Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Benefits of trade'

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2006.
The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was signed into law in May 2000 by President Clinton to allow sub-Saharan countries to export designated products duty-free into the US. AGOA is a temporary measure that is non-reciprocal and not negotiated by the participating parties. The initiative was launched to liberalise the markets of developing countries on the road to become integrated in the global economy. The initial success of AGOA was limited, with only a few countries making use of AGOA to increase their exports into the US markets. Problems encountered were high levels of protectionism from the US and the existence of technical trade barriers (including sanitary measures in agriculture) and nontariff barriers (including quotas). African countries are using shipment as the main transport for exports, and the US barred transshipment due to corruption that occurred in the past. The AGOA also made provision for 'special provisions' measures to enable AGOA eligible countries to export apparel and textile to the US. The export of apparel was very successful until the Multifibre Agreement expired in 2005, leading to relocation of apparel factories to lower cost bases. The real beneficiaries from AGOA are oil-exporting countries that make up more than 90% of total AGOA benefits. South Africa is the only country who succeeded in diversified AGOA exports. AGOA has been supplemented by AGOA II (extending the product range) and AGOA III (extending the expiry date to 2015). After the EU-SA Free Trade Agreement has been concluded in 1999, the US started with FTA negotiations with the South African Customs Union (SACU) to improve the exposure of US products to the SACU market and to decrease the trade deficit. However, the agenda of the FTA negotiations included second generation issues of intellectual property rights, trade in services, investment and government procurement. The SACU negotiators learnt some lessons from the EU-SA FTA and progress was slow. The extension of AGOA to 2015 saw a decrease in the urgency of striking a SACU-US FTA. Negotiations slowed down and the decision was made in April 2006 to conduct talks on a lower level. This breathing time can be used by the SACU negotiators to develop an aggressive offensive strategy for future negotiations, and to build competency against the efficient and offensive US negotiators. The US-SACU FTA must still be pursued to ensure that the benefits of AGOA are locked in. It will be beneficial for SACU if the different needs for all the SACU countries are addressed and the negotiations are done in incremental steps .

In 1993 Qatar became a contracting party to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and in 1996 became an official member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). By being a member of the GATT/WTO, Qatar must abide by the rules and the regulations of this organization. The aim of the research is to determine the extent to which Qatar's economic policies and its trading activities have been influenced by the WTO regulations. The research assesses the economic performance of WTO membership for Qatar, with a specific focus on the energy sector with its three components of oil, gas, and petrochemicals that constitute the bulk of Qatar's exports. Qatar's imports come from diverse sources, and its WTO membership implies there is no discrimination in favour of particular suppliers, apart from those based in its GCC trading partners.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007.
The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on March 24, 2008) Includes bibliographical references.

This study is about determining the circumstances which make, the inter- national sales of technology and know-how-through licensing arrangements a viable alternative to FDI and foreign trade for manufacturing firms. It identifies basic motivations for licensing, and examines company characteristics of British'companies in relation to observed licensing strategy overseas. In addition, it examines the effect on licensing of competition in the-sales of technology. A conceptual model of foreign licensing is tested on cross-sectional data gathered from 202 UK-based. and non-UK based companies. Data for 50 of these firms which were not engaged in any licensing activity, were obtained through direct phone calls and from their annual reports for 1980. Data for the remaining-152 companies, -which were involved in licensing arrangements, were obtained through mailed questionnaires and from published sources. In addition, 33 of these company's managers in charge of licensing were interviewed. The data was analysed by a battery of univariate and multivariate techniques. With regard to the costs and benefits of licensing, company executive responses show explicitly two common directions for their evaluation and concern. A company whose foreign licensing consists predominantly of granting licence rights for the use of its patents, trademarks and know-how in industries other than those in which it is itself active, or in the manufacture of products it does not choose to make or market overseas, is generally satisfied to assess the success of its activity by the volume of royalty receipts minus such easily determined direct costs as are incurred in negotiating, obtaining, and maintaining the licence contracts. Companies which are licensing proprietary rights and know-how relating to its own particular products and activities in contrast are much more involved with the licensee, have higher profit opportunity but greater loss exposure, and have much more opportunity to influence the indirect costs and indirect benefits generated by the licensing agreements. Other findings related to cost-benefit of licensing are that companies (1) which spend a relatively larger percentage of value-added on R&D, (2) which are relatively large in their industry, (3) which are more highly diversified, or (4) which have less experience in foreign manufacturing operations are more likely to license in order to supplement their FDI. Also, if there is competition in the sale of technology, managers are more willing-to-licence than to invest, providing the company does not try to preserve its market position in older products facing competition. The results of the study also show that companies which are involved in licensing are indeed distinguishable from those that do not have any licensing engagement, by a number of discriminatory characteristics. The research also shows that these companies do evaluate licensing as an alternative to FDI when they consider manufacturing in host-market. Finally, there is evidence that the firms which are enjoying-relative scale in their industry,. are highly diversified and have high R&D intensity are likely to adoptapolicy involving reciprocal exchange of technology licence with other innovative firms in their industry.

This thesis provides a description of the market for maritime container transport with a focus on container imbalances in Central Europe. Based on secondary literature, statistics and interviews, the current situation of global maritime trade and existing challenges for shipping lines is presented. In the second part, particular characteristics of the Central European market are introduced. Besides a detailed description of the infrastructure for container transports to and from this region, challenges and strategies considered by shipping lines are presented. It is highlighted that the export orientation of Germany and Austria and the import orientation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia have certain implications for the regional transport market. A real-life business case highlights existing problems, especially connected to the internal setup of ocean carriers which do not exploit all potentials of cross-border cooperation.

