The hypothesis was that salmon farming can be the basis for the establishment of a viable small business in British Columbia. The constraints on the establishment of a salmon farm imposed by government regulations, the availability of funds, and the market for pan-size salmon were presented and discussed. The pertinent biological knowledge associated with the rearing of captive salmon was summarized. A simple production model designed to produce approximately one-half million marketable, pan-size salmon within 15 months was derived from published accounts of studies at experimental fish farms. A hypothetical salmon farm was described in detail including estimates of the capital and operating costs associated with the farming and processing activities. The required information was obtained through interviews with knowledgeable members of the industry. The estimated revenues and expenses attributed to the hypothetical farm were analysed using pro forma financial statements to ascertain the financial position and the net cash flow which may be expected. The profitability of the farm was analysed by applying net present value and internal rate of return criteria to the net cash flow. Sensitivity analysis of the effect of changes to the product mix. market price, labour rate, feed price, tax rate, and stocking density upon the profitability of the farm was conducted. Estimates of the critical values of the above parameters which would allow the farm to be a feasible investment opportunity were derived. The conclusion is that pan-size salmon farming can be a feasible small business in British Columbia. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Magister Commercii - MCom / Oilseed is the third most important export item in Ethiopian foreign trade. It has registered a high export growth rate over recent years both in terms of volume and value. Besides its growing share in export, it is widely used for the extraction of edible oil and oilcake that is supplied to the domestic market. Although farmers are the primary producers of oilseeds, they are not able to benefit from the growing market share of the product due to the fact that they find themselves at the end of an extended market chain. As a result they only receive a very small proportion of what the final buyers are paying for the oilseed products. In addition, there is not much experience on the part of the farmers to process oilseeds, change it to edible oil and oilcake and retain the value addition in the local economy. This thesis used the value chain approach to investigate the possibilities for the primary producers to increase their income share from the selling of their products either by directly selling to exporters or by processing oilseeds, producing edible oil and oilcake, and retaining the value addition in the local economy. / South Africa

This dissertation represents an effort to advance interdisciplinary research in issues relevant for energy and environmental policy, combining economics with applied engineering and ecology. It includes work that is informed by theoretical and empirical studies, and is conceptually centered in the notion that competitive markets lead to inefficient combinations of risk and yield. In the first two chapters of the dissertation, I study this in the context of wind energy capacity investments, where profit-maximizing developers choose the location and timing of the construction of wind farms. The final chapter of the dissertation is an empirical study on the effects of intensive aquaculture on water pollution.

Spatial shifts and structural changes continue to occur in the United States agricultural industry. Researchers have documented that the potato industry has changed in response to demands of consumers, expectations of producers and improvements in research and development. The aim of this study was to provide empirical evidence that both institutional and infrastructural factors are important to potato production in North Dakota. Using secondary county-level potato production data for North Dakota, an empirical model was designed to estimate the direction and impact of growers' expectations of prices, yields and costs on their decision to produce potatoes. The results confirmed that institutional relationships established between growers and processors, as well as the infrastructure that growers have in place from one growing season to the next, are statistically significant in determining the total number of potato acres planted.

Recent studies show polymorphisms in the leptin gene significantly impact milk production in dairy cattle. If the leptin gene were to have a similar impact on beef cattle, calf weaning weights would be expected to increase from the increased milk production in the cows. Since weaning weight is a key component of profitability in a cow-calf operation, leptin genotyping may prove to have an economic impact in breeding cattle. However, no research has been done to link the economic impact of increased milk production to breeding cattle. Using 595 observations from genotyped cows spanning 11 years (1995-2005), calf weaning weight by genotype is estimated as a function of calf and dam characteristics and environmental effects. A MIXED procedure, utilizing data from 89 culled cows, is used to determine statistical differences in average cull age by genotype. A simulation model calculates mean annualized equivalent return by genotype and breed using the regression coefficients and residuals and 16 years of price data. results show that at least one T-allele in breeding cows increases calf weaning weight, average cull age, and annualized equivalent return compared to cows with homozygous C-alleles. These results indicate that there may be future premiums and discounts for breeding cattle based on genotype. Seedstock producers could potentially begin to segregate herds based upon genotype so that they could sell genotypic registered products. Cow-calf producers may also benefit from this knowledge by increasing the amount of TT genotype breeding cattle in their herd to maximize profits.

