Class of 2009 Abstract / OBJECTIVES: The study’s purpose was determining the economic impact of recurrent coagulopathy with crotaline envenomation using the current standard of care, crotalinae polyvalent immune Fab antivenom (CroFab), and to establish a model of pharmacoeconomic assessment for future studies. METHODS: A recurrent coagulopathy cost assessment tool was designed that included payer and patient costs. This system used medical and billing references, government and business websites, published studies, and average costs for major variables affecting costs of recurrent coagulopathy to the payer and patient. RESULTS: Of the 42 subjects screened during the study period, 13 were eligible, and 5 chose to participate. On average, lab results were the most significant cost to payers ($247.25). No subject required additional vials of CroFab as a result of recurrent coagulopathy and therefore this was the least costly parameter. There were no correlation between lab costs, doctor visits, or ER visits. Lost wages were the highest cost to patients, with an average of $880.85. Household help and child care were the least costly parameters in this study group. The loss to follow-up was a substantial barrier to obtaining the projected number of study subjects. CONCLUSIONS: A major limitation of this study is the small sample size. Therefore, only generalizations can be made by analyzing the data in regards to the true costs of recurrent coagulopathy to patients and payers. Future pharmacoeconomic studies regarding average costs related to crotaline envenomation should consider experimental mortality a significant barrier to obtaining significant results.

PART I The horse numbers of Utah had not been accurately counted since the early 1960's. It was estimated that horse and pony numbers were reaching heights as recorded before the age of tractors and automobiles. Horsemen in Utah were asking for financial assistance for public horse facilities from the Utah legislature. The first part of this study was to survey the horse population to determine an accurate count of Utah horses. PART II In order to be satisfied that the horse industry deserved the spending of public funds, it was necessary to know the economic contribution of the horse industry. Part II information came from a second survey of expenses and incomes of horse owners. This study was to determine the economic importance of the horse industry to the State' s economy. The entire study was to determine the horse population and the impact of the horse industry on the economy of Utah.

Estimates of the economic impact generated by tourism events can vary greatly depending on the methodologies used to conduct an analysis. This professional report will attempt to establish a standardized methodology for estimating the economic impact created by demand shocks to the economy resulting from event generated tourism visitation and spending with the final deliverable being a state-level input-output model for Texas. A review of state-level input-output models created for Michigan and Georgia in addition to a hypothetical scenario based on the 1996 Atlanta Olympics will illustrate the importance of assumptions in input-output analysis and lead to a discussion regarding some elements of hosting an event and increasing tourism that cannot be captured through this method. The report concludes by briefly examining considerations that should be made before applying the Texas model, the potential for future improvements, and finally the viability of recruiting events as an economic development strategy. / text

“Rural electrification” is a key element in the global energy development agenda. While being a developing country, Sri Lanka is enroot to achieve 100% of electrification at present. After the civil war ended in 2009 which lasted for more than 25 years, there has been much focus to fulfill the energy needs of the country. But the studies carried out to assess the impact of electrification are very much limited. This study focuses on meeting the gap of carrying out a scenario analysis of rural electrification and assessing the socio economic impact of electrification. The major focus has been given to see how energy system of a newly electrified village will vary over time. The research intends to identify how far the strategies used to implement a policy is realistic in the real world. Also the research extends to apply the proposed strategies to the energy model and analyze the behavior of the model. During the study a survey was carried out in a rural village in southern part of Sri Lanka and the data obtained were used to model the energy system of the village using a software called - LEAP (Long Range Energy Alternative Planning System). The energy system is simulated under different scenarios to analyze if certain strategies in the policy have been implemented in the village. Two scenarios were energy efficient lighting and energy efficient cooking stoves. A total energy balance has been carried out for the target sample with an analysis of global warming potential of the activities of the target family. The total energy consumption variation with the electrification and the percentage of energy consumed as electricity over time has been analyzed. Further the socio economic impacts of electrification have been studied. The impact of agricultural usage and economic productivity with electricity has been studied. The qualitative measures like attitude changes, modernization & technology adaptation were addressed to the extent possible.