The energy consumption of communication networks is continuously growing. Many energy saving approaches have been proposed at the device, system, and network level. The most promising way to address this problem is to utilize photonic technologies as much as possible thanks to their low energy consumption per bit performance. Moreover, several approaches have been proposed to further reduce the energy consumption in optical networks. One popular technique exploits low power modes (e.g., sleep or doze mode) for devices that are not used. However, sleep mode based approaches may affect the way optical connections (i.e., lightpaths) are routed, or alter the characteristics of some devices. This in turn may have a detrimental impact on crucial network/device performance parameters. In other words a green approach may introduce additional delay, change the level of resource utilization in the network, or even impact the lifetime of a device, resulting in increased network operational cost. This thesis provides a study that carefully assesses, in both access and core networks, the trade-off between the benefits of sleep-based energy-efficient schemes and their possible side-effects. In fiber access networks putting a device into sleep mode and waking it up can introduce a significant energy overhead. Already proposed energy-efficient approaches reduce this overhead by aggregating as much as possible the traffic before a transmission. However, aggregating data may cause an additional delay that in some cases might not be acceptable. This thesis investigates the trade-off between energy saving and additional packet delay in the case of a LTE backhaul network based on wavelength division multiplexing passive optical network (WDM-PON). The thesis proposes a novel energy-efficient approach based on the dozing concept able to precisely control when a transmitter needs to wake up in order to maximize the time spent in sleep mode, while assuring that packet transmissions are completed before a given deadline. The proposed scheme is also able to exploit possibly diverse traffic delay requirements to further improve energy saving performance. In optical core networks, one way to decrease the energy consumption is to minimize the number of used active devices by aggregating the lightpaths on the lowest possible number of active fiber links. Routing strategies based on this intuition are beneficial in terms of energy saving, but on the other hand may impact the network performance (e.g., blocking probability) by affecting length of the lightpaths and link occupancy distribution. This trade-off is evaluated in the thesis with the help of a specially designed routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) strategy referred to as weighted power aware lightpath routing (WPA-LR). The WPA-LR strategy permits the fine tuning between the minimization of two objectives: energy consumption and network resource (i.e., wavelength) utilization. Evaluation results confirm that energy efficiency and network performance are conflicting objectives. However, the proposed WPA-LR strategy offers energy minimization with acceptable impact on the network performance. The thesis also investigates the impact that sleep-based energy-efficient strategies have on the lifetime of a number of optical network devices, in both access and core networks. In fact, utilizing a sleep mode functionality may change the operational conditions of the device which can impact the device lifetime. This is a crucial aspect to consider because it may directly affect the network operational cost related to fault management. The thesis provides a methodology to assess under which conditions and for which devices an energy-efficient scheme may lead to overall cost benefit vs. a (possible) increase of reparation cost. It was found that in access networks and with business customers a small lifetime variation in optical line terminals (OLTs) or in optical network units (ONUs) can lead to significant cost increase that cannot be covered by the profits coming from the energy saving. In core networks erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) are the most vulnerable devices in terms of impact on their lifetime. For this reason it was found that the usage of green routing algorithms based on putting EDFAs into sleep mode may not always be economically beneficial. In conclusion this thesis provides a different perspective on sleep mode based energy-efficient algorithms where the potential benefit in terms of energy saving is weighted against the impact of a possible degradation of the network performance and devices lifetime. On the other hand these performance degradations can be controlled and limited by the proposed algorithms.
Energikonsumtionen av kommunikationsnätverk, växer kontinuerligt. Många energibesparande åtgärder har föreslagits, såväl på komponentnivå, systemnivå och nätverksnivå. Det mest lovande sättet att hantera energibehov i kommunikationsnätverk är att utnyttja optisk teknologi så mycket som möjligt då denna har potential att ge låg energiförbrukning per bit. Det finns också ett antal föreslagna metoder för att ytterligare reducera energibehovet i optiska nätverk. En av de mest använda teknikerna bygger på att låta enheter som ej används gå ner på låg effekt (”sovläge”). Om detta används i allt för hög utsträckning kan det dock påverka hur optiska förbindelser (sk lightpaths) sätts upp eller ge förändrade egenskaper hos de aktuella komponenterna. Detta kan i sin tur ha en skadlig inverkan på de centrala nätverks- och komponentegenskaper vilket påverkar prestandan. Med andra ord kan en sådan ”grön” ansats baserad på sovläge leda till ökad fördröjning, förändring av resursutnyttjandet i nätet och till och med påverka risken för att det uppstår fel i komponenterna vilket ökar driftskostnaden för nätet. Denna avhandling fokuserar på dessa aspekter och visar upp resultat som belyser avvägningen mellan sovlägesbaserade energieffektiva strategier och deras eventuella bieffekter. Att slå av och väcka upp komponenter i optiska access-nätverk kan vara förknippat med en signifikant extra energikostnad. Tidigare föreslagna energieffektiva strategier försöker reducera denna ökade energikostnad genom att samla så mycket trafik som möjligt innan överföringen sker. Dock kan detta leda till ökad fördröjning som i vissa lägen inte är acceptabel. I avhandlingen undersöker vi avvägningen mellan energibesparingar och ökad paketfördröjning i fallet med LTE distributionsnät baserade på våglängsmultiplexerade passiva optiska nätverk (WDM-PON). Vi föreslår en ny energieffektiv ansats baserad på att enheter försätts i ”slummer-läge”. Detta gör det möjligt att med god precision bestämma när en sändare behöver väckas upp i syfte att maximera tiden i sovläget och att försäkra sig om att paketen kommer fram inom avsedd tid. Strategin är även kapabel att utnyttja differentierad fördröjning för att ytterligare förbättra energibesparingen. Ett sätt att minska energikonsumtionen i optiska distributionsnät är att minimera antalet aktiva enheter genom att exempelvis samla optiska förbindelser till ett minimalt antal aktiva fiberlänkar. Routingstrategier som utgår från denna princip är fördelaktiga ur energisynpunkt men kan å andra sidan skada nätverksprestanda (exempelvis blockeringssannolikhet) genom påverkan på förbindelselängder och annorlunda belastning av länkarna. Denna avvägning utvärderas i avhandlingen med hjälp av en specifikt utformad strategi för routing och våglängstilldelning (RWA) som vi benämner ”viktad effektmedveten optisk förbindelserouting” (WPA-LR). Denna strategi möjliggör noggrann avvägning mellan minimeringen av två kriterier: å ena sidan energikonsumtion, å andra sidan utnyttjandet av nätverksresurser (speciellt väglängdsutnyttjandet). Vår utvärdering bekräftar att energieffektivitet och nätverksprestanda står i motsatsförhållande till varandra. Dock erbjuder WPA-LR strategin minimering av energin med en acceptabel påverkan på nätverksprestanda. Slutligen undersöks i avhandlingen den påverkan som sovlägesbaserade energieffektiva strategier har på livslängden för optiska nätverkskomponenter, både i access- och i distributionsnät. Användning av sovlägesfunktion kan påverka arbetsförhållandena för en komponent, något som i sin tur kan påverka livslängden. Detta är en kritisk aspekt att ta i beaktande då det direkt kan påverka driftskostnaden kopplad till nätunderhållet. En metod ges för att utvärdera under vilka förhållanden och för vilka enheter en energieffektiv strategi kan leda till en total kostnadsfördel jämfört med en (möjlig) ökning av reparationskostnaderna. Ett resultat är att, i accessnät och för företagsanvändare, så kan även en liten variation i feluppkomst i optiska linjeterminaler (OLTs) eller optiska nätverksenheter (ONUs) leda till signifikanta kostnadsförluster vilka inte kan kompenseras genom de vinster som kan åstadkommas med energibesparingar. I distributionsnät är erbium-dopade fiberförstärkare (EDFAs) de mest utsatta enheterna vad gäller inverkan på livslängd. Genom att studera routingstrategier (ex.vis WPA-LR) har vi funnit att användningen av ”gröna” routingalgoritmer baserade på att lägga EDFAs i sovläge inte alltid är ekonomiskt fördelaktigt. Denna avhandling ger ett perspektiv på sovlägesbaserade energieffektiviseringsalgoritmer där de potentiella fördelarna vad gäller minskade driftskostnader ställs mot möjliga försämringar av nätverksprestanda och komponenters livslängd. Å andra sidan kan dessa försämringar hållas under kontroll och begränsas av den föreslagna algoritmen.
La consommation d'énergie des réseaux de communication ne cesse de croître. Ce problème fait l’objet de nombreuses approches orientées vers les économies d'énergie (écoénergétiques) au niveau des appareils (équipements) des systèmes et des réseaux. La façon la plus prometteuse de limiter l’augmentation de consommation évoquée est d'utiliser autant que possible des technologies photoniques, vu leur faible consommation d'énergie par bit. Plusieurs autres approches ont été proposées pour réduire davantage encore la consommation d'énergie dans des réseaux optiques. Une technique populaire exploite les modes de faible puissance (par exemple le mode veille) pour les appareils qui ne sont pas utilisés. Cependant, les approches basées sur le mode de veille peuvent affecter la manière dont les liaisons optiques (circuits optiques) sont acheminées, ou modifier les caractéristiques de certains appareils. Cela peut avoir un impact négatif sur les paramètres de performance des réseaux/équipements cruciaux. En d'autres termes, une approche écoénergétique peut introduire un retard supplémentaire, changer le niveau d'utilisation des ressources dans le réseau, ou même avoir un impact sur le taux d'échec d'un équipement, entraînant une augmentation des coûts d'exploitation du réseau. Cette thèse évalue attentivement, à la fois dans le réseau d'accès mais aussi dans le cœur du réseau, le compromis entre les avantages des régimes économes en énergie utilisant le mode veille et leurs effets secondaires possibles. Dans les réseaux d'accès optiques, mettre un équipement en mode veille et le réactiver peut introduire une surcharge d'énergie significative. Les approches d'économie d'énergie déjà proposées réduisent cette surcharge en regroupant autant que possible le trafic avant sa transmission. Toutefois, les données d'agrégation peuvent provoquer un retard supplémentaire qui peut ne pas être acceptable dans certains cas. Cette thèse étudie le compromis entre les économies d'énergie et un retard supplémentaire des paquets dans le cas d'un réseau backhaul LTE basé sur réseau optique passif à multiplexage en longueur d'onde (WDM-PON). La thèse propose une nouvelle approche éco énergétique. Elle développe un concept au travers duquel il est possible de contrôler avec précision quand un émetteur doit se réactiver, afin de maximiser le temps passé en mode veille tout en veillant à ce que les transmissions de paquets soient terminées en temps voulu. Le schéma proposé est également capable d’exploiter les (éventuelles) exigences diverses de retard de trafic pour améliorer encore les économies d'énergie. Dans le cœur des réseaux optiques, on peut diminuer la consommation d'énergie en minimisant le nombre d’équipements actifs utilisés pour l’acheminement des circuits optiques et le nombre de liens actifs à fibres optiques. Les stratégies de routage basées sur ce principe sont bénéfiques en termes d'économie d'énergie, mais peuvent affecter les performances du réseau (par exemple, la probabilité de blocage) en affectant la longueur des circuits optiques et la distribution d’occupation des liens. Ce compromis est évalué dans la thèse avec l'aide d’une stratégie de routage et affectation de longueur d'onde (RWA) appelée routage des circuits optiques conscient de la puissance (WPA-LR). La stratégie WPA-LR permet le réglage fin entre deux objectifs: minimiser la consommation d'énergie et minimiser l’utilisation des ressources réseau (i.e. longueur d'onde). Les résultats de l'évaluation confirment que l'efficacité énergétique et les performances du réseau ont des objectifs contradictoires. Cependant, la stratégie WPA-LR proposée permet la minimisation de l'énergie avec un impact acceptable sur les performances du réseau. La thèse étudie également l'impact que les stratégies d’économie d’énergie basées sur le mode veille ont sur la durée de vie d'un certain nombre d’équipements de réseau optique, dans les deux réseaux d'accès et de base. L'utilisation du mode veille peut en effet modifier les conditions de fonctionnement de l’équipement, ce qui peut influer sur la durée de vie de l'appareil. Ceci est un aspect crucial à considérer, car il peut affecter directement le coût opérationnel du réseau lié à la gestion des pannes. La thèse propose une méthodologie pour évaluer dans quelles conditions et pour quels dispositifs un système économe en énergie peut conduire à des avantages de coûts globaux par rapport à une (possible) augmentation des coûts de maintenance. Dans les réseaux d'accès et auprès de clients commerciaux, il a été constaté qu’une petite variation de taux d'échec dans les terminaux de ligne optique (OLT) ou dans les unités de terminaison de réseau optique (ONUs) peut conduire à des pertes financières importantes qui ne peuvent être compensées par les bénéfices provenant des économies d'énergie. Dans les cœurs de réseaux les amplificateurs à fibre dopée en erbium (EDFA) sont les équipements les plus vulnérables en termes d'impact sur leur durée de vie. Pour cette raison, l'utilisation d'algorithmes de routage écoénergétiques basé sur la mise en mode veille des EDFA peut par conséquent n’être pas toujours économiquement avantageuse. En conclusion, cette thèse fournit une perspective différente sur des algorithmes économes en énergie basés sur l’utilisation du mode veille. Leur bénéfice potentiel en termes d'économie d'énergie est comparé à l'impact d'une éventuelle dégradation d’une part de la performance du réseau et d’autre part de la durée de vie des équipements. Ces dégradations de performances peuvent être contrôlées et limitées par les algorithmes proposés.
Zużycie energii elektrycznej w sieciach komunikacyjnych stale rośnie. Do tej pory zostało zaproponowanych wiele metod oszczędzania energii na poziomie urządzeń, systemów i sieci. Najbardziej obiecującym podejściem do tego problemu jest wykorzystanie technologii optycznych, z uwagi na ich niskie zużycie energii „per bit”. Ponadto wiele różnych metod przeznaczonych dla sieci optycznych zostało przedstawionych w literaturze. Jedna z popularnych technik wykorzystuje tryb niskiego poboru energii (uśpienia) w urządzeniach, które nie są używane. Jednakże techniki wykorzystujące tryb uśpienia mogą mieć wpływ na kierowanie optycznych połączeń sieciowych (lightpaths) lub zmieniać właściwości urządzeń. Natomiast to może mieć negatywny wpływ na kluczowe parametry wydajności sieci czy urządzeń sieciowych. Innymi słowy algorytmy oszczędzające energię mogą wprowadzić dodatkowe opóźnienia, zmienić wykorzystanie zasobów sieciowych, a nawet wpływać na awaryjność urządzeń zwiekszając tym samym koszt eksploatacji sieci. Praca ta przedstawia i analizuje kompromis pomiędzy korzyściami płynącymi z energooszczędnych algorytmów opartych na trybie uśpienia, a ich ewentualnymi skutkami ubocznymi, zarówno w sieciach dostępowych, jak i szkieletowych. W przypadku optycznych sieci dostępowych proces wprowadzenia urządzenia w tryb uśpienia i jego wybudzenia może spowodować znaczący narzut energetyczny. Proponowane sposoby zmniejszenia tego narzutu agregują ruch sieciowy przed jego transmisją, Jednakże taka agregacja powoduje dodatkowe opóźnienia transmisji, które w niektórych przypadkach mogą być niedopuszczalne. Praca ta analizuje kompromis pomiędzy oszczędzaniem energii, a dodatkowymi opóźnieniami transmisji w przypadku sieci LTE-backhaul, bazowanej na technologii pasywnych sieci optycznych, opartych na multipleksowaniu z podziałem długości fali WDM-PON (Wavelength Division Multiplexing Passive Optical Network). Niniejsza praca proponuje nowatorską metodę oszczędzania energii, opartą na koncepcji drzemki (dozing), która precyzyjnie kontroluje czas wybudzania nadajnika, tak aby zmaksymalizować czas spędzony w trybie drzemki, przy zapewnieniu, że transmisja danych zostanie zakończona przed upływem wymaganego czasu. Proponowana metoda wykorzystuje również zróżnicowane wymagania maksymalnych opóźnień transmitowanych danych do dalszej poprawy wydajności energetycznej. Jednym ze sposobów zmniejszania zużycia energii w światłowodowych sieciach szkieletowych jest zredukowanie liczby aktywnych urządzeń, poprzez umiejętne kierowanie optycznych połączeń sieciowych przy użyciu już aktywnych łączy światłowodowych. Kierowanie ruchu sieciowego oparte na tym pomyśle jest korzystne z punktu widzenia oszczędzania energii, choć z drugiej strony może mieć wpływ na parametry wydajnościowe sieci (np. zwiększenie prawdopodobieństwa blokady połączeń) poprzez oddziaływanie na długość połączeń, czy zajętość łączy. Przytoczony problem jest analizowany w tej pracy za pomocą specjalnie zaprojektowanego algorytmu routingu i przypisania długości fali RWA (Routing and Wavelength Assignement), nazwanego WPA-LR (Weighted Power Aware Lightpath Routing). Algorytm WPA-LR pozwala na precyzyjną regulację pomiędzy redukcją zużycia energii i optymalizacją wykorzystania zasobów sieciowych. Wyniki wykonanej analizy problemu potwierdzają, że efektywność energetyczna i wydajność sieci to cele ze sobą sprzeczne. Jednakże proponowana strategia (WPA-LR) umożliwia kontrolę i osiągnięcie kompromisu pomiędzy zmniejszeniem zużycia energii, a pogorszeniem wydajności sieci. Praca ta bada również wpływ energooszczędnych strategii, opartych o tryb uśpienia, na trwałość optycznych urządzeń sieciowych, zarówno w sieciach dostępowych, jak i szkieletowych. Używanie trybu uśpienia może zmienić warunki pracy urządzenia, które z kolei mogą mieć wpływ na jego trwałość. Natomiast zmniejszenie trwałości urządzenia może bezpośrednio oddziaływać na koszt eksploatacji sieci związany z zarządzaniem awariami. Niniejsza praca proponuje metodologię oceny, na jakich warunkach i w przypadku których urządzeń, używanie algorytmów oszczędzania energii może prowadzić do ogólnych korzyści finansowych lub strat związanych ze wzrostem kosztu eksploatacji sieci. W pracy stwierdzono, że w sieciach dostępowych, w szczególności obsługujących klientów biznesowych, mały wpływ na awaryjność optycznych terminali ONU (Optical Network Unit) lub optycznych urządzeń dystrybucyjnych OLT (Optical Line Terminal) może prowadzić do znacznego zwiększenia kosztów, które mogą przekroczyć zyski związane z oszczędzaniem energii. W sieciach szkieletowych wzmacniacze światłowodowe EDFA (Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier) są najbardziej wrażliwymi urządzeniami pod względem wpływu na ich awaryjność. W pracy dowiedziono, że użycie energooszczędnych algorytmów kierowania połączeń światłowodowych, opartych na wprowadzaniu EDFA w tryb uśpienia, nie zawsze jest korzystne ekonomicznie. Niniejsza praca przedstawia nowatorskie spojrzenie na energooszczędne algorytmy oparte na wprowadzaniu urządzeń w tryb uśpienia, gdzie potencjalne korzyści w zakresie oszczędzania energii są porównane ze stratami związanymi z degradacją wydajności sieci lub żywotności urządzeń sieciowych.

