Retail Bottle Pricing at the Border: Evidence of Cross-Border Shopping, Fraudulent Redemptions, and Use Tax Evasion

This paper examines the pattern of retail prices for deposit eligible goods near Michigan’s borders. Michigan’s unique bottle redemption system and lower sales tax generate incentives for various potentially illegal household responses. Such incentives and behavior should be capitalized in the prices of affected goods. I empirically quantify the spatial price effects and find patterns consistent with theoretical predictions. Michigan’s border prices are higher (lower) for goods with higher (lower) per unit costs by up to 38%. Price-distance trends reflect the waning of these effects away from the border

Hydrodynamic Flows on Curved Surfaces: Spectral Numerical Methods for Radial Manifold Shapes

We formulate hydrodynamic equations and spectrally accurate numerical methods for investigating the role of geometry in flows within two-dimensional fluid interfaces. To achieve numerical approximations having high precision and level of symmetry for radial manifold shapes, we develop spectral Galerkin methods based on hyperinterpolation with Lebedev quadratures for $L^2$-projection to spherical harmonics. We demonstrate our methods by investigating hydrodynamic responses as the surface geometry is varied. Relative to the case of a sphere, we find significant changes can occur in the observed hydrodynamic flow responses as exhibited by quantitative and topological transitions in the structure of the flow. We present numerical results based on the Rayleigh-Dissipation principle to gain further insights into these flow responses. We investigate the roles played by the geometry especially concerning the positive and negative Gaussian curvature of the interface. We provide general approaches for taking geometric effects into account for investigations of hydrodynamic phenomena within curved fluid interfaces.Comment: 14 figure

Spectral Numerical Exterior Calculus Methods for Differential Equations on Radial Manifolds

We develop exterior calculus approaches for partial differential equations on radial manifolds. We introduce numerical methods that approximate with spectral accuracy the exterior derivative $\mathbf{d}$, Hodge star $\star$, and their compositions. To achieve discretizations with high precision and symmetry, we develop hyperinterpolation methods based on spherical harmonics and Lebedev quadrature. We perform convergence studies of our numerical exterior derivative operator $\overline{\mathbf{d}}$ and Hodge star operator $\overline{\star}$ showing each converge spectrally to $\mathbf{d}$ and $\star$. We show how the numerical operators can be naturally composed to formulate general numerical approximations for solving differential equations on manifolds. We present results for the Laplace-Beltrami equations demonstrating our approach.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figure

Stationary states and energy cascades in inelastic gases

We find a general class of nontrivial stationary states in inelastic gases where, due to dissipation, energy is transfered from large velocity scales to small velocity scales. These steady-states exist for arbitrary collision rules and arbitrary dimension. Their signature is a stationary velocity distribution f(v) with an algebraic high-energy tail, f(v) ~ v^{-sigma}. The exponent sigma is obtained analytically and it varies continuously with the spatial dimension, the homogeneity index characterizing the collision rate, and the restitution coefficient. We observe these stationary states in numerical simulations in which energy is injected into the system by infrequently boosting particles to high velocities. We propose that these states may be realized experimentally in driven granular systems.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure