This thesis analyses stated preferences for 4 different types of passenger ve- hicles (conventional, hybrid electric, plug-in hybrid, and battery electric vehi- cles). The discrete choice experiment survey was conducted in Poland in 2014. With the use of latent class model it was possible to identify and describe dis- tinct segments in the population with varying preferences for the propulsion technologies: groups with strong and weak preferences for conventional vehi- cles, segments preferring pure hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and a class in favour of battery electric vehicles. Even though it was found that on average consumers would require compensation up to 22,200zł (e5,311) to switch to using an electric vehicle, respective segments in the population would be willing to pay around 10,100zł (e2,417) for this change in case of pure hy- brid, around 21,400zł (e5,128) in case of plug-in hybrid, and around 92,800zł (e22,199) in case of battery electric vehicles.

This thesis uses the case study of the Fallas festival in the city of Valencia (Spain), to assess the value of intangible cultural heritage. Within this framework the thesis explores a number of different issues: for example how social agents frame different qualities and benefits of cultural heritage in order to describe the value and claims for funding the arts. It finds that value assessment for claiming funds presents many challenges such as: identifying the values of the heritage in question; describing them; and ranking them according to their contribution to the public welfare. It examines the methodological techniques for assessing heritage values and goes on to discuss a number of tools that are, or could be, used for assessment. The thesis also explores how public bodies legitimise cultural funding. It examines the role of non-government arts organisations in supporting the arts. It proposes the analysis of donor decisions through a multi-attribute technique where donors state their importance to donor situations under specific conditions or attributes. Finally, it describes how the stakeholder approach can be applied for searching new ways of funding festivals. It also considers how intangible cultural heritage goods can be assessed within the process of cost-benefit evaluation. It also analyses how public bodies, as the principal supporters of culture, deal with the problem of valuing intangibles on social investments. The study uses the Fallas festival to test the research hypothesis. It uses a number of economic and statistical techniques to evaluate the Fallas Festival, these include Contingent Valuation, Choice Experiment and Descriptive and Multiatribute Statistics. The statistical techniques reveal that historical benefits are intrinsically valuable in the Fallas festival. The historical value that the members of the neighbourhood associations place on the Fallas festival justify that local social agents should support this festival. / Sánchez Royo, B. (2011). AN APPROACH TOWARDS HOLISTIC ASSESSMENT OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/12269 / Palancia

We estimate the willingness to pay for electricity generated from renewable energy in the Czech Republic. Discrete choice experiment is used to elicit preferences for various attributes of renewable electricity support scheme (PM emission, GHG emission, size of RE power plant, revenue distribution, and costs). Original survey is carried with 404 respondents living in two regions - Ustecky (polluted area) and Southern Bohemia (cleaner area). We find that respondents prefer decentralized renewable electricity sources over centralized, local air quality improvements over reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Estimated marginal willingness to pay for 1% reduction in emission of particulate matter equals to 49 CZK, respectively 3.7 % of average monthly electricity bill. In total, WTP for green electricity is larger than current compulsory contributions to renewable energy support scheme. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

L’objectif de ce travail est de déterminer, dans le contexte actuel de dysfonctionnements de la tarification sociale ferroviaire, de remise en cause des interventions publiques, et de déréglementation des réseaux, s’il est possible de réformer ce type de tarification et quelle sont les marges de manœuvre disponibles. La réflexion s’applique au cas de la carte Familles Nombreuses imposée par l’Etat à la SNCF.Dans ce sens, nous appréhendons d’abord le terme de tarification sociale en pratique et en théorie afin d’élaborer une définition générique, puis analysons les modalités alternatives d’organisation et de financement des tarifs sociaux. Nous recherchons ensuite, à travers une analyse historique détaillée du tarif Familles Nombreuses et des relations de gouvernance entre l’entreprise et l’Etat, les leviers et les freins qui permettent d’engager ces évolutions. Nous mettons en évidence les évolutions proposées jusqu’à présent et les éléments déclencheurs de ces évolutions.Forts