Sunday, January 26, 2020

Impact of Carbon Fees on Mobility of Passengers

Impact of Carbon Fees on Mobility of Passengers Changes in the mobility pattern of air passengers due to the introduction of a CARBON FEE Other titles Estimating air travel demand under the implementation of an emission trading scheme Passenger air travel demand and carbon emission fee impact assessment The effect of environmental policies on consumer’s preferences for air travel How could environmental policies change air travel pattern in US? GMM estimation of a supply-and-demand model for air travel and the effects of the introduction of a carbon fee (for the journal) Incorporating a carbon trading scheme in supply-and-demand model for air travel Titlos TRB: AIR TRAVEL DEMAND IN U.S.: THE EFFECTS OF A CARBON EMISSIONS FEE Ioanna Pagoni Voula Psaraki-Kalouptsidi Aviation environmental policies aim to mitigate emissions generated from air transportation through the use of policy tools. These may include Regulatory Measures, such as aircraft emissions/noise certification standards, Technology/Operational Measures, such as improvements in engine and aircraft technology and Market-based Measures which include emissions trading, emissions charges and taxes and emissions offsetting. A wide range of market-based measures are currently implemented in aviation sector. Within these measures, a price is set on the â€Å"non-priced† emissions in order to account for the negative environmental externality of aviation. The scope is to create incentives for aviation stakeholders to implement fuel-efficient techniques to reduce aircraft emissions. The result is an extra cost to the airlines which may in-turn be reflected in the ticket price in case the airlines decide to pass-through this cost to the passengers. The most known market-based measure for aviation is the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) which was launched in 2012 and initially planned to cover every flight landing in or departing from the EU, regardless of where the operator is incorporated. After serious international opposition, mainly by American and Canadian airlines, and in expectation of a global market-based mechanism, EU proposed that only emissions from the proportion of the flight within EU territory are to be charged until 2016. In this context, several U.S. and Canadian airlines have already taken action. Delta, Air Canada and United have introduced a voluntary carbon offsetting program, where the passengers can offset the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions resulting from their travel by making charitable contributions to several environmental projects, such as forest conservation and renewable energy. Based on the United’s on-line carbon calculator, a passenger travelling from New York (JFK) to San Francisco (SFO) would pay a carbon offset cost of $12.59 to support forest conservation in California. Furthermore, major U.S. airlines, including Delta, United and American Airlines introduced a $3 surcharge per passenger for European flights so as to cope with the EU-ETS. Motivated by these actions, this paper identifies room to research the implementation of a carbon fee on U.S. airlines. Such a policy may influence many aspects of the aviation system, including ticket prices and demand. Various studies have examined the impact of environmental policies on air travel. However, most of these studies use price elasticities of demand based on previous studies. This paper contributes to the existing literature by incorporating the carbon emissions’ cost into a structural model with a discrete choice modeling for consumers’ demand and an airline supply side to investigate the impacts on airlines’ market share and their competition strategies after the introduction of a carbon fee in United States. Airlines offer differentiated products (airline-route specific) in each market (O-D city pairs) and the passengers choose to â€Å"buy† one product or take the outside option of not â€Å"buying† (not flying). In each market, p rices and product shares are determined in Bertrand-Nash equilibrium. The carbon fee is then included in the model as it is believed that it will affect costs, prices and demand. Demand specification plays a critical role when examining policy measures. We estimate a two-level Nested Logit (NL) model for air travel demand using aggregate Origin-Destination data. We incorporate a NL model, instead of a multinomial logit (MNL) in order to capture correlations among airline products and differentiate them from other travel modes (rail, car etc). This feature helps overcome the limitation of the Independence from Irrelevant Alternatives (IIA) property of MNL that may lead to incorrect elasticities and choice probabilities. For the supply side, we establish the airline’s profit function which is equal to the airline’s revenues from ticket sales minus the airline’s costs. We assume that airlines conduct differentiated Nash competition to determine ticket prices. It is noted that after the implementation of the carbon fee, the airline’s costs include the â€Å"carbon cost† which depends on the unit carbon price (per tn CO2) and the amount of emitted CO2. Overall the model is solved in two â€Å"steps†: first, we estimate the model to find the determinants of traveler’s and airline’s behavior. Several variables were included in the demand (such as ticket price, frequency, delays, airline dummies etc ) and cost equations (such as distance, number of connections etc). Other variables that have not been examined by previous papers are also included in the model and are found to be statistically significant. The model is jointly estimated by the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) to correct for bias caused by the endogenous variables of ticket price and market shares. Next, we modify the airline’s costs by introducing the carbon cost and simulate changes in the equilibrium behavior of players. To estimate the model we use publicly available data provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation. A variety of databases are merged to construct our sample for estimation: the Airline Origin and Destination Survey (DB1B), the T-100 Domestic Segment for U.S. Carriers and the On-Time Performance database. The analysis is conducted on market level (Origin-Destination city pairs) where routes provided by different airlines (unique combination of Origin-Connecting-Destination airports and airline) compete with each other. One important part of this work is the computation of CO2 emissions. The computation is done flight-by-flight using fuel burn data from ICAO Engine Exhaust Emissions Databank and EUROCONTROL’s Base of Aircraft Data. The results are presented for different markets so as to identify the impact of the various degrees of competitiveness in the marketplace (monopoly, oligopoly etc) on the examined carbon policy. The results indicate that price adjustment is a reactive measure as it is intended to eliminate the impact of the carbon fee on airline costs. Across different markets, the effects vary, depending on the size and number of firms serving the market and the prevailing ticket prices. It is also found that the implementation of a carbon fee will be effective only if the market carbon price reaches a sufficiently high level to create incentives for airlines to invest in abatement measures and thus reduce carbon emissions. Keywords: discrete choice, nested logit, generalized method of moments, carbon fee, Nash equilibrium

