Allocation Regimes Research Articles

Position in the laying order has sex-specific consequences for reproductive success in adult black-headed gulls.

Mothers who produce multiple offspring within one reproductive attempt often allocate resources differentially; some maternally derived substances are preferentially allocated to last-produced offspring and others to first-produced offspring. The combined effect of these different allocation regimes on the overall fitness of offspring produced early or late in the sequence is not well understood, partly because production order is often coupled with birth order, making it difficult-to-separate effects of pre-natal maternal allocation from those of post-natal social environments. In addition, very little is known about the influence of laying order on fitness in later life. In this study, we used a semi-natural captive colony of black-headed gulls to test whether an offspring's position in the laying order affected its early-life survival and later-life reproductive success, independent of its hatching order. Later-laid eggs were less likely to hatch, but among those that did, survival to adulthood was greater than that of first-laid eggs. In adulthood, the laying order of females did not affect their likelihood of breeding in the colony, but male offspring hatched from last-laid eggs were significantly less likely to gain a breeding position than earlier-laid males. In contrast, later-laid female parents hatched lower proportions of their clutches than first-laid females, but hatching success was unrelated to the laying order of male parents. Our results indicate that gull mothers induce complex and sex-specific effects on both the early survival of their offspring and on long-term reproductive success through laying order effects among eggs of the same breeding attempt.

Negative relationship between photosynthesis and late-stage canopy development and senescence over Tibetan Plateau.

Canopy greening, which is associated with significant canopy structure changes, is the most notable signal of ecosystem changes in response to anthropogenic climate change. However, our knowledge of the changing pattern of canopy development and senescence, and its endogenous and climatic drivers is still limited. Here, we used the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to quantify the changes in the speed of canopy development and senescence over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) during 2000-2018, and used a solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence dataset as a proxy for photosynthesis, in combination with climate datasets to decipher the endogenous and climatic drivers of the interannual variation in canopy changes. We found that the canopy development during the early green-up stage (April-May) is accelerating at a rate of 0.45-0.8 × 10-3 month-1 year-1 . However, this accelerating canopy development was largely offset by a decelerating canopy development during June and July (-0.61 to -0.51 × 10-3 month-1 year-1 ), leading to the peak NDVI over the TP increasing at a rate of only one fifth of that in northern temperate regions, and less than one tenth of that in the Arctic and boreal regions. During the green-down period, we observed a significant accelerating canopy senescence during October. Photosynthesis was found to be the dominant driver for canopy changes over the TP. Increasing photosynthesis stimulates canopy development during the early green-up stage. However, slower canopy development and accelerated senescence was found with larger photosynthesis in late growth stages. This negative relationship between photosynthesis and canopy development is probably linked to the source-sink balance of plants and shifts in the allocation regime. These results suggest a sink limitation for plant growth over the TP. The impact of canopy greening on the carbon cycle may be more complicated than the source-oriented paradigm used in current ecosystem models.

Climate adaptation options for the 2026 Basin Plan: opportunities for managing climate risk

ABSTRACT How water resources are defined, both conceptually and legally, is central to their efficient and equitable allocation. With climate change introducing significant uncertainties to water resources management, flexible allocation frameworks are needed that can adapt to changing conditions. This paper explores options for climate-adaptive water allocation in Australia’s Murray Darling Basin. The 2026 revision of the Basin Plan may provide significant opportunities for proactive climate risk mitigation, but this depends on rigorous evaluation of policy options. The Water Act requires that the Plan’s revisions use the best available science to inform strategies that minimise the impact of climate risks. The Act also enables the use of ratios and formulas as alternatives to using long-term averages as the basis of the Plan. However, there have been limited investigations into using these alternatives. Achieving more adaptive policies depends on rigorously assessing climate risk management options. Given the far-reaching consequences of climate change, rigorous investigations are needed into reforms to the established approaches to water resources planning and to existing water entitlements and allocation regimes. At minimum, this means reassessing the total resource pool and all subsidiary targets and investigating allocation frameworks that equitably share risks between extractive users and the environment.