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are an important ecological, social, and economic resource in Mississippi. Studies have been conducted on expenditures by white-tailed deer hunters, but none have administered a research-based, economic impact assessment for white-tailed deer in Mississippi. The economic impacts and associated values of white-tailed deer in Mississippi through a selfministered mail questionnaire were examined to collect white-tailed deer hunter expenditure data during the 2003/2004 hunting season. Expenditures of white-tailed deer hunters were obtained from a mail survey (N = 1,257, 38.6% response rate) and were used in an input-output model to determine economic impacts for the State. Economic impacts generated from white-tailed deer hunting expenditures totaled $951.1 million for the 2003/2004 white-tailed deer hunting season. The value added component of the economic impact totaled $686.7 million and supported 43,964 full- and part-time jobs.

Natural disasters have always been and probably always will be a problem for humans and their settlements. With global warming seemingly increasing the frequency and strength of the climate related disasters, and more and more people being settled in urban centers, the ability to model and predict damage is more important than ever.The aim of this thesis has been to model and analyze a broad range of disaster types and the kind of impact that they have. By modeling damage indices for disaster types as different as hurricanes and volcanic eruptions, the thesis helps with understanding both similarities and differences between how disasters work and what impact they have on societies experiencing them. The thesis comprises four different chapters in addition to this introduction, where all of them include modeling of one or more types of natural disasters and their impact on real world scenarios such as local budgets, birth rates and economic growth.Chapter 2 is titled “Natural Disaster Damage Indices Based on Remotely Sensed Data: An Application to Indonesia". The objective was to construct damage indices through remotely sensed and freely available data. In short, the methodology exploits that one can use nightlight data as a proxy for economic activity. Then the nightlights data is matched with remote sensing data typically used for natural hazard modeling. The data is then used to construct damage indices at the district level for Indonesia, for different disaster events such as floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and the 2004 Christmas Tsunami. The chapter is forthcoming as a World Bank Policy Research Paper under Skoufias et al. (2017a).Chapter 3 utilizes the indices from Chapter 2 to showcase a potential area of use for them. The title is “The Reallocation of District-Level Spending and Natural Disasters: Evidence from Indonesia" and the focus is on Indonesian district-level budgets. The aim was to use the modeled intensity from Chapter 2 to a real world scenario that could affect policy makers. The results show that there is evidence that some disaster types cause districts to move costs away from more general line items to areas such as health and infrastructure, which are likely to experience added pressure due to disasters. Furthermore, volcanic eruptions and the tsunami led to less investment into more durable assets both for the year of the disaster and the following year. This chapter is also forthcoming as a World Bank Policy Research Paper under Skoufias et al. (2017b).The fourth chapter, titled “Urban Global Impact of Earthquakes from 2004 through 2013", is a short chapter focusing on earthquake damage and economic growth. This chapter is an expansion of the index used in the previous two chapters, where we use global data instead of focusing on a single country. Using a comprehensive remotely sensed dataset of contour mapsof global earthquakes from 2004 through 2013 and utilizing global nightlights as an economic proxy we model economic impact in the year of the quakes and the year after. Overall, it is shown that earthquakes negatively impact local urban light emissions by 0.7 percent.Chapter 5 is named “A Whirlwind Romance: The Effect of Hurricanes on Fertility in Early 20th Century Jamaica" and deviates from the prior chapters in that it is a historical chapter that looks at birth