Abstract not available

Optimization programming techniques were applied to develop the least cost formulations for Pacific whiting surimi-based seafood (PWSBS). To develop the quality constraint functions, texture and color of whiting surimi gels were determined by torsion test and colorimeter, respectively. Whiting surimi gels were produced by heating at 90��C for 15 min. with 2% NaCl, five final moisture contents (74, 76, 78, 80, 82%), and various combinations of beef plasma protein (0-2%), potato starch (0-8%), and two whey protein concentrates (0-8%). Due to the non-linear constraint functions describing texture and color, a non-linear programming search technique was required to solve the least cost model for PWSBS. Results for target quality constraints are reported in this study and show that whey protein concentrate increases the texture properties and can remain economically competitive with other ingredients which similarly influence functionality in PWSBS. Water holding capacity indicated by thermal transition was also studied as a measure of gel quality. The water evaporization process was quantified using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) for surimi gels with added potato starch or whey protein concentrate. Pacific whiting surimi gels were produced by heating in a sealed DSC pan from 30 to 90��C at a rate of 5��C/min.; gelled samples were then re-heated from 30 to 180��C at 2��C/min. in an open pan using an equivalent water mass as a reference. The DSC thermogram showed one exothermic peak followed by one endothermic peak, the former indicating a relative energy flow from the protein gels due to the delayed water evaporation. DSC parameters derived in this study showed good correlation with the texture properties of protein gels. The addition of whey protein concentrate and the increase of heating rate increased the water holding capacity of whiting surimi gels. / Graduation date: 1996

The term structure of interest rates shows the relationship between yields of zero-coupon bonds and their maturities. The empirical performance of the single-factor model of the affine term structure models, such as Vasicek (1977) and Cox, Ingersoll, and Ross (1985), has not been entirely satisfactory. The curve fitting methods, and particularly the spline method, used in practice to estimate the term structure are ad hoc and thus subject to arbitrage opportunities. Guo (1998) used the fundamental Partial Differential Equation (PDE) for bond pricing to derive a linear discount function, which is consistent with no-arbitrage. He showed that this is the unique linear solution to the PDE. This solution, the exponential-polynomial model or EP model for short, has n unobserved state factors that drive a stochastic discount process for pricing bonds so as to rule out arbitrage opportunities. In this thesis, we conduct an extensive cross-sectional analysis of the EP model on two different data sets: prices for daily Treasury bills, notes and bonds from the New York Federal Reserve Bank quotation sheets from July 1989 to October 1996, and daily Canadian bills, notes and bonds prices for the time period from June 1992 to May 1995. We estimate the model by applying a minimization criterion. The cross-sectional analysis shows that the EP model is able to describe adequately the term structure of interest rates. For the US data, we find that every term structure from the sampling period can be fully represented by either nine or ten state factors. Eigenvalue analysis indicates that the first three principal components are underlying the term structure movements. We conduct a time series analysis on the three principal components. They are found to be best described by ARMA/GARCH processes. We form two types of GARCH forecasts of the three principal components and test their out-of-sample performance. We conclude that the three principal components are predictable in a statis

