Chapter 1: Evolution of reciprocator preferences when agents can pay for information. A benchmark result in the evolutionary games literature is that a preference for reciprocity will evolve if preferences are observable (at zero cost), since reciprocators can cooperate with each other rather than with materialists, thereby achieving a fitness advantage. I investigate how a preference for reciprocity evolves if individuals can observe an opponent's preferences only by bearing a fitness cost. My main result applies when observing an opponent's type is cheap, but cooperating only gives a modest fitness advantage or the preference for reciprocity is intense. In this case, a preference for reciprocity cannot evolve from a small starting share in the mix of preferences, even if discovering an opponent's preferences is arbitrarily cheap. This is in sharp contrast to the benchmark result. Chapter 2: A theory of conditional cooperation on networks (with Julien Gagnon) Chapter 2 is a study of reciprocity on social networks. We model a group of connected agents who play a one-shot public good game. Some players are materialists and others are reciprocators. We characterise the maximal Nash equilibrium (ME) of this game for any network and a broad class of reciprocal preferences. At the ME, a novel concept, the q-linked set, fully determines the set of players who contribute. We show that influential players are those connected to players who are sufficiently interconnected, but not too much. Finally, we study the decision of a planner faced with an uncertain type profile who designs the network to maximise expected contributions. The ex ante optimal network comprises isolated cliques of degree k*, with k* decreasing with the incidence of materialists. We discuss an important application of our results: the workplace. Chapter 3: Ideological games Chapter 3 is a theory of ideology. I define a preference type to be a set of first-order preferences over the outcomes of a `game of life', together with a set of (`meta-') preferences over all players' first-order preferences. Players can influence each other's preferences via costly investment: if player A invests and B does not, B's preferences becomes those of A. Players may invest for instrumental reasons (i.e. to achieve better outcomes in the game of life) or `ideological' reasons (i.e. they want their opponents to have the same preferences they do). I characterise `strongly ideological', `weakly ideological' and `pragmatic' types. Weakly ideological types wish to preserve their own type, as do strongly ideological types, who also seek to convert others. A pragmatic player, in contrast, is willing to have her type changed if her new type would prefer the resulting equilibrium of the game of life to the status quo. I show that if two players of different ideological types meet, there is an equilibrium investment profile with lower aggregate welfare than the no-invest profile. If at least one type is strongly ideological, there is a unique such equilibrium. Finally, a `perfectly ideological' type is a strongly ideological type which, if held by all players, results in the best outcome of the game of life as judged by that type. If a perfectly ideological player plays a pragmatic player, aggregate welfare is always greater than in the no-invest profile.

<p>As the economy recovered with the winding down of the pandemic, businesses with complex supply chains could not bring their inventories back to optimal levels as their production was susceptible to disruption due to supply outages. Deriving optimal ordering policies as a way to mitigate the impact of production disruption represents a challenge in multi-stage decision problems given the complexity of the network and the uncertainty in the demand.</p> <p><br></p> <p>In the first part of the thesis, we formulate a stochastic inventory control problem for a general supply network model. Using the Bellman’s recursion and properties of the cost function at each stage, we characterize the optimal request decision as a threshold policy where the threshold computation is based on the marginal cost. Lastly, we validate that the policy developed minimizes the inventory cost and meets an exogenous random demand. However, the policy does not guarantee that the inventory level for each firm satisfies the constraints when a supply disruption occurs in the network.</p> <p><br></p> <p>In the second part of the thesis, we consider a serial network in which firms engage in production subject to disruption risk and they look to maximize their profit. We propose an algorithm to characterize a stationary optimal policy based on the closed-form solutions obtained from a discounted finite horizon problem for profit maximization. Finally, by computing the policy proposed as a function of the tier’s location and its disruption probability, we provide simulation results of the disruption effect in the supply network.</p>

