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Due to a rising interest in natural fibres for textiles as well as environmental concerns, the demand for fibre flax has increased in recent decades. It was, therefore, with great enthusiasm that Canadian farmers welcomed, in 1997, the opening of a flaxprocessing unit in the region of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec. The purpose of this study was to investigate the economic viability of fibre flax contracting as an alternative activity for field-crop producers in Quebec. A risk-programming model called minimization of total absolute deviation (MOTAD) was developed to better approach this issue. The MOTAD takes into account the variability in income that stems from uncertainty in commodity-market prices and yields. In addition, five different marketing strategies for pricing grain corn and soybeans were included in the model. These pricing techniques combined the use of futures and options markets. / In a global agricultural system, where international commitments force governments to cut subsidies, reducing income variability for risk-averse farmers becomes a critical challenge. This study offered to assess the contribution of both contracting and futures markets as alternative market instruments for risk management. Five portfolio farm plans were identified for 200- and 300-hectare farm sizes. The results showed that gains through fibre flax contracting, in terms of risk reduction, exist only for the farm plans with lower levels of income and risk. Moreover, simulations demonstrated that the use of futures and options markets can help maximize overall net farm return.

No description available.

Ever since the milk bottle was invented in 1884, a number of technological developments have taken place. At present milk is packaged in Plastic Pouches, Tetra-Briks, and Pure-pak cartons.The volume of milk sold in paper cartons in the U.S. has reached about 78 per cent, of which Pure-pak cartons account for about 70 per cent. Besides milk, it is also used for packaging other products such as cole slaw, soft drinks, and laundry detergents.Despite its divergent use and seemingly far-reaching advantages and implications for the market milk industry, no packaging cost study seems to have been done. Therefore, this study was designed to make an economic analysis of the cost of packaging milk in Pure-pak cartons.The economic-engineering approach was used to analyze the cost of packaging. The estimated cost of packaging in small and large plants varied from 7.3 cents to 6.0 cents and from 6.3 cents to 5.8 cents when the machines are purchased and leased, respectively, irrespective of the size of the container. Furthermore, it is economical to use larger plants and lease the, machinery than to buy them.

The purpose of this research was to shed light on the factors that explain the differential achievement in science education between learner groups from different socio-economic backgrounds, through a cross-analysis of two case study schools in the Mafikeng area. It was hoped that a broader understanding of the distinctive factors that account for the achievement gap in science between learner groups from affluent communities and their impoverished counterparts would help in informing the relevant policy makers on the best systems to put in place to address this vexing phenomenon of achievement gap. A multi-faceted instrument technique, comprising a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, class observations, profile of science department and document reviews, was employed to gather data. The research paradigm that was used to underpin this study was the "emancipatory'' type since the issue under investigation was a social one and involved under-privileged individuals as well. The analysis of data was guided by the principles of social constructivist theory which incorporated both statistical, empiricist quantitative and the .qualitative analysis. The cross- analysis of the two case study narratives compared to and contrasted factors that underly leaner achievement in the natural sciences. The findings revealed that a wide variety of factors, all of which are direct manifestations of one's socio-economic standings. have a direct bearing on one 's scholastic achievement. This manifested itself in the form of, among others, the resources available at the school one attends, the quality of education (foundation stages) one received, the attitudes of educator one has, and of course, attitudes of the learner towards his/her school work. Furthermore, learner achievement was found to be consistent with the level of parental involvement in their children's education. Since the cross-analysis of the study revealed that disparity in the allocation of resources was one of the prime culprits in the creation and maintenance of the achievement gap, between learner groups from the two distinct socio-economic societies, it was recommended that some kind of parity be brought to prevail in that regard. Also recommended was the fact that educators and learners alike, especially from disadvantaged schools, recommit themselves to their school work. In addition, parents of learners from poor backgrounds should get involved, more than ever before, in their children 's school matters, in order to register some improvement in the quality of their education. Recommended for further study is the need to establish the factors that explain a differential achievement between schools in the same socio-economic band and the correlation between heredity and achievement. / Thesis (M. Ed.) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2004