Scenario simulation and analysis in the transboundary Yarmouk River basin using a WEAP model

ABSTRACT Water is a finite resource but an essential one. The continuously increasing demand leads to competition and conflict over limited resources. Syria, Jordan, and Israel compete over the water resources in the transboundary Yarmouk River basin where two water agreements dictate the allocation of water. The two arrangements are far from being efficient and fair while little cooperation is being made over sharing the resources that are being over-exploited. In this study, water sustainability was investigated under projected developments and trends based on the current use and allocation regime in the watershed using several scenarios. A one bucket soil moisture model was adopted and optimized in order to fully represent the ever-changing hydrology of the basin using the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) tool. Demands along with the existing water infrastructure and their operation were modelled despite the lack of many data and the huge uncertainty in some. Simulation of business as usual scenario showed that continuing with the current use cannot be sustainable in the short and long term. The growth of both agriculture and population produced huge water shortages in all demand sectors. Under climate change scenarios RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5, surface water availability and the retention of dams reduced significantly. The share of Jordan from the Yarmouk River was the most vulnerable to climate change impacts. Enhancing irrigation efficiency and a more stable population growth based on the UN medium variant population projection showed improvements in water coverage within all demand sectors. Analysis of future scenarios suggests that water shortage is expected in all riparian states of the basin but can be mitigated by reducing demands.

Priority Water Rights for Irrigation at the River Basin Level. Do They Improve Economic Efficiency During Drought Periods?

This paper assesses the potential efficiency gains of reforming the water rights regime in the Spanish agricultural sector by replacing current allocation procedures based on the proportional rule with a priority allocation procedure based on two tiers of security-differentiated water rights. This assessment is useful for evaluating whether said change in water rights can be considered a suitable policy instrument to improve water management during droughts events. For this purpose, a mathematical programming model is built to simulate the performance of the proposed reform. The empirical analysis is implemented at the basin scale, where water rights holders are highly heterogeneous, considering different climate scenarios accounting for changes in water supply reliability. The Guadalquivir River Basin (GRB) in southern Spain is used as a case study. The results obtained show that this change in the water allocation regime would yield only modest economic efficiency gains under the current climate scenario. However, it is also evidenced that this policy instrument could play a more relevant role as an efficiency enhancer in a climate change scenario, given that more frequent and intense drought episodes are expected. Moreover, priority rights represent an interesting risk management instrument for farmers, allowing the most vulnerable farmers to reduce income volatility. These findings suggest that the combined implementation of the proposed shift in the allocation regime with spot or allocation water markets would lead to successful outcomes, significantly improving drought management in the irrigation sector.

Hybrid Decision Framework for Energy Efficiency Enhancement in NOMA-UAV Networks

We propose a hybrid decision framework (HDF) based on Mamdani fuzzy inference system (MFIS) and reinforcement learning (RL). We aim to enhance energy efficiency for non-orthogonal multiple access-unmanned aerial (NOMA-UAV) network. Downlink (DL) power, bandwidth allocation and UAV flying profile is managed, in face of time varying quality of service (QoS) requirements. Energy efficiency, sum-rate, spectral efficiency and successful DL attempts are ascertained. Comparative analysis is carried out between proposed HDF, conventional RL on single DQN (SDQN), and fixed power and bandwidth (FPB) allocation regime. Simulations reveal that HDF surpasses SDQN by margin of 23% and FPB by a margin of 96% in energy efficiency (EE). HDF also surpasses counterparts in DL attempts.

Distortions of National Policies to Renewable Energy Cooperation Mechanisms

The EU endeavors to stimulate the use of renewable energy cooperation mechanisms. These cooperation mechanisms can significantly reduce the policy cost for meeting renewable targets. Several authors, however, have raised concerns that such cooperation mechanisms can be subject to efficiency losses due to different national regulatory conditions, and due to an ill-advised selection of cross-border support instruments. A quantitative evaluation of these effects remains missing. To address this gap, we first introduce a unifying analytical framework to show how optimal cross-border renewable energy trade should be organized and how these mechanisms could be distorted. We then develop a partial equilibrium model, formulated as a large-scale mathematical program with equilibrium constraints, to assess the impact of (i) different national grid cost allocation regimes and (ii) different cross-border feed-in premium implementations. Our results indicate that EU-wide auctions for renewable electricity should (i) not be based on sliding feed-in premiums and should (ii) ideally be discriminatory if national regulatory conditions differ across Member States. We also consider country-level distributional effects and confirm that Member States can lose when engaging in renewable cooperation.