QC 20160509

Magister Economicae - MEcon
Throughout its development, trade has been regarded as a vital component of economic growth and development. Both theoretical and empirical studies consider international trade to be a major determinant of the growth of any economy. International trade in services has been rising ever since trade in services was incorporated into international trade agreements after the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations in 1994. This, coupled with the ever-improving state of technological innovation, has made services trade an important aspect of the development agenda of most countries. However, just like any other endeavour, offshoring of services has both opportunities as well as threats. The study examines two research questions relating to the growth-enhancing impact of South Africa’s exports and imports of services. Firstly, the study examines the contribution of services exports to economic growth in South Africa. Secondly, the study determines the impact that imported services has had on South Africa’s economic growth. In spite of the global rise of trade in services, South Africa’s export of services accounts for only 14 percent of total exports, while the import of services constitutes 20 percent of total imports. Using quarterly time series data for the period 1980 to 2012, the study adopts the ordinary least squares method to estimate the contribution of both exports and imports to output expansion within an aggregation production function setup. The empirical results show that the export of services influences influence South Africa’s economic growth significantly in both the long-run and the short-run. While the relationship is positive in the long-run, it is negative in the short-run. The results also indicate that the import of services significantly and positively affects real output growth in both the long-run and the short-run.

Motivated by the role of decarbonizing the electric power sector to mitigate climate change, I assess the economic and environmental merits of three key technologies for decarbonizing the electric power sector across four chapters in this thesis. These chapters explore how adding flexibility to power plants equipped with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) affects system costs and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, how grid-scale electricity storage affects system CO2 emissions as a power system decarbonizes, and how distributed solar photovoltaic (distributed PV) electricity generation suppresses wholesale electricity prices. In each chapter, I address these questions through a combination of power system optimization, statistics, and techno-economic analysis, and tie my findings to policy implications. In Chapter 2, I compare the cost-effectiveness of “flexible” CCS retrofits to other compliance strategies with the U.S. Clean Power Plan (CPP) and a hypothetical stronger CPP. Relative to “normal” CCS, “flexible” CCS retrofits include solvent storage that allows the generator to temporarily eliminate the CCS parasitic load and increase the generator’s net efficiency, capacity, and ramp rate. Using a unit commitment and economic dispatch (UCED) model, I find that flexible CCS achieves more cost-effective emissions reductions than normal CCS under the CPP and stronger CPP, but that flexible CCS is less cost-effective than other compliance strategies under both reduction targets. In Chapter 3, I conduct a detailed comparison of how flexible versus normal CCS retrofits affect total system costs and CO2 emissions under a moderate and strong CO2 emission limit. Given that a key benefit of flexible CCS relative to normal CCS is increased reserve provision, I break total system costs into generation, reserve, and CCS capital costs. Using a UCED model, I find that flexible CCS retrofits reduce total system costs relative to normal CCS retrofits under both emission limits. Furthermore, 40-80% of these cost reductions come from reserve cost reductions. Accounting for costs and CO2 emissions, though, flexible CCS poses a trade-off to policymakers under the moderate emission limit, as flexible CCS increases system CO2 emissions relative to normal CCS. No such trade-off exists under the stronger emission limit, as flexible CCS reduces system CO2 emissions and costs relative to normal CCS. In Chapter 4, I quantify how storage affects operational CO2 emissions as a power system decarbonizes under a moderate and strong CO2 emission limit through 2045. In so doing, I aim to better understand how storage transitions from increasing CO2 emissions in historic U.S. systems to enabling deeply decarbonized systems. Additionally, under each target I compare how storage affects CO2 emissions when participating in only energy, only reserve, and energy and reserve markets. Using a capacity expansion (CE) model to forecast fleet changes through 2045 and a UCED model to quantify how storage affects system CO2 emissions, I find that storage quickly transitions from increasing to decreasing CO2 emissions under the moderate and strong emission limits. Whether storage provides only energy, only reserves, or energy and reserves drives large differences in the magnitude, but not the direction, of the effect of storage on CO2 emissions. In Chapter 5, I quantify a benefit of distributed photovoltaic (PV) generation often overlooked by value of solar studies, namely the market price response. By displacing high-cost marginal generators, distributed PV generation reduces wholesale electricity prices, which in turn reduces utilities’ energy procurement costs. Using 2013 through 2015 data from California including a database of all distributed PV systems in the three California investor owned utilities, we estimate historic hourly distributed PV generation in California, then link that generation to reduced wholesale electricity prices via linear regression. From 2013 through 2015, we find that distributed PV suppressed historic median hourly LMPs by up to $2.7-3.1/MWh, yielding avoided costs of up to $650-730 million. These avoided costs are smaller than but on the order of other avoided costs commonly included in value of solar studies, so merit inclusion in future studies to properly value distributed PV.

