Browsing by Subject "costs"
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Item The Estimated Impact of Privatizing Student Transportation On Costs of Minnesota School Districts(Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, 2009-05-08) Thompson-Ferguson, OwenStudent transportation makes up a substantial portion of a typical school district’s operating budget, and sub-contracting bus service to private firms has been advanced by some as a way to reduce transportation costs and allow school districts to focus on their core missions. Previous studies that analyzed a single school-year of data have found conflicting and inconclusive evidence regarding the impact of privatization on transportation costs. This paper seeks to improve on previous studies by estimating a cost equation using data spanning six school-years. The primary result is that privatization actually acts to increase transportation costs by a substantial amount. Estimates using the data in a pooled cross section form predicted that going from fully outsourced to fully in house reduced costs by approximately 15.8 percent, while the analogous estimate using a first differenced equation was a savings of 20.7 percent.Item Online Collaborative Consumption: Exploring Meanings, Motivations, Costs, And Benefits(2013-06) Mun, Jung MeeThis research aimed to provide an in-depth understanding of the experience of online collaborative consumption. Collaborative consumption encompasses the sharing, renting, or swapping of goods, information, and resources. This form of consumption is being reinvented as a result of the Internet. The specific research questions of this study were: (1) What is the nature of the lived experiences of collaborative consumers? (2) Who are collaborative consumers? (3) What motivates/deters engagement in collaborative consumption? (4) What criteria are used to assess collaborative consumption opportunities? (5) What limitations exist concerning the growth of collaborative consumption? (6) What does being an active collaborative consumer mean to these individuals? (7) How has participation in collaborative consumption impacted views or behaviors concerning consumption in general? This study was conducted in three different collaborative consumption contexts: product service system, redistribution market, and collaborative lifestyle, to gain a holistic understanding of collaborative consumption. Using a phenomenological approach, 30 collaborative consumers participated in in-depth interviews. A range of motivations, benefits, costs, and meanings associated with collaborative consumption were revealed. Participants' primary motive to consume collaboratively was economic (e.g., to save and earn money), followed by social (e.g., to give or gain support), functional (e.g., reduce clutter), environmental, and personal (e.g., keep up with fashion trends) motivations. The majority of participants indicated that social benefits (i.e., forming relationships, socializing) were the most important benefits of collaborative consumption. The collaborative consumption website became a venue for participants to not only share possessions but also their knowledge, ideas, and concerns. Several participants identified trust concerns associated with collaborative consumption. To build trust, online reputation (e.g., reviews) was a significant criterion on which participants relied. A range of meanings for collaborative consumption emerged from personal (e.g., removing clutter, freedom) to broader meanings (e.g., community building, fostering social responsibility). Participation in collaborative consumption impacted changes in views and behaviors. Participants became sensitive to discounts and felt uncomfortable buying things new. Participants also shared that they increased or shifted to buying environmentally friendly or sustainable products. Discussion of the findings, limitations, and suggestions for future research were also provided.Item Out-Of-Pocket Health Care Spending: Effects Of Partner Spending On Own Spending(2018-05) Adeniyi, TitilopeBackground. Delayed or foregone medical care because of cost is an ever-present possibility for most households and a current concern for many households in the United States. A small body of literature exists concerning the relationship between household out-of-pocket spending and household-member delayed or foregone health care and none of this literature focuses primarily on older adults. This research seeks to answer the following question: Among older adults, how does the existence of a pre-existing medical condition(s) in one’s partner effect one’s own out-of-pocket health care spending in the period following a recent medical condition diagnosis? Methods. This research used data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The HRS surveys United States non-institutionalized residents at least 50 years of age and their partners every two years. The analytic sample was comprised of 2,325 observations for 524 households from the 2002 to 2012 survey waves. This research utilized a 2-part fixed-effects difference-in-differences model. The outcomes of interest were individual total and prescription out-of-pocket health care spending. Results. In contrast to unadjusted models, after adjusting for a number of individual and household characteristics, there was no significant difference in the change in total and prescription out-of-pocket spending behavior after a medical condition diagnosis when comparing individuals with and without a partner with a pre-existing medical condition. Conclusion. While most of the difference-in-differences results were not significant in the unadjusted, adjusted, and sensitivity analyses for both total and prescription out-of-pocket spending, all but a handful of these results were positive. Positive effect values are counter to the result that was expected. The positive sign indicates a tendency for individuals who have partners with a pre-existing condition to have a greater change in out-of-pocket spending than individuals without a partner with a pre-existing condition. A possible explanation for this finding could relate to increased health care literacy in households that have a partner with a pre-existing condition.