Animal waste from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) is a significant contributor to the nitrate contamination of groundwater. Some manures also contain heavy metals and salts that may build up either in cropland or groundwater. To find cost-effective policies for pollution reduction at the farm level, an environmental-economic modeling framework for representative CAFOs is developed, where the owner of the operation is a profit-maximizer subject to environmental regulations. The model incorporates various components such as herd management, manure handling system, crop rotation, water sources, irrigation system, waste disposal options, and pollutant emissions. Decision rules from the optimization problem demonstrate best management practices for CAFOs to improve their economic and environmental performance. Results from policy simulations suggest that direct quantity restrictions of emission or incentive-based emission policies such as a field emission tax are much more cost-effective than the standard approach of limiting the amount of animal waste that may be applied to fields. Furthermore, incentive-based emission policies are shown to have advantages over direct quantity restrictions under certain conditions. We also demonstrate the importance of taking into account the integrated effects of water, nitrogen, and salinity on crop yield and nitrate leaching as well as the spatial heterogeneity of nitrogen/water application when designing policy mechanisms.
To facilitate SME financing and to improve price instrument mechanism of monetary policy are the two major objectives of interest rate liberalization.This study establishes the theoretic model based on the production function of CES.By making use of the financial data of those listed manufacturing firms during 1996-2011,it conducts an empirical analysis of the development of the enterprises and the factors of financing cost(including the interest rate factor and the sensitivity changes of the internal financing factors) with the method of panel regression.The results indicate that interest rate liberalization has greatly improved the financing restraints on the enterprises,especially for those small-scale firms,boosted their development,and stimulated the differential pricing by the banks towards the small-scale firms.The function of the monetary policy price-guidance based on the benchmark interest rates is declining.
Based on norm activation theory, a research framework was built to explore the food waste reduction behavior when consumers eat out. The framework included behavior intentions and four psychological factors: awareness of consequence (persons understanding that actions have consequences), ascription of responsibility (duty to respond), self-efficacy (belief in own skills and capacity), personal norm (individuals' values to act by socially accepted rules and reduce food waste as a code of conduct and moral obligation). A total of 514 samples from different regions of China were collected through an online survey platform, and the research framework was tested by applying structural equation modeling (SEM). This study found that ascription of responsibility and self-efficacy can effectively activate personal norm to reduce food waste. Personal norm and self-efficacy had a significant positive effect on behavior intentions to reduce food waste. Specifically, self-efficacy had the greatest effect on personal norm, followed by ascription of responsibility, and on behavior intentions to reduce food waste, followed by personal norm. Interestingly, while ascription of responsibility and self-efficacy had an impact on personal norm, awareness of consequence did not significantly influence personal norm to reduce food waste, suggesting that emotional factors are more likely to trigger personal norms that motivate consumers to take action to reduce food waste than cognitive factors. Based on the findings, several suggestions are provided for more effective interventions by restaurants to promote food waste reduction behavior, such as information intervention strategies, displaying information related to food consumption, and reducing the size of plates for some meals.
Purpose The authors explicitly evaluate the dynamic impact of five most concerned supply chain disruption scenarios, including: (1) a short-term shortage and price jump of corn supply in hog farms; (2) a shortage of market hogs to packing facilities; (3) disruption in breeding stock adjustments; (4) disruption in pork import; and (5) a combination of scenario (1)–(4). Design/methodology/approach The agricultural supply chain experienced tremendous disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic. To evaluate the impact of disruptions, the authors employ a system dynamics model of hog market to simulate and project the impact of COVID-19 on China hog production and pork consumption. In the model the authors explicitly characterize the cyclical pattern of hog market. The hog cycle model is calibrated using market data from 2018–2019 to represent the market situation during an ongoing African swine fever. Findings The authors find that the impacts of supply chain disruption are generally short-lived. Market hog transportation disruption has immediate impact on price and consumption. But the impact is smoothed out in six months. Delay in import shipment temporarily reduces consumption and raises hog price. A temporary increase of corn price or delay in breeding stock acquisition does not produce significant impact on national hog market as a whole, despite mass media coverage on certain severely affected regions. Originality/value This is the first evaluation of short-term supply chain disruption on China hog market from COVID-19. The authors employ a system dynamics model of hog markets with an international trade component. The model allows for monthly time step analysis and projection of the COVID-19 impact over a five-year period. The results and discussion have far-reaching implications for agricultural markets around the world.
This paper focuses on Hongcun in Anhui Province, using comments data of ctrip.com , ly.com and qunar.com as a samples, and makes a systematic analysis of Hongcun's tourism image through Python software. The study finds that the dimension of Hongcun image perception includes tourism attraction, tourism service, tourism environment and tourism atmosphere. The perception curve of tourism images of Hongcun presents the distribution characteristics of power functions, with obvious "long tail" distribution.Tourists have higher evaluation of Natural scenery and historical features,and lower evaluation for over-commercialization,single tourism items and disordered management in tourism-peak season. Accordingly, it is necessary to establish the concept of protective development and protect the authenticity of Hongcun . At the same time, it is necessary to enrich the cultural connotation of tourism products and enhance the experience of tourists.