With the figure of fox as the emblematic emissary, Inari—arguably the most popular Shinto deity in Japan—is often deemed polytheistic due to its diverse blessings, whether agricultural, commercial, or industrial, or all of these at once. In the common historical account, Inari worship began as an agricultural ritual and, affected by the soaring monetary economy from the seventeenth century onward, it attained other predicates. Through two main studies on Inari shrines, this dissertation refutes that limited narrative and demonstrates that the agricultural attribute was in turn accentuated with the monetary economy. One study revolves around the Mimeguri Shrine, enshrined in Tokyo at the turn of the eighteenth century by the magnate Mitsui family for their commerce. The other study deciphers the concatenation of the Coal Mountain Tutelary Shrine and Tōka Shrine, originally established in the late eighteenth century by the local feudal administration, Miike-han, for their coal production in the current Fukuoka prefecture. With these shrines, the respective commercial and coal enterprises were rendered agricultural as though contained within the dominant Tokugawa order, which idealized the rice-based economy. Nurturing in effect the profit of the Mitsui family and the extra revenue of Mike-han—constituting a surplus, as this dissertation argues—the Inari worships of the merchant and the regional administration produced labor times. The presence of those shrines in this study serves as the metonymy of a contradictory process whereby even a deity was “alienated” under the command of money as if were fooled by its own emissary, the fox.

This study compares and contrasts operational expenses of district-owned to privately owned school bus services operated in Wichita, Clay, Montague, Jack, Wilbarger, Throckmorton, Baylor, Palo Pinto, Young, and Archer counties within the state of Texas.

This dissertation is a collection of three essays that explore the transmission channels through which the monetary and the exchange rate policy affect the economy. Chapter 1 proposes and investigates the transmission channels through which the ECB's corporate sector purchase program (CSPP) exerted influences on the economy using a data set on the bond issuance and the syndicated loan in European countries. I find the direct effect of the ECB's bond purchase by substantially reducing the issuance spread of the CSPP-eligible bond by 21%. The direct effect led to an increase in the amount of bond issuance by 25% and a reduction in the bank loan demand by the bond issuers by 36% after the CSPP announcement. Moreover, I find the spillover effect following the debt substitution by bond issuers. The banks in closer relationships with the CSPP-eligible bond issuers received more early loan repayment and lost more lending opportunities from the bond-issuer clients. In turn, the banks that have one-standard-deviation more exposure to the CSPP-eligible bond issuers are found to redirect additional loan supply towards the non-bond-issuer corporations by 3%. Chapter 2 stems from the debate on the optimal exchange rate regime for emerging market, which is far from conclusive. In the presence of nominal rigidity, the conventional wisdom for small open economies is that flexible exchange rate regime insulates countries from the adverse effects of external shocks. I develop a small open economy general equilibrium framework that features nominal price rigidity, external debt and the financial accelerator mechanism. The goal is to explore the interaction between exchange rate regimes and external shocks. The counterfactual exercises suggest that the relative strength between financial channel and trade channel plays a crucial role in determining the cost and the benefit of a specific exchange rate regime in an open country. Chapter 3 studies a novel transmission channel for exchange rate policy in emerging markets that acts through financial institutions. According to this “credit-supply channel,” banks in emerging markets fund themselves in U.S. dollars, lend in the local currency, and bear foreign exchange risk if hedging is imperfect. This currency mismatch exposes banks to exchange rate fluctuations and makes economies vulnerable to adverse global financial conditions. Using loan level data in Taiwan during 2012-15, I provide evidence that the effect of depreciation on credit supply is contractionary. Banks with higher net USD liabilities cut lending more and were less likely to renew loans to firms with which they had pre-existing relationships. In turn, firms with greater dependence on exposed banks hardly switched to alternative funding sources and disproportionately decreased investment and employment as compared to other firms that relied less on these banks. I find that the credit-supply effects of depreciation on investment and employment are both economically and statistically significant.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Town and Regional Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, October 2019 / Mainstream debates show the continued marginalisation of traditional urban agriculture (UA) by conventional land use planning despite its food security, nutrition, environmental and social benefits globally. Instigated by observed tensions (and resultant vicious cycle) between UA and land use planning in Johannesburg, this study poses innovation as a means for UA to navigate the city’s neoliberal market-driven logic and land use planning. The study argues for the need for innovation by both sectors but takes a step further by drawing on the innovation networks theory to argue the case for a collaborative ecosystem of actors. Literature shows that improving products, services and organisational practices by UA is not sufficient to secure land access in cities. The study uses the market logic within the neoliberal environment, juxtaposing international case studies to explore UA’s place in contemporary Johannesburg. The study used the extended case study approach to gather experiences from UA entities, City of Johannesburg and collaborating partners. The method regards participants as shaping and simultaneously being shaped by the external forces; and thus innovation networks between UA and land use planning practices are mirrored within the broader national neoliberal planning policy. Similar to Almere, Berlin, Detroit, Havana and Portland, the key study findings are that applying the principles of innovating networks to Johannesburg creates a collaborations ecosystem between UA and land use planning actors that attract investment and enhances value addition which in turn leads to formalisation of the sector (thus translating to a virtuous cycle). However, despite these collaboration platforms, neoliberal planning pressures have reversed UA formalisation in the cities of Berlin and Portland as urban farms are converted to real estate. With the exception of Almere, experiences in Havana and Detroit shows the success of innovation networks in permanently zoning UA outside the neoliberal planning pressures. Regrettably, the neoliberal planning paradigm focuses on the economic viability of UA and discounts its social, health, environmental and food security benefits to the local economy. / PH2020

