Private hydropower operations across the United States are utilizing a public resource, rivers, for power production benefits. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulates river use through a relicensing procedure that occurs every thirty or fifty years through a cost-benefit analysis framework to determine the best public use of the river. This thesis explores the structure of the current cost-benefit analysis and the effects of timing, public participation and valuation of ecosystem services in the final relicensing decision, and recommends the use of a social cost-benefit framework to distribute the natural resource benefits rivers provide more equally and give fair weight to ecosystem benefits in a market-driven process.

The primary goal of this dissertation was to gain a better understanding of individuals’ membership benefits preferences and attitudes toward donation programs in the context of urban zoo settings. The first objective of this dissertation was to provide a background on membership and donation related research in the context of zoos and other relevant organizations. Based on the review of literature, the second objective was to empirically examine, through two independent studies, zoo membership benefit preferences and attitudes toward a donation program. <div><br></div><div>Despite a wealth of knowledge in the literature with respect to zoo visitors, animals, exhibits, and related programs, little research has been conducted on individuals’ preferences for zoo membership benefit packages and attitudes toward donation programs. To fill the gaps in these areas, the first empirical study examined factors that influence current and prospective members’ decision-making when choosing a membership package at an urban zoo. More specifically, the study explored preferences for selected membership program benefits and benefit levels, as well as how these preferences varied among visitors grouped by key segmentation variables. The study findings suggested that price of membership package was the most important factor, followed by the discount on food and beverage and the proportion of membership fees devoted to animal conservation. As expected, the visitors who scored high on place attachment to the zoo were more supportive of the zoo and less sensitive to variations in the specific options included in the zoo’s membership package. <br></div><div><br></div><div>In the second study, attitudes toward a donation program at an urban zoo were examined. In particular, this study investigated subgroups’ differences segmented by their membership status, place attachment levels, and attitudinal positions. A two-dimensional/bivariate attitude approach was employed to explore potential differences among attitudinal position groups. The study findings indicated while most respondents held positive attitudes toward the donation program, zoo members and nonmembers did not differ significantly. The likelihood of joining the donation program was significantly higher for those in the positive dominant attitude group compared to those in the negative dominant and equally ambivalent groups. Additionally, a qualitative analysis revealed that many respondents were concerned about the cost or affordability of the donation program; and perceived the benefits of the program as a poor value.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Collectively, the two empirical studies provide useful insight for managers and professionals charged with developing membership and donation programs in zoological parks and other relevant organizations. The study results also suggest a number of potentially productive directions for future research in these areas.<br></div><div><br></div>

The emphasis of this research was to evaluate the beliefs about respite among caregivers of the clients associated with Inland Caregiver Resource Center. The caregivers of the elderly and those who suffer from Alzheimer’s and dementia, or suffer from traumatic brain injury that was organic in nature were the population of interest. These caregivers were unpaid persons who help to keep those with such conditions at home as long as possible. This study used an exploratory pilot survey instrument to assess the perception of benefit of respite used as seen from the view of the caregiver. The primary theory used to support this project was Abraham H. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Data analysis used standard statistical methodology. The benefit to the profession of social work was seen in the addition of knowledge to the fast growing field of organizational respite services. The results of the research indicated that when respite was seen as beneficial the caregiver was more able to complete activities while using respite, the caregiver believed the person or agency who cared for their loved one was professional and trusting, and the care receiver was treaded well and was more easier to care for after being cared for by another person or agency.

Decision making in environmental management is faced with uncertainties associated with related environmental variables and processes. Decision makers are inclined to use resources to acquire better information in one or more uncertain variable(s). Typically, with limited resources available, characterizing the feasibility of such investment is desirable yet complicated. In the context of reducing inherent uncertainty, decision makers need to tackle two difficult questions, first, the optimal selection of variable(s) and second, the optimal level of information collection which produces maximum gain in benefits. We develop a new framework to assess the socioeconomic value of potential decisions of collecting additional information for given variable(s) to reduce inherent uncertainty. The suggested framework employs advanced social welfare concepts to facilitate eliciting the social acceptability of decisions to collect better information. The framework produces estimates of changes in utility levels and willingness to pay for target population using the benefit transfer method. The practicality of the framework is established using the following common problems in the field of water resources: 1) the uncertainty in exposure to health risk due to drinking a groundwater source contaminated with a carcinogen, 2) the uncertainty in non point source pollution loadings due to unknown hydrologic processes variability, and 3) the equity level in allocating mitigation responsibilities among polluters. For the three applications, the social acceptability of potential decisions is expressed in monetary terms which represent an extension on typical cost benefit analysis by including the socioeconomic value of a decision. The specific contribution of this research is a theoretical framework for a detailed preliminary analysis to transform and represent the given problem in useable terms for the social welfare analysis. The practical framework is attractive because it avoids the need to employ prohibitively expensive survey-based contingent valuation methods. Instead, the framework utilizes benefit transfer method, which imposes a theoretical behavioral structure on population characteristics such as age and income and to produce empirical estimates for a new problem setting.

