A worldwide consensus on nudging? Not quite,but almost

Nudges are choice‐preserving interventions that steer people's behavior in specific directions while still allowing them to go their own way. Some nudges have been controversial, because they are seen as objectionably paternalistic. This study reports on nationally representative surveys in eight diverse countries, investigating what people actually think about nudges and nudging. The study covers Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Japan, Russia, South Africa, and South Korea. Generally, we find strong majority support for nudges in all countries, with the important exception of Japan, and with spectacularly high approval rates in China and South Korea. We connect the findings here to earlier studies involving Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Our primary conclusion is that while citizens generally approve of health and safety nudges, the nations of the world appear to fall into three distinct categories: (i) a group of nations, mostly liberal democracies, where strong majorities approve of nudges whenever they (a) are seen to fit with the interests and values of most citizens and (b) do not have illicit purposes; (ii) a group of nations where overwhelming majorities approve of nearly all nudges; and (iii) a group of nations that usually show majority approval, but markedly reduced approval rates. We offer some speculations about the relationship between approval rates and trust.     

Cost–benefit analysis: New foundations on shifting sand

New Foundations of Cost–Benefit Analysis, by Matthew Adler and Eric Posner, represents the most ambitious and credible effort to date to build a solid theoretical defense of the use of cost–benefit analysis (CBA) in evaluating government regulation. In this review, three cost–benefit “skeptics” offer their reactions to this ambitious and important book. We note its virtues – its humility, its scrupulousness, its open‐mindedness. We also explore its vices. If preferences are to be “laundered,” is it intellectually defensible to remove the bad but not consider adding the good? Does Adler's and Posner's welfarism really play the limited role they suppose, or does it risk “crowding out” other important deontological and distributional values? If CBA is merely a decision procedure that provides an imperfect proxy of welfare – the moral criterion we really care about – how do we know that the proxy it provides in practice will actually be accurate enough to be useful? Isn't this at bottom an empirical question that cannot be answered by this thoroughly theoretical book? If CBA is no more than an imperfect proxy for welfare, then alternative imperfect decision procedures may perform better in the real world.     

The German Gemeinwirtschaftslehre: Implications for modern nonprofit economics

This article examines the way modern nonprofit economics can be informed by the Gemeinwirtschaftslehre, a strand of public and nonprofit economics that was popular in German‐speaking countries until the 1980s. Despite its present decline, the Gemeinwirtschaftslehre yields a valuable implication that nonprofit firms address market failure by supplanting the pecuniary entrepreneurial motivation with a nonpecuniary one. In this article, this implication is used to reconsider two central and controversial issues in modern nonprofit economics: the rationale behind the nondistribution constraint in nonprofit firms, and the integration between the market failure and supply‐side theories of the nonprofit sector. The article concludes by discussing the emerging prospects for empirical research.     

游客信息与湖泊旅游风景区开发中的生态建设--以云南抚仙湖为例

目前,在我国不少江河湖海风景区的开发中,往往对区域景观与旅游布局的协调性、旅游服务的对象即游客的旅游需求和心理动态信息注意不够,在风景区的旅游功能塑造和旅游建设中带有很大的随意性,这就容易导致旅游开发中的破坏性.根据当地自然和人文景观的特点,把旅游特色的塑造与生态建设结合起来,才是旅游业可持续发展的正确途径.     

“Institutions and Economic Performance: The Use and Abuse of Culture in New Institutional Economics”: A Response to Heydemann

Applications of institutional analysis to the explanation of economic performance come in many flavors. Some economists have made use of an economics-oriented flavor in treating culture as one component of that analysis. Steven Heydemann uses a more political flavor of institutional analysis to argue that two of these economists, Douglass North and Avner Greif, have overly simplified and homogenized the concept of culture and the way in which it affects economic performance. He goes on to identify several instances in both the economic history and contemporary experience of the Middle East where he claims that such over-simplification has led to shortcomings in the analysis. This paper suggests that while some of Heydemann’s claims have merit, several others are exaggerated.

经济哲学和科技哲学

国外学者一般以科学哲学为范例研究经济哲学问题,近年来国内关于经济哲学的研究也有类似的主张。本文通过科学哲学与科学和经济哲学与经济学二者关系的比较研究,认为经济哲学的学科性质不同于科学哲学,在研究对象、研究内容和研究方法方面也与科学哲学不具有相似性。     

交通肇事逃逸重复评价背后的经济学问题

从表面上看,交通肇事罪中对逃逸的重复评价是对刑法原理中的禁止重复评价原则的挑战。但通过剖析禁止重复评价原则背后的经济学原理就会发现,二者本质上是相暗合的。这是因为,禁止重复评价原则背后的经济逻辑就是要保证威慑的最优化,而禁止重复评价原则的适用是有条件的,其前提便是某类犯罪的特定情节或行为没有导致该类犯罪的抓获概率在一段时期内明显下降,刑罚的威慑效果也没有因为特定情节或行为的出现而受到削弱,否则,对某类犯罪的特定情节或行为进行重复评价便是必要的。     

促进农地经营权流转的财税政策探讨——基于新制度经济学视角

我国农地经营权流转规模不断扩大,但总体水平较低。基于流转制度的变迁及流转动因进行新制度经济学分析,可以明确从降低流转中的交易成本和提高流转后的预期收益角度去探索政府财税政策的制定和实施是比较合理的思路。因而应尽快完善农村社会保障体系,削弱土地保障功能;加大财政投入农业产业化的力度,为农地规模化流转铺平道路;积极引导农村土地流转市场及流转中介组织的建立;支持农村剩余劳动力的有效转移。     

土地征收补偿标准的法经济学解读——兼论《物权法》第42条第2款及第132条之适用

现行法律未分别规定集体土地所有权及土地承包经营权的征收补偿标准,给《物权法》第42条第2款及第132条的适用带来了困惑。出于多方面因素考虑,集体土地征收应采取"二元化"的补偿模式;基于法经济学分析,在未设置土地承包经营权的假设下,集体土地所有权征收应以其市场交易的均衡价格作为补偿标准;家庭土地承包经营权征收应分别采用年平均产值、失地农民转业培训标准、居民社会保障标准,作为其收入、就业及社会保障效用减损的补偿标准;其他土地承包经营权征收应以延期收益损失作为补偿标准;分别考量未设置土地承包经营权的集体土地所有权征收补偿标准及土地承包经营权征收补偿标准,即可确定已设置土地承包经营权的集体土地所有权之征收补偿标准。