Reports of Bed Bugs on Hotel Selection: A Choice Experiment

The resurgence of bed bugs in the United States creates challenges for hotels and motels. One aspect that is especially important to hospitality are reports of bed bugs and how they affect travellers’ selection and potential damage to hotel brands. To address this issue, we conduct a choice experiment of a national sample of US travellers. We find that consumers expectedly respond negatively to reports of bed bugs, and they are sensitive to the number of reports of bed bugs. Through consumer Willingness to Pay for a hotel room, we quantify the negative impact of reports of bed bugs on the hotel industry through lost room premium. Expectedly, avoiding bed bugs is more valuable among those who worry more about bed bugs, but prior knowledge and experience have no effect. How explicitly the reports of bed bugs are disclosed to travellers affects their reaction and Willingness to Pay greatly.     

Leadership in agricultural machinery circles: experimental evidence from Tajikistan

Leadership is critical for the viability of rural groups. The way in which leadership is legitimised can mediate leader and group member behaviour in the face of social dilemmas. Yet there has been scant research on leader‐follower dynamics in naturally occurring groups. Highlighting the case of agricultural machinery circles in Tajikistan, the effect of leading by example on investments to a collective good is studied in a framed field experiment. To increase realism, and contrary to standard economic experiments, this investment is a voucher allowing the group to make a real‐world machinery purchase at reduced costs. Two treatments manipulate leaders’ legitimisation. Elected leaders achieve 30 per cent higher contributions to the collective investment against a baseline version without a leader. Contributions remain, on average, relatively stable over the course of the game. The results are discussed with reference to the debate on external intervention in agricultural producer organisations.     

财政分权对全要素生产率的影响--基于“省直管县”改革的准自然实验

"省直管县"改革一改以往"省-市-县"的管理模式,有助于提高县级政府的财政分权水平。为缓解内生性,将"省直管县"改革视为一项准自然实验,构建双重差分模型检验了财政分权对全要素生产率的因果效应。研究发现:①财政分权对全要素生产率的正向促进作用高于负面阻碍作用,但不同形式的分权影响有异质性,具体来说财权的下放有利于全要素生产率的提高,经济社会事务管理权限的下放则不利于。②当地方政府自主权提高时,其"重生产、轻服务"的支出偏好,使得当地基础设施供给增加,而能够增强地方软实力、加快创新要素集聚的公共服务供给相应减少,造成了全要素生产率的损失,导致在经济高质量高效益增长中政府"有形之手"的作用发挥不够。③随着改革的推进,财政分权对全要素生产率的正向作用逐渐减弱,并不再显著。据此,从合理划分省以下政府的事权与支出责任,充实基层政府财力;提高公共服务类指标在政府官员政绩考核中的权重,加强各县(市)政府间的合作,实现各自为政的地方经济向统一市场整合等方面提出政策建议。     

电火花线切割机床加工工艺参数的研究

本文阐述了电火花线切割机床的加工机理,利用正交试验的方法,对高速走丝电火花线切割机床加工中的峰值电流、脉冲宽度、脉间比等工艺条件进行了试验的优化设计,减少了试验的次数,缩短了实验周期,提高了效率和效益;从而优化了电火花线切割机床加工工艺参数,提高了加工件的质量;得出了电参数与加工速度和表面粗糙度之间的联系,为进一步研究电火花线切割加工工艺规律提供了基础。     

高职《建筑力学》教学改革与实践

《建筑力学》是建筑工程类专业的专业基础课程,内容覆盖面广、难度大,一直是高职院校建筑工程类专业教学中的一个重点和难点。文章分析了传统的建筑力学教学中存在的问题,结合近些年的教学经验,介绍了已经实行的改革措施,希望能提高建筑力学的教学质量,提高学生用力学知识解决实际问题的能力。     

参与PPP能否减轻企业税负——基于准自然实验的证据

政府与社会资本合作（PPP）模式在解决公共服务供给不足问题的同时,也给社会资本方的经营带来影响。企业参与PPP与政府建立良好合作关系是否有助于其税负的减轻？基于PPP概念股上市公司数据,本文采用准自然实验框架实证研究了企业参与PPP对其税负的影响。研究结果表明：企业参与PPP提高了其避税程度,降低了税负水平。分行业看,建筑业效应在统计上最为显著,而电力、热力等市政建设类项目企业参与PPP后税负不降反升。分区域看,东部和中部地区企业参与PPP对其税负有显著的降低,而西部地区并不显著。政策启示是在严格执行显性税收优惠的同时,规范PPP项目中政府与企业之间的利益关系。     

Assessing recreation carrying capacity of the environment attributes based on visitors’ willingness to pay

Recreation carrying capacity (RCC) is one of the most important indictors used in measuring the usage limits for the forest park resources. However, the consensus has not been reached with respect to the RCC’s content and its measuring metrics. In this paper, we attempt to establish a new RCC theoretical framework based on the demand theory of the tourism product characteristics. In the process, the choice experiment and orthogonal design methods are used in questionnaire designs and the conditional Logit model is used for parameter estimates. More than 700 park visitors are surveyed for data collection at the Shenyang National Forest park of Liaoning province in China. The primary park attributes being considered encompass vegetation, coverage, water quality, number of rubbish on the park trail path, admission fees, and congestion. The carrying capacity threshold for each specific attribute is identified.     

Utilizing environmental information and pricing strategies to reduce externalities of tourism: the case of invasive species in the Galapagos

The increase in demand for nature-based tourism brings economic and educational benefits but risks the introduction of invasive species. Increasing the length of tourist trips can better balance these benefits and risks by maintaining revenues while reducing the number of unique contacts with tourists. Changing the relative prices of trips can induce tourists to take longer trips. We hypothesized that providing information about the negative externalities of tourism could improve the effectiveness of such pricing strategies.

We administered one of two discrete choice surveys to tourists considering a trip to the Galapagos. One of the surveys described the Galapagos as a fragile ecosystem susceptible to invasive species; the second described it as a standard nature-based destination. For each sample, we estimated the probability of the tourist choosing a short versus long trip, given the tourist's personal information and trip options presented to him. We then simulated the demand for trips using three pricing strategies. We found that providing information on invasive species significantly increased the efficacy of strategic pricing. We propose using a two-prong approach to tourism management: educate potential tourists about the islands’ vulnerabilities, and simultaneously increase the per-day cost of short trips relative to that of longer trips.     

Tourist preferences for ecotourism in rural communities adjacent to Kruger National Park: A choice experiment approach

This paper analyses the potential for development of ecotourism in rural communities adjacent to Kruger National Park (KNP) in South Africa. We determine preferences of tourists, according to origin and income levels, for ecotourism and their marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) for three ecotourism attributes: village accommodation, village tours and visits to crafts markets. Data were collected from 319 tourists through choice experiments, and analyzed using a conditional probit model. Findings indicate reluctance on the part of all tourists to use accommodation facilities outside KNP, but interest to purchase village tours and visit village-based craft markets. MWTP was negative for accommodation for all income groups, but positive for village tours and crafts markets. Among international and high income groups of tourists, tourists were willing to pay much higher fees than proposed by communities. These findings suggest the potential for development of some limited ecotourism services in villages adjacent to KNP.     

电工学实验教学改革研究与实践

电工学课程是高校非电专业开设的一门实践性很强的技术基础课,而电工学实验教学是电工学课程教学中的重要环节。深化电工学实验教学改革,完善电工学实验教学体系,有利于培养学生创新意识和工程实践能力。