Usage Fee Research Articles

Analysis of Sharing Economy Services:Initial Findings from Sharing Cities Sweden

In this paper, we analyze different types of sharing economy services. The sharing economy is a wide concept where many types of activities and services can be included. Overall we aim to identify recurrent patterns but also similarities and differences between different types of sharing services. We discuss a multitude of different services, e.g. car pools, bike pools, sharing of tools and equipment, sharing of land for farming, sharing of parking and homes, and co-working spaces. It is a mix of different set ups regarding if it is commercial or community driven, type of service provider, usage fee or for free, open or closed access.

An Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Company: A Stochastic Model of Resources Overbooking

Abstract In connection with the rapid development of commerce of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), the optimality of their use with UAV companies (UAVCo) is becoming increasingly important. The basis of such companies are mobile units (mobile units (MU)), which include UAV, means of their delivery to the place of rendering services and maintenance personnel. A problem of determining the optimal level of orders for the use of MU with UAVCo has been formulated and solved. The task is formulated as an overbooking task. The process under investigation is described as a discrete-time Markov chain corresponding to 24 hours. Based on a fixed number of MU and a fixed overbooking level, distributions for the number of orders on hand, the number of unfulfilled customs, and the average income with an MU usage fee and penalties for unfulfilled orders factored in have been calculated. The solution method has been tested on a particular model. For calculation used language and computer environment MathCAD.

A car sharing auction with temporal-spatial OD connection conditions

In this study, a tradable permit mechanism for a car sharing system was proposed. Car sharing services that allow users to move freely decrease the efficiency of sharing vehicle use due to the uneven distribution of vehicles and origin-destination (OD) demands. Thus, a tradable permit mechanism and a solution algorithm were proposed to solve this problem in this study. First, the Vickrey–Clarke–Groves mechanism for car sharing was proposed. This mechanism allowed the tradable permit system to achieve both strategy-proofness and efficient allocation. The difference between the case of single-minded bidders and that of multiple bidders was subsequently discussed. A single-minded bidder is defined as an agent that only bids on one item and a multiple bidder is defined as an agent that bids on more than one item. The results indicated that the permit price was decomposed into the usage fee for leaving the origin sharing station and the income for arriving at the destination sharing station. Additionally, the findings indicated that the negative price of using mobility sharing could occur when there was high asymmetric imbalanced OD demand. The negative price (that is benefit) could encourage the natural relocation of vehicles under the auction mechanism. The framework was then extended to treating a round trip case. Finally, a solution algorithm for these problems was proposed, and numerical examples were presented. The results demonstrated that the problem setting and the solution algorithm were feasible from the computational time viewpoint.

A Nash equilibrium formulation of a tradable credits scheme for incentivizing transport choices: From next-generation public transport mode choice to HOT lanes

We consider a tradable credits scheme for binary transport games where one option is faster (or more comfortable) than the other, but its quality of service suffers when usage is high. Applications can be found in mode choice (public transit versus road transport), premium (i.e., express bus) versus ordinary public transit, and fast (e.g., high-occupancy toll, or HOT) versus regular lanes on expressways. We are motivated in particular by the choice between public transport and use of the road network as a privilege to be discouraged. In a future where GPS-based time-distance-place road charging exists, such next-generation transport management strategies become realizable as the choice to drive or not can be linked to a fixed fee toll, or indeed to a tradable credits scheme. When public transport payment uses the same smart card as the road usage fee (via tolls or tradable credits) usage of the two may be linked. In this setting, a public transport vs. road-use tradable credit scheme becomes feasible. In this case, individuals wishing to choose the faster option must obtain credits from other commuters via credit trading, rather than pay a direct toll or fee. Such a scheme creates a kind of equity, in the sense that lower-income commuters have an economic incentive to resort to the slower or less comfortable choice. We study the underlying market and its effects on individuals’ utilities; we use an atomic game framework so as to model explicitly the exchange process across users. The market we define determines the quantities of users choosing each option, as opposed to the prices themselves. Using the properties of potential games, we show that under mild assumptions, efficient Nash equilibria exist and can be reached using simple learning algorithms. We show that these equilibria can satisfy the transport authority’s requirements, and thus drive the transport system to a state where a desired proportion of individuals resort to each of the two options, when the scheme’s parameters are well tuned.

