Welfare Effects of the Euro Cash Changeover: Do Assumptions Really Matter?

Manski's partial identification allows less restrictive, therefore, more credible assumptions than the assumption of random treatment assignment to solve the evaluation problem. In this article the theory of partial identification is applied to the welfare effect of the euro cash changeover. When evaluating the impact of the euro cash changeover on individual welfare, Wunder et al. (2008) face the evaluation problem. Instead of arguing for a comparability of both treatment groups used (i.e. the British and the German Population), partial identification as a more robust technique is used for evaluating the effect of the euro cash changeover. Imposing less restrictive assumptions leaves out an answer about the direction of the welfare effect

Distance minimization in downtown pedestrian shopping

Downtown pedestrian shopping was observed with the purpose of determining whether shoppers attempted to minimize walking distance, and, if so, whether, as has been suggested in previous research, they did that by successively choosing the closest locations. In downtown of an average-sized Swedish city (about 80 000 residents), 150 shoppers were interviewed in a parking lot when they were coming back from shopping rounds. 69% of the shoppers visited more than one location, and 51% visited more than two locations. Of those who visited more than two different locations, 35 (69%) attempted to minimize walking distance. This was most frequently done by first choosing the location farthest away, then minimizing distance successively back to the parking lot. In this way shoppers probably attempted to minimize both the walking distance and the effort to carry goods. Some shoppers managed to choose routes which were shorter than if they had minimized distance successively. This finding was consistent with the results of laboratory studies demonstrating the role of maplike mental representations for distance-minimizing choices.

Staying competitive while subsidized: a governmental policy to reduce production of environmentally harmful products

A price-setting experiment was conducted to investigate whether a proposed governmental subsidy system to reduce sales and production of environmentally harmful products would maintain competition, as required by EU regulations. Dyads of participants played the role of producers, independently setting unit prices for their products in a sequence of trials with feedback. In experimental conditions a subsidy was paid for unsold units, a system which had previously been found to raise prices and reduce the number of units sold. For half of the dyads in each condition the payoffs were individual, in the other half they were split equally to motivate cooperation. Substantiating that the subsidy did not eliminate competition, the prices were set lower and incomes were lower when the payoffs were individual than when they were split equally. The participants also adjusted their prices to increase their own payoff, taking into account the prices set by the others when the payoffs were individual—which they did not when the payoffs were split equally. The results support the claim that the proposed subsidy system is effective in raising prices so that sales and production of environmentally harmful products can be reduced without eliminating competition.

Computer simulation of household activity scheduling

An operational model of household activity scheduling is proposed. The model is based on a theory entailing behavioral principles of how persons acquire, represent, and use information from and about the environment. Choices of destinations and departure times are consequences of the scheduling of a set of activities to be executed in a given time cycle. Illustrative computer simulations of the operational model show realistic effects of work hours, living in or outside the center, and travel speed. Several necessary improvements of the theory and operational model are discussed, such as incorporating learning effects and choice of travel mode for home-based trip chains. Strategies outlined for empirical tests include comparisons with existing models, psychological experiments illuminating basic assumptions, and the use of geographical information systems to process travel-diary data for single cases.

Goal conflicts in political decisionmaking: a survey of municipality politicians' views of road pricing

An ongoing discussion concerns road-pricing schemes as measures to abate traffic congestion and air pollution in metropolitan areas. If such measures are to be effective, road-pricing fees must be set sufficiently high. However, municipalities are likely to have other goals besides reducing car use, such as upholding fairness among citizens and financial goals such as creating revenues. If conflicts prove to exist between different goals, road-pricing schemes are not likely to achieve the environmental goal. To investigate the degree to which these goal conflicts exist, members of the local governments in the three major metropolitan areas of Sweden responded to a survey questionnaire. In the questionnaire they rated a number of principles guiding the setting of road-pricing fees hypothesized to correspond to the three goals. The results showed that, for the political majority, the hypothesized goal conflicts existed in that no single goal was optimized. It is concluded that in particular fairness may prevent road pricing achieving the environmental goal.