Browsing by Subject "Willingness to pay"
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Item Economic potential for cotton utilization in alternative nonwoven textile technologies(2012-08) Luitel, Kishor; Hudson, Darren; Ethridge, Dean; Chidmi, BenaissaCotton fiber is one of the most widely used fibers in the textile industry. In the U.S., despite increases in exports and production, the decline in domestic use of cotton has been the cause for some concern in the cotton industry. The use of synthetic fiber is increasing, replacing cotton fiber in textile industry. Nonwovens are the fastest growing sector of the textile industry. Nonwovens are engineered fabrics that are a combination of traditional textiles, paper and plastic. Nonwoven textile products are largely found in products related to hygiene, medical/surgical products, wipes, filters, shoes, in coating/laminated substrates, electronics, automotive textiles, geotextiles, furnishing and bedding, construction, padding and others. This study focuses on evaluating the economic potential for cotton fiber in nonwoven textiles by analyzing the nonwoven products and technologies that could use cotton and examines the price sensitivity of cotton compared with its substitute fibers. Data was collected through an online survey conducted among the nonwoven products producing firms. The study shows that cotton has prospect in the production of absorbent and hygienic, medical/surgical and health care, personal care and wipes products. It is technically feasible to use cotton in nonwoven textiles but economics is the limitation, in terms of price, volatility in price, and processing cost for impurities on the cotton fiber. The price of cotton fiber is not sensitive to its substitute fibers except for acrylic fiber. The cotton using firms are willing to pay a little more to use cotton than non-cotton using firms, compared to substitute fibers of cotton.Item Essays on risk aversion(Texas A&M University, 2006-10-30) Jindapon, PaanThis dissertation contains three essays on risk aversion. In the first essay, we an- alyze comparative risk aversion in a new way, through a comparative statics problem in which, for a cost, agents can shift from an initial probability distribution toward a preferred distribution. The Ross characterization arises when the original distribution is riskier than the preferred distribution and the cost is monetary, and the Arrow-Pratt characterization arises when the original distribution differs from the preferred distribution by a simple mean-preserving spread and the cost is a utility cost. Higher-order increases in risk lead to higher-order generalizations, and the com- parative statics method yields a unified approach to the problem of comparative risk attitudes. In the second essay, we analyze decisions made by a group of terrorists and a government in a zero-sum game in which the terrorists minimize a representative citizen's expected utility and the government maximizes it. The terrorists' strategy balances the probability and the severity of the attack while the government chooses the level of investment reducing the probability and/or mitigating the severity. We find that if the representative citizen is risk neutral, the terrorists' response is not associated with the government's action and the representative citizen's risk attitudes affect the strategies of the government and the terrorists. Risk aversion always in- creases equilibrium severity but does not always increase equilibrium expenditure of the government. In the last essay, we consider a situation in which an individual has to pay for a good before he realizes the state-dependent surplus of the good. This ex-ante willingness to pay is called the option price and the difference between the option price and the expected surplus is the option value. We find that the option value actually is the buying price for a fixed payment of the expected surplus, and there is a special case in which the option value equals the negative of the compensating risk premium. We also find the effects on the option price and the option value when the expected utility assumption is replaced by a rank-dependent expected utility.Item Fair work Austin : a study of consumer willingness to pay for premier community builders certified construction in Austin, Texas(2013-05) Collins, Haley Brooke; Dooling, SarahThe city of Austin in recent years has undertaken a number of planning initiatives to guide future development in the rapidly-growing urban area. What has emerged is a clear commitment to a broad definition of sustainability that includes environmental, economic, and social sustainability among both policy makers and the public. The city of Austin has made great strides towards its goal of becoming a model city for sustainability, but it still faces many challenges. The long-term sustainability of Texas construction jobs is threatened by declining wages, dangerous working conditions, and few employment-based benefits. To help address these challenges, the Workers Defense Project (WDP), a local community-based organization dedicated to improving working conditions for Austin’s low-wage workers, has partnered with industry and community stakeholders to create the Premier Community Builders (PCB) certification program. Certification programs, which require businesses to meet minimum set of standards in exchange for a seal or trademark that publicizes their commitment to corporate social responsibility, have become a popular tool in recent years for improving conditions in a variety of industries. Implementing