Three Essays in Environmental and Transportation Economics

The transportation sector contributes around 30% of US greenhouse gas emissions, and reducing these emissions is an important part of any large-scale climate policy. This dissertation examines three questions about policies and programs designed to reduce emissions from heavy-duty trucks and cars, using a range of economic data and methodologies.The first chapter considers the recent federal fuel efficiency standards for heavy-duty trucks, which mandated that the average fuel efficiency of trucks sold by each manufacturer reach certain levels. To estimate the welfare implications of the policy, I develop a model of supply and demand in the sector using detailed data on vehicle sales and new data sources to observe model-level fuel efficiency. Buyers choose vehicles to maximize their utility based on vehicle characteristics and the industry in which they operate. Manufacturers choose prices and the level of fuel efficiency technology in order to maximize profits while complying with the standards. I find that buyers undervalue fuel efficiency in heavy-duty trucks. Under conservative assumptions about the cost of improving fuel efficiency needed to rationalize the historic non-adoption of certain technologies, the environmental benefits are smaller than the costs to manufacturers and buyers. However, when the uninternalized fuel savings are taken into account, the benefits are 1.1 to 6.8 times larger than the costs of the policy. These findings suggest that the fuel efficiency standards can reduce emissions from trucks while improving economic efficiency in the aggregate, though the costs and benefits are not evenly shared among buyers. The second and third chapters examine the potential of electric vehicles to replace gasoline vehicles and reduce emissions. In the second chapter, which is coauthored with Kenneth Gillingham and Marten Ovaere, we analyze the interactions between electric vehicle adoption and different levels of a carbon tax. Using historical data on the relative price of coal and natural gas as a proxy for a price on carbon, we show that in several regions of the US, marginal generation becomes more emitting as the implicit carbon price, based on the coal- to-gas price ratio, increases and coal plants are pushed to the margin. We complement this empirical analysis with a detailed simulation of these dynamics over a longer time horizon and with non-marginal changes in electricity demand associated with electric vehicle adoption. Here, too, we find that for moderate carbon prices similar to those in place in parts of the country today, when electric vehicles are adopted in combination with a moderate carbon price, they may increase environmental damages. This adverse interaction is the result of increased electricity demand from electric vehicles keeping online coal plants that may otherwise have been forced to retire by the carbon tax. Under higher carbon prices, no such interaction occurs. These results may be useful for policymakers who are considering implementing a portfolio of related environmental policies in tandem. Where the second chapter took as a given that a combination of policies, technology innovation, and changes in preferences could increase electric vehicle adoption, the third chapter evaluates how potential electric vehicle buyers respond to price incentives. With Kenneth Gillingham, I analyze the effects of a short-term incentive program available to Connecticut residents who purchased new Nissan Leafs in 2017. We estimate that the $10,000 incentive increased demand for new Nissan Leafs by at least 240% in the short term, with no observable reductions in other electric vehicle sales and only a small amount of cannibalization of future Leaf sales. However, using data on the other vehicles that buyers were considering, which were disproportionately other fuel efficient cars, we find that the environmental benefits were limited relative to the magnitude of Nissan’s incentive or the state and federal subsidies also available to buyers. While these large subsidies may be rationalized by other market failures, this may have implications for how policymakers try to target electric vehicle incentives. A range of policies may be adopted in coming years to increase the sales of fuel efficient or alternative fuel vehicles. This dissertation aims to provide useful insights about the effectiveness and tradeoffs of different policies

Child Custody is No Place for a Magic Formula: Why a Presumption of 50/50 Physical Custody in West Virginia is Not in Its Children\u27s Best Interests

The “best interest of the child” standard is used throughout family law and is the generally accepted standard for determining custody disputes. However, many states have introduced, and some have enacted, legislation that creates a presumption of joint, or “50/50,” physical custody between the parents. As psychological studies have shown, instability typically found in custody disputes can have a significant impact on a child’s life, influencing attachment style and abilities to successfully self-regulate. These findings make the 50/50 presumption a flawed concept. Courts should be able to take factors supported by this research into account when making custody determinations as enumerated in best interest statutes. This Note argues that generally, and in West Virginia specifically, a presumption of 50/50 physical custody is not in the best interest of the child in every case and therefore undermines the best interest standard because it takes away judges’ discretion in determining each case on a fact-intensive basis

Restricted Opportunities, Personal Choices, Ineffective Policies: What Explains Food Insecurity in Oregon?

