“十一五”时期环保投入的宏观经济影响

我国环保投入的逐年增加为强化污染治理、改善环境质量提供了重要基础保障,但环保投入如何影响宏观经济的作用机理值得深入研究。在2007年国家42部门投入产出表基础上,编制了环境-经济投入产出表,并构建了环保投入对宏观经济的影响分析模型,将环保运行费和环保投资作为研究对象,测算其对宏观经济各指标各行业的经济影响,并分解到省级层面。结果显示:1"十一五"期间环保投入在一定程度上起到了拉动经济发展、增加居民收入、促进社会就业等经济社会贡献作用,五年期间对国民经济总产出、GDP、居民收入、就业等方面影响分别为102 043亿元、29 457亿元、12 563亿元、1 324万人次,且以间接影响和诱发影响占较大比重,表明环保投入具有较强产业波及效应。2经济影响存在明显行业差异,通用专用设备制造业、农林牧渔业、环境服务业、建筑业等与环保投入直接相关的行业受益较大。但与此同时,也一定程度上拉动了金属冶炼压延加工业、化学工业、非金属矿物制品业等高污染高能耗行业,表明环保治理活动自身带来的资源环境负担在中国现有产业结构情况下仍不可避免。在优化产业结构、提高资源使用效率的同时需要寻求更加清洁的治理技术。3经济影响区域差异明显,受益较大的省份主要集中于广东、山东、江苏、河北、辽宁等东部沿海及中部发展较好地区,而受益较小的省份大多位于西部及边远地区。总体来看,鉴于当前我国环境治理投入仍不能满足日益突出的环境问题,适当加大环保投入不但能够取得环境效应,同时也可带来一定的社会经济效应。     

Moving towards ambitious climate policies: Monetised health benefits from improved air quality could offset mitigation costs in Europe

Air quality and related health effects are not only affected by policies directly addressed at air pollution but also by other environmental strategies such as climate mitigation. This study addresses how different climate policy pathways indirectly bear upon air pollution in terms of improved human health in Europe. To this end, we put in perspective mitigation costs and monetised health benefits of reducing PM_2.5 (particles less than 2.5 μm in diameter) and ozone concentrations.Air quality in Europe and related health impacts were assessed using a comprehensive modelling chain, based on global and regional climate and chemistry-transport models together with a health impact assessment tool. This allows capturing both the impact of climate policy on emissions of air pollutants and the geophysical impact of climate change on air quality.Results are presented for projections at the 2050 horizon, for a set of consistent air pollution and climate policy scenarios, combined with population data from the UN's World Population Prospects, and are expressed in terms of morbidity and mortality impacts of PM_2.5 and ozone pollution and their monetised damage equivalent.The analysis shows that enforcement of current European air quality policies would effectively reduce health impacts from PM_2.5 in Europe even in the absence of climate policies (life years lost from the exposure to PM_2.5 decrease by 78% between 2005 and 2050 in the reference scenario), while impacts for ozone depend on the ambition level of international climate policies. A move towards stringent climate policies on a global scale, in addition to limiting global warming, creates co-benefits in terms of reduced health impacts (68% decrease in life years lost from the exposure to PM_2.5 and 85% decrease in premature deaths from ozone in 2050 in the mitigation scenario relative to the reference scenario) and air pollution cost savings (77%) in Europe. These co-benefits are found to offset at least 85% of the additional cost of climate policy in this region.     

An Ecoregional Approach to the Economic Valuation of Land- and Water-Based Recreation in the United States

/ This paper describes a framework for estimating the economic value of outdoor recreation across different ecoregions. Ten ecoregions in the continental United States were defined based on similarly functioning ecosystem characters. The individual travel cost method was employed to estimate recreation demand functions for activities such as motor boating and waterskiing, developed and primitive camping, coldwater fishing, sightseeing and pleasure driving, and big game hunting for each ecoregion. While our ecoregional approach differs conceptually from previous work, our results appear consistent with the previous travel cost method valuation studies.KEY WORDS: Recreation; Ecoregion; Travel cost method; Truncated Poisson model     

基于省际数据的环境规制与经济增长关系

经济增长是衡量经济发展水平的重要标准,研究环境规制与经济增长之间关系,将有助于寻求不同经济发展阶段下的最适环境规制强度,从而为经济的可持续发展提供环境保障.本文采用"纵横向"拉开档次法,综合考虑衡量环境规制的投入与产出的各项指标及其数据的可得性因素后,构建并计算出环境规制强度指数,同时运用2004-2008年中国省际面板数据,采用面板数据模型进一步分析环境规制与经济增长之间的关系.实证结果表明:环境规制与经济增长之间并非线性的关系,而是正U型的关系.为此,我们认为,本文结论能够对环境规制与经济增长之间的"遵循成本说"还是"创新补偿说"提供合理的解释.最后,我们根据现阶段中国经济处于迅速发展时期的状况,认为合理的环境规制政策应该是加强环境规制强度.同时认为技术创新对环境规制和经济增长具有巨大的推动作用,企业应该充分利用技术创新的优势,进行创新投资,用以弥补"遵循成本说"的劣势,提升企业的竞争力,进而促进中国经济的持续增长.     

