The economic benefit of localised, short-term, wildfire-potential information

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (7) ◽  
pp. 974 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laine Christman ◽  
Kimberly Rollins

Wildfire-potential information products are designed to support decisions for prefire staging of movable wildfire suppression resources across geographic locations. We quantify the economic value of these information products by defining their value as the difference between two cases of expected fire-suppression expenditures: one in which daily information about spatial variation in wildfire-potential is used to move fire suppression resources throughout the season, and the other case in which daily information is not used and fire-suppression resources are staged in their home locations all season. We demonstrate the method by constructing a hypothetical wildland management unit calibrated to represent a region typical in the US West. The method uses estimated suppression costs and probabilities of significant fire, as provided by an information service, to estimate expected suppression costs. We analyse differences in expected suppression costs for a range of risk scenarios. Economic savings occur for the majority of risk scenarios. This approach can be used to evaluate investments in wildfire-potential information services, and for assessing the value of investing in new resources.

1988 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 1641-1649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara G. Brown ◽  
Allan H. Murphy

Decision analysis is used to model the rational use and estimate the economic value of weather forecasts in a specific decision-making situation relating to wildfire suppression mobilization. In this situation two fires in a national forest that differ only in timber type and location may require fire-suppression assistance from an adjacent national forest, depending on the weather conditions. The assistance available in the adjacent national forest consists of one 20-man hand crew and one bulldozer. Decisions regarding whether to request assistance and whether and where to deploy these suppression resources are assumed to be made on the basis of weather forecasts. Weather forecasts are found to be useful in this context because they enable the fire manager to select in an optimal manner the fire at which the suppression resources are likely to be most beneficial on each occasion. Specifically, state of the art forecasts have an expected economic value of almost $61 00 in this situation, and perfect information would have a value of approximately $16 600. Sensitivity analysis reveals that these results are quite sensitive to variations in fire outcome (i.e., numbers of acres burned). Improvements in forecast quality would lead to substantial increases in the economic value of weather forecasts in this two-fire situation.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 841
Author(s):  
Iveta Desaine ◽  
Annija Kārkliņa ◽  
Roberts Matisons ◽  
Anna Pastare ◽  
Andis Adamovičs ◽  
...  

The increased removal of forest-derived biomass with whole-tree harvesting (WTH) has raised concerns about the long-term productivity and sustainability of forest ecosystems. If true, this effect needs to be factored in the assessment of long-term feasibility to implement such a drastic forest management measure. Therefore, the economic performance of five experimental plantations in three different forest types, where in 1971 simulated WTH event occurred, was compared with pure, planted and conventionally managed (CH) Norway spruce stands of similar age and growing conditions. Potential incomes of CH and WTH stands were based on timber prices for period 2014–2020. However, regarding the economics of root and stump biomass utilization, they were not included in the estimates. In any given price level, the difference of internal rate of return between the forest types and selected managements were from 2.5% to 6.2%. Therefore, Norway spruce stands demonstrate good potential of independence regardless of stump removal at the previous rotation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (05) ◽  
pp. 1385-1403 ◽  
Author(s):  
KITAE SOHN ◽  
ILLOONG KWON

Trust was found to promote entrepreneurship in the US. We investigated whether this was true in a developing country, Indonesia. We failed to replicate this; this failure was true whether trust was estimated at the individual or community level or whether ordinary least squares (OLS) or two stage least squares (2SLS) was employed. We reconciled the difference between our results and those for the US by arguing that the weak enforcement of property rights in developing countries and the consequent hold-up problem make it more efficient for entrepreneurs to produce generic goods than relationship-specific goods—producing generic goods does not depend on trust.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Shaojie Lai ◽  
Qing Wang ◽  
Jiangze Du ◽  
Shuwen Pi

This article examines the propensity to pay dividends in the U.S banking sector during 1973–2014. Although the propensity to pay dividends has been declining over the 52 years of our sample period, banks are consistently more likely to pay dividends than non-financial firms. Using the coefficients from logit models estimated early in the sample period to forecast the percentage of dividend payers in each subsequent year, we conclude that there has been a decline in the likelihood of paying dividends in the banking sector. However, the decline started from a very high level as compared to that of the non-banking sectors. In addition, the variables taken from the non-financial firm literature do not explain the difference between the actual and expected percentage of dividend payers in the banking sector. We also conduct exploratory analyses with bank-specific variables. Although newly included variables are significantly related to the likelihood of paying dividends, they do not explain the declining propensity to pay dividends in the banking sector.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962110624
Author(s):  
Dana Ali Salih ◽  
Hawre Hasan Hama

The Kurdish Civil War between the military forces of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) began in 1994. Despite frequently occurring peace talks throughout the conflict, negotiations failed to bring about a durable settlement until the United States brokered the Washington Peace Agreement in 1998. This research explores why the earlier negotiations were unsuccessful, and whether it was only the US mediation in 1998 which made the difference. Although the US mediation was clearly an important factor, by employing the contingency model this research argues that both contextual variables and process variables determined the success of negotiations in 1998. Furthermore, they can explain the failure of the previous 4 years of negotiations.


