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<p> The current educational workforce is made up of baby boomers, Generation Xers, millennials, and Generation Zers. Research on generational theory reflects variations in characteristics, work preferences and values among generations, yet there is little known whether teachers from these various generations need differing leadership practices to perform their best. This quantitative study utilized a cross sectional survey design collecting data from 502 Indiana teachers to identify the need teachers place on principals’ leadership behaviors and determine if any significant differences exist based on their generation, gender, the type of community they grew up in or the type of community where they currently teach.  Utilizing Kouzes and Posner’s (1985) Leadership Practices Inventory, participants rated their need for 30 leadership behaviors on a 10-point Likert scale. Overall, teachers from all groups rated they needed principals to exhibit leadership practice enabling others to act the highest with an overall mean score of 8.75 (SD=1.20) followed by modeling the way (M=8.40, SD=1.29), encouraging others (M=8.28, 1.46), challenging the process (M=7.63, SD=1.46), and lastly inspiring a shared vision (M=7.50, SD=1.57). Conducting an independent t-test to compare the means of gender groups and a one-way ANOVA to compare generations, community types and building types resulted in no significant differences in teachers’ need for leadership practices. The results of this study reinforce Kouzes and Posner’s five practices of exemplary leaders as relevant across generations yet leaves open questions for future study on how principals can capitalize on the strengths various generations bring to the school family. </p>

Prior researchers (Anderson et al. 1994; Ballard & Johnson 2004; Hoag & Benedict 2010) have shown that different math abilities do not equally correlate with success in economics, yet no research has specifically compared algebra and geometry skills as predictors of economics success. In the first essay, I find that students’ standardized geometry scores are a much greater predictor of success in economics than standardized algebra test scores. The study uses a rich data set that includes all Georgia public high school students who took a mandatory economics course in 2006, 2007, or 2008. Results from this study provide supporting evidence that utilizing a generic math proxy is probably unwise for researchers modeling economics success. These findings can also be used to strengthen recruitment efforts since geometry scores seem to be a strong predictor of economics aptitude. Although causality cannot be inferred from my findings, it is plausible that a mandatory geometry course prior to economics would improve student outcomes in economics. In the second essay, I analyze the relationship between economics education and macroeconomic policy attitudes of the general public following the financial crisis of 2008. Using survey data of all 50 states, I find that economics literacy is correlated with preferences for three of the six policies preferences studied. Specifically, economics literacy is positively correlated with support for decreased taxes and a smaller government, and negatively correlated with supporting a ceiling on CEO salaries. Additionally, the completion of college and high school economics is positively associated with supporting a decreased role of government. While prior researchers (Roos 2007; Walstad 1997) found that economics literacy can influence policy preferences, there have been no prior studies, to my knowledge, that analyzed the effects of economics knowledge and economics course-taking on policy preferences within the same dataset. My results show that economics literacy and course-taking exert independent effects on macroeconomic preferences for some policies. Thus, any researcher predicting economic preferences should consider controlling for these economics literacy and economics course-taking variables. Furthermore, my findings suggest that the advancing prevalence of economics education could lead to a shift in public preferences.

The main objective of this thesis is to develop a martingale-type solution to optimal consumption--investment choice problems ([Merton, 1969] and [Merton, 1971]) under time-varying incomplete preferences driven by externalities such as patience, socialization effects, and market volatility. The market is composed of multiple risky assets and multiple consumption goods, while in addition there are multiple fluctuating preference parameters with inexact values connected to imprecise tastes. Utility maximization becomes a multi-criteria problem with possibly function-valued criteria. To come up with a complete characterization of the solutions, first we motivate and introduce a set-valued stochastic process for the dynamics of multi-utility indices and formulate the optimization problem in a topological vector space. Then, we modify a classical scalarization method allowing for infiniteness and randomness in dimensions and prove results of equivalence to the original problem. Illustrative examples are given to demonstrate practical interests and method applicability progressively. The link between the original problem and a dual problem is also discussed, relatively briefly. Finally, by using Malliavin calculus with stochastic geometry, we find optimal investment policies to be generally set-valued, each of whose selectors admits a four-way decomposition involving an additional indecisiveness risk-hedging portfolio. Our results touch on new directions for optimal consumption--investment choices in the presence of incomparability and time inconsistency, also signaling potentially testable assumptions on the variability of asset prices. Simulation techniques for set-valued processes are studied for how solved optimal policies can be computed in practice. / 2025-05-12T00:00:00Z

Satisficing was introduced by the economist Herbert Simon to allow for decisions that are "good enough" when there are insufficient computational resources and knowledge to obtain the optimal outcome. Autonomous multi-agent systems often require such decision making because of the complexity and unknown factors present in such an environment. Satisficing has been extended significantly by Wynn Stirling. Through extended satisficing, he has departed from conventional approaches to autonomous multi-agent systems, based as they usually are on the assumption that each participant is motivated exclusively by its own self interest, and will therefore attempt to maximize its benefit, regardless of the benefit or cost to others. He considers an alternative view based on the assumption that, when forming its preferences, the agent is willing to take into consideration the preferences of others. This thesis explores the application of satisficing to simulated soccer, an autonomous multi-agent system with significant inherent complexity. The work described in this thesis shows that satisficing provides an easy way to switch between an agent's various roles, to take into consideration the likely goals and actions of other agents, and to work in conjunction with a genetic algorithm to help optimize parameters. Some principles of developing simple and concise satisficing code are suggested. Satisficing is thus shown to be an effective solution to decision making in complex multi-agent systems.

