4,686 research outputs found
Measuring the Cost-effectiveness of Conservation Auctions Relative to Alternate Policy Mechanisms
The principle motivation for using price-discriminating conservation auctions is that they are expected to be significantly more cost-effective than fixed-price mechanisms. This paper measures cost effectiveness for tenders from two rounds of the Auction for Landscape Recovery in Western Australia relative to counterfactual fixed-price mechanisms. If we assume that the bid equals the compliance cost, the auction gives a significant cost saving over fixed-price mechanisms. If instead we assume that bids include an element of rent, fixed-price mechanisms can be more cost effective than the auction. The significance of these results is that a fixed price scheme may achieve a similar level of cost effectiveness to a conservation auction, when one or more of the following apply: compliance costs do not vary significantly between producers, auction bids have a significant element of rent and the auction incurs a significant additional administrative cost.Auctions, conservation, bio-diversity, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q57,
Approximate Canonical Quantization for Cosmological Models
In cosmology minisuperspace models are described by nonlinear
time-reparametrization invariant systems with a finite number of degrees of
freedom. Often these models are not explicitly integrable and cannot be
quantized exactly. Having this in mind, we present a scheme for the
(approximate) quantization of perturbed, nonintegrable, time-reparametrization
invariant systems that uses (approximate) gauge invariant quantities. We apply
the scheme to a couple of simple quantum cosmological models.Comment: 16 pages, Latex, accepted for publication in Int. Jou. Mod. Phys.
Estimating Urban Residential Water-Demand With Increasing Block Prices: The Case of Perth, Western Australia
This study uses panel data at suburb level to estimates the elasticity water demands in Perth, Australia from 1995 to 2005. After deriving the consumer’s water demand under a non-linear budget constraint, we estimate the water demand model, which accounts for how water (and other purchased goods) is used to satisfy fundamental desires of the household. We have applied the specification of price that provided the correctly estimated marginal price from the block tariff structure, and employed a maximum likelihood estimation technique to tackle the endogeneity and heteroskedasticity issues. Our estimation of water demand price elasticities are slightly higher (more elastic) than previous study in Perth, but broadly in line with other estimates in the literature.water demand, water pricing, block pricing, water resource management, household model, Demand and Price Analysis, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q21, Q25 and Q23,
Entanglement of two qubits in a relativistic orbit
The creation and destruction of entanglement between a pair of interacting
two-level detectors accelerating about diametrically opposite points of a
circular path is investigated. It is found that any non-zero acceleration has
the effect of suppressing the vacuum entanglement and enhancing the
acceleration radiation thereby reducing the entangling capacity of the
detectors. Given that for large accelerations the acceleration radiation is the
dominant effect, we investigate the evolution of a two detector system
initially prepared in a Bell state using a perturbative mater equation and
treating the vacuum fluctuations as an unobserved environment. A general
function for the concurrence is obtained for stationary and symmetric
worldlines in flatspace. The entanglement sudden death time is computed.Comment: v2: Some typo's fixed, figures compressed to smaller filesize and
added some references
Dynamical excitations in the collision of 2D Bose-Einstein condensates
We carry out simulations of the collision of two components of an
adiabatically divided, quasi-2D BEC. We identify under, over and critically
damped regimes in the dipole oscillations of the components according to the
balance of internal and centre-of-mass (c.m.) energies of the components and
investigate the creation of internal excitations. We distinguish the behaviour
of this system from previous studies of quasi-1D BEC's. In particular we note
that the nature of the internal excitations is only essentially sensitive to an
initial phase difference between the components in the overdamped regime.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figure
The Mass of HD 38529 c from Hubble Space Telescope Astrometry and High-Precision Radial Velocities
(Abridged) Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Fine Guidance Sensor astrometric
observations of the G4 IV star HD 38529 are combined with the results of the
analysis of extensive ground-based radial velocity data to determine the mass
of the outermost of two previously known companions. Our new radial velocities
obtained with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope and velocities from the
Carnegie-California group now span over eleven years. With these data we obtain
improved RV orbital elements for both the inner companion, HD 38529 b and the
outer companion, HD 38529 c. We identify a rotational period of HD 38529
(P_{rot}=31.65 +/- 0.17 d) with FGS photometry. We model the combined
astrometric and RV measurements to obtain the parallax, proper motion,
perturbation period, perturbation inclination, and perturbation size due to HD
38529 c. For HD 38529 c we find P = 2136.1 +/- 0.3 d, perturbation semi-major
axis \alpha =1.05 +/-0.06i_{Jup}) companion at
P~194 days. Additional observations (radial velocities and/or Gaia astrometry)
are required to validate an interpretation of HD 38529 d as a planetary-mass
companion. If confirmed, the resulting HD 38529 planetary system may be an
example of a "Packed Planetary System".Comment: Accepted by The Astronomical Journa
Astrometric observations of the faint satellites of Jupiter during the 1975 - 1976 opposition
The series of astrometric observations of the satellites of the trans-martian planets re-established at the McDonald Observatory in 1972 is continued. The positions deduced from photographic observations of the jovian system obtained during the 1975-76 opposition are presented together with the discovery positions of four asteroids found on these plates
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