An analysis of destination choice for opaque airline products using multidimensional binary logit models

We investigate how customers respond to an opaque airline product offered by a European carrier. In this opaque product design, customers are randomly assigned to travel to one of approximately ten destinations; however, for a fee they may exclude one or more destinations from the choice set (or a particular package design) prior to learning which destination they will travel to. We use a multidimensional binary logit model to predict the probability that one or more alternatives will be chosen by a customer. Results show that customers are more likely to pay to exclude destinations located close to the origin airport and destinations that speak the same language as the origin airport. Length of stay, cost of living at the destination, and measures of destination attractiveness are also found to be significant predictors for some package designs. Based on these findings, we offer general recommendations for how to design opaque packages for airline customers.     

Transport economics: A personal view

The field of transportation attracts individuals from diverse backgrounds, seeking to make contributions to policy, planning, operations and strategy. Economists are one of the more visible subsets of players, who bring a specific focus to the transport problem. The key theme of this paper is economic efficiency and ways that transport economics seeks to achieve efficient outcomes in the presence of markets and institutions that to varying degrees distort the potential to fulfil this primary goal. We review some of the recent contributions to the literatures on institutional and market reform, travel choice and demand. As we enter the next century, there is a sense of promoting ‘back to basics’ (and redefinition of what skills transport specialists will require) in seeking a better understanding of the role of markets and institutions in guiding the destiny of the transport sector.     

Value of travel time reliability: A review of current evidence

Travel time reliability is a fundamental factor in travel behavior. It represents the temporal uncertainty experienced by travelers in their movement between any two nodes in a network. The importance of the time reliability depends on the penalties incurred by the travelers. In road networks, travelers consider the existence of a trip travel time uncertainty in different choice situations (departure time, route, mode, and others). In this paper, a systematic review of the current state of research in travel time reliability, and more explicitly in the value of travel time reliability is presented. Moreover, a meta-analysis is performed in order to determine the reasons behind the discrepancy among the reliability estimates.     

“Local background” levels of carbon monoxide in an urban area

The objective of this study was to obtain a better understanding of carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations immediately upwind of urban roadways, the “local background” values, and how these concentrations depend upon the surrounding traffic and the general meteorology. Measurements were made at seven sites in Seattle, WA during the winter of 1993. Local background CO concentrations were characterized by an absence of short term fluctuations, a steady buildup during the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. period, and a lack of spatial gradients in the 8-h average values. Distinctly different log-normal distributions of the 8-h averages were observed for “trafficked” sites versus “urban park” sites, with mean values of 1.6 and 1.0 ppm respectively. A simple regression model was developed to predict the local background CO that includes distance from roadway, average daily traffic of nearby roadways, and the frequency of occurrence of low wind speeds (R² = 0.74; F = 170).     

浅述作为民事法律行为的合同

市场经济是契约经济。合同是企业从事经济活动并且取得经济效益的桥梁和纽带。作为市场主体之一的建筑企业 ,从工程投标到建设工程合同的签订 ,从合同的覆行到工程索赔 ,从工程款的结算到合同纠纷的处理 ,无一不受合同的约束和合同法的规范。掌握了合同的本质 ,才能做到对合同法的灵活运用。本文通过对合同的概述 ,合同本质特征的论述 ,提出了合同的具体运作及合同法在实践中应当注意的问题。对今后建筑企业在复杂的经济活动中正确处理合同问题有较强的指导意义。     

腹腔外科感染的抗生素疗法

腹腔外科感染病人,抗生素疗法占有重要地位。252例腹腔脓液普通培养,24.2%无菌生长。培养出的菌丛中,绝大多数为革兰氏阴性细菌,大肠艾希氏菌占32.5%。选用抗生素应考虑:①菌丛及其联合存在的多样性;②药物进入胆汁的量与速度;③血与组织中的浓度;④药物的抗菌谱,毒性和价格。     

公路工程BOT条件下项目管理实践与探讨

本文通过实际案例阐述了在我国目前公路建设广泛开展建设——经营——转让 (BOT)条件下 ,中国铁路工程总公司以限定概算、总额包干的建设项目管理承包 (PMC)模式 ,参与公路工程建设的实践     

浅论社会保障的利益激励机制及整合发展

本文阐述了建立社会保障机制的重要性及我国社会保障利益激励机制的建立途径。公平是社会保险制度的本质特征 ,而公平本身应该是保护与激励的统一 ,因此 ,社会保障制度就是兼顾保护与激励的公平 ,适度体现激励机制是现代社会保障制度发展的趋势