Valuing visitor services and access to protected areas: The case of Nyungwe National Park in Rwanda

Policymakers and recreation site managers use changes in fee structure, either introducing park entrance fees or increasing existing ones, to generate revenues, improve services, and reduce damages associated with over-use. Increase in park usage fee, however, can make the park inaccessible to certain segments of tourists. Understanding park users' response to changes in fees and its implication on park use equity is, thus, important to achieving a park's full potential in a socially and environmentally responsible way. This information is crucial especially for developing countries, where the issue has received relatively less attention and national park systems are chronically underfunded. This paper contributes to the literature on park access fees by: empirically assessing park use equity between and among international and national tourists visiting Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda, and; developing an approach for determining predictors and mean willingness to pay values for park entrance. Results of our survey-based approach show a positive willingness to pay values for park entrance and fee increases. Our results also show that it is possible to raise revenue without exacerbating existing park use differences.

Auctions for Private Congestible Infrastructures

This paper investigates regulation by auctions of private supply of congestible infrastructures in two networks settings: 1) two serial facilities, where the consumer has to use both in order to consume; and 2) two parallel facilities that are imperfect substitutes. There are four market structures: a monopoly and 3 duopolies that differ in how firms interact. The effects of an auction depend on what the bidders compete. With a bid auction, the bidders compete on how much money they transfer to the government. This auction leads to the same outcome as the unregulated game (for a given market structure), since this gives the maximum profit to transfer. An auction on the capacity of a facility leads to an even lower welfare than no regulation, because firms set very high capacities and usage fees. Conversely, an auction on generalised price or number of users leads to the first-best outcome. Moreover, these two auctions are robust: they attain the first-best regardless of whether the facilities are auctioned off to a single firm or to two firms, and for all market and network structures. On the contrary, the performances (relative to the first-best) of the bid and capacity auctions strongly depend on these considerations.

A car sharing auction with temporal-spatial OD connection conditions

Abstract: In this study, a tradable permit mechanism for a car sharing system was proposed. Car sharing services that allow users to move freely decrease the efficiency of sharing vehicle use due to the uneven distribution of vehicles and origin-destination (OD) demands. Thus, a tradable permit mechanism and a solution algorithm were proposed to solve this problem in this study. First, the Vickrey-Clarke-Groves mechanism for car sharing was proposed. This mechanism allowed the tradable permit system to achieve both strategy-proofness and efficient allocation. The difference between the case of single-minded bidders and that of multiple bidders was subsequently discussed. A single-minded bidder is defined as an agent that only bids on one item and a multiple bidder is defined as an agent that bids on more than one item. The results indicated that the permit price was decomposed into the usage fee for leaving the origin sharing station and the income for arriving at the destination sharing station. Additionally, the findings indicated that the negative price of using mobility sharing could occur when there was high asymmetric imbalanced OD demand. The negative price (that is benefit) could encourage the natural relocation of vehicles under the auction mechanism. The framework was then extended to treating a round trip case. Finally, a solution algorithm for these problems was proposed, and numerical examples were presented. The results demonstrated that the problem setting and the solution algorithm were feasible from the computational time viewpoint.

