Overfishing of red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico has significantly increased lately. A major regulation to reduce the overfishing is Total Allowable Catches (TAC) in combination with a season closure. The restrictions on entry lead to an inefficient outcome, however, because the resource is not used by the fishermen who value it the most. As an alternative to restricting entry, transferable rights (TR) programs are being increasingly considered. Under a TR program, a market is created to trade a right to use a resource and the total benefits of the participants are maximized through such a trade. The principal objective of this dissertation is to comprehensively assess economic and biological consequences of the red snapper fishery for the TR program. To date the literature lacks sufficient discussion of how recreational TR programs would function. I, therefore, propose an economically desirable institutional framework for the TR program in the recreational fishery. I draw some lessons from hunting programs and applications of other TR programs to find better schemes for the TR program in the recreational fishery.This dissertation uses theoretical and empirical models as well as institutional settings to develop the TR program. A theoretical model is provided to investigate which unit of measurement for the TRs is preferable. For empirical models I first estimate an empirically based recreation demand that incorporates TR permit demand and then develop a simulation submodel using the estimated demand. I find price instruments, such as fees or TR programs, are very efficient to reduce fishing trips but they also lead to distributional impacts on trips by low income (or low cost) anglers. Partial simulation results indicate that an efficiency benefit of the TR program would be significant because recreational trip demand in the current closed season is not trivial. I conclude that the TR program in the recreational fishery will economically and biologically provide a great deal of merit to reduce the overfishing situation and a substantial efficiency gain to Gulf anglers. Some institutional barriers, especially from the large transaction cost can also be overcome if electronic systems or the Internet are used.

<p>This study focuses on valuation of natural resources and particularly valuation of the quality of a natural resource. The aim is to value an improvement of water quality, measured as sight depth, in the bay Himmerfjärden in the Stockholm archipelago. It is desirable to attain a value of a one metre sight depth improvement in Himmerfjärden and to analyse how a sight depth improvement affects the demand for travelling to Himmerfjärden. A condtional logit model is applied to obtain these values from survey data. The benefits of a one metre sight depth improvement in Himmerfjärden, will yield 162 260-1 599 420 SEK per year, adjusted to the price level of 2007. The estimated value depends on how travel time is treated and whether a commute variable is included or not. Furthermore will a one per cent sight depth improvement in Himmerfjärden increase the demand for travelling to Himmerfjärden with approximately 0.13-0.18 trips on a given choice occasion. These results indicate that there are values attained to the quality of a natural resource.</p>

The main reason for the choice of the topic "business trip" and the focus of that particular sector of labour-law is, that most of us will actually enter an employment relationship one day. The concept of a business trip is well known by the public, yet the specific legal regulations of the conditions of sending employees for a business trip and providing travel cost reimbursement, contained in the Labour Code, are not known as well. The general concept of the business trip and its kinds (domestic and foreign business trip) and the closely related terms such as the place of work and regular place of work are the main concern of the first part of my thesis. The focus then shifts onto the conditions of sending employees for business trip, specifically onto the agreement with the employee and its historical development, duration of a business trip and other conditions like the start time and the end of a business trip or means of transport and accommodation. The thesis continues with the focus on the process of a business trip, describing work assignment, working hours and interruption of business trip, furthermore describes the instructions for a business trip with the orientation on the definition of the chief employee and the practice of the courts in this issue. Towards conclusion my thesis concerns travel...

This study focuses on valuation of natural resources and particularly valuation of the quality of a natural resource. The aim is to value an improvement of water quality, measured as sight depth, in the bay Himmerfjärden in the Stockholm archipelago. It is desirable to attain a value of a one metre sight depth improvement in Himmerfjärden and to analyse how a sight depth improvement affects the demand for travelling to Himmerfjärden. A condtional logit model is applied to obtain these values from survey data. The benefits of a one metre sight depth improvement in Himmerfjärden, will yield 162 260-1 599 420 SEK per year, adjusted to the price level of 2007. The estimated value depends on how travel time is treated and whether a commute variable is included or not. Furthermore will a one per cent sight depth improvement in Himmerfjärden increase the demand for travelling to Himmerfjärden with approximately 0.13-0.18 trips on a given choice occasion. These results indicate that there are values attained to the quality of a natural resource.

