Kristen Binda A Donkey's Worth in South Africa: Domestic Laborer or Export Product; Socioeconomic impacts of China's skin trade on South African donkey owners Master Thesis Prague 2019 Abstract Within South Africa, rural communities use working animals instead of, or combined with mechanization for farming and chores. Development progress may have evaded these areas yet impacts them through globalization and China's expanded market power. The burgeoning market for ejiao, a popular Traditional Chinese Medicine made from boiling donkey hides is a growing issue. Wealthier Chinese consumers, a stalled South African rural population who missed development's benefits plus increasing economic and political engagements between the two countries allows a monopolized, and often exploitative market for donkeys. Politicians are eager to partner with Chinese ejiao retailers despite resulting decimation of donkey populations in some areas of Africa and destruction of livelihoods. I evaluate the value of donkeys as domestic laborers within South Africa along with how China's rapidly expanding market for ejiao and simultaneous consumption of donkeys has affected South Africa to answer in which context donkeys are more valuable. Interview responses and cost-benefit analyses are used to answer the research question and...

In incomplete market models, agents with homothetic preferences over one non-durable consumption good and exposed to idiosyncratic income shocks use precautionary savings as an instrument to smooth consumption across different contingencies. The magnitude and role of precautionary savings is therefore essential in the understanding of savings behavior of agents in such an economy. In this dissertation, I study the effects of consumption commitments on aggregate savings behavior within an otherwise standard incomplete market framework. In the first chapter, I explore the impact of a consumption commitment good like housing in an incomplete market framework (Aiyagari(1994), Huggett(1997)). Conceptually, I concentrate on the argument whether consumption of housing is associated with changes in risk aversion and therefore reflected in precautionary savings behavior of agents. I study an analytical framework that captures key elements in the data like (i) heterogeneity in earnings through fixed effects and uninsurable idiosyncratic shocks, (ii) fraction of income spent on housing, (iii) magnitude of moving costs. In the second chapter, I present a dynamic incomplete market model with a key feature: a commitment good (housing) with positive transaction (moving) costs. I focus on a stationary recursive equilibrium for agents in the benchmark economy. I calibrate the benchmark model to the US economy. I find that the benchmark economy replicates (i) the fraction of income spent on housing services, (ii) the fraction of people moving in each period. In the third chapter, I quantitatively evaluate the magnitude of precautionary savings in the presence of housing consumption in the benchmark economy and compare it to the standard incomplete market model. Results indicate that the presence of housing leads to higher aggregate precautionary savings by nearly 13% when compared to the Aiyagari specification. I find transaction costs to have significant impact on aggregate savings behavior.

Lower real incomes in the agricultural sector compared with other sectors of the economy have led to continued migration of rural people xi to urban areas. Despite this movement of surplus people from farm areas, incomes in the rural sector have failed to keep pace with those in urban areas. Fewer social amenities and other conveniences have also contributed to rural-urban migration. This reduction in rural population and the consequent reduction in the economic bases of many rural communities has raised some interesting questions about city and rural government consolidation. What sizes of cities should be encouraged in the rural areas, and how can those services and other amenities which are provided in urban cities be supplied to rural areas. For planning efforts to be successful in solving these problems, it is essential to have some knowledge of the sizes of cities which can provide public services and other amenities at least cost. It was assumed in this study that the tendency for farm families to move their families into the towns and ci t ies had been completed. It was hypothesized that as cities become larger economies of scale in the provision of public services will be downward sloping, but that transportation costs associated with travel to farms, marketing of crops, etc. will rise. xii The summation of a declining public service function and a rising transportation function would give an aggregate long-run average total cost function whose minimum would define the optimum city sizes. Mathematical models were developed to estimate these functions and the relationships between them. The models were then applied to five different types of farm enterprises and road configurations. The public service functions showed the expected U shape with the minimum occurring at approximately 130,000 to 140,000 population. The transportation functions were positive in nature but increasing at a decreasing rate. When the two functions were aggregated, the rate of change in the transportation function was much greater than that for the public service function causing the former to overpower the latter. Most studies of economies of scale based on per capita public service costs alone have concluded that cities must be very large to provide these services at minimum cost. The results of this study lead to the conclusion that when transportation costs are considered along with public service costs, the optimal size of city will be much smaller than is commonly believed. This suggests that there is still a place for small sized cities and that planners should think in terms of perhaps a threelevel hierarchy of cities. The city hierarchy might include a few large central cities, many service centers and numerous local towns. If small cities do not have large enough economic bases to provide adequate services it may be cheaper in the long run to provide financial aid in the form of subsidies rather than to incur the heavy transportation costs associated with larger city sizes.