rates in the early 1900s. The goal was to use the complete and long-term birth database for Jamaica and match this with hurricane data to check fertility rates. We create a hurricane destruction index derived from a wind speed model that we combine with data on more than 1 million births across different parishes in Jamaica. Analyzing the birth rate following damaging hurricanes, we find that there is a strong and significant negative effect of hurricane destruction on the number of births. / Natural disasters have always been and probably always will be a problem for humans and their settlements. With global warming seemingly increasing the frequency and strength of the climate related disasters, and more and more people being settled in urban centers, the ability to model and predict damage is more important than ever.The aim of this thesis has been to model and analyze a broad range of disaster types and the kind of impact that they have. By modeling damage indices for disaster types as different as hurricanes and volcanic eruptions, the thesis helps with understanding both similarities and differences between how disasters work and what impact they have on societies experiencing them. The thesis comprises four different chapters in addition to this introduction, where all of them include modeling of one or more types of natural disasters and their impact on real world scenarios such as local budgets, birth rates and economic growth.Chapter 2 is titled “Natural Disaster Damage Indices Based on Remotely Sensed Data: An Application to Indonesia". The objective was to construct damage indices through remotely sensed and freely available data. In short, the methodology exploits that one can use nightlight data as a proxy for economic activity. Then the nightlights data is matched with remote sensing data typically used for natural hazard modeling. The data is then used to construct damage indices at the district level for Indonesia, for different disaster events such as floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and the 2004 Christmas Tsunami. The chapter is forthcoming as a World Bank Policy Research Paper under Skoufias et al. (2017a).Chapter 3 utilizes the indices from Chapter 2 to showcase a potential area of use for them. The title is “The Reallocation of District-Level Spending and Natural Disasters: Evidence from Indonesia" and the focus is on Indonesian district-level budgets. The aim was to use the modeled intensity from Chapter 2 to a real world scenario that could affect policy makers. The results show that there is evidence that some disaster types cause districts to move costs away from more general line items to areas such as health and infrastructure, which are likely to experience added pressure due to disasters. Furthermore, volcanic eruptions and the tsunami led to less investment into more durable assets both for the year of the disaster and the following year. This chapter is also forthcoming as a World Bank Policy Research Paper under Skoufias et al. (2017b).The fourth chapter, titled “Urban Global Impact of Earthquakes from 2004 through 2013", is a short chapter focusing on earthquake damage and economic growth. This chapter is an expansion of the index used in the previous two chapters, where we use global data instead of focusing on a single country. Using a comprehensive remotely sensed dataset of contour mapsof global earthquakes from 2004 through 2013 and utilizing global nightlights as an economic proxy we model economic impact in the year of the quakes and the year after. Overall, it is shown that earthquakes negatively impact local urban light emissions by 0.7 percent.Chapter 5 is named “A Whirlwind Romance: The Effect of Hurricanes on Fertility in Early 20th Century Jamaica" and deviates from the prior chapters in that it is a historical chapter that looks at birth rates in the early 1900s. The goal was to use the complete and long-term birth database for Jamaica and match this with hurricane data to check fertility rates. We create a hurricane destruction index derived from a wind speed model that we combine with data on more than 1 million births across different parishes in Jamaica. Analyzing the birth rate following damaging hurricanes, we find that there is a strong and significant negative effect of hurricane destruction on the number of births.

Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Ted C. Schroeder / The livestock industry is susceptible to several diseases, of which Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is one. FMD is neither a fatal nor zoonotic animal disease, but most animals less than one year of age are killed in about 80% of cases. FMD also causes reductions in yield and milk production. FMD is recognized as an economic disease because any outbreak will lead to a drastic reduction in the export market. This study is centered on livestock production in mid-western United States. The study incorporated the result from an epidemiology model into an equilibrium displacement model; this is used to determine the economic impact of the FMD outbreak on both consumers and producers. Three vaccination-to-die scenarios were simulated. Each scenario had 200 disease spread simulation runs. The economic impact results were presented with normal distribution curves in order to see how the economic impacts were distributed across the 200 runs in each scenario. Scenario 14 with 50 and 80 herds vaccination capacity at 22 and 40 days respectively, coupled with 50 km vaccination zone has the lowest negative impact on both consumer and producers. The diseases lasted for shorter period of time in scenario 14 than scenarios 2 and 12. Scenario 14 also has least number of animals killed. It can be concluded from the equilibrium displacement outcomes that the best mitigation strategy for the control of FMD is to have a large vaccination zone area, and increment in the vaccination capacity will also curb the disease on time.

A research report submitted to The Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Witwatersrand, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Of Masters in Public Health Johannesburg 2005 / ABSTRACT Swaziland is currently faced with a deepening HIV/AIDS epidemic. A systemic review of available information concerning the economic impact of HIV/AIDS on Swaziland was undertaken to collate data and document this impact in order to inform decision makers and planners. The methodology for the systematic review was based on the guidelines described in the Cochrane Reviewers’ handbook. HIV/AIDS has significantly increased the vulnerability of affected Swaziland rural households to environmental shocks. There is an increased burden of orphans due to HIV/AIDS, reduced household labour and income as adults die of AIDS. HIV/AIDS has reduced farm productivity leading to worsening of food insecurity and poverty in affected households. Due to HIV/AIDS, absenteeism in Swaziland organizations has increased by 20- fold. HIV/AIDS is currently the leading cause of death accounting for over 60 percent of all employee deaths. Organisations that have implemented HIV/AIDS workplace responses have been less affected. The micro-sector is the worst affected and it is recommended that policy makers ensure that this sector is protected from the negative impact of HIV/AIDS. The epidemic of negative impacts of HIV/AIDS in Swaziland has not yet reached the peak.

Thesis advisor: Christopher F. Baum / This paper seeks to estimate the impacts generated from the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Using a data set representing 76 metropolitan statistical areas in the western United States, and later 31 metropolitan statistical areas in Utah and its bordering neighbors, I construct an Arellano-Bond dynamic panel data regression that seeks to model metropolitan employment growth had the Olympics never taken place. With this logic I apply the Arellano- Bond regression to real personal income and real average wages, in a vector autoregression framework, estimating gains to those variables over a reasonable timeframe. The predictions from these variables are then compared to actual figures in which a picture of the economic impact of the 2002 Games is generated. Using out of sample predictions I estimate Salt Lake City's Olympic impact in employment is roughly between 20,487 and 36,150 job-years, between $ 381 and $ 2,470 to real per-capita personal income, and a decrease of $ 273 to $ 2004 in real average wages. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2006. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics Honors Program.

HIV/AIDS is a global pandemic with critical demographic, economic, and social implications. The pandemic is widespread in poor regions of the world, including Southeast Asia where its long-term effects are potentially catastrophic. Despite the major impacts of the epidemic being already felt at the household level in many countries, a lack of recognition of the socioeconomic determinants of HIV infection and the economic and social impacts of HIV/AIDS and their relationship with poverty persists. This is due in part to the lack of systematic studies at the household, community, sectoral, and macro levels. The thesis describes a 'vicious circle' between HIV/AIDS, poverty and high-risk behaviour at the individual level. In the poverty-HIV/AIDS cycle, HIV-infected individuals are especially vulnerable to poverty, the poor are more likely to engage in high-risk behaviour such as commercial sex work, and high-risk behaviour in turn makes people susceptible to HIV infection. The thesis examines whether rural Northeast Thailand exhibits characteristics that support the existence of such a cycle. Four key relationships are considered and tested: (i) the relationship between previous HIV infection and current wealth or poverty; (ii) the relationship betweem wealth or poverty and HIV/AIDS knowledge; (iii) the relationship between previous wealth or poverty and current HIV infection; and (iv) the relationship between previous migration and current HIV infection. All four relationships are shown to hold using survey data from Khon Kaen province in Northeast Thailand. Poverty is shown to increase susceptibility to HIV infection, and HIV/AIDS is shown to reduce wealth and hence increase poverty. Under the circumstances, the hypothesis that rural Northeast Thailand exhibits characteristics that would suggest the existence of a poverty-HIV/AIDS cycle cannot be rejected. This thesis also provides several key contributions to the literature on HIV/AIDS and poverty. First, it provides quantitative and qualitative empirical analysis of the impacts of HIV/AIDS on households in a moderately affected region of Thailand. Second, it provides empirical analysis both on whether wealth and poverty affect the risk of HIV infection, and whether HIV infection affects wealth and poverty. The results from this thesis also provide significant empirical evidence of the importance of rural-urban migration in the spread of HIV in Asia. Finally, the thesis investigates the potential effects on the poverty-HIV/AIDS cycle of an ongoing socio-economic intervention, namely breaking the poverty-HIV/AIDS cycle via intensive rural development.