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This dissertation builds a model of information exchange, where the information is skills. A two-sided matching market for skills is employed that includes two distinct sides, skilled and unskilled agents, and the matches that connect these agents. The unskilled agents wish to purchase skills from the skilled agents, who each possess one valuable and unique skill. Skilled agents may match with many unskilled agents, while each unskilled agent may match with only one skilled agent. Direct interaction is necessary between the agents to teach and learn the skill. Thus, there must be mutual consent for a match to occur and the skill to be exchanged. In this market for skills, a discrete, simultaneous move game is employed where all agents announce their strategies at once, every skilled agent announcing a price and every unskilled agent announcing the skill she wishes to purchase. First, both Nash equilibria and a correlated equilibrium are determined for an example of this skills market game. Next, comparative statics are employed on this discrete, simultaneous move game through computer simulations. Finally, a continuous, simultaneous move game is studied where all agents announce their strategies at once, every skilled agent announcing a price and every unskilled agent announcing a skill and price pair. For this game, an algorithm is developed that if used by all agents to determine their strategies leads to a strong Nash equilibrium for the game. / Economics

The aim of this dissertation is to provide a robust theory of environmental ethics which can offer nuanced accounts of value while evading the central problem of subjective disagreement that plagues other theories. The theory in question has many names, but the best abstraction of it can be found in the term "ontocentrism." Like pure biocentrism, this theory locates a monist center of value around which all other theorizations may orbit. Unlike biocentrism, however, this theory is not satisfied by anything short of the most basic commonality between valuable entities. That most basic value is existence, and it is taken to be the ground for all other values. This proposed theory, along with the methodology suggested, will be argued to be the next, if not final, step in theorization about environmental ethics. Due to the ubiquity of existence, however, this monism, as will be shown in detail later, paradoxically also appears to behave as a pluralist account of value would, wherein different positive accounts of value(s) are all affirmed. Therefore, despite being objectivist about value, it makes short work of the relativistic situations that are often brought to bear against objectivist accounts. This theory does not wish to abstract from the details of the world, and thus aim for some unattainable lack of bias, but rather it incorporates as many details about the world as possible such that any biases that may exist will be overwhelmed by the diversity of inputs which enter it. Any and all positive accounts of value have a prima-facie reason to be taken seriously, if not ultimately upheld. Since there is such a multiplicity of potential referents towards which value may be ascribed, there seems to be only, if one is not to impose preference on others, one way of impartially ascribing value; and that is equally. Thus, more complex entities will tend to have a greater number of potential referents of value, and therefore more value under this system. The intrinsic existential value of some specific entity can then be summed with the intrinsic existential value that that entity's continued existence will create or destroy in the specified future, often called extrinsic value, and this yields the total value that can inform our decisions.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Economics / Steven P. Cassou / Although geographic proximity is not enough to imply similar social, political and economic outcomes, the Portuguese and Spanish development experiences have been quite alike since the 15th century and in particular during the post-WWII period. Since 1950, both countries went through significant market transformations, ranging from democratization to market liberalization and adhesion to the European Union. However, even today, these economies, and in particular Portugal, do not rival those of the more developed European countries. This dissertation contributes to the growing body of literature on the Iberian economies by presenting three essays that employ modern macroeconomics tools to further our understanding about the growth and development experiences of these countries. The first essay provides a detailed growth accounting exercise and reconciles the results with the political and socioeconomic context of the 1950-2004 period. Since Total Factor Productivity is identified as the main engine of growth, the second essay explores a quantitative measure for the level of barriers that each country faced in the process of adopting new technologies. The numerical experiments suggest that Spain had consistently lower barriers than Portugal and that the gap has been increasing since the establishment of the European Single Market. The last essay investigates the role of fiscal policy and, specifically, if distortionary taxes on capital and labor income may have been a key factor behind the observed volatility for factor inputs. The simulation results derived from several potential scenarios support this conjuncture. Additionally, the last essay contributes by offering a time series for the levels of effective tax rates on labor and capital income in the Iberian economies over the 1975-2004 period.

