Traditional approaches to estimating the potential benefits of water reform, including the introduction of water markets, have relied on short-run models which assume irrigation capital is either fixed or not a constraint on decision making. Other studies have incorporated a long-run decision...

This dissertation consists of three essays that apply both economic theory and econometric methods to understand design and dynamics of institutions. In particular, it studies how institutions aggregate information and deal with uncertainty and attempts to derive implications for optimal...

Gradient-based approaches to direct policy search in reinforcement learning have received much recent attention as a means to solve problems of partial observability and to avoid some of the problems associated with policy degradation in value-function methods. In this paper we introduce GPOMDP,...

In this dissertation we present mathematical models that help answer health policy questions relating to HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV), and analyze bias in Markov models of disease progression. We begin by developing a Markov decision process model that examines the timing of testing and treatment...

This paper studies airline customers' online search and purchase behaviors. Twofundamental aspects of online behavior are examined: (1) the link between searchbehavior and buying behavior and (2) the evolution of inter-temporal search andpurchase decisions of strategic buyers.In the first study,...

Recently, a computationally-efficient method was presented for calibrating a wide-class of Markov processes from discrete-sampled abundance data. The method was illustrated with respect to one-dimensional processes and required the assumption of stationarity. Here we demonstrate that the...

Drei große Reformenpakete und eine Reihe kleinerer Begleitmaßnahmen prägen das renten¬politische Erbe der rot-grünen Bundesregierung. Einerseits greifen sie Trends in der Reformpolitik seit Beginn der 90er Jahre auf. So verstärkt die Rentenstrukturreform 2001 beispielsweise die...

MARKAL-MACRO is an experiment in model linkage for energy and economy analysis. This new tool is intended as an improvement over existing methods for energy strategy assessment. It is designed specifically for estimating the costs and analyzing the technologies proposed for reducing...

MARKAL-MACRO is an experiment in model linkage for energy and economy analysis. This new tool is intended as an improvement over existing methods for energy strategy assessment. It is designed specifically for estimating the costs and analyzing the technologies proposed for reducing...

This report discusses the potential for solar-powered agricultural irrigation pumps in the San Joaquin Valley and how these applications could improve the region's air This paper presents results from the Wind Deployment Systems Model (WinDS) for several potential energy policy cases. WinDS is a...