Using traditional health capital model of Grossman (The human capital model of the demand for health. NBER, Working Paper 7078, 1972) and Wagstaff (Bull Econ Res 38(1):93–95,1986a) this paper attempts to fill in the theoretical missing link between mothers’ autonomy and household consumption behavior. We focus specifically on the consumption of child health inputs. In our paper it has been shown that working mothers’ children should be of better health. Further, independent of working status of the mother, higher autonomy always reallocates family budget to induce more consumption of child health inputs. The basic results of our model are further reinforced when autonomy is dependent on mothers’ income. In fact, the income effect derived from our extended model indicates that income-induced autonomy may result in redefining the composite consumption good for the family as an inferior one.

Energy consumption by buildings, due to various factors such as temperature regulation, lighting, poses a threat to our environment and energy resources. In the United States, statistics reveal that commercial and residential buildings combined contribute about 40 percent of the overall energy consumption, and this figure is expected to increase. In order to manage the growing demand for energy, there is a need for energy system optimization, which would require a realistic, high-resolution energy-demand model. In this work, we investigate and model the energy consumption of buildings by taking into account physical, structural, economic, and social factors that influence energy use. We propose a novel activity based modeling framework that generates an energy demand profile on a regular basis for a given nominal day.  We use this information to generate a building-level energy demand profile at highly dis-aggregated level. We then investigate the different possible uses of generated demand profiles in different What-if scenarios like urban-area planning, demand-side management, demand sensitive pricing, etc. We also provide a novel way to resolve correlational and consistency problems in the generation of individual-level and building-level "shared" activities which occur due to individuals\' interactions. / Master of Science

To achieve the aim of low carbon cities and zero energy districts, it is important to adapt the efficient technologies while maintaining the thermal comfort and sustainable environment. The new challenge in design and building new districts lies in a sustainable and smart way to minimize energy consumption and thus carbon emission. This challenge can be overcome by the use of early-stage energetic and environmental analysis of the planned districts, which can result in sustainable and efficient use of the resources. This thesis aims to assess the energy demand and the carbon emission for the proposed design of Jakobsgårdarna district in Borlänge, Sweden. The complete analysis of the neighbourhood is assessed through a tool - Urban Modeling Interface, a Rhinoceros-based plugin developed by the Sustainable Design Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. A base case scenario is evaluated for energetic performance, lighting, heating, cooling, hot water, daylight potential, walkability, and life cycle assessment. Then, a sensitivity analysis is addressed, in particular to evaluate the impact of daylight potential, archetypes, window to wall ratio, wall materials, future climate, and a possible lockdown, on energy consumption and carbon emission. In the base case, the analysis shows that preschool has the lowest specific energy consumption of 64.1 kWh/m2, while retail shops have the highest (92.2 kWh/m2) energy consumption. The simulated energy consumption of the offices and residential buildings is 72.1 kWh/m2, and 80.4 kWh/m2 respectively. The life cycle assessment reveals the advantage of the environment from building wooden houses instead of using concrete or masonry. The total embodied carbon for the whole district is 149.3 kgCO2/m2 divided as follow: 160.9 kgCO2/m2 for the school; 164.9 kgCO2/m2 for the offices, 159.6 kgCO2/m2 for the retail shops, 55.0 kgCO2/m2 for the wood residential buildings, 164.9 kgCO2/m2 for the masonry residential buildings. The sensitivity analysis explains exhaustively the influence, which has changes in the base case scenario. In particular, the future climate will decrease heating consumption due to the increase of the mean annual temperature and, on the other hand, increase cooling demand. While a possible lockdown to the district will rise consumption in residential buildings due to a higher use of equipment and lighting, but it will lower the energy use of offices and schools. The overall research results are expected to be useful to propose suggestions and recommendations for the next steps of design about Jakobsgårdarna district in Borlänge.

