The objective of this study is to estimate advertising effects on international tourismdemand for the leading Swedish winter destination, Åre. The increasing share of foreigninbound tourists in this destination region creates a strong interest by shareholders toidentify the factors responsible for this trend. According to traditional micro-economictheory, economic factors, such as income and price, are considered as main determinantsfor tourism demand (Song and Witt 2000). However, according to advertising theories(Comanor and Wilson, 1974) and previous tourism research (Bhagwat and Debruine, 2008;Divisekera and Kulendran, 2006), this study additionally focuses on the brand awarenessof Åre as perceived by international tourists. More concretely, advertising theoriesdistinguish between the brand and the information function of advertising (Nelson, 1974).The former function follows the idea that advertising increases the level of productdifferentiation to build up a base of loyal customers. By contrast, the information functionimplies that advertising primarily provides information about products in order to increasethe market transparency. Accordingly, in order to estimate the impact of advertisingexpenditures for off- and online channels as well as promotional activities, furtherexplanatory variables, e.g. mega events, are considered in this study (Salman, 2003; Songet al., 2010). By applying ordinary least square (OLS) methods, demand elasticitycoefficients are estimated for each of the sending countries Norway, Finland, Russia,Denmark and the UK. Results show that advertising is the main significant driver oftourism demand from the UK, Russia and Finland, while a comparably weak advertisingleverage can be shown for Denmark and Norway. Interestingly, in contrast to microeconomictheories tested in previous research, income and tourism price levels reveal asbeing less significant drivers for demand in all analysed tourism markets. In turn, theresults provide evidence that the increased usage of online channels most significantlyaffects consumers’ buying behaviour. Finally, with respect to brand image perception,results reveal that the destination of Åre is perceived as a brand by tourists from Denmark.Moreover, for customers from the countries Norway and Finland, Åre indicates a weakbrand perception, while tourists from Russia and the UK don’t perceive Åre as a brand atall. The results gained by this research conducted at the level of the tourism destinationprovide useful hints about the factors influencing travel behaviour of tourists from maininternational markets. The study supports destination managers to appropriately adjustmarketing campaigns according to the predominant level of brand perception in respectivesending countries. / KK-Foundation project ‘Engineering the Knowledge Destination’ (no. 20100260; Stockholm, Sweden).

China has been increasingly sending more contracts to work on projects in Africa. This study tests the effects of Chinese contracts on economic growth in 50 African countries as well as the correlation between Chinese contracts and other economic indicators. The paper uses data from the World Bank and National Bureau of Statistics of China starting from 2000-2015. This study finds that from 2000 to 2015, Chinese contracts have not been significant in economic growth of all African countries. The analysis does find that Chinese contracts are significant to economic growth when considering only the top five countries who have received the most contracts on average.

Nowadays, people have many business activities and entertainments on a variety of online platforms. Despite their various functionalities, online platforms have a fundamental administrative problem: How do platform designers or administrators create proper online environments, including mechanisms and policies, to better manage user behaviors, in order to reach the goals of the platforms? Starting with a taxonomy of online platforms, I introduce three critical dimensions that help to characterize such platforms, including revenue model, heterogeneity in the role of users and level of user interaction. Then, I choose three online platforms as research contexts and conduct empirical studies, trying to identify and understand the impact of the incentive program, quality information disclosure, and social influence, on users' decision-making in online platforms. The first essay investigates the effectiveness of incentive hierarchies, where users achieve increasingly higher status in the community after achieving increasingly more challenging goals, in motivating user contribution in the same platform. The findings have important implications for crowd-based online applications, such as knowledge exchange and crowdsourcing. The second essay focuses on online consumer review sites, and studies whether and how consumer-generated word-of-mouth of restaurants-both volume and valence-is influenced by the disclosure of quality information from health inspectors, by conducting analytical modeling and econometric analyses using data from a leading consumer review site. The third essay examines how social interactions matter in a large-scale online social game that adopts an increasingly popular freemium revenue model. The study leverages an econometric model to quantify the effect of peer consumption on players' repeated decisions for the consumption of both free services and premium services. Finally, I conclude the dissertation by highlighting the three fundamental issues of design and management of online platforms.

