Social Welfare Improvement Research Articles

An Incentive Mechanism for Sustainable Blockchain Storage

Miners in a blockchain system are suffering from ever-increasing storage costs, which in general have not been properly compensated by the users’ transaction fees. This reduces the incentives for the miners’ participation and may jeopardize the blockchain security. To mitigate this blockchain insufficient fee issue, we propose a Fee and Waiting Tax (FWT) mechanism, which explicitly considers the two types of negative externalities in the system. Specifically, we model the interactions between the protocol designer, users, and miners as a three-stage Stackelberg game. By characterizing the equilibrium of the game, we find that miners neglecting the negative externality in transaction selection cause they are willing to accept insufficient-fee transactions. This leads to the insufficient storage fee issue in the existing protocol (i.e., deployed in Bitcoin and Ethereum). Moreover, our proposed optimal FWT mechanism can motivate users to pay sufficient transaction fees to cover the storage costs and achieve the unconstrained social optimum. Numerical results show that the optimal FWT mechanism guarantees sufficient transaction fees and achieves an average social welfare improvement of 51.43% or more over the existing protocol. Furthermore, the optimal FWT mechanism reduces the average waiting time of low-fee transactions and all transactions by 68.49% and 61.56%, respectively.

Does the carbon trading mechanism affect social and environmental benefits of the retailer-led supply chain: Strategic decisions of emissions reduction and promotion

Governments, enterprises, and customers have become more concerned about environmental protection. Following the world’s largest carbon trading market (EU ETS), China has also implemented a market-based carbon trading mechanism (CAT) to reduce CO2. Simultaneously, customers have low-carbon preferences for environmental products. Thus, the enterprises’ strategic decisions and collaboration modes have changed. This article develops the Stackelberg game model to explore the impacts of CAT and customers’ low-carbon preference on the carbon emission reduction and promotion strategies in a retailer-led supply chain (such as RT-Mart, Walmart, Amazon, etc.). In this model, the retailer decides whether to promote environmentally safe products and the manufacturer decides whether to reduce CO2. We find that carbon trading market price and customers’ low-carbon preference are key factors influencing the retail price, total carbon emissions, and social welfare. Interestingly, there is not always a positive correlation between customers’ low-carbon preference and social welfare. To achieve Pareto improvement of social welfare, manufacturers and retailers require co-optimization. Theoretically, our research enriches the research streams of the CAT policy and socially responsible operations of the supply chain. Moreover, managerial insights are provided for retailer-led supply chain stakeholders and emission reduction regulators, which contribute to enhancing the social and environmental benefits of the supply chains.

Social welfare improvement using market clearing mechanism of a wind farm‐CAES hybrid congested transmission system

The goal of any well-established deregulated power sector is to satisfy their customer by delivering the power with maintaining the best quality at a reasonable price. This paper presents the impression of the wind farm (WF) and compressed air energy storage (CAES) hybrid systems in the congested deregulated power system. The main motto of this work is to enhance social welfare by using a market-clearing mechanism of the WFCAES hybrid system. To determine the effect of the hybrid system, initially the market-clearing power (MCPO) problem is measured without considering the WF-CAES hybrid system, and then the same work has been carried out with considering the WF-CAES hybrid system. The bus sensitivity factor (BSF) decides the optimal position of the WF-CAES hybrid system in the congested day-ahead electrical system. The study is followed out through generator sensitivity factor (GSF) with the application of artificial bee colony algorithm (ABC) and slime mould algorithm (SMA) to calculate optimal market clearing price (MCP) and market clearing volume (MCV). The market-clearing power problem has been solved in a modified IEEE-30 bus test system. The SMA algorithm is been implemented in the market-clearing mechanism for the first time which is the novelty of this paper.

A Prediction Based Bidding Strategy for Social Welfare Improvement in Uniform Pricing Mechanism

In the new competitive electricity market, bidding plays a significant role in the area of power trading. The participants are partaking in the trading procedure for a fixed amount of power. The price at which a single buyer bids a block of power influences both the net volume of power cleared and the market-clearing price of electricity traded in the entire network. In this paper, different bidding strategies are defined and simulated. The defined strategies show the dependency on the bid price for clearing a bid. The net earnings of the buyers and sellers depend on the bid price. The selection of bid price for each block of power is studied such that the total volume of power cleared is equal to the participating buyers’ total power demand. The study focuses on determining the optimal bid to result in maximum societal benefit. In addition to the bid price effect on the volume of power cleared, the bid price prediction is also performed in this work using linear regression. The predicted Locational Marginal Price (LMP) of the buyers for different volumes of power cleared is estimated. The results are further compared with LMP obtained using an ordinary load flow problem through which a margin change in the net earnings is observed. An IEEE-30 bus system is simulated with different bidding strategies using MATLAB, and the predicted LMP shows a significant increase in net earnings.

Quid Pro Quo CSR and Trade Liberalization in a Bilateral Monopoly

We construct a dynamic bilateral monopoly game to analyze the bargaining between a foreign manufacturer and a domestic retailer regarding the wholesale price and explain the foreign upstream firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative and its economic impacts on the domestic market. Under free trade, the foreign upstream firm’s CSR initiative realizes improvements in consumer surplus and social welfare in the home country. A “win–win–win” strategy exists, as the foreign manufacturer has more of an incentive to implement CSR when the government implements a strategic trade policy. The consumer-friendly action implemented by the foreign upstream firm leads to adequate consumer welfare and social welfare, which mitigates the government’s political hostility. With the high bargaining power of the foreign upstream firm and the low weight of the consumer-friendly upstream firm, the government should set a higher tariff rate for the foreign upstream firm to extract rent and enhance social welfare.

Competition among interest group - mechanism and consequences

The subject of analysis is the cause, mechanism and consequences of competition of interest groups in the political market. Two theoretical views are opposed. The central part is dedicated to Becker?s model of competition of pressure groups, which implies the improvement of social welfare, while the argumentation of public choice theory points to the partially opposite conclusion.

The role of government regulatory policies in financing capital-constrained retailers under competition

Governments in many different countries have implemented regulatory policies (such as tax reduction and subsidy provision) to support the development and operation of capital-constrained small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that may compete each other in practice. To better understand the impacts of government regulatory policies on capital-constrained SMEs, bank, consumers and social welfare, this paper develops a Cournot competition model consisting of two competing and capital-constrained retailers in a market with demand uncertainty. We obtain the optimal procurement decisions of two retailers and the optimal loan interest decision of the bank completely, and compare the effects of two government supporting policies (i.e., tax reduction and subsidy provision) in a Nash game of the two retailers. We show that the difference of the two retailers’ procurement costs closely affects the procurement decision of the retailer who possesses the cost advantage, and that this retailer orders more under government regulatory policies than without government regulation, if the procurement costs of two retailers are relatively balanced. In addition, tax reduction can improve the profits of the retailers engaged in the competitive market when the gap of their procurement costs is small relatively, whereas the subsidy provision can always improve the profit of the retailer who does not possess a procurement cost advantage. The bank is incentivized to lower its interest rate to both retailers under tax reduction; under the subsidy provision, the opposite result is true. Our finding can demonstrate that there exists a win–win–win situation for the two retailers, the consumers as well as for the society in the case of bank financing with government tax reduction/subsidy provision. The numerical studies show that the improvement of social welfare is more significant in the case of subsidy provision than that in the case of tax reduction.

Measuring health science research and development in Africa: mapping the available data

BackgroundIn recent years there have been calls to strengthen health sciences research capacity in African countries. This capacity can contribute to improvements in health, social welfare and poverty reduction through domestic application of research findings; it is increasingly seen as critical to pandemic preparedness and response. Developing research infrastructure and performance may reduce national economies’ reliance on primary commodity and agricultural production, as countries strive to develop knowledge-based economies to help drive macroeconomic growth. Yet efforts to date to understand health sciences research capacity are limited to output metrics of journal citations and publications, failing to reflect the complexity of the health sciences research landscape in many settings.MethodsWe map and assess current capacity for health sciences research across all 54 countries of Africa by collecting a range of available data. This included structural indicators (research institutions and research funding), process indicators (clinical trial infrastructures, intellectual property rights and regulatory capacities) and output indicators (publications and citations).ResultsWhile there are some countries which perform well across the range of indicators used, for most countries the results are varied—suggesting high relative performance in some indicators, but lower in others. Missing data for key measures of capacity or performance is also a key concern. Taken as a whole, existing data suggest a nuanced view of the current health sciences research landscape on the African continent.ConclusionMapping existing data may enable governments and international organizations to identify where gaps in health sciences research capacity lie, particularly in comparison to other countries in the region. It also highlights gaps where more data are needed. These data can help to inform investment priorities and future system needs.

