Shared mobility is considered a more sustainable alternative to private modes. Nonetheless, its sudden and sometimes “out of control” emergence poses issues that need to be addressed. Lack of regulations and public space mismanagement cause sidewalks and city roads to be overcrowded with shared vehicles (especially in the case of micromobility). This causes nuisance and safety concerns and hinders the societal benefits shared mobility may provide. Shared mobility hubs have the potential to address these issues. The research was carried out within the context of the SmartHubs project, an EIT Urban Mobility project initiated in 2021 by a diverse consortium of 7 cities, companies, and universities to develop and validate effective and economically viable mobility hub solutions. This degree project aims to improve the Decision-Support-Tool (DST) developed by SmartHubs to identify locations of shared-mobility hubs having high potential in driving sustainable travel usage. To achieve that, the thesis proposes a methodology for determining smart hub locations and their corresponding utilities based on the combination of GIS cluster analysis of free-floating shared mobility parking patterns and a stated-preference study. The potential hub locations were determined from the cluster analysis of free-floating trip characteristics. Using the stated preference survey data, the thesis develops a model to estimate the probability of parking at the hub as a function of explanatory variables, including walking distance, reward policies and the parking situation. The model testing results showed that the proposed methodology can well predict the hub (usage) demand and improve the current DST originally developed in the SmartHubs project.

My dissertation consists of three essays on labor supply responses, along the extensive margin (participation into the labor force) and along the intensive margin (intensity of work on the job). The first two essays focus on the labor supply responsiveness of single women with children to taxation and welfare programs. The third essay investigates the effects of marriage, the wage rate, and the associated tax rate on men's labor supply. In the first essay, to avoid bias from the fact that labor supply outcomes are being driven by self-selection, I build a dynamic stochastic discrete choice model to investigate the long run effects of the earned income tax credit and welfare policies on single mothers' labor supply. Simulated method of moments is used to estimate parameters of this dynamic model, based on March CPS data files from 1964 to 2013. I compare the performance of the dynamic stochastic discrete choice model, a static model, and a reduced-form model. My analysis concludes that the dynamic stochastic discrete choice model captures the simultaneous impact of the state variables on the predicted employment decision. My study provides evidence of the long-run positive effect of public policy on low income families in a life-cycle setting. This essay also emphasizes the importance of education in increasing single mothers' labor supply. The second essay is designed to identify factors that help single mothers leave TANF within a short span of time. I find strong evidence for the importance of child support assistance to single mothers' success in exiting TANF with a job. I uncover evidence that work-related activities do not induce TANF participants to leave within a short span of time. My analysis also suggests that health issues significantly limit the ability of single mothers to exit TANF. In the third essay, the main research question is how marital status affects the elasticity of the labor supply of males with respect to wages and taxes, in a life-cycle setting. A dynamic panel data model, which extends the literature on dynamic labor supply, indicates that the elasticity of men's labor supply with respect to wages and taxes is affected by marital status. The empirical results using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data show that men who are continuously married to the same wife have a lower average Frisch elasticity than others. / Ph. D.

