The work observes the positive relationship between culture and tourism and quantifies the economic and social (or socio-economic) impacts of cultural tourism in the Czech Republic. The first part showcases successful cultural projects in the Czech Republic and abroad, which attract tourists and provide destinations with financial resources and create new jobs. The author characterizes these positive economic and social impacts and benefits on the development of the region and analyzes existing studies of socio-economic impacts, normally processed abroad for cultural organizations and attractions. While in the Czech Republic, these studies are not yet very widespread, they represent a a useful document for the organization itself, but also for providers of grants and financial contributions, or for agencies and authorities designing concepts of culture and tourism. The work presents the basic methodologies used by the economic impact studies and further elaborates the most accurate and also the most demanding method of calculating the impacts, input-output analysis. Using this method, the author proposes a comprehensive model for calculating the economic and socio-economic impacts and benefits. The model uses statistical data of Czech national accounts and is intended for Czech cultural organizations attracting visitors. After using financial data of the surveyed organization and the expenditure of visitors, the model can easily determine the impacts of the organization to increase production, gross value added, employment and income of workers in the Czech Republic. The work builds on a lot of foreign findings, which seeks to apply in domestic conditions while using local data.

Die Arbeit stellt die wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen von Aktienleerverkäufen auf die Liquidität, die Preisfindung und auf die Volatilität von Aktienmärkten dar. Zudem werden die nach der Finanzmarktkrise 2008 in den USA und in Deutschland und in Großbritannien erlassenen Leerverkaufsregulierungen untersucht. Ein Schwerpunkt der Arbeit liegt auf der Analyse der aktuellen US-Leerverkaufsgesetzgebung sowie der europäischen Leerverkaufsverordnung (EU) 236/2012. / This thesis analyses the economic impact short selling has on liquidity, price formation and volatility of stock markets. Moreover it thoroughly describes the regulatory measures that were taken with regard to short selling in the United States, in Germany and in Great Britain after the financial crises in 2008. The main focus of this thesis is on the current short selling regulation in the US and on the European Short Selling Directive EU 236/2012

L’objectif de la thèse est d’étudier l’insertion des agro-industries dans les territoires et surtoutleur contribution au développement local et régional. Nos recherches ont été effectuées dansle Delta et la basse vallée du fleuve Sénégal (région de Saint Louis du Sénégal). L’étude desentreprises (CSS, SOCAS et GDS) situées dans notre zone d’étude a mis en évidencecertains lieux stratégiques : le Delta et la basse Vallée (espace de production), la région deDakar et l’international comme espace d’approvisionnement et de commercialisation. Cesentreprises contribuent très peu au développement du Delta et de la basse Vallée. Le rôleprépondérant de Dakar au détriment de Saint Louis, les incohérences des politiquesfoncières et de développement régional ainsi que le contexte international et sous-régional(concurrence et fraude) sont autant de facteurs qui expliquent l’impact limité des agroindustriesdans notre zone étude. Notre étude révèle aussi que les prises de terrescristallisent particulièrement des tensions entre les agro-industries et les populations hôtes.D’où la nécessite pour les entreprises d’adopter la politique de RSE, mais aussi pour l’État,de réformer le foncier. La prise en compte des agro-industries dans les plans dedéveloppement local et régional est également une piste à explorer par les élus locaux. / This thesis aims to examine the integration of agricultural industries in the areas andspecifically assess then contribution to the local and regional development. Our research hascovered the Delta and the lower Valley of the Senegal River (the region of Saint Louis ofSenegal). The study of societies (CSS, SOCAS, GDS) located in this area has highlightedcertain strategic places: The Delta and the lower Valley (production area), the region ofDakar and the international market as supplying and marketing area. These societiescontribute very little to the development of the Delta and of the lower Valley. Among thefactors that account for the limited impact of these agricultural industries one can mention theparamount role played by Dakar to the detriment of Saint Louis, the inconsistencies of landand regional development policy as well as the regional an intercontinental context(competition, smuggling). This investigation has also revealed that the appropriation of landsparticularly causes time conflicting relations between agricultural societies and the localpopulations, hence the necessity for these companies to adopt the social responsibility ofcompany’s policy and to reform the land policy. The local councillors should also considertaking into account the agricultural companies in their local and regional development plan.