Motivating Innovation: Tunnels vs. Funnels

The tentative pursuit of parallel projects in an innovation funnel helps firms improve selection under uncertainty. Yet a risk of premature project termination may make employees more hesitant to innovate. Rewards to innovation, if at risk, become less attractive. My laboratory experiment indeed shows that employees who believe they have low task efficacy and, thus, face a high risk of termination often forego innovation. But funnels also attract: employees with high efficacy beliefs choose innovation more often although they, too, face an additional, albeit smaller, termination risk. Their innovation choices reveal a preference for allocation regimes that are more likely to spot and reward the ultimately most deserving innovators. Such meritocracy increases alongside project-selection accuracy. The uncertainty of innovation, thus, proves a rare context in which employees view a lack of organizational commitment positively. The meritorious self-sorting I document has implications for motivating risk-taking and organizing innovation within firms. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/stsc.2022.0156 .

Educational Inequality Regimes amid Algebra-for-All: The Provision and Allocation of Expanding Educational Opportunities.

Schools can approach the task of sorting students to privileged learning opportunities in different ways, potentially creating distinct and durable educational inequality regimes. We test this idea by exploring variation in socioeconomic inequalities in advanced mathematics course-taking across California middle schools during a statewide algebra-for-all initiative. This case provides unique insight into local stratification processes since the state pressured schools to boost advanced course enrollments but provided little guidance about how to do so. We distinguish two critical organizational processes: the provision of different types of opportunities and the allocation of students to opportunities. The former, we argue, creates the potential for inequality; the latter determines what level of inequality is realized. Using panel data for all public middle schools in the state over a decade, we demonstrate a curvilinear association between opportunities and inequality, with disparities highest when opportunities are most differentiated. However, allocations at most schools were less unequal than would be expected under a test-based meritocratic allocation regime. Further, we find substantial school-level variation which is systematically related to organizational characteristics and consistent over time. These patterns provide evidence for local educational inequality regimes.

Повышение рациональности использования водных ресурсов Чограйского водохранилища на основе имитационного водохозяйственного моделирования

Purpose: to develop scenarios for filling and rational exploitation of the Chograi reservoir under the conditions of water resources shortage of (to conduct water balance studies). Materials and methods. The analysis of the use and distribution of water resources of the Chograi reservoir was carried out on the basis of actual data obtained for the period 2016–2020. To conduct water balance studies, a simulation water management model has been developed. It is based on the water allocation regime established in 2020. Results and discussion. Three possible scenarios for water management situation development in the Chograi reservoir have been developed, from which the optimal one has been selected. As the initial conditions for modeling, the regimes of water supply through the Tersko-Kumsky and Kumo-Manychsky canals, as well as water intake into the Chernozemelsky irrigation and watering system (CHOS) through the Chernozemelsky main canal were used. It was found that the actual value of water intake from the Terek river exceeded the plan, but remained below the water intake limit. Thus, it is possible to increase the volume of water supply to the reservoir due to withdrawal up to the values of the permitted limit. The analysis shows that the largest volume of water resources is used for feeding water bodies and for estuary irrigation. The second largest volume taken from the Chograi reservoir is the water supply through the bottom spillway to the downstream of the hydroelectric complex in the Eastern Manych river with expenditures exceeding sanitary releases. It is possible to reduce the consumed water resources by optimizing water management at the CHOS and reducing discharges. Conclusions. An optimal scenario for filling and rational operation of the Chograi reservoir has been developed, the fulfillment of the conditions of which will ensure the filling of the reservoir to the level of 20.35 m BS. At the same time, the volume of filling will be 209.75 million m³. The development of the water management situation according to the scenario under consideration will provide water resources for the CHOS for the period 2021–2022.

