The Influence of Rebate Programs on the Demand for Water Heaters: The Case of New South Wales

In the past decade the Australian Federal government and state governments have established a wide range of programs to cut greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors. This paper examines the role of hot water system rebate programs in shifting the existing stock of electric water heaters toward more climate friendly versions using two unique data sets from New South Wales homeowners. The first data set is based on a survey of households who recently purchased a water heater and exploits a natural experiment created by the rebate program to quantify its effects. The other data set is based on a set of stated preference questions asked of households who own an older water heater and will in the reasonably near future face a replacement decision. We find that recent rebate programs significantly increased the share of solar/heat pump systems. For households without access to natural gas, this increased share comes directly from inefficient electric water heaters. For households with access to natural gas, older existing electric water heaters would likely have been replaced with gas water heaters in the absence of the rebate programs. The rebate program appears to be much less effective when water heaters are replaced on an emergency basis. Data from discrete choice experiments was analysed using several flexible choice models. A newly proposed model that combines a latent class approach with a random coefficients approach clearly dominates the other models in terms of statistical fit. Predictions based on this model estimate are reasonably consistent with actual purchase data. Results from it point to considerable heterogeneity with respect to household preferences toward different types of water heaters and with respect to the discount rates they hold.Climate change mitigation, Energy conservation programs, Natural experiments, Discrete choice experiments, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Static internal performance of ventral and rear nozzle concepts for short-takeoff and vertical-landing aircraft

The internal performance of two exhaust system concepts applicable to single-engine short-take-off and vertical-landing tactical fighter configurations was investigated. These concepts involved blocking (or partially blocking) tailpipe flow to the rear (cruise) nozzle and diverting it through an opening to a ventral nozzle exit for vertical thrust. A set of variable angle vanes at the ventral nozzle exit were used to vary ventral nozzle thrust angle between 45 and 110 deg relative to the positive axial force direction. In the vertical flight mode the rear nozzle (or tailpipe flow to it) was completely blocked. In the transition flight mode flow in the tailpipe was split between the rear and ventral nozzles and the flow was vectored at both exits for aircraft control purposes through this flight regime. In the cruise flight mode the ventral nozzle was sealed and all flow exited through the rear nozzle

A Nested Logit Model of Recreational Fishing Demand in Alaska

Travel cost analysis, bioeconomic modeling, Public Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Q26, Q22, C35,

Objectless locative prepositions in British English

In British English, sentences like This film has monsters in are possible without the pronoun it. Descriptively, we refine landscape of the phenomenon, identifying restrictions on the distribution and interpretation of OLPs, including dialectal variation within British English, and observing an A-bar movement restriction on monsters. Analytically, we argue against an A-movement analysis (Griffiths & Sailor), and ponder alternatives from a cross-linguistic perspective

Transparent free relatives with "who": Support for a unified analysis

This paper provides novel data, including from acceptability ratings, supporting a unified analysis of Transparent Free Relatives (TFRs) as variants of Standard Free Relatives (SFRs), rather than entirely different beasts. Two arguments are presented. First, who-TFRs exist, contrary to the view in the literature that TFRs can only be formed with what. Second, who-TFRs degrade following the same illunderstood pattern as who-SFRs. These outcomes cohere better with accounts of TFRs that treat them as similar to SFRs, versus accounts that treat them as virtually unrelated

THE ATTITUDE–BEHAVIOR DICHOTOMY IN THE TIME OF COVID-19: AN EXPLORATION USING GENERALIZED STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the need to quickly deploy non-pharmaceutical measures like facemasks to reduce transmission rates into sharp focus. Factors influencing this behavior are examined through the classic attitude–behavior lens of Fishbein and Ajzen [Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley] cast in the language of property rights and social norms. Behavior is operationalized as wearing a facemask (or not) and attitude in terms of supporting a mandatory mask mandate. This yields targetable segments of the population as they are referred to in a marketing context: wearing/supporting, wearing/not supporting, not wearing/supporting, not wearing/not supporting [Kim, D, RT Carson, D Whittington and WM Hanemann (2022). Support for regulation versus compliance: Face masks during COVID-19. Public Health in Practice, 5, 100324]. Membership in each segment is predicted using a generalized structural equation modelling (GSEM) approach focused on three broad factors. The first includes political and demographic variables, which represent exogenous taste parameters. The second is a set of knowledge variables characterizing the COVID-19 information a person possesses. These are potentially influenceable by health officials. The third relates to risk cast in the form of knowing someone who had tested positive for COVID-19, been hospitalized or died from it. The GSEM results paint a rich picture of how our factor sets interact with the four targetable segments of the population in a critical situation where high but not perfect compliance is needed

An Examination of Systematic Differences in the Appreciation of Individual Housing Units

House price appreciation should play an important role in households' decisions of when, where, and how "much" house to buy, and whether to default on their mortgages. Several price indexes are published which could be used as a measure of appreciation, but their focus on aggregate price changes does not facilitate their inclusion in micro-level studies of housing decisions. This paper examines individual housing unit appreciation using owners' valuations. This measure is accurate and is available in several commonly used data sets. Systematic differences in these rates are found between cities, within cities, between different types of units, and between individual owners.