Fokus i denna uppsats ligger i att jämföra fyra organisationers hållbarhetsredovisningar och se i vilken utsträckning de uppfyller GRI:s riktlinjer för ekonomisk påverkan. De fyra organisationer som granskas är Sveriges storbanker, Handelsbanken, Nordea, SEB och Swedbank. Eftersom att de agerar inom den finansiella sektorn har en avgränsning gjorts till det ekonomiska ansvaret eftersom det är det mest relevanta och intressanta att titta närmare på.  Problemformuleringen i denna uppsats lyder: På vilket sätt, i sina hållbarhetsredovisningar, tillämpar Sveriges fyra storbanker GRI:s riktlinjer för ekonomisk påverkan?  Syftet är att se hur bankerna har presenterat sin ekonomiska påverkan enligt GRI:s riktlinjer och jämföra dessa med varandra. För att få fram information om detta har respektive banks hållbarhetsredovisning för år 2010 granskats och tolkats. Den teoretiska referensramen som uppsatsen har utgått ifrån är CSR , ett begrepp som beskriver de tre ansvarsområdena ekonomi, socialt och miljö. Dessa tre områden är i grunden TBL (tripple bottom line). En stor del av teoridelen består av GRI:s riktlinjer och ramverk som även de bygger på TBL:s tre byggstenar.

From the Proceedings of the 1972 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - May 5-6, 1972, Prescott, Arizona / Land is subsiding over a heavily mined aquifer in south central Arizona. Subsidence damages are inventoried to help provide a basis upon which cost studies can be performed to determine actions to lessen the economic impact of these damages. Water table drawdown produces increasing loading stress by three ways: changes in bouyant support of aquifer grains, changes in water table, or both. Two types of subsidence are recognized--one-directional compression, and near surface phenomenon. Damages due to natural structures, and to man-made structures are reviewed. Agricultural damages include field releveling, ditch repair and well damage. Damages to transportational facilities include highways, bridges, pipelines, and railroads. Damages to domestic and urban structures are suggested. Questionnaires, interviews and on-site inspections were used to collect information on land subsidence damages in the study area.

From the Proceedings of the 1971 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - April 22-23, 1971, Tempe, Arizona / In the semiarid southwestern U.S. where competition for water is fierce between competing users, no regional agency controls water allocation, and as a result, much court litigation ensues. This paper attempts to develop a model for optimal allocation of water resources and to apply the model to a specific case study. In November 1969, the largest farming interest in the Sahuarita-continental area near Tucson filed a court suit seeking first to reduce the amount of groundwater used by 4 nearby copper mines, and then to allocate the water more evenly among various interests in the area. The farming interest maintained that the mines' drawdown on the groundwater table would soon deplete the supply to the point where agriculture would become impossible. The model utilizes the concept of collective utility which postulates the existence of an economic decision maker (edp). To get around the problem of determination of net revenue functions, the theory compares the relative desirability of neighboring economic states. The edp has the power to impose groundwater-use taxes in such a way as to maximize overall growth of collective utility in the Sahuarita-continental area, taking into account the externalities of the resource consumption. The mathematical analysis is presented in detail.

From the Proceedings of the 1972 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - May 5-6, 1972, Prescott, Arizona / The concept of collective utility is applied to a case study of alternative water resource utilization by providing a basis for comparing alternative uses of resources from the viewpoint of aggregate welfare. The exchange of sewage effluent for groundwater used by irrigation farmers, and the exchange of sewage effluent for groundwater used by processing and milling miners in Tucson, Arizona, are given as examples. Reviewed are collective utility concepts, case problems, definitions of problems, formulation of the model, and marginal change of collective utility. The first case has a collective utility of $800,500-g, where g represents unquantifiable factors, such as the reduction in quality of living due to the odor if solid waste exchanges. The second case has a collective utility of $175,000. Since it is likely that g will be on the order of $1 million per year, the first exchange is preferable to the second.

The North American forest industry has long been an important part of North America’s economy. The industry has traditionally been the only industrial demand on timberland creating a long established balance between the supply (timberland) and the demand (manufacturing). Recently the forest industry has been troubled due to the collapse of the solid wood products largest market, housing, and a global recession. These troubled times have lead many operation in the industry to curtail operations. Since the industry curtailed, high oil prices and increasing environmental concern have advocated the investment in renewable energy sources. As a renewable energy source, biomass holds great potential for satisfying a portion of our continental energy demands. This increased demand for timberland products could be very profitable to the timberland owners but also holds many concerns to the extent of additional supply that can be harvested from our timberlands. Further complicating the balance of supply and demand are the large global and domestic effects that are reducing the total amount of timberland and increasing the demand for the remaining timberlands. The supply and demand changes have the potential to make the forest industry evermore important part of the North American economy but care must be taken to not over extend our resources.

