<p>A study has been conducted to assess the possibilities to introduce dead cattle organs as the raw material for biogas generation at the rural household level in Bangladesh. At the same time, the present energy situation in Bangladesh is highlighted. The actors in the energy sector have been identified. The energy policy of Bangladesh is not transparent and there seems to be no energy strategy for the country. Possibilities of other renewable sources of energy are also discussed. Biomass fuels comprise the main source of energy for the rural people and the major share of energy use is consumed after cooking and household lightning. Enormous amount of labor is spent in gathering and collecting of fuel wood and agricultural residues that reduces productivity among women and young children. Besides, biogas is generated from agricultural residues and animal excreta in Bangladesh. Tremendous pressure on rural forests for fuel wood is increasing and environmental degradation is occurring. Agricultural lands are losing vital nutrients as people are using crop residues and animal excreta for energy. Under present condition, the possibilities of adopting biogas technology and dead cattle organs as the raw materials to generate biogas is analyzed in terms of availability of the raw material. Sustainable development using biogas is also considered. And lastly, some recommendation is suggested, based on the current energy situation of Bangladesh.</p>

This thesis consists of four self-contained papers, which are all related to important environmental and natural resource issues from a developing country perspective. Paper [I] concerns climate policy and addresses the potential welfare gains of introducing a technology transfer from the North (richer countries) to the South (poorer countries). The results largely depend on the environmental policy in the pre- transfer resource allocation and, in particular, whether or not the South abates its own emissions. Although the technology transfer is desirable from a “global social planners” point of view, it is shown that the incentives to use the transfer might be weak from the perspective of the North; at least if the South takes its own measures to reduce emissions. However, in a situation where the North is committed to emission reductions according to the Kyoto protocol, it is shown that there will clearly be incentives for the North to use the technology transfer in order to reach the Kyoto targets in a more cost efficient way. In paper [II], the likely effects of an environmental fiscal reform in Namibia are examined by means of a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model. The results show that the introduction of an environmental fiscal reform, where taxes on natural and environmental resources (fish rents, energy and water) are recycled to the economy in different ways might give rise to benefits in terms of GDP, employment and income distribution, in addition to the environmental impacts. While subsidizing unskilled labour would give the most favourable outcome in terms of real GDP and employment impacts, a decrease in food taxes might be a more interesting option if GDP, employment, income distribution and environmental impacts are considered in combination. In paper [III], the value of irrigation water used for different crop alternatives in the Hardap region in Southern Namibia is estimated. The study finds that all crop alternatives that farmers in the region currently choose among, will remain financially viable after the planned increases in user charges. However, if full cost recovery is to be achieved in the future, substantial changes in the agricultural production will most likely be necessary. The method is also extended in order to study the potential effects on total water demand if further increases in user charges are implemented. Paper [IV] studies the likely effects of exogenous international food and oil price shocks on the Namibian economy. This is particularly interesting in a country where the domestic consumption of corn and petroleum products is mainly imported, and where water scarcity represents one of the main constraints to agricultural expansion. The results show that the Namibian economy will be negatively affected from the food and oil price increases, and water scarcity will further limit the ability of the economy to adapt to international oil and food price increases.

A study has been conducted to assess the possibilities to introduce dead cattle organs as the raw material for biogas generation at the rural household level in Bangladesh. At the same time, the present energy situation in Bangladesh is highlighted. The actors in the energy sector have been identified. The energy policy of Bangladesh is not transparent and there seems to be no energy strategy for the country. Possibilities of other renewable sources of energy are also discussed. Biomass fuels comprise the main source of energy for the rural people and the major share of energy use is consumed after cooking and household lightning. Enormous amount of labor is spent in gathering and collecting of fuel wood and agricultural residues that reduces productivity among women and young children. Besides, biogas is generated from agricultural residues and animal excreta in Bangladesh. Tremendous pressure on rural forests for fuel wood is increasing and environmental degradation is occurring. Agricultural lands are losing vital nutrients as people are using crop residues and animal excreta for energy. Under present condition, the possibilities of adopting biogas technology and dead cattle organs as the raw materials to generate biogas is analyzed in terms of availability of the raw material. Sustainable development using biogas is also considered. And lastly, some recommendation is suggested, based on the current energy situation of Bangladesh.

