Book•
Intermediate microeconomics : A modern approach
01 Jan 2006-
TL;DR: The Varian approach as mentioned in this paper gives students tools they can use on exams, in the rest of their classes, and in their careers after graduation, and is still the most modern presentation of the subject.
Abstract: This best-selling text is still the most modern presentation of the subject. The Varian approach gives students tools they can use on exams, in the rest of their classes, and in their careers after graduation.
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01 Nov 2016
TL;DR: In this paper, a market-based framework for pricing computational tasks in the cloud is proposed, where an agent takes data and computational tasks from users, estimates time and cost for evaluating the tasks, and returns to consumers contracts that specify the price and completion time.
Abstract: The availability of public computing resources in the cloud has revolutionized data analysis, but requesting cloud resources often involves complex decisions for consumers. Estimating the completion time and cost of a computation and requesting the appropriate cloud resources are challenging tasks even for an expert user. We propose a new market-based framework for pricing computational tasks in the cloud. Our framework introduces an agent between consumers and cloud providers. The agent takes data and computational tasks from users, estimates time and cost for evaluating the tasks, and returns to consumers contracts that specify the price and completion time. Our framework can be applied directly to existing cloud markets without altering the way cloud providers offer and price services. In addition, it simplifies cloud use for consumers by allowing them to compare contracts, rather than choose resources directly. We present design, analytical, and algorithmic contributions focusing on pricing computation contracts, analyzing their properties, and optimizing them in complex workflows. We conduct an experimental evaluation of our market framework over a real-world cloud service and demonstrate empirically that our market ensures three key properties: (a) that consumers benefit from using the market due to competitiveness among agents, (b) that agents have an incentive to price contracts fairly, and (c) that inaccuracies in estimates do not pose a significant risk to agents' profits. Finally, we present a fine-grained pricing mechanism for complex workflows and show that it can increase agent profits by more than an order of magnitude in some cases.
6 citations
01 Jan 2009
TL;DR: In this paper, the impact of diversion of feedstock from food to ethanol production has on food prices was investigated in a two-good (food and ethanol), one input (land) theoretical model.
Abstract: Food prices have increased rapidly in recent years, and so has ethanol consumption. Some studies have claimed that there is a connection between those two. Net exporters of food tend to benefit from higher prices, while regions that are net importers of food, tend to be adversely affected. The large amount of poor countries in the second group justifies an investigation of the causes of increasing food prices. This thesis aims to contribute to the discussion, analyzing, theoretically and empirically, the impact that the diversion of feedstock from food to ethanol production has on food prices. The interaction between food prices and ethanol is first examined in a two-good (food and ethanol), one input (land) theoretical model. The outcome of this model is that an increase in ethanol productivity will have a positive impact on food prices, which is confirmed in the empirical test. We also found that increases in area allocated to produce sugarcane based ethanol in Brazil had depressing effects on relative food prices. No significant conclusion could be found on the effect of the area allocated to produce corn based ethanol in the United States.
5 citations
01 Jan 2016
5 citations
Cites background from "Intermediate microeconomics : A mod..."
...It is defi ned to be the percent change in quantity divided by the percent change in price: ei = “% Change in quantity “ /”% Change in price” (Varian, 2010)....
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Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze the taxation of telecommunications in California and say that it is out of date and the existing tax structure is difficult to justify in terms of economic efficiency or equity.
Abstract: The authors analyze the taxation of telecommunications in California and say that it is out of date. The existing tax structure is difficult to justify in terms of economic efficiency or equity, the authors write.
5 citations