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This dissertation uses a convenience sample of members of eBird, a large citizen science project maintained by the Cornell University's Laboratory of Ornithology, to explore the value of avian biodiversity to bird watchers. Panel data (i.e. longitudinal data) are highly desirable for preference estimation. Fortuitously, the diaries of birding excursions by eBird members provide a rich source of spatial data on trips taken, over time by the same individuals, to a variety of birding destinations. Origin and destination data can be combined with exogenous species prevalence information. These combined data sources permit estimation of utility-theoretic choice models that allow derivation of the marginal utilities of avian biodiversity measures as well as the marginal utility of net income (i.e. consumption of other goods and services). Ratios of these marginal utilities yield marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) estimates for numbers of bird species (or numbers of species of different types, in richer specifications). MWTP for levels of other attributes of birding destinations are also derived (e.g. ecosystem type, management regime, seasonal variations, a time trend).\\ The chapters are organized as follows: Chapter 2 is a stand-alone paper that demonstrates the feasibility of a travel-cost based random utility model with the eBird data. This chapter focuses on measuring the total number of bird species at each birding hotspot in Washington and Oregon states. This chapter does not differentiate among types of birders beyond using their recent birding activities in an analysis of habit formation or variety-seeking behavior. For this model, beyond past behavior, a representative consumer is postulated. Chapter 3 starts from the basic specifications identified in Chapter 2 and explores heterogeneous preferences among consumers as well as their preferences for species richness and for different categories of birds. This chapter explores whether different types of birds are relatively more attractive to different types of birders (for example, by gender or by age or by neighborhood characteristics and educational attainment). Chapter 4 is an extension of the work in Chapter 3 to explore how changing site attributes in the face of climate change effects birder welfare. This dissertation includes previously unpublished co-authored material. / 10000-01-01

Energy production is associated with environmental impairment. Most anxious is the greenhouse gas emissions, which also arise from transportation. If battery electric vehicles should be able to alleviate the problem, they must be charged with environmentally friendly produced electricity. This paper investigates a possible relationship between battery electric vehicles and solar photovoltaic panels in household survey data from ENABLE.EU performed in ten European countries autumn 2017 – spring 2018. Estimated with a logit binary choice model, it is found that the probability that a household owns a battery electric vehicle increases if the household owns solar photovoltaic panels. Furthermore, this increase in probability is higher within countries with a higher market diffusion of battery electric vehicle and solar photovoltaic panels (France and the UK). This suggests that policy encouraging home charging of battery electric vehicles from solar photovoltaic panels that includes an energy storage facility could speed up the transition of the vehicle fleet.

The accurate modeling of travelers’ route choice decision making when faced with unreliable (risky) travel times is necessary for the assessment of policies aimed at improving travel time reliability. Two major objectives are studied in this thesis. The first objective is to evaluate the applicability of a process model to route choice under risk where the actual process of decision making is captured. Traditionally, we adopt “as-if” econometric models to predict people’s route choice decisions. The second objective is to investigate travelers’ capability to incorporate future real-time traffic information into their current route choice decision making. Two separate stated preference (SP) surveys were conducted for each objective. The first SP survey used an interactive map in a computer based test. The second SP survey used a full-scale high-fidelity driving simulator. Compared with econometric models, process models have been rarely investigated in travel decision making under risk. A process model aims to describe the actual decision making procedure and could potentially provide a better explanation to route choice behavior. A process model, Priority Heuristic (PH), developed by Brandstatter et al. (2006) is introduced to the travel choice context and its probabilistic version, Probabilistic Priority Heuristic (PPH), is developed and estimated in this study. With data collected from a stated preference (SP) survey which is based on an animated computer interface, one econometric model, Rank-Dependent Expected Utility (RDEU) model, and two other alternative models were compared with the PPH model in a cross validation test to investigate their data-fitting and predictive performance. Our results show that the PPH model outperforms the RDEU model in both data-fitting and predictive performance. This suggests that the process modeling paradigm could be a promising new area in travel behavior research. With the advance of information and telecommunication technology, real-time traffic information is increasingly more available to help travelers make informed route choice decisions when faced with unreliable travel times. A strategic route choice refers to a decision taking into account future diversion possibilities at downstream nodes based on real-time information not yet available at the time of decision-making. Based on the data collected from a driving simulator experiment and a matching PCbased experiment, a mixed Logit model with two latent classes, strategic and nonstrategic route choice, is specified and estimated. The estimates of the latent class probabilities show that a significant portion of route choice decisions are strategic and subjects can learn to make more strategic route choice as they have more experience with the decision scenarios. Non-parametric tests additionally show that network complexity adversely affects travelers’ strategic thinking ability in a driving simulator environment but not in a PC environment and a parallel driving task only affects strategic thinking ability in a difficult scenario but not a simple one. In addition, we find that people’s strategic thinking ability are influenced by their gender and driving experience (mileage) in the non-parametric analysis, but not in the modeling work. These findings suggest that a realistic route choice model with real-time traffic information should consider both strategic and non-strategic behavior, which vary with the characteristics of both the network and the driver.

