A systematic mapping study of process mining

This study systematically assesses the process mining scenario from 2005 to 2014. The analysis of 705 papers evidenced ‘discovery’ (71%) as the main type of process mining addressed and ‘categorical prediction’ (25%) as the main mining task solved. The most applied traditional technique is the ‘graph structure-based’ ones (38%). Specifically concerning computational intelligence and machine learning techniques, we concluded that little relevance has been given to them. The most applied are ‘evolutionary computation’ (9%) and ‘decision tree’ (6%), respectively. Process mining challenges, such as balancing among robustness, simplicity, accuracy and generalization, could benefit from a larger use of such techniques.     

False self‐employment: the case of Ukrainian migrants in London's construction sector

This article, presenting qualitative accounts of Ukrainian business owners, highlights how migrants engage in false self‐employment in the UK. Their experiences problematise notions of legality and binary depictions of migrant workers as ‘victims or villains’, demonstrating that migrants see their illegal status as a transient stage before gaining legal status.     

Are More Innovative Firms Less Vulnerable to New Environmental Regulation?

Compliance with pollution limits and standards requires firms to implement adaptation processes that are not only costly themselves but also affect future profits in as much as they modify production systems and methods. This paper attempts to respond to the question of how technological knowledge moderates the effect that the implementation of a new environmental regulation has on the results of affected firms. The regulation selected for this study is the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Act (IPPC). A Multivariate Regression Model (MVRM) has been applied to the regulatory event. The most important implication of this paper is that technological knowledge prepares a firm for adapting to a greater environmental demand such as may be derived from a new regulation. This paper has been developed under the objectives of the CREVALOR Research Group (DGA-Spain). Moreover, it has been financed by the MEC-FEDER Research Project SEJ2005-07341.     

Evaluating the Adequacy of Parametric Functional Forms in Estimating Monotone and Concave Production Functions

We consider situations where the a priori guidance provided by theoretical considerations indicates only that the function linking the endogenous and exogenous variables is monotone and concave (or convex). We present methods to evaluate the adequacy of a parametric functional form to represent the relationship given the minimal maintained assumption of monotonicity and concavity (or convexity). We evaluate the adequacy of an assumed parametric form by comparing the deviations of the fitted parametric form from the observed data with the corresponding deviations estimated under DEA. We illustrate the application of our proposed methods using data collected from school districts in Texas. Specifically, we examine whether the Cobb–Douglas and translog specifications commonly employed in studies of education production are appropriate characterizations. Our tests reject the hypotheses that either the Cobb–Douglas or the translog specification is an adequate approximation to the general monotone and concave production function for the Texas school districts.     

Wiki and blog as teaching tools in tourism higher education

The application of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to higher education is an essential element in the improvement of open and flexible teaching–learning. This is particularly important for students of tourism, a sector in which the relationship with technological processes and their everyday use is increasing. This article describes the experience of students of an “Introduction to Economics” in a tourism degree that was involved in this initiative. It is based on the information provided by a quantitative and qualitative survey to obtain the start profile of students, gender differences and mainly the attitude of students towards the use of the wiki and blog as educational tools. As a result, it is highlighted that the implementation of these technological teaching tools increases the interest and engagement of students with the subject.     

Decision-making under risk: Editing procedures based on correlated similarities, and preference overdetermination

This paper studies editing procedures based on similarity relations in an expected utility maximization context. It shows that these procedures are compatible both with a family of difference-correlated similarities on the prize space and with a set of families (one for each probability) of ratio-correlated similarity relations on the probability space. In view of the properties satisfied by these families of correlated similarities, it is suggested that Rubinstein's preference overdetermination problem can be avoided. Received: 17 April 1996 / Accepted: 24 September 1998     

Valuing public and private urban tree canopy cover

In this paper, we estimate the effect of tree canopy cover on sales price of urban residential properties in Perth, Western Australia. Using a data set of 5606 single family homes sold in 2009 and a spatial hedonic model with three spatial effects – spatial‐temporal lag on dependent variable, spatial error, and spatially lagged independent variables – we estimated the location‐specific effect of tree canopy cover. Tree canopy cover increases the property value when located on adjacent public space, but decreases the value when it is on own property and on the adjacent property within 20 m of property boundary. The results are suggestive that council urban tree planting programs provide significant private benefits to homeowners.     

Capitalisation of residential solar photovoltaic systems in Western Australia

Due to government financial incentives and falling prices of photovoltaic (PV) systems, solar power has become the fastest growing renewable energy source in Australia. As financial incentives are being reduced or phased out, there is a possibility that adoption of this technology will slow down, thus creating a need for improved policy instruments targeted at adoption of residential PV systems. One of the factors affecting adoption of solar technology in the residential sector is its capitalisation in property values. Yet, the awareness of the capitalisation of PV investments in the Australian property market is limited. Our data indicate that homeowners who anticipate selling their properties in the near future are reluctant to adopt PV systems. This paper presents the first empirical estimate of the property price premiums associated with residential solar PV systems in Australia using residential property sales data from the Perth metropolitan area of Western Australia. An estimated 2.3–3.2 per cent property price premium associated with the PV systems suggests that homeowners fully recover the costs of PV investments upon the sale of their properties. Effective government policy could use this information to encourage adoption of residential PV systems by homeowners.     

Economic impacts of closing national forests for commercial timber production in Florida and Liberty County

The paper assesses the impacts of a proposed policy, which suggests a ban on commercial timber harvest in the US national forests. Specifically, this study examines the effect of this policy on a small forest dependent county (Liberty County) in Florida and Florida State by applying a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The results indicate that the proposed policy would decrease overall economic output by $5 million in Liberty County. The decrease in economic output at the state level in response to this policy is only $1 million. Results suggest that the welfare index in response to the proposed policy will drop by 2.9% in Liberty County while the change at the state level is negligible. At the county level, where limited alternate opportunities for labor and capital mobility, the negative effect of the proposed policy is shown to have a multiplying effect.     

Price Behavior in a Dynamic Oligopsony: Washington Processing Potatoes

Punishment strategies are necessary to sustain a collusive oligopsony in a repeated game context when demand is uncertain and only market variables are observable. This paper proposes a test for tacit collusion among potato processors in Washington state using a dynamic regime-switching model estimated with a finite mixture method. The results support the existence of punishment and collusive regimes and show the welfare losses due to anti-competitive behavior on the part of processors to be significant. Processors' oligopsony power is enhanced by higher domestic production, imports, and existing stocks, but it is ameliorated by high capacity utilization rates and exports.