Border Carbon Adjustments and Alternative Measures for the EU ETS: An Evaluation

As part of its Green Deal, the European Commission is considering the introduction of border carbon adjustments and alternative measures. The measures, which would primarily apply to basic materials like steel and cement, pursue a double objective: they are aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of carbon pricing for the transition to climate neutrality but also at avoiding carbon leakage risks. When implementing carbon adjustment mechanisms and alternative measures, various design options might be considered to reform the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). In this paper, we have decided to focus on three main models, which help to highlight the main differences between the available options. Under the first model, importers of basic materials would be required to surrender carbon allowances at the level of a product benchmark or, where lower, at the verified level of foreign carbon intensity. In parallel, allocation of free allowances would be phased out. Under the second model, a symmetric adjustment mechanism for exports and imports would be adopted, including refund to exporters for the carbon costs incurred on basic materials embodied in products. Finally, under the third model, the EU ETS would be complemented with a climate contribution charged for materials sold in the European Union (EU) at the product benchmark level related to the carbon intensity of each material. The free allowance allocation regime would then be modified to be directly linked to the volume of material production at the product benchmark level. In order to contribute to the current policy debate, we evaluate for each of these three models, their legality, coherence with EU climate objectives, effectiveness in carbon leakage prevention, potential international implications, as well as their administrative complexity and compliance costs.

Campaign funding laws and the political economy of money politics in Nigeria

ABSTRACT Campaign funding laws have failed to stem the phenomenon of money politics in postcolonial Nigeria. The predominant narrative in extant literature attributes this failure to lack of enforcement of the laws. This article rethinks the lack of enforcement narrative and argues that the laws have inbuilt biases that legitimise and perpetuate money politics; hence, any investment in enforcement can only yield meagre returns. But beyond the biased legal regime, mass poverty is largely why attempts to remedy the challenge of money politics via the instrument of law have failed. The article recommends a recalibration of Nigeria’s political economy to usher in a resource allocation and wealth redistribution regime that ensures the citizenry are not so poor that they would be vulnerable to material inducement.

Limited Authorisations Between EU and Domestic Law: Comparative Remarks from Dutch Law

Where the number of authorizations available for grant is limited in advance to a maximum number, public authorities have to make a choice between qualified applicants through a selection procedure. EU law has played a major role in developing legal rules on the issuing of these limited authorizations, through, amongst other methods, the development of the obligation of transparency. However, the allocation regime under EU law, in particular as it arises from the internal market freedoms, has some inherent restrictions, only applying to economic activities and sometimes requiring cross-border interest in addition. Thus, in order to develop a general legal regime that applies to any process for the issuing of limited authorizations, the development of an allocation regime rooted in domestic law is necessary. This article discusses recent developments in Dutch case law, where a domestic allocation regime has been derived from the (national) principle of equal treatment. It endorses the adoption of this principle as the central basis for an allocation regime, rooted either in domestic or in EU law, since this principle does not only include the key issues inherent to an allocation context, but also allows for the development of allocation rules at the level of both individual decision-making and general rule-making. administrative law, authorisations, allocation of scarce resources, equal treatment, competition, transparency, general principles of administrative law, legal comparison, EU law, internal market.

Reforming the Public Universities Financing Scheme: The Case of Ghana’s Higher Education Transformation Agenda

Public higher education institutions in Ghana are confronted with unending financing constrains every academic year thus affecting the financial health of these institutions. The financial sustainability of these institutions has become increasingly critical due to the persistent reported funding gaps and the weak funding allocation regime. Countries the world over have begun implementing reform programmes to deal with issues of financial sustainability of higher education. The study employed quantitative research methodology with a well-validated research instrument. This correlational study attempts to measure the relationship between the financing scheme variables and financial sustainability. The outcome of the study revealed that there was statistically significant relationship between the combined effects of the variables while three variables out of the seven were found to be significant in predicting best fit equation for financial sustainability. The study recommends to the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), a review of the funding policy direction with a precise focus on addressing Ghana’s higher education infrastructural deficit, skills gap, improving research, science and technology.