Walking tracks with provision for overnight stays exist in many countries. They are a tourism drawcard and some (e.g. the Milford Track in New Zealand) have icon status. In Australia, long-distance tracks exist in most states but had not until recently been developed in north Queensland. The working hypothesis for this thesis is that a new long-distance walking track in the tropical rainforest environment could be a valuable recreation asset for the region, and a major tourism attractor. Since a long-distance walking track in a natural environment would be situated in a rural region away from major cities, there is potential for tourism expenditure by long-distance hikers to contribute positively to the economy of remote towns. It is proposed that a walking track can be created relatively easily in the rainforests if disused former logging roads are used as the basis. The new walking track on a logging road base could be developed at moderate cost, and with minimal ecological and environmental disturbance. A new track created within a protected natural area is usually regarded as a public good and most associated costs may be considered to be appropriately funded through the taxation system. However, it may be argued that the recreational use of a long-distance walking track provides benefits to those who use it, and that hikers should contribute towards the recovery of managerial costs. An appropriate level of user fee may be obtained from a market model. In this thesis, an annual market model is estimated for the recreation service which provides a short-term efficient price. A long-distance walking track is an investment in recreation infrastructure the benefits of which are intergenerational. Thus efficiency in the long-term is also an important consideration. Both a static analysis and cost-benefit dynamic analysis are presented in this thesis. When a track does not exist (as was the case in north Queensland when this thesis commenced) or when it is under construction (as when the thesis was nearing completion), direct evaluation is not possible and so demand (consumer surplus) and supply (marginal cost of recreation service) estimates for a new track must be obtained from other sources. A key original contribution in this thesis is the application of economic transfer to derive a market model for a proposed recreation service infrastructure item, and a further application of economic transfer involves the use of the benefit level from the market model as an input into the cost-benefit analysis. Demand estimates have been obtained from surveys of visitors on two other walking tracks in north Queensland. Zonal travel cost methodology has been applied to the survey data to develop demand curves for these long-distance hiking opportunities and measures of value in terms of consumer surplus. Zonal rather than individual travel cost was necessary since most respondents were walking the particular track for the first time. Since the Centenary of Federation in Australia in 2001, when seed funding was made available, some new long-distance walking tracks have been developed in the Queensland Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. One of these has been selected as the case study developing track for this thesis. Demand and cost estimates for the new trail have been transferred, with appropriate adjustments, from the studies conducted on the two other trails. An interesting feature in this transfer process is that close substitutes exist for the target walking track but not for either of the two source walking tracks. An innovation in this thesis is the development of a market model for the new track. Two market models are derived, one from each of the source tracks, and are used to determine the socially efficient price and visitation levels. These may be used by management as a basis for the setting of user fees. The equilibrium values obtained from the static analysis have also been incorporated into the dynamic analysis together with the consumer surplus estimates from the travel cost demand curve. The equilibrium quantities provide the basis for an estimate of the visitation level expected for the new track on which many of the continuing management costs depend. Two scenarios (with and without hut infrastructure) have been investigated in cost-benefit analyses. Both scenarios were found to be economically worthwhile.

High-elevation environments above 2500 metres above sea level (m.a.s.l.) were among the planet's last frontiers of human colonization. Research on the speed and tempo of this colonization process is active and holds implications for understanding rates of genetic, physiological and cultural adaptation in our species. Permanent occupation of high-elevation environments in the Andes Mountains of South America tentatively began with hunter-gatherers around 9 ka according to current archaeological estimates, though the timing is currently debated. Recent observations on the archaeological site of Soro Mik'aya Patjxa (8.0-6.5 ka), located at 3800 m.a.s.l. in the Andean Altiplano, offer an opportunity to independently test hypotheses for early permanent use of the region. This study observes low oxygen (delta O-18) and high carbon (delta C-13) isotope values in human bone, long travel distances to low-elevation zones, variable age and sex structure in the human population and an absence of non-local lithic materials. These independent lines of evidence converge to support a model of permanent occupation of high elevations and refute logistical and seasonal use models. The results constitute the strongest empirical support to date for permanent human occupation of the Andean highlands by hunter-gatherers before 7 ka.