Increasing faculty participation in resident education and providing cost-effective self-assessment module credit to faculty through resident-generated didactics

Purpose/Objective(s)Board certified radiation oncologists and medical physicists are required to earn self-assessment module (SAM) continuing medical education (CME) credit, which may require travel costs or usage fees. Data indicate that faculty participation in resident teaching activities is beneficial to resident education. Our hypothesis was that providing the opportunity to earn SAM credit in resident didactics would increase faculty participation in and improve resident education. Methods and materialsSAM applications, comprising CME certified category 1 resident didactic lectures and faculty-generated questions with respective answers, rationales, and references, were submitted to the American Board of Radiology for formal review. Surveys were distributed to assess main academic campus physician, affiliate campus physician, physicist, and radiation oncology resident impressions regarding the quality of the lectures. Survey responses were designed in Likert-scale format. Sign-test was performed with P < .05 considered statistically different from neutral. ResultsFirst submission SAM approval was obtained for 9 of 9 lectures to date. A total of 52 SAM credits have been awarded to 4 physicists and 7 attending physicians. Main academic campus physician and affiliate campus physician attendance increased from 20% and 0%, respectively, over the 12 months preceding CME/SAM lectures, to 55.6% and 20%, respectively. Survey results indicated that the change to SAM lectures increased the quality of resident lectures (P = .001), attending physician participation in resident education (P < .0001), physicist involvement in medical resident education (P = .0006), and faculty motivation to attend resident didactics (P = .004). Residents reported an increased amount of time required to prepare lectures (P = .008). ConclusionsWe are the first department, to our knowledge, to offer SAM credit to clinical faculty for participation in resident-generated didactics. Offering SAM credit at resident lectures is a cost-effective alternative to purchasing SAM resources, increases faculty attendance, and may improve the quality of radiation oncology resident education.

Taxation of the Prospecting, Exploration and Extraction of Shale Gas on Polish Territory

Abstract The article presents the most important legal regulations addressing taxation of the prospecting, exploration and extraction of shale gas on polish territory, discussing the types of taxes applicable to enterprises engaged in this type of activity: the hydrocarbon tax, the tax on the extraction of some minerals, income tax, environmental usage fee, and property tax. The research issue is an important one when considering how the taxes assessed on entities conducting activity that consists in the prospecting, exploration and extraction of shale gas is one of the factors determining the profitability of such activity in Poland.

A Simulation of Consumer-side Multihoming of Original and Derivative Digital Games: Evidence from Japan

This study examines the consumer-side multihoming among original and derivative digital games are developed for different platforms such as arcade game cabinets and video game consoles, both of which are popular with consumers in the Japanese market. To do this, the system dynamics model accounts for arcade game, console game, and multihoming users, and the effects of advertising and word-of-mouth is proposed. After the validation of model using a single case study, the business policies implementation by varying the release dates of a console game (derivative content) are simulated and the fluctuating patterns of arcade game and console game sales, the multihoming ratios are examined. The simulation results indicate that the multihoming user may be a preferred customer who pays more usage fees for the original content, moreover, the multihoming user may pay usage fees for the derivative content or purchase it, rather than single homing user. This study suggests various hypotheses regarding consumer-side original and derivative content-level multihoming together with options for business scenarios within the digital game industry, which would develop the insights on the diversity of a set of contents and the interfaces, and how they form the pseudo-ecosystems and create the values by the interactions. strategic management of consumer-side multihoming. This paper first presents the most significant aspects of prior research concerning multihoming for console games and then indicates the concept of consumer-side content-level multihoming (consumer purchases and the simultaneous use of both original and derivative content used on different platforms). Next, a calculation model of the consumer-level multihoming ratio (the percentage of all users who are multihoming users) and the consumer-side multihoming ratio at the content level are derived from a single case study. The original content of the case study is represented by a trading card arcade game, and the derivative content is represented by a console game with card reader. A sensitivity analysis is conducted employing a changing release date for the console game, the multihoming ratios of the original and derivative content, and the patterns of changes in sales performance are investigated. The results of the simulation suggest various hypotheses concerning consumer-side content-level multihoming on different

