Kristine Kern: Die Diffusion von Politikinnovationen. Umweltpolitische Innovationen im Mehrebensystem der USA

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

THE EVOLUTION OF POLICY AND LAW FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA

This article examines the evolution of politics and laws related to sustainable development in China. Sustainable development has been positioned as an economic development strategy many years ago. However, in earlier times, it bore a heavy tint of national strategy, followed by a kind of soft sustainable development with a technological orientation. The recent decade has seen China on track for strong sustainable development. At the present, China is around the turning point of the ＂Environmental Kuznets Curve,＂ where both domestic and international multiple pressures are forcing the whole country to make new choices for its dimension of sustainable development strategy. Although sustainable development has been recognized by the legal field of environmental resources, it is still not yet fully integrated into other areas of law. The period from weak to strong sustainable transition is accompanied by another transition, more significant in China, from industrial civilization to ecological civilization. Compared to weak sustainable development, the complex and contradictory character of strength has brought more challenges. Sustainable development of dualism and compromise, which corresponds with the actual needs in China, is an important theoretical basis and practical standards for implementing the scientific view of development. Finally, it concludes by noting that ecological civilization is attempting to solve the problems from a more broad perspective, and to pay more attention to public participation, at the same time to cover the shortage of environmental legislation.     

Is there aJ-curve for the economic transition from socialism to capitalism?

It is often assumed that the process of transition from socialism to capitalism involves a dislocation and disorganization of the economy in the early stages of the transition. Thus, it is argued, economic performance will at first worsen and then gradually improve as the new system takes hold. This paper argues that, based on evidence from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland, there is no evidence for such aJ-curve phenomenon. Using a simple macroeconomic model, we show that, in these three reforming countries, the decline in production can be explained by exogenous shocks to the balance of trade, to investments and to autonomous consumption. This finding also suggests that macroeconomic policy in these countries may be too restrictive to permit a recovery of employment and production.     

Criminals and the Price System: Evidence from Czech Metal Thieves

Objectives

This paper tests the economic theory of criminal behavior. Specifically, it looks at “the carrot” side of the theory, studying how thieves react to changes in monetary gains from crime.

Methods

Using a unique crime-level dataset on metal theft in the Czech Republic, we study thieves’ behavior in a simple regression framework. We argue that variation in metal prices represents a quasi-experimental variation in gains from crime. It is because (1) people steal copper and other nonferrous metals only to sell them to scrapyard and (2) prices at scrapyards are set by the world market. This facilitates causal interpretation of our regression estimates.

Results

We find that a 1% increase (decrease) in the re-sale price causes metal thefts to increase (decrease) by 1–1.5%. We show that the relationship between prices and thefts is very robust. Moreover, we find that thieves’ responses to price shocks are rapid and consistent.

Conclusion

Our results are in line with the economic model of crime, wherein criminal behavior is modeled as a rational agent’s decision driven by the costs and benefits of undertaking criminal activities. Our estimates are also consistent with recent results from the United Kingdom, suggesting these patterns are more general.