Following the important work on unit roots and cointegration which started in the mid-1980s, a great deal of econometric works has been devoted to the study of the subtleties and varieties of near nonstationarity and persistence that characterize so many economic and financial time series. In recent years research activity has gained importance with outstanding contributions made on estimation and testing of a wide variety of long memory processes, together with many interesting and imaginative applications over a wide variety of different fields of economics and finance. For these reasons, this study provides empirical evidence to an aspect of fractional differencing and long memory processes, or the long memory of volatility. Evidence of long memory persistence is explored using stock price indices for eight emerging economies in both Asian and Latin American markets. The concern with the presence of long memory in higher moments of return series was first drawn by Ding, Granger and Engle (1993), using asset returns. Baillie, Bollerslev and Mikkelsen (1996) developed the fractionally integrated GARCH, or FIGARCH, process to represent long memory in volatility. The measure of long-memory persistence in the volatility is employed either using the original rescaled range statistic by Hurst (1951) and its modified version proposed by Lo (1991). Further analysis of the presence of long memory persistence is conducted using autocorrelation analysis. All the findings point in the same direction, that is, the existence of long memory in volatility irrespective of the measure chosen. Estimation of different models of volatility is undertaken beginning with the ARCH specification and until the FIGARCH model. The results show the effects to be higher in Latin American countries than in the Asian ones. This result seems consistent with the degree of intervention in the Latin American markets, known to be much higher. / Other possible explanations for the occurrence of long term persistence are also pursued such as the Regime Switching modelisation proposed first by Hamilton and Susnel (1994) with the SWARCH approach. Results show that this approach can bring another possible explanation for persistence, specially in economies like Brazil that, have very different regimes for the period covered in this study.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-142). / Microfiche. / vii, 142 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, August 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (PhD.)--Beijing hang kong hang tian da xue, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 192-199)

Over the past decade there has been a number of innovations in the estimation of input demand equations. In particular, ways of incorporating the hypothesis of rational expectations into empirical models of the firm have been developed and improved upon. This research agenda was perhaps inspired by the Lucas critique of econometric policy evaluation, which suggested that econometric models which did not explicitly take account of how expectations of the future affect current behaviour would give misleading results regarding the possible effects of various government policies. Lucas specifically directed part of his critique at empirical models of business investment, which had been used previously in the assessment of tax policies designed to affect investment. This thesis has a dual purpose. First, two distinct models of input demand are estimated with Canadian manufacturing data. Each of the models incorporates to some degree the hypothesis of rational expectations, but the specifications of technology differ. Neither of these models, to our knowledge, has been estimated with Canadian data. We are interested in whether either model explains well the behaviour of the Canadian manufacturing sector, and in how the results compare with the (few) U.S. applications of this type of model. The second purpose is to use the results of these models in simulations to assess the effect of changes to the after-tax rental rate of capital on investment and employment in manufacturing. While there have been studies in Canada (and elsewhere) that attempt to calculate the effects of various tax policies on investment, most studies were done prior to the innovation of techniques in estimating models with rational expectations. This thesis is able to examine the effects of a particular change while remaining immune to the Lucas critique. If the modelling of expectations is correct, this could not only improve the reliability of the estimates, but also give some indication of the empirical importance of the Lucas critique. The results can be summarized as follows. The two models give very different estimates of price elasticities of demand for capital and labour, even though they are similar in many respects and are estimated with a common data set. It is also the case that their estimates of the effects of temporary and permanent changes to the rental rate are different. Adjusting the reduced form parameters of the input demand equations to account for changes in tax policy regimes alters the results to a significant degree, suggesting that the explicit modelling of expectations matters in an empirically relevant sense. However, these effects are in opposite directions for the two models considered here. All this suggests that more research is required into the relationship between expectations of future policy and investment behaviour. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

No description available.

The dissertation has three main chapters on product quality innovation. First, we compare innovation effort and social welfare between monopoly, duopoly, and the social planner in a dynamic model with quality dependent on a continuous know-how stock. The technology frontier--the largest reachable know-how socks--does not always positively depend on competitiveness, i.e. a duopoly may technologically surpass the social planner. However, social welfare is always positively tied to competitiveness. Second, with a general equilibrium model, we derive a relative price function expressing productivity and quality effects, and develop a method for inferring relative quality changes. An application to services versus goods of the US from 1946-2006 provides evidence on aggregate quality changes and suggests us to incorporate quality variations when explaining relative prices. Third, we build a two-product model where productivity changes lead to reallocations of labor between quantity production and quality innovation. The correlation between relative productivity and relative quality is negative for low-range substitutability and positive for medium-range substitutability between two products. Looking at services versus goods of the US, the correlation is negative and productivity-driven quality can play a significant role in general quality development.