M.Com. (Economics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the cost to prevent CO2 emissions in the Green Investment Scheme. The research grant program, funded through the sale of surplus emission of bills under the Kyoto Protocol, is briefly framed in the overall context of climate policy (funding sources, AAU units, rules of emission trading, etc.). The thesis analysis the specific projects and then comparing the results obtained with the assumption of the Ministry of Environment on the possible development of the program. The thesis deals with the reduciton of CO2 emissions over the life of action based on available data. The analysis seeks to quantify of the average cost of one ton reduction of CO2 emissions.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This analysis addresses the value of a submarine base in the Arctic in relation to the growing Soviet threat in that region and the feasibility of constructing and operating such a submarine base. Location, command and control, force operation, logistic support and appropriate force size are elements of the analysis. Also included is the cost effectiveness of the Arctic submarine base both in peacetime and in wartime situations. Based upon this limited analysis, such a base appears to be only marginally cost effective in peacetime but substantially so in wartime. / http://archive.org/details/analysisofbuildi00best / Lieutenant, United States Navy

This research project aims to determine whether fully subsidised BNG house developed within an integrated development such as Cosmo City can fetch sufficient value to bridging the ‘gap’ between BNG house and an affordable house and thereby assisting a house hold to leverage itself up the housing ladder. Based on Cosmo City as a case study the research investigates real value verse perceived value of BNG houses within an integrated development. The information and data collected includes; the replacement cost of a BNG house, Cosmo City’s BNG residents perception of value, professional commentary on BNG house value, capital growth within the entire development of Cosmo City, a comparable analysis of three houses within Cosmo City and official Municipal Valuations. The literature review reveals that the creation of integrated developments are the way forward to urban and community sustainability, as they provide a platform for social and economic development by alleviating poverty and assist with wealth creation. This is achieved by constructing environments which have better access to amenities and work opportunities and which provide for lifestyle and income changes. The analysis of the research determined that a BNG house has real value (replacement cost), perceived value, (BNG and professional interviews) and market value (Municipal Valuation) and should command sufficient value as a result of the attributes associated with integrated development’s, which include mobility, accessibility, service levels and locality. The conclusion is that my hypothesis cannot be substantiated as yet as a BNG house cannot be sold or purchased due to the pre-emptive clause which restricts the sales of BNG houses for a period that is no sales of BNG houses have as yet taken place. However, the research does determine that BNG house has both perceived and real value.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to analyse the cost and profit efficiency of banks in South Africa. The cost-to-income ratio has always been used in the South African banking sector in measuring efficiency. However this approach is very simplistic and does not provide enough insight on real profit efficiency. This research uses a stochastic frontier model to determine both cost and profit efficiency of four large and four small, South African-based banks. The results of the study show that South African banks have significantly improved their cost efficiencies between 2000 and 2005. However efficiency gains on profitability, over the same time period, have not been significant. No bank was found to be superior to another in terms of achieving efficiency gains in cost reduction and profitability. A weak positive correlation was found to exist between the cost and profit efficiencies, with the most cost efficient banks also being most profit efficient. With regard to bank size, cost efficiency declined with increasing bank size.

Student Number : 0300191P - PhD thesis - School of Accountancy - Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management / The main objective of the study has been to provide new insights into ongoing recent studies examining the impact of stock market liberalization at both macro and micro (firm) levels. The study focused on a single country, South Africa, whose exchange, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), liberalized in the 1990s. Consistent with empirical evidence from other studies the study finds support at market, firm and sectoral level for the prediction by international asset pricing models that stock market liberalization reduces the cost of capital. More important, the study makes five major contributions to the literature on the impact of stock market liberalization in emerging markets. First, it demonstrates that some emerging market specific risks such as political and economic risks can act stronger binding constraints to foreign investment than direct legal barriers which foreign investors are frequently able to circumvent. The second contribution is the observation that there are some firms (in the minority however) that will experience a significant increase in the cost of capital following liberalization, a situation where the local price of risk is higher than the global price of risk, contrary to international asset pricing theory. The third contribution is that it has been empirically proved that the reduction in firms’ cost of capital following stock market liberalization is permanent. It is not a transitory phenomenon. The fourth contribution of the study highlights the influence of firm specific characteristics such as size of the firm, book-to-market ratios and leverage ratios on firms’ response to impact of stock market liberalization. The preference for large firms by foreign investors is supported, contrary to Merton’s (1987) recognition hypothesis, and hence highlights the inconclusiveness of the debate on whether stock market liberalization benefits both large firms and small firms. The fifth contribution is the observation that the effective liberalization date is not the same for all firms but varies from firm to firm.

