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Transportation has a major impact on our society and environment, contributing 70% of U.S petroleum use, 28% of U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, over 34,000 fatalities and 2.2 million injuries in 2013. Punitive approaches to used to tackle environmental issues in the transportation sector, such as congestion pricing have been well documented, although the use of incentives or rewards lags behind in comparison. In addition to the use of more fuel-efficient, alternate energy vehicles and various other energy reduction strategies; energy consumption can be lowered through incentivizing alternative modes of transportation. This paper focused on modifying travelers’ behavior by providing rewards to enable shifts to more energy-efficient modes, (e.g., from auto to either bus or bicycles). Optimization conditions are formulated for the problem to understand solution properties, and numerical tests are carried out to study the effects of system parameters (e.g., token budget and coefficient of tokens) on the optimal solutions (i.e., energy savings). The multinomial logit model is used to formulate the full problem, comprised of an objective function and constraint of a token budget ranging from $5,000-$10,000. Comparably, the full problem is computationally reduced by various parameterization strategies, in that the number of tokens assigned to all travelers’ is parameterized and proportional to the expected energy savings. An optimization solution algorithm is applied with a global and local solver to solve a lagrangian sub-problem and a duo of heuristic solution algorithms of the original problem. These were determined necessary to attain an optimal and feasible solution. Input data necessary for this analysis is obtained for the Town of Amherst, MA from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC). The results demonstrated strong evidence to conclude a positive correlation between the system’s energy savings and the aforementioned system parameters. The local and global solvers solution algorithm reduced the average energy consumption by 11.48% - 19.91% and12.79% – 21.09% consecutively for the identified token budget range from a base case scenario with no tokens assigned. The duo of lagrangian heuristic algorithms improved the full problems solution i.e., higher energy savings, when optimized over a local solver, while the parameterized problem formulations resulted in higher energy savings when compared to the full problems’ formulation solution over local solver, but higher energy savings compared over the global solver. The Computational run-time for the global and local solvers solution algorithm for the full problem formulation required 43 hours and 24 minutes consecutively, while the local solver for the lagrangian heuristics and parameterized problem solution algorithm took 13 minutes and 7 minutes consecutively. Future research on this paper will be comprised of a bi-level optimization problem formulation where a high level optimization aims at maximizing system-wide energy savings, while a low-level consumer surplus maximization problem is solved for each system user.

When designing financial incentives for voluntary conservation of threatened habitats and ecosystems, we are faced with the problem that there is no single indicator for "biodiversity value". The value of a habitat depends on multiple factors such as habitat type, area, and spatial and temporal connectivity. Moreover, not only are there local trade-offs between these indicators, but land use changes at one location may also change the value of sites in the vicinity. This doctoral thesis analyzes the consequences of including trade-offs and interactions between sites in market-based conservation schemes. We ask the following questions: How can trade-offs between the survival of different species be quantified? How can spatial processes and temporal processes be included in market-based conservation, in particular the value of spatial and temporal connectivity? And how do underlying economic dynamics relate to the spatio-temporal allocation of conservation measures in market-based conservation schemes?

