This thesis consists of three self-contained chapters covering topics in consumer theory. The first chapter presents an estimator for a Marshallian demand function which not only obeys all of the standard assumptions of consumer theory but will also converge to any true demand function which also obeys these standard assumptions. The second chapter explores Giffen behavior in the context of financial assets. The chapter finds that an agent with Maxmin preferences almost always displays Giffen behavior in some financial environments. Giffen behavior is also characterized for other classes of preferences. The last chapter, coauthored with one of my supervisors: John K.-H. Quah, develops a revealed preference test for weakly separable preferences in the spirit of Sydney Afriat. Unlike previous tests, ours does not impose concavity and applies to nonlinear budgets.

Organic consumption is currently experiencing a boom of sales on the Swedish and international market. Whether this occurrence is a contemporary trend or if it will prove to be sustainable in the future, the demographics of the so-called ‘green consumer’ are of great interest for economic agents on markets such as foods and textiles. Therefore, the writers have chosen to highlight this topic by focusing on the relation between income and purchase of organic products.. Economic data for the Swedish market has been gathered and analyzed through various statistical and macroeconomic perspectives, where the basis has been Kelvin Lancaster’s models of consumer choice theory. The results showed that income does not generally have a direct effect on the choice of purchasing an organic good in Sweden, although it cannot be fully dismissed when discussing the demographics of the green consumer. Other factors are of importance as well, including education, marital status and geographical location. The study of the green consumer is a rather new area and this study, along with its previous counterparts, has proved it difficult to draw any firm conclusions regarding the characteristics of the organic consumer. Therefore, future studies within this area will have plenty to discover about a subject of increasing interest and importance on the market. / Ekologisk konsumtion upplever för närvarande en försäljningsboom på den svenska och internationella marknaden. Oavsett om detta är en tillfällig trend eller om det kommer bestå såväl i framtiden, är demografierna av de såkallade ’gröna konsumenterna’ av stort intresse för ekonomiska agenter inom marknader såsom textil och dagligvaror. Därför har författarna valt att framhäva detta ämne genom att fokusera på relationen mellan inkomst och inköp av ekologiska produkter. Ekonomisk data för den svenska marknaden har samlats in och analyserats genom olika statistiska och makroekonomiska perspektiv, där basen har varit Kelvin Lancasters modeller av konsumentteori. Resultaten har visat på att inkomst generellt inte har en direkt effekt på valet att köpa en ekologisk vara i Sverige, även om denna faktor inte helt kan uteslutas när demografier av den gröna konsumenten diskuteras. Andra faktorer har också betydelse, däribland utbildning, civilstånd och geografisk lokalisering. Studier om den gröna konsumenten är ett relativt nytt område, och denna kandidatuppsatsen har, tillsammans med föregående rapporter inom ämnet, funnit det svårt att dra några fasta slutsatser om den ekologiska konsumentens karaktärer. Därför kommer framtida studier inom detta område ha mycket att upptäcka om ett ämne av ökande intresse och angelägenhet på marknaden.