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PREFACE: The purpose of this Master’s thesis was to determine which attributes of an early intervention (EI) mental health service would encourage treatment initiation and sustained engagement. This research was motivated by the bourgeoning interest in patient-centered care, particularly the incorporation of patient preferences into service design and implementation. Additionally, the research was inspired by the use of marketing research methodology in healthcare. Two conjoint surveys were formulated with the purpose of asking two questions: what EI service attributes will increase the likelihood of someone (1) initiating contact with an EI service and attending their first appointment, and (2) remaining engaged in treatment. A literature search determined which attributes would be the most relevant and important for conceptualizing an EI service. These attributes were narrowed down with the help of focus groups, key informant interviews, the expertise of the authors, and in the case of the second survey, was also informed by the first survey’s results. Each attribute was assigned four levels and these multi-level attributes were formulated into the two aforementioned surveys that were completed by mental health patients, their families, and mental health professionals. Chapter 1 of this thesis contains a short overview of the research literature investigating the benefits of EI services, some of the reasons why many patients may not receive such services, and some potential strategies to enhance patients’ initial contact and ongoing engagement with such services. In particular, the central tenet of this thesis is that patient engagement with EI services will be enhanced if service design considers and incorporates the preferences of patients and their families with regard to the attributes that characterize the service and its delivery. This hypothesis is explored using discrete choice conjoint experimental (DCE) methods to identify important service attributes regarding patient initiation and engagement. Given that DCEs are the central methodology of this thesis, Chapter 1 also includes an introduction to these methods and their unique benefits. Each of these service attribute questions posed above is addressed in a separate survey and experiment. Therefore, the rationale, methods, results and conclusions of each experiment are described in separate chapters (Chapters 2 & 3). It should be noted that these two chapters are written in the form of stand-alone scientific reports, each of which is about to be submitted for publication to peer-reviewed journals. Finally, the thesis concludes with a General Discussion (Chapter 4), which attempts to frame the two studies, and this line of inquiry more generally, in the broader research literature and highlight their clinical and policy implications. It should also be noted that, given that there exists substantial conceptual overlap between the two experiments and the main issues described in both the General Introduction and General Discussion, the reader may encounter some repetition throughout the thesis. / Mental illness places a large burden on individuals and society-at-large, a problem that becomes much worse the longer it is left untreated. Early intervention (EI) can mitigate this burden; however, those experiencing emerging mental illnesses often do not seek help promptly. Patient-centered care, such as shared-decision making models of mental healthcare, may reduce barriers to treatment. A central tenet of patient-centered care is that patient engagement and service utilization increases when patient preferences are incorporated into clinical services. In the current thesis, discrete choice conjoint experiments (DCE) were used to elicit the preferences of patients and their families, as well as the hypothesized preferences of patients according to mental health professionals, in two surveys. The first survey aimed to identify the attributes of an EI service that would encourage people experiencing psychiatric symptoms to initiate contact with a service and attend their first appointment (Chapter 2). The second survey sought to determine which service attributes would encourage someone to remain engaged with mental health treatment (Chapter 3). Both surveys used Latent Class Analysis to segment the study populations into identifiable subgroups based on shared preferences, and Randomized First Choice simulations to predict which service delivery model each of these identified groups would most likely use. The results of these studies have several implications for current and future mental health services. Effective EI mental health services should include rapid access to services, a range of treatment options, and effective crisis response. Moreover, future DCE studies should focus on replicating these results using more heterogeneous samples and improving DCE methods. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the differences between the study and policy sites impact the performance of benefit function transfer. For this purpose, simulated data are created where all information necessary to conduct the benefit function transfer is available. We consider the six cases of difference between the study and policy sites- scale parameter, substitution possibilities, observable characteristics, population preferences, measurement error in variables, and a case of preference heterogeneity at the study site and fixed preferences at the policy site. These cases of difference were considered one at time and their impact on quality of transfer is investigated. RUM model based on reveled preference was used for this analysis. Function estimated at the study site is transferred to the policy site and willingness to pay for five different cases of policy changes are calculated at the study site. The willingness to pay so calculated is compared with true willingness to pay to evaluate the performance of benefit function transfer. When the study and policy site are different only in terms of scale parameter, equality of estimated and true expected WTP is not rejected for 89.7% or more when the sample size is 1000. Similarly, equality of estimated preference coefficients and true preference coefficients is not rejected for 88.8% or more. In this study, we find that benefit transfer performs better only in one direction. When the function is estimated at lower scale and transferred to the policy site with higher scale, the transfer error is less in magnitude than those which are estimated at higher scale and transferred to the policy site with lower scale. This study also finds that transfer error is less when the function from the study site having more site substitutes is transferred to the policy site having less site substitutes whenever there is difference in site substitution possibilities. Transfer error is magnified when measurement error is involved in any of the variables. This study do not suggest function transfer whenever the study site's model is missing one of the important variable at the policy site or whenever the data on variables included in study site's model is not available at the policy site for benefit transfer application. This study also suggests the use of large representative sample with sufficient variation to minimize transfer error in benefit transfer. / Master of Science