The aim of the thesis is analysing and evaluating the situation in each region through macroeconomical factors. First chapter is focused on Europe. The most interesting part of this chapter is the fiscal policy. Second chapter provides insight to fascinating Asia and its huge rise in recent past. Third chapter provides analysis of development of interesting economical values in America. Last fourth chapter includes econometrical analysis of relationships between time series of macroeconomical values and stock prices of representative bank shares from all regions enriched by equations for forecasting of future stock prices.

O comportamento do emprego no meio rural vêm se modificando ao longo do tempo. Pode-se perceber que o rural não é mais unicamente agropecuário. Existem atividades nãoagrícolas realizadas no meio rural vinculadas ou não à agropecuária, gerando o fenômeno conhecido como pluriatividade. O diagnóstico deste fenômeno para o Brasil já foi executado pelo projeto RURBANO. Entretanto, ainda existe uma lacuna na literatura nacional referente à utilização de modelos econométricos visando identificar os seus fatores determinantes. Além disto, estudos que tenham tentado entender como a vizinhança e os atributos do contexto em torno do município afetam o emprego não-agropecuário por pessoas residentes no meio rural ainda não foram efetuados. Neste contexto, o presente estudo analisa as questões relacionadas ao emprego rural, com ênfase nas atividades que não pertencem diretamente à produção agropecuária para o estado de Santa Catarina. São enfocados os aspectos econômicos, sociais e locacionais que possam explicar a evolução do emprego rural no estado. A escolha de Santa Catarina, para o estudo de caso, deve-se a algumas características peculiares deste estado, as quais são: apresentar uma economia altamente diversificada, ter na agropecuária uma importante fonte de renda para o PIB estadual, apresentar uma agricultura familiar dinâmica e, por se localizar na região sul, ter sido submetido de forma intensa à concorrência dos demais países que compunham o Mercosul até meados de 2006. Na literatura já existem diversos modelos econométricos visando analisar e explicar a pluriatividade no meio rural. O presente estudo utiliza um modelo contendo um sistema de três equações simultâneas lineares: 1- equação para a população rural; 2- equação para o emprego rural no setor industrial e 3- equação para o emprego rural no setor serviços. A nossa unidade de observação, neste modelo, são os municípios do estado, para a divisão territorial existente em 1991. Optou-se por trabalhar com o ano de 1991 devido ao menor número de pressuposições necessárias para compatibilizar as diferentes malhas municipais nos anos censitários de 1980, 1991 e 2000. Os dados relacionados ao emprego e à população são originados a partir dos microdados dos Censos Demográficos, produzidos pelo IBGE, para os anos de 1980, 1991 e 2000. As variáveis que definem os atributos da localidade são extraídas, além dos Censos Demográficos, de diversas fontes. Dentre estas se podem citar: Datasus, IPEA, Guia Quatro Rodas, entre outros. Visando complementar nossa análise, são calculados diversos índices de concentração da atividade econômica que permitem caracterizar as mesorregiões do estado e, assim, ajudar a explicar os resultados da regressão. Os resultados obtidos na tese confirmam a importância das atividades não agropecuárias na geração de emprego para as pessoas residentes em áreas rurais no Estado de Santa Catarina. O crescimento destas atividades no estado serviu para minimizar os impactos causados pela diminuição do emprego agropecuário no estado. Além de importante gerador de ocupações, as atividades não agropecuárias contribuem para aumentar a renda domiciliar dos residentes rurais. A renda dos domicílios pluriativos são superiores àquelas obtidas pelos domicílios agrícolas em todas as mesorregiões analisadas. O modelo econométrico estimado permitiu confirmar as hipóteses que nortearam este trabalho. Foi detectada a presença de \"spillovers\" do crescimento das populações urbanas sobre a população e o emprego não agropecuário para os residentes no meio rural. De maneira semelhante, estes \"spillovers\" foram também detectados quanto ao crescimento do número de pessoas ocupadas, nos setores de serviços e industriais, no meio urbano sobre os ocupados nesses setores e vivendo no meio rural. Os atributos locais foram também variáveis importantes na explicação da variação do número de pessoas ocupadas em atividades não agropecuárias para os residentes no meio rural. Entretanto, as variáveis que representam o acesso a mercados não se apresentaram como estatisticamente significativas. As variáveis que descrevem o passado (histórico) do número de pessoas ocupadas em atividades não agropecuárias e vivendo no meio rural foram também importantes variáveis na explicação do crescimento do número de ocupações não agropecuárias para os residentes no meio rural. Em outras palavras, o crescimento da pluriatividade (entre 1991 e 2000) está relacionada à sua dimensão anterior (considerada em 1980). / The characteristics of employment in rural places have been changing during the time, and we observe that rural employment is not only agricultural. There are non-agricultural job opportunities in rural areas which are related or not to the agricultural activity, which creates a phenomenon called pluriactivity. The diagnostic of this