Jiaoju Ge

Measuring the Productivity of Energy Consumption of Major Industries in China: A DEA-Based Method

Data envelopment analysis can be applied to measure the productivity of multiple input and output decision-making units. In addition, the data envelopment analysis-based Malmquist productivity index can be used as a tool for measuring the productivity change during different time periods. In this paper, we use an input-oriented model to measure the energy consumption productivity change from 1999 to 2008 of fourteen industry sectors in China as decision-making units. The results show that there are only four sectors that experienced effective energy consumption throughout the whole reference period. It also shows that these sectors always lie on the efficiency frontier of energy consumption as benchmarks. The other ten sectors experienced inefficiency in some two-year time periods and the productivity changes were not steady. The data envelopment analysis-based Malmquist productivity index provides a good way to measure the energy consumption and can give Chinas policy makers the information to promote their strategy of sustainable development.

A review of stakeholder analysis

Stakeholder approaches had been applied to the management of organizations with a view to the improvement of all areas of performance, including economic, safety, future policies etc. This paper reviews the origins of stakeholder theory and uses of stakeholder analysis, discusses some of the challenges and limitations of existing methods for stakeholder analysis, provides suggestions on application of stakeholder analysis approach.

Alternative approaches to treat respondent uncertainty in contingent willingness to pay estimation: A theoretical and empirical analysis

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to theoretically using two new models to analyze the effect of respondents’ uncertainty about their stated willingness to pay (WTP) on welfare estimates in the contingent valuation method (CVM) theoretically using two new models, and empirically to reveal consumers’ WTP to improve drinking water supply safety (WSS) in China. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, two alternative preference uncertainty treatment approaches are proposed to estimate consumers’ WTP theoretically and they are applied to China’s WSS improvement program from a payment card method, which depends on how consumers’ certainty level about their valuation is. Furthermore, four regression models are presented to investigate the determinants of consumers’ WTP. Findings Theoretically, the alternative approaches that proposed in this research can remove overestimation bias from traditional CVM method but with lower estimation efficiency. In addition, the empirical results of the uncertainty adjusted models show that the expected WTP to improve drinking WSS is from 0.55 to 0.56 Renminbi yuan/ton, which are lower than the estimates from the conventional standard CVM models. Consumers’ preferences for their concerns about WSS, attitudes toward WSS improvement programs, trusts in implement authorities and their knowledge of WSS have significant effects on the WTP for improving drinking WSS and on respondents’ uncertainty too. Originality/value Theoretically to the authors’ knowledge, it is the first attempt to compare alternative approaches to treat respondent uncertainty using numerical certainty scale combined with payment card format valuation questions in CVM. Empirically it is the first study at this large scale that investigates consumers’ WTP for improving drinking WSS incorporating with respondent uncertainty in China. In addition, to assess consumer preferences for improved drinking water safety and the sources of uncertainty, information on consumers’ attitudes toward WSS are considered at the first time.

New Consumers’ Perspective in Insuring Earthquakes

Ever since the “Wenchuan earthquake” in May 12, 2008, there are some other earthquakes every year in China. China seems at the stage with active earthquakes. However, there is nothing the government can do to prevent such natural disasters. Instead the government can only try to issue alert information and to build an efficient afterward recovering system. Earthquake insurance could be an effective way to provide additional recovering money besides government funds. But the question is whether consumers are willing to buy and pay for earthquake insurance if government is not paying. Therefore, this chapter is to investigate Chinese residents’ preferences for earthquake insurance, especially to analyze their willingness to accept and willingness to pay for earthquake insurance. Previous studies have shown that risk perception, social trust, and consumers’ characteristics have significant impact on consumers’ earthquake insurance. Thus the measure of association was used to analyze Chinese consumers’ preferences, followed by a short case for “Pearl River Delta” region in China. The data was collected though an online survey in Shenzhen, a core city in “Pearl River Delta” region. A total of 637 surveys were returned, and of those collected, 428 are valid. The results indicate that consumers are willing to buy and pay for earthquake insurance for higher-risk regions. However, for the lower-risk regions, government has to put more effort on increasing social trust for consumers. In addition, insurance companies need to provide earthquake property insurance product and earthquake life insurance product separately and together too according to consumers’ different preferences.

An analysis of bargaining power for milk cooperatives and milk processors in Florida

The Florida dairy market has a few fluid milk processors and many dairy farmers. The dairy farmers are represented in negotiation with the processors by a cooperative. This research builds a theoretical model of bargaining between the processors and a cooperative. The model is applied to the Florida dairy market to examine price negotiations between Florida milk processors and a dairy cooperative. An expectation maximization (EM) algorithm along with maximum likelihood estimation is used to estimate the econometric disequilibrium model with time series data for the period of October 1998 to May 2009. The results show that the class I price set by the Federal Milk Marketing Order is the major factor influencing the cooperative’s supply reservation price. Negotiated quantity and production seasonality affect the processors’ demand reservation price. The processors appear to be more patient and have higher average bargaining power (0.8804) than the cooperative (0.1196). The highest (lowest) bargaining power for the cooperative (processors) occurred in 2008 and the lowest (highest) bargaining power for the cooperative (processors) occurred in 2001.

Impact of renminbi exchange rate expectation on China’s foreign exchange reserves: an empirical analysis

Compared with the previous researches giving scattered and qualitative discussions about the exchange rate expectation Chinas foreign exchange reserves (FER), this paper conducted an empirical research by adding the exchange rate expectation. Starting from the evolution path of RMB exchange regime, two methods was used to examine the impact of expectation of RMB exchange rate on Chinas FER. The first method was based on the rational expectation theory. Firstly, the sequence of rational expectations of RMB exchange rate was generated, after which combined the sequence with other major macroeconomic indicators as a whole to examine their effects on FER in different periods. In the second method, the indicator of NDF was directly used and the next step was the same as method one. Both of the results based on the two different methods mentioned above indicated that the change of expectation of RMB exchange rate positively correlated to FER.

Game-theoretic models of improvement to water supply security in China

It is urgent to upgrade urban water supply systems to improve water supply security in developing countries. This paper conducts models for analyzing the conflicts between local government and a water company based on game theory. Penalties and subsidies are considered as policy variables to promote water companies upgrading equipments. Then the model is enriched by adding policy variable, reputational damage to local government. The contribution of this study is optimizing the design of water policies.