With increasing demand of electric power in the context of deregulated electricity markets, a good strategic planning for the growth of the power system is critical for our tomorrow. There is a need to build new resources in the form of generation plants and transmission lines while considering the effects of these new resources on power system operations, market economics and the long-term dynamics of the economy. In deregulation, the exercise of generation planning has undergone a paradigm shift. The first stage of generation planning is now undertaken by the individual investors. These investors see investments in generation capacity as an increasing business opportunity because of the increasing market prices. Therefore, the main objective of such a planning exercise, carried out by individual investors, is typically that of long-term profit maximization. This thesis presents some modeling frameworks for generation capacity expansion planning applicable to independent investor firms in the context of power industry deregulation. These modeling frameworks include various technical and financing issues within the process of power system planning. The proposed modeling frameworks consider the long-term decision making process of investor firms, the discrete nature of generation capacity addition and incorporates transmission network modeling. Studies have been carried out to examine the impact of the optimal investment plans on transmission network loadings in the long-run by integrating the generation capacity expansion planning framework within a modified IEEE 30-bus transmission system network. The work assesses the importance of arriving at an optimal IRR at which the firm’s profit maximization objective attains an extremum value. The mathematical model is further improved to incorporate binary variables while considering discrete unit sizes, and subsequently to include the detailed transmission network representation. The proposed models are novel in the sense that the planning horizon is split into plan sub-periods so as to minimize the overall risks associated with long-term plan models, particularly in the context of deregulation.

Bakgrund: Den statliga utredningen En framtida spelreglering presenterades under december 2008. Ett förslag i utredningen är att delar av monopolet på den svenska spelmarknaden i framtiden kan komma att konkurrensutsättas. Syfte: Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur det sociala ansvarstagandet påverkas och i vilken omfattning CSR kan utgöra en konkurrensfördel på en avreglerad marknad. Genomförande: Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod där Svenska Spel, Ladbrokes och Betssons CSR - arbete studeras. Utöver sekundärdata har det empiriska materialet kompletterats genom intervjuer med varje företag. Resultat: En avreglerad marknad behöver inte innebära att företagens sociala ansvarstagande minskar i samhället. Att integrera CSR i företagsstrategin är ett viktigt led i att nå acceptans bland intressenterna på marknaden. För ett lyckat CSR – arbete menar vi att företagens interna resurser måste användas med hänsyn till flertalet faktorer i den omgivande miljön. / Background: During the end of 2008 the Swedish government published a submission for comment regarding the future legislation of the Swedish gambling industry. The investigation suggests that new entrants may be allowed to enter the Swedish market. Aim: The purpose of this thesis is to determine if and how the social responsibility is affected when a market is deregulated, and if CSR is a possible tool for creating competitive advantage. Completion: The study is based on a qualitative method and examines the gambling companies Svenska Spel, Ladbrokes and Betsson. We conducted questionnaire studies among the examined gambling companies to enhance the secondary data. Findings: Our findings suggest that there is a good possibility for social responsibility to maintain a strong position in a deregulated market. CSR integration with the corporate strategy is an important step concerning acceptance among the company’s stakeholders.