To date, the most common pharmacological treatments for dementia are cholinesterase inhibitors and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonists (antidementia medications), which are associated with a delay in the progression of the cognitive and functional symptoms. Studies of the effects of antidementia medications on neuropsychological symptoms (NPS) show varying results. Presence of NPS can also affect the amount of time caregivers spend with persons with dementia, which can affect informal costs of the condition. This project used extant data from the longitudinal, population-based Cache County Study on Memory and Aging (CCSMA) and the Dementia Progression Study (DPS), which included permanent residents aged ≥ 65 of Cache County, Utah. Linear mixed models were used to assess the association between antidementia medications with informal costs and NPS. The first study examined whether antidementia medications were associated with a decrease in informal costs. Use of antidementia medications was not significantly associated with informal costs (expβ = .79, p = .090). When restricting the sample to only the participants who were of mild dementia severity at baseline, antidementia medications were associated with a 28% decrease in informal costs (expβ = .72, p = .039). The second study evaluated whether antidementia medications were associated with a decrease in NPS. Results indicated that use of antidementia medications was associated with a 28% increase in NPS (expβ = 1.28, p < .001). However, this association was no longer significant with the inclusion of covariates, in particular, the use of psychotropic medications. Use of any psychotropic medication was significantly associated with a 30% increase in Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) score. Overall, the use of antidementia medications may not significantly reduce informal costs or NPS. The use of antidementia medications may reflect patterns of use that are prompted by severity of dementia and NPS.

The replacement of the Meat Act 1981 by the Animal Products Act 1999 opened a new era for food safety management in New Zealand. Administering food legislation is now the sole responsibility of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority instead of being shared between the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Health as previously. At the core of the legislative change is the requirement for Risk Management Programmes (RMP). Every single animal primary processing business is required to have an RMP for each type of product. An RMP is required to embrace the principles of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP). While there have been some studies considering the implementation of HACCP in food businesses worldwide, there has not been any study focusing on HACCP adoption in New Zealand. The mandating of RMP has also made the implementation process more complex. On the other hand, it also brings new experience in terms of food safety management. This thesis examines the implementation process of HACCP/RMP in New Zealand. It also explores the interaction between food safety management and international competitiveness through an economic analysis of the impacts of the program on a New Zealand food processing industry. The meat industry was chosen as a case study as it is one of the first industries that had to comply with the first deadline of the implementation (July 2003). Also, being a significant export-oriented industry of New Zealand, the meat industry provides an ideal case for the purpose of this study. The thesis consists of four parts. Part I presents an introduction to the study including a review of international and national food safety issues, the relationship between food safety and trade and international competitiveness, and the HACCP economic literature. This background helps to shape the research objectives and methodology as described in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 discusses the design of the survey to collect plant experience regarding the implementation of HACCP/RMP in New Zealand. Part II analyses the experiences within the New Zealand meat industry regarding the implementation of HACCP/RMP. It discusses plant motivations to adopt the program and the implementation issues they are facing. Plant observations on the costs and benefits of the implementation are reported. Further, data gathered from the survey are used in a non-parametric analysis of the influences of the plant characteristics on the HACCP/RMP implementation process. The analysis provides implications for HACCP/RMP policy design. Part III presents the modelling techniques to quantify the costs and benefits of HACCP/RMP implementation. In Chapter 8, a quality-adjusted cost function is used to estimate the change in variable cost of production due to HACCP/RMP. It shows that this type of cost can make up a significant proportion of the total implementation cost. In Chapter 9, an export model is employed to analyse the impact of HACCP/RMP on meat industry export performance. The results show that the programme can bring a positive impact on exports. However, the magnitude of the impact depends on the status of existing food safety management before HACCP/RMP implementation. In Chapter 10, the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model is used to simulate the scenarios where market accesses to significant export destinations are lost when HACCP/RMP is not adopted. The estimated costs of these losses signal the potential benefits of HACCP/RMP. The research results show that HACCP/RMP can deliver a net benefit to the New Zealand meat industry. The thesis concludes with implications for policy design and future research directions. It signifies that the research findings, in addition to reporting an investigation into HACCP/RMP implementation process in New Zealand, provide an important foundation for future research on food safety and international competitiveness.