Mobility is an undeniable issue for current and future elderly populations. The increasing popularity for retirees to live in rural communities makes this a particularly important issue in rural towns. When an elderly individual living in a rural community is no longer able to drive, issues that come with living in a rural area may be exacerbated, and the individual may experience a decrease in their quality of life. Although individuals may be able to use public transportation most existing options do not promote an independent lifestyle. Any updated rural transportation system benefiting the elderly would be funded by taxpayers. An understanding of the taxpayers' preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for transportation options, therefore, is essential. Few, if any economic studies have addressed this issue. The objectives of this research are to: (1) estimate economic willingness-to-pay (WTP) for public transportation options by using choice modeling techniques; and (2) better understand opinions related to public transportation for the elderly held by the general population as a whole and within different demographics. To complete these objectives, a choice survey was distributed to samples of three populations: residents of Atascosa County (located in south Texas); residents of Polk County (located in east Texas); and students at Texas A&M University. Respondents were presented with transportation options made of five attributes: addition to annual vehicle registration fee, days of operation, hours of operation, type of route, and senior citizen transportation fare discount. Results show both students and the general public value public transportation options and are willing to pay for specific transportation attributes. Respondents tended to prefer options which are more flexible than the less flexible attribute presented to them; however, respondents did not necessarily prefer the most flexible options. Students, generally, are willing to pay more for transportation attributes than county residents. Overall, both Atascosa and Polk County residents have similar WTP's, indicating both populations value rural public transportation similarly. The effects of socio-demographic variables on residents' decision to choose a transportation option appear to differ between the counties. These findings imply that while the influence of transportation attribute levels are consistent across counties, local input is important in customizing transportation systems to meet local expectations.

The purpose of this study was to develop a decision model for early-stage breast cancer patients. This model provides an opportunity for comparing two main treatment options, mastectomy and lumpectomy, with respect to quality of life by making use of Decision Theoretic Techniques. A Markov chain was constructed to project the clinical history of breast carcinoma following surgery. Then, health states used in the model were characterized by transition probabilities and utilities for quality of life. A Multi Attribute Utility Model was developed for outcome evaluation. This study was performed on the sample population of female university students, and utilities were elicited from these healthy volunteers. The results yielded by Multi Attribute Utility Model were validated by using Von Neumann-Morgenstern Standard Gamble technique. Finally, Monte Carlo Simulation was utilized in Treeage-Pro 2006 Suit software program in order to solve model and calculate expected utility value generated by each treatment option. The results showed that lumpectomy is more favorable for people who participated in this study. Sensitivity analysis on transition probabilities to local recurrence and salvaged states was performed and two threshold values were observed. Additionally, sensitivity analysis on utilities showed that the model was more sensitive to no evidence of disease state / however, was not sensitive to utilities of local recurrence and salvaged states.

