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Ecosystem engineers (EEs) strongly influence ecosystems by affecting the abiotic properties of a system to which many biota respond. EEs can, thus, be pivotal species in restoration by helping to move systems toward desired states much faster and more efficiently than direct human intervention on the abiotic state.For EEs to play a central, purposeful role in restoration, it is important to identify guiding principles about how the EEs may best be selected and incorporated.I discuss three important aspects to determine (a) where the utility for EEs is high; (b) where EEs can most easily establish, are easy to handle and scaling‐up their use is possible; and (c) how to recognize and value multiple, coupled and trait‐dependent engineering functions of EEs.Understanding these aspects of EEs should help guide purposeful and efficient choices in our approach to restoration. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper optimizes human resource management from the perspective of marginal utility. The utility function proposes the subtraction function of consumption, which represents the law of diminishing marginal utility. The Lagrange multiplier method solves the maximum utility problem. In human resource management, utility and marginal utility are redefined, and the probability density function and distribution function of exponential distribution are used as the index’s marginal utility and utility functions, respectively. Human resource management optimization models I and II were constructed based on the marginal utility, and the models and model parameters were solved. This paper applies the human resource management model to Company R as an example. The calculation shows that the total investment of the current index resources of Company R is 2.55 million yuan, and the total utility calculation is 0.8306. Under the optimization of human resource management based on Model I, the expected value of company R reached 0.8631 while maintaining the unchanged index resource input, an increase of 3.91%. The optimization based on Model II resulted in the index resource input being 2.3285 million yuan, with an unchanged total utility that was reduced by 8.69%.

That wealth has diminishing marginal utility is a fact of life, and that people be sensitive to their current level of wealth when deciding whether to pursue additional wealth is a requirement of rational choice. A series of experiments, spanning diverse contexts, reveal marginal-utility neglect —that people are rather insensitive to their current wealth when deciding how much effort to expend to acquire a monetary reward (e.g. how long to walk to claim a voucher). Moreover, the experiments demonstrate that a marginal-utility-prompting manipulation, which prompts people to consider their current wealth and their need for the reward given their current wealth, produces a significant sensitization effect—making financially richer (vs. less rich) individuals less (vs. more) willing to seek the reward. This manipulation is more effective than either prompting people to consider their current wealth alone or consider their need for the reward alone, suggesting that marginal-utility prompting does not merely draw people's attention to their current wealth or merely draw their attention to their need for the reward, but links the two elements. This research elucidates the psychology of marginal utility and yields implications beyond the pursuit of monetary rewards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale epidemics impose significant burdens globally and cause an imbalance of medical supplies among different regions owing to the dissimilarly and unevenly distributed prevalence of the infection. Along with rebalancing the limited medical supplies to meet the demand and supply requirements, ensuring that the supplies are allocated to support the affected regions is also important. Hence, this study focuses on the collaborative medical supply rebalancing and allocating process to balance the demand and supply. The law of diminishing marginal utility is incorporated in this study to quantify the principle of fairness in rebalancing and allocating medical supplies. Accordingly, under uncertainty, a marginal-utility-oriented optimization model is proposed to formulate the rebalancing and allocation of collaborative medical supplies. Because the proposed model is nonlinear and computationally intractable, a linearization approach is adopted to obtain the global optimum that supports decision-making in response to epidemics. Furthermore, a real case study of the United States is implemented, where the sensitivity analysis of critical parameters is conducted on the coronavirus disease 2019. Computational results indicate that additional medical supplies, stock levels, and scenario constructions significantly influence the supply/demand point identification and outgoing/incoming shipments. Moreover, this study not only validates the effectiveness and feasibility of the method but also highlights the importance of incorporating the law of diminishing marginal utility into the collaborative medical supply rebalancing and allocating problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Lecturas de Economia is the property of Universidad de Antioquia, Facultad de Ciencias Economicas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The battery energy storage (BES) is recognized as a key resource for the power fluctuations smoothing, peak load shaving and frequency regulation, and its performance depends heavily on the available capacity. It is meaningful to investigate the influence of the BES capacity on the power system operation cost. This paper focuses on the marginal utility of BES capacity in the day-ahead power system operation cost. Firstly, the day-ahead economic dispatch problem is formulated as a constrained quadratic programming problem, with the consideration of the BES degradation cost. Then, the relationship between the BES-related shadow prices and the marginal electricity price is derived from the KKT conditions of the dispatch problem. Based on it, the marginal utility of BES capacity is modeled to evaluate the effect of BES capacity on the system day-ahead operation cost. Finally, the numerical results demonstrate that the proposed marginal utility can manifest the influence of BSS capacity on the power system operation.

