The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the process of introducing unlimited tariffs by O2 Czech Republic a.s. as to the Czech telecommunications market. The focus of this topic has two perspectives, perspective of the innovative companies and competitors' view. In the assessment perspective, there is also the view of customers. In the first part, I have dealt mainly with the general theory of introducing innovative products to the market, which is related to business surveys that were conducted, in particular the analysis of competition and the market. In the practical part, I focused on the very process of implementation, including the initial assessment of the market situation, setting pricing policies or communication tools that were used. In conclusion, I compared previous expectations with real impacts.

Due to the abortion of the proposed Havana Charter and non-participation of the USSR and other State trading economies in the Charter negotiations, GATT has been acting as a traders' club - a club mainly beneficial to western •market economies. Its rules are formulated almost exclusively in favor of free trade on a comparative advantage and private enterprise basis. There is virtually no place for NMEs to have effective access. As one of the pivots of post-World-War-II multilateralism, GATT assumes a major role in compromising, integrating, regulating and supervising diversified member nations' trade laws and policies. Its legal framework, however, is inadequate to deal with the integration of NME. This is because GATT is framed essentially along the line of market ideology and minimal government intervention. NMEs, on the other hand, discard market ideology and adopt wholesale government intervention and central planning as a basic form of economy. While trading practice in NMEs is basically incompatible with the GATT-promoted free trade rules, accommodations were made to facilitate NMEs' request for membership. Consequently, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Yugoslavia became GATT members respectively during the 1960s and 70s. At that time East European countries maintained command state trading thus were unable to be fully integrated into the GATT-based international trade order. During negotiations on terms of NMEs' accession to GATT, GATT countries adopted an import commitments approach to solve the central and much debated issue of market access to NME countries. Despite its merits, the approach has been criticized notwithstanding the fact that no alternative has been suggested. Accordingly, the primary objective of the thesis is to rethink the existing approaches to NMEs in order to explore new ways of effectively integrating NMEs into the GATT legal framework. By approaching the thesis problem carefully, the writer arrives at the conclusion that although GATT would need new assumptions with a view to regaining a new consensus of broader international representation and participation, a considerable and substantial decentralization in the NME is unavoidable in order to adapt themselves into the GATT framework. In the meantime, it is stressed that all GATT countries should continue to facilitate NMEs' access to the GATT forum in the hope that NMEs being potential world traders would increase world prosperity and understanding by broader participation. World prosperity, needless to say, is the best guarantee of world peace and security. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

This thesis examined the impact of the U.S-China trade war on the global, U.S, and China?s agricultural exports while considering the competing suppliers? effect using a highly disaggregated HS 6-digit trade flow data in the structural gravity model. The empirical results indicate that the trade war caused about 8.6% and 17% reduction in U.S and China?s agricultural exports, respectively. However, global agricultural export was not negatively impacted during the trade war. Finally, the results also showed that tariff increases by U.S caused an increased in U.S competing suppliers? exports to China. Similarly, China?s retaliatory tariffs caused an increase in China?s competing suppliers? exports to the U.S.

The current pressure on water bodies is a structural problem that may compromise the satisfaction of future water demand and the good status of the natural environment. Activities such as wastewater reuse or desalination provide an additional source of water resources to meet demand without the need to increase natural water abstractions. In addition, reuse also contributes to improving water quality by limiting abstractions and reducing discharges. However, reuse has not been widespread as a source of supply in resource-rich contexts. In resource-abundant areas, the high cost of reusing water is a strong disincentive to its use, which puts the focus on reducing pollution through discharge without assessing the potential of reuse as an additional source of resources. The use of reclaimed water has a great margin for development that should be exploited in the coming years to obtain a guarantee of supply and an improvement in the environmental quality of water in the current context of increasing scarcity. However, the financial and environmental situation of reuse requires the involvement of the public sector. In this work, two instruments with the potential to facilitate the development of reuse have been studied. The first of these is photovoltaic self-consumption, in order to reduce the cost of energy consumption of wastewater treatment plants, given that this is their main financial operating cost. This possibility, however, has shown little capacity to reduce these costs since, except in the case of the floating photovoltaic installation, the cost of electricity from self-consumption is higher or similar to the market price. If we consider the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions derived from self-consumption, this alternative is much more competitive. The situation is, once again, of an activity that presents financial losses and environmental benefits derived from the current excess of emissions. The responsibility lies with the public sector in the same way as in the case of reuse. Water tariffs, as one of the main revenues from water treatment, is an instrument that can be evaluated with a view to increasing revenues through an increase in the price of water. The results obtained show large differences in the impact of such an increase depending on the region but make it clear that the potential for additional revenue from this possibility is small. This analysis has also shown that there is a problem in the current tariffs that reduces their effectiveness by not valuing the type of household. The problem lies not in the structure of the tariff or the number of household members, but in the characteristics of the household. By not taking these into account and calculating the bill without these details, the tariffs are not fully effective. In conclusion, both reuse and photovoltaic self-consumption are beneficial activities for society, but the financial costs involved in their implementation require the involvement of a public sector with a reduced capacity to increase current revenues.