de ces enseignements et à partir d’une enquête préférences déclarées, nous formulons des propositions d’aménagement du tarif Familles Nombreuses. Elles reposent sur la sensibilité et les choix réels des consommateurs et sont évaluées à partir de calculs de surplus. Les marges de manœuvre apparaissent finalement peu nombreuses. Les évolutions envisagées risquent de provoquer de nombreux mécontentements pour un gain de surplus finalement faible, voire négatif. Une solution pourrait alors consister en l’intégration du tarif Familles Nombreuses dans le système de yield management. Cela permettrait à la SNCF de disposer de marges de manœuvre plus importantes, à l’Etat de sortir de la contrainte de financement et à l’usager de bénéficier de réductions plus importantes. Ainsi, à travers une sorte de policy mix entre les logiques commerciale et sociale, le yield management pourrait constituer un outil de politique sociale, source de justice sociale et de redistribution. / The aim of our study is to determine, in the context of dysfunctions with social tariffs in the French railway industry, challenging of public policy, and deregulation of network industries, if it is possible to reform this type of tariff and which ways we can use. Our work deals with the case study of the card “Familles Nombreuses”, which is a social tariff imposed by the State to the French railway operator, SNCF.First we analyze social tariffs in a practical and theoretical approach to make a generic definition. Then we analyze some alternative ways of organizing and financing social tariffs.Then, we are seeking, through a detailed historical analysis of the social tariff “Familles Nombreuses” and the governance relations between SNCF and government, elements that allow these changes. We highlight the changes proposed until today and the events that cause these changes.With these lessons and a stated preference survey, we make, some proposals to reform the social tariff “Familles Nombreuses”. They are based on the sensitivity and real consumer choice, not on assumptions or deductions and are evaluated with calculations of surplus. In terms of results, if we can’t make a single proposal that would be "the" solution, we make some recommendations depending on the objectives of different actors and the role they wish to give to social tariffs. We can also determine the commitment to social tariffs. Leeways appear in fact limited. The changes based on the current commercial tarifs may cause a stir discontent and the surplus could be finally low or even negative. One solution could consist in inserting the social tariff « Familles Nombreuses » into the global system of yield management. This would allow the SNCF to have greater leeway on this tariff, the State to face no longer the funding constraints and the user to be offered more discount. Thus, through a policy between commercial and social logic, the yield management could be a tool of social policy, source of social justice and redistribution.

La Valeur statistique de la vie humaine (VSVH) est un outil d’analyse économique, qui est définie comme la valeur qu’une personne est prête à payer (CAP) pour réduire le risque de mortalité ou de morbidité. L’intérêt d’un tel outil est d’estimer monétairement le bénéfice social d’un projet d’investissement destiné à réduire le risque, mais aussi d’établir un arbitrage entre plusieurs alternatives. Répondre à l’aléa moral dans un contexte de rareté des ressources est parfaitement adéquat avec la VSVH. Avec l’estimation des personnes de leurs capacités de paiement en fonction de leurs perceptions du risque et de leur niveau de revenu, les personnes sont positionnées comme les seules juges de la valeur de leurs vies. Parce que, les personnes déterminent librement les CAPs en fonction de leurs préférences personnelles et que ces préférences sont intégrées dans la détermination d’un choix social, la VSVH ne contredit pas le cadre normatif d’établissement d’une décision. Néanmoins, le welfarisme comme une source des méthodes d’estimation de la VSVH est en relation directe avec l’utilitarisme. Au final, la valeur estimée par la VSVH est de nature subjective. Dans le domaine de la santé, la VSVH doit dépasser le cadre subjectif d’une estimation pour répondre à l’éthique normative qui décrit la pratique médicale, notamment la prise en considération de l’autonomie personnelle, la notion personnelle de la bonne vie et la notion universelle de la personne. L’objectif de notre travail est de rechercher les arguments d’établissement d’une valeur de référence de la VSVH qui endosse un cadre normatif. Cela nécessite une analyse approfondie au sein de la théorie économique du bien-être. / The value of statistical life (VSL) is an economic analytical tool, which is defined as the value that a person is ready to pay (WTP) in order to reduce the risk mortality or morbidity. The advantage of such a tool is to monetarily estimate the social benefit of an investment project which is made to reduce the risk, but also to establish an arbitrage between several