This study aimed to accurately grasp the impact mechanism and change rule of buildings and green spaces on land surface temperature (LST), which is of great significance for alleviating urban heat islands (UHIs) and formulating adaptation measures. Taking Jinan, China, as the study area, combined multisource remote sensing data were used in this study to construct an index system of the influencing factors. We used a spatial regression model to explore the relative contribution of the influencing indicators on LST. We also drew a marginal utility curve to quantify the heating/cooling effect of the leading indicators. The results showed that, firstly, among the 3D building indicators, the leading indicators affecting LST were the degree of spatial convergence (SCD) and the building surface area (BSA). Among the green space indicators, the largest patch index (LPI), green coverage rate (GCR), and edge density (ED) were significantly negatively correlated with LST. Secondly, when we considered the 15 indicators comprehensively, SCD was the most influential indicator, with a contribution of 24.7%, and the contribution of the green space indicators to LST was significantly reduced. Thirdly, among the leading indicators, SCD was positively correlated with LST. When SCD was less than 60%, LST increased by about 0.38 °C for every 10% increase. When GCR > 44%, LST was significantly reduced, and when GCR > 62%, a cooling effect of 1.1 °C was observed. Beyond this threshold, the cooling effect will not improve significantly. This study shows that when 3D buildings are densely distributed and crowded, the cooling effect of green space will be limited to some extent by 3D buildings. The key to mitigating UHIs is to rationally configure and optimize the spatial structure of 3D buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Templestays are a form of cultural tourism in which participants visit a Buddhist temple to experience their culture. Using a choice experiment, the marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) is estimated for various attributes of Templestay programs of location, accommodations, and type of meditation. Respondents are willing to pay a premium for private accommodations and to experience the natural mountain settings over an urban setting. The MWTP varies by type of meditation and by how often respondents have participated in a Templestay. For the most physically demanding form of meditation, 108 prostrations, there is weak evidence marginal utility decreases with increasing number of visits. Brewing tea and talking to a monk do not lead to a change in marginal utility. The most spiritually demanding meditation, Seon meditation, shows increasing marginal utility. Seon meditators could benefit from additional stays, as the benefits of this form of meditation can only be achieved through practice and learning from experienced meditators. It is expected that these results will provide information for the diversification of Templestay experience programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Les Cahiers du CREAD is the property of Centre de Rrecherche en Economie Appliquee pour Developpement and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The implementation of systematic conservation plans often involves collaboration among several organizations, so attaining consensus on the plan is an important driver of implementation success. We utilized participatory action research to explore an approach for developing consensus among organizations and facilitating implementation. A real-world challenge was addressed in the Little Karoo, South Africa by creating a spatial decision support system (SDSS) based primarily on weighted multi-criteria GIS overlays, but with an "incremental allocation algorithm" to allow efficient solution sets (i.e., systematic conservation planning). The end-users of the SDSS participated in the choice of criteria, in the selection of model parameter values, and in co-defining their group process. We co-designed a dual-centric weighting process in which the participants developed a set of weights and parameter values for attaining consensus among the organizations, and also a set for yielding the result that is best for biodiversity. The process yielded a consensus on the spatial priorities and, thus, a way forward. The estimated spatial priorities for each organization differed dramatically from each other and from the consensus priorities, indicating that a large discrepancy had been resolved. Our study indicates that the consensus-building and decision-support benefits of participatory multi-criteria overlay approaches merit closer attention in systematic conservation planning. The use of weighted overlays and an incremental allocation algorithm appear to be useful approaches for streamlining the participatory process while maintaining rigor and spatial complementarity. Finally, we uncovered theoretical psychological ramifications of the dual-centric weighting process that are promising and merit testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capability of shifting the electricity generation or consumption to proper time of the day, also defined as energy shift (ES), is the key factor to ensure the power balance, especially under high penetration of variable renewable energy (VRE). However, the ES is not characterized and traded as an independent product in current market mechanisms. In this letter, the marginal utility of an ES is assessed and leveraged to characterize the effective ES, while a novel market scheme is proposed considering the trading of both ES and energy level (EL). The proposed scheme can well integrate ES producers such as virtual power plants that cannot be rewarded sufficiently to actively participate in the current market because they are principally labeled as EL consumers. Finally, the novel concept and mechanism are illustrated by a numerical study and verified to outperform the existing price schemes on integrating the ES resources and VRE.

BACKGROUND: Randomized clinical trials (RCT) in critical care mostly return negative results. The research community discusses strategies to improve RCTs design. METHODS: This paper presents a theoretical framework based on marginal utility to treat the problems of hypothesis generation and treatment effects valuation and presents recently published high-quality studies as instances where such a framework predicts irrelevant findings. RESULTS: Blindness to marginal utility, i.e., inobservance of the marginal utility of the proposed intervention, is common in critical care RCTs. CONCLUSION: Critical care RCTs are usually blind to marginal utility and are, therefore, prone to produce irrelevant findings.

In "Technical Note—Ranking Distributions When Only Means and Variances Are Known," Müller, Scarsini, Tsetlin, and Winkler address the question of ranking distributions when only the first two moments—that is, means and variances—are known. This is important in decision making under uncertainty, with potential applications in economics, finance, statistics, and other areas. Previous results require some assumptions about the shape of the distributions, while this paper's approach is to impose bounds on how much marginal utility can change, thus constraining risk preferences. Such a ranking is consistent with almost stochastic dominance and provides a new connection between the Sharpe and Omega ratios from finance. Consider a choice between two random variables, for which only means and variances are known. Is it possible to rank them by putting some constraints on risk preferences? We provide such a ranking by bounding how much marginal utility can change. Such bounds enable us to rank all distributions with given means and variances by first-order almost-stochastic dominance. We show how our results can be used to compare a risky project and a sure payoff and also provide a new connection between the Sharpe and Omega ratios from finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to accurately grasp the impact mechanism and change rule of buildings and green spaces on land surface temperature (LST), which is of great significance for alleviating urban heat islands (UHIs) and formulating adaptation measures. Taking Jinan, China, as the study area, combined multisource remote sensing data were used in this study to construct an index system of the influencing factors. We used a spatial regression model to explore the relative contribution of the influencing indicators on LST. We also drew a marginal utility curve to quantify the heating/cooling effect of the leading indicators. The results showed that, firstly, among the 3D building indicators, the leading indicators affecting LST were the degree of spatial convergence (SCD) and the building surface area (BSA). Among the green space indicators, the largest patch index (LPI), green coverage rate (GCR), and edge density (ED) were significantly negatively correlated with LST. Secondly, when we considered the 15 indicators comprehensively, SCD was the most influential indicator, with a contribution of 24.7%, and the contribution of the green space indicators to LST was significantly reduced. Thirdly, among the leading indicators, SCD was positively correlated with LST. When SCD was less than 60%, LST increased by about 0.38 °C for every 10% increase. When GCR > 44%, LST was significantly reduced, and when GCR > 62%, a cooling effect of 1.1 °C was observed. Beyond this threshold, the cooling effect will not improve significantly. This study shows that when 3D buildings are densely distributed and crowded, the cooling effect of green space will be limited to some extent by 3D buildings. The key to mitigating UHIs is to rationally configure and optimize the spatial structure of 3D buildings.

Understanding the trade-offs associated with the two operation stages of hydropower generation is critical for guiding efficient reservoir operations. Previous studies showed that the marginal return in Stage 2 is always higher than the marginal cost in Stage 1 if variations in tailwater levels are ignored. However, the tailwater level often raises faster than the reservoir water level, and thus reduces the net hydraulic head of the reservoirs with reaction turbines, especially in large-scale and low-head reservoirs. Therefore, this study considers the variations in tailwater levels and theoretically evaluates the marginal utility of the total power generation (TPG) in the two stages. It is found that the variation of TPG presents diminishing marginal utility and is closely related to the topography characteristics of the reservoir and downstream channels, as well as the relationship between releases in the two stages. The marginal return in Stage 2 might be lower than the marginal cost in Stage 1 when the release in Stage 2 exceeds that in Stage 1 for the reservoirs in which the tailwater level is sensitive to discharge and hydraulic head. This suggests that the carryover storage equalizing the marginal utility in the two stages is optimal, i.e., satisfying the marginal utility principle. Otherwise, the marginal return is always higher than the marginal cost, which suggests that as much carryover storage as possible should be saved. Following these findings, the reservoir states, represented by the storage difference and the total inflow in the two stages, that satisfy the marginal utility principle are identified. Further, the optimal carryover storage under different levels of inflow and storage difference is derived. The theoretical findings are verified with four hydropower plants in China. Results confirm the theoretical findings and show that two-stage hydropower generation coupled with operating rules can greatly improve the performance of hydropower generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why disdain (perfectly) replicated art? If art is valuable because it evokes experiences of beauty, they should be comparable. In chapter 11 of the Elephant in the Brain, Simler and Hanson (S&H) argue we actually care about the extrinsic properties of art—e.g. who made it—to signal our intelligence and taste. Here I defend a different explanation for the evidence cited by S&H: the extrinsic properties of art are central to what constitutes art, play a bigger role fixing the value of art than S&H allow, and the potential for diminishing marginal utility on the value of the intrinsic properties of art—seeing the original Mona Lisa is rare; seeing a copy isn't—explains why we assign such value to the extrinsic properties of art. And thus we have a non-signaling explanation of art consumption, which may or may not complement signaling theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the change of EFL learners' motivation in learning English with the increase of CL time based on marginal utility. Thirty learners from an intact class in Grade 10 were selected through their performance on a piloted sample Preliminary English Test. Learners were assigned to achievers and underachievers groups. The questionnaire of motivation, based on the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB), was given to both groups as a pretest. All participants underwent the same amount of teaching time and same material with the same teacher during seven-week CL, 35 sessions taking 45 minutes each. The same questionnaire was administered again at the end of one week, three-week, five-week and seven-week treatments respectively to both groups and their scores on the questionnaires were compared through an analysis of Paired Samples t-test and ANOVA. The findings showed that after one week CL, both the achievers' and underachievers' motivations were significantly improved compared with those in pretest; after three-week CL, the underachievers' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and achievers' extrinsic motivation declined significantly compared with those of Week One, while the latter's intrinsic motivation has no significant change; after five-week CL, underachievers' motivation didn't change significantly compared with their motivation in the pretest, which means that the marginal utility took place in underachievers' motivation during three-week to five-week CL; after seven-week CL, the achievers' motivation increased significantly compared with their motivation in the pretest, indicating there was no marginal utility for achievers' motivation during seven-week CL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Evidence-based Healthcare is the property of Journal of Evidence-based Healthcare and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In order to ensure the long-term stable and economic operation of complex system, the system operation process is described and the problems is solved, and a system reliability model and an optimization model for component replacement are constructed. Based on the theory of marginal utility and importance measures, a reliability guarantee strategy for complex system based on cost-benefit importance is presented, which aims to find a component preventive replacement sequence with minimum maintenance cost on the constraints of system reliability lower threshold and running time. When the system reliability drops to a preset threshold, the cost-benefit importance of each component is calculated, the component with the greatest cost-benefit importance to replace is selected, and then iterate until the operation task is completed to form an optimal component replacement sequence. The feasibility of the present strategy is verified by taking a complex system which can be equivalent to a series-parallel system as an example. The present strategy has certain reference significance of ensuring the reliable operation of some high-end equipment safety-critical systems.