The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) seeks at changing the weak intra-regional trade and the strong disparities between countries. How to achieve such an objective with the heterogeneous profiles of countries such as Côte D'Ivoire (Regional pole) and Burkina Faso (one of the poorest) ? This is an important issue at stake. Intra-African migration flows is one of the best arguments for regional integration in the face of negligible goods and investment flows. The presence of migrants makes Burkina Faso a "share-holder" in Côte d'Ivoire's economic success. Based on the economic theories of migration, the dissertation presents a very comprehensive and detailed empirical analysis of changes in factors mobility inside WAEMU, with particular emphasis on the two. Representative countries. Migrations concern rural populations and to deal with the microeconomic issues, the study used survey data collected in the Burkinabè Sahel. .
L'Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest africaine (UEMOA) vise à renforcer l'intégration commerciale de la région et à réduire les disparités entre les pays membres. Comment atteindre ces objectifs avec une si forte hétérogénéité des membres comme le montre l'exemple de la Côte d'Ivoire (pôle régional) et du Burkina Faso (parmi les plus pauvres) ?Il s'agit d'un enjeu essentiel. Les migrations régionales en Afrique représentent le meilleur instrument d'intégration face à la faiblesse des autres types d'intégration (commerce et investissements) et la forte présence des burkinabè en Côte d'Ivoire fait du Burkina Faso un "actionnaire" intégral des succès ivoiriens. En se basant sur les théories économiques de la migration, cette thèse analyse l'impact des modifications de la mobilité des facteurs à l'intérieur de l'UEMOA, en mettant l'accent sur ces deux pays représentatifs. Leurs migrations concernent essentiellement les populations rurales et afin d'examiner les différents enjeux, l'analyse repose sur des données collectées dans le Sahel au Burkina Faso. . .

This study investigated the consumers' intention towards multi-channel shopping and the function of synergy in a multi-channel retailing format (i.e., brick-and-mortar stores, catalogs, and the Internet). Two questionnaires were developed, one for the multi-channel consumers and the other for the multi-channel retailers. The structural equation modeling was used to predict the effect of shopping benefits and costs perceived from each channel on the consumer's purchase intention. Data analysis (N = 500) indicated that the purchase intentions were affected by different shopping benefit and cost variables. Qualitative analysis of retailers (N= 10) revealed that the retailers considered synergy to be an important part of their multi-channels. Also, there existed a high level of synergy among the existing three retail channels.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2008.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-135).
The U.S. Coast Guard performs a diverse array of missions ensuring the maritime safety and security of America as well as the stewardship of her maritime resources. It efficiently and competently performs these missions along America's coasts, internal federal waters, and overseas every day. Conduct of these missions generates significant public value in the form of safe and efficient maritime commerce systems, the security and integrity of our nation's maritime borders, the protection of natural resources, and in lives saved. This thesis evaluates and, where possible, quantifies the value of Coast Guard services performed to enable a strategic comparison, across missions, of services delivered. This was accomplished by researching, evaluating, and consolidating relevant government and industry analyses and valuations of Coast Guard services and related services performed by other entities. In addition, this thesis summarizes and evaluates the process used by the Coast Guard to develop, communicate, and modify its operational planning to achieve service level goals across multiple mission areas.
by Frank R. Parker.
S.M.

DOLNÍČEK, D. Risk assessment of trading in Enjoy Trade Ltd. company on international market. Diploma thesis. Brno: 2016. This Diploma thesis deals with the analysis of risks and benefits that may occur when trading in selected international markets. The aim of this thesis is to suggest appropriate measures to eliminate risks. In the theoretical part, problem of international trade is defined and important concepts of the risk management are explained. The practical part analysis the internal and external environment of the company and its market position compared to the competition. Furthermore, the situation on the market is evaluated in economic, political, legal and cultural perspective. Various economic and risk-management methods are beeing used for the evaluation. Based on the results of analysis the markets are ranked from the most suitable to the least suitable for international trade.

Mestrado em Contabilidade, Fiscalidade e Finanças Empresariais
A Zona Franca da Madeira é um regime preferencial, através de auxílio do Estado sob a forma fiscal, integrando presentemente atividades industriais, serviços internacionais e registo internacional de navios, com sujeição a regulação pela União Europeia. Os rendimentos abrangidos por este regime, beneficiam atualmente de uma taxa reduzida de 5% em sede de IRC, aplicada a plafonds de matéria coletável ligados a escalões de postos de trabalho criados, estando associados limites máximos anuais a estes benefícios fiscais. O presente relatório descreve as atividades desenvolvidas em estágio e explora numa análise aplicada, através de inquérito por questionário, em que medida os plafonds de matéria coletável são atingidos pelas empresas da Zona Franca da Madeira. Concluiu-se, que as empresas instaladas na Zona Franca Industrial, tendem a maximizar os benefícios fiscais, sendo que a maioria das entidades prestadoras de serviços internacionais licenciadas no âmbito institucional da Zona Franca, tendem a não atingir os plafonds de matéria coletável, devido ao insuficiente volume de negócios e nível de postos de trabalho criados.
The Free Trade Zone of Madeira (ZFM) is a preferential regime, through the assistance of the State under the tax form, presently integrating industrial activities, international services and international ship register, subject to regulation by the European Union. The income covered by this regime, currently benefit from a reduced rate of 5% corporate income tax, applied to ceilings of tax base which are linked to the workstations created, being associated annual ceilings for these tax benefits. The current report describes the internship activities and explores an applied analysis, through a survey by questionnaire, to what extent the ceilings of the tax base are achieved by companies of the Free Trade Zone of Madeira. It concludes that companies established in the Industrial Trade Zone of Madeira, tend to maximize the tax benefits, and most entities licensed within the institutional framework of the FTZ, tend to not reach the ceilings of the tax base due to the insufficient business volume and also for the jobs level created.
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Le nuove tendenze della contrattazione collettiva paiono evidenziare un suo decentramento verso il livello aziendale e territoriale che sta avendo profonde implicazioni sia sul sistema delle relazioni industriali, sia sul welfare state. Nel tentativo di coniugare flessibilità e difesa dell’occupazione, i processi negoziali si stanno caratterizzando per uno scambio tra lavoro e diritti da cui non può che seguire una riconfigurazione dello Stato Sociale e delle metodologie di azione collettiva. La difficoltà oggettiva dello Stato nel fornire risposte concrete ai nuovi bisogni dei suoi cittadini ha spinto alla ricerca di soluzioni alternative basate sulla solidarietà di azienda, o di comparto economico-produttivo, comportando un intervento delle parti sociali nel destinare parti di salario alla copertura dei nuovi rischi. Il welfare integrativo può rappresentare il fondamento di un nuovo patto sociale che valorizzi il rapporto tra capitale e lavoro in ottica partecipativa. La comparazione con il modello britannico, costitutivamente sbilanciato sul livello aziendale, permette una considerazione dell’effetto che tali tendenze potrebbero avere sul sistema italiano. Emergono però le differenze storiche e culturali dei due modelli: mentre in Italia la distribuzione di benefici aggiuntivi a quelli del welfare pubblico per il tramite delle aziende valorizza la dimensione settoriale e territoriale, in Inghilterra l’impresa rimane il luogo privilegiato.
The collective bargaining system is going to experience a decentralization process with the attempt to privilege the company and the district level. This process is having serious consequences for both the industrial relations system and the welfare state. Union is constrained to make concessions, particularly as regards labor flexibility, in order to attain its objectives relating to job security. The result is a reconfiguration of welfare and the decline of collectivism. The necessity of giving a response to the new demands of its citizens has forced the State to find alternative solutions which imply a new kind of solidarity that could be build either on company or on industry level. Trade unions can play a role in this context by providing workers a coverage from the new social risks throughout switching part of the salary to benefits. A form of integrative welfare can represent the foundation of a new social pact in order to reconsider the relation between workers and enterprises in a more cooperative way. The comparison with the British system, where negotiations primarily take place at company level, allow us to consider the possible effects of this new trend on the Italian one. Cultural and historical differences are evident: while in Italy the distribution of additional benefits involve more frequently the industrial and district levels, in Great Britain enterprises are the main actors.

Bibliography: pages 93-99.
This paper will attempt to answer the over-arching question: Will South Africa benefit from a free trade agreement with the EU? It will not attempt thorough empirical analysis of this question. Instead, it will offer theoretical insight to certain of the policy questions raised about the proposed EU-South Africa FTA. The relevant body of theoretical literature is one which will facilitate an economic assessment of the impact of the proposed EU-South Africa FTA by considering short-term benefits and losses, in addition to longer term dynamic gains, of trading agreements between two countries. Regional integration, appropriately modified, can deliver this body of theory. That is, it does raise the key issues in assessing the necessary costs and benefits of further integration on both trading partners.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the framework the Department of Defense (DoD) is undertaking with renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives across military installations to determine the potential savings the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and DoD could realize by managing investments in renewable energy in all installations as a portfolio of opportunities, maximizing benefits and sustainability. In addition, this study evaluates renewable energy resource technologies that have long-term the best economic stability and least challenges for future growth on military installations. It also describes how the challenges of human behavior, budget cuts, financing approaches and regulations may play a big part in harnessing the optimal benefit from renewable energy resources. This study analyzes how comprehensive knowledge management in combination with renewable energy efforts across installations can capitalize DoD cost savings for long-term stability. This research recommends DoD take a comprehensive strategy approach through risk management analysis, information sharing, and better business practices.