The major intent of the study was to analyze the professional preparation levels of Indiana public school certificated personnel from 1965-1966 through 1974-1975 for discernible trends and attendant economic effects, if, in fact, such trends and effects existed.Multivariate analysis of variance was utilized to analyze trends in the professional preparation levels of certificated personnel in 303 Indiana public school corporations for three variables: (1) the state as a whole; (2) three geographic regions; and (3) three wealth categories. The F-ratio for multivariate test of equality was utilized to test the significance of trends, and a Pearson Product Moment Correlation was utilized to verify that relationships did exist among the variables.The overall fiscal impact of the changing mix of preparation levels for the ten-year period was identified by multiplying the 19741975 mean, salary for each of six levels of professional preparation by the number of personnel at each level for each year of the ten-year Period. The resulting products were summed and differences computed. The fiscal impact associated with increased preparation levels was isolated by holding mean salaries and years of experience constant at 1974-1975 levels and the total number of personnel at 1974-1975 levels, with the mix of preparation levels permitted to vary by relative annual percentages for each year of the ten-year period.The findings of -the study indicated that the percentage of personnel with a bachelors degree as the highest degree held decreased from 55.88 percent in 1965-1966 to 35.91 percent in 1974-1975 while the percentage of personnel with a masters degree increased from 38.53 percent to 61.13 percent. The mean years of preparation per FTE certificated personnel increased from 4.l166 to 4.555. A very highly significant difference (.0001) was found in the mix of preparation levels of personnel across the ten-year period. Constant, linear and quadratic relationships were significant at the .05 level or above. Significant differences were not found among trends in the preparation levels for three selected geographic regions and for three selected wealth categories across the ten-year period.The following conclusions were drawn from the study:1. A very strong linear trend exists in increased preparation of Indiana public school certified personnel.2. Although the slope of the trend in increased professional preparation does not differ among northern, central and southern regions, the southern region has a slightly lower mean level of preparation than either the northern or central region.3. The slope of the trend in increased professional preparation does not differ for the three wealth categories; however certificated personnel in high wealth corporations have a slightly higher level of preparation than personnel in medium wealth corporations, and personnel in medium wealth corporations have slightly higher levels of preparation than personnel in low wealth school corporations.4. A total of approximately $156.6 million in total salary cost increases would have occurred during the ten-year period if mean salaries were the same for all ten years as in 1974-1975. 5. An estimated increase of $42.92 million or approximately 27.4-percent of the total increase, measured in current dollars, is the direct result of increased preparation levels of certificated personnel if the total number of personnel were the same for all ten years as in 1974-1975.6. At current trends of increases in preparation levels of certificated personnel, approximately four dollars per pupil in 1974-1975 dollars can be expected as an increased annual operating cost as a result of increased preparation levels of certificated personnel. Such a value will compound with inflationary increases.The strong increase in the percentage of personnel with masters or higher degrees with an accompanying decrease in the percentage of personnel with a bachelors degree provides an indication that state-mandated professional improvement has resulted in increased preparation levels of certificated personnel. A major portion. of the fiscal impact of increased preparation levels of certificated personnel can be attributed to a state mandate of increased professional certification standards.

This thesis is a theoretical study of relationships between patent races and market structure. The outcome of a patent race can be an important determinant of market structure. For example, whether or not a new firm enters a market may depend upon its winning a patent race against an incumbent firm already in that market. Moreover, market structure can be a major influence upon competition in a patent race. In the example, the asymmetry between incumbent and potential entrant has an effect upon their respective incentives in the patent race. Chapter I discusses models of R and D with uncertainty. We show that, as the degree of correlation between the uncertainties facing rival firms increases, R and D efforts increase under some, but not all, conditions, and the number of active competitors falls. Chapter II discusses the approach of representing patent races as bidding games. We examine a model in which several incumbent firms compete with a number of potential entrants in a patent race, and ask whether the incumbents have an incentive to form a joint venture to deter entry. They do so if and only if the patent does not offer a major cost improvement. In Chapter III we examine the strategic interactions between competitors during the course of a race, in an attempt to clarify (for different types of race) the idea that a race degenerates when one player becomes 'far enough ahead' of his rivals, in a sense made precise. In Chapter IV we examine the evolution of market structure in a duopoly model when there is a sequence of patent races. The nature of competition in the product market is shown to determine whether one firm becomes increasingly dominant as industry leader, or whether there is 'action - reaction' between firms.