Energy efficiency is the major concern in hierarchical wireless sensor networks(WSNs), where the major energy consumption originates from radios for communication. Due to notable energy expenditure of long-range transmission for cluster members and data aggregation for Cluster Head (CH), saving and balancing energy consumption is a tricky challenge in WSNs. In this paper, we design a CH selection mechanism with a mobile sink (MS) while proposing relay selection algorithms with multi-user multi-armed bandit (UM-MAB) to solve the problem of energy efficiency. According to the definition of node density and residual energy, we propose a conception referred to as a Virtual Head (VH) for MS to collect data in terms of energy efficiency. Moreover, we naturally change the relay selection problem into permutation problem through employing the two-hop transmission in cooperative power line communication, which deals with long-distance transmission. As far as the relay selection problem is concerned, we propose the machine learning algorithm, namely MU-MAB, to solve it through the reward associated with an increment for energy consumption. Furthermore, we employ the stable matching theory based on marginal utility for the allocation of the final one-to-one optimal combinations to achieve energy efficiency. In order to evaluate MU-MAB, the regret is taken advantage to demonstrate the performance by using upper confidence bound (UCB) index. In the end, simulation results illustrate the efficacy and effectiveness of our proposed solutions for saving and balancing energy consumption.

This lecture examines the nature of the changing focus of economics during the 19th century, which is often referred to as the 'marginal revolution'. The change is characterised as a focus on the theory of exchange, and the beginnings of welfare economics. Attention is given to early contributions by J.S. Mill, Cournot, and Whewell, and the 'neoclassical economists, Jevons, Marshall, Walras and Edgeworth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ten studies are used to document that time is valued in accordance with a doublekinked value function. There is a zone of indifference for small time gains (losses), increasing marginal utility (disutility) for moderate time gains (losses), and diminishing marginal utility (disutility) for large time gains (losses). Moderate amounts of time exhibit increasing marginal utility (disutility) because larger blocks of time provide a more diverse set of usage opportunities. It is only when it is difficult to imagine how more (less) time would be beneficial (detrimental) that there is diminishing marginal utility (disutility) for time. Thus time valuation shows increasing marginal utility when there is a time deficit, but diminishing marginal utility when there is a time surplus. These findings have implications for how other resources might be valued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the link between risk aversion and diminishing marginal utility of wealth is academically well established, theoretical discussions concerning its empirical validity remain. The presented, review-type paper aims to briefly examine theoretical roots responsible for the different views on this association in order to provide a broader perspective to alternative explanations. This latter task is assisted by comparative analysis of two recent pieces of research by Rick Falkenstein and Matthew Rabin; a duo of papers, handpicked at the author's discretion to demonstrate the convergence of alternative ideas from different authors (and backgrounds). In support of its argumentation, the paper also presents a critical overview of the equity premium puzzle as seen through the prism of behavioural finance. The main contributions of the paper include evidence-based support for the concept of relative utility and reconfirmation of the meaningful role of behavioural finance in economics and finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Systems Engineering & Electronics is the property of Journal of Systems Engineering & Electronics Editorial Department and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Laws have flaws and no law in sciences or humanities can be above the existence of exceptions and the possibility of improvisations till perfection is attained since both rationalism and empiricism have severe limitations. We take up the microscopics of the law of diminishing marginal utility to bring the hidden subjectivity in several key aspects of its formulation. On the basis of an experiment with 118 persons, we show for the first time that there is an initial bump in the marginal utility. We also comment on the limitations of neuroeconomics to influence consumer choices indefinitely and explain the decision-making process as a quantum measurement using psychophysical interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to solve the problem of determining the cost of a water resource for the participants of the water-economic complex (WEC) on the basis of the optimal control of hydro power plants’ (HPP) functioning, taking into account their regime characteristics and requirements. In this work, a universal method, which combines an optimization method and a method for assessing marginal utility, was proposed to assess the cost of the hydro resource and control the operating modes of the WEC. The method developed by the authors involves the use of water balance, the adequate representation of the incremental rate characteristic and the determination of the cost of the hydro resource for the control of the operating modes of the WEC and HPP. Using the example of the Novosibirsk WEC, as well as HPPs and TPPs, an assessment of the energy efficiency, proposing the concept of a developed methodology for determining the price of water for HPPs and all participants in the WEC, will be obtained. Based on the results of the implementation of the developed approach at Novosibirsk HPPs, the electricity sales price competitive electricity market can be matched with the electricity sales price generated at TPP, which will be approximately 0.16 ¢/kW ∗ h.