This work evaluates Medicare Hospice Benefit (MHB) eligibility standards that are referenced throughout this work as either "Medicare prognostic criteria," or "Local Medical Review Policies." Following the Chapter 1 overview of prognosis in end-stage disease, association between the Medicare clinical predictors and survival outcomes in dementing, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular illnesses are described in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 examines the prognostic belief systems of multidisciplinary hospice personnel. Chapter 4 seeks to improve the predictive performance of the Medicare prognostic criteria for dementia. The fifth and final chapter critiques the Medicare prognostic criteria from conceptual, methodological, and applied perspectives and suggests related research and policy directions. The Chapter 2 sample comprised 453 medical records of terminally ill persons; Chapter 4 sample, 187 medical records. Thirty-seven hospice personnel comprised the respondent sample in the Chapter 3 study. Chapter 2 assesses the scientific validity of federally sanctioned Medicare "severe illness/end-stage illness" demarcations in three non-cancer disease catregories. Calculation of measures of predictive validity revealed striking and consistent imbalances of false negative and false positive errors across the three diagnostic categories studied, suggesting inequitable distribution of the costs and benefits of regulatory reform among public health payers, consumers and providers. Chapter 3 qualitatively examines the belief systems of experienced hospice personnel regarding physical and non-physical time-to-death influences in end-stage disease. Non-physical survival influences were believed by these expert informants to have more survival impact in non-cancer as opposed to cancer end-stage diseases, and at remote as compared to imminent death proximities. Chapter 3 highlights the enormous complexity of time-to-death influences as well as the importance of non-physical influences on duration of survival in end-stage disease. Chapter 4 demonstrates that dropping one of the three prognostic criteria for dementia (the medical complications criteria) may improve predictive validity. This finding demonstrates that, in dementing illnesses at least, functional debility may better identify 6-month survival prognosis and thus hospice eligibility, than the composite Medicare prognostic criteria. The merit of parsimony in objective definitions of terminality is implied. Chapter 5 critiques the Medicare prognostic criteria, and suggests policy alternatives that are both prognostically- and non-prognostically-based. Peripheral findings of this work and suggestions for future end-of-life research conclude the dissertation.

This paper analyses text on Swedish trade union newspaper Arbetet about taking advantage of immigrants of home service corporation Enklare Vardag.The theoretical framework consists of theories about critical discourse analysis. The analysis is done by employing Norman Fairclough's CDA model, combined with other tools of critical linguistics.The aim is to detect how the idea of ‘othering' and common sense on power relations between employees and employers marries and divorces with each other in this context on benefit cheat. And to define how the signifier and signified work together in the constructed subject position of the cheater in citizens and media representation. To identify that, interviews of different groups of wardship workers speculations towards the article are included. Aside from a "cheater", understanding of common - sense ground in society and media within the field of immigration, labor´s right incorporate the analysis purpose.The chosen article is analyzed from contradicting perspectives of benefit cheat discourse that often supports with right-wing media and criticizes welfare state and on the other hand criticism towards power relation between capitalistic oppression of the working class.