The aim of this study is to analyse the impacts of the social security system reform performed in Turkey within the

This work presents a systematic investigation of two topics. One is in stochastic dynamic general equilibrium. It incorporates private information into dynamic general equilibrium framework. An existence of competitive equilibrium is established. Quantitative analysis is provided for health insurance problem. The other topic is in decision problems under ambiguity. Lack of precise information regarding a decision problem is represented by a set of probabilities. Descriptive richness of the set of probabilities is defi ned. It is used to generalize Skorohod's theorem to sets of probabilities. The latter is used to show the constancy of the coefficient in alpha-maximin multiple prior preferences. Examples illustrate: the implications of this representation; and the restrictions arising from the failure of descriptive richness. / text

In this thesis, I take a theoretical dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) approach to investigate optimal aggregate dividend policy. I make the following contribution: 1. I extend the standard DSGE model to incorporate a residual dividend policy, external financing and default and find that simulated optimal aggregate payouts are much more volatile than the observed data when other variables are close to the values observed in the data. 2. I examine the sensitivity of optimal aggregate dividend policy to the level of the representative agent's habit motive. My results show that, when the habit motive gets stronger, the volatility of optimal aggregate payouts increases while the volatility of aggregate consumption decreases. This is consistent with the hypothesis that investors use cash payouts from well diversified portfolios to help smooth consumption. 3. I demonstrate that the variability of optimal aggregate payouts is sensitive to capital adjustment costs. My simulated results show that costly frictions from changing the capital base of the firm cause optimal aggregate dividends and real investments to be smooth and share prices to be volatile. This finding is consistent with prior empirical observations. 4. I run simulations that support the hypothesis that optimal aggregate dividend policy is similar when the representative firm is risk averse to when it has capital adjustment costs. In both cases, optimal aggregate dividends volatility is very low. 5. In all calibrated DSGE models, apart from case 4, optimal aggregate payouts are found to be countercyclical. This supports the hypothesis that corporations prefer to hold more free cash flows for potential investment opportunities instead of paying dividends when the economy is booming, but is inconsistent with observed data. Keywords: Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE), real business cycle, utility function, habits, dividends.

This thesis consists of five chapters, based on four different articles. All of them are devoted to different aspects of spatial heterogeneity and its impact on economic equilibrium in space. The concept of heterogeneous continuous space is discussed in the introductory chapter.The first model "Equilibrium in Continuous Space under Decentralized Production" addresses the issue of the impact of differences across locations in exogeneous productivity on the structure of equilibrium prices, production and trade. The goal is to describe the general equilibrium in a spatially decentralized economy, when production, consumption and markets are distributed in continuous space and transportation costs are essentially linear. It is shown that an autarky equilibrium can exist only if transport costs are high enough. In the general case, the general equilibrium in this model includes some endogeneously determined trade areas, with flows of goods across space, and autarky areas where production and consumption activities take place only at the same point. An analytical solution in explicit functions is obtained; it contains equilibrium prices, labor supply and flows of goods as functions of the spatial variable. The model can be applied to a set of practical questions in regional economics. In particular, it is able to describe persistent price differentials across regions and non-local consequences of road construction and transportation cost shocks for the economy. The differences across locations in population density may have either historical or economic reasons.The second model "Hotelling's Revival" extends a well-known research of H.Hotelling (1929) to the two-dimensional case with spatially heterogeneous demand density, preserving the rest of his classical assumptions. It is shown that the problem of demand discontinuity in the one-dimensional model, which was discovered by d'Aspremont, Gabszewich and Thisse (1979), disappears in this case. This also holds for any bounded distribution of consumers on any compact set on a plane, which can describe real geographical situations. Demand continuity still holds for any transport costs, strictly increasing in distance and not necessarily linear. Although this is sufficient for the existence of Nash equilibrium in mixed strategies, in pure strategies it exists only for some subset of cases. Examples of both existence and non-existence are constructed, and for some family of densities the separation point between the two cases is found.The third model addresses locational choice of heterogeneous consumers, when land is also heterogeneous in quality. It is based on two articles. The first, "Dacha Pricing", is presented in chapter 4 and studies the problem of locational rent in a city-neighbourhood when utility includes both the impact of transport costs and time for transportation. For the case of identical agents the problem is solved explicitly and comparative statics with respect to exogeneous changes in transport cost and speed is studied. For the case of agents who are heterogeneous with respect to their income, a solution is also obtained. The model explains some evidence about dacha pricing in Russia and its dynamics during the transition period. The second article related to this model is "Location and Land Size Choice by Heterogeneous Agents". It generalizes the first one and form a separate chapter 5. A new approach about the general equilibrium allocation of heterogeneous divisible good (like land) among a continuum of heterogeneous consumers is proposed. The model is based on continuity of primitives which allow not only to finding a general equilibrium solution in a class of continuous functions, but also to treat the solution to a continuous problem as the limit of the corresponding sequence of discrete problems. This solves one of Berliant's paradoxes, related to spatial economics. The multiplicity of equilibria is shown to take place.