A conceptual business model for an agroforestry consulting company

While socioeconomic and environmental benefits of agroforestry are widely appreciated in the tropics, they were almost neglected from the plans for agronomic development implemented up to early 2000 as set by major policy schemes within the EU. However, such benefits had supported the rural economies of the Mediterranean EU countries—Greece included—in the past. Nowadays several unorganized traditional agroforestry systems persist, rather as remnants, and occupy extensive areas in Greece. Given its recognizable paramount importance as a lever for rural development, the EU included agroforestry in the forthcoming programming period of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP 2014–2020) as a greening, agro-environmental tool. While the institutional environment in Greece and the EU generally favours the initiation of agroforestry projects, farmers do not have such experience. The present paper sets as its major goals to set up and explore the major characteristics of a Business Model for an agroforestry consulting company (ACC) in Greece, by applying the Pillar/Blocks methodology of Alexander Osterwalder and his co-workers. Details on Customer Value Proposition, Customer Segmentation and Relationship, necessary Resources, Costs and Revenue streams are presented. Greening primary production, sequence of harvests, additional income, prospects for entrepreneurship, and transfer of EU provisions to the farmers are the main Value Propositions of the ACC. Dedicated personal assistance and co-creation are the relationship types expected to be developed with its customers. Key partners are local representatives, academic specialists and stakeholders, while key suppliers are tubex manufacturers, software providers and NGOs. Main revenue streams for the ACC are usage fees, subscription fees and advertising. The establishment of such a consulting company in a central location of the country, such as the region of Thessaly, where the agri-market environment appears promising, is expected to generate additional revenues for farmers that will introduce and/or maintain agroforestry systems and cause major improvements in an area with decreasing soil and water quality and deteriorating landscape values due to intensification of farming over the last decades.

Payday Loans versus Pawn Shops: The Effects of Loan Fee Limits on Household Use

This paper uses data from the January 2009 FDIC Unbanked/Underbanked Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS) to examine how household use of payday loans and pawn shops is related to limits on loan fees set by states. We use information in the CPS to measure the relationship between household characteristics and payday loan and pawn shop usage and to control for these factors in examining the relationship between usage and state fee ceilings. We find little relationship between levels of fee ceilings in their current range and payday loan usage. Results for pawn shops indicate somewhat more variation in usage over the current range of pawn-shop fee ceilings. The results are generally consistent with conjectures that because of scale economies at the store level, payday lenders can adjust the scale of store operations to maintain profit margins and thus continue to lend over a range of fee ceilings. This finding suggests that lowering loan fee ceilings up to some point can benefit borrowers, many of whom report using these loan to meet basic living expenses or to make up for lost income.

Stimulating Business and Economies with Usage Fee Money: Enabling Euro Zone Nations Like Greece to Regain Monetary Sovereignty

The paper identifies how a usage fee parallel digital currency is more attractive than Bitcoins, either to provide liquidity in a crisis or for stimulating businesses on a sustainable basis. User fee Scrip successfully stimulated businesses and distressed communities during the Great Depression in Europe and the US. Unlike Bitcoins, user fee money can be gifted and redeemed at a profit by the issuer from the fees collected. Bitcoins have to be purchased at market value or mined with substantial transaction costs from computer usage and the energy they consume. Governments could issue parallel profit making money as proposed by the 1933 Bankhead-Pettengill Bill introduced into the US Congress to issue one trillion dollars of self-liquidating Stamp Scrip. This type of Quantitative Easing allows governments to directly fund the digital purses of welfare recipients, businesses, and infrastructure construction to maintain and create jobs while reducing expenditures and debt without increasing taxes. Usage fee money has been tethered to Euros in Germany and exists in competition with them. However, Euros like all other fiat money and bitcoins are not fit for purpose as a medium of exchange to sustain humanity on the planet. A hypothetical terminating but sustainable value tethered and tagged currency is described with its institutional arrangements as a reference standard for governments to: (a) regulate new types of digital money that are arising and (b) obtain support from international financial institutions to introduce as a parallel currency to sustain their economies and the global financial system.

Budget-constrained minimum cost flows

We study an extension of the well-known minimum cost flow problem in which a second kind of costs (called usage fees) is associated with each edge. The goal is to minimize the first kind of costs a...