This D.Phil, thesis undertakes a theoretical analysis of the microeconomic incentives for scientific and technical knowledge-creating activities at the firm-level, the channels by which these activities impinge on industrial change and economic growth, and the effectiveness of governmental policies formulated to influence these systemic linkages. The motivation for this work is explained in Chapter 2, which reviews the state of the art in new growth theory and puts forward a typology of privately sponsored RandD activities and knowledge resources defining the premises on which the thesis rests. Chapters 3 and 4 investigate the RandD allocation and output decisions of a profitmaximising monopolist investing in exploratory- and applications-oriented research, dealing separately with product and process innovations. The characteristic properties of the optimal time paths are ascertained by means of formal and numerical optimal control methods, including comparative dynamics. The complementarity between the two modes of research is shown to generate increasing returns, but these turn out to be short-lived. The model is extended in Chapter 5 to study the development of multiple product lines. Knowledge spillovers and demand-side externalities across successive product lines can provide the basis for continued spending on RandD, allowing sustained output growth and profitability. Chapters 6 to 8 turn to the challenges of modelling the irreducible elements of uncertainty in the innovation process and their bearing upon the dynamics of market competition and industry structure. In the sequential game theoretic model introduced, firms can invest in fundamentally uncertain "innovative-RandD," or wait until the uncertainty surrounding original innovation is dispelled and invest in certain but costly "imitative-RandD." These decisions are taken in a vertically and horizontally differentiated market where noninnovating firms can compete with a "traditional" product. The industry-wide scale of RandD investments and the related evolution in market structure are determined endogenously. To do so, a symmetric equilibrium concept is defined and its uniqueness established. The model can support Schumpeterian industry evolutions, in which surges of innovative entry are followed by waves of imitation, and ensuing "creative destruction" in which traditional producers are driven out of the industry and innovators' rents are eventually eroded. Numerical simulations are employed in Chapter 7 to provide further insights into the evolution of product development, market structure, pricing, firm growth, profitability, and consumer welfare. The final chapter considers the implications of this game theoretic approach for competition and innovation policies.