A legislação brasileira estabelece que o Estado tem a obrigação de preservar o equilíbrio econômico financeiro das concessões de serviços públicos. Assim o Estado deve garantir que as tarifas dessas concessões sejam capazes de cobrir os seus custos operacionais e ainda ofereçam um retorno justo para os agentes privados que nelas investiram. Nas concessões de distribuição de gás natural canalizado e de energia elétrica os reguladores brasileiros optaram por aplicar uma regulação baseada em incentivos, que se inspira no modelo inglês de regulação por preço teto. Esta opção regulatória fez com que a Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica adicionasse à remuneração dos acionistas das concessionárias um prêmio de risco regulatório refletindo a diferença entre o risco das distribuidoras inglesas e o risco das norte americanas, pois as inglesas praticam uma forma de determinação de tarifas considerada mais arriscada que as norte americanas. Tal adição de retorno encontra amparo na teoria econômica, mas é questionada por estudos empíricos que mostram que a diferença entre os graus de risco do regime inglês e norte americano não é estatisticamente significativa. Nesta dissertação é testada a hipótese de que o grau de risco de mercado da regulação por preço teto é maior do que o da regulação por custo de serviço. Para tanto são usados dados de distribuidoras de gás natural e energia elétrica da Argentina, Brasil, Chile e Estados Unidos, sendo que apenas neste último país se pratica regulação por custo de serviço e nos demais é adotada a regulação por preço teto de inspiração inglesa. Os testes aqui realizados indicam que não há evidências de que o risco de mercado seja maior em países com regulação por preço-teto do que em países com regulação por custo de serviço. Mais do que isso, esta dissertação conclui que o principal determinante do diferencial entre o risco de mercado das concessionárias brasileiras e o risco de mercado das empresas norte americanas comparáveis de distribuição de energia elétrica e de gás natural é a volatilidade do índice IBOVESPA e não o modelo tarifário adotado pelos reguladores. / Brazilian Law establishes that preservation of the economic balance of utilities is an obligation of the Brazilian State. Thus the State must set tariffs that not only cover utilities operational costs but also cover its capital cost, giving a fair return for utilities investors. In tariff setting, Brazilian regulators estimate a weight average cost of capital, of which market risk is one of the components. Brazilian regulators of natural gas and electricity distribution utilities choose an incentive based model of regulation, inspired in the English regulatory model of price cap, or RPI X. This regulatory model is considered riskier than the American model of cost of service, or (fixed) rate of return regulation. Thus, the choice for a price cap model made Brazilian electricity regulator (ANEEL) add a regulatory risk premium in the equity component of WACC to incorporate the risk differential between the English and the American regulatory models. Such regulatory risk premium is validated by economic theory, but is questioned by empiric studies that show that, across many countries, the difference between the risk of English and American models are not statistically significative. This dissertation tests the hypothesis that the market risk of price cap regulation is greater than cost of service regulation. In order to test such hypothesis data from natural gas and electric energy distributors from Argentia, Brazil, Chile and United States is used. Only the latter practices cost of service regulation and all other countries adopt the english inspired price cap regualation. The tests performed indicate that there is no evidence that the market risk is greater in countries adopting price cap regulation than in countries using cost of service regulation. Moreover, this dissertation concludes that the main aspect determining the difference between market.risk of Brazilian utilities providers and American comparable natural gas end electric energy distributors is the volatility of the IBOVESPA índex in spite of the tariff model adopted by the regulators.

A legislação brasileira estabelece que o Estado tem a obrigação de preservar o equilíbrio econômico financeiro das concessões de serviços públicos. Assim o Estado deve garantir que as tarifas dessas concessões sejam capazes de cobrir os seus custos operacionais e ainda ofereçam um retorno justo para os agentes privados que nelas investiram. Nas concessões de distribuição de gás natural canalizado e de energia elétrica os reguladores brasileiros optaram por aplicar uma regulação baseada em incentivos, que se inspira no modelo inglês de regulação por preço teto. Esta opção regulatória fez com que a Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica adicionasse à remuneração dos acionistas das concessionárias um prêmio de risco regulatório refletindo a diferença entre o risco das distribuidoras inglesas e o risco das norte americanas, pois as inglesas praticam uma forma de determinação de tarifas considerada mais arriscada que as norte americanas. Tal adição de retorno encontra amparo na teoria econômica, mas é questionada por estudos empíricos que mostram que a diferença entre os graus de risco do regime inglês e norte americano não é estatisticamente significativa. Nesta dissertação é testada a hipótese de que o grau de risco de mercado da regulação por preço teto é maior do que o da regulação por custo de serviço. Para tanto são usados dados de distribuidoras de gás natural e energia elétrica da Argentina, Brasil, Chile e Estados Unidos, sendo que apenas neste último país se pratica regulação por custo de serviço e nos demais é adotada a regulação por preço teto de inspiração inglesa. Os testes aqui realizados indicam que não há evidências de que o risco de mercado seja maior em países com regulação por preço-teto do que em países com regulação por custo de serviço. Mais do que isso, esta dissertação conclui que o principal determinante do diferencial entre o risco de mercado das concessionárias brasileiras e o risco de mercado das empresas norte americanas comparáveis de distribuição de energia elétrica e de gás natural é a volatilidade do índice IBOVESPA e não o modelo tarifário adotado pelos reguladores. / Brazilian Law establishes that preservation of the economic balance of utilities is an obligation of the Brazilian State. Thus the State must set tariffs that not only cover utilities operational costs but also cover its capital cost, giving a fair return for utilities investors. In tariff setting, Brazilian regulators estimate a weight average cost of capital, of which market risk is one of the components. Brazilian regulators of natural gas and electricity distribution utilities choose an incentive based model of regulation, inspired in the English regulatory model of price cap, or RPI X. This regulatory model is considered riskier than the American model of cost of service, or (fixed) rate of return regulation. Thus, the choice for a price cap model made Brazilian electricity regulator (ANEEL) add a regulatory risk premium in the equity component of WACC to incorporate the risk differential between the English and the American regulatory models. Such regulatory risk premium is validated by economic theory, but is questioned by empiric studies that show that, across many countries, the difference between the risk of English and American models are not statistically significative. This dissertation tests the hypothesis that the market risk of price cap regulation is greater than cost of service regulation. In order to test such hypothesis data from natural gas and electric energy distributors from Argentia, Brazil, Chile and United States is used. Only the latter practices cost of service regulation and all other countries adopt the english inspired price cap regualation. The tests performed indicate that there is no evidence that the market risk is greater in countries adopting price cap regulation than in countries using cost of service regulation. Moreover, this dissertation concludes that the main aspect determining the difference between market.risk of Brazilian utilities providers and American comparable natural gas end electric energy distributors is the volatility of the IBOVESPA índex in spite of the tariff model adopted by the regulators.