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Filipinization Essay Essay

Explain the impact brought about by the rise of Ilustrados and the Filipino Clergy in the Philippine Nationalist Movement and their influence to Rizal. The most prominent Ilustrados were Graciano Là ³pez Jaena, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Mariano Ponce, Antonio Luna and Josà © Rizal, the Philippine national hero. Rizal’s novels Noli Me Tangere (â€Å"Touch Me Not†) and El filibusterismo (â€Å"The Subversive†) â€Å"exposed to the world the injustices imposed on Filipinos under the Spanish colonial regime†. In the beginning, Rizal and his fellow Ilustrados preferred not to win independence from Spain, instead they yearned legal equality for bothPeninsulares and natives—Indios, Insulares, and mestizos, among others—in the colony. Among the political, religious and economic reforms demanded by the Ilustrados were that â€Å"the Philippines be represented in the Cortes and be considered as a province of Spain† and â€Å"the secularization of the parishes.† However, in 1872, nationalist sentiment grew strongest, when three Filipino priests, â€Å"charged with leading a military mutiny at an arsenal inCavite, near Manila†, were executed by the Spanish authorities. The event and â€Å"other repressive acts outraged the Ilustrados. Because of his anti-clerical writings and activities, Rizal was executed on December 30, 1896. His execution propelled the Ilustrados . This also prompted unity among the Ilustrados and Andrà ©s Bonifacio’s radical Katipunan. Philippine policies by the United States reinforced the dominant position of the Ilustrados within Filipino society. Friar estates were sold to the Ilustrados and most government positions were offered to them. The Cavite Mutiny of 1872 was an uprising of military personnel of Fort San Felipe, the Spanish arsenal in Cavite, Philippines on January 20, 1872. Around 200 soldiers and laborers rose up in the belief that it would elevate to a national uprising. The mutiny was unsuccessful, and government soldiers executed many of the participants and began to crack down on a burgeoning nationalist movement. Many scholars believe that the Cavite Mutiny of 1872 was the beginning of Filipino nationalism that would eventually lead to the  Philippine Revolution of 1896. The primary cause of the mutiny is believed to be an order from Governor-General Rafael de Izquierdo to subject the soldiers of the Engineering and Artillery Corps to personal taxes, from which they were previously exempt. The taxes required them to pay a monetary sum as well as to perform forced labor called, â€Å"polo y servicio.† The mutiny was sparked on January 20, when the laborers received their pay and realized the taxes as well as the falla, the fine one paid to be exempt from forced labor, had been deducted from their salaries. Secularization is a process by which the society is slowly transforming from that having close identification with the religious institution to a more separated relationship. This was considered to be the dawn of Philippine Nationalism, particularly after the execution of Gomburza. The Gomburza headed the secularization movement. They advocated the right of the Filipino secular clergy over the assignment of parishes rather than giving them to the newly arrived Spanish friars in the country. The seculars were those who were not bound by monastic vows or rules. They were discriminated by the Dominicans, Jesuits, Franciscans and Recollects. The Filipino priests then were assigned as assistants to Spanish friars. Secularism began in 1861 when the parishes of Mindanao originally managed by the Recollect friars were handed to the Jesuits. The Jesuits were expelled from the Philippines in 1768 because of the conflict they had between the European leaders. However, they returned to the country in 1861 and regain power over the Mindanao parishes from the Recollects who took over during their absence. The Recollects were bestowed the parishes of Manila and Cavite by the colonial government to appeased their loss. The original administrators of the parishes, the Filipino secular priests, naturally protested. Sources: http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Secularization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilustrado http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1872_Cavite_mutiny http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipino_nationalism http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/28063.html http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=History_of_the_Philippines_(1521-1898)