The importing of tra, basa, and channel catfish at relatively lower prices has resulted in less catfish purchased from U.S. farmers and processors. Claims have been filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) accusing Vietnamese exporters of selling catfish to the U.S. at less than fair market value. Consequently, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled against Vietnam in 2003 and recommended tariffs from 37% to 64%. The primary objective of this research is to assess the impact of the tariffs on imported Vietnamese catfish on the U.S. catfish industry. In this study, we develop a supply and demand model of the U.S. catfish industry at the farm and wholesale level. In this model, we incorporate the effects of imports and estimate the short-run and long-run effects of changes in import prices on U.S. prices, quantities and welfare at the farm and wholesale level.

No description available.

This dissertation addresses specific issues on domestic and foreign trade in India. The three chapters of the dissertation are summarized as follows. In the first chapter, we analyze the existence of regional wage differences across Indian states, and how domestic trade affects those premiums. We follow a two-step estimation process used in the literature on Labor Economics. Our empirical results show that higher level of domestic imports tends to reduce the state premiums, and higher domestic exports increase those premiums, which is consistent with a specific factor Ricardo-Viner model. Thus, promoting domestic trade by with states specializing in certain industries may lead to higher welfare within the country. In addition, we find, state premiums depend negatively on state-level amenities measured by per-capita power availability, and does not depend on the richness of the State measured by per-capita Net State Domestic Product. In the second chapter, we look at the pattern and determinants of inter-state manufacturing trade in India. In the paper, we use information on 12 manufacturing industries categorized under 5 sectors from 2005 to 2013 with two-year intervals in between. We find that a 1\% decrease in income ratio between importing state net state domestic product and exporting state net domestic product has significantly varying effects on trade flows across the different sectors. For coal and minerals, the effect is 36.8%, for chemical it is 105%, for metals it is 31.5% and for cement, it is 36.8%. In all these case a decrease in income ratio increases exports. For machinery, a 1% decrease in income ratio lead to approximately 9.3% reduction in trade. This suggests that machineries which are capital goods are more imported by richer states, whereas the other goods which can be classified as intermediate inputs are more imported by poorer states. We also find that infrastructure promotes trade and on average infrastructure reduces the effect of contiguity by around 28.6% and promotes trade even between non-contiguous states. Therefore, infrastructure in the form of roadways, highways, and railways must be built and maintained to promote facilitate trade in India. In chapter three, we compare the effects of tariffs and non-tariff barriers on Indian exports. We use Indian HS-96 four-digit industry level export data from COMTRADE and tariff data from TRAINS database for the study. The overall result suggests that input tariffs have the largest effect on exports, followed by final tariff and foreign tariffs. A 1% reduction in input tariff leads to around 8.6% increase in exports. A similar reduction in final tariffs and foreign tariffs lead to 3.6% and 2.8% increase, respectively in exports. Thus, we conclude that the supply side effect of exports dominates the demand side effects. From a policy perspective, if countries try to improve trade balance by imposing high tariffs, it may lead to a negative effect on exports through the input tariff effects.