There are three broad areas of public administration that require valuation for public goods. One of these areas is concerned with value for cost benefit analysis. The concept here is quantitative, in money terms, and the purpose is to aid decision making. Planners and economists either calculate, or estimate total costs and total benefits of programs or projects as an aid to decision making. The second broad area involves justifying, or allocating public resources. Benefits bestowed by intangibles such as the arts, or questions that affect the environment are difficult to quantify as value may involve concepts the beneficiaries find difficult to identify or describe. The concept of value involves total costs, but also may involve perceptions of the community about value. Valuation costs may be calculated from the aggregate demand, but estimating demand can be difficult. The third broad area involves estimating demand for government services such as those provided by the Bureau of Statistics, and the Department of Administrative Services, as well as many others, who are being required to charge fees for services previously provided without direct charge. This development is part of the trend called corporatisation now occurring in many countries, including Australia. Economists and planners have a range of approaches available to assist them in the estimation of value, whether it be for the purpose of comparing costs with benefits, or for estimating the demand for tangible or intangible items like the arts or statistics. Surveys have been used for many years to assist a wide range of decisions by private enterprise. The use of surveys by government in Australia has been limited, but is increasing. US and European governments have used surveys to value both more and less tangible public goods since 1970. Surveys have also proved useful to assist many other decisions, including policy making, developing the means for implementing policies, monitoring and adjusting programs, and evaluation. This paper is primarily concerned with surveys. A particular type of survey, known as contingent valuation (CV), has been developed to assist the estimation of value for intangible public goods. Also discussed are other applications of surveys for government decision making, and other ways of imputing or estimating values, largely developed by economists and planners to assist cost benefit analysis. Three examples of surveys used to estimate values are discussed. These include a survey of Sydney households to help estimate the value of clean water; an Australia wide survey to help estimate the value of the arts; and a survey of Australians to help estimate the value of Coronation Hill without mining development. While the paper suggests that surveys have potential to assist a range of government decisions, examples also demonstrate the care required to obtain results that are reasonably precise and reliable.

任何一項支出計畫都會耗費許多資源，在資源有限情況下，如何使資源使 用達到最經濟有效的配置，審慎評估各項計畫的成本與效益，便顯得格外 重要。本文的目的乃是利用消費者剩餘的概念，估計住宅優惠貸款計畫下 承貸戶之Hicksian價格均等變量(equivalent variation)，分析比較現行 「國民住宅貸款辦法」與「輔助人民貸款自購住宅辦法」下承貸戶之效益 與成本、消費型態改變情形及住宅優惠貸款計畫的利益歸屬與分配狀況。 希望能夠提供從事國民住宅政策研究者另外一種思考方向。基於資料上的 限制，本研究實證分析是以臺北市為主。且為了求出承貸戶真正的福利變 化，本文乃利用特定的住宅需求函數，並且先行估計其參數值，求出價格 均等變量之算術解，再以民國八十一年行政院經建會都住處委託政大財政 研究所對臺北市國民住宅現住戶及輔助人民貸款自購住宅住戶所作的「現 階段國民住宅貸款政策」調查問卷資料代入，求出住宅優惠貸款計畫下的 平均利益及實質所得增加率。並且根據其淨利益與家庭特性之回歸關係式 ，分析其利益歸屬及分配情形。

