published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Market power mitigation has been an integral part of wholesale electricity markets since deregulation. In wholesale electricity markets, different regions in the US take different approaches to regulating market power. While the exercise of market power has received considerable attention in the literature, the issue of market power mitigation has attracted scant attention. In the first chapter, I examine the market power mitigation rules used in New York ISO (Independent System Operator) and California ISO (CAISO) with respect to day-ahead and real-time energy markets. I test whether markups associated with New York in-city generators would be lower with an alternative approach to mitigation, the CAISO approach. Results indicate the difference in markups between these two mitigation rules is driven by the shape of residual demand curves for suppliers. Analysis of residual demand curves faced by New York in-city suppliers show similar markups under both mitigation rules when no one supplier is necessary to meet the demand (i.e., when no supplier is pivotal). However, when some supplier is crucial for the market to clear, the mitigation rule adopted by the NYISO consistently leads to higher markups than would the CAISO rule. This result suggest that market power episodes in New York is confined to periods where some supplier is pivotal. As a result, I find that applying the CAISOs' mitigation rules to the New York market could lower wholesale electricity prices by 18%. The second chapter of my dissertation focuses on supply function equilibrium. In power markets, suppliers submit offer curves in auctions, indicating their willingness to supply at different price levels. Although firms are allowed to submit different offer curves for different time periods, surprisingly many firms stick to a single offer curve for the entire day. This essentially means that firms are submitting a single offer curve for multiple demand realizations. A suitable framework to analyze such oligopolistic competition between power market suppliers is supply function equilibrium models. Using detailed bidding data, I develop equilibrium in supply functions by restricting supplier offers to a class of supply functions. By collating equilibrium supply functions corresponding to different realizations of demand, I obtain a single optimal supply function for the entire day. Then I compare the resulting supply function with actual day-ahead offers in New York. In addition to supply function equilibrium, I also develop a conservative bidding approach in which each firm assumes that rivals bid at marginal costs. Results show that the supply functions derived from equilibrium bidding model in this paper is not consistent with actual bidding in New York. This result is mainly driven by the class of supply functions used in this study to generate the equilibrium. Further, actual offers do not resemble offers generated by the conservative bidding algorithm.

Beginning with eight women’s experiences in accessing emergency contraception from a pharmacist, this research brings into view the undocumented “sexual health work” of obtaining the drug in northern Ontario. Between 2005 and 2008, emergency contraception was deregulated to behind-the-counter, forcing women to submit to mandatory counselling and screening about sex, menstruation and contraception at the pharmacy. Situating unwanted pregnancy as harmful in this context, an institutional ethnographic analysis explores the activities of health service delivery and identifies the different ideological practices that shaped women’s access like the steady creep of neoliberalism, professional specialization and clinical power. Ideological discourses construct an ideal contraceptive user, who is patient, compliant and appears “responsible”, contributing to the stigmatization of women. Findings suggest that an inaccurate government definition of emergency contraception contributes to ignorance and misperceptions about function; this, along with an empty federal policy vacuum for women’s health contributes to its problematic status in women’s contraceptive options.

This thesis defends the importance of a standardized designation for the principle of technological neutrality pertaining to the Next-Generation Network (NGN) migration within a competition regime. Renaming this as the principle of techno-economic neutrality would clearly demarcate its role as promoter of inter-technological competition as well as justify the necessity of grouping the three regulatory principles of technological neutrality, competition neutrality, and network neutrality followed by their integration into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Reference Paper. The first part introduces the theoretical foundations to better define what it is and what it is not; the principle of techno-economic neutrality supports neither a total state non-intervention nor a progress reduced to a technical progress. The second part describes the parameters of the unanimous definition of the regulatory principle of techno-economic neutrality for the information and communication sectors considering competition and convergence. The triplets of neutrality would offer two guaranties: a regulatory burden balanced between the different suppliers of substitutable services and the emergence of an information and communication society protective of democratic values. / Mots-cles: Neutralite technologique, neutralite de la concurrence, neutralite de reseau, concurrence, convergence, technologies de l'information et de la communication, telecommunications, radiodiffusion, progres, progres technique, progres social, Organisation mondiale du commerce, OMC, Document de reference, reseaux de nouvelle generation, societe de l'information et de la communications, determinisme, interactionnisme, regulation, principe reglementaire, cadre reglementaire, reforme reglementaire, droit des telecommunications, droit des communications, droit des technologies de l'information et de la communication

The choice of firm boundaries is one of the most fundamental elements of organizational strategy. It determines industry positioning, enables the development and leverage of distinctive capabilities, and ultimately establishes the basis for sustainable competitive advantage. In the modern economy, organizational unbundling and vertical disintegration has become a recurrent theme across many industries, reflecting a major transformation in industrial organization and firm strategy. What are the drivers of this modern trend of vertical disintegration? How do we reconcile this modern phenomenon with the vertical integration logic of previous decades? Beginning with Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) as the underlying framework, we draw from the Information Processing, Coordination and Capabilities literatures to develop an integrated theoretical framework for examining and rationalizing the determinants of vertical disintegration. The recent restructuring of the US electric utility industry provides a suitable empirical context to undertake a rigorous examination of this theoretical framework: a context that manifests institutional heterogeneity, high levels of uncertainty, intense coordination requirements, and a variety of competing market and organizational institutions in transition. We employ multi-level modeling techniques, to account for firm heterogeneity and time-variant institutional parameters in our longitudinal panel data, thus allowing for a richer analysis of institutional effects. The results show that there has been systematic vertical disintegration in the electric utility industry over the period of study, 1994-2002, influenced by both firm-level and state/federal-level institutional factors as well as structural market attributes, which serve as proxies for demand and supply uncertainty. Using IT investment intensity as a proxy for firm-level IT Capability, we also established an overall significant negative effect of IT on vertical integration, consistent with previous studies about the effects of IT on firm size. The main findings confirmed several standard TCE propositions, and also address several known shortcomings, most notably the ambiguity in the treatment of uncertainty. In addition, the robust examination of the empirical evidence associated with the restructuring of the Electric Utility industry allowed us to isolate the relative effects of various institutional mechanisms and structural market attributes. These findings help to illuminate the understanding and ultimately the programming of deregulation effects.