A Social Exchange Analysis of Adaptive Governance in Water Allocation Processes, the Kafue Flats, Zambia

Adaptive governance is an emergent approach to water allocation that alludes to the social conditions that enable the range of interactions among actors as they agree and pursue mutually desired water allocation outcomes. Limited successful efforts aimed at implementing adaptive governance suggest a dearth in understanding and implementing adaptive governance. Using the analytic lens of social exchange theory, we draw attention to relations of dependence by examining efforts aimed at establishing an equitable water allocation regime on the Kafue Flats of Zambia. Relations of dependence are as a result of differential access and control of hydromentality. In the context of this research, hydromentality includes discourse on water allocation, institutional arrangements and techniques for control of hydraulic infrastructure. The research used in-depth interviews, stakeholder workshops and document analysis. The research illustrates the case in which hydropower and commercial irrigation farmers, access and control hydromentality. In this way, these few key actors are able to either facilitate or constrain adaptive governance processes thereby influecing water allocation outcomes on the Kafue Flats. We conclude by asserting that adaptive governance does not occur in a vacuum and as such require greater attention to relations of dependence as social actors pursue desired water allocation outcomes.

Public Attitudes to Inequality in Water Distribution: Insights From Preferences for Water Reallocation From Irrigators to Aboriginal Australians

AbstractWater allocation regimes that adjudicate between competing uses are in many countries under pressure to adapt to increasing demands, climate‐driven shortages, expectations for equity of access, and societal changes in values and priorities. International authorities expound standards for national allocation regimes that include robust processes for addressing the needs of “new entrants” and for varying existing entitlements within sustainable limits. The claims of Indigenous peoples to water represents a newly recognized set of rights and interests that will test the ability of allocation regimes to address the global water governance goal of equity. No study has sought to identify public attitudes or willingness to pay for a fairer allocation of water rights between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous people. We surveyed households from the jurisdictions of Australia's Murray‐Darling Basin, a region undergoing a historic government‐led recovery of water, and found that 69.2% of respondents support the principle of reallocating a small amount of water from irrigators to Aboriginal people via the water market. Using contingent valuation, we estimated households are willing to pay A$21.78 in a one‐off levy. The aggregate value calculated for households in the basin's jurisdictions was A$74.5 million, which is almost double a recent government commitment to fund the acquisition of entitlements for Aboriginal nations of this basin. Results varied by state of residency and affinity with environmental groups. An information treatment that presented narrative accounts from Aboriginal people influenced the results. Insights from this study can inform water reallocation processes.

Jurisdiction, Illegality and Fault: An Unholy Trinity

The relationship between fault and ultra vires is one of the most difficult aspects of the law of Crown Liability. It sets clearly into relief the policy conflicts which arise when private law risk allocation regimes (the adversarial adjudicative imposition of liability rules grounded in a concept of corrective justice) are invoked to police the functioning of public law risk allocation regimes (the allocation through various non-adjudicative procedures of the benefit and burden according to a variety of conceptions of distributive justice). The Crown Liability Act and article 94 of the Code of Civil Procedure both incorporate as against the Crown rules of private law delictual behaviour which were originally developed for regulating activity between private parties as such. They, therefore, compel courts to determine whether jurisdictional error per se constitutes fault. The history of twentieth century attempts to reconcile ultra vires and fault is a history of the judicial search for boundary criteria between realms of public and private law. These boundaries have been, among others, a good faith test, functional criteria such as judicial and legislative immunity or immunity for planning functions, the notion of breach of statutory duty, and so on. Each of these attempts has ultimately be repulsed by the desire of litigants to recover against the Crown on the widest possible basis. Modern theories of jurisdiction being so all-embracing and modern conceptions of fault being so comprehensive, the courts are constantly being asked to develop an absolute equation between fault and ultra vires. The paper concludes by exploring several options for harmonizing private law and public law risk allocation regimes. It recommends a restructuring of the Crown Liability Act so as (i) to permit recovery on a variety of no fault bases, (ii) to permit recovery even when intra vires acts have been undertaken (if these cause significant or disproportional damage) and (iii) to permit the immunization of certain governmental functions from private law liability even when the decisions in question have been taken in an ultra vires fashion.