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death worldwide (Kishore et al., 2011), therefore how to prevent and treat this condition is of great importance to health care professionals and patients. Patients struggle to afford these medications which can ultimately influence their health outcome. Treatment of cardiovascular disease conditions may require several drugs and this causes an increase in health cost to the patient (Burapadaja Siriporn et al., 2007).The promotion of the use of generic medication and generic substitution is seen as one of the approaches to improve access to cardiovascular medications (Kishore et al., 2011; Kesselheim et al., 2008). Generic medications play an important role in reducing health care costs and in increasing access to healthcare. A large number of branded or innovator drugs and molecules are no longer protected by their patents or will be reaching patent expiration soon. Therefore there is an increased interest in research on generic drug competition and its effect on the market. Once generics enter the market, they have many effects on areas such as market share, prices and quantities sold (Gonzalez et al., 2008). The objective of this study was to determine the usage patterns of generic cardiovascular medications and possible cost savings that can be achieved by maximum generic substitution in the private community pharmacy health care environment in the Johannesburg area. Ten oral solid drug pairs experiencing generic substitution were investigated at four private community pharmacies that provided pharmaceutical products and services. The study was a quantitative, retrospective study of medical claims. Data on computerized drug claims were provided by a South African pharmaceutical service provider. Data was extracted and analysed of patients who receive one or more cardiovascular drugs for the period of June 2009 to May 2011. The results of this study showed that the cardiovascular (CVS) medications under study accounted for 21 817 of the total number of 282 109 items dispensed at all pharmacies for the study period which equals to 7.7%. Of the total of 21 817, the innovator CVS drugs accounted for a volume of 6 527 (29.9%) and the generics 15 290 (70.1%) of all the study CVS items dispensed. There was a decline in terms of percentage of innovator products (9.7%) and a corresponding increase in generic products by the same percentage from beginning to end of the study period in terms of items dispensed. The total cost of the study CVS innovator and generic drugs was R3 249k. This accounted for 7.4% of the total cost of all items dispensed for all the study pharmacies which was R43 672k. Of the total of R3 249k, a cost of R1 240k (38.2%) accounted for the innovator items and R2 009k (61.8%) accounted for the generic items. The average cost per CVS item for the entire study period was R149. The innovator average cost per item dispensed was R190 (±R93.28) and for generic R131 (±R59.55). There was a 9.9% decrease in percentage of innovator total cost and a corresponding 9.9% increase in percentage of generic cost from the beginning until end of the study period. The following was also revealed: the average cost per item decreased by R18 (from R156 during P1 to R138 for P6). The average cost per innovator item dispensed decreased by R10 (from R191 during P1 to R181 for P6) and the average cost per generic item decreased by R14 (from R138 during P1 to R124 for P6). The cost prevalence index (CPI) for innovator items was fairly expensive compared to generic medicine because the value of CPI was larger than 1. Potential cost savings of R576k would have been achieved if the least expensive generic was substituted during each period for the entire study period. If the most expensive generic was substituted, the potential cost savings would have been R448k. (Note: k =1000). Recommendations in this field of study for future research were also done.

Background: Maternity services in South Africa like in many developing countries remains a challenge. The high mortality and morbidity rates recorded in the confidential enquiries to maternal death (CEMD) reports in South Africa support a need for more studies to be done to improve maternal health services. Although clinical procedures are an integral part of the maternal health services, little is known about the current-status of clinical procedures performed in the maternity units of district hospitals and related resource utilisation. The apparently “free” maternity services at government hospitals involve substantial hidden and unpredicted costs, which is not quantified. Aims of the study: To describe the cost of the specific clinical procedures performed at the maternity unit of Thebe District Hospital. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study design involving a retrospective record review of all maternity patient records for a one-month period in 2009. The month of September is mid-month for the financial year and was chosen as it is reflected a stable month in terms of financial performance. The costing aspect of this study was based on the National Health Reference Price List and UPFS. Data was analysed with NCSS software. Results: The study found that NVD was the main clinical procedures, which is in line with the district hospital package. The CS rate was within acceptable norm but a significant number of BBA is of concern and would require further exploration. The majority of the patients who delivered at this unit are black, unemployed and had no medical aid. Most of them arrived by ambulance although it was not clear whether these patients were coming directly from home or were referred by PHC clinics and CHCs. There were no maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity during the study period. This study documented the direct cost of clinical procedures performed at a district hospital. The Human resources was the main cost driver. The calculated cost for this study was far lower than the costs prescribed in NHRPL for NVD and CS but higher than UPFS. This study highlighted the need for revising the UPFS. Conclusion: The research findings will inform the resource needs for performing specified clinical procedures in maternity section at the Thebe District Hospital and will hopefully be used as a benchmark for maternity sections at all district hospitals in Thabo Mofutsanyana District and elsewhere. It has provided reasonable indications about the costs of each procedure and evidence can be used to determine the costs of each procedure in various district hospitals in the country and worldwide. It can further be utilised to do proper planning for our district hospitals in the province and develop the scientific criteria for resource allocation.