alternatives. Respond to the moral hazard in a context pertaining to the scarcity of resources, which is perfectly in keeping with VSL. With people’s estimation on their willingness to pay, depending on how they perceive risks and their income level, people are positioned as the sole judges as for the value of their lives. Because people freely determine the WTP depending on their personal preferences and these preferences are included in order to determine a social choice. The value of statistical life doesn’t contradict the normative framework of establishing a decision. Nonetheless, welfarism which is a source of estimating methods of VSL is directly related to utilitarianism. Eventually, the estimated value by VSL is subjective nature. In the health sector, the VSL needs to surpass the subjective framework of an estimation in order to answer the normative ethic which describes the medical practice, especially by taking personal self-sufficiency into account but also the personal notion of a good life and the universal notion of the person. Researching establishing arguments of reference value pertaining to VSL which takes on a normative framework and this is objective when it comes to our work. This theoretically requires an in-depth analysis within the economic theory of well-being.

<p>This thesis addresses the issue of weighted cost-benefit analysis (WCBA). WCBA is a welfare evaluation model where income distribution effects are valued by distributional weighting. The method was developed already in the 1970s. The interest in and applications of this method have increased in the past decade, e.g. when evaluating of global environmental problems. There are, however, still unsolved problems regarding the application of this method. One such issue is the choice of the approach to the means of estimating of the distributional weights. The literature on WCBA suggests a couple of approaches, but gives no clues as to which one is the most appropriate one to use, either from a theoretical or from an empirical point of view. Accordingly, the choice of distributional weights may be an arbitrary one. In the first paper in this thesis, the consequences of the choice of distributional weights on project decisions have been studied. Different sets of distributional weights have been compared across a variety of strategically chosen income distribution effects. The distributional weights examined are those that correspond to the WCBA approaches commonly suggested in literature on the topic. The results indicate that the choice of distributional weights is of importance for the rank of projects only when the income distribution effects concern target populations with low incomes. The results also show that not only the mean income but also the span of incomes, of the target population of the income distribution effect, affects the result of the distributional weighting when applying very progressive non-linear distributional weights. This may cause the distributional weighting to indicate an income distribution effect even though the project effect is evenly distributed across the population.</p><p>One rational for distributional weighting, commonly referred to when applying WCBA, is that marginal utility of income is decreasing with income. In the second paper, this hypothesis is tested. My study contributes to this literature by employing stated preference data on compensated variation (CV) in a model flexible as to the functional form of the marginal utility. The results indicate that the marginal utility of income decreases linearly with income.</p><p>Under certain conditions, a decreasing marginal utility of income corresponds to risk aversion. Thus the hypothesis that marginal utility of income is decreasing with income can be tested by analyses of individuals’ behaviour in gambling situations. The third paper examines of the role of risk aversion, defined by the von Neumann-Morgenstern expected utility function, for people’s concern about the problem of ‘sick’ buildings. The analysis is based on data on the willingness to pay (WTP) for having the indoor air quality (IAQ) at home examined and diagnosed by experts and the WTP for acquiring an IAQ at home that is guaranteed to be good. The results indicate that some of the households are willing to pay for an elimination of the uncertainty of the IAQ at home, even though they are not willing to pay for an elimination of the risks for building related ill health. The probability to pay, for an elimination of the uncertainty of the indoor air quality at home, only because of risk aversion is estimated to 0.3-0.4. Risk aversion seems to be a more common motive, for the decision to pay for a diagnosis of the IAQ at home, among young people.</p><p>Another rationale for distributional weighting, commonly referred to, is the existence of unselfish motives for economic behaviour, such as social inequality aversion or altruism. In the fourth paper the hypothesis that people have altruistic preferences, i.e. that they care about other people’s well being, is tested. The WTP for a public project, that ensures good indoor air quality in all buildings, have been measured in three different ways for three randomly drawn sub-samples, capturing different motives for economic behaviour (pure altruism, paternalism and selfishness). The significance of different questions, and different motives, is analysed using an independent samples test of the mean WTPs of the sub-samples, a chi-square test of the association between the WTP and the sample group membership and an econometric analysis of the decision to pay to the public project. No evidence for altruism, either pure altruism or paternalism, is found in this study.</p>

