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on Computational Economics |
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Issue of 2007‒12‒19
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Cremers, Marloes; Klein Haneveld, Wim; van der Vlerk, Maarten (Groningen University) |
| Abstract: | Abstract We consider a dynamic planning problem for the transport of elderly and disabled people. The focus is on a decision to make one day ahead: which requests to serve with own vehicles, and which ones to assign to subcontractors, under uncertainty of late requests which are gradually revealed during the day of operation. We call this problem the Dynamic Day-ahead Paratransit Planning problem. The developed model is a nonstandard two-stage recourse model in which ideas from stochastic programming and online optimization are combined: in the first stage clustered requests are assigned to vehicles, and in the dynamic second-stage problem an event-driven approach is used to cluster the late requests once they are revealed and subsequently assign them to vehicles. A genetic algorithm is used to solve the model. Computational results are presented for randomly generated data sets. Furthermore, a comparison is made to a similar problem we studied earlier in which the simplifying but unrealistic assumption has been made that all late requests are revealed at the beginning of the day of operation. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:rugsom:07010&r=cmp |
| By: | Sara Wong; Ricardo Arguello; Ketty Rivera |
| Abstract: | We quantify the effects on poverty and income distribution in Ecuador of bilateral trade liberalization with the US and a budget-neutral value added tax increase which seeks to compensate tariff revenue losses. We stress the study of fiscal policies that the government could tap in order to compensate for tariff revenue loss. This is a very important issue for Ecuador because this country adopted the US dollar as its currency in 2000, forgiving the use of important policy instruments. To study these issues we combine a reduced-form micro household income and occupational choice model (using 2005/6 data from the Ecuadorian LSMS) with a standard single-country computable general equilibrium model (employing a 2004 SAM). We follow a sequential approach that simulates the full distributional impact of trade and tax policies. We find that the impact of these policy changes on extreme poverty and income distribution is small but positive. |
| Date: | 2007–11–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:004367&r=cmp |
| By: | James A. Giesecke; J. Mark Horridge; José A. Scaramucci |
| Abstract: | In response to oil price rises and carbon emission concerns, policies promoting increased ethanol usage in gasoline blends are being implemented by many countries, including major energy users such as USA, EU and Japan. As a result, Brazil, as the largest ethanol producer and exporter in the world, can expect growing foreign demand for ethanol exports. Also, the introduction of flex-fuel vehicles in Brazil is causing domestic sales of ethanol to increase steadily. In this paper, we investigate the regional and industrial economic consequences of rapid growth in Brazilian ethanol consumption and exports. For this, we use a disaggregated multi-regional computable general equilibrium (CGE) model with energy industry detail. Our modelling emphasises a number of features of ethanol production in Brazil which we expect to be important in determining the adjustment of its regional economies to a substantial expansion in ethanol production. These include regional differences in ethanol and sugar production technologies, sugarcane harvesting methods and the elasticity of land supply to sugarcane production. |
| Keywords: | CGE models, energy, ethanol, Brazil |
| JEL: | D58 Q13 Q42 R11 R49 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cop:wpaper:g-169&r=cmp |
| By: | Demary, Markus |
| Abstract: | We extend the model by DeGrauwe and Grimaldi (2006, EER) by currency transaction taxes. This model explains the exchange rate behavior by the interaction of heterogeneous traders who display either trend chasing behavior or rely on a return of the exchange rate back to its arbitrage free fundamental value. Within this model framework we can show analytically that the steady-state of the original model is unaffected by the transaction tax rate. We inferred from numerical simulations that the transaction tax is able to reduce the number of speculative equilibria to zero. Moreover, we show that the tax will lead to a faster convergence of the system back to its fundamental steady state. |
| Keywords: | Currency Transaction Taxes, Exchange Rates, Financial Market Volatility, Heterogenous Agents Model, Numerical Simulation |
| JEL: | C15 F31 F32 G15 G18 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cauewp:6796&r=cmp |
| By: | Christian Jaag; Christian Keuschnigg; Mirela Keuschnigg |
| Abstract: | The labor market effects of pension reform stem from retirement behavior and from job search and hours worked of prime age workers. This paper investigates the impact of four often proposed policy measures for sustainable pensions: strengthening the tax benefit link, moving from wage to price indexation of benefits, lengthening calculation periods, and introducing more actuarial fairness in pension assessment. We provide some analytical results and use a computational model to demonstrate the economic and welfare impact of recent pension reform in Austria. |
| Keywords: | Pension Reform, Retirement, Job Search, Life-cycle Unemployment |
| JEL: | D58 D91 H55 J26 J64 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:dp2007:2007-43&r=cmp |