Many utilities implement the financial incentive plans in promoting their Demand-Side Management (DSM) programs. The plans are intended to reduce the customer investment cost for a high efficiency equipment option, so that to make the investment more attractive. Despite its potential to increase customer participation, the financial incentives could cause a considerable increase in program cost to the utility. An analysis of financial incentive impact on the utility DSM program is conducted in this thesis. The analysis uses the combination of the customer participation modeling and the cost-benefit analysis of a DSM program. A modeling of customer participation by a discrete choice model is presented. The model uses the logistic probability functions. The benefit and cost of DSM programs are explored to develop the analysis methodology. Two typical energy conservation options of DSM programs are taken for case studies to demonstrate the analysis. The analysis is also conducted to see the effect of financial incentives on the performance of DSM programs in a fluctuating marginal energy cost. The result of this research shows that the financial incentive could induce the customer participation, thus provide an increase of benefit and costs. However, this research also reveals that, in certain circumstances, the financial incentive may result in a decrease of net benefit due to significant increase of cost. These imply that utilities must carefully evaluate the financial incentive plan in their DSM programs, before the programs are implemented. / Master of Science

This thesis deals with the development of Moravsky Krumlov. The possibility of its development is mainly determined by the implementation of the reconstruction of the castle in Moravsky Krumlov, thereby town reached the revival of tourism and cultural life in the town. The first part describes the city and consequently the financial analysis of the municipal budget and monitoring indicators is performed. Gradually work goes directly to the evaluation of the planned project, which mean to the evaluation of the implementation of public project of reconstruction of the castle in Moravsky Krumlov. For this purpose was chosen Cost-benefit analysis, which deals with the evaluation of public projects, including their socio-economic impacts.

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The Passive House as a type of energy-efficient and cost-efficiency housing, has been implemented widely around the world, and made great contribution to energy saving and environment protection. Although the Passive House requires higher investment in early stage compared to conventional houses, it has many benefits including improving indoor climate and saving energy consumption. However, the development of Passive House in China has been slow due to the lack of information regarding the extra investment and benefits. To provide a clear insight on how the extra investment and benefits of the Passive House balance each other, this study establishes an evaluation model to identify and calculate the additional costs through the life cycle of the Passive House. With the cost and benefit calculated, we can also analysis the payback period to see how many years it takes to recover the extra investment. After the model is established, we evaluated a representative Passive House in Hebei, China. The result showed that the benefits of the extra investment outweigh the additional costs, and the payback period is approximately 12 years, which is acceptable for housing projects. The evaluation model not only provides the developers and consumers a tool to understand the costs and benefits, but also illustrate the economic feasibility of Passive House in China. / Passivhuset som en typ av energieffektiva och kostnadseffektiva bostäder har implementerats i hela världen och har bidragit stort till energibesparing och miljöskydd. Även om Passive House kräver högre investeringar i ett tidigt skede jämfört med konventionella hus, har det många fördelar inklusive att förbättra inomhusklimatet och spara energiförbrukning. Utvecklingen av Passive House i Kina har dock varit långsam på grund av bristen på information om extra investeringar och fördelar. För att ge en tydlig insikt om hur de extra investeringarna och fördelarna med Passive House balanserar varandra skapar denna studie en utvärderingsmodell för att identifiera och beräkna extrakostnaderna genom passivhusets livscykel. Med beräknad kostnad och nytta kan vi också analysera återbetalningsperioden för att se hur många år det tar att återfå den extra investeringen. Efter att modellen har upprättats utvärderade vi ett representativt passivhus i Hebei, Kina. Resultatet visade att fördelarna med extrainvesteringar uppväger extrakostnaderna och återbetalningsperioden är cirka 12 år, vilket är acceptabelt för bostadsprojekt. Utvärderingsmodellen ger inte bara utvecklarna och konsumenterna ett verktyg för att förstå kostnaderna och fördelarna utan illustrerar också den ekonomiska genomförbarheten hos Passive House i Kina.

The development and expansion of cities has led to increased public awareness of the influence of building sustainability on the environment, society, and economy. Green building eases the pressure of urbanization by saving energy, reducing waste, protecting the environment, improving the living standard, and encouraging industry. Consequently, green building has developed rapidly for 20 years. This study reviews the literature on green building, recognizes the stakeholders’ motivations for and barriers to green building development, uses value network analysis, cost–benefit analysis, and case study method for understanding value creation, value sensing, value delivery, and value capturing mechanism of green building to augment the knowledge of green building development for both academics and practitioners. This study proposes an applicable analysis tool. / Business Administration/Finance

The aim of this study is to establish a nation-wide cost-benefit framework for aviation projection appraisal. This framework is built upon Transportation System Analysis Model developed at Virginia Tech Air Transportation System Model (TSAM). Both supply and demand characteristics and their inter-dependence are investigated. It attempts to solve the absence of supply constraints in aviation demand forecast in the literature. In addition, external costs in term of noise and emission are also considered. A national environmental impact analysis introduced by new generation small aircraft system is conducted. Two case studies are discussed to illustrate the framework. The first one is based on the GPS Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) Lower Landing Minima capability. It represents a nation-wide cost-benefit analysis with examination of both supply and demand. System-wide benefit of accessibility improvement and infrastructure cost are scrutinized at the same time. A prioritized set of candidate airports for this technology is provided as a result. The second study focuses on New York area. Benefits brought by DataComm technology are evaluated by multi-iteration simulations. DataComm is projected to reduce entry point intrail and final approach separation. The improvements are modeled at individual airport and New York airspace. Consumer surplus is estimated based on demand and delay relationship using TSAM. / Ph. D.

Children are conceptualized many ways by economists-- as sources of utility for their parents, investments, recipients of care, and public goods. Despite the understanding that children are also people, the economic literature is lacking in analysis of children as actors, making choices with consequences for economic development. Using a capability-driven approach and an emphasis on co-evolutionary processes of institutional and individual change, with mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, my dissertation analyzes the role of children in long-term economic development at the community level. I use a case study of community-based, out-of-school time (OST) programs for low-income youth funded through the 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) to analyze the role of youth in economic development. OST programs provide community-level benefits such as reductions in juvenile crime and foster economic development by creating linkages between the state, the market, the community, and the family. My study contributes to the body of interdisciplinary research on OST programs, and is situated in the middle ground between case studies with very small samples and quantitative studies with a narrow focus on academic performance as measured by grades. The 21st CCLC programs in New York State are unique in their emphasis on partnerships between schools and community-based organizations. An analysis of the costs and benefits of OST programs shows that the benefits of programs such as 21st CCLC substantially outweigh the costs. Using Geographic Information Systems and statistical analysis, I examine the relationship between eligibility for 21st CCLC funding, demographic characteristics related to the need for free or low-cost OST programs, and the presence of 21st CCLC programs, and find that the presence of these programs cannot be explained solely through the characteristics of people who will be served by them. Additionally, it is clear that there are not enough 21st CCLC programs to serve all eligible communities, raising questions about the scale of funding as well as its distribution.

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