Exploring Net Benefit Maximization: Conservation Easements and the Public-Private Interface

Gustanski and Wright talk about conservation easements and the public-private interface. The ease of application across varied lands coupled with the financial and tax-associated benefits of conservation easements have driven the popularity of their use in conserving private lands across the US. Conservation easements typically require sizeable public funding resources, which are provided through either direct public expenditures via diverse public programs established to promote the conservation of land or through tax benefits

A Low Mach Number Model for Moist Atmospheric Flows

We introduce a low Mach number model for moist atmospheric flows that accurately incorporates reversible moist processes in flows whose features of interest occur on advective rather than acoustic time scales. Total water is used as a prognostic variable, so that water vapor and liquid water are diagnostically recovered as needed from an exact Clausius--Clapeyron formula for moist thermodynamics. Low Mach number models can be computationally more efficient than a fully compressible model, but the low Mach number formulation introduces additional mathematical and computational complexity because of the divergence constraint imposed on the velocity field. Here, latent heat release is accounted for in the source term of the constraint by estimating the rate of phase change based on the time variation of saturated water vapor subject to the thermodynamic equilibrium constraint. We numerically assess the validity of the low Mach number approximation for moist atmospheric flows by contrasting the low Mach number solution to reference solutions computed with a fully compressible formulation for a variety of test problems

Paying it forward: cost benefit analysis of the Wyatt Trust funded financial counselling services

Seeking to gain a better understanding of the benefits associated with financial counselling service provision and its net impact on the lives of people assisted, The Wyatt Trust commissioned The Australian Workplace Innovation and Social Research Centre (WISeR) at The University of Adelaide to undertake a cost benefit analysis of financial counselling services. The report shows that $1 invested in financial counselling services generates$5 of benefits for recipients

Design thinking and innovation: synthesising concepts of knowledge co-creation in spaces of professional development

This paper explores how design thinking connects to concepts of knowledge creation and innovation. A case study of a knowledge sharing network in the social services sector is used to illustrate how design thinking supports Ba, the spaces for knowledge creation. Further exploration of the four enabling conditions for Ba resulted in delineation of two distinct types: relational and structural. Relational enablers support three groups of enabling conditions: interaction, shared values and communication. It is proposed that design thinking aligns well with relational enabling conditions for Ba to create the ideal spaces for knowledge creation. The group of structural enablers can assist or obstruct change and relate to the culture and management approaches of an organization, which may or may not be assisted by design thinking. However, to ensure that design thinking is not undermined, and innovation is achieved, the presence of an appropriate structural enabler is critical for success

Recent perspectives on trade and inequality

The 1990's dealt a blow to traditional Heckscher-Ohlin analysis of the relationship between trade and income inequality, as it became clear that rising inequality in low-income countries and other features of the data were inconsistent with that model. As a result, economists moved away from trade as a plausible explanation for rising income inequality. In recent years, however, a number of new mechanisms have been explored through which trade can affect(and usually increase) income inequality. These include within-industry effects due to heterogeneous?firms; effects of offshoring of tasks; effects on incomplete contracting; and effects of labor-market frictions. A number these mechanisms have received substantial empirical support.Labor Markets,Economic Theory&Research,Labor Policies,Trade Policy,Emerging Markets