title: From willingness to engage to willingness to pay: A behavioral  experiment on green consumer information in a digital product passport

authors: Dorner, Zack

subjects: circular economy

abstract: Information represents the “third wave” of environmental policy. Existing evidence shows consumers increase their willingness to pay (WTP) for environmentally friendly products with clear labelling. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding whether consumers have a willingness to engage (WTE) with detailed information, for example, through a Digital Product Passport (DPP). This technological innovation is part of the European Union’s new circular economy action plan. In our theoretical model, a green consumer decides whether to invest in information on how to mitigate their environmental damage, but at a cognitive cost. We test the model in a lab experiment selling an environmentally friendly toothbrush, but information about its environmental credentials is only available through a DPP. We find education on the DPP’s purpose is key to increasing revealed WTE when a DPP is available. Participants with a high stated WTE engage with the DPP regardless; the increase in revealed WTE comes from those with a lower stated WTE. Engagement with the DPP, in the case that it contains positive environmental information, increases WTP. The policy implications of our results are that education about the purpose of the DPP is required in order to increase the likelihood of actual consumer engagement with it, as long as it is user friendly. However, engagement with a DPP may not lead to further shifts in environmental orientation and behavior. Our study also demonstrates novel measures of WTE, and how these can be used to understand pro-environmental consumer behavior in a theoretically informed manner.

text: From willingness to engage to willingness to pay: A behavioral  experiment on green consumer information in a digital product passport Information represents the “third wave” of environmental policy. Existing evidence shows consumers increase their willingness to pay (WTP) for environmentally friendly products with clear labelling. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding whether consumers have a willingness to engage (WTE) with detailed information, for example, through a Digital Product Passport (DPP). This technological innovation is part of the European Union’s new circular economy action plan. In our theoretical model, a green consumer decides whether to invest in information on how to mitigate their environmental damage, but at a cognitive cost. We test the model in a lab experiment selling an environmentally friendly toothbrush, but information about its environmental credentials is only available through a DPP. We find education on the DPP’s purpose is key to increasing revealed WTE when a DPP is available. Participants with a high stated WTE engage with the DPP regardless; the increase in revealed WTE comes from those with a lower stated WTE. Engagement with the DPP, in the case that it contains positive environmental information, increases WTP. The policy implications of our results are that education about the purpose of the DPP is required in order to increase the likelihood of actual consumer engagement with it, as long as it is user friendly. However, engagement with a DPP may not lead to further shifts in environmental orientation and behavior. Our study also demonstrates novel measures of WTE, and how these can be used to understand pro-environmental consumer behavior in a theoretically informed manner.

year: 2025

title: Numerical calculation of series and shunt resistances and diode quality factor of a photovoltaic cell using the Lambert W-function

authors: Ghani, Faisal Abid

subjects: cell modelling

abstract: A number of methods currently exist to determine the modeling parameters of a solar cell. The authors presented in earlier a work a method to numerically determine the values of series and shunt resistance using the Lambert W-function at maximum power point primarily using data provided by the manufacturer. This method however assumes the diode constant value is known. An experimental investigation revealed that by setting the diode constant to unity as suggested in other work, a growing disparity between model output and experimental values would arise away from the maximum power point. To address this issue, a modification is proposed to the method of Ghani and Duke (2011) which permits the calculation of the diode constant and the corresponding values of series and shunt resistances. The method was experimentally validated by collecting the current-voltage characteristics of a multi-crystalline cell exposed to 800, 900, and 1000 W/m² of outdoor illumination in Hamilton, New Zealand. A comparative analysis of the model generated data using parameters found by the proposed method and two additional methods against experimental data revealed a significant reduction in the root mean square error over the entire current vector was obtained using the proposed method. The method is simple to apply and can be carried out using data provided the manufacturer.

text: Numerical calculation of series and shunt resistances and diode quality factor of a photovoltaic cell using the Lambert W-function A number of methods currently exist to determine the modeling parameters of a solar cell. The authors presented in earlier a work a method to numerically determine the values of series and shunt resistance using the Lambert W-function at maximum power point primarily using data provided by the manufacturer. This method however assumes the diode constant value is known. An experimental investigation revealed that by setting the diode constant to unity as suggested in other work, a growing disparity between model output and experimental values would arise away from the maximum power point. To address this issue, a modification is proposed to the method of Ghani and Duke (2011) which permits the calculation of the diode constant and the corresponding values of series and shunt resistances. The method was experimentally validated by collecting the current-voltage characteristics of a multi-crystalline cell exposed to 800, 900, and 1000 W/m² of outdoor illumination in Hamilton, New Zealand. A comparative analysis of the model generated data using parameters found by the proposed method and two additional methods against experimental data revealed a significant reduction in the root mean square error over the entire current vector was obtained using the proposed method. The method is simple to apply and can be carried out using data provided the manufacturer.