Master of Arts / Department of Economics / Lance J. Bachmeier / This thesis examines the properties of two short-term interest rates: the federal funds rate and the rate of return on 90-day Treasury securities (T-Bills). Findings indicate strong evidence of cointegration among the two series. This result leads us to consider whether future movements in T-bill returns are predictable using the same methods used to predict the target federal funds rate. The “Taylor Rule,” introduced by Taylor (1993), assumes the Federal Reserve considers inflation and the output gap in their deliberation of how to adjust the federal funds target rate. We do an in-sample analysis followed by an out-of-sample forecasting comparison. Findings show that, in addition to inflation and the output gap, the unemployment rate and stock market contain valuable information for forecasting future T-bill rates.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Economics / Dennis L. Weisman / Mandatory network unbundling is one of the foremost topics in regulatory economics today. The concept has crucial importance in the deregulation of many previously regulated industries including telecommunications, gas, electricity and railroads. Moreover, the topic has emerged as one of the more prominent issues associated with the implementation of the 1996 Telecommunication Act in the United States. Upon initial examination, establishing the correct costing standards and/or determining the correct input prices would seem important for sending the correct price signals to the entrants for their efficient make-or-buy decisions. Sappington (AER, 2005) uses a standard Hotelling location model to show that input prices are irrelevant for an entrant’s make or buy decision. In this first essay, we show that this result is closely related to the degree of product differentiation when firms are engaged in price competition. Specifically, it is shown that input prices are irrelevant when firms produce homogeneous products, but are relevant for make-or-buy decisions when the entrant and incumbent produce differentiated products. These results suggest that, in general, it is important for regulators to set correct prices in order to not distort the entrants’ efficient make-or-buy decisions. The second essay investigates optimal access charges when the downstream markets are imperfectly competitive. Optimal access charges have been examined in the literature mainly under the condition where only the incumbent has market power. However, network industries tend to exhibit an oligopolistic market structure. Therefore, the optimal access charge under imperfect competition is an important consideration when regulators determine access charges. This essay investigates some general principles for setting optimal access charges when downstream markets are imperfectly competitive. One of the primary objectives of this essay is to show the importance of the break-even constraint when first-best access charges are not feasible. Specifically, we show that when the first-best access charges are not feasible, the imposition of the break-even constraint on only the upstream profit of the incumbent is superior to the case where break-even constraint applies to overall incumbent profit, where the latter is the most commonly used constraint in the access pricing literature. Bypass and its implications for optimal access charges and welfare are also explored. The third essay is empirical in nature and investigates two primary issues, both relating to unbundled network element (UNE) prices. First, as Crandall, Ingraham, and Singer (2004) suggested, we will empirically test the stepping stone hypothesis using a state-level data set that spans multiple years. To do this, we will explore the effect of UNE prices on facilities-based entry. Second, in light of those findings, we will investigate whether the form of regulation (e.g. price cap and rate of return regulation) endogenously affects the regulator’s behavior with respect to competitive entry. Lehman and Weisman (2000) found evidence that regulators in price cap jurisdictions tend to set more liberal terms of entry in comparison with regulators in rate-of-return jurisdictions. This paper investigates whether their result is robust to various changes in modeling, including specification and econometric techniques.