University–Industry Collaboration: A Sustainable Technology Transfer Model

Faced with the pandemic caused by COVID-19, universities worldwide are giving a powerful response to support their communities. One way to provide support is via the collaboration between universities and industries, allowing the co-creation of knowledge that leads to innovation. Historically, universities, as knowledge-intensive organizations (KIOs), have produced knowledge through research. At present, its important contribution to countries’ economy is widely recognized through the development of new knowledge and technical know-how. Universities are a source of innovation for firms, which ultimately translates into social welfare improvements. The objective of this research is to analyze the university–firm linkage. The methodological strategy is carried out using Bayesian networks through a model where the main elements of university–industry linking, which impact competitiveness and innovation, are identified and quantified. The technology transfer model shows that the most crucial processes are Technology Strategy, Value Proposal, Knowledge Management, Control and Monitoring, Innovation Management, Needs Detection, Knowledge Creation, New Products and Services, and Absorption Capacity.

A closed‐loop supply chain decision model considering corporate social responsibility and value‐added services

This paper by comparing the decision results in three closed‐loop supply chain (CLSC) cases, to explore the effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and value‐added service on the mechanism of stakeholders' decision making. The results show that CSR and value‐added services play significant roles in the optimal decisions of different individuals. The improvement of the value‐added service level is conducive to increasing the demand and the recovery rate, thereby promoting the profitability of the supply chain and social welfare. However, the effect of value‐added services on the performance of stakeholders strictly depends on the degree of CSR. Our numerical results provide insights into social welfare improvement.

Social Welfare Maximization of Competitive Congested Power Market Considering Wind Farm and Pumped Hydroelectric Storage System

The utilization of wind energy sources with energy storage systems has been increased in the power sector to satisfy the consumer’s energy demand with minimum price. This paper presents the impact of a wind farm (WF) and pumped hydroelectric storage (PHS) system in the competitive electricity market under a congested transmission system. The PHS system is used to compensate for the deviation of WF generation in the real-time electricity market. To investigate the impact of the proposed method, initially, the market-clearing power problem is solved without consideration of WF and PHS systems, and again it is solved with the WF and PHS systems. The optimal location of the WF and PHS systems is decided by the bus sensitivity factor (BSF) of these systems. The analysis is carried out by using generator sensitivity factor (GSF) with the help of the moth flame optimization (MFO) algorithm and thereby calculating market clearing price (MCP) and market clearing volume (MCV). The MFO algorithm is used here for the first time for solving the congested market-clearing power problem with the integration of WF and PHS systems under deregulated environment. The presented approach shows the improvement of social welfare after the placement of WF and PHS in the congested deregulated system. Modified IEEE 30 bus system is used to solve the market-clearing power problem and results obtained from the MFO algorithm are compared with the firefly algorithm (FA). Three different real-time wind speed data have been considered here to verify the proposed approach with uncertainty and the continuously changing nature of wind flow. It is discovered that social welfare is improved with the quantity addition of wind power, regardless of optimization techniques.

DISKRESI DAN POTENSI KORUPSI DALAM PENYELESAIAN MASALAH HUKUM TERKAIT PERCEPATAN PELAKSANAAN PROYEK STRATEGIS NASIONAL (ANALISIS TERHADAP PERATURAN PRESIDEN NOMOR 3 TAHUN 2016 DAN INSTRUKSI PRESIDEN NOMOR 1 TAHUN 2016)

National strategic project is part of Jokowi’s economic program in his administration during his first and second term. This project is aimed to accelerate economic development through infrastructure projects. This project also expected to give impact to the improvement of public services and social welfare. President regelation (Peraturan Presiden) No. 3 Year 2016 and President Instruction (Instruksi Presiden) No. 1 Year 2016 also aimed to accelerate national strategic program such as in giving discretion in solving legal dispute. The president order police and attorney to report abuse of power in national strategic program in another institution to be solved administratively instead of take investigation about the report. This regulation clearly violate the principle of anti corruption act. The Law of Eradication of Corruption clearly mention that there is public right to report and to get information about the progress of any cases. If the police and the attorney only follow up the report to the another institution then it means it is not comply with the law. Even in the criminal law (KUHAP) is mentioned that any report from the public, the law enforcers should investigate the report, not just sending it to another institution. So the discretion in the Perpres and Inpres already loose its relevance with the regulation in the law of administrative governance. Discretion ideally can not violate the law and regulation. If the law enforcer are has any options to do some discretion then it should be done tightly. law enforcement should not be assumed as obstacle in development, but it should be a trigger to a better development.

Corporate cannibalism in an oligopolistic market

AbstractIn this paper, we consider whether a firm that produces high‐quality products chooses to produce lower‐quality products. We find that when there is only one monopoly in the market, the monopoly will only produce a single‐quality product. When there are two firms in the market, one produces high‐quality products and the other one produces low‐quality products. When certain conditions are met, the firm that produces high‐quality products has an incentive to produce products of medium or lower quality, thus profiting. The production of new products by a firm will bring about the improvement of consumer surplus and social welfare.

Recycling Carbon Tax under Different Energy Efficiency Improvements: A CGE Analysis of China

Carbon emission reductions and sustainable development have become hot issues in international conferences. As the most direct instrument for carbon emission reductions, the carbon tax has not been favored by policymakers because of its negative effect on the economy. To achieve low-carbon sustainable development, we use a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to simulate carbon tax recycling under different energy transfer efficiency improvements to achieve triple dividends of carbon emission reductions and social welfare improvement. This paper contributes to the literature on recycling carbon tax for triple dividends in China. The simulation has three main findings: (i) the carbon tax revenue recycling toward reducing the resident income tax rate yields triple dividends without any energy transfer efficiency improvement; (ii) the losses of GDP and social welfare are exaggerated. Meanwhile, the carbon tax brings down carbon emissions and total carbon intensity of GDP with a mild impact on the Chinese economy; (iii) the improvement of energy transfer efficiency demonstrates the advantages of recycling carbon tax and is essential for achieving triple dividends. Thus, we propose the following policy recommendations: (i) the pilot carbon tax mechanism should be launched in high-carbon sectors (such as coal) and then implemented in other industries gradually; (ii) the government should strongly support the technological improvement of energy transfer efficiency in order to achieve sustainable development.

A Simulation Study of the Effect of Delayed Retirement on Welfare of the Elderly: Evidence from China

In order to cope with population aging and emerging labor shortages, the Chinese government may soon introduce a policy to address this problem by raising the normal retirement age. However, the effects of planning for delayed retirement on the welfare of the elderly remain unknown. From an intergenerational support perspective, we develop a dynamic optimization model that can simulate changes in the welfare of the elderly over the years under different delayed retirement scenarios. Simulation results show that delaying retirement will produce a detrimental effect on old-age welfare. We further analyze strategies to mitigate this adverse effect and improve people’s welfare. First, the delayed retirement policy should raise the pension replacement rate, which could transfer part of the social welfare improvements from delayed retirement to the elderly through the transfer payment mechanism. Second, when adopting a defined-contribution pension system, the delayed retirement could increase the welfare of the elderly and the social well-being. Implications for future research and public policies concerning welfare effects of delayed retirement are discussed.

A novel urban congestion pricing scheme considering travel cost perception and level of service

This paper proposes a novel congestion pricing scheme for the metropolitan urban networks where a cumulative prospect theory (CPT) is adopted to quantify the travelers’ degree of satisfaction during their trips. Using the concept of the cumulative prospect values (CPV) in CPT, an area-based congestion price (or toll) is designed to reduce the peak-hour travel demand while taking into account the level of service perceived by the travelers.We demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed pricing scheme via an agent-based simulation for the Melbourne network. Results of the proposed CPV-based distance toll is compared with the flat distance-based toll and bi-direction cordon toll in terms of the network performance, behavioral changes, and social welfare improvement. Promisingly, the proposed CPV-based pricing scheme can reduce the long-distance trips (greater than10 km) inside the congested central business district by over 30% while discourage non-commuting trips during peak hours, making more road resources available to commuting trips. Furthermore, it is found that the proposed CPV-based pricing scheme yields positive savings, where the total time savings outweigh the revenues collected, thus proving its high efficiency and desirability among all the comparative pricing schemes.