The thesis explores whether Swedish consumers value outerwear sold with an included repair service with the motive of supporting the transition towards a more sustainable fashion industry. In addition, to foster sustainable consumption and production patterns which align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This study is further associated with the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation and the upcoming EU regulation concerning the Extended Producer Responsibility. A mixed-method approach is used for the methodological framework. Qualitative semi-structured interviews are used as a pre-study to explore attributes and levels for the main quantitative Discrete Choice Experiment survey study. The Discrete Choice Experiment method integrates with the theoretical framework through the application of the Willingness to Pay estimates. A convenient sampling method, in combination with a snowball sampling method, is applied. The findings from the survey show implications for educated young urban women, a group with significant environmental impacts due to their clothing consumption. The 129 respondents showed a stated Willingness to Pay of an additional 35.6% or 562.30 SEK for outerwear with an included repair service. The calculations are based on the average price 1579.60 SEK the respondents in the survey pay for outerwear. The findings show that longer waiting times decrease the amount of money the respondents want to pay for the service. The stated Willingness to Pay decreases to 31.1% or 491.30 SEK with one week of waiting time. The creation of new jobs and a reduction of environmental impacts in production increase the stated Willingness to Pay. The findings show that outerwear sold with an included repair service could increase the frequency of repairs, extend the user phase of outerwear, and reduce the consumption of new outerwear.

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We estimate the willingness-to-pay for conserving crop diversity in the Czech Republic. Discrete choice experiments are used to elicit preferences for the conservation of wine, hop, and fruit tree varieties, while a double-bounded dichotomous choice approach is used to elicit preferences for the conservation of unspecified, "general" crop diversity. The WTP values are derived for both of these contingent products from a sample representative of the general Czech population (n=731) and a sample of respondents living in the South Moravian region that is characterized by agriculture and wine production (n=418). We demonstrate a strong preference for conserving fruit trees over hops and wine varieties, and derive positive mean WTP of the general Czech population (ages 18-69) of 56 Kč ($2.26). Mean WTP for the conservation of general crop diversity is 167 Kč ($6.80). On average, residents of South Moravia have a greater WTP for "general" crop as well as fruit tree conservation. In total, the Czech adult population (ages 18-69) has an aggregate WTP of ~1.25 billion Kč ($50.5 million) for the conservation of general crop diversity, and ~410 million Kč ($16.8 million) for the conservation of fruit trees, revealing the previously unmeasured social welfare benefits of these activities. The estimated benefits...

Apresenta-se um procedimento para estimativa da matriz origem-destino (O/D) a partir de um modelo de escolha discreta em combinação com uma matriz O/D de transporte público, a qual pode ser estimada de maneira relativamente fácil e rápida. O modelo de escolha discreta utilizado para realizar a divisão modal é o modelo logit multinomial. A calibração do modelo logit é realizada com base em 505 observações e considerando três situações: a população de viajantes sem segmentação, com segmentação segundo posse de automóvel no domicílio, e com segmentação segundo a distância de viagem. Analisa-se a precisão da estimativa do número de viagens quando as zonas de controle que formam a área de estudo são divididas segundo o critério de distância de acesso às linhas de ônibus. Na verificação realizada são empregados dados obtidos da pesquisa domiciliar realizada na cidade de Bauru, SP. Os erros cometidos na estimativa são medidos e comparados com os resultados obtidos na pesquisa domiciliar sem expansão. O trabalho demostrou experimentalmente que o procedimento proposto é uma alternativa viável para se obter a distribuição de viagens e, portanto, para determinar a matriz O/D. / A procedure is presented for estimating an origin-destination (O/D) matrix using a discrete choice model jointly with a public transport O/D matrix; the latter being relatively easy and fast to obtain. A multinomial logit discrete choice model is used to determine the mode split of travelers among several available modes. The model is estimated using a sample of 505 observations chosen from a household 0/D survey in the city of Bauru, state of Sao Paulo. This survey is used throughout to verify the results of the proposed methodology. Three different models are considered: one without segmentation of the population, one with segmentation according to car ownership and one with segmentation according to travel distance. An examination is made of the changes on the level of precision of the number of trips estimated with the division of the control zones that conform the study area; the aforementioned division was carried out on the basis of an access distance to the bus network criterion. The estimation errors are measured and compared to the unexpanded O/D survey results. The research shows empirically that the proposed procedure can be used to obtain the distribution of trips and hence to determine an aggregate O/D matrix.