Optimal plan of delivery and drug dependence clinic as the factor of drugs demand contraction
Within the framework of a joint seminar of GAMES research group and research and training group “Empirical demand estimation” Dmitry Kashin and Yulia Galenko, 4th year students of “Economics” educational programme, presented intermediate results of their studies.
At the previous seminars Dmitry has already told about the preliminary results of his work. After the discussion the study dedicated to the search of an optimal plan of products delivery for a trade enterprise was refined. The topicality of the project caused doubts of the seminar’s participants. Dmitry noted that the company (the study is carried out through the example of the Food Factory OOO) bears significant losses because of driver’s delays and the subsequent return of products. Besides, the applied character of work allows the author to take into account some features of Perm which are absent in the classical statement of the problem.
Mathematical statement of the modified traveling salesman problem, suggested by Dmitry, interested the seminar participants. For example, in the model restrictions the author of the study took into account traffic jams and time slots set by the customers. Moreover, the task was performed not for one driver but for two that significantly complicated the solution. Dmitry also underlined that serious work on upload and analysis of the huge massive of data was required in order to introduce the parameter “distance between agents”.
The seminar participants gave Dmitry some recommendations on improving his work, in particular, there was an advice to add the minimization of drivers’ down-time between the orders into the task.
Yulia’s work was focused on the study of drug dependence clinic as the factor of demand contraction for drugs, in particular, hard drugs. In literature review she summarized the previous conclusions of researchers: the demand for hard drugs is price inelastic, and the consumption of drugs is an example of sustainable addiction. Yulia noted that there are almost no studies of influence of the treatment.
In her work the student considered the correlation between the possibility to be stricken off the register and the clinic attendance. When developing the model Yulia faced some technical difficulties. After a discussion the seminar participants recommended the variants of changing the model specification and gave practical advice on theoretical part of the work.
The results of the study showed a significant effect of influence of the clinic attendance by a patient on the possibility of his recovery. Besides, Yulia could determine an optimal number of the clinic treatment courses. According to her words, after the second treatment course the influence of clinic treatment loses its efficiency.
The seminar participants noted the high practical potential of the work: to date one can pass the treatment an unlimited number of times. Thus, the project is significant not only for the researcher, but it will be the basis for practical recommendations.