We conduct a randomized controlled trial of an Indian school library program. Overall, the program had no impact on students' scores on a language skills test administered after 16 months. The estimates are sufficiently precise to rule out effects larger than 0.053 and 0.037 standard deviations,...

The charging of school user fees is a much-debated policy issue in developing countries. In this paper, I evaluate the impact of a South African fee elimination program that was targeted at the poorest two quintiles of schools based on a community poverty score. Fixed effects estimates find that...

Along with the exponential increase in online business transactions, the online payment system has gained in popularity because vendors and creditors realize its growing importance as a foundation to improve their information infrastructure and to achieve “paperless†operating...

This paper considers a parking competition game where a finite number of vehicles from different origins compete for the same number of parking spaces located at various places in a downtown area to minimize their own parking costs. If one vehicle reaches a desired vacant parking space before...

The limited driving ranges, the scarcity of recharging stations and potentially long battery recharging or swapping time inevitably affect route choices of drivers of battery electric vehicles (BEVs). When traveling between their origins and destinations, this paper assumes that BEV drivers...

Biomass gasification using lattice oxygen (BGLO) of natural hematite coupling with steam was conducted in a fluidized bed reactor. The presence of hematite particles evidently facilitated to biomass gasification. Comparing with biomass steam gasification (BSG), carbon conversion and gas yield...

A new silica encapsulation technique toward n-octadecane PCM (phase change material) was developed through sol–gel synthesis using sodium silicate as a silica precursor. Fourier transform infrared spectra confirm the chemical composition of the synthesized microcapsules, and wide-angle X-ray...