Electricity markets throughout the world continue to be opened to competitive forces. The underlying objective of introducing competition to these markets is to make them more efficient. It is a general concept of capitalism that if fair and equitable market structures are created, which give all market participants incentives to maximize their own individual welfare, then the market as a whole...

A difference in logsum terms (also known as inclusive values) is becoming standard practice for anticipating the welfare impacts of transport policy when choice alternatives are discrete and behavior is (assumed to be) random-utility maximizing. This paper examines the effect of error term correlations in such analyses, recognizing that individual preferences and unobserved attributes influenci...

Moving pregnant sows from individual stalls to group housing will require many changes in management and feeding practices to maintain optimal biological performance and sow welfare. Dietary energy requirements of sows may change compared with stall housing but requirements for other nutrients are not likely to change significantly. Producers may need to consider feeding requirements to support...

Despite differences in focus, goals, and strategies between conservation biology and animal welfare, both are inextricably linked in many ways, and greater consideration of animal welfare, although important in its own right, also has considerable potential to contribute to conservation success. Nevertheless, animal welfare and animal ethics are not always considered explicitly within conservat...

In a single framework, I address the question of the informational basis for evaluating social states. I particularly focus on information about individual welfare, individual preferences and individual (moral) judgments, but the model is also open to any other informational input deemed relevant, e.g. sources of welfare and motivations behind preferences. In addition to proving some possibilit...

This paper uses the framework of an OLG economy for an analysis of the dynamic interaction between the precision of information about individual skills, investment in education, human capital accumulation and social welfare. The human capital of an individual depends on both his (subjectively) random ability and his investment in education. Individual investment in education is financed through...

The compensation hypothesis states that governments adopt social programs to compensate individuals for accepting high trade exposure. Previous empirical studies has tested this hypothesis by analysing the effects of international trade on social welfare spending, finding ambiguous conclusions. We test this hypothesis from a different perspective. Using the International Social Survey Programme...

Previous studies have examined whether the welfare system has contributed to the dramatic increase in single-parent families. This paper explores why the results in this literature are sensitive to the presence of state fixed effects. It considers one natural explanation, namely that the composition of the population differs across states in ways that are related to welfare program generosity. ...

The potential conflicts between animal welfare and efficient farming can often be resolved or at least reduced by showing the financial benefits that improving animal welfare can bring to both society and individual farmers. These benefits include increased profits through: (i) reduced mortality; (ii) improved health; (iii) improved product quality; (iv) improved disease resistance and reduced ...