Agribusiness Opportunity Costs and Environmental Legal Protection: Investigating Trade-Off on Hotspot Preservation in the State of São Paulo,Brazil

Prior to deforestation, São Paulo State had 79,000 km² covered by Cerrado (Brazilian savanna) physiognomies, but today less than 8.5% of this biodiversity hotspot remains, mostly in private lands. The global demand for agricultural goods has imposed strong pressure on natural areas, and the economic decisions of agribusiness managers are crucial to the fate of Cerrado domain remaining areas (CDRA) in Brazil. Our aim was to investigate the effectiveness of Brazilian private protected areas policy, and to propose a feasible alternative to promote CDRA protection. This article assessed the main agribusiness opportunity costs for natural areas preservation: the land use profitability and the arable land price. The CDRA percentage and the opportunity costs were estimated for 349 municipal districts of São Paulo State through secondary spatial data and profitability values of 38 main agricultural products. We found that Brazilian private protected areas policy fails to preserve CDRA, although the values of non-compliance fines were higher than average opportunity costs. The scenario with very restrictive laws on private protected areas and historical high interest rates allowed us to conceive a feasible cross compliance proposal to improve environmental and agricultural policies.     

Female reactions to male absence after pairing in the pied flycatcher

Mating with an already mated pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) male is costly for a female. Two hypotheses explain why some females still mate with already mated males. The deception hypothesis suggests that some females mate with already mated males since it is difficult to assess perfectly the mating status of a male with separate territories (polyterritoriality). The search cost hypothesis states that females are aware of male mating status but the costs of searching for an unmated male exceed costs associated with the status of secondary female. One potential cue that could disclose a male's mating status is the existence of brief visits to the primary territory by polyterritorial males. To mimic such visits I removed the male from the territory for 60 min soon after female settlement. Only few females abandoned their mates as a consequence of male removal even though they had available unmated males close by. This result is most consistent with the deception hypothesis. Females did not use occasional male absence as a cue to avoid presumably polyterritorial males and in this respect they were not perfect in assessing males.     

MEASURING ECONOMIC LOSSES FROM GROUND WATER CONTAMINATION: AN INVESTIGATION OF HOUSEHOLD AVOIDANCE COSTS1

ABSTRACT: Economic losses from ground water contamination were estimated in a central Pennsylvania community. The averting expenditures method was applied via a mail survey of households in which water contained the unregulated volatile organic chemical, perchloroethylene (PCE). Expenditures were estimated at $148,900 (1987 dollars) over the six-month contamination period or approximately $252 per household annually. These costs underestimate the lower bound measure of welfare losses to households from ground water contamination. An upper bound measure of welfare losses was estimated at $383 per household annually. These estimates do not represent the full economic losses resulting from ground water contamination since the study did not address municipal-level and business avoidance costs and losses from actual health effects, increased fear and anxiety, ecological damages, and nonuser ground water benefits. The results expand the existing empirical base of information about municipal-level responses and economic losses from ground water contamination to include household-level impacts. The findings indicate that households undertake substantial averting actions in response to ground water contamination and that such actions can have significant economic consequences. The extent and magnitude of avoidance costs documented suggests that policy-makers should give greater attention to this category of economic losses.     

‘Environmental and Economic Costs of the Application of Pesticides Primarily in the United States’

An obvious need for an updated and comprehensive study prompted this investigation of the complex of environmental costs resulting from the nation’s dependence on pesticides. Included in this assessment of an estimated $10 billion in environmental and societal damages are analyses of: pesticide impacts on public health; livestock and livestock product losses; increased control expenses resulting from pesticide-related destruction of natural enemies and from the development of pesticide resistance in pests; crop pollination problems and honeybee losses; crop and crop product losses; bird, fish, and other wildlife losses; and governmental expenditures to reduce the environmental and social costs of the recommended application of pesticides.The major economic and environmental losses due to the application of pesticides in the USA were: public health, $1.1 billion year⁻¹; pesticide resistance in pests, $1.5 billion; crop losses caused by pesticides, $1.4 billion; bird losses due to pesticides, $2.2 billion; and groundwater contamination, $2.0 billion.*Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

管理会计方法与环境成本核算刍议

本文分析了传统财务会计方法核算环境成本的缺陷，并运用管理会计中的作业成本法与生命周期成本法对环境成本核算等问题进行了探讨。     

浅析应收账款信用政策的评估

企业在改变销售政策或在几种政策中做出选择时,要权衡增加的收益和相关的成本,做出正确的决策.赊销效果的好坏,取决于企业的信用政策,包括信用期间、信用标准、现金折扣等.对信用政策中各项指标的评估,重要项目的重点估算,使应收账款的管理更加有效.