Asymmetric Social Interaction in Economics: Cigarette Smoking Among Young People in the United States, 1992-1999

We analyzed cigarette smoking among people aged 15 - 24 in approximately 90,000 households in the 1992 - 1999 U.S. Current Population Surveys. We modeled social influence as an informational externality, in which each young person's smoking informs her peers about its coolness.' The resulting family smoking game,' with each sibling's smoking endogenous, may have multiple equilibria. We found that the pro-smoking influence of a fellow smoker markedly exceeded the deterrent effect of a non-smoking peer. The phenomenon of asymmetric social influence has implications for financial markets, educational performance, criminal behavior, and other areas of inquiry where peer influence is important.

The New Neighbors: A User's Guide to Data on Immigrants in U.S. Communities

Provides a guide for identifying characteristics, contributions, and needs of immigrant populations. Discusses national immigration trends, and addresses public policy questions. Includes a profile of the immigrant population in Providence, Rhode Island

O&M Models for Ocean Energy Converters: Calibrating through Real Sea Data

Of the cost centres that combine to result in Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE), O&M costs play a significant part. Several developers have calculated component costs, demonstrating how they can become commercially competitive with other forms of renewable energy. However, there are uncertainties relating to the O&M figures that can only be reduced through lessons learned at sea. This work presents an O&M model calibrated with data from real sea experience of a wave energy device deployed at the Biscay Marine energy Platform (BiMEP): the OPERA O&M Model. Two additional case studies, utilising two other O&M calculation methodologies, are presented for comparison with the OPERA O&M Model. The second case study assumes the inexistence of an O&M model, utilising a Simplified Approach. The third case study applies DTOcean’s (a design tool for ocean energy arrays) O&M module. The results illustrate the potential advantages of utilising real sea data for the calibration and development of an O&M model. The Simplified Approach was observed to overestimate LCOE when compared to the OPERA O&M Model. This work also shows that O&M models can be used for the definition of optimal maintenance plans to assist with OPEX reduction.The authors are grateful to the European commission for funding the OPERA and EnFAIT projects as part of the Horizon 2020 framework. The authors also thankful to Oceantec-Idom for providing feedback to OPERA model’s inputs. A special thanks to Shona Pennock and Donald Noble for their diligent proofreading of this paper