Contemporary microeconomics has witnessed a resurgence of behavioral, institutional, and evolutionary critiques of the neoclassical mainstream that came to dominate the field during the 1980s. Today’s critiques and proposals for reform have a long tradition in economics. While synthesizing the intellectual history of these challenges, this article explores the reasons why such critical strands of microeconomics fared poorly in the past, and—in contrast—what factors may account for their partial acceptance into the mainstream in recent times. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We challenge a commonly used assumption in the literature on social preferences and show that this assumption leads to significantly biased estimates of the social preference parameter. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we demonstrate that the literature's common restrictions on the curvature of the decision-makers utility function can dramatically bias the altruism parameter. We show that this is particularly problematic when comparing altruism between groups with well-documented differences in risk aversion or diminishing marginal utility, i.e., men versus women, giving motivated by pure versus warm glow motives, and wealthy versus poor. We conclude by proposing two approaches to address this bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In diesem Aufsatz würdigt Heinz Kurz den Beitrag Max Webers zu den Sozial- und insbesondere Wirtschaftswissenschaften aus Anlass seines 100. Todestages. Nach einem Überblick über Leben, Werk und Wirken geht er kurz auf Webers methodologische Betrachtungen und seine Rolle im „Werturteilsstreit" im Verein für Socialpolitik ein. Es folgt eine Auseinandersetzung mit Webers Aussagen zur Werttheorie und Grenznutzenlehre. Der Hauptteil der Arbeit gilt Webers Beiträgen zur Religionsökonomik. Nach einer Zusammenfassung des Werks „Die protestantische Ethik und der ‚Geist' des Kapitalismus" und der darin exemplarisch behandelten historischen Macht von Ideen beleuchtet der Autor einige Aussagen Webers vor dem Hintergrund der neueren Theorie und macht auf Grenzen des Arguments aufmerksam. Es folgt ein Überblick über die Aufnahme des Werks damals und heute und die große Bedeutung der „Weber-These" in der modernen Religions- und Kulturökonomik. Nach einer kurzen Erörterung des Verhältnisses von Weber zu Marx wirft Kurz ein Streiflicht auf Webers Beitrag zum Verständnis von Macht und Herrschaft. Webers Werk erweist sich als gewaltige Schatzkammer von Ideen, von denen mehrere noch darauf warten, aufgegriffen zu werden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Location-based services (LBSs) typically crowdsource geo-tagged data from mobile users. Collecting more data will generally improve the utility for LBS providers; however, it also leads to more privacy exposure of users' mobility patterns. Although the tension between data utility and user privacy has been recognized, there lacks a solution that determines how much data to collect--in both spatial and temporal domains--is the "best" for both mobile users and the service provider. This article proposes a strategy toward making an optimal tradeoff such that a user submits data only if her mobility privacy will not be compromised and the data utility of the LBS provider will be sufficiently improved. To this end, we first define and formulate a concept called privacy exposure, which incorporates both the spatial distribution and the temporal transition of a user's activity points. Second, we define and quantify data utility in terms of spatial repetitions and temporal closeness among data based on an economic principle. Then, we propose a PRivacy-preserving and UTility-Enhancing Crowdsourcing (PRUTEC) algorithm to determine, on behalf of each mobile user, whether a newly sensed piece of data should be submitted to the LBS provider. Our simulation demonstrates that PRUTEC improves the data utility of the service provider with a much less amount of data to collect and reduces privacy exposure for mobile users while collecting useful data continuously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When utility is nonseparable in nondurable and durable consumption and the elasticity of substitution between the two consumption goods is sufficiently high, marginal utility rises when durable consumption falls. The model explains both the cross-sectional variation in expected stock returns and the time variation in the equity premium. Small stocks and value stocks deliver relatively low returns during recessions, when durable consumption falls, which explains their high average returns relative to big stocks and growth stocks. Stock returns are unexpectedly low at business cycle troughs, when durable consumption falls sharply, which explains the countercyclical variation in the equity premium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies predatory trading, that induces and/or exploits the need of other investors to reduce their positions. We show that if one trader needs to sell, others also sell and subsequently buy back the asset. This leads to price overshooting and a reduced liquidation value for the distressed trader. Hence, the market is illiquid when liquidity is most needed. Further, a trader profits from triggering another trader's crisis, and the crisis can spill over across traders and across markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ludwig von Mises introduced the concept of marginal utility into Austrian economics. He presented what he described as a complete theory of the value of money on the basis of the subjective theory of value and its peculiar doctrine of marginal utility. It is shown here that Mises’ theory of value is unclear for at least three reasons. Mises states that his theory of money is based on Menger’s theory of value, while in fact his theory refers to Jevons’ rather than to Menger’s. Secondly, the essence of Mises’ theory contradicts his earlier assumption on the immeasurability of the use value of money. Thirdly, Mises’ concept of continuity in the objective exchange value of money is not grounded in the subjective theory of value.