2021 ◽  
pp. tobaccocontrol-2020-056316
Author(s):  
Lauren Kass Lempert ◽  
Stella Bialous ◽  
Stanton Glantz

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued orders in July 2020 authorising Philip Morris Products S.A. to market its heated tobacco product (HTP) IQOS inside the USA with claims that it reduces exposure to some dangerous substances. FDA’s ‘reduced-exposure’ orders explicitly prohibit the marketing of IQOS with claims that IQOS will reduce harm or the risk of tobacco-related diseases. Under US law, FDA’s IQOS orders are problematic because FDA disregarded valid scientific evidence that IQOS increases exposure to other dangerous toxins and that Philip Morris Products S.A. failed to demonstrate that consumers understand the difference between reduced-exposure and reduced-harm claims. Unfortunately, both ‘reduced-exposure’ and ‘reduced-harm’ are classified as ‘modified risk tobacco products’ under US law. Exploiting this confusion, Philip Morris International used the FDA decision as the basis for marketing and public relations campaigns outside the USA to press governments to reverse policies that ban or regulate the sales and marketing of HTPs, including IQOS. Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control should reject tobacco companies’ unsubstantiated explicit or implied claims of reduced harm associated with HTPs and resist Philip Morris International’s and other companies’ calls to relax HTP regulations based on the FDA’s actions. Instead, parties should adopt policies aligned with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control when dealing with HTPs and other novel tobacco products.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajay Kumar ◽  
Anil Kumar Kashyap

Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify distinct segments of apparel shoppers based on their fashion shopping orientation. The difference among the segments based on mall attractive dimension is also examined. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected through mall intercept survey from the mall shoppers. Samples of 375 respondents are used for data analysis purpose. Exploratory factor analysis is used to extract the factors of fashion shopping orientation and mall attractive dimensions while K-means cluster analysis is applied to identify the segments. Findings This study resulted in three factors of fashion orientation of apparel shoppers, i.e. fashion involvement, variety seeking and economic value, and four factors of mall attractive dimensions: convenience, entertainment, atmosphere and architecture design. Based on these factors, this study came out with three distinct segments of fashion shoppers: pragmatic shoppers, variety seeking shoppers and highly fashioned shoppers. These three segments are attracted towards the mall dimension differently. Originality/value This paper presents the three distinct profiles of fashion shoppers based on their fashion shopping orientation and mall attractive dimensions. The findings of this study may help retailers and mall developers to target mall visitors appropriately.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 12020-12020
Author(s):  
Deborah Schrag ◽  
Hajime Uno ◽  
Rachel Pam Greenerger Rosovsky ◽  
Cynthia Rutherford ◽  
Kristen Marie Sanfilippo ◽  
...  

12020 Background: Previous randomized trials in cancer patients suggest that DOACs are non-inferior to LMWH for preventing recurrent VTE but have higher risk of bleeding. However, the balance of benefits and burdens remains uncertain. Objective: The CANVAS pragmatic trial compared recurrent VTE, bleeding and death in cancer patients following an initial VTE treated with either DOAC or LMWH therapy. Methods: CANVAS was an unblinded hybrid comparative effectiveness non-inferiority trial, with randomized and preference cohorts. Between 12/16 and 4/20, 671 participants were randomized and followed for 6-months. Between 12/16 and 12/17, 140 participants declined randomization, chose their preferred anticoagulant and were followed for 6-months. The preference cohort was closed when predetermined stopping criteria were met. Final follow-up was 11/30/20. Randomized patients were assigned 1:1 to receive either a DOAC or a LMWH. If assigned to LMWH, transitions to warfarin were allowed. Physicians and patients could choose among any DOAC or LMWH. Doses were suggested based on FDA-approved labeling but not mandated. Patients from 67 practices in the US with any invasive solid tumor, lymphoma, multiple myeloma or CLL and a diagnosis of symptomatic or radiographically detected VTE within 30 days of enrollment were eligible. The 1° analysis was conducted in the randomized modified-into to treat popululation, (all subjects who received study drug). The 1° outcome was recurrent VTE. The aim was to establish noninferiority of anticoagulation with a DOAC as defined by the upper limit of the 2-sided 90% CI for the difference in the event rate at 6 months of < 3%. Secondary outcomes included death and bleeding. Hypothesis testing included only the randomized cohort but propensity score adjusted results for the preference and combined cohorts are also shown. Results: The non-inferiority criteria for recurrent VTE was met. Conclusions: Among adult cancer patients with VTE, the use of a DOAC compared with a LMWH resulted in a noninferior risk of recurrent VTE with no differences in rates of bleeding or death in randomized patients. Clinical trial information: NCT02744092. [Table: see text]


2000 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashok Banerjee

Maximizing shareholder value has become the new corporate paradigm. Corporations in the US have started disclosing EVA information from the beginning of 90s as a measure of corporate performance. It is believed that market value of a firm (hence shareholder wealth) would increase with the increase in EVA. Various studies done in the US also confirm this belief. EVA (a term coined and registered by Stern Stewart & Co. New York) is a residual income that subtracts the cost of capital from the operating profits generated by a business. The present study makes an at tempt to find the relevance of Stewart's claim that market value of the firm is largely driven by its EVA generating capacity in the Indian context. Based on a sample of 200 firms over a period of five years, the study shows that market value of a firm can be well predicted by estimated future EVA streams. The study has also found that market value of most of the firms in the sample is explained more by current operational value than future growth value of firms.


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