After 1989, the elimination of the Brazilian Coffee Institute coincided with a global movement of coffee market deregulation, resulting in a long ‘coffee crisis’ that harmed the livelihoods of thousands of small-scale coffee producers in Brazil. In response, the Brazilian coffee landscape was restructured and large private cooperatives emerged as the primary institutions in the Sul de Minas region. However, after the initial retraction of state intervention, extremely low coffee prices contributed to the reestablishment of the Brazilian government in the coffee sector, but in a different fashion, as state institutions were redesigned to support actors and private institutions, not recreate the state as an intermediary in the market. Despite further commitment to coffee production, producers experienced greater economic vulnerability and suffered the brunt of the low coffee prices, but a strong culture of coffee production played an important role in shaping the choices of producers.

The primary intention of this thesis is to examine open skies policy and its far-reaching impact on the Asia-Pacific region. / In order to achieve this, we will describe the historic evolution of economic regulation in civil air transport, which laid the foundation for an open skies regime. Moreover, the scope of an open skies regime on a global scale is addressed. Then, a detailed study of the essential elements of bilateral open skies agreements is undertaken. / Afterwards, an analysis of the current economic air transport regulation in Asia-Pacific is conducted. With the emergence of the open skies trend, most Asia-Pacific nations began to liberalize their air transport industries. Yet, bilateral agreements remain the primary means to attain this goal. / More necessarily, several Asia-Pacific countries' air transport policies will be comprehensively examined. This examination includes Japan, China, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines and Australia. / Finally, a perspective for liberalization via a hybrid of bilateral and sub-regional open skies arrangements in the Asia-Pacific region is presented.

Against a background of declining macro-economic conditions in Zimbabwe, significant challenges confront management in changing the financial performance of debt-ridden parastatals or public corporations. Chronic budget deficits, poor economic policies and mismanagement have ensured that these under capitalised companies post successive losses thus increasing the burden on the tax payer who must pay for their survival. The research study seeks to establish the strategies which management can implement to raise revenue and improve cash flows in preparation for privatisation. If the companies are to be competitive in a deregulated sector, the chosen strategies must offer quick and sustainable solutions. The shareholder's intention is to place these companies in a profitable position in order to gain maximum value from prospective investors. The recommended strategies are intended to improve financial performance of a telecommunications company confronted by a myriad of problems, which include: - • Critical shortages of foreign currency required to implement network development and maintenance programmes as well as payment of traffic handling obligations. • Competition from new entrants, • Government intention to privatise a company weighed down by a huge local and foreign debt. • An economy experiencing negative growth, high unemployment and chronic inflation. MBA-Strategic Financial Management • A population on the verge of starvation resulting from food shortages created by badly implemented land policy and drought conditions afflicting Zimbabwe and Southern Africa in general. The study focuses on key processes that create improvements in revenue and cash flow generation in the short to medium term. The processes are considered against a background of declining macro economic conditions and telecommunications sector deregulation. Experiences on deregulation of telecommunications sector in other countries are considered, and in Zimbabwe, the work done by BT consultants during restructuring and commercialization of the Post and Telecommunications Corporation is assessed. The study shall consider and recommend changes necessary to improve revenues and cash flows. In particular, the study shall: - • Critically review service provision for new customers, line transfers, reallocation of recovered lines, the delayed billing of connected customers and meter reading timetable for statement generation. • Consider and develop improvements in international traffic and accounting rates management in order to increase revenues, which contribute half of the company's profits. MBA-Strategic Financial Management • Assess and develop debt management strategies in order to improve cash flow and profitability. • Assess the company's cash handling procedures and recommend process improvements in order to realise the computed servings in overdraft interest or earnings arising from timely investments. • Develop a system of continuous improvement through tracking, feedback and training. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, 2003.

This creative project documents the effects of deregulation on the trucking industry. Through the use of DVD, the viewer learns all about the culture of trucking and the way it has changed in the past 30 years since deregulation. In August of 2006, I logged over 4,000 miles speaking with four different drivers. The result is a DVD consisting of a documentary, video short stories, photo journals, audio recordings and a flash card game, teaching the viewer about the trucking culture. / Department of Telecommunications

This dissertation analyzes global telecommunications liberalization in the context of the transition to an economy and society based on the production, use and exchange of information. It examines the role of the ITU and the WTO in that process and addresses the question of the extent to which globalization and telecommunications liberalization can contribute to development in an increasingly unequal world. It also studies in detail the shift in the institutional regime of telecommunications in Venezuela, whose Telecommunications Bill is analyzed in light of the regulatory principles outlined in the Reference Paper and Venezuela's commitments under the Fourth Protocol to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). We provide recommendations aimed at adapting the regulatory framework that is currently being discussed to new global market realities without ignoring Venezuela's development concerns and regulatory capabilities.