Equity agency costs are important to the firm and the management of these costs is a critical element of corporate governance, yet empirical research that focuses on the magnitude and impact of agency costs is limited. This thesis sets out to furnish empirical evidence in the area of corporate ownership with a particular focus on the magnitude of equity agency costs as well as the relation that exists between the largest shareholder in a firm and equity agency costs and between the largest shareholder and the dividend policy that a firm adopts. This thesis provides an empirical analysis of the effect of corporate ownership, together with other governance mechanisms on equity agency conflicts for the largest 500 Australian listed firms. The results from this analysis provide strong support for the view that equity agency costs are related to corporate ownership. Specifically, there is evidence of a significant non-linear relation between inside ownership and the proxies for agency costs. Further, the results demonstrate that other governance mechanisms, particularly board size, board leadership and short-term debt financing, are effective in improving the use of firm assets, yet they do not seem to restrain firm management from incurring excessive discretionary operating expenses. This thesis also extends the investigation of the corporate ownership-equity agency cost relation by focusing on the largest shareholder for 9,165 listed firms drawn from 43 countries around the world. The results suggest that cross-sectional variation in equity agency costs can be partly attributable to corporate ownership. Specifically, there is evidence of a statistically significant non-linear relation between the shareholding of the largest shareholder and the agency cost proxies. The type of the largest shareholder, i.e. whether the largest shareholder is an insider or a financial institution, is also important in analysis of this relation. Further, debt financing, dividend policy and legal origin vary in their impact on the agency cost proxies. This thesis also investigates the interaction between the largest shareholder and dividend policy for 8,279 listed firms drawn from 37 countries around the world. Consistent with previous studies, the results suggest that firms are more likely to pay dividends when profitability is high, debt is low, investment opportunities are limited, or when the largest shareholder is not an insider. It is also apparent that largest shareholding and dividend payout are related and that, consistent with the extant literature, legal system does matter in dividend policy decisions. Together, the results imply that equity agency costs vary with corporate ownership though this relation remains, of course, the subject of continuing investigation in finance. A major contribution of this thesis is demonstrating that corporate ownership, particularly the largest shareholder, plays a pivotal role in controlling agency costs. Accordingly, this suggests the following policy implication: by improving the legal environment and regulatory constraints imposed on large shareholders as well as legal protection for minority shareholders, the efficiency gains generated from large shareholder control can be translated into higher firm valuation to the benefit of all shareholders in the firm.

<p><strong>Abstract</strong><strong></strong></p><p>With the Introduction of the internet and human technological advancement, our everyday lives have changed dramatically over the past 20 years and because of this, how we communicate, form social networks and purchase or sell goods have also developed.</p><p>In the light of this, we have completed this thesis which concerns the influence of the internet and the possibilities of forming long lasting relationships between businesses and customers through what we have described as ‘Locking in’ the customer. This is done by forming ‘Psychological Switching Costs’ that make the cognitive process of switching too expensive or un-wanted by the customer. In order to develop an understanding of this we saw it as prudent to interview senior managers of businesses that operate mainly on the internet to discover if they attempt such strategic moves in, ‘Locking in’ customers. Thus forming the research question; How are Companies based on the internet using Psychological Switching Costs as a strategy to Lock in the customers?</p><p>The process by which the information was collected was through a qualitative method and semi-structured interviews. We found from the respondents that were interviewed that when it comes to operating a business on the internet it is important to consider, Transparency, Two-way communication, Simplicity, Agility and Flexibility in creating a loyal customer who is positively locked in. These were the strategies considered by the respondents to have an effect on customers.</p><p>One of the most interesting points that were made was that if the customer was locked in to the business, the business did not have to be as dynamic. Thus, according to the respondents, Psychological Switching Costs do have an influence on how they form strategy to Lock In customers. In that it can be beneficial to attempt to Lock in customers rather than develop other Dynamic Capabilities. This factor seems very relevant when considering communication, agility and flexibility, in that by forming relationships and strategies directly to the customer these companies are creating something that is difficult to substitute, un-imitable for their competitors and convenient to the customer.</p>

Using a panel data set on the local telecommunications companies reporting to the FCC for 1988-95, this paper investigates the subadditivity of the cost function, as well as technical and allocative inefficiency of the U.S. local telephone industry. The subadditivity test on the estimated translog cost function indicates that certain subdivisions of the monopolized regional markets between two hypothetical firms might lower total cost. However, the evidence is not as clear cut as in an earlier study by Shin and Ying (1992, RAND), with savings from a two-firm industry being negative on average over all possible two-firm output vector combinations. The results of the subadditivity test suggest that companies with a relatively high share of residential customers experience higher degrees of scale inefficiency. Specification of technical inefficiency as fixed company-specific effects results in a different efficiency ranking than the specification with random effects. The estimation results for the generalized (non-minimum) cost model suggest that capital is being under-employed relative to residual inputs. This finding does not support the theoretical prediction that an industry under rate of return regulation tends to over-employ capital relative to other inputs. The subadditivity test for the generalized cost function that accounts for technical and allocative inefficiency generated a much more favorable estimates of cost reductions from the subdivision of the monopolized markets than the test on the conventional specification of the cost function. The estimated losses from technical, allocative and scale inefficiency reflect potential gains from competition. / Graduation date: 1999