Svensk bostadsmarknad har länge präglats av en snedvriden konkurrens med en markant fördel till Sveriges kommunala allmännyttiga bostadsaktiebolag jämte de privata bostadsaktiebolagen. I syfte att utjämna existerande sektoriella diskrepanser och skapa en konkurrensneutral marknad med jämlika villkor för privata respektive kommunala bostadsaktiebolag, infördes per den 1:a januari år 2011, Lag (2010:879) om allmännyttiga bostadsaktiebolag. Lagen innebär för de kommunala bostadsaktiebolagen ett avsteg från den tidigare självkostnadsprincipen mot ett i högre grad affärsmässig agerande enligt vinstdrivande syfte. Denna studie avser utifrån sambandet mellan risk och avkastning inom svenska bostadsaktiebolag, undersöka huruvida svenska kommunala allmännyttiga bostadsaktiebolag efter införandet av lagen uppvisar ett mer affärsmässigt agerande i termer om risk och avkastning på totalt kapital. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkter tar huvudsakligen ansats i prospektteorin samt den förväntade nyttoteorin, vilka utgör två välrenommerade modeller i syfte att förklara beslutstagande under risk. Den förväntade nyttoteorin antar att individer är rationella nyttomaximerare och därefter agerar antingen riskaversivt, risksökande eller riskneutralt. Prospektteorin hävdar i motsats till den förväntade nyttoteorin att individen kan vara en kombination av riskaversiv, risksökande och riskneutral. Varav individen således inte alltid antas agera rationellt. Författarna har funnit flertalet tidigare forskare vilka genom perspektivet av den strategiska företagsledningen, bevisat stöd för prospektteorin som förklarande modell av beslutstagande under risk på företagsnivå, inom och mellan olika branscher. Därmed ställer författarna följande frågeställning: Uppvisar Sveriges kommunala allmännyttiga bostadsaktiebolag ett i högre grad affärsmässigt riskbeteende efter införandet av Lag (2010:879) om allmännyttiga bostadsaktiebolag? Utifrån sekundärdata insamlad via databasen Retriever Business har ett kvantitativt metodangrepp tillämpats i syfte att besvara studiens framställda hypoteser. Insamlad data består av de svenska bostadsaktiebolagens årliga avkastning på totalt kapital för tidsperioden 2006-2010 samt 2011-2014. Det empiriska materialet har vidare analyserats genom korstabeller, rangkorrelationer samt deskriptiv statistik. Resultatet visade att prospektteorin utgör ett bra alternativ som deskriptiv modell av beslutstagande under risk inom svenska bostadsaktiebolag. Enligt prospektteorin påvisades att svenska bostadsaktiebolags riskbeteende varierar beroende på bolagets branschallokering i förhållande till branschens genomsnittliga prestation, varav den strategiska företagsledningen inom svenska bostadsaktiebolag kan antas vara en sammanslagning av både risksökande och riskaversiva. Därmed motsäger resultatet den förväntade nyttoteorins antaganden om att individen alltid agerar rationellt. Vidare påvisade jämförelse av de kommunala bostadsaktiebolagens riskbeteende före och efter reformen att de kommunala bostadsaktiebolagens riskbeteende inte påverkats i större utsträckning, varför indikationer ges att allmännyttiga bostadsaktiebolag inte agerar i högre grad affärsmässigt efter Lag (2010:879) om allmännyttiga bostadsaktiebolag.

В условиях введенных обоюдных санкций со стороны России и стран ЕС, важная роль отводится системе мероприятий, направленных на реализацию стратегии импортозамещения на российском агропродовольственном рынке. Таким образом, в условии жестких экономических реалий возрастает роль агропромышленного комплекса России в обеспечении продовольственной безопасности страны. При этом важно отметить, что процесс импортозамещения требует от российских производителей восполнение привычных объемов импортного сырья и продовольствия, что в условиях низкого уровня материально-технического обеспечения сделать крайне тяжело. В связи с этим возрастает роль государства в реализации политики импортозамещения. При этом программы импортозамещения должны работать на создание в России массового слоя производственных компаний, способных быть конкурентными не только внутри страны, но и на международных рынках. В современных условиях крайне важной является разработка обоснованной теории и методологических основ импортозамещения, выявление его особенностей на этапе перехода агросистем к еще более «свободному» рынку, обосновании комплекса рекомендаций по развитию и внедрению процесса импортозамещения в единый регулируемый внешнеторговый механизм. В работе представлены государственные программы и тенденции развития процесса импортозамещения в некоторых странах СНГ (Республики Беларусь, Казахстан) и дальнего зарубежья (Китай, новые индустриальные страны Азии и Латинской Америки). Целью данной работы является внедрение на рынок отечественной конкурентоспособной продукции, обеспечивающей импортозамещения. / Under the imposed mutual sanctions from Russia and the EU countries, an important role is assigned to the system of measures aimed at implementing the strategy of import substitution in the Russian agro-food market. Thus, in the condition of tough economic realities, the role of Russia's agro-industrial complex in ensuring the country's food security is growing. At the same time, it is important to note that the process of import substitution requires Russian producers to replenish the usual volumes of imported raw materials and foodstuffs, which is extremely difficult in conditions of a low level of material and technical support. In this regard, the role of the state in the implementation of importsubstitution. At the same time, import substitution programs should work to create a mass layer of production companies in Russia that can be competitive not only within the country, but also in international markets. In modern conditions, it is extremely important to develop a sound theory and methodological foundations of import substitution, to identify its features at the stage of transition of agricultural systems to an even more "free" market, to justify a set of recommendations for the development and implementation of the import substitution process in a single regulated foreign trade mechanism. The paper presents state programs and trends in the development of import substitution in some CIS countries (Belarus, Kazakhstan) and abroad (China, new industrial countries of Asia and Latin America). The purpose of this work is the introduction of domestic competitive products to the market, providing import substitution.