Thursday, January 9, 2020

Quotes from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain

Life on the Mississippi is a memoir by Mark Twain. In it, he describes his many adventures and experiences on the river, with its history, features, etc. Here are a few quotes from the book: Quotes From Chapter 1 The Mississippi is well worth reading about. It is not a commonplace river, but on the contrary is in all ways remarkable. Considering the Missouri its main branch, it is the longest river in the world--four thousand three hundred miles. It seems safe to say that it is also the crookedest river in the world, since in one part of its journey it uses up one thousand three hundred miles to cover the same ground that the crow would fly over in six hundred and seventy-five.The world and the books are so accustomed to use, and over-use, the word new in connection with our country, that we early get and permanently retain the impression that there is nothing old about it. Quotes From Chapters 3 and 4 Sired by a hurricane, damd by an earthquake.--Ch. 3When Im playful I use the meridians of longitude and parallels of latitude for a seine, and drag the Atlantic Ocean for whales! I scratch my head with the lightning, and purr myself to sleep with the thunder!--Ch. 3Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates.--Ch. 4 Quotes From Chapters 6 and 7 I was gratified to be able to answer promptly and I did. I said I didnt know.--Ch. 6Your true pilot cares nothing about anything on earth but the river, and his pride in his occupation surpasses the pride of kings.--Ch. 7By the Shadow of Death, but hes a lightning pilot!--Ch. 7 Quotes From Chapters 8 and 9 Here is a proud devil, thought I; here is a limb of Satan that would rather send us all to destruction than put himself under obligations to me, because I am not yet one of the salt of the earth and privileged to snub captains and lord it over everything dead and alive in a steamboat.--Ch. 8I felt like a skinful of dry bones and all of them trying to ache at once.--Ch. 8You can depend on it, Ill learn him or kill him.--Ch. 8The face of the water, in time, became a wonderful book--a book that was a dead language to the uneducated passenger, but which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it uttered them with a voice. And it was not a book to be read once and thrown aside, for it had a new story to tell every day.--Ch. 9 Quotes From Chapter 17 In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over one mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old OÃ ¶litic Silurian Period, just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi River was upwards of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing rod. And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three quarters long, and Cairo and New Orleans will have joined their streets together, and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact. Quotes From Chapter 23 Give an Irishman lager for a month, and hes a dead man. An Irishman is lined with copper, and the beer corrodes it. But whiskey polishes the copper and is the saving of him, sir. Quotes From Chapters 43-46 Ive worked up a business here that would satisfy any man, dont care who he is. Five years ago, lodged in an attic; live in a swell house now, with a mansard roof, and all the modern inconveniences.--Ch. 43I found the half-forgotten Southern intonations and elisions as pleasing to my ear as they had formerly been. A Southerner talks music. At least it is music to me, but then I was born in the South. The educated Southerner has no use for an r, except at the beginning of a word.--Ch. 44In the South the war is what A.D. is elsewhere; they date from it.--Ch. 45War talk by men who have been in a war is always interesting; whereas moon talk by a poet who has not been in the moon is likely to be dull.--Ch. 45Sir Walter [Scott] had so large a hand in making Southern character, as it existed before the war, that he is in great measure responsible for the war.--Ch. 46 Quotes From Chapter 52 The letter was a pure swindle, and that is the truth. And take it by and large, it was without a compeer among swindles. It was perfect, it was rounded, symmetrical, complete, colossal!