Thesis (Ph.D. (Human Movement Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to map out and investigate how the banking sector affects a customer’s willingness to change bank, and what the switching costs are for a customer when making these changes. A case study was performed through qualitative and quantitative questionnaires and interviews. The qualitative part was carried out to create hypotheses. The hypotheses was tested in a quantitative survey to be able to either accepted or rejected these them. When merging the hypotheses with the performed survey the authors came to the conclusion that there are two major switching costs that affect a customer’s willingness to change bank. These two are financial and non-financial costs, the financial cost can appear as good economical conditions provided by the bank and the non-financial cost through the relation between the bank and a customer. Further, the authors have created a tool to be used by a bank in order to achieve a high amount of quality and also in what dimension they have to interact with their customers’ needs in order to keep them loyal and satisfied.</p> / <p>Syftet med denna uppsats var att kartlägga vilka inträdes- och utträdesbarriärer som påverkar kundernas rörlighet på den privata bankmarknaden samt beskriva hur ban-ker kan agera för att erhålla och bibehålla nya kunder.Problemfrågan som lyder: ”Hur kan en bank öka tillflödet och bibehålla bankkunder genom att använda sig av inträdes- och utträdesbarriärer på den privata bankmark-naden?” framkom delvis genom diskussion med fallföretagets VD och delvis utifrån vetenskapliga artiklar. Både genom banker och också konsumentbankbyrån skall det vara relativt enkelt för kunderna att byta bank, dock tenderar bankkunderna till att stanna kvar på sin befintliga bank även då de skulle kunna erhålla bättre villkor och avgifter genom ett byte. Med anledning av detta så framkom det att det existerar bar-riärer på bankmarknaden som hindrar bankbyte för kunderna, med det som bank-grund ansåg vi det intressant att analysera om banken kan påverka dessa för egen vinnig.I teoridelen beskriver vi fyra olika teorier vilka vi använder som verktyg för att be-svara vår problemfråga. Den första teorin innefattar kundens beslutsprocess för att identifiera vilka steg kunden går igenom när beslut skall tas. Genom att göra detta kan vi se att många kunder redan har gått igenom flera av stegen i processen och de väntar på rätt tillfälle. Den andra teorin behandlar kundens bedömning av kvalitet och enligt teorin finns det tre olika dimensionen av kvalitet, dessa är teknisk, funktionell och image. Dessa tre dimensioner använder vi i en modell som vi skapat som slut-sats, modellen skall fungera som ett verktyg för banker för att uppnå nöjda kunder. Den tredje teorin behandlar kundlojalitet, denna teori hänvisar tillbaka till den förra då den illustrerar hur viktigt det är att kundens upplevda kvalitet stämmer överens med den förväntade kvalitén. Den fjärde teorin belyser inträdes- och utträdesbarriä-rer och även utifrån perspektiven finansiell och icke finansiell. Genom att dela in dem efter de perspektiven har det varit möjligt att ta fram två stora barriärer, en från varje perspektiv.Genom tre kvalitativa intervjuer med personer på olika positioner inom det valda fallföretaget samt en enkätundersökning riktad mot bankkunder har den empiriska delen skapats. Den information som intervjuerna genererat har vi använt oss av för att utveckla de hypoteser som illustreras i avsnittet 4.5. Dessa hypoteser prövade vi genom en enkätundersökning riktad mot 80 bankkunder.Vi kom fram till att om en bank vill öka tillflödet av bankkunder bör banken identifi-era de största inträdes- och utträdesbarriärerna. De två största barriärerna som vi identifierat är en finansiell barriär (bra villkor) och den andra var en icke finansiell barriär (relationen till banken). Dessa två stora barriärer är de som påverkar de got-ländska bankkunderna till störst del på marknaden i valet av bank. Ett annat intres-sant resultat var att lojalitet är ett diffust begrepp på bankmarknaden varken banken eller bankkunden kan definiera begreppet samtidigt visar resultatet från enkätunder-sökningen att majoriteten anser sig lojala mot sin bank men att de inte tjänar något på att vara lojal.</p>