Further Results from the 1978 Fuel Economy Survey
Further analyses of the 1978 in-use fuel economy survey are presented. Effects of usage on 1978 model year cars are determined. The in-use fuel economies are then adjusted to standardize for usage. The adjusted fuel economies have lower variability and yield better relationships with metro-highway fuel economy ratings.
SEASONAL AND REGIONAL MPG AS INFLUENCED BY ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS AND TRAVEL PATTERNS
In-use fuel economy shortfall varies regionally and seasonally in response to changing environmental conditions and travel patterns. Shortfall changes by 25 percent or more are associated with variation in miles travelled per day by in-use vehicles. Monthly variations in northern states are twice those in the south; air conditioning penalties also vary by region. Although regional difference in annual levels are relatively small, shortfall can increase by 16 percent in densely populated urban areas. These variations have been quantified in an analysis of time-series mpg data and related to variables commonly reported in fuel economy surveys.
Deliberative Democracy and the Resource Curse: A Nationwide Experiment in Tanzania
Oil and gas discoveries in developing countries are often associated with short-sighted economic policies and, in response, calls to insulate resource management from populist impulses. We report on a randomized experiment testing methods to overcome this apparent tension between sound resource governance and democratic politics. Soon after Tanzania’s discovery of major natural gas reserves, we invited a nationally representative sample of voters to an intensive public deliberation of policy options featuring nationally recognized experts and small-group discussions. Democratic deliberation reinforced the public’s strong preference for rapid spending of gas revenues, but also increased support for various prudential and economically orthodox measures, including independent oversight of gas revenues, limits on government borrowing, and selling gas abroad rather than subsidizing fuel at home. These effects were driven by deliberation per se, rather than a pure information treatment, and show no evidence of contamination by facilitatoror peer-effects in group deliberations. www.cgdev.org Justin Sandefur, Nancy Birdsall, James Fishkin, and Mujobu Moyo