In the Philippines, about 38 per cent of the total population resides in rural areas where poverty remains a significant problem, especially in remote upland communities. Soil erosion has been a well-recognised problem in these areas, resulting in a number of impacts on the livelihoods of the rural poor. The development and dissemination of soil and water resource conservation (SWC) techniques has been seen as essential to achieving improved and lasting outcomes for the livelihoods of upland communities, with benefits spilling over beyond the farm boundary. The participatory development of a cost-effective means of controlling soil erosion, natural vegetative strips (NVS), has increased the adoptability of SWC for many upland households, enabling them to incorporate agroforestry and other practices in their farming systems. The Landcare Program in the southern Philippines has facilitated the adoption of these practices over the past decade. However, the impacts of adoption on the livelihoods of farming households, and the externalities that adoption may deliver, have remained speculative. This thesis first explores whether the adoption of Landcare practices has resulted in improved livelihood outcomes for upland farming families. Second, it analyses the potential for the piecemeal adoption of these measures to deliver tangible benefits at the watershed scale. Finally, using a benefit-cost approach, these outcomes are compared to the costs of the research and extension projects that have helped achieve them. The analysis is carried out in two upland municipalities, San Isidro and Pilar, in the Province of Bohol. Landcare households in Bohol dedicate a large percentage of household resources to the production of rainfed rice, which is the primary source of subsistence for adopting households while upland plots play a secondary role. The adoption of NVS alone did not typically generate significant economic benefits, yet created the stable platform on which more commercial investments were being made, especially through NVS enrichment. In San Isidro, the average annual income of adopters generated from upland activities was estimated to be more than double that of non-adopters, with a difference of over PHP 7,500. In Pilar, the net impacts of adoption were estimated to be only around PHP 3,700, given that many households had not enriched their NVS at the time of the survey. At the household level, the benefits of adoption are therefore contingent on the ability of the household to make further investments in their farming system, stemming from improved soil stability. Several case studies were used to describe the process of and constraints to farm development. The average impacts on incomes were found to be significant at the household level, with the potential to lift a household above the poverty threshold. Yet the marginal nature of the upland farming systems limits the aggregate on-site benefits. The expansion of activities into Pilar and Alicia was estimated to increase the net annual benefits, reaching PHP 2,270,000 (around AUD 60,000) per year by 2009. In absolute terms, this impact is still quite modest, but needs to be considered together with the off-site impacts and the costs of the Landcare Program. In Pilar, one of the clearest impacts of erosion due (in part) to upland cropping has been the sedimentation of the Malinao Dam. The significance and distribution of forgone revenue from irrigated rice as a result of sedimentation is largely determined by factors including the timing of rainfall events, the allocation of water between users, and the value of alternative land uses. Furthermore, the upland agricultural landscapes of Bohol are diverse and complex, with numerous sources and filters of sediment. A terrain analysis model was used to model the impact of incremental adoption of Landcare practices within the landscape. The results show that the spatial distribution of adoption is likely to be as important as the extent of adoption when it comes to delivering off-site benefits. The aggregate level of losses avoided as a result of Landcare was estimated to be around PHP 1,023,000 (AUD 26,900) over a 20-year period at a discount rate of five per cent. The results of the livelihood analysis and watershed modelling were combined in a benefit-cost analysis (BCA) and compared to the costs of the projects and other investments that have helped bring about the impacts. The results showed a positive but small NPV of around PHP 3.5 million, equating to around AUD 91,000, for the 20 year period simulated, using a 5 per cent discount rate. The sunk costs of the early phases of theLandcare Program, however, continue to provide the basis for ongoing livelihood projects that utilise farmer groups as a means of extension. Furthermore, when the expansion of the Program into other nearby municipalities can draw on the original research or learning hub, rapid adoption can be achieved at relatively low cost and provide a significant return on investment. Overall, the evidence presented indicates that the net economic impacts of the Landcare Program in Bohol are positive, even when taking into account the prior investment in research and training. The major beneficiaries of the Program are the individual households who adopt the conservation farming practices, with these benefits largely generated by the farming opportunities stemming from improved soil stability. The diversification and commercialisation of the upland component of the farming system has mainly utilised land and labour at low opportunity cost, though limited access to these resources prevents some households from proceeding along the identified farm development pathway. The focus on livelihood development does not deny the seriousness of downstream watershed problems arising from upland agriculture. However, it is agued that given the relativity of on-site and off-site benefits, the focus and primary justification of the Landcare Program should remain on improving the productivity and livelihoods of upland farmers through facilitated, farmer-led, group-based research and extension, with these downstream impacts being seen as side benefits of what is essentially a livelihoods program.

<p>This thesis comprises two papers exploring aspects of public finance and environmental economics in Namibia.</p><p>Paper [I] estimates the shadow prices of capital, labour and foreign exchange for the Namibian economy. The results suggest that the shadow price of capital for Namibia is 8%. The economic costs of Namibian labour, as a share of financial costs, are 32% for urban semi- and unskilled labour, and 54% for rural semi- and unskilled labour. The economic cost of foreign labour as a share of financial costs is 59%. The estimated range for the shadow exchange rate factor is between 7% and 14% for the Namibian economy.</p><p>Paper [II] studies the determinants of property prices in the township areas of Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. The study reveals that properties located close to an environmental hazard, such as a garbage dump, sell at considerable discounts. On the other hand properties located near an environmentally favourable location, such as recreational open space, sell at a premium. These results provide evidence of the importance of environmental quality in lower income property markets in developing countries. It is therefore important for Namibian urban planners to incorporate environmental quality within the planning framework for lower income areas.</p>