robust to the order of integration of the time series, we conclude that the time frequency and the price deflators play a key role when testing for the Prebisch–Singer hypothesis. For instance, at an annual frequency (1900–2003, 1900–2008), it becomes considerably more likely to support it when deflating by the unadjusted US CPI-all items than when deflating by the Manufactures Unit Value (MUV) Index or the Historical Price Index of Manufactures (HPIM). This finding is in agreement with the Svedberg and Tilton (2006) discussion on the CPI's overestimation of inflation and the measurement of the real price of copper. When dealing with monthly data (January 1957–December 2010), our results show that real prices tend not to reject the null hypothesis of a trendless series, except when deflating by the PPI-Crude Materials and, to a lesser extent, by the HPIM.     

Impediments to recovery in New Orleans' Upper and Lower Ninth Ward: one year after Hurricane Katrina

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a rapid succession of plans put forward a host of recovery options for the Upper and Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. Much of the debate focused on catastrophic damage to residential structures and discussions of the capacity of low-income residents to repair their neighbourhoods. This article examines impediments to the current recovery process of the Upper and Lower Ninth Ward, reporting results of an October 2006 survey of 3,211 plots for structural damage, flood damage and post-storm recovery. By examining recovery one year after Hurricane Katrina, and by doing so in the light of flood and structural damage, it is possible to identify impediments to recovery that may disproportionately affect these neighbourhoods. This paper concludes with a discussion of how pre- and post-disaster inequalities have slowed recovery in the Lower Ninth Ward and of the implications this has for post-disaster recovery planning there and elsewhere.     

Suitable Housing Placement: A GIS-Based Approach

The intent of this paper is to operationalize some aspects of local sustainability in a suitable development scenario and to compare its energy-use and environmental impacts to trend development. After a discussion of suburban sprawl, local sustainability, and the current state of the Pennypack Creek Watershed in the Philadelphia metro region, these residential location scenarios are presented. The latter were created using geographic information systems software and are based on projections from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. The impacts of the scenarios on energy use, air emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, water quality, and biological integrity were estimated with very few data, and the effect on the value of generic ecosystem services was assessed. The suitable development scenario was 29% better in terms of energy use and air and greenhouse gas emissions, 2.4% worse on water quality, and 2.6% better with respect to biological integrity. Given its net beneficial results, recommendations for policies to engender suitable development are made, and an outline of an implementation plan is proposed. Thoughts regarding refinements of the present work and the applicability of the methods used here to other watersheds conclude the work.     

Price Determination and Efficiency in the Market for South Platte Basin Ditch Company Shares

Water scarcity presents an obstacle to economic development in the western United States. Water rights markets help improve water allocation, allowing states to derive the highest economic benefit from available resources, and supporting new uses and economic development. However, the implicit (marginal) prices of water rights attributes are uncertain. To address this problem, we apply econometric analysis to a unique dataset to estimate the implicit values that market participants place on the attributes of shares of ditch company water rights in Colorado's South Platte River Basin. Our analysis demonstrates that ditch company share buyers value proximity of water diversion, reliability of water deliveries, and temporal flexibility of water use. To assess reliability we introduce the use of the coefficient of variation to capture, in one variable, the randomness of supply from ditch company shares that are not a single water right, but a portfolio of rights with different appropriation dates. Finally, we test and correct for spatial autocorrelation for the first time in a study of water market prices.     

基于住房价格的通勤碳排放空间分异——以济南市为例

住房价格能够影响居民的居住决策,进而影响其通勤碳排放。为研究住房价格与通勤碳排放的内在关系,构建住房价格影响个体通勤碳排放的理论模型,并利用“个体—街道”两水平线性模型,对济南市居民出行调查数据进行实证检验。研究发现：（1）通勤碳排放呈现出“中心低碳化、外围高碳化”,且外围趋于分化的空间格局。（2）住房价格通过虹吸效应影响居民的碳排放。具体表现为住房价格与碳排放负相关,外围低房价吸引居住者,而居住者的远程机动通勤导致外围高值碳排放;但住房价格的边际增碳程度随着远离市中心而先缓（距市中心 5 km）后增（距市中心5 km及以上）。（3）外围工资收入对虹吸效应起调节作用。工资水平较高的外围区域有利于实现职住平衡,抑制了虹吸效应,进而分化为碳排放的冷点区,工资水平较低的外围区域则分化为碳排放的热点区。研究认为,应通过多中心空间发展战略、提高居民的就业可达性、优化针对公租房的公共交通供给等措施,引导居民低碳通勤。     

Partnerships for local sustainability and local governance in a Tasmanian settlement

This research is concerned with effects and actions at the local level, where it is argued that local governing processes are key to developing sustainable communities. The roles of the citizen and of formal government are changing such that the implementation of sustainability praxis at the local level requires that citizens and governments reconsider both the meaning and techniques of governance. Indeed, how we are governed, participate in governing processes and internalise and accept the need for change will affect how local communities make constant and lasting a dynamic praxis of sustainability. Actors in local governments and communities may be crucial in this task—especially as facilitators, enablers, leaders and partners. In this paper we focus on the Huon Valley Council and some members of one of its communities. We examine how they are experimenting with partnerships as a form of governance to unify, control, mobilise and regulate the conduct of various actors, and how such partnerships may foster sustainability praxis in the Valley's diverse communities of place and interest.     

Expansion and Change of Rural Settlements in Traditional Agricultural Regions： Based on Village Investigation in Pingdu County

The rural settlements accounted for a great proportion of overall building land in China, but it still expanded in recent years along with urbanization and gradually decreasing rural population. To explore the reason for this phenomenon, an analysis has been made based on the investigation in a traditional agricultural region. This study found that socioeconomic factors, including the scale of families and its quantity, the improvement of rural public infrastructure, the change of population and the pressure of arable land, have effects on the expansion. The view on land tenure which has shaped in farmers minds in the long haul makes them dispose their houses cautiously, and this was the main cause of the fact that one household own more than one plot. In addition, the limitations of rural land institution are unconducive to inspiriting the transfer of farmers＇ building land and redevelopment of the idle housing land.