A global overview of renal registries: a systematic review

BackgroundPatient registries have great potential for providing data that describe disease burden, treatments, and outcomes; which can be used to improve patient care. Many renal registries exist, but a central repository of their scope, quality, and accessibility is lacking. The objective of this study was to identify and assess worldwide renal registries reporting on renal replacement therapy and compile a list of those most suitable for use by a broad range of researchers.MethodsRenal registries were identified through a systematic literature review and internet research. Inclusion criteria included information on dialysis use (yes/no), patient counts ≥300, and evidence of activity between June 2007 and June 2012. Public availability of information on dialysis modality, outcomes, and patient characteristics as well as accessibility of patient-level data for external research were evaluated.ResultsOf 144 identified renal registries, 48 met inclusion criteria, 23 of which were from Europe. Public accessibility to annual reports, publications, or basic data was good for 17 registries and moderate for 22. Patient-level data were available to external researchers either directly or through application and review (which may include usage fees) for 13 of the 48 registries, and were inaccessible or accessibility was unknown for 25.ConclusionsThe lack of available data, particularly in emerging economies, leaves information gaps about health care and outcomes for patients with renal disease. Effective multistakeholder collaborations could help to develop renal registries where they are absent, or enhance data collection and dissemination for currently existing registries to improve patient care.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12882-015-0028-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

REFORMULATING POLICY ON FREQUENCY USAGE FEES AS NON-TAX STATE REVENUE: URGENCY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

Spectrum/frequency is a backbone of telecommunication industry and an input to produce various goods and services. Because of its being a limited resource, by tradition it has come to be owned by the state. Many governments levy usage fees/charges to establish a managed spectrum environment or to generate national fiscal income. This varies in different countries. Government of Indonesia levies several taxes and fees/charges to telecommunication operators. As a result, there are double or multi-tax costs of taxation, which can distort productivity. This phenomenon shows that government should consider reformulating frequency usage fees policy in order to minimize the cost of taxation, promote teledencity, affordability, and growth of telecommunication industry. Moreover, many researches have showed that telecommunication industry could accelerate Gross National Product (GNP). This study describes all taxes and fees/charges applied to telecommunication industry in Indonesia, comparing them to those of some other countries, and analyze frequency usage fees based on the theory of earmarking tax. An alternative way to reformulate levy policy on frequency usage fee is analyzed by simulating its impacts using system dynamic. The result shows that taxes and fees/charges applied to telecommunication industry increased cost of taxation, and government should simplify in order to give them more opportunity to increase their productivity resulting in products of good quality and affordable price. Furthermore, it is better for government to levy frequency usage fees based on earmarking concept, so the frequency regulator can optimize its role to manage spectrum effectively and efficiently. Moreover, the government can provide public and universal services, especially in rural areas. Keywords: Frequency Fees, Earmarked Tax, Cost of Taxation, Supply side tax policy

Nutrient prices and concentrations in Midwestern agricultural watersheds

This paper assesses the impact of nutrient prices on nutrient concentrations in agricultural watersheds. Specifically, we find that the price elasticity of nutrient emissions from agricultural watersheds is −0.17 to −0.34, suggesting that a 10% increase in nitrogen or phosphorus prices faced by farmers would lead to up to a 3.4% reduction in nitrogen or phosphorus emissions from a watershed. While this sounds modest, it is about the same size as estimates of the price elasticity of nutrient demand by farmers, a relationship which also is very inelastic. Our results suggest that when prices for nutrients rise, there is a direct effect on nutrient emissions from watersheds. Given recent concerns about phosphorus in Lake Erie, we assess the potential implications of applying a phosphorus usage fee to reduce phosphorus emissions there. We find that a 25% increase in phosphorus prices would reduce nutrient outputs from the three Lake Erie watersheds we modelled by 6.5%, or 210t phosphorus per year, and cost about $6ha−1yr−1. These costs are similar to estimates of the costs of reducing phosphorus through waste water treatment plants, and less than the costs of other widely used agricultural best management practices like cover crops.

