Conservation Behavior: From Voluntary Restraint to a Voluntary Price Premium

This paper provides a theoretical and empirical investigation of conservation behavior that is motivated by concern for the environment. Two types of behavior are considered. First, individuals who care about environmental quality may voluntarily restrain their consumption of goods and services that generate a negative externality. Second, individuals may choose to pay a voluntary price premium for goods and services that are more "environmentally friendly." A theoretical model highlights the relationship between such voluntary restraint and a voluntary price premium. We test predictions of the model in an empirical study of household electricity consumption with introduction of a price-premium, green-electricity program. We find evidence of voluntary restraint and its relation to a voluntary price premium. The empirical results are consistent with the model of conservation behavior, as none of the theoretical predictions can be rejected.Consumer, Electricity, Environment, Households, Individual

A MULTICROP PRODUCTION MODEL OF IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE, APPLIED TO WATER ALLOCATION POLICY OF THE BUREAU OF RECLAMATION

Recipients of irrigation water from the Bureau of Reclamation (BuRec) face a future of water conservation. By formally modeling surface water as a fixed, allocatable input to a multioutput firm, this research captures the institutional constraints governing water allocation and , simultaneously, establishes a cohesive approach to analyzing the production effects of BuRec allocation policy. Econometric results show that BuRec-served irrigators'Â’ crop supply and land allocation decisions are generally inelastic with respect to the water constraint. Using the elasticities, a policy simulation of a 10% reduction in BuRec water allocation indicates that production response to reduced water supply would affect the national price of three of ten major crops produced by BuRec-served farms.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Private Provision of Environmental Public Goods: Household Participation in Green-Electricity Programs

Green-electricity programs provide an opportunity to study private provision of public goods in a field setting. The first part of this paper develops a theoretical framework to analyze household decisions about voluntary participation in green-electricity programs. We consider different participation mechanisms and show how they relate to existing theory on either pure or impure public goods. The models are used to examine the implications of participation mechanisms for the level of public-good provision. The second part of the paper provides an empirical investigation of actual participation decisions in two green- electricity programs: one based on a pure public good and the other based on an impure public good. The data come from original household surveys of participants and nonparticipants in both programs, along with utility data on household electricity consumption. The econometric results are interpreted in the context of the theoretical models and are compared to other studies of privately provided public goods.Pure and impure public goods, private provision, green electricity

ESTIMATING PRODUCER'S SURPLUS WITH THE CENSORED REGRESSION MODEL: AN APPLICATION TO PRODUCERS AFFECTED BY COLUMBIA RIVER BASIN SALMON RECOVERY

Application of the tobit model to estimate economic welfare is transferred from the consumer side to the producer side. Supply functions are estimated for multioutput irrigators in the Pacific Northwest. Empirical procedures are then developed for computing expected producer's surplus from the output supply functions. Confidence intervals for the surplus measures are generated using the Krinsky-Robb method. An experiment predicts decreases in surplus given increases in water pumping cost. The experiment replicates possible increases in hydroelectric prices due to the salmon recovery program in the Columbia-Snake River Basin. Output substitution explains producers' ability to mitigate the effect of the price increases on producer's surplus.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Towards a Principled Representation of Discourse Plans

We argue that discourse plans must capture the intended causal and decompositional relations between communicative actions. We present a planning algorithm, DPOCL, that builds plan structures that properly capture these relations, and show how these structures are used to solve the problems that plagued previous discourse planners, and allow a system to participate effectively and flexibly in an ongoing dialogue.Comment: requires cogsci94.sty, psfig.st

HH-60H Armed Helicopter Subsystem operator workload assessment

This thesis discusses an operator workload assessment of the Armed Helicopter Subsystem (AHS) on the U.S. Navy HH-60H Seahawk Helicopter. The workload assessment was conducted in addition to developmental test and evaluation at Naval Rotary Wing Aircraft Test Squadron at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, MD and Eglin Air Force Base, Ft Walton Beach, F1 between 25 November 1997 and 13 August 1998. Department of Defense instructions, standards, human factors specifications, previous test plans, and reports of test results were studied to determine initial areas of focus and previous lessons learned. Specific operator workload was evaluated using the Bedford Workload Scale during verification of all the Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) and AGM-114 Hellfire Missile launch and designation modes in mission representative flight profiles. Both ground and flight tests were conducted to verify specification and test and evaluation master plan compliance and mission suitability for the Combat Search and Rescue (Combat SAR), and Anti Surface Warfare (ASUW) missions. FLIR test scope was reduced by use of the results of the U.S. Navy SH-60B AN/AAS-44 FLIR Contingency Kit and Rapid Deployment Kit developmental test and evaluation programs. Operator workload was assessed during software, FLIR, captive carriage, and live fire developmental flight tests. Night Vision Devices (NVDs) were used on two of the six Hellfire Missile shots. Overall operator workload was high, particularly during remote Hellfire Missile shot setup and autonomous Hellfire Missile laser guidance. During the Combat SAR mission, the operator was performing multiple tasks, including navigation and communication subtasks. Since little spare capacity was left for FLIR operation, the author recommends using either offset forward track or scan mode. Recommendations include inverting the FLIR turret and suspending it from the mounting platform

Treasury Plays Hide the Deduction, with the Lessor\u27s Demolition Loss

Current regulations treat owners and lessors differently regarding demolition deductions. This Comment examines the new United States Treasury regulations sections 1.165-3(a) and (b) by investigating the evolution of the current regulation, together with the Treasury\u27s stand and the taxpayer\u27s resulting position to discover whether an alternative exists to these regulations. The Comment concludes by advising taxpayers to avoid litigating demolition losses by using Treasury regulations section 1.167(a)-8(a)(4)