This thesis explores the role economic analysis can play in policy formulation in the British National Health Service. The historical allocation process in the NHS is based on the idea of meeting fully the 'need' for health care of each individual. However, 'need' has never been comprehensively defined nor universally applied but has been interpreted by numerous, isolated judgements, often by doctors and others at the point of delivery of the service. These decisions have been strongly influenced by local availability of resources and since these have been distributed unevenly, the result has been a wide variation in standards of service, eg hospital cases per head of population and costs per case. While the perceived objective was to give everyone all the health care 'needed', it was not necessary to consider problems of distribution, between individuals and geographical areas, or problems of effectiveness, that is the relative efficiency of different forms of intervention. However, in reality the NHS budget is constrained and a rational decision-making mechanism must incorporate a rationing device which contains a consideration of distribution and effectiveness and these aspects comprise the two parts of the thesis. PART A THE ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES BETWEEN AREAS It has been the declared objective of the NHS since its creation that health resources should be equitably distributed. However, there has always been considerable variation in the per capita expenditure of the 14 regions because the system of incremental budgeting meant that the existing level of services was always financed. Even in 1971 when a formula was introduced for hospital expenditure, 50% of revenue funds was still distributed according to factors influenced by historical provision. Moreover no consideration was given to the allocation process below regional level though it was suspected that variations sub-regionally were greater than between regions. The objective of this study is to explore the concept of an 'equitable distribution' at the disaggregated level of Area Health Authorities, to see if it can be defined and quantified in operational terns suitable for policy recommendations. 'Equal treatment opportunity for patients of similar risk' is taken as the initial definition. The re-organisation of the NHS in 1974 made it feasible to relate services to geographical Areas. Data for the Oxford region in 1971-2 were analysed and applied to the post 1974 structure. Dividing general hospital expenditure by the population of each Area gave co-efficient of variation of 20%. Tests were then applied to see if there were factors, consistent with a 'equitable distribution', which explained part of the variation. The most important factor was found to be the flow of patients across boundaries. These flows were used to derive notional catchment populations and when these were divided into expenditure, the co-efficient of variation fell to 10%. An attempt was made to see if the variation was explained by differences in the morbidity characteristics of the populations. Various indicators were considered but the age-sex structure was found to be the only discriminator for which it was possible to obtain data on differential health service use. While nationally old people make greater use of services, there was no evidence that in the Oxford region more resources had been made available to the Areas with a greater proportion of elderly. Others factors considered include the cost of regional clinical specialties, the cost of teaching hospitals, psychiatric hospital provision and community health care. (These costing exercises themselves have been a useful spin-off). At each stage of the analysis an attempt was made to relate the expenditure differences between Areas to indicators of quantity and quality of services. It was found for example that the Area with least expenditure had the lowest acute-hospital provision but not the lowest provision for the chronic sick. It was concluded that while the variation was not as great as originally suggested, nevertheless taking into account all the factors, a re-allocation of 3% of the regions expenditure would be necessary to bring about 'equality of opportunity'. However, even at this level some differences would remain. For example, if cross-boundary flows were perpetuated, some people would travel further than others to receive care, and while the special funding of teaching hospitals and regional specialties nay be justified on efficiency grounds, this conveys special benefits for local residents. Despite these reservations, in operational terms much can be done to reduce 'basic' inequalities. No work had previously been undertaken on sub-regional variations and, already, at the request of the Minister of State for Health, this analysis has been extended to all 90 Areas in England and the results have added impetus to the formation of the Resource Allocation Working Party, on which the author has served as technical adviser. PART B COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS OF THE COMMUNITY HOSPITAL PROGRAMME The objective of this part is to examine how far analysis can help the choice of efficient methods of delivering health care. It comprises an appraisal of the Oxford region's Community Hospital (CH) Programme, a system of peripheral acute hospitals surrounding a District General Hospital (DGH). Originally a full cost-benefit study was planned but the practical problems of quantifying, valuing and aggregating benefits could not be overcome. Preliminary results suggested that differences in benefits were not measurably significant and so a cost-effectiveness approach was used. Firstly a regression analysis of the costs of 525 existing small hospitals showed that average costs vary with size, the curve being a tilted 'L' shape. The minimum cost size was 25 beds though when the sample was later disaggregated to remove hospitals which treat more complex cases this rose to 35 beds. This result was important for subsequent analysis since the two experimental CHs are in the higher cost range. Secondly the capital costs of CHs were compared with hypothetical DGH ward equivalents, arguing that with a rising population, building a CH is an alternative to building an additional DGH ward of the same size. CH construction costs were lower because less space per bed was used and certain features simplified. Land costs per bed, on the other hand, were higher because a low plot ratio was used which more than offset the relatively cheaper land on peripheral sites. The cheapest way, hov/ever, of providing CH services is to convert existing hospitals which have no alternative use and hence low opportunity cost. The main part of the cost-effectiveness exercise entailed a comparison of each component service, considered in terms of the type of patient, with the service which would have been provided without the CH. For example, surgical patients transferred after their operations would otherwise have been retained in the DGH. Some medical patients would have been treated in the DGH, others at home. No evidence was found to suggest that length of stay in the CH differed from the DGH, though this could not be proved and the conclusions were contingent on this. The CH had higher resource costs than the DGH alternative because of high nursing levels, and this was partly the result of the small scale. Also for the surgical patients the transfer by ambulance increased the cost. No account was taken of possible differences in benefits. It was concluded that the CH in-patient services could be cost-effective only if nursing staff were reduced or if converted hospital buildings with a low opportunity cost were used. A comparison of the CH service with domiciliary care entailed a detailed study of the cost of domiciliary services.