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The failure of models to live up to the expectations and demands of the user community has led to increasing skepticism about the usefulness of policy modeling. This paper examines reasons for this growing dissatisfaction and considers ways to deal with it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two means for organizing and discussing the growing number of activities concerned with critical examination of energy policy models are presented. The first is set out in the form of a tree with two main branches corresponding to the primary modes of conducting model analysis. The second is in the form of a 4 x 3 matrix whose rows designate the people who do model analysis and whose columns represent the circumstances under which they do it. The paper concludes with questions about the future of model analysis framed in terms of the categories developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

U.S. organ allocation policy sequesters livers from deceased donors within arbitrary geographic boundaries, frustrating the intent of those who wish to offer the livers to transplant candidates based on medical urgency. We used a zero-one integer program to partition 58 donor service areas into between four and eight sharing districts that minimize the disparity in liver availability among districts. Because the integer program necessarily suppressed clinically significant differences among patients and organs, we tested the optimized district maps with a discrete-event simulation tool that represents liver allocation at a per-person, per-organ level of detail. In April 2014, the liver committee of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) decided in a unanimous vote of 22-0-0 to write a policy proposal based on our eight-district and four-district maps. The OPTN board of directors could implement the policy after the proposal and public-comment period.Redistricting liver allocation would save hundreds of lives over the next five years and would attenuate the serious geographic inequity in liver transplant offers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We apply new bilevel and trilevel optimization models to make critical infrastructure more resilient against terrorist attacks. Each model features an intelligent attacker (terrorists) and a defender (us), information transparency, and sequential actions by attacker and defender. We illustrate with examples of the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the US Border Patrol at Yuma, Arizona, and an electrical transmission system. We conclude by reporting insights gained from the modeling experience and many "red-team" exercises. Each exercise gathers open-source data on a real-world infrastructure system, develops an appropriate bilevel or trilevel model, and uses these to identify vulnerabilities in the system or to plan an optimal defense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market power is a prominent issue in the current debate about electricity industry restructuring. Market experiments I conducted with industry subjects via the Internet show the impact of seller concentration, demand-side bidding, and transmission constraints on competition in simulated electricity markets. Realistic modeling of the transmission grid revealed opportunities to exercise market power not found in simpler experimental designs. In particular, increasing the number of sellers in a market did not necessarily reduce market power as standard theory suggests. Rather, locational advantages allowed some players to maintain profits near monopoly levels even when seller concentration was at levels generally considered competitive. The implication is that divestiture of existing local monopolies may not be enough to make electricity markets competitive. I confirm the positive impact of demand-side bidding on competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protecting ourselves cost-effectively from such global environmental threats as climate change requires a good understanding of the behavioral underpinnings that drive choice under risk and uncertainty, lead to the design of efficient and effective protocols for cooperative action across nations, and create incentives for different control strategies within nations. Researchers can use experimental economic methods to gain insight into these micromotives of climate policy by testing the robustness of theoretical predictions, and by recognizing new patterns of choice. Experiments can be used to sharpen the best guesses guiding policy by identifying how decision makers can try to get more environmental progress at less cost by accounting for the relevant determinants of behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study "A Progress Report: The 'Quality of Life' in a Method of Integrated Planning," by Franco Archibugi that was published in the journal "Socio-Economic Planning Sciences." This paper describes the main concepts and approaches of a method of integrated planning developed in Italy. This work, still in the research phase, is sponsored by the Italian government agency responsible for economic planning. Formally entitled "Progetto Quadro," the project involves construction of a reference framework composed of a set of highly disaggregated socioeconomic accounts. This includes a resource-use analysis of structural and functional interdependencies of the economic system and of its operation with regard to a societal inspired program-structure.

The article presents a letter from the editor of "Interfaces" concerning the November-December, 2006 issue. The issue focuses on the United States Department of Homeland Security's Operations Research division, which aims to give the department a scientific framework for considering problems and decisions. In addition, articles within the issue also discuss other aspects of homeland security, ranging from attack detection, identification, and prevention to response preparedness in the case of successful attacks.