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

Over the last twenty years or so, dairying has become the largest agricultural enterprise in Quebec. It has also become the most profitable, supplanting other less profitable farm enterprises. Dairying in Quebec has grown to the point where Quebec is now Canada's leading dairy province. [...]

This thesis is composed of three essays. In the first essay I identify the effects of imposing a broad range of environmental regulations under different market conditions.. I compare four types of regulatory controls under Perfect Competition, Monopoly, and Cournot Competition: Emission Standards, Design Standards, Concentration Standards, and Output Standards. I rank each of the standards in terms of firm profitability, industry output, abatement costs, and social welfare. I derive sufficient conditions for Design, or Concentration Standards, to dominate Emission Standards. I show how the different forms of regulation can raise industry profits by reducing the degree of inter-firm competition. Further, I show how environmental regulations can enhance competition and yield a "double dividend": higher Social Surplus and less pollution. In the second essay I extend the comparison of standards to an open country. I show how a country's choice of regulatory regime influences the level of environmental protection when governments care about the competitiveness of their industries. I show that the mode of regulation can create a "race to the bottom" if regulators behave strategically. I show that Emission Standards permit the race, as do Emission Charges. Design Standards, on the other hand, avoid the race altogether by breaking the link between environmental stringency and industrial competitiveness. Countries using Design Standards will always regulate emissions. This holds regardless of the environmental stance taken by competitor nations. If countries do not behave strategically, then Emission Standards and Emission Charges always dominate Design Standards. In the third essay I use the concept of home biases in traded goods, or "Border Effects", to rank industries and countries in terms of their openness to trade. I first confirm the presence border effects for individual sectors and individual industries among OECD countries for 1970 to 1985. I also examine whether country-specific border effects are determined by the sectoral composition of a country's production. I find limited evidence to support this. Rather, per capita incomes appear to be the most important factor. The conclusion I draw is that the level of development appears to be the prime factor in explaining the differences in country-specific border effects. What countries produce is of some importance. Therefore, we should see continued, though possibly slow, reductions in home biases as all countries continue to develop. This will partially determine the kind of environmental regulation used as well as their level.

In 2003, the Centre for Operations Excellence at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business worked on a project for a company in the resort industry. The project was an initial attempt to develop and implement a pricing management practice for the ski lift ticket business of that company. Our main deliverable was the development of an Excel-based tool with a user-friendly interface that could help the company in their budgeting of the ski lift ticket business. After completing the project, we did some further investigation relative to pricing management techniques that could be applied to this sort of business, namely a congestible service industry. In this thesis we argue that a revenue management system could bring substantial benefits if implemented in this industry. We also identify the requirements and main features of a revenue management system applied to congestible service industries. Although revenue management is a very popular system in fields such as the airline, hotel and car rental industry, none of them can be classified as congestible industries. The ski lift ticket industry and similar industries possess one characteristic that differentiates them from the ones previously mentioned, there is no fixed capacity. This is the reason why we considered important to study the application of revenue management in congestible service industries.

The existing literature on household wealth accumulation has hitherto recognized the lifecycle effects, household socio-economic characteristics, bequest motives, and intergenerational transfers as important factors affecting household net wealth. The two empirical essays in this thesis expand the literature by emphasizing the likely roles that a household's tenure choice and home equity borrowing decisions have in its wealth accumulation process. The first essay, entitled "Homeownership and Household Wealth Accumulation", tests whether homeownership has placed the owner household on a more favorable wealth accumulation path, based on past observations that the values of owner-occupied housing have grown at a real rate greater than those of financial or other tangible assets. The premise is that, while the tenure choice decision is affected by a household's net wealth, the housing tenure chosen could place a household on different wealth accumulation paths over its life-cycle. Controlling for selection bias arising from tenure status, the results indicate that typical homeowners and renters have distinct wealth accumulation processes. While homeownership improves the wealth position of homeowners, the renter households are, however, better off in their existing tenure than otherwise. It appears that households self-select themselves into the appropriate tenure that optimizes their wealth accumulation paths. The second essay on "Household Consumption/Investment Behavior and Home Equity Loans" investigates which behavioral model underpins the homeowners' consumption and investment decisions of home equity loan funds, and how these decisions impact portfolio decisions and wealth accumulation. It concludes that the 'life-cycle model' and the 'precautionary savings model' prevail over the 'bequest motive model' in motivating the household consumption/investment decisions of home equity loans. Home equity loans alter the illiquid nature of housing investment through convenient tapping of housing equity, and reduce household preference to hold liquid assets to meet precautionary needs. Their presence encourages loan users to hold smaller shares of liquid cash and financial assets in total assets, and to diversify from housing asset to business, real estate and illiquid nonhousing assets. They generally reduce homeowners' net wealth, reflecting a tendency for borrowed funds to be consumed or invested in loss-incurring assets.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.