Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

The objective of the diploma thesis is to capture the phenomenon of internationalization of second housing in Czechia using the example of Dutch investment in tourism and recreation with a focus on new recreational localities and their impacts on the destinations. The development of this phenomenon has occurred in Czechia since 1990s in the context of the changing geopolitical and geo-economic situation. An important role plays also the offer on real estate market and environmentally attractive localities in the country. Recreational localities owned and used mainly by foreign (Dutch) clients for individual recreation and commercial purposes are established in areas with high tourist-recreational potential. They become an integral part of the physical and social environment and their specific features change its structure and links. Their benefits and risks depend on the nature of recreational localities projects and the target destinations as well. Key words: Czechia, impacts of tourism and recreation, second housing, internationalization, recreational localities

Perception of D3 motorway impacts by municipal representatives Abstract The thesis analyzes in detail the perception of the impact of D3 motorway by the representatives of the affected municipalities, who represent three different parts of society - community leaders, a representative of business and general population. The expected impacts of a new motorway in the given area are discussed with technical bibliography, which provided the basis for research questions and hypotheses. Field research was conducted in municipalities, which will yet be affected by the planned D3 motorway, and in municipalities in Central and Southern Bohemia, where part of D3 motorway had already been completed. Semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were used as the main research tools. The finding about the perception of the D3 motorway in the affected municipalities were based on detailed analysis of statistical data and in-depth analysis of the interviews. The findings show that the resulting perception of the impact varies depending on various aspects like geographical aspects, such as the location of the village (with regard to the highway route) or the population size of the municipality. Generally speaking, the motorway is positively perceived by municipalities that are currently substantially burdened by heavy...

Thesis "Gambling and its consequences - qualitative research of pathological gamblers" is discussing gambling as a present phenomenon and about the effects of gambling on gamblers and his environment in different aspects of his life. Theoretical part provides the introduction to this problem, specification of definitions and also particular impact of gambling on itself, namely health, social, criminal law and last but not least, financial consequences. The practical part deals with stories of abstaining gamblers and their subjectively perceived impacts of gambling on their lives, hindering factors in the development of addiction and factors facilitating entering to the treatment.

Sand movement is one of the many environmental problems facing humans in the dry and semi-dry areas of the world. This study has investigated the observed changes in sand dune coverage compared to predictions, and has also assessed the impact of sand movement on human activity in the north western coastal region of Libya. The study used three methods. The first was a statistical model proposed by Bagnold, which correlates wind shear velocity with particle size, in order to predict likely sand movement. It was found that 60% of sand grains within the study area have a diameter of less than 0.25 mm, making them liable to be moved by the wind speeds recorded, particularly from March until September, and mostly in a northerly direction. The sand in the western part of the study area had a greater predicted rate of sand transport compared with the sand in the eastern part, which was related to its origin. The second method involved the analysis of satellite images for four different years; from 1986 to 2003. The land cover in the study area was found to have changed over this time. Sand dune area cover had increased, and there were other changes particularly a decline in forest. The third method was the use of a questionnaire (the respondents being land owners), which showed that there was notable loss of crop production (by about a quarter) due to sand movement, and that land owners mostly used afforestation to help control the sand movement in the region. The observed sand movement did not match the predictions based solely on sand grain size and wind speed, and climatic analyses showed no convincing trends which could explain increased sand movement except perhaps an increase in wind gusts. The thesis concludes that the overriding determinant in greater sand movement over the period studied was the loss of forest from the area due to human impacts, which farmers are having to compensate for by planting trees locally to reduce sand movement.

Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / John M. Crespi / The objective of this analysis is to develop a demand model for the Sunsweet Cooperative and from this model, determine if the benefits to Sunweet’s advertising, as measured by the change in revenues, exceed the advertising costs. Weekly retail scanner data from July 20, 2008 through June 13, 2010 were used. Ordinary least squares regression equations were estimated to determine the overall demand for Sunsweet dried prunes. Two different models were estimated, one for Sunsweet’s overall prune demand and another for the Sunsweet’s Ones product. The advertising elasticity for the total dried prune demand was 0.10 and for the Ones product was 0.24. The demand equations demonstrated that Sunsweet’s advertising expenditures are increasing the overall demand for their dried prunes and their specific Ones product. What cannot be determined from the demand estimations is whether increase in revenues was greater than the cost of the advertising program. This is an especially important question for Sunsweet as it can be discerned from the data that Sunsweet’s advertising expenditures are quite large as a fraction of its revenues when compared with other similar food sellers. Using the regression equations, a benefit-cost simulation was conducted. We developed a measure that tells us how much the quantities sold of prunes would be affected by increased advertising expenditures by Sunsweet while taking into account the costs of advertising under an assumption of monopolistic competition. Two different scenarios were evaluated, one with a shutdown condition that did not allow average revenue to be below average cost and another without this shutdown condition. The total Sunsweet prune model resulted in an average benefit cost of 2.143 with the shutdown constraint and 1.845 without the shutdown constraint. The Ones product model resulted in an average benefit-cost estimate of 2.672 with the shutdown constraint and 2.358 without the shutdown constraint. Overall these ratios are good for a company operating under monopolistic competition and suggest that for every dollar spent on the advertising campaign, the average return was near to or greater than $2. Overall our analysis showed that Sunsweet’s advertising expenditures are increasing their overall demand and their benefits of advertising are exceeding their costs of advertising.

One of the primary modes for pollutants to reach the human body is through their release into the atmosphere and dispersion in the nearby areas. This makes air emissions one of the important components of an environmental assessment. They are frequently of interest to the people living in the vicinity of the site. The analysis carried out in this research provides a framework for atmospheric dispersion modeling of air pollutants using AERMOD, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) approved regulatory model, for modeling port related emissions. There are various sources of emissions from the ports, however for this study, emissions from roadways, small equipment, and marine related sources are considered. AERMOD was used to estimate ambient pollutant concentrations of selective criteria pollutants such as NOx, SO2, CO and PM10 from a hypothetical port.

Tourism is expected to be the world's future. The most important aspects of tourism are particularly the effects on GDP, employment, capital investment and the balance of payments. The important role of tourism in European economies is acknowledged by the European Union itself, which seeks to create a common tourism policy. The purpose of this work is to define the EU tourism policy, primarily in the terms of legal instruments and regional policy, and determine whether and to what extent that policy has its impact on tourism in the Czech Republic. The first chapter will explain the basic concepts and definitions of tourism and its economic importance for the economy. The second section will describe the development of European tourism policy; for better understanding this part will also define EU institutions responsible for tourism, their competencies and used instruments to promote tourism, including the Structural Funds. The third part of the thesis will provide basic information about legislation and strategic documents in tourism in the Czech Republic, but the central part of the chapter will be devoted to the influence of the European Union to the tourism policy in the Czech Republic. The fourth chapter presents the EU's regional policy as a tool to influence the tourism policy in the Czech Republic and its regions.

The aim of this thesis is analysis of the impact of the financial and economic crisis on the Czech banking sector between 2008 and 2010. The theoretic section describes methods and technics of bank assessment based on financial indicators. The application section contains of analysis of the impacts on aggregate numbers of the Czech bank sector and the impacts on selected Czech banks. Conclusion of the thesis summarises individual impacts of the crises and explains their causes. In the end thesis results in comparison of performance between the Czech banks and their foreign owners.