This paper studies a problem encountered by a buying office for one of the largest retail distributors in the world. An important task for the buying office is to plan the distribution of goods from Asia to various destinations across Europe. The goods are transported along shipping lanes by shipping companies, which offer different discount rates depending on the freight quantity. To increase ...

This paper examines the Department of Energy’s (DOE) reliance on low discount rates to estimate the benefits of its energy efficiency standards and uses existing literature on implicit consumer discount rates to calculate a range of benefits for DOE’s furnace fan rule. While DOE calculates large net benefits from its energy efficiency rule, using discount rates that better represent average con...

We examine the investment decision problem of a group whose members have heterogeneous time preferences. In particular, they have different discount factors for utility, possibly not exponential. We characterize the properties of efficient allocations of resources and of shadow prices that would decentralize such allocations. We show in particular that the term structure of interest rates is de...

Purpose We conduct a hypothetical dictator game with social distance and time delays using conjoint analysis. Design / methodology / approach Responses from 1,347 Japanese adults are collected through an online survey, and their responses are analyzed using a random parameter logit model. Findings Social preference for the present income of a stranger equals social preference for the income of ...

This article develops a dynamic game model of a supply chain consisting of one manufacturer and one retailer to study the coordination mechanism and the effect of demand disruption on the coordination mechanism, where the market demand is sensitive to retail price and service. We assume that the supplier and the retailer only know the distribution of the disrupted amount after the demand disrup...

T he optimal allocation of natural gas resources to various uses such as final and intermediate consumption, injection into oil fields, and exports can help policymakers to use this kind of resources efficiently. Empirical evidence support using hyperbolic discount rates instead of fixed discount rates in the economic literature. The purpose of this study is to maximize the social we...

OBJECTIVES Discounting of costs in health-related economic evaluation is generally regarded as uncontroversial, but there is disagreement about discounting health benefits. We sought to explore the current recommendations and practice in health economic evaluations with regard to discounting of costs and benefits. METHODS Recommendations for best practice on discounting for health effects as ...

Purpose – Studies on optimal discount levels have sometimes yielded contradictory results, leaving practitioners with unclear direction. This paper proposes clarifying the optimum discount levels. Design/methodology/approach – This study asked 453 consumers to choose their own optimal discount levels (from 0-80 percent) for eight product categories across two distribution channels (physical sto...

The combination of either boceprevir or telaprevir with ribavirin and interferon (triple therapy) has been shown to be more effective than ribavirin+interferon (dual therapy) for the treatment of genotype 1 hepatitis C. Since the benefit of these treatments takes place after years, simulation models are needed to predict long-term outcomes. In simulation models, the choice of different values o...