This study examines the extent to which household demographics, local economic and social conditions, and federal food security programs explain the likelihood of household food insecurity in Oregon. Between 1999 and 2001, Oregon had the highest average rate of hunger in the nation and ranked in the top five states with respect to food insecurity. Statistical analyses using a multivariate logit model reveal that food insecurity is influenced by much more than demographics and individual choices. County-level factors such as residential location (urban versus rural) and housing costs significantly affect the likelihood that families will be food insecure.food insecurity, food stamps, hunger, rural residence, Food Security and Poverty,

Das Erschaffen von Parallelwelten als Zufluchtsort in ausgewählten Werken der Fantasyliteratur

In The Chronicles of Narnia, Die Unendliche Geschichte und The Book of Lost Things erhält der Leser nicht nur einen Einblick in die, teilweise erheblich von der Realität abweichenden Parallelwelten, sondern auch in die Psyche der Protagonisten. Anhand von psychoanalytischen Schriften von Sigmund Freud, C.G. Jung und Jacques Lacan möchte ich zeigen, dass es für die Flucht in eine Parallelwelt einen Grund gibt, der außerhalb der Abenteuerlust und einer überschäumenden Fantasie der Protagonisten (wie es beispielsweise Lucy in The Chronicles of Narnia anfangs vorgeworfen wird) liegt. Es handelt sich bei den Protagonisten aller drei Werke um Kinder und Jugendliche, die in ihrer Realität mehr oder weniger als Außenseiter gelten und mit Problemen zu kämpfen haben. In der anderen Welt durchlaufen sie eine Wandlung, sie werden dort zu Helden, die die Welt retten. Die Verwandlung von Antiheld zu Held stellt einen der Punkte dar, mit denen ich mich auseinander setzen möchte. Obwohl sich die Hauptfiguren aller Werke im Laufe zu Helden entwickeln, trifft man doch auf Figuren, die sie leiten und die die in der Realität abwesenden Eltern symbolisieren. Es ist auch wichtig anzumerken, dass es sich bei der erschaffenen Parallelwelt keineswegs um ein Paradies handelt. Die Flucht vor Problemen gelingt in allen Fällen nicht, und die Protagonisten sehen sich mit Hindernissen, die zwar fantastisch und abstrakt wirken, möglicherweise aber ihren Ursprung in der realen Welt haben, konfrontiert. Ich werde versuchen, eine Verbindung zwischen den Problemen beider Welten herzustellen. Ein wichtiger Punkt ist auch, dass trotz der Flucht in eine andere Welt diese Parallelwelt klar von der wirklichen getrennt ist. Es erfordert in den meisten Fällen einen aktiven Schritt um die Realität zu verlassen. Obwohl ein Zusammenhang zwischen dem Leben der Protagonisten und der Parallelwelt als eine Art Antwort auf ihr Versagen zu erkennen ist, wird dem Leser vermittelt, dass die neue Welt nicht einfach da ist, sondern erschaffen wird. Es gibt, vor allem in The Chronicles of Narnia und Die Unendliche Geschichte eine Figur ähnlich Gott, die in dieser Welt herrscht. Ein weiteres Motiv, das ich analysieren möchte, ist der Tod beziehungsweise Verlust. Am deutlichsten kommt dieses Motiv in Die Unendliche Geschichte und The Book of Lost Things zu tragen, da die Protagonisten unter dem Tod ihrer Mütter leiden. In Zusammenhang damit möchte ich auch aufzeigen, was nach der Rückkehr aus der Parallelwelt passieren kann, da eine erneute Grenzüberschreitung nicht ausgeschlossen ist

Can Preservice Teachers be Taught to Become Reflective Thinkers During Their First Internship Experience?

