THE ENDOWMENT EFFECT AND WTA: A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL TEST

This paper reports a test of the endowment effect in an economic analysis of localized air pollution. Regression techniques are used to test the significance of perceived property rights on household WTP for improved air quality versus WTA compensation to forgo an improvement in air quality. Our experiment contributes to the research into the WTP/WTA divergence by providing a new basis for supporting the existence of an endowment effect. Our results are in contrast to recent work by Shogren et al. which supports the substitution proposition of Hanemann while rejecting the endowment effect.Contingent valuation, Endowment effect, Property rights, Substitution effect, Environmental Economics and Policy,

A fast direct numerical simulation method for characterising hydraulic roughness

We describe a fast direct numerical simulation (DNS) method that promises to directly characterise the hydraulic roughness of any given rough surface, from the hydraulically smooth to the fully rough regime. The method circumvents the unfavourable computational cost associated with simulating high-Reynolds-number flows by employing minimal-span channels (Jimenez & Moin 1991). Proof-of-concept simulations demonstrate that flows in minimal-span channels are sufficient for capturing the downward velocity shift, that is, the Hama roughness function, predicted by flows in full-span channels. We consider two sets of simulations, first with modelled roughness imposed by body forces, and second with explicit roughness described by roughness-conforming grids. Owing to the minimal cost, we are able to conduct DNSs with increasing roughness Reynolds numbers while maintaining a fixed blockage ratio, as is typical in full-scale applications. The present method promises a practical, fast and accurate tool for characterising hydraulic resistance directly from profilometry data of rough surfaces.Comment: Published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanic

Sequential Quantiles via Hermite Series Density Estimation

Sequential quantile estimation refers to incorporating observations into quantile estimates in an incremental fashion thus furnishing an online estimate of one or more quantiles at any given point in time. Sequential quantile estimation is also known as online quantile estimation. This area is relevant to the analysis of data streams and to the one-pass analysis of massive data sets. Applications include network traffic and latency analysis, real time fraud detection and high frequency trading. We introduce new techniques for online quantile estimation based on Hermite series estimators in the settings of static quantile estimation and dynamic quantile estimation. In the static quantile estimation setting we apply the existing Gauss-Hermite expansion in a novel manner. In particular, we exploit the fact that Gauss-Hermite coefficients can be updated in a sequential manner. To treat dynamic quantile estimation we introduce a novel expansion with an exponentially weighted estimator for the Gauss-Hermite coefficients which we term the Exponentially Weighted Gauss-Hermite (EWGH) expansion. These algorithms go beyond existing sequential quantile estimation algorithms in that they allow arbitrary quantiles (as opposed to pre-specified quantiles) to be estimated at any point in time. In doing so we provide a solution to online distribution function and online quantile function estimation on data streams. In particular we derive an analytical expression for the CDF and prove consistency results for the CDF under certain conditions. In addition we analyse the associated quantile estimator. Simulation studies and tests on real data reveal the Gauss-Hermite based algorithms to be competitive with a leading existing algorithm.Comment: 43 pages, 9 figures. Improved version incorporating referee comments, as appears in Electronic Journal of Statistic

“The Best Laid Plans of Marx and Men” : Mitch Podolak, Revolution, and the Winnipeg Folk Festival

Mitch Podolak said, “Pete Seeger and Leon Trotsky lead to everything in my life, especially the Winnipeg Folk Festival.” This article discusses the creation of the Winnipeg Folk Festival (WFF) in 1974 as Podolak’s first attempt to fuse his ten years of Trotskyist political training with his love for folk music. His intention was to create a Canadian folk festival which would embody the politically resistant nature of the Trotskyist international movement for the purpose of challenging the Canadian liberal capitalist democratic system on a cultural front. Heavily influenced by the American Communist Party’s use of folk music, Podolak believed that the folk song and its performance were socially important. This importance, he believed, stemmed from the social cohesion that could be created within a festival performance space. This space, when thoughtfully organized, could have the ability to create meaning. The relationships between the artistic director, the folk singer, the folk song and the festival audience become intertwined to dialectically create the meaning of the song and the space simultaneously defining folk musicMitch Podolak déclara que « Pete Seeger et Léon Trotsky déterminent tout dans ma vie, et surtout le Winnipeg Folk Festival ». Cet article analyse la création du Winnipeg Folk Festival (WFF) en 1974 comme étant la première tentative de Podolak de marier ses dix années d’endoctrinement politique trotskiste avec sa passion pour la musique traditionnelle. Son intention était de créer un festival folklorique canadien qui incarnerait la résistance politique du mouvement international trotskyste et permettrait de mettre le système démocratique capitaliste canadien au défi sur le plan culturel. Très largement influencé par l’utilisation que le parti communiste étasunien faisait de la chanson traditionnelle, Podolak était convaincu que cette dernière ainsi que sa mise en spectacle étaient socialement importantes. Cette importance croyait-il venait de la cohésion sociale qui pouvait se créer dans l’espace performatif du festival. Une fois soigneusement organisé, cet espace était en mesure de créer du sens. Les rapports entre le directeur artistique, le chanteur traditionnel, la chanson et le public du festival s’entremêlent pour donner de façon dialectique un sens à la chanson et à l’espace qui simultanément définissent la musique traditionnelle

On Multiple Zeta Values of Even Arguments

For k <= n, let E(2n,k) be the sum of all multiple zeta values with even arguments whose weight is 2n and whose depth is k. Of course E(2n,1) is the value of the Riemann zeta function at 2n, and it is well known that E(2n,2) = (3/4)E(2n,1). Recently Z. Shen and T. Cai gave formulas for E(2n,3) and E(2n,4). We give two formulas form E(2n,k), both valid for arbitrary k <=n, one of which generalizes the Shen-Cai results; by comparing the two we obtain a Bernoulli-number identity. We also give explicit generating functions for the numbers E(2n,k) and for the analogous numbers E*(2n,k) defined using multiple zeta-star values of even arguments.Comment: DESY number added; misprints fixed; reference added. Second revision (2016): New result on multiple zeta-star values adde

STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN U.S. CHICKEN AND TURKEY SLAUGHTER

Cost function analyses using data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census reveal substantial scale economies in chicken and turkey slaughter. These economies show no evidence of diminishing as plant size increases, are much greater than those realized in cattle and hog slaughter, and have resulted in a huge increase in plant size over the 1972-92 period. The findings also suggest that consolidation in the chicken and turkey slaughter industry is likely to continue, particularly if the growth in the demand for poultry diminishes.chicken slaughter, turkey slaughter, production costs, structural change, Livestock Production/Industries,

A W:B4C multilayer phase retarder for broadband polarization analysis of soft x-ray radiation \ud

A W:B4C multilayer phase retarder has been designed and characterized which shows a nearly constant phase retardance between 640 and 850 eV photon energies when operated near the Bragg condition. This freestanding transmission multilayer was used successfully to determine, for the first time, the full polarization vector at soft x-ray energies above 600 eV, which was not possible before due to the lack of suitable optical elements. Thus, quantitative polarimetry is now possible at the 2p edges of the magnetic substances Fe, Co, and Ni for the benefit of magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy employing circularly polarized synchrotron radiatio