Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-114). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

<p> The research examines how firms&rsquo; price premiums are affected by performance in facility and community level environmental certification programs. Relying on a propensity score matching approach aimed at correcting for self-selection bias, I analyze two major voluntary environmental certification programs in Costa Rica: the Blue Flag Program, which provides certification for coastal communities, and the Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST) program, which certifies beyond-compliance environmental performance by individual hotels. To do this, I use panel data for the entire population of hotels and beach communities in Costa Rica between 2001-2008 (n=3,500 hotel-year observations). The majority of studies of voluntary certification programs tend to analyze individual programs and their associated effect on participant firm facilities, leaving aside the environmental performance of the community where participant firm operate. This research seeks to quantify the combined price premium effects of two voluntary environmental certification programs: one focused on firm facilities and another focused on communities. </p><p> Findings of the study suggest: (1) a lack of a significant price premium for firms showing low certified facility-level environmental performance even when they are located in communities receiving collective environmental certification (in the form of the Blue Flag). (2) Significant price premiums for firms showing superior certified facility-level environmental performance. And (3), most interestingly, community level environmental certification only increases the magnitude of the price premiums for firms showing the highest individual facility-level environmental performance. That is, to gain the greatest price premiums from a certified &ldquo;green&rdquo; reputation, it is necessary for firm to be located in host community receiving collective environmental certification and to also show the highest levels of certified facility-level environmental performance.</p>

The issue of market delineation and power in the wholesale electric energy market is explored using three separate approaches: two of these are analyses of spatial pricing data to explore the functional size of the markets, and the third is a series of experimental tests of the effects of different cost structures and market mechanisms on oligopoly strength in those markets. An equilibrium model of spatial network competition is shown to yield linear relationships between spatial prices. A data set comprising two years of spatial weekly peak and off-peak prices and weather for 6 locations in the Western States Coordinating Council and the Southwest Power Pool is subjected to a pairwise cointegration analysis. The use of dummy variables to account the the flow directions is found to significantly improve model performance. The second analytical technique utilizes the extraction of principal components from a spatial price correlation matrix to identify the extent of natural markets. One year of daily price observations for eleven locations within the WSCC is compiled and eigenvectors are extracted and subjected to oblique rotation, each of which is then interpreted as representing a separate geographic market. The results show that two distinct natural markets, correlated at 84%, account for over 96% of the variation in the spatial prices in the WSSC. Together, the findings support the assertion that the wholesale electricity market in the Western U.S. is large and highly competitive. The experimental analysis utilizes a radial three node network in which suppliers located at the outer nodes sell to buyers located at the central node. The parameterization captures the salient characteristics of the existing bulk power markets, and includes cyclical demand, transmission losses, as well as fixed and avoidable fixed costs for all agents. Treatments varied the number of sellers, the avoidable fixed cost structures, and the trading mechanism. Results indicated that sealed bid markets greatly reduced the ability of sellers to exert market power. Overall the existence of higher avoidable fixed costs tended to ameliorate market power effects.

This dissertation studies the market effects of competition and cooperation between otherwise noncooperative firms. The first two chapters present theoretical treatments of joint ventures and mergers, respectively, while the third chapter applies sophisticated econometric techniques to market data generated in controlled experiments. A common thread ties the theoretical chapters: cooperation can be socially beneficial under some fairly general conditions. These conditions are derived and elucidated in each chapter. Despite potential social gains from combinations of otherwise competitive firms, consumers may nevertheless experience increasing prices. The goal of antitrust regulation is to ensure the competitive operation of markets, for the sake of consumers as well as non-combining competitors. The ensuing tension between social efficiency and higher post-combination prices is studied in detail in both of the first two chapters. In the case of a production joint venture, it is shown that relationships which are closer than "arm's length" can be socially optimal, although antitrust regulation clearly discourages such relationships. In the case of mergers, it is shown that combinations of large firms can not only increase aggregate welfare, but may increase consumer welfare under entirely plausible conditions. These results support a broad, rule-of-reason approach to interrival cooperation. The third chapter studies the tendency of non-cooperating, financially motivated subjects in controlled experiments to play as though they observe a particular adjustment process. There have been many experimental and field studies of the Cournot model, but the process of adjustment to equilibrium predictions has not been a major focus. Studying the observed play of experimental subjects in the Cournot environment is important because it can allow for greater understanding of where the model's assumptions fail in the field. Understanding adjustment can require some relatively advanced econometric tools, which are discussed and employed in the third chapter. It is shown that subjects do not individually conform to theoretical adjustment predictions, but behavior at the market level does approach predictions fairly often.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--State University of New York at Buffalo, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-141).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also in a digital version from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-68). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1987. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-05, Section: A, page: 1222. Adviser: David M. Rosen.

The Problem: Given a set of glass furnaces, producing 3 colours of glass and grouped together in factories, to find a method of calculating a stable pattern of timing of normal rebuilds over a seven year period. Objective: To minimize the total cost of production and repairs Constraints (1) No two furnaces in the same factory can be rebuilt in the same quarter* (2) No two amber or green furnaces to be rebuilt in the same quarter; no more than two white furnaces to be rebuilt in the same quarter. (5) Given sales demands for each colour glass in each quarter. The sum of the production over 3 consecutive quarters must be greater than or equal to the sum of the demand over these 3 consecutive quarters. Initially an analytic approach of monitoring the variables that effect cost and production was tried. It became apparent that some essential data on furnace behaviour was either not in existence or at a very experimental stage - in particular data on furnace life expectancy and ageing effects on costs and production. In its place the following method evolved. I would be given a number of optional schedules for each furnace along with data on production and costs. Out of these one has to choose one schedule for each furnace in such a way that we have a minimum cost combination that satisfies all the constraints. We now have a different problem to solve. The simplified problem: Given a set of glass furnaces, producing 3 colours of glass and grouped together in factories, and given one set of possible repair schedules for each furnace. To find a method of choosing one repair schedule for each furnace to give a stable pattern of timing of normal rebuilds over a seven year period. Objective and Constraints are the same as before.