This dissertation consists of three separate essays on Peer-to-Peer (P2P) online credit markets. The first essay presents new empirical evidence of decreases in loan demand and repayment when prices in the market are determined by competing lenders in auctions as compared to the case in which a platform directly controls all prices. The paper develops an econometric model of loan demand and repayment which is then used to predict borrower choices when they are offered prices set by lenders in a market. I find that when lenders set prices, borrowers are more likely to pick loans of shorter maturity and smaller sizes, and repay less. Aggregated at the market level, demand and repayment of credit fall by 10% and 2%, respectively. In the second paper, I quantify the effects of implementation of finer credit scoring on credit demand, defaults and repayment in the context of a large P2P online credit platform. I exploit an exogenous change in the platform's credit scoring policy where the centralized price setting rules ensure that the one-to-one relationship between credit scores and prices remains intact unlike in a traditional credit market where it is broken. The results show that a 1% increase in interest rate due to the implementation of finer credit scoring results in an average decrease of 0.29% in the requested loan amount, an average increase of 0.01 in the fraction of borrowers who default and an average increase of 0.02 in the fraction of loan repaid. These findings contribute to a better understanding of how a reduction in information asymmetry affects borrower choices in a credit market. The third paper explores the main drivers behind the geographic expansion in demand for credit from P2P online platforms. It uses data from the two largest platforms in the United States to conduct an empirical analysis. By exploiting heterogeneity in local credit markets before the entry of P2P online platforms, the paper estimates the effect of local credit market conditions on demand for credit from P2P platforms. The paper uses a spatial autoregressive model for the main specification. We find that P2P consumer credit expanded more in counties with poor branch networks, lower concentration of banks, and lower leverage ratios.

The growing importance of trade internationally as well as for the United States (U.S.) spawned a body of literature concerning import demand, export supply, and trade balance. Most of the empirical work to date has employed estimates of commodity import demand functions derived from traditional linear and log-linear functional forms. These specifications of import demand impose separability restrictions on the consumer's choice between domestic and foreign goods, in addition to confining import demand elasticities to constant values. The policy recommendations made on the basis of the import demand elasticities derived from these traditional models may be misleading. In this study, a more flexible model of import demand is employed. The model allows a more flexible characterization of the underlying preference structure for both domestic and imported commodities. Import demand functions are then derived from the underlying model which possess the properties of the flexible characterization of consumer preference. Wheat import data by major source of supply to selected EEC countries and Japan are used to estimate the parameters of the derived wheat import demand relationships. The results of the estimation and tests suggest that the use of the traditional restricted model may be suspect even though such models are easily used in the analysis of trade policy. The traditional model was rejected by use of a likelihood ratio test of model specifications for all import demand functions for the selected importing countries analyzed. This suggests that the associated import demand and income elasticities are not constant but variable (derived from each data point) in contrast to previous assumptions regarding the behavior or import demand and associated elasticities. The compensated own-price elasticities of import demand for U.S. wheat in the Netherlands and Japan were found to be generally inelastic, close to unitary elastic in the United Kingdom (U.K.), and elastic in the Italian market during the time period studied. These estimated elasticities were then used to analyze the impacts of selected trade policies such as export subsidies and taxes, tariff reductions and threshold price systems, quotas and price stabilization.

This monograph reports the results of a comprehensive study of teacher supply and demand conditions in Utah. This research was conducted under contract with the Utah State Office of Education. The objectives of this research were as follows: (a) analyze year 2000 staffing patterns of Utah schools and estimate the potential effects of future retirement on current teacher pools; (b) use enrollment projections and base-year pupil-teacher ratios to predict teacher need for each geographic area and content area; (c) assess the supply of educators from Utah colleges of education and identify reasons why newly prepared teachers do not teach in Utah; (d) assess rates of early attrition among new teachers and identify reasons why new teachers leave; (e) assess the extent of unqualified teaching in Utah schools; (f) compare results from this study with results of nationally representative research; (g) make recommendations for future data collection. Information for this study was obtained from the deans of Utah's colleges of education, the Utah State Office of Education teacher licensure database (CACTUS), Utah State Office of Education enrollment projections, Utah Governor's Office of Planning and Budget demographic projections, and two opinion surveys. Results indicate that between 2001 and 2005 teacher need from enrollment growth will be greatest in elementary teaching and special education assignments; that approximately 50% of new teachers educated in Utah between 1995 and 1998 did not teach in Utah within 3 years, and that most of these graduates either did not seek a teaching position or sought but did not obtain a teaching position in Utah; that 40% of new Utah teachers leave their positions during the first five years of employment, but that few leave because of dissatisfaction with teaching; that most former teachers and nonteaching graduate s would consider teaching in Utah in the future; and that nearly 5% of teachers statewide have not been formally qualified for their assignments. Comparisons with findings from nationally representative studies reveal that the reasons for attrition among Utah educators are very similar to those of educators in other parts of the nation. This report concludes with a set of recommendations for making ongoing assessments of Utah teacher supply and demand conditions.

