Eliciting values for environmental attributes of a private good using a real choice experiment

Markets for environmentally friendly products have been expanding during the last decade. These products provide both private benefits to the consumer and environmental – public – benefits. The demand for environmentally friendly products has consequently received a growing interest. Our study aims at studying consumers' choices for a non-food product, i.e. roses, with different environmental attributes. We combine a choice experiment with a laboratory experiment to provide real economic incentives.Choice experiment, environmental attributes, real economic incentives, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Willingness to pay for environmental attributes of non-food agricultural products: a real choice experiment

This paper investigates consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) a price premium for two environmental attributes of a non-food agricultural product. We study individual preferences for roses associated with an eco-label and a carbon footprint using an economic experiment combining discrete choice questions and real economic incentives involving real purchases of roses against cash. The data are analyzed with a mixed logit model and reveal significant premiums for both environmental attributes of the product.WILLINGNESS TO PAY;ENVIRONMENTAL ATTRIBUTES;NON-FOOD PRODUCT;REAL CHOICE EXPERIMENT;MIXED LOGIT

Understanding the Economic Consequences of Shifting Trends in Population Health

The public economic burden of shifting trends in population health remains uncertain. Sustained increases in obesity, diabetes, and other diseases could reduce life expectancy – with a concomitant decrease in the public-sector’s annuity burden – but these savings may be offset by worsening functional status, which increases health care spending, reduces labor supply, and increases public assistance. Using a microsimulation approach, we quantify the competing public-finance consequences of shifting trends in population health for medical care costs, labor supply, earnings, wealth, tax revenues, and government expenditures (including Social Security and income assistance). Together, the reduction in smoking and the rise in obesity have increased net public-sector liabilities by $430bn, or approximately 4% of the current debt burden. Larger effects are observed for specific public programs: annual spending is 10% higher in the Medicaid program, and 7% higher for Medicare.disability, health care costs, social security, microsimulation

International Differences in Longevity and Health and their Economic Consequences

In 1975, 50 year-old Americans could expect to live slightly longer than their European counterparts. By 2005, American life expectancy at that age has diverged substantially compared to Europe. We find that this growing longevity gap is primarily the symptom of real declines in the health of near-elderly Americans, relative to their European peers. In particular, we use a microsimulation approach to project what US longevity would look like, if US health trends approximated those in Europe. We find that differences in health can explain most of the growing gap in remaining life expectancy. In addition, we quantify the public finance consequences of this deterioration in health. The model predicts that gradually moving American cohorts to the health status enjoyed by Europeans could save up to $1.1 trillion in discounted total health expenditures from 2004 to 2050.disability, mortality, international comparisons, microsimulation

Alien Registration- Michaud, Willie D. (Van Buren, Aroostook County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/32369/thumbnail.jp

Alien Registration- Blier, Rose D. (Dover-Foxcroft, Piscataquis County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/10521/thumbnail.jp

The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for the CMB

We investigate the statistics of the cosmic microwave background using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. We show that, when we correctly de-correlate the data, the partition function of the Kolmogorov stochasticity parameter is compatible with the Kolmogorov distribution and, contrary to previous claims, the CMB data are compatible with Gaussian fluctuations with the correlation function given by standard Lambda-CDM. We then use the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to derive upper bounds on residual point source power in the CMB, and indicate the promise of this statistics for further datasets, especially Planck, to search for deviations from Gaussianity and for detecting point sources and Galactic foregrounds.Comment: Improved significance of the results (which remain unchanged) by using patches instead of ring segments in the analysis. Added sky maps of the Kolmogorov-parameter for original and de-correlated CMB ma

Swiss teenagers, AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases: presentation and evaluation of a preventive exhibition

As part of a larger school-based health program for Swiss apprentices and students, an AIDS and sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention exhibition was offered to 7000 boys and girls aged 15-19. Its objectives were: (1) to reinforce their knowledge of STD and AIDS transmission and prevention, and (2) to modify their attitudes and behavior regarding (a) the decision whether, when and how to have sex and (b) the use of condoms. The exhibition consisted of six posters, reviewed by specially-trained teachers and nurses. Condoms were presented in an amusing way and were freely available. A case control follow-up survey was carried out 12 weeks later in two random samples: 798 subjects from an experimental school and 600 subjects from a control school completed an anonymous multiple-choice questionnaire. Of the respondents, 69% were sexually active, and among this group, 76% of the boys and 59% of the girls had used a condom at least once but only 15% used them regularly. As regards knowledge, both groups reached high levels (75-97% of right answers); the group exposed to the exhibition scored higher for only two items (P < 0.05). Significantly more teenagers in the experimental group said they had handled condoms or had condoms with them ‘just in case ...'. This evaluation shows that an AIDS and STD prevention exhibition for teenagers may be both feasible and effective. However, future intervention programs should include practical interpersonal counseling on topics such as mutual trust, contraception issues, and the purchase and use of condom

Bayesian Non-Exhaustive Classification A Case Study: Online Name Disambiguation using Temporal Record Streams

The name entity disambiguation task aims to partition the records of multiple real-life persons so that each partition contains records pertaining to a unique person. Most of the existing solutions for this task operate in a batch mode, where all records to be disambiguated are initially available to the algorithm. However, more realistic settings require that the name disambiguation task be performed in an online fashion, in addition to, being able to identify records of new ambiguous entities having no preexisting records. In this work, we propose a Bayesian non-exhaustive classification framework for solving online name disambiguation task. Our proposed method uses a Dirichlet process prior with a Normal * Normal * Inverse Wishart data model which enables identification of new ambiguous entities who have no records in the training data. For online classification, we use one sweep Gibbs sampler which is very efficient and effective. As a case study we consider bibliographic data in a temporal stream format and disambiguate authors by partitioning their papers into homogeneous groups. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is better than existing methods for performing online name disambiguation task.Comment: to appear in CIKM 201