situation in Brazil was performed in the RURBANO project. However, there is yet a gap in the national literature referent to the utilization of econometric models for the identification of its determinants. Further, no studies were performed to understand how the neighborhood and the attributes around her affect the employment in non-agricultural activities in rural areas. The present study analyzes the questions related with rural employment, emphasizing the activities not directly connected to the agricultural production in the state of Santa Catarina. Emphasis is given to the dynamics and locational questions that can explain the rural employment inside the state. Santa Catarina was chosen due to its peculiarities: a diversified economy, the agriculture is an important activity to the state, the family farm is the base component of the production, and, as a state located in the south region, have faced directly the Mercosul challenges. There are a huge number of econometric models reported on the literature that can be used to explain the new rural employment dynamics. In the present study was used a model consisting of three linear simultaneous equations: 1- equation for rural population, 2- equation for rural employment in the industrial sector and, 3 - equation for rural employment in the service sector. The observational unit in this study is the county, using the 1991 map track. The decision to use the 1991 map track was based on the lower number of presupposition needed to make compatible the different county track in the years of 1980, 1991, and 2000. The source of data was the micro data of the demographic census, done by IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) in the years of 1980, 1991 and 2000. The variables that define the local attributes were extracted from the Demographic Census and from several other sources, such as: Datasus, IPEA, Guia Quatro Rodas, among others. To complement the analysis, several concentration index of the economic activity were calculated, which enable to unsterstand and characterize the microregions and, in this way, help to explain the results from the regression analysis. The results obtained show the importance of the non-agricultural activities for the employment dynamism in the rural areas of Santa Catarina. The increment of this kind of activity has minimized the impacts caused by the reduction of traditional rural employment in the state. In addition of being an important generator of employment, non-agricultural activities help to increase the household income of rural residents in all regions of the state analyzed. The incomes of the pluriactive households are superior to that of agricultural households in all analyzed mesoregions. The econometric model confirmed the hypothesis that supports this study. It was detected the presence of spillovers from the urban population growth in direction to the growth of the population and non-agricultural employment for the rural residents. In a similar way, these spillovers were also detected on the growth of employment in the service and industry sectors in urban areas over the same jobs in rural areas. The local attributes were also important variables to explain the variation of the nonagricultural employment for rural residents. However, the variables that describe the access to market were not statistically significant. The variables that describe the history of the number of people occupied in non-agricultural activities and living in rural areas were also important to explain the growth of the number of people occupied in non-agricultural activities for rural residents. That is, the increase of pluriativity (from 1991 to 2000) is related to its dimension in the past (in the year 1980).

The factors affecting the supply of rubber from Sarawak, East Malaysia, were identified and reviewed in an historical framework. A methodical framework for the general analysis of economic relationships between variables was reviewed and a practical application of the methodology to the supply of rubber from Sarawak was carried out. An econometric analysis of the long run factors affecting the production of rubber was carried out. (1) Two log-differenced autoregressive models of the rubber supply were formulated. (2) The models were tested for parameter constancy to identify structural breaks in the time series and for structural invariance to determine whether they were suitable for policy analysis, forecasting and backcasting. (3) The variables were tested for bivariate Granger Causality to determine the relationships between the factors of production and the output of rubber. (4) Forecast Error Variance Decomposition analysis of multivariate Granger Causality was carried out using a Vector Autoregressive Model. The results confirm the a priori economic theory that long run changes in supply have been affected primarily by changes in area under rubber production and long term price trends. The area planted to rubber has depended upon price incentives and the availability of scarce labour resources. Prices have been affected by the supply of rubber from Sarawak but this is posited to be a reflection of global supply trends affecting prices. While the results generally confirm the economic theory, caution is urged when interpreting the results. The severe inadequacies of the data used highlights the need for more accurate time series and the mainly methodological approach of this study.

