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This thesis analyzes the dialectical relations of economic liberalism and nationalism. Four arguments are made: (1) the international economic order is the product of the intercourse between liberalism and nationalism; (2) world trade expansion is conditioned by the rise of protectionism; (3) the formation of regional trading blocs sets up a bridge between regional liberalism and GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariff); (4) the success of development is determined by the results of the crystallization of the nation-state. The arguments of this paper develop from abstract to specific. In the first part, the philosophical foundations of liberalism and nationalism are given attention. Both forces are regarded as the foundations of modern international relations, the success of one side depending on the other. In this connection, Ruggie's (1982) "embedded liberalism" is extended to the whole range of modern history. The three theories are also reviewed with respect to their ideologic commitments. The rapprochement of nationalism and liberalism implies that their originally one-sided standpoints need modification. In the second part of this thesis, empirical analyses are introduced. The different state patterns, such as free capitalism and state socialism, are regarded as the results of crystallization (Mann, forthcoming). The rise of protectionism and regionalism reflect the erosion of the existing international relations. Successful nationalism could set up the foundation for the solid development of liberalism under the political framework of democracy, which could alter the existing international relations.

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This thesis consists of three essays which explore different economic issues emerging in today's globalized world economy. Using a model of outsourcing by monopolistically competitive firms, the first essay shows that, even in the case of flexible domestic wages, international outsourcing (and/or re-location of plants to a low-wage economy) by home firms may worsen the welfare of the home country and reduce the profits of all firms in the industry, even though it is individually rational for each firm to choose to outsource. It shows that if a social planner for the home country can choose the extent of international outsourcing, his optimal choice will not coincide with the equilibrium outcome under laissez-faire. A wage subsidy may improve welfare. When the wage in the home country is rigid we show that outsourcing is welfare-improving for the home country if and only if the sum of the "trade creation" effect and the "exploitation effect" exceeds the "trade diversion" effect of the access to the low-wage labour in the foreign country. The essay also assesses the model in a two-period framework, where each domestic firm faces the choice between outsourcing (or re-location) in the first period, or in the second period. Delaying outsourcing can be gainful because the fixed cost of outsourcing may fall over time. On the other hand, delaying means the firm's variable production cost in period 1 will be higher than that of rivals who are outsourcing. The equilibrium of this two-period game may involve some firms outsourcing in period 1, while others will outsource in period 2, even though ex-ante they are identical firms. Under monopolistic competition, in equilibrium, the sum of discounted profits is identical for all firms. Again, a social planner for the home country may choose a different speed of outsourcing than the speed achieved by an industry under laissez-faire. / The second essay explores the market for fair-trade products. It employs a duopoly model involving a firm producing a fair-trade product in competition against a conventional firm producing a standard product. The concept of "economic identity" (Akerlof and Kranton, 2000) is used to model consumers' demand for fair-trade products. The essay shows how, in the short run, the parameters of the identity function can impact the equilibrium prices, and in the medium run, how they impact the conventional firm's choice of its position in the product space. In the long run, however, the fair-trade firm may be able to influence the parameters of the identity function, for its own advantage. / The last essay uses the contest model (Tullock, 1980, Rowley et al., 1988, Hillman and Riley, 1989, Nitzan, 1994) to assess welfare effects of bilateral liberalization of government procurement. It shows that there exists a single condition that ensures active participations of all firms in all contests. When this condition is violated, i.e. under a dominant-country case, the dominating country always gains from trade liberalization, while welfare of the dominated country improves only if its corporate tax is sufficiently high. Under full participation of all firms, i.e. no country dominates the markets, and countries are partially symmetric, there exist conditions where bilateral liberalization is mutually beneficial to both countries. When countries are completely asymmetric, it is showed that a country may gain from bilateral trade liberalization if its tax rate is sufficiently high, while the tax rate of the other country is sufficiently low. The results obtained in this essay have shed lights on the current position of negotiations on liberalizing government procurement within the WTO. They suggest plurilateral agreements on government procurement could be formed among countries with similar economic conditions. Such agreements, however, are hard to reach between countries with a large degree of economic asymmetry.

The inability to accurately estimate costs which are associated with software development is an increasing concern of the scientists and practitioners involved. Many factors influence the cost and many models have been offered to estimate the expenses for developing a software system of any size and type. Unfortunately, the problem remains the same. There is a significant need for further research in order to develop complete understanding in this area.This thesis examines the cost influential factors and reviews a number of existing cost estimation models. Then, a hypothetical method is shown for estimating cost, incorporating the PERT sizing technique, the Basic and Intermediate COCOMO models, and a blend of features from the Putnam's Resource Allocation model and the SLIM model. The implementation of this method is also included. / Department of Computer Science

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1988. / Bibliography: leaves [145]-151. / Photocopy. / Microfilm. / xi, 151 leaves ill. 29 cm

Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 223-243). / Electronic reproduction. / Also available by subscription via World Wide Web / xii, 243 leaves, bound 29 cm

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1975. / Bibliography: leaves [144]-147. / x, 147 leaves

Behavioral economics concepts can advance understanding, predicting, and controlling complex human behavior. Although there have been numerous attempts to apply behavioral economics concepts to applied settings, there are a limited number of experiments conducted in educational settings. The purpose of the studies in this paper is a to apply well-grounded scientific findings in behavioral economics to education to advance our understanding of teaching and learning and to develop cost-effective interventions. Study 1 (Kim et al., 2021) was a systematic review and meta-analysis on 24 token economy studies conducted in general and special education classrooms from kindergarten to 5th grade between 2000 and 2019. Eight token economy components and effect sizes were identified for each study and compared across different classroom types. The results showed that the token economy intervention yielded large effect sizes for both general and special education classroom types. There were differences in the usage of token components including backup reinforcer types, token production rate, and exchange production rate based on classroom types. In Study 2, the researchers conducted two experiments to develop a rapid, user-friendly assessment of delay discounting for educators interested in quantifying sensitivity to reward delays for school-aged children. The first experiment reanalyzed data collected by Reed and Martens (2011) and found that 1-month delay choices predicted student classroom behavior. The second experiment investigated the utility of the 1-month delay indifference point in predicting saving and spending behavior of second-grade students using token economies with two different token production schedules. Collectively, results showed that the 1-month delay indifference point predicted classroom behavior and children who discounted less and had greater self-regulation, accrued and saved more tokens. In Study 3, the researchers investigated the effects of a classwide progressive delay training procedure on students’ advantageous choice-making behavior, which is the behavior of selecting a larger, delayed outcome over a smaller, immediately available reinforcer. The intervention used progressive delay, which refers to incrementally increasing the temporal delay for a more delayed, advantageous outcome, and choice-making opportunities to promote second grade students’ choice of a larger reinforcer associated with a delay. The results showed mixed results – the intervention was effective at increasing advantageous choice-making behavior for students performing on and below grade-level for math, but the effects were not shown in students performing above grade-level. Study 4 further examined the educational importance of delayed consequences by determining the relationship between verbal behavior repertoires, delay discounting, and academic achievement. Specifically, the researchers used the degree of Incidental-Bidirectional Naming (Inc-BiN) for verbal behavior, degree of tolerance to delayed consequences using hypothetical binary choices involving money for delay discounting, and standardized math and reading scores for academic achievement. The results showed that participants with greater degree of Inc-BiN had significantly greater tolerance for delayed consequences. However, there was no relation found between academic achievement and delay discounting or Inc-BiN. Together, the four studies in this paper successfully (1) translated basic behavioral economics research findings to educational settings and (2) investigated methods that maximize efficiency and effectiveness of practices and tools used in classrooms.

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