Thesis advisor: Christopher Maxwell / Though much research has been done on the subject of substituting nurse practitioners for physicians as health care providers, both analytic methods and results have been inconsistent. Various studies have shown nurse practitioners to provide equivalent or improved care especially in primary care settings. However, no consensus has been reached on whether or not and under what conditions this substitution is economically efficient. Because of variation in productivity and substitution rates, the economic viability of nurse practitioners must be assessed on a department specific basis, taking into account differences in nurse practitioners’ job descriptions.One specific area this economic efficiency could be assessed in is in the diagnosis of ear infections. A study conducted through the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey showed that 15% of pediatric visits included a diagnosis of middle ear infection (Freid, 1998). If employed properly, nurse practitioners could be used to achieve significant cost savings in this area.This thesis is intended to address the economic efficiency of nurse practitioners as compared to physicians in diagnosing ear infections. First nurse practitioner quality in this specific area will be assessed by comparing nurse practitioner diagnosis error rates to physician error rates based on surveys asking both types of providers to provide diagnoses based on tympanic membrane images collected through previous telemedicine visits. Next the economic practicality of employing nurse practitioners in this field will be assessed in terms of the relative costs of these errors, measured as the cost of unnecessary prescriptions in the case of overdiagnosis and the cost of an unnecessary follow-up visit in the case of underdiagnosis. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Economics Honors Program. / Discipline: Economics.

Thesis advisor: Utku Unver / This dissertation consists of three theoretical and empirical essays. In all essays strategic behavior is a key factor. The first essay tries to explain certain pricing behaviors in cellular communication markets using social interactions as a basis for modeling. The second essay estimates the demand in the Turkish dishwasher market. It utilizes the complaint call rate for a firm as a new explanatory variable in the estimation process. The last essay examines the effects of market share restrictions on the cost reduction efforts of firms in a market. The first essay develops a model of competition in cellular network markets. People's choices are investigated in their social environments with differing utilities for different calls, which creates the distinctive part of this article. People get higher utilities from talking to people who are closer to them in the social environment. In the constructed market, different tariff types, per unit pricing and two part tariffs are examined for the existence of non-monopoly equilibria. In the well-known papers of the literature, different prices for in-line and between-line calls are justified with different cost structures for in-line and between-line calls. This essay is different from the literature because it is able to explain price discrimination with customer necessities and without cost differences. For per unit charging, assuming each firm has different costs which are larger than zero, the smaller cost firm gets a higher share with lower prices in the equilibrium. For two part tariffs with costs higher than zero and different from each other, a two firm equilibrium is reached in which the higher cost firm charges higher prices and a lower fixed fee, whereas the lower cost firm charges lower prices and a higher fixed fee. The second chapter is the empirical essay of this dissertation. In demand estimations, unobserved characteristics like perceived quality or after-sale service quality of products have created omitted variable bias. In the essay, the complaint call rate for a product is offered as a proxy to solve the endogeneity problem that arises from unobserved heterogeneity. Using demand and supply estimations of the Turkish dishwasher market, the complaint call rate is shown to be a valid proxy to solve the problem. Use of this proxy is possible under less restrictive assumptions than the popular instrumental variable method, which is also offered for the solution of the same problem. In addition, the model constructed in the essay has strong testable implications and is demonstrated to be consistent with a stable market of a leader firm and followers. Demand and supply elasticities of dishwashers are estimated for Turkey, which can help durable goods firms to use their investment and marketing resources more efficiently in emerging countries. The third essay studies the effects of market share restrictions on research and development effects of firms in a market. Market share of firms are closely followed by regulatory authorities and restrictions are applied in many cases around the world. This essay investigates if these restrictions affect the cost reduction efforts of the firms in a market. The theoretical model constructed shows that under the no exit assumption, market share restrictions lower the level of competition and possible rewards from R&D efforts, therefore causing smaller levels of R&D efforts both for big and small firms in the market. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.