a certification program, however, often drives up costs associated with adopting more sustainable practices and is highly dependent upon consumers’ willingness to pay a price premium for the certified product. The purpose of this research is to explore consumer willingness to pay among downtown Austin residents and tourists for PCB certification. This exploratory study utilizes a contingent valuation survey as the primary instrument to determine whether or not downtown Austin consumers are willing to pay more for PCB certified construction and identify any demographic or identity-related factors associated with downtown consumers’ willingness to pay for PCB certification.Item Geoscience and decision making for geothermal energy : a case study(2013-05) Malin, Reed Ahti; Pierce, Suzanne Alise, 1969-In September 2009 exploratory testing of an old geothermal power well caused a blowout at the El Tatio geothermal field of northern Chile. El Tatio is the largest geyser field in the southern hemisphere. The blowout was a paradigm-shifting event for the management of the El Tatio geothermal field and drew attention to the disparity and critical nature of scientific information sharing. This study uses the El Tatio incident as a case study for examining problems of common-pool resource management and geothermal energy development. It explores how differing valuations of geothermal resources resulted in a breakdown of coherent regulation and negative outcomes for all stakeholders. Contingent valuation methods were used to create an elicitive interview process in order to assess how differences in valuation drove these conflicts and negative outcomes. The sharing of scientific information through Decision Support Systems (DSS) is identified as an important element in resolving these conflicts and creating new policies for common-pool resource management. These methods are presented as tools that can be used by stakeholders to find common ground and seek mutually beneficial outcomes. In addition, these tools can help with the critical issue of social perception of scientific data and science driven solutions to these problems. This study posits that the path forward is to ensure not only that scientific data is communicated in modes appropriate to the community and problem at hand, but that the acquisition and interpretation of this data is informed by stakeholder needs.Item Spatial modeling of electric vehicle ownership across Texas and a simulation-based framework to predict Americans' adoption of autonomous vehicle technologies(2015-08) Bansal, Prateek; Kockelman, Kara; Boyles, Stephen DavidThis thesis is divided into four parts. The first part investigates the impact of built-environment and demographic attributes on adoption rates of hybrid electric vehicles and more fuel efficient vehicles. To allow for spatial autocorrelation (across census tracts) in unobserved components of tract-level vehicle counts, as well as cross-response correlation (both spatial and aspatial), vehicle counts by vehicle type and fuel economy levels were estimated using a bivariate and trivariate Poisson-lognormal conditional autoregressive model. Fuel-efficient-vehicle ownership rates were found to rise with household income, resident’s education levels, and the share of male residents, and fall in the presence of larger household sizes and higher jobs densities. In the second part, a fleet evolution framework is proposed to simulate Americans' long-term (year 2015 to 2045) adoption of connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) technologies under eight-different scenarios based on: 5% and 10% annual drop in technology-prices; 0%, 5%, and 10% annual increment in Americans' willingness to pay (WTP); and NHTSA's regulations. A survey was designed and disseminated to obtain 2,167 Americans' preferences; and those data were used in simulation framework. The survey results indicate that Americans' average WTP (of the respondents with a non-zero WTP) to add connectivity and Level 3 and Level 4 automation are $110, $5,551, and $14,589, respectively. The simulation results suggest that 24.8% (at 5% drop in technology-prices and constant WTP) to 87.2% (at 10% drop in technology-prices and 10% WTP rise) of the Americans' privately owned vehicle-fleet will be fully-automated by 2045. The parts three and four summarize findings of two separate surveys, polling 1,088 Texans and 347 Austinites, respectively, to understand their opinions on CAV technologies and strategies. Ordered probit, interval regression, and other models are estimated to understand the impact of demographics, built-environment, and other attributes on Austinites' and Texans' WTP to add CAV technologies to their vehicles, as well as the adoption rates of shared AVs (SAVs) under different pricing scenarios, AV adoption timings' dependence on friends' adoption rates, and home-location decisions after AVs and SAVs become common modes of transport. The Texas study's results indicate that those who support speed regulation strategies, and have higher household income, are estimated to pay more for all CAV technologies, but older and more experienced licensed drivers are expected to place lower value on these technologies. The Austin study's results indicate that higher-income technology-savvy males, living in urban areas and those who have experienced more crashes, have higher WTP for the new technologies. Moreover, Texans and Austinites share a common perception and expect fewer crashes to be the primary benefit of AVs, with equipment failure being their top concern.