수도권 지역 직장인의 음식 관련 스마트폰 어플리케이션 이용 실태와 만족도

Abstract This study was conducted to figure the usage status and satisfaction of food-related smartphone applications by generic characteristics and food purchase attributes of Seoul area workers. The results show that healthvitality-oriented group, married compared to single, those with higher eating-out expenses possess more food-related applications (p<0.05). The primary reason for the usage of food-related applications was the need for food-related information (53.7%). The highest application subjects in use were restaurant-related information and recipe information. The real-life aid food-related applications utilized most were also restaurant information (60.7%) and recipe information (28.3%). Healthvitality-oriented respondents especially turned out to use nutrition information and food functionality information often (p<0.01), and recipes or calories & diet information usage frequency was higher in women than in men (p<0.001). Restaurant-related information were more frequently used by singles, highly educated, and those with high income and eating-out expenses (p<0.05). Satisfaction of food-related applications was normal (3.06), showing that the satisfactory level is not yet high. Satisfaction regarding purchase attributes showed that the healthvitality-oriented group (3.19) was more satisfied compared to other groups (p<0.05), and women (3.16) were more satisfied that men (2.89) were (p<0.05). Inconveniences of food-related applications were highest in usage fee (3.29), simplicity of information (3.28), lack of reliability of information and need for update (3.10). The results of this study implies that various subdivisions of food-related applications users should be implemented; at the same time, food-related applications covering diverse subjects that regard each group’s characteristics should be developed in order to utilize food-related knowledge and information as a marketing tool in the food industry; this can efficiently be done by paying attention to the quality of information and updates within applications.Key words: food-related application (App), utilization, satisfaction, office worker

A novel idea on supporting mobile IPTV services over mixed DVB-H and 3G networks

Mobile IPTV is one of the IPTV branches applied to small and handheld devices such as mobile phones, where users can access shared videos on IPTV servers by their mobile devices everywhere. Because of the availability of small-size mobile phones, mobile IPTV is going to be turned into a main part of hobbies and information gathering. This paper presents a novel concept for mixing 3G and DVB-H network to develop mobile IPTV. In this paper, we propose a framework to combine DVB-H and 3G cells in order to extend coverage area of mobile IPTV and increase penetration of mobile IPTV. By combining these two technologies, users leaving a 3G area and entering a DVB-H area (or vice versa) can continue watching their videos by vertical handover between 3G and DVB-H networks. Switching a video stream between DVB-H and 3G networks to reduce the usage fee and extend the coverage area is the main idea of this paper. In fact, this paper introduces a cheap and suitable solution for extending Mobile IPTV with available facilities in underdeveloped countries. Our performance evaluation shows the effectiveness of the proposed combination on improving the quality of service for mobile IPTV users.

Economic analysis of ubiquitous city operation using parametric and non-parametric estimation of the contingent valuation method

Local governments, which are responsible for ubiquitous city (u-city) operation in Korea, often have difficulties in bearing their operating costs. As an alternative income source, we examine the usage fees that are charged to households in u-city service regions. We measure the amounts that residents are willing to pay and analyze whether it is possible to cover the operating costs. Willingness to Pay (WTP) is measured by the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), the survey of which is accomplished in Eunpyeong New Town in Seoul. The mean WTPs are estimated by parametric methods with and without covariates and non-parametric methods to find a lower bound, an intermediate, and an upper bound. The household's monthly WTP ranges from KRW 3971 to KRW 7186, and the yearly WTP of total households ranges from KRW 771 million to KRW 1395 million. All WTPs are not sufficient to cover the operating cost of Eunpyeong u-city, and consequently, an annual shortage is estimated from KRW 85 million to KRW 710 million. This means that it is not feasible to use the usage fee as the only income source for u-city operation; however, it is rational to use in addition to other reliable income sources.