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

The Right to Bear Arms - 1196 Words

In the United States the right to own a gun is enshrined by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The text of the Second Amendment reads: â€Å"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed† (Adams, 2004). The founding fathers borrowed this idea from Niccolo Machiavelli, the Italian thinker. He wrote about the weapons necessary for freedom to defend themselves, to hunt, and to protect the state against foreign invasion. For two hundred years, this tradition has become an integral part of American culture that spawned many cultural phenomena that have become the hallmark of the United States. For example, duels in the desert areas of the†¦show more content†¦A representative of the State Teachers Association, in Texas, spoke out against the initiative, noting that teachers should not turn into armed guards. After the President unveiled new radical proposals aimed to reduce the number of crimes involving firearms, CBS News in conjunction with the New York Times, conducted an opinion poll. The poll showed that Americans support the main part of the presidential proposals, including compulsory identity cards issued to gun buyers, the necessity to check the black list, the creation of a national database and restrictions on the sale of guns in stores with high capacity and ban the sale of automatic guns. On the question of whether they support gun control laws governing the sale of firearms in general, the majority of respondents - 54% - were in favor of stricter rules on arms sales, while 53% believe it will curb the rise of violence with firearms. However, not all respondents support additional gun control laws. Gun Control is more popular with Democrats and a slight majority of Independents. At the same time, such strict measures were supported by only 31% of Republicans (Backus et al., 2013). The President proposed to expand access to mental health databases, since it may contribute to the prevention of violence with firearms. Also, schools would be able to strengthen their security and intelligence services could expand the exchange of information on suspicious personsShow MoreRelatedThe Right And Bear Arms1009 Words   |  5 PagesThe Right to Bear Arms The Second Amendment written in The Constitution has been under great scrutiny lately. Extremists from both sides argue their points, however, how accurate are those points? For example, one can argue that it is a right that was given in The Constitution therefore, it cannot be taken away. However, was living back then a much different world than we live in now? Do we need guns to protect us in today’s society? The other extremist could argue that yes, it was a much differentRead MoreThe Right to Bear Arms790 Words   |  4 PagesOur founding father gave American citizens the right to bear arms, but was that the best idea or was it even the safest idea? Many Americans today own a gun and the majority use their gun in a safe manner. However, when the gun was first invented, it was intended to kill whether that be hunting, self-defense, or in battle. The gun is still to this day intended to kill and will always hold that purpose. Americans were given the right to bear arms in a time of need during the end of the revolutionaryRead MoreThe Right Of Bear Arms1950 Words   |  8 PagesGun Control The Right to Bear Arms was the second amendment put into place when creating the nation. It gives the people of our country the right to keep and own a gun. Today, just over two hundred years later, one of the biggest debates in society is on gun control and how the people should be handling their weapons. The gun control in the country is something that should be taken more seriously as lives and well beings are at stake. Former president Bill Clinton commented on gun control, sayingRead MoreThe Right Of Bear Arms1236 Words   |  5 Pages The right to bear arms is a heated subject today. People on both sides of the debate are adamant in their beliefs about whether or not we have the right to own, carry, and use firearms. Those who believe firmly in the Second Amendment cannot be swayed by even the most persuasive argument that there is too much gun violence in this country. In much the same way, gun control activists are dismissive and even condescending towards those who put the Constitution and personal freedom before statisticsRead MoreThe Right And Bear Arms1663 Words   |  7 PagesChristal Blege April 23, 2015 Professor Swint. The right to bear arms? Our second amendment right is something that I feel that most Americans would go to war over. I never grew up around guns, I have never held a gun, or discharged a gun. More importantly, I have never used a gun to protect me, my property or my family. This is why I fail to see the fascination people have with the right to own a gun, especially military grade firearms like assault rifles. â€Å"Assault rifles were designed toRead MoreThe Right Of Bear Arms1232 Words   |  5 PagesThe right to bear arms is assured in the constitution by the Second Amendment. Liberals are attempting to alter the constitution by any mean necessary. They are trying to prohibit handguns and/or limit sales. Studies have proven that gun control could not stop people from carrying out crimes. 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The Second Amendment states, â€Å" A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.† I think that the founders put this in the constitution to keep the sense of freedom they had in England concerning arms, and other than a small force of paid officers, the United States had no professional, trainedRead MoreThe Right And Bear Arms Essay2583 Words   |  11 Pages There are and always will be people disagreeing over the controversial Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, however there are several reasons why the Second Amendment is beneficial to the community. The Second Amendment to certain people in the United States is seen as an amendment that represents their freedom. 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