The aim of this thesis is to examine a cost- benefit analysis of the petrochemical industry comparing the costs of production, such as capital cost, labour cost, etc. in Saudi Arabia, and show the degree of its competitiveness in the international market. Also it discusses and evaluates the industrial development process in Saudi Arabia. The labour shortage and the marketing problems of the petrochemical products will be examined and solutions to these problems will be given. This research started by dealing with the theoretical background of the development planning. Various sources of energy literature have been reviewed, describing the role that hydrocarbon resource exploitation played in the Saudi development plans. Its objectives are to identify and understand the development problems, its strategies, objectives and plans of the Saudi government by paying attention to the role of the oil and gas resources and the country opportunities for diversification of the economy and decreasing dependence on crude oil and to use their limited resources more efficiently. Various procedural approaches were considered for evaluating development projects in order to increase the effectiveness of the development programs in Saudi Arabia. These include: improving the people's welfare, increasing national income, expanding the country's absorptive capacity and shifting to a renewable resource base. The petrochemical industry is the most feasible industry to be established in Saudi Arabia at this time. It would provide the country with the best alternative for steady economic growth with decreasing emphasis on the export of oil. The thesis will try to prove that the development of the petrochemical industry in Saudi Arabia is an adequate economic project, only if the major constraints such as labour shortage and marketing and profitability on the international market for petrochemical products can be overcome or at least minimised.

The fair trade movement has been established to create a mutual equality among people in a global pane to offset a gap of inequality and poverty exacerbated by the effect of globalization. One of the main principles of fair trade is based on the value of fairness and social solidarity to create a tie between business corporations and impoverished producers. While the livelihoods of small-scale producers depend on trading interactions with the business world, the main concern is that the nature of corporations in their profit-seeking behavior might result in abuses of resources, labor malpractices, and environment degradation in developing countries. In order to offset the danger that global business poses on the poor, the relationship between law and the fair trade movement has raised my interest in conducting this thesis so as to consider the extent that legal approaches can be argued to embrace legitimacy from emerging social norms. Legal imperatives from CSR and soft regulation will be explored to propose the weight of fair trade in shaping corporate practices to take ethical and moral commitment towards sustainability of human development. The uniqueness of the fair trade movement is to be explored in the light of legal theories concerning community and solidarity. Philosophical ideas of scholars like Selznick and Cotterrell argue for ‘bottom-up’ legitimacy grounded in community power that seeks for a responsive role of bureaucracy towards new demands in an ever-changing society. Their legal arguments have been greatly influential in a modern legal analysis on emerging concepts of regulation. The thesis is set out to propose that the fair trade movement possesses a distinctive set of social forces capable of influencing regulatory strategies and policies to render fairness and justice to the poor.

The paper examines through a legal analysis of some articles of the Cote d’Ivoire Stepping Stone Agreement, how ECOWAS can strengthened its approach in negotiating a comprehensive EPA for the region. These articles are scrutinized with a special focus on market access as to point out fields that need to be re-thinked with regard objectives set out in the agreement. It is argue that current bilateral and multilateral Trade and Investment Agreements are shrinking in their legal framework the policy space need for development in countries that need it the most. This study, underlines the fact that the legal provisions contain in the Cote d’Ivoire IEPA do reduce actually its ability to set up policies tool aim at achieving development goals. It is the sustainability of the IEPA legal provisions that is questioned under this topic with regard to sensitive issues such as the safeguard measures, the stand still clause, the MFN clause, the Rules of Origin etc….. In so doing, the analysis reveals as well the ambiguity of the IEPA relationship with the Cotonou Agreement and the multilateral trade rules of the WTO. This ambiguity is highlighted in an attempt to drawn the attention of the region on the fact that; if there is indeed a need to update the Economic Partnership Agreement currently negotiating with the EC, this cannot be done without first of all updating the negotiating approach of the region. In fact, its weak bargaining approach coupled with that overwhelming of the EC has resulted in the agreement currently on the table. Substantial changes can be made with this regard by acknowledging the insufficiencies in the legal framework of the IEPA but also in learning lesson from mistakes the region itself and Cote d’Ivoire have done in negotiating EPAs and its Interim version. Thus, since EPAs often triggered the debate on liberalization and what it may carry in terms of consequences on developing countries’ economies, examples of countries that took a different step toward liberalization and whose current situation may be use as a testimony by ECOWAS are quoted. Finally, propositions are made to ECOWAS region as to enlarge current development space while battling for more flexibility under the EPA.
Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2010.
Centre for Human Rights
unrestricted

Denna uppsats handlar om hur den särskilda tillåtlighetsregeln i 11 kap. 6 § miljöbalken tillämpas vid tillståndsprövning av vattenverksamheter. Av paragrafen följer att en vattenverksamhet endast får bedrivas om den samlade nyttan av verksamheten överväger de kostnader samt skador och olägenheter som verksamheten medför. Syftet med paragrafen är att hindra vattenverksamheter som inte är samhällsekonomiskt motiverade samt utgöra ett extra skydd för miljön utöver miljöbalkens generella miljökrav.

Syftet med studien är undersöka hur denna paragraf tillämpas i praktiken – både i rättspraxis och i ansökningsförfarandet. Studien bygger i första hand på rättsvetenskaplig metod men ger även en mer allmän introduktion till samhällsekonomiska analysmetoder. Studien visar att det är mycket svårt att finna vägledning i praxis för hur en bedömning av samhällsnyttan bör gå till. Praxis visar dock att även faktorer som verksamhetens överensstämmelse med olika miljökvalitetsmål, art- och områdesskydd och estetiska värden kan få betydelse vid samhällsnyttobedömningen. Från sökandenas sida riktas generellt ett för stort fokus mot den privata eller företagsekonomiska nyttan av verksamheten. Sammantaget medför detta en risk för att miljövärden inte värderas på ett korrekt sätt när de vägs mot en mer konkret uttryckt monetär nytta. Ett bredare perspektiv på bedömningen bör därför antas. Vidare diskuteras även hur tillämpningen av bestämmelsen skulle kunna förbättras mot bakgrund av olika värderingsmetoder.

The subject matter of this Bachelor’s thesis is the special permit condition applying to water operations in accordance with chapter 11 section 6 of the Swedish Environmental Code. The article states that water operations may only be undertaken if the benefits, from the point of view of public and private interests, are greater than the costs and damages associated with them. The purpose of the regulation is to prevent water operations that are not socially efficient and to provide an additional protection for the environment, in excess of the general rules of consideration in the Code.

The purpose of this study is to look into how this particular article is applied in practice. This is done by analysing the legal usage as practiced by the court as well as by the applicants. The general rule is that the applicant has to show that the operation, for which the permit is being sought, is in compliance with the obligations associated with the activity. The study shows that it is very difficult to find guidance from case law on how an assessment of the social efficiency is to be carried out. Court practice indicates that circumstances such as whether the operation is in compliance with certain environmental objectives can be used to weight different aspects in the social efficiency assessment. However, the assessments carried out by the applicants are in general focused on the economic benefits for the applicant. This practice might entail a risk for environmental values not being properly valued when weighted against more tangible monetary benefits. A broader perspective is therefore called for. Potential improvements on the practice of the article are discussed against different valuation methods.

MACHÁTOVÁ, M. Risk Assessment of Trading on International Markets. Diploma thesis. Brno: 2014. This Diploma thesis deals with the analysis of risks and benefits that may occur when trading in selected international markets. The aim of this thesis is to suggest appropriate measures to eliminate risks. In the teoretical part, problem of international trade is defined and important concepts of the risk management are explained. Later on a concrete enterprise and its entrepreneurship are introduced. The practical part analyzes the internal and external environment of the company and its market position compared to the competition. Furthermore the situation on the market is evaluated in economic, political, legal and cultural perspective. Various economic and risk-management methods are beeing used for the evaluation. Based on the results of analysis the markets are ranked from the most suitable to the least suitable for international trade.

Il presente lavoro ha ad oggetto una analisi comparata tra Europa ed America Latina in merito al fenomeno del dumping sociale e al suo stretto rapporto con il contratto di lavoro internazionale e le relative condizioni di lavoro. Il lavoro di ricerca ha richiesto lo studio e l’analisi di fonti “variegate” e multidisciplinari in quanto si tratta di un fenomeno poliedrico, relativamente recente e che è stato oggetto di interpretazioni molto diverse, se non antitetiche. L’obiettivo della presente analisi è molteplice. In primo luogo, si è trattato di definire il perimetro del fenomeno, astraendone una possibile definizione, tuttora assente nel panorama normativo vigente. In secondo luogo, si è voluto, mediante una analisi comparata tra Europa e America Latina, verificare l’andamento del dumping sociale in differenti contesti, in particolare, in un Paese industrializzato e in un Paese in via di sviluppo. Con il terzo e ultimo obiettivo, facendo emergere luci ed ombre del dumping sociale, si è cercato di individuare un percorso futuro dove fosse possibile – mediante comportamenti proattivi da parte di tutti gli attori coinvolti – arginare i fenomeni negativi del dumping e tutelare sempre più i diritti sociali.
The thesis concerns a comparative analysis between Europe and Latin America regarding the phenomenon of social dumping and its close relationship with the international employment contract and related working conditions. The research has required the study and analysis of "varied" and multidisciplinary reference sources, taking into account that it is a multifaceted phenomenon, which has become more common in relatively recent periods and has been the subject of very different interpretations, sometimes even antithetical. The aim of this research is multiple. Firstly, the thesis sought to define the perimeter of the phenomenon, extracting a possible legal definition, which is still absent in the existing regulatory framework. Secondly, through a comparative analysis between Europe and Latin America, the research analyzed the trend of social dumping in different contexts, in particular, in a developed and in a developing country. In its third and last objective, the thesis, by taking out the pros and cons of social dumping, tried to identify a future path in where it will be possible – through proactive behavior on behalf by all those involved – to make a positive contribution to counter the negative phenomena of dumping while increasingly protect social rights.