Univ., Diss.--Bonn, 2002.

[pt] Apresentamos uma versão do modelo padrão de equilíbrio geral com agentes heterogêneos e mercados incompletos para responder questões acerca do populismo e suporte político. A inovação é assumir que o governo pode expropriar parte dos recursos da economia. Destacamos um novo mecanismo de suporte político, onde o governo populista obtém a aprovação necessária para se manter no poder. Transferências para os mais pobres/menos produtivos aumentam a taxa de juros de equilíbrio, ao reduzir a poupança por motivo precaucional, beneficiando detentores de capital ricos e criando uma coalizão entre eles. Então, fazemos um exercício de calibração para a economia americana e conduzimos exercícios de estática comparativa em parâmetros chave para analisar a verossimilhança do arranjo. / [en] We present a version of the standard general equilibrium model with heterogenous agents and incomplete markets to address matters of populism and political support of governments. The novelty is to assume that governments may expropriate part of the resources in the economy. We highlight a new mecanism in which a populist government can obtain the approval necessary to maintain power. Transfers to poorest/less productive households increases the equilibrium interest rates, by reducing precautionary savings, benefiting rich capital holders and creating a coalition between them. Further, we calibrate the model to a standard U.S economy and conduct some comparative statics in key parameters to address the likelihood of such arrangement.

A falta de coordenação das políticas fiscal e monetária no Brasil, freqüentemente, tem sido apontada como motivo para os desequilíbrios macroeconômicos que a economia enfrentou nas últimas três décadas. No período mais recente, pós-metas de inflação, diversos autores apontaram a política fiscal ativa como fator restritivo ao desempenho da política monetária. Nesse caso, a autoridade fiscal desconsidera a interferência do lado fiscal no monetário, o que implica em uma menor eficácia da política monetária. Somente a partir de uma condução de política fiscal com um comportamento passivo a política monetária poderia ser mais eficiente. Para testar a hipótese de políticas ativas e/ou passivas, estimou-se, por meio do método Bayesiano, um modelo DSGE com rigidez de preços e concorrência monopolística para a economia brasileira, baseado em Woodford (2003). Neste modelo, o superávit primário e a taxa de juros nominal são os instrumentos de política econômica. As estimações apontaram para um regime no qual as políticas fiscal e monetária foram ativas durante o período de 2000I a 2002IV. Porém, para o período posterior, de 2003I a 2008IV, a política fiscal foi passiva e a monetária ativa. / This paper seeks identify whether the way of fiscal and monetary macroeconomic policies in Brazil, to that period after inflation targets, were active way or/and passive way. For that, it’s estimated, for Bayesian methods, a model DSGE with price rigidities and monopolistic competition, in which the primary surplus and the nominal interest rates are the tools economic policy available. The lack of coordination of policies in Brazil, usually, has been identified as the reason for the macroeconomic imbalances. So, many authors pointed out the active fiscal policy, as a factor limiting the efficient performance of monetary policy. However, the analysis that relation within the framework of DSGE models is still limited, especially in applications for the Brazilian economy. The estimates of the model pointed out for a system where policies were active during the 2000/1Q to 2002/4Q both of them, and the later period, 2003/1Q – 2008/4Q, the fiscal policy behaved themselves on passive way and the monetary policy was active way.