Baigiamajame magistro darbe analizuojama paskolų Lietuvos namų ūkiams rinka. Atsižvelgiant į praktikoje paplitusius paskolų rinkų analizavimo metodus, vertinami ilgalaikiai ir trumpalaikiai ryšiai tarp paskolų Lietuvos namų ūkiams ir kitų ekonominių veiksnių. Taikant laiko eilučių metodus yra atliekamos paskolų sandorių prognoz÷s. Atsižvelgiant į spartų paskolų Lietuvos namų ūkiams rinkos augimą pastaraisiais metais, darbe vertinamas išorinių impulsų, ateinančių per paskolų rinką, poveikis šalies ekonomikai. Nagrin÷jami pagrindiniai paskolų namų ūkiams rinkai būdingi bruožai ir priežastingumo ryšiai. Analizei atlikti taikomi įvairūs ekonometriniai metodai ir modeliai: ne stacionarių laiko eilučių modelis (ARIMA), Johanseno kointegruotumo nustatymo procedūra, Grangerio priežastingumo tikrinimo procedūra, regresin÷ ir daugiamat÷ laiko eilučių analiz÷. Išnagrin÷jus gautus rezultatus, pateikiamos baigiamojo darbo išvados ir pasiūlymai. Darbą sudaro 8 dalys: įvadas, literatūros apžvalga, Lietuvos paskolų rinkos apžvalga, statistiniai rodikliai, taikomi modeliai ir metodai, duomenų analiz÷ ir prognozavimas, kointegruotumo tyrimas, regresin÷ ir daugiamat÷ laiko eilučių analiz÷, išvados ir siūlymai, literatūros sąrašas. / At this final master’s work the market of loans to Lithuanian households is analyzed. Given the methods applied to analyze credit markets in practice, the long-term and short-term relations between loans to Lithuanian households and other economic factors are evaluated. Non-stationary time series methods (ARIMA) are applied to perform forecasts of loan transactions. Given the rapid growth of loans to Lithuanian households in recent years, the effect of external impulses coming through the loan market to the economy of the country is evaluated. The main characteristics of loans to households and causality relations are analyzed. Various econometric methods and models are applied: non-stationary time series model (ARIMA), Johansen cointegration procedure, the Granger causality test, the regression and multivariate time series analysis. After the examination of the results obtained, the final conclusions and suggestions are presented. Structure: introduction, literature review, Lithuanian credit market overview, statistical indicators, models and methods applied, data analysis and forecasting, cointegration analysis, regression and multivariate time series analysis, conclusions and suggestions, references. Thesis consists of: 72 p. text without appendixes, 41 pictures, 41 tables, 9 bibliographical entries.

This research presents the first North American route-choice model for cyclists developed from a large sample of GPS data. These findings should encourage all interested municipalities to implement cycling as part of their transportation planning by determining key designing and planning factors to encourage cycling. The analysis is based on processing revealed preference data obtained from 415 self-selected cyclists in Waterloo, Ontario, which corresponded to 2000 routes. Cyclists' route decisions were modeled using multinomial logit framework of discrete choice theory. The main finding involved in capturing two different behaviour groups, namely experienced and inexperienced cyclists. This was subsequently reflected in the two developed models. The key factors impacting route-choice were found to be trip length, speed, volume, bicycle lane presence and percent of uphill gradient that cyclists face. The predictive power of the best model was 65%. The outlier analysis found that the relative significance of uphill gradient coefficient in one circumstances and perhaps the exclusion of unobserved variables, in other circumstances could be the cause why probability of actual choice was not predicted by both models all the time. In addition, this research involved in the development of a transferability study involving route-choice modeling for cyclists. The analysis is based on the revealed preference data obtained from 255 self-selected cyclists in Peel Region, Ontario, which corresponded to 425 unique routes. The choice set contained actual routes and a combination of alternatives obtained by labeling and impedance rules. The transferability of Waterloo's model to Peel Region was 37%. This means that cyclists behaviour in the Peel Region can be predicted correctly by travel length, bicycle lane presence and percent of uphill gradient for every third cyclist.