Internal Capital Allocation at Financial Institutions

Over the past 20 years, much has been said, and then unsaid, about how risk capital should be allocated tactically inside financial institutions once strategic or regulatory capital is somehow determined. Although many of the techniques used for this purpose have proven their mettle within various institutions and contexts, the issue appears as unsettled as ever. This article takes a different tack and proposes a synthetic allocation regime combining risk and return, whereby value at risk and a measure of net operating income are the inputs to a reformulated Sharpe ratio driving the allocation. This first step is then combined with a weight-optimization step centered on the Chebyshev polynomial’s minimax property. The authors believe that resolving the internal allocation dilemma lies first in not focusing exclusively on either risk or return as the main driver but rather on their ratio, and second, in objectively and transparently avoiding the boundaries of the domain. Finally, although initial capital allocations should be made without regard for the size of the available market, ultimately one is compelled to pay homage to the prevailing macroeconomic reality. A detailed example of the approach and the mathematical rationale underlying Chebyshev optimization are included as separate appendices. TOPICS:VAR and use of alternative risk measures of trading risk, performance measurement, legal/regulatory/public policy, quantitative methods

Polling Bias and Undecided Voter Allocations: US Presidential Elections, 2004–2016

SummaryAccounting for undecided and uncertain voters is a challenging issue for predicting election results from public opinion polls. Undecided voters typify the uncertainty of swing voters in polls but are often ignored or allocated to each candidate in a simple deterministic manner. Historically this may have been adequate because the undecided voters were sufficiently small to assume that they do not affect the relative proportions of the decided voters. However, in the presence of high numbers of undecided voters, these static rules may in fact bias election predictions from election poll researchers and metapoll analysts. We examine the effect of undecided voters in the 2016 US presidential election compared with the previous three presidential elections. We show that there were a relatively high number of undecided voters over the campaign and on election day, and that the allocation of undecided voters in this election was not consistent with two-party proportional (or even) allocations. We find evidence that static allocation regimes are inadequate for election prediction models and that probabilistic allocations may be superior. We also estimate the bias attributable to polling agencies, which is often referred to as ‘house effects’.

Allocation Discretion, Information Sharing and Underwriter Syndication

The competitiveness of the IPO underwriting market suffers from the concentration of restricted mandates in the hands of a limited number of underwriters with good reputations. Academic research has focused extensively on the relationship between underpricing and the influence of an individual underwriter. However, we have only scant research on the effect of IPO syndication on underpricing. Nevertheless, most IPOs are managed by underwriters operating as an IPO syndicate. Here, we contribute to an analysis of underwriting syndicates by examining 329 IPOs issued in the Indian IPO market in the period 2000-10 that were made subject to either a discretionary or a proportionate allocation regime. We find that the underwriting market in India is highly concentrated and is dominated by a few large and reputable underwriters who have ongoing relationships amongst themselves to manage IPOs. This highlights a potential entry barrier for new underwriters. We find that underwriters form large syndicates when the issue size is large. Also, we do not find any evidence that the motivation for underwriters to form a syndicate is due to market risk sharing or price manipulation. We conclude that underwriters syndicate to share the inventory risk of an IPO. When allocation discretion is regulated, and the risk of managing an IPO is high, we observe that the size of an underwriting syndicate is smaller. However, the results support the role of institutional subscription acting as a mediating factor for reputable underwriters to syndicate. Able to share the risk in this way, the syndicate partnership benefits the issuer with lower underpricing. Overall, we conclude that regulatory intervention is positive for market welfare due to lower underpricing. We also find that in the absence of allocation discretion, syndication by reputable underwriters acts as an effective medium of discretion for higher information and risk sharing.