<p>Organic consumption is currently experiencing a boom of sales on the Swedish and international market. Whether this occurrence is a contemporary trend or if it will prove to be sustainable in the future, the demographics of the so-called ‘green consumer’ are of great interest for economic agents on markets such as foods and textiles. Therefore, the writers have chosen to highlight this topic by focusing on the relation between income and purchase of organic products.. Economic data for the Swedish market has been gathered and analyzed through various statistical and macroeconomic perspectives, where the basis has been Kelvin Lancaster’s models of consumer choice theory. The results showed that income does not generally have a direct effect on the choice of purchasing an organic good in Sweden, although it cannot be fully dismissed when discussing the demographics of the green consumer. Other factors are of importance as well, including education, marital status and geographical location. The study of the green consumer is a rather new area and this study, along with its previous counterparts, has proved it difficult to draw any firm conclusions regarding the characteristics of the organic consumer. Therefore, future studies within this area will have plenty to discover about a subject of increasing interest and importance on the market.</p> / <p>Ekologisk konsumtion upplever för närvarande en försäljningsboom på den svenska och internationella marknaden. Oavsett om detta är en tillfällig trend eller om det kommer bestå såväl i framtiden, är demografierna av de såkallade ’gröna konsumenterna’ av stort intresse för ekonomiska agenter inom marknader såsom textil och dagligvaror. Därför har författarna valt att framhäva detta ämne genom att fokusera på relationen mellan inkomst och inköp av ekologiska produkter. Ekonomisk data för den svenska marknaden har samlats in och analyserats genom olika statistiska och makroekonomiska perspektiv, där basen har varit Kelvin Lancasters modeller av konsumentteori. Resultaten har visat på att inkomst generellt inte har en direkt effekt på valet att köpa en ekologisk vara i Sverige, även om denna faktor inte helt kan uteslutas när demografier av den gröna konsumenten diskuteras. Andra faktorer har också betydelse, däribland utbildning, civilstånd och geografisk lokalisering. Studier om den gröna konsumenten är ett relativt nytt område, och denna kandidatuppsatsen har, tillsammans med föregående rapporter inom ämnet, funnit det svårt att dra några fasta slutsatser om den ekologiska konsumentens karaktärer. Därför kommer framtida studier inom detta område ha mycket att upptäcka om ett ämne av ökande intresse och angelägenhet på marknaden.</p>

xiii, 230 p. : ill. (some col.) / I develop a model in which a representative consumer selects an affordable consumption bundle, not as a single choice, but as the end result of a series of smaller, incremental purchase decisions. If the array of such incremental choices facing the consumer is sufficiently complex relative to the consumer's computational abilities, then the consumer may choose to employ a simplifying heuristic or rule-of-thumb to guide her behavior. I demonstrate the existence of a simple and well-defined example of such a strategy, based upon a satisficing decision rule. I further show that in the strategic setting defined by the interaction between consumers and firms that compete in prices, this satisficing strategy can form part of a Nash equilibrium, despite being ex ante only boundedly rational. The use of this satisficing demand strategy fundamentally alters the nature of price competition between firms (relative to the standard Bertrand model), changing the shape of the firm best response functions. The use of a satisficing strategy alters the incentives of firms, and these altered firm incentives lead to pricing behavior which has the effect of rationalizing the satisficing consumption strategy, so that a truly novel class of Nash equilibria in price-competing markets can be shown to exist under certain conditions. We explore the nature of this new class of equilibria, and find that equilibrium prices may be higher than those which would be obtained in the standard Bertrand case. In general, demand curves for each distinct good will have a kinked shape, similar to those found in 1939 papers by both Sweezy and Hall & Hitch. The Nash equilibrium profile will involve the kink in each demand curve coinciding with the equilibrium price for the corresponding good. The equilibrium price vector will therefore be robust to "small" fluctuations in cost (since marginal revenue is discontinuous at the equilibrium price), and under certain conditions, we find that prices may be upwardly flexible but downwardly rigid. We make an argument that the main results of the paper generalize from a representative agent setting to one with a population of heterogeneous consumers. / Committee in charge: Dr. Van Kolpin， Chairperson； Dr. Christopher J. Ellis， Member； Dr. Jeremy Piger， Member； Dr. Renee Irvin， Outside Member

Series: SRE - Discussion Papers

This thesis presents three essays on Malaysia’s poverty profile based on the Household Expenditure Survey (HES). The first and second studies were motivated by the shortcomings of the official poverty lines and poverty measurements. There are several conceptual and measurement problems related to evaluating the extent of poverty in Malaysia. The first study offers several alternative regional poverty analyses based on the consumption expenditure approach with varying underlying assumptions. The poverty lines are estimated using Ravallion-Bidani and Kakwani-Sajaia approaches and the consumption pattern of the 10th and 20th percentile per capita expenditure (PCE) households. Regional poverty lines based on Kakwani-Sajaia and Ravallion-Bidani lower bounds produced robust poverty measurement rankings across regions in the country for both the 10th and 20th percentile PCE households. However, for the 10th percentile PCE, Ravallion’s upper bound poverty lines do not produce robust poverty rankings. In relation to the shortcomings of the official poverty measurements, the second study analyses the economies of scale in consumption, specifically amongst poor households. Using the 10th and 20th percentile PCE households, the household size economies are estimated using specifications proposed by Deaton-Paxson and Kakwani-Son. The findings show that the economies of scale indices are sensitive to the selection of methods and sample groups. Economies of scale in poor household consumption are present for food, housing, clothing, furnishing, personal goods and miscellaneous goods. This study further suggests that these indices be used as complementary to the existing national poverty measurements. The final study provides new insights into the limited urban poverty studies and to the new dimension of urban poverty. Using logistic regression, the determinants are analysed using the new poverty lines estimated in the earlier essay. The test of robustness of the determinants is conducted through re-estimating the logistic regression using a range of poverty lines. The findings show that education, locational dimension, foreign migrant workers and household size are significant determinants of poverty in the urban areas.