O comportamento do emprego no meio rural vêm se modificando ao longo do tempo. Pode-se perceber que o rural não é mais unicamente agropecuário. Existem atividades nãoagrícolas realizadas no meio rural vinculadas ou não à agropecuária, gerando o fenômeno conhecido como pluriatividade. O diagnóstico deste fenômeno para o Brasil já foi executado pelo projeto RURBANO. Entretanto, ainda existe uma lacuna na literatura nacional referente à utilização de modelos econométricos visando identificar os seus fatores determinantes. Além disto, estudos que tenham tentado entender como a vizinhança e os atributos do contexto em torno do município afetam o emprego não-agropecuário por pessoas residentes no meio rural ainda não foram efetuados. Neste contexto, o presente estudo analisa as questões relacionadas ao emprego rural, com ênfase nas atividades que não pertencem diretamente à produção agropecuária para o estado de Santa Catarina. São enfocados os aspectos econômicos, sociais e locacionais que possam explicar a evolução do emprego rural no estado. A escolha de Santa Catarina, para o estudo de caso, deve-se a algumas características peculiares deste estado, as quais são: apresentar uma economia altamente diversificada, ter na agropecuária uma importante fonte de renda para o PIB estadual, apresentar uma agricultura familiar dinâmica e, por se localizar na região sul, ter sido submetido de forma intensa à concorrência dos demais países que compunham o Mercosul até meados de 2006. Na literatura já existem diversos modelos econométricos visando analisar e explicar a pluriatividade no meio rural. O presente estudo utiliza um modelo contendo um sistema de três equações simultâneas lineares: 1- equação para a população rural; 2- equação para o emprego rural no setor industrial e 3- equação para o emprego rural no setor serviços. A nossa unidade de observação, neste modelo, são os municípios do estado, para a divisão territorial existente em 1991. Optou-se por trabalhar com o ano de 1991 devido ao menor número de pressuposições necessárias para compatibilizar as diferentes malhas municipais nos anos censitários de 1980, 1991 e 2000. Os dados relacionados ao emprego e à população são originados a partir dos microdados dos Censos Demográficos, produzidos pelo IBGE, para os anos de 1980, 1991 e 2000. As variáveis que definem os atributos da localidade são extraídas, além dos Censos Demográficos, de diversas fontes. Dentre estas se podem citar: Datasus, IPEA, Guia Quatro Rodas, entre outros. Visando complementar nossa análise, são calculados diversos índices de concentração da atividade econômica que permitem caracterizar as mesorregiões do estado e, assim, ajudar a explicar os resultados da regressão. Os resultados obtidos na tese confirmam a importância das atividades não agropecuárias na geração de emprego para as pessoas residentes em áreas rurais no Estado de Santa Catarina. O crescimento destas atividades no estado serviu para minimizar os impactos causados pela diminuição do emprego agropecuário no estado. Além de importante gerador de ocupações, as atividades não agropecuárias contribuem para aumentar a renda domiciliar dos residentes rurais. A renda dos domicílios pluriativos são superiores àquelas obtidas pelos domicílios agrícolas em todas as mesorregiões analisadas. O modelo econométrico estimado permitiu confirmar as hipóteses que nortearam este trabalho. Foi detectada a presença de \"spillovers\" do crescimento das populações urbanas sobre a população e o emprego não agropecuário para os residentes no meio rural. De maneira semelhante, estes \"spillovers\" foram também detectados quanto ao crescimento do número de pessoas ocupadas, nos setores de serviços e industriais, no meio urbano sobre os ocupados nesses setores e vivendo no meio rural. Os atributos locais foram também variáveis importantes na explicação da variação do número de pessoas ocupadas em atividades não agropecuárias para os residentes no meio rural. Entretanto, as variáveis que representam o acesso a mercados não se apresentaram como estatisticamente significativas. As variáveis que descrevem o passado (histórico) do número de pessoas ocupadas em atividades não agropecuárias e vivendo no meio rural foram também importantes variáveis na explicação do crescimento do número de ocupações não agropecuárias para os residentes no meio rural. Em outras palavras, o crescimento da pluriatividade (entre 1991 e 2000) está relacionada à sua dimensão anterior (considerada em 1980). / The characteristics of employment in rural places have been changing during the time, and we observe that rural employment is not only agricultural. There are non-agricultural job opportunities in rural areas which are related or not to the agricultural activity, which creates a phenomenon called pluriactivity. The diagnostic of this situation in Brazil was performed in the RURBANO project. However, there