Motivated by the increasing popularity of wildlife viewing and a growing emphasis on management for nontimber outputs, wildlife viewing demand was assessed. Specific objectives included determining factors affecting participation and frequency of use, and furthermore, deriving 2006 nationwide wildlife viewing consumer surplus estimates. With the travel cost method as the theoretical basis, the empirical estimation method employed was a two-step sample selection model that included a probit first step and a negative binomial second step. Consumer surplus per trip estimates ranged from $215.23 to $739.07 while aggregate national estimates ranged from $44.5 billion to $185.1 billion. Results reveal that age, race, and urban residence affect participation and frequency similarly. This research can help policymakers in particular better understand determinants of wildlife viewing participation and frequency. The value of wildlife viewing access can be used to justify funding initiatives aimed at protecting or managing for this use.

<p> The purpose of this study is to investigate the McMaster commuter distribution. The total analysis is carried out in two subanalyses. The first analysis examines the effect that different variables have on the mean trip length of various commuter groups. The variables examined in the first analysis are: residential tenure, occupation, duration of service or study, parking permit ownership and part-time versus full-time status of students. In general the first analysis is concerned with the mean trip length of on campus Faculty, Staff, and Students. The first analysis verified that residential tenure is an important variable in that students who commute from the homes of parents average a considerably greater mean trip length than students who commute from rented accommodation.</p> <p> The second analysis employs a disaggregate singly-constrained spatial interaction model to distribute trips between McMaster and student residential locations. The second analysis shows that: (i) the production-constrained model fits considerably better with observed data when the sample is partitioned into student renter and stay at home groups than when the sample is not partitioned. The attractiveness factors were varied between the two groups. Renters were considered to be attracted to renter occupied dwellings in a zone while students commuting from the homes of parents were considered to be attracted to the number of owner occupied dwellings in a zone. (ii) straight line distance as a surrogate for travel cost yields a better fit for the renter group while automobile travel-time facilitates a better fit for the stay at home group. Auto travel time yields a better fit for peripheral trips because of the tendency for these trips to be made by car. Given the understanding that student renters are predominantly bus users who have chosen to locate close to the campus, euclidean distance is apparently more reflective of the travel impedance experienced by this group. Future research should attempt to qualitatively link measures of travel cost with the client group they are attempting to model.</p> / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)

This thesis uses zonal travel cost method (ZTCM) to estimate consumer surplus of Peace &amp; Love festival in Borlänge, Sweden. The study defines counties as zones of origin of the visitors. Visiting rates from each zone are estimated based on survey data. The study is novel due to the fact that mostly TCM has been applied in the environmental and recreational sector, not for short term events, like P&amp;L festival. The analysis shows that travel cost has a significantly negative effect on visiting rate as expected. Even though income has previously shown to be significant in similar studies, it turns out to be insignificant in this study. A point estimate for the total consumer surplus of P&amp;L festival is 35.6 million Swedish kronor. However, this point estimate is associated with high uncertainty since a 95 % confidence interval for it is (17.9, 53.2). It is also important to note that the estimated value only represents one part of the total economic value, the other values of the festival's totaleconomic value have not been estimated in this thesis.

abstract: Three demand systems were estimated to examine demand sensitivity and welfare changes for each commodity under study. In the first essay, a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) was used to examine the effect of the Fukushima Daichi nuclear disaster on the demand for imported pelagic fish in the domestic Japanese market. The effect of the Fukushima Daichi nuclear disaster was measured using changes in demand after the disaster as well as measures of changes in social welfare changes caused by the disaster. A significant effect of the disaster on demand sensitivity measures was found, but no significant changes in welfare. In the second essay, a differential demand system examined the effect of exchange rate fluctuations on the demand for fresh tomatoes in the U.S. Market. It was found that the U.S. Dollar-Mexican Peso exchange rate had a significant positive effect on the demand for Mexican fresh tomatoes. In the third essay, a Hurdle Negative Binomial demand system was estimated for recreational trips to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. This model was estimated using Bayesian methods to obtain parameter estimates that could not be obtained by maximum likelihood. The parameters were used to calculate recreational welfare measures for trips to seventy-two entry points. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2017