Shadow economy is affecting economic behavior of human beings in almost the same mode as mainstream economy, yet it is difficult to evaluate in same economic mode and it has heavy impact on the regulation of a government. Gaming is one of the most possible shadow economic activities. The regulation of government over gaming is in one way in paternalism, telling its subjects that gaming is not a good behavior and gambling is forbidden. But on the other way, in the name of social welfare, the government is playing as banker and make it public to promote. The conflict and contradiction are generated in different systems. Taking the overseas successful development of the gaming policy and studying and discussing the provisions governing the gaming and entertainment of tourist casinos, the government has gone through years of debates. Although it allows the off-shore areas to develop gaming industry, the gaming industry areas will be allowed to run only on condition that they pass the referendum. However, there are a lot of counties and cities in Taiwan also bent on gaining the benefit of gaming industry and actively striving to set up tourist casinos. Bound by the institution and the subjective values of different stakeholders, resulting in differences in cognition and leading to conflict, the government is still wavering between regulation and deregulation. This study combines th institutional analysis and development with the cross-border analysis of the public affairs management framework, exploring and analyzing the institution and condition of gaming governance. Besides, from the angle of cognition, take the regulation and deregulation of tourist casinos of Kaohsiung city to question a number of people as a variable, also to explore the government employees, policemen and city people of different interests, asking them what they think about the benefit and cost of different gaming policies, including their information, cognitive algebra confirmation and the social welfare standard of the system. Moreover, use three strategic decisions such as economic industry, social culture, and the facilities of environment as reference to explore the cognitive conflicts of different interest groups. The results of this study are as follows: I. Cognitive algebra confirmation. i. With regard to the regulated tourist casinos situation, the city government employees use equal-weight averaging model to integrate benefit and cost information in whole analysis, and with regard to the deregulated tourist casinos situation, they use different-weight averaging model to integrate information in whole analysis. ii. With regard to the regulated and deregulated tourist casinos situation, policemen use unequal right and weight average model to integrate benefit and cost information in whole analysis. iii. With regard to the regulated and deregulated tourist casinos situation, city people use equal right and weight average model to integrate information. iv. When city government employees compare the right and weight of the deregulated tourist casinos situation, the right and weight of benefit are greater than those of cost. v. When policemen compare the right and weight of the regulated and deregulated tourist casinos situation, the right and weight of benefit are greater than those of cost. II. Social welfare standard. i. With regard to the social welfare standard of the regulated tourist casinos situation, city people have the highestr social benefit standard, then city government employees, and policemen are the lowest. There are noticeable differences between policemen and city people. ii. With regard to the social welfare standard of the deregulated tourist casinos situation, policemen have the highest social welfare standard, then the city government employees, and city people are the lowest. However, there is little noticeable difference among the three groups. iii. With regard to the social welfare standard of the deregulated tourist casinos situation, the three groups have higher standard than that of the regulated one. III. Clarification of cognitive conflict. i. Three variables such as economic industry, social culture, and the facilities of environment are useful variables for exploring the effective strategic decisions of the regulated or deregulated tourist casinos situation ii. In the judgment in the regulated tourist casinos situation, the priority order of the relative right and weight of three variables such as economic industry, social culture, and the facilities of environment is as follows: with city government employees: the highest is social culture; then comes the economic industry, the lowest is the facilities of environment; with policemen, the highest is social culture, then economic industry, and the lowest is the facilities of environment; with city people, the highest is economic industry, then social culture, and the lowest is the facilities of environment. iii. In the judgment in the deregulated tourist casinos situation, the priority order of the relative right and weight of three variables such as economic industry, social culture and the facilities of environment is as follows: with city government employees , the highest is economic industry, then social culture, and the lowest is the facilities of environment: with policemen, the highest is social culture, then economic industry and the lowest is the facilities of environment: with city people, the highest is economic industry, then social culture, and the lowest is the facilities of environment. iv. Three variables as reference for strategic decisions such as economic industry, social culture, and the facilities of environment are all related to the acceptable judgment of the regulated or deregulated tourist casinos situation.

