This thesis presents a novel approach for the construction of quantile processes, governing the stochastic dynamics of quantiles in continuous time. Two constructions are proposed, one producing a ...function-valued quantile process and the second, a process with random quantile levels. The latter method employs a distortion map composed of a distribution function and a quantile function, similar to a transmutation map, applied to each marginal of a 'driving' process with cadlag paths. A multidimensional extension that utilises a copula is also presented. As a result, we obtain a one-step approach to constructing widely flexible classes of stochastic models, accommodating extensive ranges of higher-order moment behaviours (e.g., tail behaviours in the finite dimensional distributions, and asymmetry). Such features are parameterised in the composite map and are thus interpretable with respect to the driving process. Sub-classes of quantile processes are explored, with emphasis placed on the Tukey family of models whereby skewness and kurtosis are directly parameterised and thus the composite map is explicable with regard to such statistical behaviours. It is also shown that the quantile processes induce a distorted probability measure that is interpretable in its properties (which may be intentionally constructed), leading to the central application developed in this thesis. We propose a general, time-consistent, and dynamic risk valuation principle under the induced measures of quantile processes, allowing for pricing in incomplete markets and thus having application in insurance pricing. Here, the distorted measures are considered 'subjective' and are constructed in such a way to account for external market characteristics and investor risk attitudes, leading to a parametric system of risk-sensitive probability measures, indexed by such factors. The properties of the valuation principle based on the quantile process distortion measures are discussed with regard to stochastic ordering and risk-loadings, and a case study is presented where insurance instruments linked to greenhouse gas emissions are considered.
Despite rapid advancements in the development of non-monetary techniques for the assessment of social values for ecosystem services, little research attention has been devoted to the evaluation of ...their underpinning paradigms. This study evaluates two contrasting paradigms for the assessment of social values in non-monetary terms: an instrumental paradigm involving an objective assessment of the distribution, type and/or intensity of values that individuals assign to the current state of ecosystems and a deliberative paradigm involving the exploration of desired end states through group discussion. We present and then justify through case examples two approaches for assessing social values for ecosystem services using the instrumental paradigm and two approaches using the deliberative paradigm. Each approach makes different assumptions about: the underlying rationale for values assessment; the process through which values are elicited; the type of representativeness sought, and; the degree of involvement of decision-makers. However, case examples demonstrate that the boundaries between instrumental and deliberative paradigms are often not concrete. To accommodate this fluidity, we offer a third, pragmatic paradigm that integrates some of the qualities of both. This paradigm has implications for engaging multiple community groups and decision-makers in the articulation and mapping of social values for cultural ecosystem services.
A person may be willing to make an economic tradeoff to assure that a wilderness area or scenic resource is protected even if neither that person nor (perhaps) anyone else will actually visit this ...area. This tradeoff is commonly labeled “passive use value.” Contingent valuation studies ask questions that help to reveal the monetary tradeoff each person would make concerning the value of goods or services. Such surveys are a practical alternative approach for eliciting the value of public goods, including those with passive use considerations. First I discuss the Exxon Valdez oil spill of March 1989, focusing on why it is important to measure monetary tradeoffs for goods where passive use considerations loom large. Although discussions of contingent valuation often focus on whether the method is sufficiently reliable for use in assessing natural resource damages in lawsuits, it is important to remember that most estimates from contingent valuation studies are used in benefit–cost assessments, not natural resource damage assessments. Those working on benefit–cost analysis have long recognized that goods and impacts that cannot be quantified are valued, implicitly, by giving them a limitless value when government regulations preclude certain activities, or giving them a value of zero by leaving certain consequences out of the analysis. Contingent valuation offers a practical alternative for reducing the use of either of these extreme choices. I put forward an affirmative case for contingent valuation and address a number of the concerns that have arisen.
"Fripe" is the term used to refer to a heterogeneous array of imported second-hand donations and fast-fashion cast-offs in Tunisia that are part of the global second-hand trade. This thesis builds an ...account of the fripe as a singular urban economy in Tunis, the capital city. Firstly, it comprises a hitherto unwritten analysis of the fripe's historical constitution as a contested urban economy; demonstrating its distinct political economy and constructing counter-histories of urban renewal that reveal the role of the fripe trade and its rural migrant constituencies in remaking post-independence Tunis. These histories expose the systems of differentiation that operate to exclude the fripe from formally delimited realms of 'the national economy' and 'the planned urban order', while also partially incorporating it into modes of government and city-making. Secondly, it investigates the entanglements of contemporary processes of market- and space-making that position the fripe economy as a central agent of urban change, as captured in the vernacular word creation "fripisation". The ethnography of economic practices underpinning this investigation starts with the unstable commodity status of fripe imports, examining the situated processes of valuation that allow diverse garments and objects to enter renewed cycles of commodity circulation and exchange in Tunis. Centring on what is termed 'valuation work' by diverse market-makers in the fripe economy, emphasis lies on how the economy is enacted in urban space and becomes constitutive to socio-spatial relations. Three 'collective enactments' of fripe valuation demonstrate how the economy drives localised urban transformations; creates interdependencies and rhythms connecting disparate actors and sites; and allows the staging of temporary publicness. Overall, this thesis advances a perspective on the economy as operating through and as constitutive to urban space, positing the 'urban economy' as a tool to expand what can be brought to matter as economy in present-day cities.
Customer value refers to the economic value of the customer's relationship with the firm. This study approaches the topic of customer value for measuring, managing, and maximizing customer ...contributions by proposing a customer valuation theory (CVT) based on economic principles that conceptualizes the generation of value from customers to firms. The author reviews the established economic theories for valuing investor assets (e.g., stocks) and draws a comparison to valuing customer contributions. Furthermore, the author recognizes the differences in the guiding principles between valuing stocks and valuing customers in proposing CVT. Using CVT, the author discusses the concept of customer lifetime value (CLV) as the metric that can provide a reliable, forward-looking estimate of direct customer value. In addition, economic models to estimate CLV, ways to manage CLV using portfolio management principles, and strategies to maximize CLV are discussed in detail. The author extends the customer value concept by discussing ways that a customer can add value to the firm indirectly through incentivized referrals, social media influence, and feedback. Finally, the benefits of CVT to multiple constituencies are offered.
What are the consequences of consequentiality? Herriges, Joseph; Kling, Catherine; Liu, Chih-Chen ...
Journal of environmental economics and management,
2010, 2010-1-00, 20100101, Letnik:
59, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We investigate the extent to which dichotomous choice referenda responses are shaped by whether the individual believes the survey itself will ultimately impact policy. Using survey data from the ...Iowa Lakes Project, we test this supposition. Specifically, we employ a Bayesian treatment effect model in which the degree of perceived consequentiality, measured as an ordinal response, is permitted to have a structural impact on willingness to pay (WTP) for a hypothetical environmental improvement. We test whether the estimated WTP distributions are the same for each value of the ordinal response.
In our survey data, a subsample of individuals were randomly assigned supporting information suggesting that their responses to the questionnaires were important and will have an impact on policy decisions. In conjunction with a Bayesian posterior simulator, we use this source of exogenous variation to identify the structural impacts of consequentiality perceptions on willingness to pay, while controlling for the potential of confounding on unobservables. We find evidence consistent with a “knife-edge” result, namely that the willingness to pay distributions are equal among those believing the survey to be at least minimally consequential, and different for those believing that the survey is irrelevant for policy purposes.
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