This dissertation consists of three essays on access to primary care and the design of health insurance markets. These essays share a methodological framework. In each, I estimate a model of the market using detailed administrative data sets. Then, I employ the estimated model to answer policy-relevant research questions. The first chapter, entitled Access to Care in Equilibrium, studies consumer access to medical care as an equilibrium outcome of a market without prices. I use data from the Northern Ontario primary care market to estimate an empirical matching model where patients match with physicians. The market is cleared by a non-price mechanism: the effort it takes to find a physician. I use the model to study the distribution and determinants of access to care. By employing a model of the market, I am able to define a measure of access to care that accounts for patient preferences and market conditions: the probability that a patient who would attain care in a full access environment currently attains care. I find that access to care is low and unevenly distributed. On average, a patient who would attain care in a full access environment will receive care 73% of the time. The issue is particularly acute in rural areas. Further, physicians discriminate in favor of patients with higher expected utilization, thereby increasing access for older and sicker patients while decreasing access for younger and healthier patients. The estimated model is used to decompose access into its contributing factors. In rural areas, the geographic distribution of physicians is the primary determinant of low access. In contrast, low access in urban areas is primarily driven by capacity constraints of physicians. Interestingly, equating physician to population ratios across Northern Ontario would not improve rural access. In the second chapter, entitled Increasing Access to Care Through Policy: A Case Study of Northern Ontario, Canada, I employ the estimated model from Chapter One to assess the impact of policy on access to medical care. I study two policies: (1) grants to incentivize physicians to practice in low-access areas and (2) a payment reform that provided incentives for physicians to increase the numbers of patients on their books. Using the estimated model, I simulate market outcomes in counterfactuals where each policy is removed. By comparing these simulations to outcomes in the current market, I estimate policy impacts while accounting for equilibrium effects. I find that both policies are effective at increasing access to care. However, the policies target different subsets of the population. The grant program increases access most for rural patients, whereas the payment reform increases urban access most. Lastly, Chapter Three is a paper co-authored with Kate Ho and Michael Dickstein entitled Market Segmentation and Competition in Health Insurance. We study the welfare consequences of market segmentation in private health insurance in the US, where households obtain coverage either through an employer or via an individual marketplace. We use comprehensive and detailed data from Oregon’s small group and individual markets to demonstrate several facts. First, enrollees in the small group market have lower health care spending than those in the individual market conditional on plan coverage level. Second, small group enrollees benefit from tax exemptions and employer premium subsidies that create a wedge between premiums charged by insurers and the prices they face. However, these benefits are offset by relatively high plan markups over costs, which generate premiums (prior to employer contributions) that are at least as high as those in the individual market. These findings suggest that recent policies to merge the two markets, allowing small group enrollees to shop on the individual exchanges while maintaining their tax exemptions and employer contributions, may stabilize the individual market without much loss to small group enrollees. However, the new equilibrium outcome depends crucially on the preferences and characteristics of the two populations. We use a model of health plan choice and subsequent utilization to estimate household preferences in both markets and predict premiums and costs under a counterfactual pooled market. We find that integration mitigates adverse selection issues in the individual market, while decreasing government and employer expenditures on premium subsidies. Small group households benefit from lower premiums for low coverage plans in the merged market. However, they face higher premiums for high coverage plans and are constrained to a smaller set of insurance options. Thus, the effects of integration on small group households are heterogeneous.