Minerals are important natural resources and their development is a historically old, yet new, idea for creating economic prosperity in developing countries. Various researchers have evolved several arguments regarding the impact of mineral resources on development and growth, but they have yet to furnish a practical method of economic evaluation of mineral resources development. This thesis focuses on the economic impact of mineral resource development in a small developing country in the South Pacific Region, namely Fiji. Fiji has expectations and faces challenges in its natural resources development. The Namosi project, a large copper-gold mine development, has been proposed and is under consideration by the Fijian government, who is deliberating on whether mining resources should be developed as a means to add to its prosperity and economic growth or alternatively conserved from the standpoint of the environment and stability. In this study, four significant issues are analyzed viz.: 1) Whether the Namosi mine development project gives a positive net private return. 2) Whether the predicted amount of revenue flowing to the Fijian government from the Namosi mine development exceeds the estimated external cost (in this case, environmental cost) from its development. 3) The impacts of the project on various levels of the Fijian economy, and whether the mine development in Fiji results in an enclave industry; and whether mining has strong or weak backward and forward production linkages with the rest of the Fijian economy. 4) Whether “Dutch disease” will ensue from mining development in Fiji and its level of severity. Regarding issue 1) above, Private Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) is conducted by applying the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) method to evaluate the Namosi mining project based on financial projections. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis is conducted in order to allow for possible variations in copper and gold prices. This analysis indicates that given the anticipated metal prices, private returns from this mining development are likely to be positive. Indeed, the current high metal prices would lead to high private returns. Regarding issue 2) above, Social Cost-Benefit Analyses are attempted. Under the given circumstances, the results show that the benefits of the mine project, as a whole for its 29-year life, substantially outweigh the environmental costs of the project to Fiji. However, due to a lack of available data on the economic magnitude of environmental spillovers, only estimates of environmental costs of the Namosi mining development could be made. Regarding issue 3) above, Input-Output model analysis is performed. Fiji’s total output (without production from the Namosi mine) is found to be F$5,529.917 million. It is estimated that the Namosi project will increase the output of Fiji directly by F$465.574 million (which includes the production inducement effect) and will result in an increase of F$543.788 million in overall Fijian output (GDP). This increase will also be followed by an increased output of about F$10-30 million in related industries, such as in the commerce, transport, and insurance sectors. Based on this Input-Output analysis, it is found that Fiji’s mining sector is an export-oriented enclave industry and that the mining industry itself has very little influence on economic activity in other sectors of the economy. Regarding issue 4) above, the Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model analysis is applied. Evidence of the likely occurrence of Dutch disease can be detected from output indicators of each industry, consumer prices and exports. Examples of Dutch disease are as follows: a decrease in output of agricultural industries and in export-oriented domestic industries; an increase in consumer prices (inflation); a decrease of exports both in exportable agricultural products and in manufactured products oriented to exports. However, several macro-variables improve, such as employees’ income, trade (exports and imports), tax revenue, tariff revenue, VAT revenue, government account (savings and expenditure) and GDP etc. These results suggest that there could be a major increase in national welfare. Thus, from an economics point of view, it has been found (by comparing gains in Fijian government revenue with potential Fijian environmental costs) that it is very likely that development of the Namosi mine will result in a net social gain to Fiji. These results are based on the application of principles of social cost-benefit analysis and indicate that a Kaldor-Hicks improvement (a potential Pareto improvement) is likely for Fiji as a result of the mining development. This means that from the predicted net revenue gains of the Fijian government from mining, those who suffer environmental losses would be compensated and the government would still have some extra revenue left over. An actual Paretian improvement is also possible.