Dans ce mémoire, je considère un modèle de sélection standard avec sélection non aléatoire. D’abord, je discute la validité et la ‘‘sharpness ’’ des bornes sur l’intervalle interquantile de la distribution de la variable aléatoire latente non censurée, dérivées par Blundell et al. (2007). Ensuite, je dérive les bornes ‘‘sharp ’’ sur l’intervalle interquantile lorsque la distribution observée domine stochastiquement au premier ordre celle non observée. Enfin, je discute la ‘‘sharpness’’ des bornes sur la variance de la distribution de la variable latente, dérivées par Stoye (2010). Je montre que les bornes sont valides mais pas nécessairement ‘‘sharp’’. Je propose donc des bornes inférieures ‘‘sharp’’ pour la variance et le coefficient de variation de ladite distribution. / In this master thesis, I consider a standard selection model with nonrandomly censored outcome. First, I discuss validity and sharpness of bounds on the interquantile range of the distribution of the uncensored outcome, derived by Blundell et al. (2007). Second, I give sharp bounds on the interquantile range respectively under stochastic dominance of the unobserved outcome distribution by the observed one, and in presence of an exclusion variable. Third, I discuss sharpness of the variance bounds given by Stoye (2010). I show that the bounds are not necessarily sharp and I provide sharp lower bounds on the variance and the coe fficient of variation.

Sverige toppar listan över singelhushåll i Europa samtidigt som dejtingsajterna blomstrar. Syftet var att undersöka vilka egenskaper som män och kvinnor tyckte var viktiga i val av en potentiell romantisk partner utifrån Sexuell Economics Theory (SET) och positiv psykologi. Deltagarna (50 män, 50 kvinnor) i åldern 21 – 65 från hela Sverige, skattade hur viktiga 30 egenskaper var. Både män och kvinnor ansåg att egenskaper med aspekter från den positiva psykologin var viktigare än de kopplade till sexuella resurser och ekonomiska och omsorgsresurser. I linje med SET värderade män sexuella resurser högre än kvinnorna. Både män och kvinnor ansåg att ärlig, snäll, ville dela livet med dig, varm och omtänksam ochhumor varde viktigaste egenskaperna hos en potentiell romantisk partner.Studien har bidragit med en bättre förståelse kring vad som är viktigt när en livspartner sökes. Vidare forskning förslås undersöka flera egenskaper kopplade till positiv psykologi i jämställda länder.

The decision to vertically integrate services and deliver care has both management and policy concerns for healthcare in the United States. The change in reimbursement, which was enacted with the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, influenced the availability of post acute services for acute hospital inpatients. Prior to this change, post acute services were reimbursed based on cost similar to the pre DRG era of Medicare reimbursement. The change in payment had the potential to make discharging patients more difficult resulting in a prolonged length of stay without additional payment and at increased costs for hospitals. As a result of this change hospitals made arrangements to provide care for this population. The choices included vertical integration, contracting or hybrid arrangement and simply relying on the spot market. This makes or buy decision is a focus of this study. Were hospital decisions different after the BBA, than before this legislation?This study utilizes Oliver Williamson's transaction cost economics theory as the framework for the study and is a replication of a prior study by Chiu (1995) hybrid arrangement and simply relying on the spot market. This makes or buy decision is a focus of this study. Were hospital decisions different after the BBA, than before this legislation?This study utilizes Oliver Williamson's transaction cost economics theory as the framework for the study and is a replication of a prior study by Chiu (1995) The Williamsons theory is based on the proposition that three transaction dimensions determine the most efficient method of operation for a firm: uncertainty, frequency, and asset specificity. Depending on the "market", organizations may elect to arrange services through the spot market, contract for services, or vertically integrate the service. The study uses data from the American Hospital Association survey as well as the Area Resources files to determine if individual hospitals have made contract arrangements, vertically integrated, or relied on the spot market to provide skilled nursing services. Data is collected before and after the BBA and analyzed using multiple regression analysis and then subjected to significance testing. Sixteen hypotheses are tested that focus on the three dimensions of transaction cost theory. Findings support the importance of transaction frequency and asset specificity, while only weak support is offered for transaction uncertainty. The results differ from the Chiu study, which found strong support for uncertainty and weak support for frequency. This study is unique in that it examines data from two time periods surrounding a major reimbursement change in Medicare. It makes an important contribution to the empirical testing of transaction cost economics and the decision to vertically integrate in health care.