Can Taxes on Cars and on Gasoline Mimic an Unavailable Tax on Emissions?

A tax on vehicle emissions can efficiently induce all of the cheapest forms of abatement. Consumers could drive less, buy a smaller car with better gas mileage, use cleaner gasoline, and repair pollution control equipment (PCE). However, the technology is not yet available to measure and tax each car's total emissions. We thus investigate alternative instruments. In a simple model with identical consumers, we show conditions under which the same efficiency can be attained by the combination of a tax on gas, a tax on engine size , and a subsidy to PCE. In a model with heterogeneous consumers, the same efficiency can again be obtained, but only if each person's gasoline tax rate can be made to depend on the characteristics of the car. We solve for these first-best tax rates. Assuming that tax rates must be uniform across consumers, we then characterize second-best tax rates on gasoline and on characteristics.

In a Land of Plenty: A Don West Reader

Rooted in a particular place, the South and especially the Appalachian hills; in a long time, with poems dating from as early as 1932 and as late as 1981; and in the wide experience of a man who has been a farmer, lineman, preacher, organizer, deck hand, professor, and journalist. Land of Plenty is about America over the last half a century. It is about miners, freedom, racism, sharecroppers, family, love, loss, the South, laughter, labor, hunger, and heroism...Constance Adams West\u27s spare illustrations make Land of Plenty still more beautiful. -Dave Roediger, Dept. of History, Northwestern U.https://digitalcommons.lmunet.edu/crfb/1000/thumbnail.jp

Single site observations of \textit{TESS} single transit detections

Context: TESS has been successfully launched and has begin data acquisition. To expedite the science that may be performed with the resulting data it is necessary to gain a good understanding of planetary yields. Given the observing strategy employed by TESS the probability of detecting single transits in long period systems is increased. These systems require careful consideration. Aims: To simulate the number of TESS transit detections during its 2 year mission with a particular emphasis on single transits. Additionally, to determine the feasibility of ground-based follow-up observations from a single site. Methods: A distribution of planets is simulated around the $\sim$ 4 million stars in the TESS Candidate Target List. These planets are tested for detectable transits and characterised. Based on simulated parameters the single transit detections are further analysed to determine which are amenable to ground-based follow-up. Results: TESS will discover an approximate lower bound of 4700 planets with around 460 being single transits. A large fraction of these will be observable from a single ground-based site. This paper finds that, in a single year, approximately 1000 transit events of around 320 unique TESS single transit detections are theoretically observable. Conclusions: As we consider longer period exoplanets the need for exploring single transit detections increases. For periods $\gtrsim45$ days the number of single transit detections outnumber multitransits by a factor of 3 (82$\pm$18 and 25$\pm$7 respectively) a factor which only grows as longer period detections are considered. Therefore, it is worth expending the extra effort required to follow-up these more challenging, but potentially very rewarding, discoveries. Additionally, we conclude that a large fraction of these targets can be theoretically observed from just a single ground-based site.Comment: 12 pages, 19 figures. To be published in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Tax and Subsidy Combinations for the Control of Car Pollution

Despite technological advances, an individual car's emissions still cannot be measured reliably enough to impose a Pigovian tax. This paper explores alternative market incentives that could be used instead. We solve for second-best combinations of uniform taxes on gasoline, engine size, and vehicle age. For 1,261 individuals and cars in the 1994 Consumer Expenditure Survey, we record the car's model, year, and number of cylinders. We then seek a corresponding car in data from the California Air Resources Board that shows the car's engine size, fuel efficiency, and emissions per mile. We calculate the welfare improvement from a zero-tax scenario to the ideal Pigovian tax, and we find that 71 percent of that gain can be achieved by the second-best combination of taxes on gas, size, and vintage. A gas tax alone attains 62 percent of that gain. These results are robust to variation in the elasticity of substitution among goods.

Do Libraries’ Needs Still Match Publisher Offerings? “The Truth Is Rarely Pure and Never Simple” (Oscar Wilde)

Given the continued state of strained library budgets and increasing content offerings from publishers, the authors set out to investigate this current environment from the perspectives of both library and publisher. After reviewing the array of publisher offerings as well as ongoing collection development issues faced by libraries, the authors moderated an open discussion with their peers to determine if any new models and solutions offered by publishers help to address these concerns, and if not, what the library community would like to see as an ideal acquisitions model

Dělat gender

Cílem tohoto článku je rozvinout nové chápání genderu jako rutinního výkonu zakotveného v každodenních interakcích. Činíme tak kritickým zhodnocením stávajících pohledů na pohlaví a gender a zavedením důležitého rozlišení mezi pohlavím, pohlavní kategorií a genderem. Hlavním argumentem článku je tvrzení, že uznání analytické nezávislosti těchto konceptů je zásadním krokem pro porozumění interakčnímu fungování faktu bytí genderovanou osobou ve společnosti. Jádro našich poznámek míří k teoretické rekonceptualizaci, ale zvažujeme rovněž plodné směry, jimiž se na základě zmíněné reformulace může ubírat empirický výzkum

Safety Case Workshop

In January 2013, a two-day Safety Case Workshop was conducted in Huntsville, Alabama under the sponsorship of the SAE International G-48 System Safety Committee and A-P-T Research, Inc. (APT). Attendees from industry, government and academia participated, with several making formal presentations on various safety methods. Industry focus is turning to international pursuits, which involve a broader understanding of different approaches to ensuring safety. The United States has typically used a process-based approach in managing system safety programs, but there is a current movement to use the evidence-based Safety Case approach to validate the safety of systems. At the conclusion of the workshop, participants reached the consensus view that the Safety Case approach merits being accepted among the best world-wide system safety practices