The definition of the objective function to be used in mathematical models is one of the most important steps in mathematical modeling. Although frequently the choice of objective function is obvious, there are cases where it is far from obvious. This is the case of problems where social aspects ought to be considered and/or the effects of interest do not have a proper metric that capture the essence of the effect in question. This is the case of equity in transportation and relief aid in post-disaster environments. In this lecture, Professor José Holguín-Veras will discuss his research on the development of a family of objective functions that account for the effects of the deprivation of critical supplies and services. This new breed of objective functions are based on welfare economics—the branch of economics that study the effects of the allocation of resources—and social costs that explicitly consider the effects of the deprivation of critical supplies and services, i.e., deprivation costs, on the impacted individuals. Since the publication of the seminal papers, dozens of papers have been published validating the use of social costs, providing a significantly improved characterization of the effects of relief aid on disaster survivors. In his lecture, he will discuss: (1) the disaster context, (2) the challenge of allocating and distributing critical supplies and services to survivors, and the biological, philosophical, and economic implications of relief aid; (3) the limitations of the classic objective functions, (4) the promise and challenges of social cost mathematical models (5) estimation of deprivation cost functions and mathematical formulations; and (6) lessons learned and implications for proper consideration of equity in transportation systems.
Copyright. All Rights Reserved.