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A presente dissertação discute a trajetória mercantil e honorífica de Elias Antonio Lopes, um dos maiores negociantes que atuou na praça mercantil do Rio de Janeiro em fins do século XVIII e nos primeiros quinze anos do século XIX. Ele emigrou da cidade do Porto para o Rio de Janeiro em aproximadamente 1770, para tentar a sorte nos ofícios mercantis. Ele concentrou em suas mãos uma grande fortuna, advinda de diferentes ramos mercantis, como o tráfico negreiro, arrecadação de contratos reais, comércio interno e externo. O negociante angariou variadas mercês, fundamentais em sua mobilidade social ascendente, em fins do século XVIII e principalmente após a vinda da Corte joanina em 1808. Isso aconteceu, após o negociante ter doado sua chácara em São Cristóvão e futura Quinta da Boa Vista para servir de residência da família real portuguesa. Neste sentido, discutiremos que o ideal aristocrático do Antigo Regime português esteve presente no início do século XIX quando os negociantes procuraram status social ao serem agraciados com mercês em retribuição aos serviços prestados a Dom João. Elias Antonio Lopes faleceu no ano de 1815 deixando uma grande herança, disputada entre seus herdeiros e a Coroa portuguesa pelo fato de ele não ter deixado testamento. Portanto, este estudo perpassa, desde a emigração de Lopes para o Rio de Janeiro, até sua trajetória mercantil e honorífica, encerrando-se com seu falecimento e disputa por sua herança.
In this dissertation, a detailed discussion of the mercantile and honorific route of Elias Antonio Lopes is explored. Elias was the greatest dealer, who played a significant role in the Rio de Janeiro imperial market by the ends of XVIII century and the first years of XIX century. He emigrated from the Porto city, Portugal, to the Rio de Janeiro, probably in the year of 1770 in order to get a chance in the market place of Rio de Janeiro. He got a great fortune from different facets of the mercantile area such as slave trade, the getting of royal contracts, as well as getting from internal and foreign markets. As a trader, he could assemble a great deal of benefices (mercês), which were fundamental in order to get social nobility in the XVIII, when the Portuguese royals arrived in 1808. All these took place after the donating of his own farmland in São Cristóvão, neighbourhood, the future Portuguese royal house. In this sense, it is discussed here that the aristocratic ideal in that time was commonplace in the beginnings of the XIX century, when the traders used to urge in getting social status by acquisition of titles through services provided to Dom João. Elias Antonio Lopes passed away in the year of the 1815 leaving a great inheritance, eagerly rivaled by his heirs and the Portuguese Crown, as he did not leave any testament. Therefore, this study is a large passing through of his route since his emigration to Rio de Janeiro, his honorific dealings in the mercantile marketing, ending up with his suddenly death and the eagerly rivalry of his properties.

This thesis examines the measurement, applications and properties of consumer inflation expectations in the context of eight European Union countries: France, Germany, the UK, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden. The data proceed mainly from the European Commission's Consumer Survey and are qualitative in nature, therefore requiring quantification prior to use. This study first seeks to determine the optimal quantification methodology among a set of approaches spanning three traditions, associated with Carlson-Parkin (1975), Pesaran (1984) and Seitz (1988). The success of a quantification methodology is assessed on the basis of its ability to match quantitative expectations data and on its behaviour in an important economic application, namely the modelling of wages for our sample countries. The wage equation developed here draws on the theoretical background of the staggered contracts and the wage bargaining literature, and controls carefully for inflation expectations and institutional variables. The Carlson-Parkin variation proposed in Curto Millet (2004) was found to be the most satisfactory. This being established, the wage equations are used to test the hypothesis that the advent of EMU generated an increase in labour market flexibility, which would be reflected in structural breaks. The hypothesis is essentially rejected. Finally, the properties of inflation expectations and perceptions themselves are examined, especially in the context of EMU. Both the rational expectations and rational perceptions hypotheses are rejected. Popular expectations mechanisms, such as the "rule-of-thumb" model or Akerlof et al.'s (2000) "near-rationality hypothesis" are similarly unsupported. On the other hand, evidence is found for the transmission of expert forecasts to consumer expectations in the case of the UK, as in Carroll's (2003) model. The distribution of consumer expectations and perceptions is also considered, showing a tendency for gradual (as in Mankiw and Reis, 2002) but non-rational adjustment. Expectations formation is further shown to have important qualitative features.

Cette thèse traite deux sujets distincts, les deux représentant des enjeux importants pour un grand nombre de Pays d’Europe Centrale et Orientale (PECO). La première partie porte sur les emprunts en devises étrangères. Plusieurs études antérieures montrent que dans de nombreux PECO, l’endettement en devises étrangères a augmenté de manière considérable avant la crise et est devenu un enjeu majeur pour les entreprises, les ménages et pour la politique budgétaire et monétaire. Pour évaluer les risques associés à l’endettement excessif en devises étrangères, nous étudions la volonté des entreprises d’apparier la composition en devises de leurs actifs et leurs passifs ainsi que leurs incitations à dévier de l’appariement parfait. Nos résultats fournissent des preuves solides à l’appui du rôle de la couverture naturelle. Néanmoins, ce dernier n’est pas le motif principal d’endettement en devise étrangères : le motif de couverture naturelle n’explique qu’environ 10 à 20 pour cent de la dette totale en devises étrangères des entreprises avant et pendant la crise, respectivement. La plus grande partie de la dette en devises étrangères correspondrait, au moins en Hongrie, à des positions de carry trade détenues par des sociétés non financières. La deuxième partie de la thèse est consacrée à l’exploration des liens entre les systèmes socio-fiscaux et l’offre de travail à la marge extensive. Le deuxième chapitre propose une nouvelle stratégie de modélisation de l’offre de travail comme alternative aux deux approches dominantes basées sur le calcul marginal et les modèles d’utilité aléatoire. Finalement, le dernier chapitre utilise ce modèle pour quantifier la part de la différence entre les taux d’activité tchèque et hongrois qui peut être expliquée par les divergences des systèmes d’imposition et de protection sociale. Les estimations donnent des élasticités d’offre de travail similaires, ce qui suggère que les préférences individuelles sont essentiellement identiques dans les deux pays. Nos résultats montrent que la moitié de l’écart entre les taux d’activité s’explique par les différences des systèmes socio-fiscaux
This thesis deals with two distinct topics, both of them representing central issues for many Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The first part of the thesis focuses on foreign currency (FX) lending. Several previous studies point out that in many CEE countries, FX borrowing rose significantly before the crisis and has become a major challenge for firms, households and for fiscal and monetary policy. To evaluate the risks associated with excessive FX indebtedness, we investigate firms’ willingness to match the currency composition of their assets and liabilities and their incentives to deviate from perfect matching. Our results provide strong evidence to support the role of natural hedging, however, it is not the primary motivation for firms to choose foreign currency : it explains only about 10 percent of the overall corporate FX debt during the pre-crisis and 20 percent during the post-crisis periods. Most likely, the largest part of the corporate FX debt, at least in Hungary, corresponds to open carry trade positions held by non-financial corporations. The second part of the thesis is devoted to exploring the links between tax-benefit systems and labour supply at the extensive margin. The second chapter presents an alternative modelling strategy of labour supply to the two dominating approaches based on marginal calculus and on random utility models. Finally, the last chapter uses this model to quantify the difference between the Hungarian and the Czech participation rates that can be attributed to differences in taxation and welfare benefits. We find that the estimated labour supply elasticities for the Czech Republic are very close to the results for Hungary, suggesting that, at least in this dimension, individual preferences are similar in the two countries. Results suggests that about one-half of the total difference in the participation rates can be explained by differences in the tax-benefit systems

While the digital market, especially the music streaming market, has rapidly grown in recent years, however the physical music segment still remains relevant in the Thai market. The Thai music market has inimitable characteristics within the market in terms of the physical music record offers, recorded musical works, and a growth trend in physical sales. Moreover, the behaviour in physical music consumption is opposite to that in world markets. Music consumption practices in the Thai market and why physical music, and CDs in particular, remain relevant to the Thai music industry are an enigma. The music industry itself has suggested that the physical music market needs to be revamped and its physical products redeveloped. In addition, the major record companies have also refocused into developing physical markets. However, precisely how this is to be achieved has not been specified. The twin aims of this study are to more fully comprehend Thai music consumption practices in today’s market and to examine how the concepts of product development could be effective in responding to consumer needs and desires. Consumer-led product development is the main concept of this study used to create ideas to enhance music CDs. This study combined many perspectives related to consumer-led product development and then applied them to construct the conceptual framework named “The Seminal Framework for CD Development”. The framework is a roadmap to create a new set of features for a new form of music CD based on the input of the music industry’s representatives and consumers. A new form of music CD which includes a new set of features is named in this study as the “prototype CD”. Also, the framework is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the prototype CD; how the prototype CD is responsive to consumer needs as far as functional and psychological perspectives are concerned. Bearing in mind the aim of this research, the researcher considered the interpretive paradigm to be the most appropriate approach for capturing consumers’ experiences in music consumption practices and for studying the opinions, points of view and ideas derived from the consumers, and the experts in music CD development. In the data collection process, this study employed the technique of purposive sampling for selecting from the population. The purposive sampling technique allows the researcher to judge and select people or prospective participants who: 1) are available to participate I in conducting the research, 2) are knowledgeable about the industry, 3) have experience related to the context of the study, and 4) can provide the reliable and detailed information required to understand the focal themes of the study. This study conducted nine interviews with the music industry’s experts, 60 one-on-one interviews and four group interviews with consumers. For the data analysis, this study adopted the manual coding analysis. The Seminal Framework determined the coding structure, and sets of data could be organised into distinct themes, such as the new features of music CDs or future positive possibilities for music consumption. This enabled, at the end of the process, an easier and more efficient identification of the experiential values derived from prototype music CDs. In addition, in more fully understanding the needs and expectations inherent in music consumption practices, such careful coding analysis helps to re-define the typology of music consumers. The typology and the concepts also facilitated the identification of music consumption behaviour in today’s environment. This study contributes a wider concept in consumer-led product development that has been applied to the context of music consumption practices and music product (CD) development.