The following master thesis is conducted on behalf of The Royal Institute of Technology and Manetos AB with the purpose of investigating potential business markets for the new innovation, the Digital Circuit Breaker (DCB). The DCB is a mean for digitalising the distribution board, which is the middleman between households’ electrical appliances and the electrical grid. Through this digitalisation, a two-way communication between households and the grid can emerge, creating possibilities for demand side flexibility and energy management. The technology also provides more transparency for homeowners and real estate owners into households’ and buildings’ energy consumption, through monitoring and disaggregation. The study found that the energy landscape is facing significant challenges for the future. The integration of more intermittent energy, unpredictable energy consumption, new power consuming technologies and an aging grid were examples of challenges which potentially could jeopardize the security of electric supply. Many of these challenges however were also found to be issues which the DCB could potentially solve. It was also found that power-based tariffs spoke in favour of the DCB. Based on the overall empirical results, the study found that there is a need amongst utilities for demand side flexibility solutions and that there is a need amongst homeowners for electricity transparency and monitoring tools. This gives rise to a situation where the possibility to commercialize the DCB exists. By making the DCB a demand flexibility solution for utilities and a transparency and monitoring tool for homeowners, the needs for both utilities and homeowners can be fulfilled. The recommendations towards Manetos were to focus on the business markets electric utilities, more specifically municipally owned grid companies, and homeowners. It was found that the municipally owned grid companies focused more on socioeconomics than profit based grid companies. Furthermore, the municipally owned grid companies that had powerbased tariffs in place today showed great interest in the DCB as a tool for better managing electrical load and avoiding power peaks. For homeowners it was found that the people who owned electric vehicles or had direct electric heating showed great interest in an electricity management tool such as the DCB. The study also found real estate companies to be a business market of interest, however, not enough interviews were conducted in order to draw conclusions for the markets viability. Therefore, further investigation of the real estate company market is recommended. / Följande examensarbete har utförts på uppdrag av Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan och Manetos AB med syftet att undersöka potentiella affärsmarknader för en ny innovation kallad den Digitala Brytaren (DCB – Digital Circuit Breaker). DCBn är ett verktyg för att digitalisera elskåpet, vilket fungerar som en mellanhand mellan hushåll och elnätet. Denna digitalisering möjliggör för tvåvägskommunikation mellan hushåll och elnät, vilket öppnar upp möjligheter för efterfrågeflexibilitet och bättre energihushållning. Teknologin ökar även transparensen gällande byggnaders energikonsumtion, både för hushåll och fastighetsägare, genom övervakning och dissaggregering. Studien fann att energilandskapet står inför betydande utmaningar inför framtiden. Integrationen av mer intermittent energi, oförutsägbar energikonsumtion, nya teknologier och ett åldrande elnät är några exempel på utmaningar vilka kan komma att äventyra leveranssäkerheten i systemet. Många av dessa utmaningar visade sig dock vara problem som DCBn skulle kunna lösa. Studien fann även att effektbaserade tariffer, vilka idag används som ett verktyg för att motverka höga effektuttag, fungerar som incitament för DCBn och för en mer hållbar energikonsumtion generellt. Baserat på de övergripande empiriska resultaten fann studien att det finns ett behov för efterfrågeflexibilitets lösningar bland elnätsägare, samt ett behov för transparens- och kontroll-verktyg för villaägare. Detta ger möjlighet för att kommersialisera DCBn. Behoven hos både elnätsägare och villaägare kan uppnås genom att paketera DCBn som ett efterfrågeflexibilitets-, transparens- och övervaknings-verktyg. Rekommendationen till Manetos var att fokusera på kundsegmenten elnätsägare, främst de kommunalt ägda, samt villaägare. Studien fann att kommunalägda elnätsägare fokuserade mer på samhällsekonomi är de vinstdrivande elnätsföretagen. Vidare så fann studien att de kommunala elnätsägarna vilka idag använder effekt tariffer, hade ett stort intresse för DCBn som ett verktyg för att minska effekttoppar och uppnå bättre övervakning. För villaägare kunde det ses att de personer som ägde elbilar eller hade direktverkande el i bostaden visade störst intresse för ett verktyg såsom DCBn. Även kundsegmentet fastighetsägare visade sig vara av intresse, dock genomfördes inte ett tillräckligt stort antal intervjuer inom segmentet för att kunna dra slutsatser om marknadens lönsamhet. Därför föreslås undersökning av detta segment för vidare framtida studier, såväl som att undersöka potentialen för DCBn internationellt samt att inkludera ett större antal villaägare i studien.

With the grasp of a smart grid in sight, discussions have shifted the focus of system security measures away from generation capacity; apart from modifying the supply side, demand may also be exploited to keep the system in balance. Specifically, Demand Response (DR) is the concept of consumer load modification as a result of price signaling, generation adequacy, or state of grid reliability. Implementation of DR mechanisms is one of the solutions being investigated to improve the efficiency of electricity markets and to maintain system-wide stability.  In a liberalized electricity sector, with a smart grid vision that is committed to market-based operation, end-users have now become the focal point of decision-making at every stage of the process in producing, delivering and consuming electricity. DR program implementation falls within the smart grid domain: a complex socio-technical energy system with a multiplicity of physical, economic, political and social interactions. This thesis thus employs both qualitative and quantitative research methods in order to address the ways in which residential end-users can become active DR flexibility providers in deregulated European electricity markets. The research focuses on economic incentives including dynamic pricing contracts, dynamic distribution price signals and the aggregation of load flexibility for participation in the various short-term electricity markets. / <p>The Doctoral Degrees issued upon completion of the programme are issued by Comillas Pontifical University, Delft University of Technology and KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The invested degrees are official in Spain, the Netherlands and Sweden, respectively.</p><p>QC 20160225</p> / Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate in Sustainable Energy Technologies and Strategies (SETS)

A tariff policy is two-sided and may be compared to a wall. Every export from a country is some other country's import, and every tariff imposition, while apparently a domestic law to bring in a revenue or build up home industries, is, at the same time the means of keeping out some other country's exports. Too often, we look upon only one side of the wall--our own side. We are likely to regard the tariff as a means of controlling the inflow of foreign goods or as a means of raising revenue. But to understand the tariff policy and employ it to its fullest advantage or disadvantage we must be willing and capable of looking over the wall to understand the effect of a tariff--or any other commercial policy--on the aims and aspirations of other nations.