Student satisfaction and service quality are interrelated constructs that are associated with improving student retention. This research investigated the relationships between these constructs in the context of an institution of higher education as an information system and sought to reduce the dimensionality of what have traditionally been considered orthogonal factors of these constructs in order to produce a parsimonious model and survey instrument that may be useful in assessing and predicting overall student satisfaction and overall service quality. The methods of analysis used in this study are quantitative in nature and included the use of descriptive univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses; exploratory factor analysis to examine latent dimensions within the data; and multiple linear regressions to measure the predictive efficacy of combinations of variables with respect to overall student satisfaction and overall service quality. It was hypothesized that the statistical treatment of the data would show that some dimensions routinely collapse, leading to possible valuable theoretical implications.

Οι σύγχρονες κοινωνίες αποτελούν δυναμικά συστήματα μεγάλης πολυπλοκότητας. Η συμπεριφορά των υποκειμένων που ανήκουν σε αυτές είναι αδύνατο να περιγραφεί με απλούς ορθολογιστικούς κανόνες. Προσεγγίζεται πολύπλευρα και από διαφορετικά αφετηριακά σημεία. Αντικείμενο ενδελεχούς μελέτης στη σημερινή εποχή, που χαρακτηρίζεται ως «εποχή της αφθονίας», αποτελεί η συμπεριφορά του υποκειμένου ως υποκειμένου-καταναλωτή. H παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία αποτελεί μια προσπάθεια επέκτασης της μαθηματικής μοντελοποίησης της συμπεριφοράς του καταναλωτή με την προσθήκη της ψυχομετρικής διάστασης του τελευταίου και των εξωτερικών παραμέτρων που διαμορφώνουν τη συμπεριφορά του. Με γνώμονα τη σημερινή εποχή γίνεται ιδιαίτερη αναφορά στην αλληλεπίδραση του καταναλωτή με τη διαφήμιση, και προτείνονται τρόποι προστασίας του στο σύγχρονο ανταγωνιστικό περιβάλλον, ενώ τέλος αναλύεται μια ειδική περίπτωση καταναλωτικής συμπεριφοράς που σχετίζεται με την ηλεκτρονική διακίνηση αγαθών. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, αρχικά διερευνάται η σημασία της μελέτης της συμπεριφοράς του καταναλωτή και παρουσιάζεται ένα πρότυπο συμπεριφοράς. Εν συνεχεία, διατυπώνεται με πληρότητα το μαθηματικό μοντέλο για τη «Θεωρία Καταναλωτή», ώστε να κατανοηθούν πλήρως τα πλαίσια στα οποία κινείται αυτή η εργασία, ενώ παρατίθενται παραδείγματα αυτής της εφαρμογής. Κατόπιν, αναλύεται η θεωρία της συμπεριφοράς του καταναλωτή και ακολουθεί μια μελέτη πάνω στη διαφήμιση και στην αλληλεπίδραση του καταναλωτή με αυτή. Στη συνέχεια τονίζεται η ισχύς του πολίτη-καταναλωτή μέσα από το πρίσμα, τόσο των επιλογών, όσο και των δικαιωμάτων του. Ύστερα, γίνεται αναφορά στην ανάπτυξη του ηλεκτρονικού εμπορίου και στην αλληλεπίδραση του με τον καταναλωτή και τα διαφορετικά οφέλη που μπορεί να αποκομίσει από αυτό. Τέλος, γίνεται μια επισκόπηση των πληροφοριών και των συμπερασμάτων της παρούσας εργασίας. / Modern societies are dynamic systems of big complexity. The behavior of the subjects can not de described by deterministic rule and is approached from different points of view. Nowadays, the attitude of the consumer is the subject of extensive study. The current master thesis is an extension of the mathematical model of Customer’s Attitude by adding the psychometric dimension of the latter and the external stimulis that define his attitude. The subject of customer with publicity is extensively commented and methods of protection of the customer are presented. Finally, a special case study concerning the customer’s attitude as far as the electronical interchange is concerned is given. First of all the importance of studying the Customer’s Attitude is presented and a model of behavior follows. The mathematical model of its attitude is defined in order to understand in detail the background of this study. Examples of this application are given. The theory of customer’s attitude is analyzed and a study in publicity and the interaction with the customer follows. The power of the customer-citizen is analyzed as far as his rights and choices are concerned. Special reference is made at the development of electronic commerce and the interaction with the customer and the different benefits for the customer are commented. Finally, a review of the conclusions of this study is made.