This thesis draws on David Harvey’s concept of “accumulation by dispossession” and an international political economy (IPE) approach centred on the institutional arrangements and power structures that privilege certain actors and values, in order to critique current capitalist practices of primitive accumulation by the global corporate extractive industry. The thesis examines how accumulation by dispossession by the global extractive industry is facilitated by the “free entry” or “free mining” principle. It does so by focusing on Canada as a leader in the global extractive industry and the spread of this country’s mining laws to other countries – in other words, the transnationalisation of norms in the global extractive industry – so as to maintain a consistent and familiar operating environment for Canadian extractive companies. The transnationalisation of norms is further promoted by key international institutions such as the World Bank, which is also the world’s largest development lender and also plays a key role in shaping the regulations that govern natural resource extraction. The thesis briefly investigates some Canadian examples of resource extraction projects, in order to demonstrate the weaknesses of Canadian mining laws, particularly the lack of protection of landowners’ rights under the free entry system and the subsequent need for “free, prior and informed consent” (FPIC). The thesis also considers some of the challenges to the adoption and implementation of the right to FPIC. These challenges include embedded institutional structures like the free entry mining system, international political economy (IPE) as shaped by international institutions and powerful corporations, as well as concerns regarding ‘local’ power structures or the legitimacy of representatives of communities affected by extractive projects. The thesis concludes that in order for Canada to be truly recognized as a leader in the global extractive industry, it must establish legal norms domestically to ensure that Canadian mining companies and residents can be held accountable when there is evidence of environmental and/or human rights violations associated with the activities of Canadian mining companies abroad. The thesis also concludes that Canada needs to address underlying structural issues such as the free entry mining system and implement FPIC, in order to curb “accumulation by dispossession” by the extractive industry, both domestically and abroad.

Tous les jours, nous prenons des décisions sur les actions que nous souhaitons entreprendre. Ces décisions se fondent sur un compromis entre les bénéfices que nous espérons obtenir après avoir effectué ces actions, et les coûts, en termes d’effort, associés à ces actions. Cette thèse s’intéresse aux bases cérébrales du compromis coûts/bénéfices au travers de trois études menées chez des participants sains à l’aide de l’imagerie par résonance magnétique fonctionnelle. Dans la première étude, nous avons pu dissocier les bases cérébrales du calcul du compromis coûts/bénéfices des bases cérébrales des variables régulant ce calcul. En effet, dans cette étude, le calcul du compromis coûts/bénéfices était associé au cortex préfrontal ventromédian alors que la confiance dans la décision et le temps passé à délibérer étaient associés à des parties plus dorsales du cortex préfrontal médian. La seconde étude a permis de montrer que, dans deux tâches, impliquant un effort mental ou physique, la performance s’expliquait mieux par un biais pavlovien, donnant plus de poids aux gains qu’aux pertes, que par une aversion à la perte, telle qu’elle a été caractérisée principalement dans des tâches de choix. La troisième étude nous a permis de montrer que, même dans une tâche simple d’apprentissage par renforcement, les aires cérébrales liées à l’exécution d’un effort mental étaient recrutées au moment du calcul du compromis coûts/bénéfices, suggérant que cette tâche n’était pas effectuée de manière purement automatique. L’ensemble de nos résultats permet de mieux caractériser les aires cérébrales impliquées dans le compromis coûts/bénéfices et les conditions dans lesquelles ces aires sont actives
Every day we make decisions about the actions we want to perform. These decisions are based on a trade-off between the benefits we hope to obtain from performing these actions, and the costs, in terms of effort, associated with those actions. This thesis examines the neural correlates of the cost/benefit trade-off through three studies conducted in healthy participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In the first study, we were able to dissociate the neural correlates of the computation of the cost/benefit trade-off from the neural correlates of the variables regulating this computation. Indeed, in this study, the computation of the cost/benefit trade-off was associated with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, whereas confidence in the decision and the time spent in deliberating were associated with more dorsal parts of the medial prefrontal cortex. With our second study, we observed that, in two tasks, involving a mental or a physical effort, the performance was better explained by a Pavlovian bias than by loss aversion. In other words, as opposed to what has been shown mainly in choice tasks, individuals tended to give more weight to gains than to losses. The third study allowed us to show that, even in a simple reinforcement learning task, the brain areas linked to the exertion of a mental effort were recruited while the cost/benefit trade-off was being computed, suggesting that this task was not carried out purely automatically. All these results allow us to better characterize the brain areas involved in the cost/benefit trade-off and the conditions in which these areas are active

Multi functional health monitoring wearable devices are quite prominent these days. Usually these devices are battery-operated and consequently are limited by their battery life (from few hours to a few weeks depending on the application). Of late, it was realized that these devices, which are currently being operated at fixed voltage and frequency, are capable of operating at multiple voltages and frequencies. By switching these voltages and frequencies to lower values based upon power requirements, these devices can achieve tremendous benefits in the form of energy savings. Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) techniques have proven to be handy in this situation for an efficient trade-off between energy and timely behavior. Within imec, wearable devices make use of the indigenously developed MUSEIC v2 (Multi Sensor Integrated circuit version 2.0). This system is optimized for efficient and accurate collection, processing, and transfer of data from multiple (health) sensors. MUSEIC v2 has limited means in controlling the voltage and frequency dynamically. In this thesis we explore how traditional DVFS techniques can be applied to the MUSEIC v2. Experiments were conducted to find out the optimum power modes to efficiently operate and also to scale up-down the supply voltage and frequency. Considering the overhead caused when switching voltage and frequency, transition analysis was also done. Real-time and non real-time benchmarks were implemented based on these techniques and their performance results were obtained and analyzed. In this process, several state of the art scheduling algorithms and scaling techniques were reviewed in identifying a suitable technique. Using our proposed scaling technique implementation, we have achieved 86.95% power reduction in average, in contrast to the conventional way of the MUSEIC v2 chip’s processor operating at a fixed voltage and frequency. Techniques that include light sleep and deep sleep mode were also studied and implemented, which tested the system’s capability in accommodating Dynamic Power Management (DPM) techniques that can achieve greater benefits. A novel approach for implementing the deep sleep mechanism was also proposed and found that it can obtain up to 71.54% power savings, when compared to a traditional way of executing deep sleep mode.
Nuförtiden så har multifunktionella bärbara hälsoenheter fått en betydande roll. Dessa enheter drivs vanligtvis av batterier och är därför begränsade av batteritiden (från ett par timmar till ett par veckor beroende på tillämpningen). På senaste tiden har det framkommit att dessa enheter som används vid en fast spänning och frekvens kan användas vid flera spänningar och frekvenser. Genom att byta till lägre spänning och frekvens på grund av effektbehov så kan enheterna få enorma fördelar när det kommer till energibesparing. Dynamisk skalning av spänning och frekvens-tekniker (såkallad Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling, DVFS) har visat sig vara användbara i detta sammanhang för en effektiv avvägning mellan energi och beteende. Hos Imec så använder sig bärbara enheter av den internt utvecklade MUSEIC v2 (Multi Sensor Integrated circuit version 2.0). Systemet är optimerat för effektiv och korrekt insamling, bearbetning och överföring av data från flera (hälso) sensorer. MUSEIC v2 har begränsad möjlighet att styra spänningen och frekvensen dynamiskt. I detta examensarbete undersöker vi hur traditionella DVFS-tekniker kan appliceras på MUSEIC v2. Experiment utfördes för att ta reda på de optimala effektlägena och för att effektivt kunna styra och även skala upp matningsspänningen och frekvensen. Eftersom att ”overhead” skapades vid växling av spänning och frekvens gjordes också en övergångsanalys. Realtidsoch icke-realtidskalkyler genomfördes baserat på dessa tekniker och resultaten sammanställdes och analyserades. I denna process granskades flera toppmoderna schemaläggningsalgoritmer och skalningstekniker för att hitta en lämplig teknik. Genom att använda vår föreslagna skalningsteknikimplementering har vi uppnått 86,95% effektreduktion i jämförelse med det konventionella sättet att MUSEIC v2-chipets processor arbetar med en fast spänning och frekvens. Tekniker som inkluderar lätt sömn och djupt sömnläge studerades och implementerades, vilket testade systemets förmåga att tillgodose DPM-tekniker (Dynamic Power Management) som kan uppnå ännu större fördelar. En ny metod för att genomföra den djupa sömnmekanismen föreslogs också och enligt erhållna resultat så kan den ge upp till 71,54% lägre energiförbrukning jämfört med det traditionella sättet att implementera djupt sömnläge.