This thesis addresses the issue of weighted cost-benefit analysis (WCBA). WCBA is a welfare evaluation model where income distribution effects are valued by distributional weighting. The method was developed already in the 1970s. The interest in and applications of this method have increased in the past decade, e.g. when evaluating of global environmental problems. There are, however, still unsolved problems regarding the application of this method. One such issue is the choice of the approach to the means of estimating of the distributional weights. The literature on WCBA suggests a couple of approaches, but gives no clues as to which one is the most appropriate one to use, either from a theoretical or from an empirical point of view. Accordingly, the choice of distributional weights may be an arbitrary one. In the first paper in this thesis, the consequences of the choice of distributional weights on project decisions have been studied. Different sets of distributional weights have been compared across a variety of strategically chosen income distribution effects. The distributional weights examined are those that correspond to the WCBA approaches commonly suggested in literature on the topic. The results indicate that the choice of distributional weights is of importance for the rank of projects only when the income distribution effects concern target populations with low incomes. The results also show that not only the mean income but also the span of incomes, of the target population of the income distribution effect, affects the result of the distributional weighting when applying very progressive non-linear distributional weights. This may cause the distributional weighting to indicate an income distribution effect even though the project effect is evenly distributed across the population. One rational for distributional weighting, commonly referred to when applying WCBA, is that marginal utility of income is decreasing with income. In the second paper, this hypothesis is tested. My study contributes to this literature by employing stated preference data on compensated variation (CV) in a model flexible as to the functional form of the marginal utility. The results indicate that the marginal utility of income decreases linearly with income. Under certain conditions, a decreasing marginal utility of income corresponds to risk aversion. Thus the hypothesis that marginal utility of income is decreasing with income can be tested by analyses of individuals’ behaviour in gambling situations. The third paper examines of the role of risk aversion, defined by the von Neumann-Morgenstern expected utility function, for people’s concern about the problem of ‘sick’ buildings. The analysis is based on data on the willingness to pay (WTP) for having the indoor air quality (IAQ) at home examined and diagnosed by experts and the WTP for acquiring an IAQ at home that is guaranteed to be good. The results indicate that some of the households are willing to pay for an elimination of the uncertainty of the IAQ at home, even though they are not willing to pay for an elimination of the risks for building related ill health. The probability to pay, for an elimination of the uncertainty of the indoor air quality at home, only because of risk aversion is estimated to 0.3-0.4. Risk aversion seems to be a more common motive, for the decision to pay for a diagnosis of the IAQ at home, among young people. Another rationale for distributional weighting, commonly referred to, is the existence of unselfish motives for economic behaviour, such as social inequality aversion or altruism. In the fourth paper the hypothesis that people have altruistic preferences, i.e. that they care about other people’s well being, is tested. The WTP for a public project, that ensures good indoor air quality in all buildings, have been measured in three different ways for three randomly drawn sub-samples, capturing different motives for economic behaviour (pure altruism, paternalism and selfishness). The significance of different questions, and different motives, is analysed using an independent samples test of the mean WTPs of the sub-samples, a chi-square test of the association between the WTP and the sample group membership and an econometric analysis of the decision to pay to the public project. No evidence for altruism, either pure altruism or paternalism, is found in this study.