Reflective thinking is a developmental process that progresses over time from a technical, routine level to a critical, self-evaluating level. Preservice teachers, who tend to stay in the technical, routine level of critical thinking without guidance, need to be taught how to become reflective thinkers so that they are able to identify and analyze their own personal teaching practices, connect theory with practice, and understand why they are teaching. By learning to be more critically reflective in their thinking, preservice teachers will become more effective teachers, thus having a positive impact on student achievement. This dissertation research study quantitatively evaluated the written reflections of first semester preservice teachers during their first semester internship experience to determine if, after receiving explicit instruction about reflective practices, their reflective thinking abilities improved over the course of the semester. The findings in this study determined that after receiving explicit instruction on reflective thinking over the semester, 66% of the preservice teachers showed an increase in their total score suggesting that reflective thinking skills can, in fact, be taught. Although this study wasexplored through one specific teacher preparation program, the findings and suggestions are relevant to other programs and other state education standards

An Elusive Allusivity: Paradox in the Representation of Plate Glass in Canada, 1851-1900

This thesis attempts to define a visual culture of plate glass in Canada during the second half of the nineteenth century. I approach this material through descriptions and depictions in Canadian periodicals of Victorian era structures that utilized large expanses of plate glass, namely, Canadian versions of the “Crystal Palace” exhibition building, and modern mass market department stores with large storefront display windows. In Canadian publications, these plate glass surfaces often take on certain metaphorical significance, coming to stand in for modernity, to signify purity by their clarity, or to promise a quintessentially modern honesty and openness, as their solid surfaces maintained visual limpidity. However, though glass is allusive in many ways, its signification also remained elusive. Any meaning that glass may encompass is always accompanied by its own opposite; glass can change in a moment from lucid to reflective, from refracting beams of bright light to darkening and dulling, and though it is a physically protective layer, it also permits unmitigated visual connection. The relationship of nineteenth-century Canadian periodicals to the material is marked by this ambiguity. I suggest that glass’s physical capacity for dualism is an apt metaphor for the way that the meanings it signified were often contradictory, even when simultaneous. I argue that in the Canadian context, the paradoxes encompassed by the developing cultural imaginaries around glass are mirrored by the paradoxes of Victorian Canadians’ ambiguous and conflicting relationships with nationalism and modernization

Assessment of model based (input) impedance, pulse wave velocity, and wave reflection in the Asklepios Cohort

Objectives : Arterial stiffness and wave reflection parameters assessed from both invasive and non-invasive pressure and flow readings are used as surrogates for ventricular and vascular load. They have been reported to predict adverse cardiovascular events, but clinical assessment is laborious and may limit widespread use. This study aims to investigate measures of arterial stiffness and central hemodynamics provided by arterial tonometry alone and in combination with aortic root flows derived by echocardiography against surrogates derived by a mathematical pressure and flow model in a healthy middle-aged cohort. Methods : Measurements of carotid artery tonometry and echocardiography were performed on 2226 ASKLEPIOS study participants and parameters of systemic hemodynamics, arterial stiffness and wave reflection based on pressure and flow were measured. In a second step, the analysis was repeated but echocardiography derived flows were substituted by flows provided by a novel mathematical model. This was followed by a quantitative method comparison. Results : All investigated parameters showed a significant association between the methods. Overall agreement was acceptable for all parameters (mean differences: -0.0102 (0.033 SD) mmHg*s/ml for characteristic impedance, 0.36 (4.21 SD) mmHg for forward pressure amplitude, 2.26 (3.51 SD) mmHg for backward pressure amplitude and 0.717 (1.25 SD) m/s for pulse wave velocity). Conclusion : The results indicate that the use of model-based surrogates in a healthy middle aged cohort is feasible and deserves further attention