This paper addresses conflicting results regarding the optimal taxation of capital income. Judd proves that in a steady state, there should be no taxation of capital income. Lansing studies a logarithmic example of one of Judd's models and finds that the optimal steady‐state tax on capital income is not always zero—it is positive in some specifications and negative in some others. There appears to be a contradiction. However, I show that Lansing derives his result by relaxing the convergence hypotheses of Judd's theorem. With less restrictive hypotheses, a wider range of primitives (parameter values, initial condition, etc.) satisfy the hypotheses and because each specification of primitives generates its own optimal time path(s) for the model's variables, it follows that a wider range of time paths with a wider range of steady‐state properties is possible. This raises a question. What happens if the convergence hypotheses are weakened further so that they are satisfied by a wider yet range of primitives? I find that at any interior steady state for the model's optimal tax equilibrium, either the capital tax is zero or else the elasticity of marginal utility is unitary which is satisfied identically in Lansing's log example. In effect, Lansing's example illustrates the only way in which an interior steady state can violate the zero tax result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study finds a necessary and sufficient condition for mutual fund separation, in which investors have the same portfolio of risky assets regardless of their utility functions. Unlike previous studies, the market condition is obtained in analytic form, using the Clark–Ocone formula of Ocone and Karatzas (Stoch Stoch Rep 34(3–4):187–220, 1991). We also find that the condition for separation among arbitrary utility functions is equivalent to the condition for separation among utility functions with constant relative risk aversion (CRRA utility functions). The condition is that a conditional expectation of an infinitesimal change in the uncertainty of an instantaneous Sharpe ratio maximizing portfolio can be hedged by the Sharpe ratio maximizer itself. In a Markovian market, such an infinitesimal change is characterized as an infinitesimal change in state variables. A closer look at the Clark–Ocone formula offers an intuition of the condition: an investor invests in (1) the Sharpe ratio maximizer; and (2) another portfolio in such a way as to reduce the uncertainty produced by an infinitesimal change in the Sharpe ratio maximizer, depending on four components: the investor's wealth level, marginal utility and risk tolerance, at the time of consumption, and the shadow price. This decomposition is also valid in non-Markovian markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The St. Petersburg paradox is one of the oldest challenges of expected value theory. Thus far, explanations of the paradox aim at small probabilities being perceived as zero and the boundedness of utility of the outcome. This paper provides experimental results showing that neither diminishing marginal utility of the outcome nor perception of small probabilities can explain the paradox. We find that even in situations where subjects are risk-seeking, and zeroing-out small probabilities supports risk-taking, the St. Petersburg paradox exists. This indicates that the paradox cannot be resolved by the arguments advanced to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standard macroeconomic models show that uncertainty plays a significant role in consumption and saving decisions under rather mild conditions, namely the convexity of the marginal utility of consumption. Increased uncertainty generates a positive extra saving, the so‐called 'precautionary saving'. Although this hypothesis has been tested by a large number of authors, both at macro and micro level, the empirical results are not conclusive, and the main conclusion than can be drawn is that there is neither consensus on the intensity of that motive for saving, nor on the most appropriate measure of uncertainty. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the empirical literature discussing the main controversial issues and the different approaches followed by the studies addressing empirically the test of precautionary saving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Customers often resent priority queues even though priorities are often necessary to maximize either social welfare or revenue. Consequently, it is useful to consider the level of social inefficiency introduced when the design of a priority scheme is turned over to a revenue-maximizing firm. In this paper we study how the priority scheme chosen by a revenue-maximizing firm differs from the one a social planner would use. We study a single-server queue with customers who draw their valuations from a continuous distribution and have a per-period waiting cost that is proportional to their