Le bâtiment est considéré comme étant le premier secteur consommateur d’énergie dans le monde. Dans la région méditerranéenne, face à la crise économique et aux engagements pris pour limiter les effets produisant le réchauffement climatique, il est devenu impératif de réduire la consommation énergétique des bâtiments que ce soit par la conception des bâtiments neufs ou par la réhabilitation du parc existant. Dans ce cadre-là, chercher des solutions techniques optimales en tenant compte des critères économiques, environnementaux et sociétaux est un problème très complexe du fait du nombre élevé de paramètres à prendre en compte. Pour remédier à ce problème, un état de l’art des méthodes d’optimisation multicritère a été réalisé. Nous avons constaté que plusieurs contraintes existent lors de l’utilisation de ces méthodes telles qu’un temps de calcul élevé et la non-maîtrise de la convergence des résultats vers des optimums globaux recherchés. L’objectif de notre travail est de proposer une nouvelle méthode qui permette de contourner ces difficultés. Cette méthode est basée, dans un premier temps, sur le développement des modèles polynomiaux pour la prédiction des besoins de chauffage, de refroidissement, d’énergie finale et du confort thermique d’été à l’aide du logiciel TRNSYS. Pour établir ces modèles, nous avons utilisé la méthode des plans d’expériences et des simulations thermiques dynamiques. À partir de ces modèles, une analyse de sensibilité a été entamée afin d’identifier les paramètres les plus influents sur les besoins énergétiques et le confort thermique d’été. Une base de données est utilisée associant chaque paramètre à son coût et à son impact environnemental sur son cycle de vie. Ensuite, une étude paramétrique complète a été réalisée en utilisant les fonctions polynomiales dans le but de déterminer un ensemble de solutions optimales à l’aide de l’approche du Front de Pareto. Cette nouvelle méthode a été appliquée dans le but de concevoir des bâtiments neufs à haute efficacité énergétique à des coûts maîtrisés pour les six zones climatiques du Maroc. La validation des modèles polynomiaux réalisée grâce à une comparaison avec des simulations aléatoires a donné des résultats très satisfaisants. Avec un modèle polynomial de second degré, l’erreur maximale sur les besoins énergétiques et le confort thermique adaptatif d’été ne dépasse pas 2 kWh/m².an et 9% respectivement dans la plupart des cas. Les modèles développés ont ensuite été utilisés pour l’aide à la décision multicritères. Les résultats obtenus ont montré que des bâtiments à très faibles besoins énergétiques peuvent être construits à un coût raisonnable, et qu’un effort doit être porté sur des solutions plus performantes pour le rafraîchissement en été. Enfin, nous avons mis en œuvre la méthode que nous avons développée dans le cadre de la réhabilitation d’un bâtiment existant à La Rochelle. Les critères environnementaux ont aussi été intégrés à la recherche de solutions optimales. La solution retenue selon 14 critères correspond à un ensemble de solutions techniques permettant d’obtenir des besoins de chauffage de l’ordre de 15 kWh/m².an avec un compromis réalisé entre l’efficacité énergétique, le confort des occupants, les impacts environnementaux et la maîtrise du coût de la réhabilitation. La méthode développée dans le cadre de ce travail a montré un fort potentiel d’utilisation pour l’aide à la décision multicritère lors de la conception des bâtiments neufs ou en réhabilitation. Elle permet d’effectuer très rapidement une optimisation opérationnelle de l’enveloppe pour contribuer à des bâtiments durables, confortables, à coût maîtrisé et à basse consommation énergétique. / The building sector is the largest consumer of energy in the world. In Mediterranean region, facing the economic crisis and commitments for climate change, the reduction of energy consumption for both new and existing buildings is more necessary. Against this background, seeking optimal technical solutions taking into account the economic, environmental and societal criteria is a very complex problem due to the high number of parameters to consider. In order to solve this problem, a state of the art of multi-criteria optimization method has been achieved. We found that many constraints exist when using these methods such as high time calculation and no absolute assurance to find the global optimum. Thus, the main objective of the present work is to propose a new method that allows overcome these difficulties. This method is based on the development of polynomial models for the prediction of heating energy needs, cooling energy needs, final energy needs and summer thermal comfort. To establish these models, we used the design of experiments method and dynamic thermal simulations using TRNSYS software. From these models, a sensitivity analysis has been achieved in order to identify the leading parameters on energy requirements and thermal comfort in summer. A database associating each parameter for its cost and environmental impact on its lifetime was generated from CYPE software and INIES database. Then, a detailed parametric study was performed using polynomial functions for determining a set of optimal solutions using the Pareto front approach. This new method was applied to design new buildings with high energy efficiency at controlled costs for the six Moroccan climate zones. The validation of polynomial models through a comparison with random simulations gave very satisfactory results. With a polynomial model of the second order, the maximum error on the energy needs and the adaptive thermal comfort did not exceed 2 kWh/m².an and 9% respectively. The developed models were used for multiple-criteria decision analysis. The results showed that buildings with very low energy needs can be built with a reasonable cost. On the other hand an effort should be focused on more efficient solutions for adaptive thermal comfort in summer especially for Marrakech and Errachidia. Finally, we also implemented our method to a project of energy rehabilitation of an existing building located in La Rochelle (France). Environmental criteria were also taken into account in the optimization process. The selected technical solutions procured approximately 15 kWh/m².year of heating energy needs. The developed multicriteria decision method showed a great potential for both designing new and existing buildings with high energy efficiency. It allows a very fast operational optimization of sustainable buildings at reasonable cost and low energy consumption.