In the modern industrialized society, a long commuting time is becoming more and more common. However, commuting results in a number of different costs, for example, external costs such as congestion and pollution as well as internal costs such as individual time consumption. On the other hand, increased commuting opportunities offer welfare gains, for example via larger local labor markets. The length of the commute that is acceptable to the workers is determined by the workers' preferences and the compensation opportunities in the labor market. In this thesis the value of travel time or commuting time changes, has been empirically analyzed in four self-contained essays. First, a large set of register data on the Swedish labor market is used to analyze the commuting time changes that follow residential relocations and job relocations. The average commuting time is longer after relocation than before, regardless of the type of relocation. The commuting time change after relocation is found to differ substantially with socio-economic characteristics and these effects also depend on where the distribution of commuting time changes is evaluated. The same data set is used in the second essay to estimate the value of commuting time (VOCT). Here, VOCT is estimated as the trade-off between wage and commuting time, based on the effects wage and commuting time have on the probability of changing jobs. The estimated VOCT is found to be relatively large, in fact about 1.8 times the net wage rate. In the third essay, the VOCT is estimated on a different type of data, namely data from a stated preference survey. Spouses of two-earner households are asked to individually make trade-offs between commuting time and wage. The subjects are making choices both with regard to their own commuting time and wage only, as well as when both their own commuting time and wage and their spouse's commuting time and wage are simultaneously changed. The results show relatively high VOCT compared to other studies. Also, there is a tendency for both spouses to value the commuting time of the wife highest. Finally, the presence of hypothetical bias in a value of time experiment without scheduling constraints is tested. The results show a positive but not significant hypothetical bias. By taking preference certainty into account, positive hypothetical bias is found for the non-certain subjects.

Cette thèse s’intéresse à plusieurs questions posées par l’introduction et la généralisation, en France, d’incitatifs économiques de type P4P appliqués à la médecine générale. Ces schémas incitatifs (CAPI, ROSP) ont pour objectif d’améliorer la qualité des soins, mais ils sont débattus en termes d’efficience et d’effets indésirables potentiels. Dans un premier temps, nous évaluons l’impact du CAPI sur différents indicateurs de la qualité des soins : la durée de la consultation et le dépistage des cancers. Puis, nous étudions les modalités d’une meilleure implication du médecin généraliste (MG) dans le dépistage des cancers, en appliquant la méthodologie des choix discrets. Enfin, nous analysons la relation entre motivations intrinsèques et extrinsèques des MGs français. Nous montrons que le CAPI n’a pas eu d’impact significatif sur les indicateurs de qualité considérés et que les MGs seraient sensibles à d’autres dispositifs non monétaires potentiellement moins coûteux. Enfin, nous mettons en évidence une relation de substituabilité entre motivations intrinsèques et extrinsèques. Ces résultats invitent à davantage de prudence dans la définition des incitatifs économiques en médecine générale. / This thesis addresses several issues raised by the introduction in France of economic incentives such as pay-For-Performance applied to general practice. These incentive schemes are designed to improve the quality of care, but they are discussed both in terms of effectiveness and potential side effects. Initially, we assess the impact of the CAPI scheme on various indicators of quality of care: the consultation length and cancers screening. Then, using the discrete choice experiment methodology, we reveal general practitioners (GPs) preferences for devices aimed at improving the early detection of cancers. Finally, we analyse empirically the relationship between French GPs' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. We show that the CAPI has not had a significant impact on the selected quality indicators. In addition, GPs would be sensitive to potentially less costly nonmonetary devices. Eventually, we highlight a negative relationship between GPs' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Our results call for greater caution in the definition of economic incentives in general practice.