In recent decades, the use of incentive-based reward programs to foster customer loyalty and promote sales has become prevalent in various industries. While these strategies are widely accepted and implemented, there is a significant gap in empirical studies to ascertain their real-world effectiveness. This thesis embarks on a comprehensive examination into the effectiveness of an online business's reward program, utilizing data from the past five years and employing data mining techniques, including RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary) model and clustering algorithms; hypothesis tests are employed to further strengthen the drawn conclusions. Contrary to popular theories, the findings reveal that small incentives such as rewards did not induce significant changes in customer purchasing behavior, nor did they effectively boost sales among rewarded customers. A control group of non-rewarded top-class customers showed more robust purchasing patterns. These unexpected results challenge existing beliefs and call for a critical re-evaluation of current practices in sales promotion and customer loyalty. The research underscores the need for empirically grounded strategies, further exploration into alternative loyalty-building methods, and a recognition of the complex realities influencing customer engagement.

Biodiversity loss is one of the major environmental threats facing the planet. Incentive-based conservation is one means to reduce human pressure on wildlife by providing economic incentives for resource-dependent people to protect the environment. Marine wildlife tourism is one of the fastest growing tourism sectors globally and is viewed as an important incentive-based approach for achieving marine conservation goals. However, few studies have linked participation in the provisioning of marine wildlife tourism activities with positive social and ecological conservation outcomes. The goal of this dissertation is to provide greater understanding of the conservation value of marine wildlife tourism using whale shark tourism as a case study with a main focus on social conservation outcomes amongst tourism providers. Positive changes in perceptions, attitudes and values towards target species and their environments can be an important element of incentive-based conservation. The study has the following objectives: (1) to assess the status of the global whale shark tourism industry, including types (e.g., captive, non-captive), real and potential impacts, conservation value and management challenges and best practices; (2) to examine the ethics of provisioning whale sharks in Oslob, Philippines, the largest, non-captive viewing site in the world; (3) to determine if working in ecotourism changed the attitudes and behaviours of locals towards whale sharks and the ocean, and if tourism type affects those outcomes; (4) to assess the marine wildlife value orientations of locals working in whale shark tourism to achieve greater understanding of the factors influencing their conservation attitudes and behaviours; (5) to explore the potential long-term impacts of poorly conceived incentive-based conservation projects on social and ecological conservation outcomes; and (6) to re-examine and update the conceptual and theoretical background for wildlife tourism in light of the findings of this study. Methods include a comprehensive literature review, tourist surveys, social media content analysis, and interviews with locals working in whale shark tourism at four sites in the Philippines. Results suggest that marine wildlife tourism can play an important role in changing locals’ attitudes and behaviours towards the focal species and habitat; however, smaller-scale, more established sites had greater conservation value than the mass tourism or failed sites suggesting that small-scale, community-based ecotourism is the best approach to meeting conservation goals of marine wildlife tourism. Yet, few tourism sites meet these standards. Global standards are needed to ensure whale shark tourism activities meet desired conservation goals. Such standards should include management requirements (e.g., licensing, mandatory education program) and interaction guidelines (e.g. minimum viewing distances, limits on the number of swimmers/boats, etc.). The findings also emphasise that economics should not be the only or primary metric used to measure conservation success; rather, the focus should be on assessing a more comprehensive range of social and ecological conservation outcomes of these activities. / Graduate / 2020-04-16