We present versions of the Frank-Wolfe method for linearly constrained convex programs, in which consecutive search directions are made conjugate. Preliminary computational studies in a MATLAB environment applying pure Frank-Wolfe, Conjugate direction Frank-Wolfe (CFW), Bi-conjugate Frank-Wolfe (BFW) and ”PARTANized” Frank-Wolfe methods to some classical Traffic Assignment Problems show that CFW and BFW compare favorably to the other methods. This spurred a more detailed study, comparing our methods to Bar-Gera’s origin-based algorithm. This study indicates that our methods are competitive for accuracy requirements suggested by Boyce et al. We further show that CFW is globally convergent. We moreover point at independent studies by other researchers that show that our methods compare favourably with recent bush-based and gradient projection algorithms on computers with several cores. / <p>Updated from "E-publ" to published. QC 20130625</p>

Use Gary Gereffi's Global Commodity Chains to explain and analyse Global apparel industry and Taiwan apparel industry,besides to describe the transitionary role of Taiwan in Global apparel Commodity Chains.

This thesis analyzes the effects on the price impacts of the Commodity Procurement Program when canned peaches are purchased. The main objective is to assess the effects of canned peaches purchases on the farm-level price of canning peaches. Interviews of the industries that participate in the Commodity Procurement Program are used to understand how the industry interacts with commodity procurements and to evaluate if the industry feels that commodity procurements have a significant effect on procured fruits' and vegetables' prices to help better judge the overall effectiveness of the commodity procurement program. A theoretical model of the Commodity Procurement Program's effects on the vertically related markets is constructed. Data are collected for the processor-level and farm-level peach markets. The results provide evidence that the quantity demanded of commodity procurements for canned peaches has a statistically significant negative effect on both the partial and final processor-level price. Also the results indicate that the quantity demanded of commodity procurements for canned peaches does not have a statistically significant effect on the final farm-level price. The results from the Breusch-Pagan tests for the processor-level partial reduced form price equation, the processor-level final reduced form price equation and the farm-level final reduced form price equation indicate that there is no significant evidence that the quantity demanded of commodity procurements stabilizes or destabilizes the farm-level or processor-level price. / Master of Science

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The final thesis will focus on explanation of basic knowledge regarding futures contracts trading and possible ways of trading them as the basis for the analytical part. Analytical part is based on real-time trading of stock, currency, index and commodity futures during several days and intraday trading. In several time periods we will focus on the results of portfolio made by these futures traded on american stock markets. In the end we will compare the results of trading with the opportunity cost of the investor and evaluate his behavior on the futures market.

This thesis is a collection of four separate papers with a core theme: commodity futures manipulation. It aims to answer three important questions. How vulnerable are futures markets to manipulation? What are the effects of manipulation? How should futures markets be regulated? We first set up a one-shot game-theoretical model (Chapter 2) with certain classes of heterogeneously informed traders to consider how vulnerable a futures market to manipulation is, what influences this vulnerability and how manipulation affects the functioning of the market. This model predicts that futures manipulation may occur in equilibrium with a positive possibility if the deliverable supply is less than perfectly elastic, and the large trader possesses a certain amount of private information (here relating to his "type"), and more important, the functioning of futures markets is adversely affected by manipulation. In Chapter 3, we attempt to extend the above analysis into a dynamic context with a slightly modified market structure with the purpose to show how a large trader can manipulate a market through dynamically strategic trading when the hedger trades rationally, observes contract delivery process and may opt out of futures trading. This model also predicts a positive probability of manipulation in equilibrium. One interesting result from this model is that the adverse effects of manipulation may be lessened due to the introduction of exogenous uncertainty in a futures market. This may justify certain types of regulation against manipulation initiated by exchanges or regulators, such as trading for liquidation only, emergency price or position limits, etc. Chapter 4 moves to investigate empirically the economic effects of the alleged Sumitomo manipulation on the London Metal Exchange (LME). The results support our theoretical analysis. We find the evidence that the manipulation not only reduced the accuracy of "price discovery", but also influenced the basis and basis risk in the futures market. Thus the functioning of the LME was undermined. Furthermore, by comparing the actual LME cash price with a VAR forecast, we find that the LME cash prices were generally above the forecast prices during the period of alleged manipulation, but not significantly. Finally, we discuss the regulatory implications of futures manipulation in Chapter 5, and argue that manipulation should be one of the major concerns for futures regulation. We also undertake a comparative study of futures regulation in the US and the UK, and propose specifically how cost-effective futures (derivatives) regulation may be achieved in the UK.

This dissertation investigates the commodity tax and corporate income tax. Chapter 1 provides a general introduction and Chapter 2 consists of a literature review. Chapters 3 and 4 analyze how state governments determine their commodity tax rate and respond to other state and federal government tax rate changes. We construct and estimate the household utility function and the state government objective function, and compute the slope of the reaction functions to evaluate the tax interactions between state governments and between state and federal governments. We find that horizontal tax interactions are very small and that state governments do not change their tax rate even though the neighboring state governments change their tax rates. On the other hand, vertical tax interactions are positive, and if the federal government increases its tax rate, state governments also raise their tax rates to preserve their tax base. Chapter 5 discusses how the corporate income tax affects firm location and exit decisions. We compute and compare three kinds of individual firm-level tax rates and examine the effect of these corporate income taxes on firm location and exit behaviour. We find that each tax rate has a different distribution across provinces and that using a different tax provides a different interpretation of tax effects. In most cases, high corporate income tax rates are found to discourage firm location choice and encourage firm exit decisions. / Thesis (Ph.D, Economics) -- Queen's University, 2011-02-28 15:19:49.8

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1993. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-66). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1966. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

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