Diss. Techn. Univ. Darmstadt, 2009. / Business and Economics (German Language) (Springer-11775) (GWV).

Thèse (Ph. D.)--Technische Universität, Berlin. / In SpringerLink. Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 19 mars 2007). Bibliogr.: p. [217]-240. Publié aussi en version papier.

The study proposes and tests a model of hotel choice behavior based on the economics of information theory which incorporates relational and core service experiences as well as search attributes. The model expands the domain of inquiry beyond the initial level attributes to the higher order latent construct and composite levels. Results suggest that hotel choice behavior of male and female guests can be represented as a global construct with three viable components. Implications of the results are discussed.

The industrial age was bound to end when the microprocessor was invented. Even though the classical economic theory applies for today as well as for the 1960s, the last thirty years were symptomatic by the change of the fundamental characteristics of the economy and information technology plays a key role in this process. The aim of this thesis was to describe the principles and micro- and macroeconomic phenomena present in the New Economy of today, the challenges that the companies face in this environment and, finally, to conduct a cross-industry analysis on the impact of IT on company's performance, namely value-added. The empirical results did not show any clear patterns among the industries and therefore no significant relationship between the share of information technology assets of total assets and company's value-added could be proven. One of the reasons for that could be the technical issues regarding the statistical measurement of IT which also remains the biggest challenge for the researchers in this field.

<div>This dissertation consists of three chapters regarding labor economics. The first chapter studies the relative preference men and women have for working with coworkers of the same or opposite sex. The second chapter develops a conceptual framework for estimating the distribution of perceived returns to investments conditional on observed characteristics. The third chapter applies the methods described in the second chapter to estimate perceived returns to college and discusses policy implications.</div><div><br></div><div>The first chapter analyzes the effect of occupational gender composition on job-specific labor supply for workers of each gender. I construct a static model of job selection wherein preferences regarding coworker gender composition produce gender-specific compensating differentials. I estimate the model to identify the underlying coworker gender preference parameters. Based on estimated compensating differentials, men's preference is highest for occupations that are 60% female and lowest for female-dominated occupations. Women prefer jobs that are female-dominated, and are least satisfied with jobs that are 25% male all else equal.</div><div><br></div><div>The second chapter describes a conceptual framework for inferring agents' perceived returns to college by exploiting the dollar-for-dollar relationship between perceived returns and tuition costs in a binary choice model of college attendance. This approach has four attractive features. First, it provides estimates of perceived returns in terms of compensating variation, which directly inform financial policies that seek to (dis)incentivize the investment. Second, it provides very fine continuously-heterogeneous estimates conditional on a large set of observed characteristics, allowing for differential predictions for how selective, well-publicized policies are likely to affect different types of individuals. Third, because it obtains type-specific perceived returns distributions instead of point elasticities, it provides differential predictions for the effects of type-specific financial interventions depending on the magnitude of the intervention. Finally, the estimates are obtained assuming rational expectations only on prices (one component of returns) rather than on returns as a whole.</div><div><br></div><div>The third chapter applies the method described in the second chapter to estimate perceived returns to college using NLSY79 data. Estimating the model using both maximum likelihood and moment inequalities, I find that the scale of the distribution of perceived returns is an order of magnitude lower than past work has found when assuming rational expectations on income returns. The low variance I find in perceived returns implies high responses to financial aid. I predict a 2.6 percentage point increase in college attendance from a $1,000 universal annual tuition subsidy, which is consistent with quasi-experimental estimates of the effects of tuition assistance on college attendance. Adapting the difference-in-difference estimation performed by Dynarski (2003) on the effect of the Social Security Student Benefit to the current setting, I find that the policy increased perceived returns to college by $23,800, compared to an average aid amount of $6,700 per year ($26,800 per four years) (year 2000 dollars). Using the estimated distribution of perceived returns, I perform a counterfactual policy experiment that induces a set percentage of the population to attend college at minimal cost to the government.</div>

A assimetria informacional é característica inerente ao mercado financeiro, transparecendo através de problemas de seleção adversa e risco moral. Não é diferente no tocante às operações de crédito bancário. Cientes disso, as instituições bancárias lançam mão de mecanismos de filtragem e monitoramento, bem como da exigência de garantias, para a redução da assimetria informativa. O contrato ocupa papel central nesse processo. Porque é do instrumento contratual a função de mitigar os efeitos deletérios da assimetria informacional, o presente trabalho objetiva avaliar se as cláusulas em contratos usuais de concessão de crédito pelo Banco Regional de Desenvolvimento do Extremo Sul (BRDE) são de fato desenhadas visando ao incentivo de publicidade de informações e prevenção de ações ocultas. / Informational asymmetry is an inherent characteristic of the financial market that presents itself as problems of adverse selection and moral hazard. It is not different in regard to bank loan operations. Aware of this situation, the banking institutions utilise screening and monitoring mechanisms, as well as collateral exigencies, in order to reduce the informational asymmetry. The contract plays a central role within this process. Because the contractual instrument has the purpose of mitigating the deleterious effects of the informational asymmetry, the present work intends to evaluate if the clauses employed in usual credit concession contracts by the Regional Development Bank of the Far South (BRDE) are indeed designed aiming at incentives to information disclosure and prevention of hidden actions.