This thesis is based on ¡§Socialism of Chinese Characteristics¡¨which discusses development of civil aviation in China and strategies for Taiwan¡¦s aviation sectors to participate in China¡¦s aviation market. ¡§Socialism of Chinese Characteristics¡¨ have become a theory system which integrates from each general secretary¡¦s core policies of Communist Party of China. The theory is still reconstructing according to the development of a changing Chinese society. ¡§Socialism of Chinese Characteristics¡¨ has guided government¡¦s overall policies in every aspect of development which maintain economic growth as prime purpose by implementing market economy¡¦s strength and keeping the country and society under severe control that shows specialty of openness and tight regulation of its political and economy system. The incremental growth of ¡§Socialism of Chinese Characteristics¡¨ is then an important guideline to look at the future development of civil aviation in China. The civil aviation industry in China itself has already gone through administrative reform, deregulation of civil aviation, lax regulation on foreign direct investment, etc. which enormously changed civil aviation¡¦s system of management and operation since the ¡§Reform and Opening Up¡¨, the process has in turn led Chinese government take civil aviation as a unique industry that fits into China¡¦s macro-contexts of political, social, and economic plans on regional economic development, multi-model transport system, high-end technology and foreign policy adjustment. Civil aviation in China now incrementally march to ¡§Open Skies¡¨ policy under Chinese government¡¦s support and propel China¡¦s civil aviation as a heavyweight not only in East Asia but also in global perspective by constructing ¡§hub and spoke¡¨ system that aims to reach china¡¦s long term goal of becoming an aviation superpower. During this critical time, China would absorb modern management model, aviation technology and foreign investment by co-operating with global players and reaching global standards in every aspect in order to enhance sound development of China¡¦s civil aviation. Taiwan¡¦s aviation sectors at this juncture then could use current traffic rights and contents of bilateral agreements with mainland China to both open up mainland China¡¦s aviation market and serve as supplier of mainland China¡¦s whole aviation system in which Taiwan¡¦s actors could invest on related industries, aggrandize it¡¦s aviation performance so that both parties could benefits from each other and that is key element for Taiwan¡¦s aviation sectors to stand firmly on Asia Pacific market.

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This dissertation uses laboratory economic experiments to test the incentive effects of regulatory policies and practices under asymmetric information conditions. Significant results and policy implications are obtained on the traditional use of rate-of-return regulation (RORR) to regulate natural monopolies, and on the practice of restricting such firms from entering ancillary markets. The objective of the first several chapters is to test the incentive effects of RORR on market performance. Results confirm long-standing theories of incentive malfunctions of RORR. One result shows that under voluntary compliance, RORR is completely ineffective for regulating single sellers when cost information is private to firms, allowing them to misrepresent costs and earn monopoly profits. When firm's do not know market demand, they capture less surplus, but still earn above RORR expected returns. When stochastic auditing is added varying penalty rates and audit probabilities, significant cost overestimates remain common. Theoretical analysis explains the potential source of this anomaly as being the use of historical cost information in rate setting when excess profits are used as the audit benchmark. Other results show that in perfect repeated static implementations of RORR, wasteful input use will occur manifested as rate base padding or Averch-Johnson type selection of inefficient input combinations. Another chapter addresses the consequences of deregulating RORR franchise firms allowing them to enter ancillary markets. A stylized model of the telecommunications industry is created and experimentally tested to determine if anti-competitive firm behavior results when entry restrictions are lifted. Results offer no support for the arguments that regulated firms will use monopoly market earnings to underwrite ancillary market operations ("deep pocket"), engage in predatory pricing, or unfair competition. Economic arguments for removing entry barriers to improve market performance (increased output and lower prices) are substantiated.

