Modeling Economic Impacts of the Inland Waterway Transportation System

The inland waterway transportation system of the United States (U.S.) handles 11.7 billion tons of freight annually and connects the heartland of the U.S. with the rest of the world by providing a fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly mode of transportation. This dissertation aims to create decision support tools for maritime stakeholders to measure the economic impacts of the inland waterway transportation systems under real world scenarios including disruptions, demand changes, port expansion decisions, and channel deepening investments. Monte Carlo simulation, system dynamics, discrete-event simulation, agent-based modeling, and multiregional input-output modeling techniques are utilized to analyze the complex relationships between inland waterway transportation system components and regional economic impact factors. The first research contribution illustrates that the expected duration of a disruption determines whether decision makers are better off waiting for the waterway system to reopen or switching to an alternative mode of transportation. Moreover, total disruption cost can be reduced by increasing estimation accuracy of disruption duration. The second research contribution shows that without future investment in inland waterway infrastructure, a sustainable system and associate economic impacts cannot be generated in the long-term. The third research contribution illustrates that investing in bottleneck system components results in higher economic impact than investing in non-bottleneck components. The developed models can be adapted to any inland waterway transportation system in the U.S. by utilizing data obtained by publically available sources to measure the economic impacts under various scenarios to inform capital investment decisions and support an economically sustainable inland waterway transportation system

An Incentive for Investment Hurting Growth?: An Analysis of Section 179 Expensing and its Impact on Job Growth Through Related

This paper examines the economic impacts of Section 179 expensing in the Federal Tax Code. More specifically, it examines the impact of this incentive on automation and technological unemployment through a system dynamics simulation involving the professional industry, the manufacturing industry, and the rest of the United States economy. It also provides an overview of current trends towards automation, along with Recommendations for responsive tax policies to combat problems that could arise. Based on the results of the model and the analysis of current trends, both the professional and manufacturing industries face potential risks from automation, due to an increase in the Section 179 allowance, but the economy as a whole will benefit

Economic Impact of Investment Scenarios in the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System

The McClellan–Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS) is challenged by an aging infrastructure and by limited maintenance budgets, all of which cause transportation delays. In this study, the Maritime Transportation Simulator (MarTranS), which is a hybrid of agent-based modeling, discrete-event simulation, system dynamics, and multiregional input-output analysis, was adopted to model the relationship between the components of the system and economic impact factors. Real-world scenarios were analyzed to explore the economic impacts of various patterns of investment in the MKARNS. These scenarios include a base scenario (in which the system infrastructure remains unchanged and no future investments are made), investment scenarios (e.g., investing in deepening of the navigation channel, port expansion, and lock/dam rehabilitation), and a demand-change scenario focused on the impacts of the Panama Canal expansion. The results reveal that the MKARNS under current circumstances is not sustainable in the long term and that future economic investment is needed if it is to continue operations. In addition, among the different system components, locks/dams are the primary sources of system delays, so these should be targeted for investment and reconstruction to sustain and enhance the beneficial economic impacts of the system

The Impact of Philanthropy During Humanitarian Disasters: A Review of the Literature

Philanthropy through nonprofits is a critical component of relief throughout worldwide humanitarian disasters. Humanitarian disasters are increasing each year, yet a comprehensive time-sensitive model has not been created nor adopted by all nonprofits, or better yet, prior to a disaster. To better understand the benefits and challenges of philanthropy during a humanitarian disaster, a review and analysis of the literature were conducted, and research gaps were identified. The findings of this review indicate that philanthropy during humanitarian disasters is critical to reconstruction and enhancement efforts, and donors are one of the most valuable resources available

A Review of System Dynamics in Maritime Transportation

Towards the end of the twentieth century, a number of factors have re-shaped the shipping industry including the growth of international trade, the emergence of new markets, and the development of multimodal supply chains. The maritime transportation system consists of ocean and coastal routes, inland waterways, railways, roads, and air freight and is a vital part of the global supply chain and freight transportation system. Due to the complexity of the maritime transportation system (MTS), multiple transportation systems interconnect to achieve a purpose. We have identified system dynamics (SD) as an appropriate approach to study the MTS and its integration with multimodal transportation. In the initial phase of this research, we conducted a literature review of SD applications in the MTS. The result of our literature review provides an overview of SD modeling in the MTS and generates future research questions in this area