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T21:00:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 4 Alexandre Magno Oliveira Rodrigues.pdf.jpg: 19596 bytes, checksum: 925ad40d7421193c578744a270872b06 (MD5) Alexandre Magno Oliveira Rodrigues.pdf.txt: 94040 bytes, checksum: d3600e29ac344c417f6b1c60da0738c9 (MD5) Alexandre Magno Oliveira Rodrigues.pdf: 565109 bytes, checksum: 271086662bf9ce0fc153e9dd9a77a749 (MD5) license.txt: 4886 bytes, checksum: 282b7c76742ade543563166ca37379c6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-01-19T00:00:00Z / O Brasil possui um dos maiores mercados de telefonia celular do mundo, resultado de um crescimento impulsionado, sobretudo, pela expansão agressiva do modelo de serviço pré-pago. Este crescimento se deu por meio de grandes investimentos em subsidio como forma de aumentar a atratividade dos aparelhos celulares comercializados nos pontos de venda. Estes investimentos ao mesmo tempo em que aceleraram a captação de novos clientes comprometeram a rentabilidade deste segmento e da margem EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) consolidada do setor no Brasil quando comparada a outros países. Portanto, um entendimento apropriado dos atributos mais valorizados pelos consumidores no processo decisório de compra de um aparelho celular é de fundamental importância para melhorar a alocação dos recursos e maximizar o retorno, sem perda de mercado. Este trabalho aplica a Metodologia de Preços Hedônicos como ferramenta para auxiliar na identificação dos atributos relevantes dos aparelhos celulares comercializados no mercado de massa brasileiro e seus respectivos preços implícitos. São 96 aparelhos celulares monitorados semanalmente ao longo do ano de 2007, constituindo mais de 37.000 registros. Como resultado, no estágio de maturidade do mercado na época, foram identificados intensos prêmios de preço associados às características físicas (design) e à presença de atributos relacionados à itens de multimídia (câmeras digitais, vídeos e MP3 player). Por fim, utilizamos o modelo econométrico desenvolvido para simular e identificar o preço sugerido ou potencial de novos celulares, não presentes na amostra utilizada para a regressão, mas constituídos por novas combinações de atributos com preços implícitos já identificados. / The mobile telecom market in Brazil is one of the largest in the world, consequence of a substantial growth in the prepaid segment. This growth was achieved at expense of intensive investments in subsidies in handsets, which were used as leverage to market position in the retail channel. These investments, at the same time in which accelerated the client’s acquisition, compromised current profitability levels and the consolidated EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) margin in Brazil when compared with other countries. Therefore, a deep understanding with respect to the most valuable attributes under the consumer´s perspective in the consumption decision process is a critical theme in order to improve the efficiency in the resource allocation (handsets subsidies) and to provide incremental returns, without losing market share. This study applies the Hedonic price Methodology as a tool in order identify the most relevant attributes and its implicit prices, both related to the most relevant handsets traded in the Brazilian mass market. This universe encompasses 96 handsets with weekly price updates monitored in 2007, resulting in more than 37.000 records. As a result, relevant premium prices associated with physical characteristics (design) and multimedia features (digital camera, video and MP3 player) were identified and quantified through its implicit prices. Finally, the econometric model developed in this study is applied in a real situation in order to simulate and to identify the suggested or potential prices associated to new handsets, not used previously in the regression model, but composed of new combinations of attributes already identified and quantified.