(SORCan) Working Group " There are more things in heaven and earth, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. " —William Shakespeare, " Hamlet, " Act 1, Scene 5 English dramatist and poet (1564 to 1616) L ess than 1% of the fresh water (approximately 0.007% of all water on earth) is accessible for direct human use. We use this small amount of water for drinking, transportation, heating and cooling...

This article investigates the role of spatial pattern in residential outdoor water use and implications for the efficacy of non-price restrictions. Drawing on a spatially explicit dataset, the analysis characterizes latent neighborhood effects in households’ outdoor water use and how these effects vary during water restrictions. Results illustrate that spatial patterns in water use vary across ...

The price dispersion means different prices for same goods. In the Internet economy, many economists reckon that the price dispersion in the e-commerce markets should descend along with the dropping of search cost. However, the correlative empirical studies reach a contrary opinion: there not only exist price dispersion in the e-commerce market, but also has larger dispersion degree than the tr...

Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) are the most widely-used measure of health in cost– effectiveness analysis and cost–benefit analysis. Within a welfarist framework QALYs are consistent with people’s preferences under stringent assumptions. Several authors have argued that QALYs are a valid measure of health within an extra-welfarist framework. This paper studies the applicability of QALYs wi...

Tradable permits are celebrated as a political instrument since they allow (i) firms to equalize marginal abatement costs through trade and (ii) the government to distribute the burden of the policy in a politically fair and feasible way. These two concerns, however, conflict in a dynamic setting. Anticipating that high-cost firms will receive more permits in the future, firms purchase excessiv...

This paper attempts to reconcile an apparent contradiction between short-run and long-run movements in the price of gold. A theoretical model is developed that suggests a set of the conditions that would have to be satisfied for the price of gold to rise over time at the general rate of inflation and hence be an effective long-run hedge against inflation. The model also demonstrates that short-...

This paper examines whether consumers necessarily benefit from tightening the price cap. We find that a tighter price cap always increases consumer welfare when demands are independent. Conversely, when demands are interdependent a tighter price cap may reduce consumer welfare.  2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.