published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

Bakgrund:1 juni 2009 avreglerades det svenska apoteksmonopolet och marknaden öppnades upp för konkurrens. Antalet apoteksaktörer har sedan dess tilltagit vilket sätter press på företagen att särskilja sin verksamhet för att bli mer konkurrenskraftiga i kampen om apotekskunderna. Det råder fortfarande restriktioner på apoteksmarknaden som förhindrar aktörerna att sätta egna priser på receptbelagda läkemedel, vilka utgör 80 procent av marknadens omsättning. Marknaden karaktäriseras vidare av relativt homogena produkter, vilket försvårar aktörernas möjlighet att erbjuda ett unikt sortiment. Differentierade företag erhåller ofta en bättre lönsamhet och varumärket har en stor betydelse i hur företag kan utmärka sig. Verktygen för detta är varumärkesidentitet, där varumärkets unikhet och värde specificeras samt positionering av varumärket, vilka är de åtgärder en organisation vidtar för hur varumärket uppfattas i medvetandet hos konsumenten i relation till konkurrenterna. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur apoteksmarknadens fyra största aktörer tänker och agerar kring områdena för varumärkesidentitet och positionering. Med detta som grund vill författarna utföra en analys för att stärka befintliga teoretiska ramverk i vilka hänsyn inte har tagits till marknader där monopol nyligen upphävts. Slutsats: I studiens gestaltning av aktörernas varumärkesidentiteter är det framträdande att associationerna till apoteksbranschen innefattas av det ansvarsfulla, trovärdiga och kompetenta. Apoteket AB har tidigare haft ensamrätt att bedriva apoteksverksamhet och dessa associationer, till hur ett apotek ska vara, är starkt relaterade till företaget. Varumärkesidentiteternas unikhet skildras främst i aktörernas företagskultur och i varumärkets fysiska utformning. Studien visar vidare på att de nya aktörerna inte tillämpar en utmärkande positionering, då de främst inriktar sig på att bekräfta en kategoritillhörigt som apoteksaktör. Resultatet stärker befintliga teorier om att positionering är en process, där företag först måste befästa sig som en trovärdig aktör inom branschen, innan det är möjligt att positionera sig utifrån varumärkets unika fördelar. Studien indikerar att utvecklingen av handelsvaror och tjänster kommer att utgöra en viktig del i att stärka aktörernas positionering. / Background: The pharmacy monopoly was deregulated in June 2009 and the number of competitors has since then increased rapidly which has lead to the importance of differentiating the business, to become more competitive in the battle for pharmacy customers. There are still some restrictions on the market, which prevents the pharmacy-chains to set their own price on prescription drugs, which amounts for 80 percent of the total turnover. The pharmacy market is also characterised of homogenous products, which limits the possibility to offer a unique assortment. Brands play a large factor in how a company can differentiate itself and be profitable. Commonly used tools for this are brand identity which is the uniqueness and the value of the brand, and brand positioning which are the measures an organisation takes to affect the perception of the brand in relationship to competitors. Aim: The aim is to examine how the four largest pharmacy-chains in Sweden thinks and acts in the fields of brand identity and brand positioning. On this basis, the authors will perform an analysis to strengthen the existing theoretical framework in which account has not been taken into markets where monopoly has recently been repealed. Conclusion: In the study of the pharmacy-chains brand identities, it is prominent that the associations with the pharmacy industry are represented by the responsible, credible and competent. Apoteket AB has previously had the exclusive right to operate on the pharmacy market and these associations, to how a pharmacy should be, are strongly related to them. The uniqueness of the brand identities are primarily portrayed in the companies’ culture and in the physical characteristics of the brand. Furthermore the study shows that the new pharmacychains do not apply a distinctive positioning, as they primarily focus on confirming their category membership as a pharmacy operator. The result strengthens the existing theories that positioning is a process in which companies first have to confirm themselves as a credible player in the industry, before it is possible to position themselves on the brand’s unique benefits. The study indicates that the development of commodities and services will form an important part in strengthening the pharmacy-chains positioning.

The air transport sector is one that is particularly conducive to market dominance, and therefore to potential abuse thereof. Characterised, for several decades, by the omnipresence of barriers attributable to the preferential treatment enjoyed by undertakings under the sponsorship of their respective governments, European civil air transport has undergone progressive liberalisation over the years, under the auspices of the European institutions. / The object of the present thesis is to assess how the provisions of Article 82 of the E.C. Treaty have applied to the air transport sector prior and subsequent to deregulation, and how they remain indispensable, in the wake of emerging new factors that tend to keep the market of scheduled air services oligopolistic.

Convergence has blurred the artificial limits that traditionally existed between separated sectors and services. In particular, technological convergence united cable and telephone networks as convenient platforms for the provision of numerous new telecommunications services. The advent of the Internet and the development of other services started a race for the acquisition of broadband transmission that has, in part, prompted a number of corporate mergers between the major telephone, cable, and Internet service providers. / This thesis analyzes the legal implications of the convergence of cable operators and telephone carriers in the United States of America (U.S.). The analysis was conducted in light of the 1996 Telecommunications Act's provisions, the Federal Communications Commission's reports and orders, and under the critical approaches of the cable and telephone industries. This thesis presents recommendations addressed to promote an equal regulatory treatment for all telecommunications competitors in the U.S.