Hypnotic elicitation of multiple ego states was explored using Hilgard's "hidden observer" paradigm. Twenty subjects in two groups: hypnosis and simulation were utilized to examine the impact of experimental demand characteristics on the production of multiple ego states. Self-report and hypnotist-report measures were obtained in a test-retest design. Multiple t-tests and chi-square analyses were computed with significant differences on key multiple ego state items found between groups. Results demonstrated retest reliability, but not inter-rater reliability of this dissociative phenomena, since hypnotists failed to discriminate real from "faked" hypnotic involvement. Exploration of multiple ego states using non-hypnotic control conditions and multiple dependent measures is suggested for future research.

A physical experimental setup of a circular, gated closed conduit was built at the Utah Water Research Laboratory (UWRL). Setup configurations were modified and data were measured to aid in the study of physical variables on air demand. It was determined that gate opening, gate and water surface roughness, and conduit length all were significant variables on the air demand measured through the conduit air vent. It was also determined that no noticeable air velocity profile existed above the air-water interface. A linear relationship was found between the air flow rate to water flow rate ratio (air-demand ratio) and head-to-gate height ratio when identical conduit geometry was used. Data obtained from this study illustrated that the use of the Froude number is an incomplete way to quantify air demand due to the effects of changing conduit geometry.

The dominant approach to treating social dysfunction in individuals with autism views that dysfunction as a skill deficit. However, another plausible interpretation is that social dysfunction in some individuals arises from motivational deficits. The proposed study presents a method to assess motivational deficits for social attention in individuals with autism. By borrowing methods from behavioral economics, we assessed the essential value for social attention and compared it to the essential value for food. Five individuals diagnosed with autism were included in the project. First, we assessed preference for food by using paired-preference assessment. To identify preference hierarchy for attention, we used a modified version of the paired-preference assessment. After establishing the preference hierarchies for food and attention, the top items from each category were delivered on a fixed-ratio schedule. During this reinforcement assessment the participants received one reinforcer every time they emitted the target response. The final stage of the study included the assessment of the essential value for each of the two commodities (food and attention). During this stage, we increased the number of responses participants were required to emit to earn a reinforcer across each daily session. All of the participants showed a decrease in reinforcers earned as the work requirement increased, and for three of the participants the essential value of food appeared noticeably higher than that of attention. Using the methods from behavior economics allowed the comparison of two commodities that differed in nature, and assisted capturing the important qualities of these potential reinforcers. These results suggest that behavioral economic-based assessments of reinforcer value may have clinical utility.

Dairying is one of the most important agricultural enterprises in Utah. Income from the sale of dairy products by farmers within the state comprises about fifteen percent of the total farm income. Milk and its products are an essential part of the diet of practically all consumers. Its widespread use makes it a commodity that should receive spectial consideration and study. The continued growth of the industry depends upon how well it can meet the demands of the consumer in supplying quality dairy products at reasonable prices. The problems that need particular attention to bring about continued growth are efficient production on the farms, programs to increase the demand for and consumption of milk, sound price policies, seasonality of milk prouction, price spreads for milk of different grades and uses, and reduction in marketting.