This study was conducted to find out how payback analysis would affect consumer decision making with regards to home energy efficient upgrade packages. Three different home plans were obtained from a local builder and seven different energy efficient packages were created. Using Hot2000 the heating and cooling loads were calculated for each building, with each energy efficient package, in each of the four major cardinal directions. The averages were taken and the payback information was calculated. The payback information included the increased cost of the package, the increase in the mortgage payment, the annual savings from heating and cooling bills, the monthly savings, the positive or negative monthly cash flow, the amount of time and interest saved if the monthly savings were added to the mortgage principle, the number of years required to pay back the original investment, the rate of return and the increased home value. A survey was taken to see how the subjects would react to viewing the payback information. The subjects were individuals looking to buy a home in the next 12 months somewhere along the Wasatch Front area in Utah. Depending on the size of the home the subjects were looking for, the subjects were shown the different packages with their accompanying cost increase and how that would affect the subjects monthly mortgage payment. The subjects then chose the package they would want for their home, based on their knowledge of construction materials, the additional cost, and how it would affect their mortgage. They were then shown the payback information for the home that was chosen and asked if they would change their mind concerning the previous decision. They were then asked what parts of the payback information they found to be most useful. This study shows that payback information is indeed useful and would help builders to attract new customers, increase profits, and provide customers with powerful information that will empower them to make better decisions about home energy efficiency.

La tesis engloba un estudio sobre preferencias económicas, en concreto, preferencias individuales bajo Riesgo, Riesgo Compuesto y Ambigüedad. Este trabajo muestra la evidencia de un experimento de laboratorio en el que los individuos se enfrentan a una incertidumbre creciente (Riesgo/Riesgo compuesto/Ambigüedad) en tres dimensiones diferentes: probabilidades, pagos y tiempo. Se obtiene el Equivalente Cierto del Valor Presente (PVCE) de 36 loterías con tres fechas de pago diferentes para cada sujeto, y se atribuyen a las condiciones de tratamiento las diferencias entre esos PVCE. Utilizando pruebas no paramétricas y regresiones de efectos aleatorios, la evidencia muestra una notable heterogeneidad en el comportamiento de los individuos según la dimensión afectada por la incertidumbre. En concreto, si bien confirmamos la amplia evidencia sobre la aversión a la Ambigüedad en las probabilidades, encontramos que este efecto prácticamente desaparece cuando las dimensiones de incertidumbre son los pagos y, aún más, el tiempo. Para el caso del Riesgo Compuesto, los resultados encontrados van en la misma línea. Además, se encuentra heterogeneidad en cuanto al comportamiento bajo Riesgo. / Esta tesis ha sido elaborada gracias a la financiación de la Generalitat Valenciana (SEJI/2019/005 y Research Project Group 3/086).

Studien utgör ett kandidatarbete som syftar till att ta reda frågeställningen om vad boende föredrar för byggnadskvaliteter i flerbostadshus. Utgångspunkten ligger i begreppet arkitektonisk kvalitet och berör aspekter inom funktion och skönhet. För att frågeställningen skulle kunna besvaras och syftet uppnås i arbetet gjordes en kvantitativ analys i form av en enkät som skickades ut till mäklare i branschen. Mäklarna skulle representera boenden i hushållen och utifrån deras kompetens och erfarenhet ge deras synpunkter på vad boenden kan tänkas föredra för byggnadskvaliteter. Anledningen till att mäklare blev urvalet har att göra med uppsatsens tidsbegränsning. Med tanke på att författaren till studien är visstidsanställd på JM underlättade det att fråga mäklarkollegor om hjälp. Istället för att skicka enkäter till slumpmässiga boenden.Mäklarna ansåg att säkerhet, ljudisolering, dagsljus, klimat och välfungerande kök – och badrum var de viktigaste aspekterna. Förklarningen till det är att boenden föredrar byggnadskvaliteter som underlättar deras dagliga behov och komfort. Efter en sammanställning av resultatet jämfördes resultatet med den tidigare studien som visade på både likheter och skillnader. Olikheterna i resultatet kan tyda på att boenden föredrar olika beroende på vem det är som tillfrågas. Förutsättningar som inkomst, bakgrund, område, målgrupp är exempel på faktorer som har en inverkan på vad en boende föredrar i en bostad. Därför är det särskilt viktigt att utföra marknadsanalyser i områden för att undersöka boendes behov och efterfrågan, och utifrån den informationen bygga framtida bostäder. / The study makes up a bachelor thesis aimed at answering the question of what housing qualities households prefer in multi-family houses. The starting point is the concept of architectural quality and focuses on aspects of function and beauty. In order for the question to be answered and the purpose of the work fulfilled, a quantitative analysis was conducted in the form of a survey sent to real estate agents within the industry. The real estate agents would represent people living in the households and, based on their knowledge and experience give their views on what building qualities people might prefer. The reason why real estate agents were selected has to do with time constraint of the essay. Given that the author of the study is a fixed-term employee at JM, it helped to ask colleagues for help instead of sending surveys to random households.The real estate agents were of the belief that safety, soundproofing, daylight, climate and well-functioning kitchen and bathrooms were the most important aspects. The explanation for it is that households prefer building qualities that facilitate their daily needs and comfort. After a compilation of the results, the results were compared with a previous study which showed both similarities and differences. The differences in the results may indicate that the households prefer different aspects depending on who is asked. Prerequisites such as income, background, living area and target group are examples of factors that affect what a household prefers in a home. Therefore, it is particularly important to conduct market analyzes in areas to investigate housing needs and demand, and based on the information build future housing.