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T21:00:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 5 Fernando Baptista da Cruz.pdf.jpg: 2620 bytes, checksum: 6511a221499862348cc7b71750477691 (MD5) Fernando Baptista da Cruz.pdf.txt: 57430 bytes, checksum: 2f59e9369a74ad4907cb6c1455966c03 (MD5) license.txt: 4712 bytes, checksum: 4dea6f7333914d9740702a2deb2db217 (MD5) Fernando Baptista da Cruz.pdf: 212670 bytes, checksum: 3f3f51102a97c9e66218e7f1e8c9adb7 (MD5) 1_66070100200.pdf: 1115536 bytes, checksum: fb5b432089ae836712f07e376bbaab06 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-02-08T00:00:00Z / The Brazilian market of multimedia services presents one of the highest growth rates among all countries in the world. A large part of this growth can be attributed to technological developments and recent changes in the competitive environment, which promoted the convergence of services that were sold separately before - voice, data and TV. This process increased the joint appeal of these services, also contributing to the reduction of their price, mainly through gains of scale, spurring their growth. This high growth attracted more competitors to market, what, intensified by regulatory changes, increases the importance of correct pricing of services packages. Therefore, a proper understanding of the attributes most valued by consumers in the purchase decision-making process for these types of services is of crucial importance to improve the allocation of resources and maximize the return without loss of market share. This work applies the Hedonic Price Methodology as a tool to identify relevant attributes of multimedia services packages marketed in the city of São Paulo and their implicit prices. Around 370 diverse packages containing one to three different types of services are analyzed based on prices as of March 2009. As a result, were identified relevant premiums associated with Telecine related channels, children's and sports channels, movies and series channels, as well as variables representing download and upload speed. / O Brasil possui um dos mercados de serviços de comunicação e mídia que mais cresce no mundo. Grande parte deste crescimento pode ser atribuída à evolução tecnológica e às recentes alterações no ambiente competitivo, os quais favoreceram a convergência de serviços antes vendidos separadamente - voz, dados e TV. Isto elevou a atratividade destes serviços, contribuindo também para a redução de seu preço, por meio, principalmente, dos ganhos de escala, impulsionando seu crescimento. Este crescimento atraiu mais competidores ao mercado, o que, intensificado por mudanças regulatórias, eleva a importância da correta precificação dos pacotes de serviços. Portanto, um entendimento apropriado dos atributos mais valorizados pelos consumidores no processo decisório de compra destes serviços é de fundamental importância para melhorar a alocação dos recursos e maximizar o retorno, sem perda de participação de mercado. Este trabalho aplica a Metodologia de Preços Hedônicos como ferramenta para auxiliar na identificação dos atributos relevantes dos pacotes de serviços multimídia comercializados no mercado da cidade de São Paulo e seus respectivos preços implícitos. São 371 pacotes distintos contendo de um a três tipos diferentes de serviços analisados com base nos preços praticados em março de 2009. Como resultado, foram identificados intensos prêmios de preço associados aos canais do grupo Telecine, aos canais esportivos, infantis e de filmes e séries, bem como às variáveis ligadas às velocidades de download e upload.