A assimetria informacional é característica inerente ao mercado financeiro, transparecendo através de problemas de seleção adversa e risco moral. Não é diferente no tocante às operações de crédito bancário. Cientes disso, as instituições bancárias lançam mão de mecanismos de filtragem e monitoramento, bem como da exigência de garantias, para a redução da assimetria informativa. O contrato ocupa papel central nesse processo. Porque é do instrumento contratual a função de mitigar os efeitos deletérios da assimetria informacional, o presente trabalho objetiva avaliar se as cláusulas em contratos usuais de concessão de crédito pelo Banco Regional de Desenvolvimento do Extremo Sul (BRDE) são de fato desenhadas visando ao incentivo de publicidade de informações e prevenção de ações ocultas. / Informational asymmetry is an inherent characteristic of the financial market that presents itself as problems of adverse selection and moral hazard. It is not different in regard to bank loan operations. Aware of this situation, the banking institutions utilise screening and monitoring mechanisms, as well as collateral exigencies, in order to reduce the informational asymmetry. The contract plays a central role within this process. Because the contractual instrument has the purpose of mitigating the deleterious effects of the informational asymmetry, the present work intends to evaluate if the clauses employed in usual credit concession contracts by the Regional Development Bank of the Far South (BRDE) are indeed designed aiming at incentives to information disclosure and prevention of hidden actions.

A assimetria informacional é característica inerente ao mercado financeiro, transparecendo através de problemas de seleção adversa e risco moral. Não é diferente no tocante às operações de crédito bancário. Cientes disso, as instituições bancárias lançam mão de mecanismos de filtragem e monitoramento, bem como da exigência de garantias, para a redução da assimetria informativa. O contrato ocupa papel central nesse processo. Porque é do instrumento contratual a função de mitigar os efeitos deletérios da assimetria informacional, o presente trabalho objetiva avaliar se as cláusulas em contratos usuais de concessão de crédito pelo Banco Regional de Desenvolvimento do Extremo Sul (BRDE) são de fato desenhadas visando ao incentivo de publicidade de informações e prevenção de ações ocultas. / Informational asymmetry is an inherent characteristic of the financial market that presents itself as problems of adverse selection and moral hazard. It is not different in regard to bank loan operations. Aware of this situation, the banking institutions utilise screening and monitoring mechanisms, as well as collateral exigencies, in order to reduce the informational asymmetry. The contract plays a central role within this process. Because the contractual instrument has the purpose of mitigating the deleterious effects of the informational asymmetry, the present work intends to evaluate if the clauses employed in usual credit concession contracts by the Regional Development Bank of the Far South (BRDE) are indeed designed aiming at incentives to information disclosure and prevention of hidden actions.

Information poverty is one of the main forms of poverty today that affects the lives of billions of people on a daily basis and as such it is argued in this thesis that this form of poverty should be on the world’s moral agenda – not merely as a discussion item but as an action item. It is furthermore argued that the information and knowledge society cannot be build without taking into consideration the moral challenges associated with this form of poverty. The research question guiding this thesis is as follows: What is information poverty and why is it a serious moral issue that needs to be addressed today? To be able to answer this question five key issues are addressed. They are as follows: -- The analysing, unpacking and understanding of the different dimensions and moral implications of poverty through the use of social sciences (Chapter 1). -- The investigation and analyzing of the notion of information, specifically in terms of its relationship to poverty (Chapters 2&3). -- The analysing, unpacking and understanding of information poverty, both in terms of its complexity as well as social, political, personal and moral dimensions (Chapter 4). -- A reflection, from a social justice perspective, on the moral concerns associated with information poverty. This is done through the use of philosophy and social sciences (Chapter 5). -- The development, based on social justice and human rights, moral guidelines that can be used to address the different moral concerns associated with information poverty (Chapter 6). In Chapter 2 poverty is defined as that condition of life where the majority of people lack sufficient resources to supply their basic needs for survival. As such it indicates the socio-economic status of people and communities, together with its impact on just about every aspect of their lives. It is illustrated that poverty has a strong moral claim on society. In Chapter 3 the notion of information is discussed from a diachronic perspective and an own approach to information is presented. Based on the three worlds of Popper different characteristics of information are identified and discussed. The implications of these characteristics on information poverty are illustrated. Chapter 4 focuses on information poverty. A basic definition is presented and different degrees as well as levels of information poverty are also distinguished. It is argued that this form of poverty has an overall impact on the development of people. In Chapter 5 information poverty as a serious moral issue is discussed. Following from this social justice in terms of its scope, application and functions is analysed with regards to information poverty. Based on the value statement that the alleviation of information poverty serves a common good purpose, it is argued that there are two moral principles that meet the requirement of universal validity and that can be used to guide moral decision-making regarding information poverty. These are justice and human rights. In Chapter 6 several moral guidelines, based on social justice, are presented that can be used to address the moral concerns raised by the condition of information poverty. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Information Science / DPhil / Unrestricted

In this paper, we develop a decision-theoretic framework for evaluating data mining systems, which employ classification methods, in terms of their utility in decision-making. The decision-theoretic model provides an economic perspective on the value of â extracted knowledge,â in terms of its payoff to the organization, and suggests a wide range of decision problems that arise from this point of view. The relation between the quality of a data mining system and the amount of investment that the decision maker is willing to make is formalized. We propose two ways by which independent data mining systems can be combined and show that the combined data mining system can be used in the decision-making process of the organization to increase payoff. Examples are provided to illustrate the various concepts, and several ways by which the proposed framework can be extended are discussed.