realized valuations. The decision maker must post a menu offering a finite number of waiting time-price pairs. There are then three dimensions on which a revenue maximizer and social planner can differ: coverage (i.e., how many customers in total to serve), coarseness (i.e., how many classes of service to offer), and classification (i.e., how to map customers to priority levels). We show that differences between the decision-makers' priority policies are all about classification. Both are content to offer very coarse schemes with just two priority levels, and they will have negligible differences in coverage. However, differences in classification are persistent. Further, a revenue maximizer may—relative to the social planner—have too few or too many high-priority customers. Whether the revenue maximizer overstuffs or understuffs the high-priority class depends on a measure of consumer surplus that is captured by the mean residual life function of the valuation distribution. The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2017.2987. This paper was accepted by Noah Gans, stochastic models and simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop an endogenous growth model with vintages of physical capital where human capital is endogenously produced. Under some simplifying assumptions, we can solve the model analytically and study its dynamics. We provide conditions under which a balanced growth path, in the ratio of capital to human capital, exists and is stable, with the transition dynamics exhibiting oscillatory echo effects associated with vintages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper argues that tests of Lancaster's economic theory presented in a recent article by George Ladd and Martin Zober are invalid, and that the theory presented by these authors also contains some problems. An alternative economic model of brand choice, which is more consistent with current empirical models of brand preference and choice, is outlined and several possible applications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on international nominal interest rates that are associated with different perceived levels of default risk, different maturities, and partial segregated markets. The objective of this article is to explore how welfare measures can influence consumers' behavior. The article presents a number of mathematical models that could be used to create a money demand schedule for consumer surpluses. The article concludes that the welfare effect is not directly linked to savings in transaction costs.

The article discusses technological change and the superneutrality of money. The article suggests that basic forms of technological change will usually cancel out the superneutrality result. The author states that the actual rate of interest and the capital-labor intensity will depend on the parameters of the utility function. The article also discusses a type of technological progress known as "Harrod neutral" which the author explains can be characterized by each worker becoming more efficient through time at a constant proportional rate. Several equations concerning the study are also presented.

The article discusses a report by economist Harry Johnson, the "Paradox of Bliss," which states that there will be an underestimation of wealth if conventional methods of calculating it are adopted in a money economy. Johnson's theses are that wealth will be underestimated if no value is imputed to money and that there will still be an underestimation of wealth if the consumers' surplus is not taken into account. The author tests Johnson's model and finds the paradox created when Johnson's assumption is followed that neither money nor capital depreciate.

The article reports on the capital asset pricing model. The author uses his research, as well as the research of Lintner and Mossin, to discuss capital asset prices with and without negative holdings. A mathematical optimization method that can be used for portfolio management is discussed in detail. A mathematical model that can be used to determine the marginal utility of a security is presented. The author includes a factor model that investors can employ to calculate future returns. Fundamental aspects of equilibrium in capital markets are also discussed.

Regressions of security returns on treasury bill rates provide insight about the behavior of risk in rational asset pricing models. The information in one-month bill rates implies time variation in the conditional covariances of portfolios of stocks and fixed-income securities with benchmark pricing variables, over extended samples and within five-year subperiods. There is evidence of changes in conditional "betas" associated with interest rates. Consumption and stock market data are examined as proxies for marginal utility, in a general framework for asset pricing with time-varying conditional covariances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]