is yet a gap in the national literature referent to the utilization of econometric models for the identification of its determinants. Further, no studies were performed to understand how the neighborhood and the attributes around her affect the employment in non-agricultural activities in rural areas. The present study analyzes the questions related with rural employment, emphasizing the activities not directly connected to the agricultural production in the state of Santa Catarina. Emphasis is given to the dynamics and locational questions that can explain the rural employment inside the state. Santa Catarina was chosen due to its peculiarities: a diversified economy, the agriculture is an important activity to the state, the family farm is the base component of the production, and, as a state located in the south region, have faced directly the Mercosul challenges. There are a huge number of econometric models reported on the literature that can be used to explain the new rural employment dynamics. In the present study was used a model consisting of three linear simultaneous equations: 1- equation for rural population, 2- equation for rural employment in the industrial sector and, 3 - equation for rural employment in the service sector. The observational unit in this study is the county, using the 1991 map track. The decision to use the 1991 map track was based on the lower number of presupposition needed to make compatible the different county track in the years of 1980, 1991, and 2000. The source of data was the micro data of the demographic census, done by IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) in the years of 1980, 1991 and 2000. The variables that define the local attributes were extracted from the Demographic Census and from several other sources, such as: Datasus, IPEA, Guia Quatro Rodas, among others. To complement the analysis, several concentration index of the economic activity were calculated, which enable to unsterstand and characterize the microregions and, in this way, help to explain the results from the regression analysis. The results obtained show the importance of the non-agricultural activities for the employment dynamism in the rural areas of Santa Catarina. The increment of this kind of activity has minimized the impacts caused by the reduction of traditional rural employment in the state. In addition of being an important generator of employment, non-agricultural activities help to increase the household income of rural residents in all regions of the state analyzed. The incomes of the pluriactive households are superior to that of agricultural households in all analyzed mesoregions. The econometric model confirmed the hypothesis that supports this study. It was detected the presence of spillovers from the urban population growth in direction to the growth of the population and non-agricultural employment for the rural residents. In a similar way, these spillovers were also detected on the growth of employment in the service and industry sectors in urban areas over the same jobs in rural areas. The local attributes were also important variables to explain the variation of the nonagricultural employment for rural residents. However, the variables that describe the access to market were not statistically significant. The variables that describe the history of the number of people occupied in non-agricultural activities and living in rural areas were also important to explain the growth of the number of people occupied in non-agricultural activities for rural residents. That is, the increase of pluriativity (from 1991 to 2000) is related to its dimension in the past (in the year 1980).

This work is focused on econometric analysis of inflation in the Czech Republic, there is also reported an analysis of inflation in Austria and continuity of both countries to the dominant German economy. The inflation with its forms and possibilities of measuring is described in the first part of this work. There is also mentioned the influence of Czech national bank on the inflation. Next, there is shown the impact of foreign exchange rates and inflation. Consequently there are described characteristics of time series, which are important from viewpoint of construction of econometric models. Next, there is described theory of econometrics analysis, focused on ordinary least squares method and method of instrumental variables. The empirical part contains econometric analysis of inflation itself, using models described in theoretical part. Moreover, this work includes other models, coming out of economic hypothesis. Firstly, it analyses inflation in Germany as the reference country. Secondly, further analysis performs inflation in the Czech Republic and Austria. Finally, an analysis based on ERPT (exchange rate pass-through) models is given. In conclusion, the results are well summarized and compared.