A comercialização de produtos florestais não madeireiros (PFNMs) popularizou-se como atividade promotora do desenvolvimento socioeconômico de comunidades florestais com baixo impacto ambiental. Há evidências, contudo, de que a exploração possa produzir efeitos ecológicos e socioeconômicos negativos, sugerindo que é necessário monitorar tais iniciativas. A comercialização frequentemente ocorre em áreas remotas e em contextos de pobreza, como é o caso de muitas daquelas da Amazônia brasileira. Desta forma, é necessário que o monitoramento restrinja-se a avaliar os efeitos evidenciados como mais comuns em estudos anteriores. Este estudo revisa e sintetiza as evidências científicas dos efeitos da exploração de PFNMs sobre parâmetros ecológicos e socioeconômicos e, a partir daí, indica aqueles mais relevantes ao monitoramento. O estudo também levanta até que ponto o monitoramento é implementado no contexto da Amazônia brasileira e avalia quais os parâmetros importantes e viáveis de monitoramento neste caso específico. Para isso, foram realizadas revisões sistemáticas da literatura e a consulta a profissionais da área através do método Delphi. Os resultados indicam que efeitos ecológicos negativos são frequentes, principalmente quando se coletam folhas ou cascas. Alterações em órgãos ou processos fisiológicos e a taxa de sobrevivência dos espécimes explorados são parâmetros que devem ser monitorados, em particular quando se coletam frutos e partes vegetativas. Para todos os tipos de PFNMs, o tamanho e a estrutura populacional são parâmetros prioritários ao monitoramento. A riqueza de espécies da comunidade explorada merece atenção, principalmente quando se coletam frutos. Para os aspectos socioeconômicos, efeitos positivos foram mais frequentes que negativos. A contribuição da renda monetária obtida com o comércio na renda total, a regularidade de ingresso desta renda e o papel dos PFNMs como recursos de salvaguarda são parâmetros do capital financeiro prioritários ao monitoramento. Para o capital social, o empoderamento feminino, a coesão de grupo e o acesso aos benefícios gerados pela comercialização devem ser monitorados. Na Amazônia brasileira são poucas as iniciativas de implementação do monitoramento da comercialização de PFNMs. Embora este seja considerado importante, existem dificuldades que derivam principalmente da falta de apoio institucional, políticas de incentivo e de recursos financeiros. Os profissionais participantes do Delphi consideram que os parâmetros ecológicos mais importantes a monitorar neste contexto são o tamanho e a estrutura populacional do recurso explorado, o aumento da taxa de mortalidade, a quantidade total de recurso extraída e a técnica de coleta utilizada. Para os parâmetros econômicos, aspectos do mercado, como o preço pago ao coletor, a demanda e a qualidade do produto, bem como a renda monetária obtida pelos indivíduos são os parâmetros considerados mais importantes. Por fim, para os aspectos sociais, os efeitos na cultura, na qualidade de vida e na organização interna da comunidade foram priorizados. Os profissionais indicam que é viável estabelecer o monitoramento dos parâmetros levantados.
Amazon, non-timber forest products, ecological effects, socioeconomic effects, monitoring.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004.
Advisor: Dr. Susan Fiorito, Florida State University, College of Human Sciences, Dept. of Textiles and Consumer Sciences. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 28, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

碩士
開南大學
物流與航運管理學系
100
As the global trade continues growing substantially, information and communication technologies expand increasingly, all trends are urged countries to simplify customs clearance. "Trade Facilitation" is not only the most important policy that countries pursue trade progress and economic development, but also the chief issue the world chase the goal of free trade in recent years. This research is employed interview questionnaire to investigate the customs broker, the bridge between customs and the import and export business, and analyzed whether the customs broker could get benefit from the CMT or foresee the problems that would meet in practicing. All of the customs broker’s practical viewpoints and suggestions will make a big contribution to Customs in establishing the CMT in the near future. The results of research showed that: During the planning CMT period, the benefit of trade integration Government provides the one stop service for the customs broker is only planning. Relying on the guidance of Customs, the customs broker could understand the purpose of simplified flow of CMT. Furthermore, the customs broker is most concerned about the cost of change of computer program must be fellow the data model of CMT, and the security in using the CMT. In the meantime, Customs offices attain to explain what Customs have properly planed on the CMT so that to eliminate what customs broker concern within interview activities. Finally, the purpose of CMT to get security, facilitation, connection with international can be fulfilled if the doubts of the customs broker could be considered when customs establish the CMT.

碩士
國立政治大學
會計研究所
92
The debate about the alternative accounting treatments of R&D expenditures reflects trade-offs between the future benefits of R&D and its risk. In general, if the uncertainty regarding future benefits is not so high that it disqualifies the measurability criterion of asset recognition, then one may argue in favor of capitalizing R&D expenditures (as is typical for intangible investment). Conversely, if future outcomes are risky and unpredictable, the expensing treatment may be warranted. This is study examines the associations among bond risk measures (bond rating and risk premium) and R&D expenditures to determine whether their mean effect (expected future benefits) or their variance effect (risk) is more significant in pricing bonds. In general, from the perspective of bondholders, a negative correlation between bond risk parameter and R&D expenditures would indicate a stronger mean effect; that is, the expected future benefits of R&D expenditures are more than enough to compensate for the added risk of R&D. Conversely, a positive correlation would imply a stronger variance effect that swamps the mean effect of future benefits from R&D expenditures. The empirical results indicate follows: (1) For all samples, R&D expenditures are significantly positively associated with bond rating. The evidence suggests that, from the perspective of bondholders, the risk and uncertainties of R&D appear to dominate its expected future benefits. However, R&D expenditures have no significant effect on risk premium. (2) For electronic industry samples, the empirical results are the same with all samples. (3) For nonelectronic industry samples, R&D expenditures are significantly negatively associated with risk premium. The evidence suggests that, from the perspective of bondholders, the expected future benefits of R&D appear to dominate its risk. However R&D expenditures have no significant effect on bond rating. (4) The interpretation of this issue are not significant different through the expensing and capitalizing of R&D expenditures. (5) The industry effect is supported by the empirical results that show different effects of R&D on the bond risk measures between electronic industry and the nonelectronic industry. (6) The results indicate that it may be in favor of expensing R&D expenditures for electronic industry and capitalizing R&D expenditures for nonelectronic industry.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
法律學研究所
102
Abstract Pacific Island countries (PICs) face numerous problems that have accentuated their vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities are regarded as disadvantages and have continued to anchor them in the mire state of affairs. How can the PICs exploit these vulnerabilities to maximise their benefits? Instead of using these vulnerabilities as an excuse, I propose that they capitalise on these weaknesses for their benefit. A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) provides an opportune situation where the PICs can utilise their vulnerabilities for their own benefit and their unique circumstances call for a new approach in conducting the FTAs. The approach must be centred on the plight of the PICs. The whole process starts from the negotiation phase and it should be guided by clear objectives and principles. Abstract concepts such as sustainable development can be more beneficial if it is applied in a more concrete fashion. I propose that the PICs conduct their negotiation based on principles that will ease their vulnerabilities. For instance the intellectual property (IPR) chapter calls for a new approach beyond the traditional IPR chapter. The importance of my approach hinges on the paradigm shift, from seeing these vulnerabilities as a minus to appreciating them as a game changer. In a nutshell, it is favourable for the PICs to enter into an FTA that best suits them by utilizing the possible routes to achieving that end. Some particular routes are more are beneficial than others. For example a plurilateral approach is more conducive than a bilateral one. The objective is for an FTA that enables them to rise and shine by utilizing the vulnerabilities to their advantage.

碩士
淡江大學
中國大陸研究所碩士班
103
Taiwan''s economy has always highly relied on foreign trade and foreign investment and has been closely integrated with the global economic and trade system. The integration of East Asia contributed a lot, but still has yet to break the cross-strait economic and trade relations. To combat this, the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement(CSSTA) is the opening of a new pattern of cross-strait economic and trade exchanges that promotes cross-strait trade in services and communication and mutual investment, effectively driving Taiwan''s industry to enter China’s market. The purpose of this study is to investigate suspicions of the signing of CSSTA on the political and economic aspects of Taiwan, and the effects the failure of passage of the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement would have. CSSTA is a great concern to various industries. There are completely different views in politics, business and academia, but there is no unified answer which points towards the controversy among the different sectors. Therefore, this study investigates the main problems that may arise and the available benefits of literature analysis and secondary data analysis. To conclude, the result indicates the cross-strait service trade agreement is critical for Taiwan flourished economy in the future. If the political struggle keeps putting off CSSTA, Taiwan would face many obstacles from signing other international trade agreements, and also losing the superiority that Taiwan had in the beginning. Therefore, Taiwan government must reevaluate the communication with Taiwanese about CSSTA in order to alleviate counterforce. To move forward with CSSTA, Taiwan can keep up with South Korea economic prosperity.

A long-held assumption in animal behavior is that females and males differ fundamentally in their mating strategies. Females are thought to be more choosy because female reproduction typically is limited by parental investment. Males, on the other hand, are expected to compete among themselves for access to females or resources, since male reproduction is limited primarily by mating access. This dichotomy is challenged by the increasing realization that males can be choosy and females also compete aggressively. It remains unclear, however, if and how selection acts on aggressive behavior in the context of intrasexual competition among females (reviewed in Chapter 1). In this thesis, I use a population of free-living tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) to test predictions about the selective pressures shaping aggressive behavior in females. First, using an experimental manipulation of nest site availability, I demonstrate that more aggressive females have a competitive edge in acquiring nestboxes, a critical limiting resource required for breeding (Chapter 2). This result shows that more aggressive females are more likely to breed and, thus, that females experience direct selection to be aggressive in the context of competition for mating opportunities. Next, I demonstrate a fitness cost of female aggression (Chapter 3): high levels of aggression in females are not associated with the quantity of offspring, but instead, more aggressive females had offspring of lower quality (i.e. reduced mass). Using a cross-fostering approach, I explore the causal link between female aggression and offspring mass, and I find that a trade-off between female aggression and maternal care best accounts for this cost of aggression. Site differences may create variation in how selection shapes female aggression, but the overall finding that more aggressive females have lower quality offspring indicates that this cost may work counter to selection favoring aggressive behavior in the context of competition over nestboxes. Understanding the evolution of female aggressiveness in a biparental system is incomplete without examining how males may alter the selective environment shaping female behavior. In Chapter 4, I explore the potential role of a female's mate in offsetting the costs of aggression. Males appear to mitigate these costs for their female partners, but not by compensating for poor parenting by aggressive females. Instead, females invest more heavily in reproduction, laying more and larger eggs, when mated to a male that is more different from her own phenotype. If this differential investment outweighs the cost of aggressiveness in terms of offspring quality, then male phenotype may play a key role in understanding the selective pressures shaping the evolution of aggressive behavior in females. Altogether, this dissertation explores the costs and benefits of female aggressive behavior. The focus on aggressiveness as a sexually selected trait in females provides a much needed parallel to the wealth of information already known about the selective pressures shaping sexually selected traits in males.

Dissertation