The impacts of subsidy policies and channel encroachment on the power battery recycling of new energy vehicles

AbstractWith the rapid development of new energy vehicles (NEVs), the recycling and reuse of retired power batteries has attracted extensive attention from the society and scholars. In this paper, we establish a closed-loop supply chain model composed of the government, one power battery supplier and one NEV manufacturer. Based on game theory, considering whether the battery supplier encroaches on the power battery recycling channel, we study the optimal decisions of the government and supply chain members under different government subsidy policies (no subsidy, subsidy for the NEV manufacturer and subsidy for consumers) and their impact on profits and social welfare. The results show that, whether the battery supplier encroaches on the recycling channel or not, compared with the no subsidy policy, subsidy for the NEV manufacturer is more conducive to the improvement of enterprise profits and social welfare. In addition, whether the battery collection quantity is constrained by the NEV sales quantity, when the recycling channel cost is lower than a certain threshold, the encroachment is always beneficial to the battery supplier. When the recycling channel cost is within a certain threshold range, the encroachment will achieve a win–win situation; otherwise, win–lose. When the recycling channel cost is higher than a certain threshold, the encroachment behavior has no impact on the NEV manufacturer and the battery supplier. Finally, we investigate the impact of key parameters on the enterprise profits and social welfare through numerical experiments. We also find that the environmental awareness of consumers have significant impacts on social welfare.

A Novel Power Market Mechanism Based on Blockchain for Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

This work presents a novel blockchain-based energy trading mechanism for electric vehicles consisting of day-ahead and real-time markets. In the day-ahead market, electric vehicle users submit their bidding price to participate in the double auction mechanism. Subsequently, the smart match mechanism will be conducted by the charging system operator, to meet both personal interests and social benefits. After clearing the trading result, the charging system operator uploads the trading contract made in the day-ahead market to the blockchain. In the real-time market, the charging system operator checks the trading status and submits the updated trading results to the blockchain. This mechanism encourages participants in the double auction to pursue higher interests, in addition to rationally utilize the energy unmatched in the auction and to achieve the improvement of social welfare. Case studies are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. For buyers and sellers who successfully participate in the day-ahead market, the total profit increase for buyer and seller are 22.79% and 53.54%, respectively, as compared to without energy trading. With consideration of social welfare in the smart match mechanism, the peak load reduces from 182 to 146.5 kW, which is a 19.5% improvement.

An auction-enabled collaborative routing mechanism for omnichannel on-demand logistics through transshipment

Nowadays’ on-demand logistics operations are carried out on separate delivery networks from competitive contractors, with redundant resources and high costs. This article proposes a new paradigm to deal with industrial and societal challenges, developing an auction-enabled collaborative routing mechanism for omnichannel on-demand logistics in a real-time transshipment network. We consider an online service platform for real-time management of on-demand pickup and delivery tasks, where multiple freight shippers can trade with multiple freight carriers. Freight shippers are retailers or individual customers, while freight carriers are a group of logistics service providers. The platform acts as the auctioneer. A two-stage combinational auction mechanism is designed for dynamic on-demand task (re)allocation. Tactical-level auctioning and operational-level routing decisions are optimized together. The transshipment-based task generation method is used to identify uneconomic paths from carrier’s real-time network for outsourcing. A transshipment-based routing algorithm is developed to enable each carrier to make decentralized decisions for network reconstruction and transportation bidding. Our model aims to improve the overall social welfare while bringing benefits to stakeholders involved. The computational results have shown positive society impacts. Specifically, shippers’ payments can be saved while carriers’ profits are increased compared with other operative models which have been investigated in previous research studies or industry. In addition, a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions and vehicles required can be achieved. The main reason for the improvement in social welfare is due to the optimal network achieved through collaboration. We also numerically analyze the impacts of three key factors: growth in demand density, urgency of tasks and flexible auction interval.

Determinants of Private Investment in the Informal Sector of Urban Areas in Nigeria

The increasing importance of informal economy in entrepreneurship development, job creation and improvement in the overall social welfare of the people has been widely acknowledged in literature. This article presents various enterprise compositions and private investment in the informal economy in an urban center of a developing country. Ilorin metropolis in Nigeria was chosen as the study area due to the high concentration, high growth rate and economic significance of these activities. The level of business capitals, which form part of the private investment volume, play vital roles in the survival and growth rate of any business venture, hence the output and income earnings from business. The cross sectional data were collected from a field survey through a structured questionnaire administered to 500 informal entrepreneurs. Out of these, 482 questionnaires were retrieved and analyzed. The data was presented and explained using tables, percentages, mean scores, and median and standard deviations using the EViews 9 statistical package. The coding structure of the questionnaire and spreadsheet of the raw data collected have been made accessible in order to ensure more comprehensive investigation for further studies.