Improving productivity in design and construction of bridges

Building new infrastructure is an essential part of developing society. The construction industry is also an important part of economic growth, accounting for 13% of the world\u27s GDP. At the same time, the construction industry lacks behind in increasing its productivity. With more and larger infrastructure projects to be built, it is important that design and production could be performed in a more productive way. Increasing productivity is important both in terms of being more responsible with the economical and natural resources, and to be able to execute the project with the available personnel resources. To increase productivity, this thesis focusses on standardisation of bridges. Standardisation in this thesis could be of the whole bridge, as well as standardisation of different parts of a bridge. By standardisation, the idea is that repetitive work tasks should give higher productivity as the number of similar bridges/parts increases. This thesis examines which parameters are important to address to be able to increase productivity. It also examines how the different incentives of the three major actors\u27 (contractor, client and design engineer) in the industry could be obstacles for increased productivity through standardisation. The results in this thesis are based on a quantitative study consisting of a self-completed questionnaire that resulted in two appended papers. The main findings are which parameter to address to be able to increase productivity, and that the organisational structure of the contractor company could be an obstacle for long-term increased productivity. This thesis provides further knowledge about how standardisation could increase the productivity and which incentives are important for the actors to work for this

Portfolio selection with growth optimization and downside protection

This paper applies growth optimization with downside protection as a portfolio selection technique. The model is based on power-log utility functions that combine portfolio growth maximization with the behavioural tenets of prospect theory. We use three assets (a farm return index, a stock market index, and a Treasury bond index) to illustrate how effective this technique is compared to the standard model of growth maximization.portfolio management, growth optimization, Financial Economics, D92,

ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION, CAPITAL STRUCTURE AND AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT

This paper explicitly models the interdependent finance and investment decision in order to increase the understanding on how fluctuations in agricultural investment are attributable to changes in financial decisions. Euler equations for investment and finance are estimated by the use of the GMM technique on an unbalanced panel data set for 342 farm operations in Southwestern Minnesota for the 1989-1998 period.Agricultural Finance,

Triggering cognitive dissonance with textual information and images: Data from three experiments with meat-eaters

This article presents data from three experiments in which we triggered and measured cognitive dissonance in meat-eaters. Cognitive dissonance is a well-established concept in the social psychology literature; however, empirical measures are scarce. In all datasets, we used textual information and/or images related to meat consumption as means to trigger cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance data was collected in Study 1 with a Likert scale, whereas Study 2 and 3 used a Semantic Bipolar scale. Each experiment was programmed with Qualtrics and consisted of four conditions. Data was collected online; Study 1 utilized social media to recruit participants while Study 2 and 3 were hosted on Prolific. All datasets contain items on participants' socio-demographic background, liking of different food products, cognitive dissonance, and a measure of meat avoidance. The data can be used to analyze the effect of information provision on cognitive dissonance and meat avoidance. Moreover, the relationship between socio-demographic variables and cognitive dissonance, as well as other exploratory purposes regarding meat avoidance can be explored. Furthermore, researchers can use the data to investigate differences between Likert scales and Semantic Bipolar scales. This data is related to the paper Can images and textual information lead to meat avoidance? The mediating role of cognitive dissonance [1]. (c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc

Consumer benefits of labels and bans on genetically modified food - An empirical analysis using Choice Experiments

Applying an experiment on the choice of consumer goods, we show that Swedish consumers do not regard genetically modified (GM) food as being equivalent to conventional food. A central argument by proponents of GM is that the end products are identical to those where GM has not been used. That respondents in our survey disagree with this argument is supported by two observations. First, a positive significant WTP is found for a mandatory labeling policy. This result confirms previous observations that GM food can be a credence good causing a market failure. Second, consumers are also willing to pay a significantly higher product price to ensure a total ban on the use of GM in animal fodder. Even if scientists and politicians argue that most of today's GM food is indistinguishable from GM-free food, consumers disagree.Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

Consumer Benefits of Labels and Bans on GMO Foods: An Emprical Analysis Using Choice Experiments

Applying a choice experiment on the choice of consumer goods we show that Swedish consumers do not regard GMO food as being equivalent to conventional food. A central argument by proponents of GMO is that the end products are identical to those where GMO has not been used. That respondents in our survey disagree with this argument is supported by two observations. First, a positive significant WTP is found for a mandatory labeling policy. This result confirms previous observations that GMO food can be a credence good causing a market failure. Second, consumers are also willing to pay a significantly higher product price to ensure a total ban on the use of GMO in animal fodder. Even if scientists and politicians argue that most of today’s GMO food is indistinguishable from GMO free food, the consumers disagree.

Loyal Dissent in the Chinese Blogosphere: Sina Weibo Discourse on the Chinese Communist Party

The impact of the Internet on Chinese politics is a hot topic in contemporary academic debate. Some scholars believe that political discussions in cyberspace will lead to a more pluralistic and democratic China. Others argue that the ruling Communist Party will strengthen its position by using the Internet as a tool for censorship and active propaganda. The purpose of this article is to contribute to the debate on the political impact of increasing Internet use, by studying uncensored online opinions about the Communist Party and its policies. More specifically, we investigate and analyze some of the most popular and uncensored microblog tweets (Sina Weibo) that discussed political scandals in China during the Spring of 2012. The findings show that a majority of the tweets contains criticism against certain activities of the Party, but do not challenge its hold on power. The study indicates that the phenomenon of loyal dissent is a distinguishing feature of online political discourse in contemporary China. Consequently, the blogosphere has the potential to foster a generation of more critical Chinese citizens. However, in the current phase of overall information repression and censorship, and as a particular form of online expression, microblogging cannot yet be considered a catalyst for democratization

Farmer Participation in the Conservation Reserve Program and Bio-fuel Production under Uncertainty and Irreversibility

Crop Production/Industries, Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Off-farm income and farm capital accumulation: a farm-level data analysis

Replaced with revised version of paper 06/30/06.Farm Management,

Consumer perceptions and attitudes towards climate information on food

The food sector is a major contributor to climate change, and reducing meat consumption is important to achieve significant reductions in global carbon emissions. The implementation of information policies to reduce carbon emissions from red meat consumption entails understanding of how such information is expected to be received and used by consumers. This study uses survey data from a consumer panel, and match this with data on the same respondents' actual purchase behavior based on scanner data. Individuals with lower knowledge levels about the climate impact from food purchase the highest share of red meat, and the lowest share of sustainability labelled products. This indicates that information provision has the potential to increase knowledge among in-dividuals with the highest climate impact. Four sub-groups of consumers are identified in a latent class cluster model based on their motivations for consuming or avoiding meat. It is mainly the 'meat reducers' and 'meat avoiders' that are interested in using climate information when purchasing food. However, individuals in these sub-groups already purchase the least amount of meat and the highest amount of sustainable products. These findings point to limitations with climate information as a policy instrument, and suggests that other measures are needed as complements to initiate and achieve the necessary changes in consumption patterns