year: 2013

title: Population diversity in Aotearoa New Zealand: Insights from the CaDDANZ research programme

authors: Stone, Geoff

abstract: CaDDANZ was a New Zealand Government-funded project studying the impacts of growing population diversity in Aotearoa New Zealand. The project ran from 2014 to 2020 and was extended to March 2021 due to the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Staffed by a multidisciplinary team of researchers, CaDDANZ aimed to identify changing demographics and the impacts of ethnic and demographic diversity on aspects of economic and social change. This report has synthesised a bundle of key insights that could only have surfaced through the reflection on the interplay between the research questions that the original bid set out to address. While we, as a project team, did not intend to produce transdisciplinary or even interdisciplinary work on migration, diversity or the diversity dividend, setting a goal to synthesise something from the project as a whole has produced this report. Using social cohesion as a sorting mechanism for the insights has meant this overview is selective and high level. Not all the projects can be read against a social cohesion or even social inclusion lens. In particular, many of the econometric outputs explicitly addressed aspects of diversity as an economic dividend and that work is not highlighted in the synthesis. 
Three broad themes are addressed 
1. Immigration and diversity – understanding population trends 
2. [Re] conceptualising ethno-demographic diversity in Aotearoa – Tangata whenua perspectives 
3. Diversity in context – in different settings and over time 
The report concludes with four high-level insights 
1. Immigration policy needs to re-examine its position in relation to Tiriti o Waitangi where any Crown partnership relationship is currently lacking. 
2. Despite social cohesion being a negotiated term, its use as a framing for the impacts of migration on both the host country and individual migrant lives is underpinned by its use in the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terrorist attack on Christchurch mosques on 15 March 2019 and is preferable to the concept of a diversity dividend.1 
3. While ethnocultural diversity is the default for ‘diversity dividend’ research, the concept of the social organisation of difference has broader relevance to social justice-oriented policy development.2 
4. The use of wide range of different methodologies is vital for the production of wellevidenced, theory-informed strategies and policies.

text: Population diversity in Aotearoa New Zealand: Insights from the CaDDANZ research programme CaDDANZ was a New Zealand Government-funded project studying the impacts of growing population diversity in Aotearoa New Zealand. The project ran from 2014 to 2020 and was extended to March 2021 due to the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Staffed by a multidisciplinary team of researchers, CaDDANZ aimed to identify changing demographics and the impacts of ethnic and demographic diversity on aspects of economic and social change. This report has synthesised a bundle of key insights that could only have surfaced through the reflection on the interplay between the research questions that the original bid set out to address. While we, as a project team, did not intend to produce transdisciplinary or even interdisciplinary work on migration, diversity or the diversity dividend, setting a goal to synthesise something from the project as a whole has produced this report. Using social cohesion as a sorting mechanism for the insights has meant this overview is selective and high level. Not all the projects can be read against a social cohesion or even social inclusion lens. In particular, many of the econometric outputs explicitly addressed aspects of diversity as an economic dividend and that work is not highlighted in the synthesis. 
Three broad themes are addressed 
1. Immigration and diversity – understanding population trends 
2. [Re] conceptualising ethno-demographic diversity in Aotearoa – Tangata whenua perspectives 
3. Diversity in context – in different settings and over time 
The report concludes with four high-level insights 
1. Immigration policy needs to re-examine its position in relation to Tiriti o Waitangi where any Crown partnership relationship is currently lacking. 
2. Despite social cohesion being a negotiated term, its use as a framing for the impacts of migration on both the host country and individual migrant lives is underpinned by its use in the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terrorist attack on Christchurch mosques on 15 March 2019 and is preferable to the concept of a diversity dividend.1 
3. While ethnocultural diversity is the default for ‘diversity dividend’ research, the concept of the social organisation of difference has broader relevance to social justice-oriented policy development.2 
4. The use of wide range of different methodologies is vital for the production of wellevidenced, theory-informed strategies and policies.

year: 2021