The effective mass is used in transport calculations, such as transport of electrons under the influence of fields or carrier gradients, but it also is used to calculate the carrier density and density of states in semiconductors. These masses are related but, as explained in the previous sections, are not the same because the weightings of various directions and wavevectors are different. These differences are important, for example in thermoelectric materials, where high conductivity, generally associated with light mass, is desired at the same time as high Seebeck coefficient, generally associated with heavy mass. Methods for assessing the electronic structures of different materials in this context have been developed.