The aim of the diploma thesis is to solve a particular problem via methods and instruments of multi-criteria decision-making under risk -- the choice of a suitable location of a swimming pool in the city of Písek. Every single phase of the decision-making process is described in the theoretical part of the thesis and followed in the practical part. The process was divided into stages: the problem specification, setting objectives, determination of the importance of the criteria, generation of alternatives and identification of their consequences, determination the significance of the risk factors, the probability of their occurrence, setting the impacts of the risk alternatives, evaluation of the alternatives and the choice of the most desirable one, potential threats and opportunities analysis. The theoretical part consists of a review of methods suitable for the given phase. More in-detail focus is put on the methods used in the practical part. To sum up, the diploma thesis provide the reader with the recommendation of the most appropriate location for the construction of the swimming pool. Additionally, it identifies the most important threats and opportunities related to this preference.

Decision‐makers in organisations and businesses make numerous decisions every day, and these decisions are expected to be based on facts and carried out in a rational manner. However, most decisions are not based on precise information or careful analysis due to several reasons. People are, e.g., unable to behave rationally as a result of their experiences, socialisation, and additionally, because humans possess fairly limited capacities for processing information in an objective manner. In order to circumvent this human incapacity to handle decision situations in a rational manner, especially those involving risk and uncertainty, a widespread suggestion, at least in managerial decision making, is to take advantage of support in the form of decision support systems. One possibility involves decision analytical tools, but they are, almost without exception, not efficiently employed in organisations and businesses. It appears that one reason for this is the high demands the tools place on the decision‐maker in a variety of ways, e.g., by presupposing that reliable input data is obtainable by an exogenous process. Even though the reliability of current decision analytic tools is highly dependent on the quality of the input data, they rarely contain methods for eliciting data from the users. The problem focused on in this thesis is the unavailability and inefficiency of methods for eliciting decision information from the users. The aim is to identify problem areas regarding the elicitation of decision data in real decision making processes, and to propose elicitation methods that take people’s natural choice strategies and natural behaviour into account. In this effort, we have identified a conceptual gap between the decision‐makers, the decision models, and the decision analytical tools, consisting of seven gap components. The gap components are of three main categories (of which elicitation is one). In order to study elicitation problems, a number of empirical studies, involving more than 400 subjects in total, have been carried out in Sweden and Brazil. An iterative research approach has been adopted and a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods has been used. Findings made in this thesis include the fact that decision‐makers have serious problems in many decision situations due to not having access to accurate and relevant data in the first place, and secondly, not having the means for retrieving such data in a proper manner, i.e. lacking elicitation methods for this purpose. Employing traditional elicitation methods in this realm yield results that reveal an inertia gap, i.e. an intrinsic inertia in people’s natural behaviour to shift between differently framed prospects, and different groups of decisionmakers displaying different choice patterns. Since existing elicitation methods are unable to deal with the inertia, we propose a class of methods to take advantage of this natural behaviour, and also suggest a representation for the elicited information. An important element in the proposed class of methods is also that we must be able to fine‐tune methods and measuring instruments in order to fit into different types of decision situations, user groups, and choice behaviours.

This work deals with Multi-Criteria Analysis which represents an effective tool for solving complex decision-making situations. This paper describes the various methods of multi-criteria evaluation. One of the chapters also focuses on the software support. The main objective of this document is to demonstrate how to apply Multi-Criteria Analysis in real life. The practical part of this study refers to the structural policy and deals with the evaluation of regions of the Czech Republic after its entry into the European Union. The study mainly concentrates on the detailed analysis of South Bohemia region.