The United States has been a very attractive destination for foreign science and engineering graduate students and postdoctoral scholars for a considerable period of time. Despite the important role of foreign doctoral students in the U.S, relatively little is known about the factors influencing their decision to attend an institution. One factor that is rarely explored is the effect of networks on institution selection. This study aims to provide both qualitative and quantitative information about the role networks play in foreign doctoral students institution selection. This three-part study utilizes different methodologies: (1) focus group interviews conducted with Turkish doctoral students at the Georgia Institute of Technology; (2) a web study of research laboratories in science and engineering; and (3) the estimation of Random Utility Model (RUM) of institution selection. Guided focus group interviews provide important qualitative information about the ways students, alumni, faculty and local community of same nationality influence institution choice. The web study of research laboratories provide evidence that labs that are directed by foreign-born faculty are more likely to be populated by students from the same country of origin than are labs that are directed by native (U.S. born) faculty. The results from RUM of institution selection provide strong and significant evidence for the relationship between the number of existing students from a country of origin at an institution and the probability of attending that institution for potential applicants from the same country of origin. Also, in some of the models there is evidence that the alumni and faculty from the same origin also play a role in student choice. The results of this study have several policy implications related to integration of foreign doctoral students, future enrollments, institutional mismatch , and the role foreign-born faculty play in U.S universities.

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This study starts with two theoretical puzzles within the rational choice oriented literature on government formation in parliamentary democracies: the relative importance of constitutional rules and the existence of multiple party goals. From these puzzles stem the research questions that guide the study: First, what is the theoretical and empirical link between constitutional arrangements (including rules) and party goals? Second, what are the goals of political parties and how can these be studied? Third, relative to the goals of political parties and other constitutional arrangements, what is the importance of government formation rules for the empirical record of minority and majority governments?Coalition theory provides the theoretical starting point from which the research questions stem. The historical-institutional strand of new institutionalism is used to guide the general understanding of the importance of institutional context. The rational choice oriented strand is used for a detailed study of the design of the Swedish government formation rules and an analysis of how the formation rules affect the goal seeking (micro-logic) of actors.Based on both cross-national data and an in-depth study of Swedish coalition and government formation, the analysis shows that the answer to research question number one is that the link between constitutional arrangements and party goals is one of co-determination. The answer to research question number two is that party leaders pursue four main goals and that this should be an explicit model assumption. The answer to research question number three is that the government formation rules help determine the parties' bargaining positions and for that reason they are of significant importance for the formation of minority and majority governments. / digitalisering@umu

The United States has been a very attractive destination for foreign science and engineering graduate students and postdoctoral scholars for a considerable period of time. Despite the important role of foreign doctoral students in the U.S, relatively little is known about the factors influencing their decision to attend an institution. One factor that is rarely explored is the effect of networks on institution selection. This study aims to provide both qualitative and quantitative information about the role networks play in foreign doctoral students institution selection. This three-part study utilizes different methodologies: (1) focus group interviews conducted with Turkish doctoral students at the Georgia Institute of Technology; (2) a web study of research laboratories in science and engineering; and (3) the estimation of Random Utility Model (RUM) of institution selection. Guided focus group interviews provide important qualitative information about the ways students, alumni, faculty and local community of same nationality influence institution choice. The web study of research laboratories provide evidence that labs that are directed by foreign-born faculty are more likely to be populated by students from the same country of origin than are labs that are directed by native (U.S. born) faculty. The results from RUM of institution selection provide strong and significant evidence for the relationship between the number of existing students from a country of origin at an institution and the probability of attending that institution for potential applicants from the same country of origin. Also, in some of the models there is evidence that the alumni and faculty from the same origin also play a role in student choice. The results of this study have several policy implications related to integration of foreign doctoral students, future enrollments, institutional mismatch , and the role foreign-born faculty play in U.S universities.