VOLUNTARY REVELATION OF THE DEMAND FOR PUBLIC GOODS USING A PROVISION POINT MECHANISM

public goods, voluntary contributions, provision point, experiments, information, group size, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, H41, C92,

The evolution of manufacturing planning and control systems: From reorder point to enterprise resource planning.

Manufacturing planning and control (MPC) systems have existed since the earliest days of the industrial revolution. To gain a historical perspective, it is useful to look at the evolution of these systems. Five major stages were involved: reorder point (ROP) systems, materials requirement planning (MRP) systems, manufacturing resource planning (MRP-II) systems, MRP-II with manufacturing execution systems (MES), and enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) with MES. When examined in detail, each stage represents the next logical step in manufacturing philosophy and technological innovation over the preceding stage

Social Preferences and Voting: An Exploration Using a Novel Preference Revealing Mechanism

Public referenda are frequently used to determine the provision of public goods. As public programs have distributional consequences, a compelling question is what role if any social preferences have on voting behavior. This paper explores this issue using laboratory experiments wherein voting outcomes lead to a known distribution of net benefits across participants. Preferences are elicited using a novel Random Price Voting Mechanism (RPVM), which is a more parsimonious mechanism than dichotomous choice referenda, but gives consistent results. Results suggest that social preferences, in particular a social efficiency motive, lead to economically meaningful deviations from self-interested voting choices and increase the likelihood that welfare-enhancing programs are implemented.Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, C91, C92, D64, D72, H41,

ANOMALIES IN VOTING: AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS USING A NEW, DEMAND REVEALING (RANDOM PRICE VOTING) MECHANISM

This study investigates the influence of social preferences on voting decisions using a new Random Price Voting Mechanism (RPVM), which is best thought of as a public goods voting extension of the Becker-DeGroot-Marshack mechanism for private goods. In particular, this mechanism is used to investigate experimentally whether voting decisions are affected by the distribution of net benefits associated with a proposed public program. Recent papers have shown that, in additional to selfishness, factors such as inequality aversion, maximin preferences, and efficiency may influence individual decisions. However, the effect of social preferences on voting, the predominant funding mechanism for public goods by legislatures and public referenda, has not been thoroughly examined. We first establish the presence of anomalous behavior in dichotomous voting, and introduce the RPVM as a more efficient mechanism to examine such anomalies. We show that it is demand revealing in the presence of social preferences and empirically consistent with dichotomous choice voting. Laboratory experiments involving 440 subjects show that when net benefits are homogeneously distributed, the new RPVM is demand-revealing in both willingness-to-pay (WTP) and willingness-to-accept (WTA) settings, for both gains and losses. When the voting outcome potentially results in a heterogeneous distribution of (net) benefits, a systematic wedge appears between individuals' controlled induced values and their revealed WTP or WTA. With induced gains, the best-off subjects under-report their WTP and WTA in comparison to their induced value. Worst-off subjects express WTP and WTA that exceed their induced value. With induced losses a mirror image is evident. Best-off subjects over-report their induced value while the worst-off subjects under-report. Theoretical and econometric results presented in the paper suggest that these differences are caused by a concern for social efficiency.Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

Survey of critical biological resources, Larimer County, Colorado, 2004

Prepared for: Larimer County Parks and Open Lands, City of Fort Collins Natural Areas Program, City of Loveland Natural Areas Program, Larimer County Planning Department.Includes bibliographical references

Exposing Pharmacy Students to Public Health Concepts through Volunteering in the Medical Reserve Corps

Pharmacy students at the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy’s regional campus were exposed to the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), a volunteer-based network that organizes locally to improve the health and safety of their communities. The school partnered with the local Medical Reserve Corps to provide students’ opportunities to fulfill co-curricular requirements and facilitate an application-based learning environment for public health concepts. The objective of the study was to explore the relationship between volunteering in the MRC and pharmacy students’ ability to meet educational outcomes and reinforce beliefs about their profession’s role in public health. Twenty-one students completed a survey addressing their ability to meet educational outcomes and identify the role of pharmacists in public health. Pharmacy students strongly agreed their past participation (mean 4.57) and future volunteering (mean 4.48) within the MRC would continue to help them better understand their role in public health. Pharmacy students strongly agreed (means ranging from 4.43 to 4.71) that they were able to fulfill educational outcomes related to knowledge, skills, and attitudes pharmacy graduates should possess. The positive responses gathered warrants expanding the partnership to include more student healthcare disciplines as well as looking for further opportunities to engage students in public health initiatives. Pharmacy schools should look to adopt similar partnerships with MRC units

Seeps, springs and wetlands: San Juan Basin, Colorado. Social-ecological climate resilience project

Prepared for: North Centeral Climate Adaptation Science Center.Social-Ecological Climate Resilience Project, 2016.Includes bibliographical references

The BRST-invariant vacuum state of the Gribov-Zwanziger theory

We revisit the effective action of the Gribov-Zwanziger theory, taking into due account the BRST symmetry and renormalization (group invariance) of the construction. We compute at one loop the effective potential, showing the emergence of BRST-invariant dimension 2 condensates stabilizing the vacuum. This paper sets the stage at zero temperature, and clears the way to studying the Gribov-Zwanziger gap equations, and particularly the horizon condition, at finite temperature in future work.Comment: 18 pages, 4 .pdf figure

Social Ecological Climate Resilience Project - 2016

Prepared for: North Central Climate Science Center, Fort Collins, Colorado.February 2017.Includes bibliographical references.Climate change is already having impacts on nature, ecosystem services and people in southwestern Colorado and is likely to further alter our natural landscapes in the coming decades. Understanding the potential changes and developing adaptation strategies can help ensure that natural landscapes and human communities remain healthy in the face of a changing climate. An interdisciplinary team consisting of social, ecological and climate scientists developed an innovative climate planning framework and worked with the Social‐Ecological Climate Resilience Project (SECR) and other stakeholders in Colorado’s San Juan River watershed to develop adaptation strategies for two significant landscapes, pinyon juniper woodlands and seeps, springs, and wetland resources under three climate scenarios between 2035 and 2050. This report summarizes the planning framework and results for the pinyon‐juniper landscape (the seeps, springs and wetlands results will be provided separately). This framework can be utilized to develop strategies for other landscapes at local, state, and national scales. Diagrams, narrative scenarios, and maps that depict climate scenarios and the social‐ecological responses help us portray the climate impact in the face of an uncertain future. Interviews and focus group workshops with agency staff and stakeholders who are users of public lands identified several important opportunities to improve the adaptation planning process for developing strategies that meet both social and ecological needs. Planning techniques that include or directly relate to specific resources, such as water and forage, or to activities, such as recreation or grazing, provide avenues for engaging diverse stakeholders into the process. Utilizing the scenarios to understand the impacts to our social and ecological landscapes, three overarching landscape‐scale adaptation strategies were developed. Each of these strategies has a suite of potential actions required to reach a desired future condition. The three key strategies are: 1) identify and protect persistent ecosystems as refugia, 2) proactively manage for resilience, and 3) accept, assist, and allow for transformation in non‐climate refugia sites. If the framework and strategies from this project are adopted by the local community, including land managers, owners, and users, the climate change impacts can be reduced, allowing for a more sustainable human and natural landscape