The purpose of this thesis is to determine the nature of Charles Lamb as revealed in his Elia essays. To this end, these essays form the major portion of the text. The general procedure for ascertaining what these excerpts indicate is as follows: first, the characteristics of Charles Lamb are determined from a study of the Elia essays; second, these characteristics are considered in relation to information derived from biographies. Careful attention is given to significant discrepancies between the essays and other sources.

In this collection of poems and essays, the author demonstrates two different methods for examining the same theme: the notion of "home"—how to get there, how to remain there and bear articulate witness to the forces which drive that author to write. The introduction sets forth an explanation for the use of the specific form chosen for expression, with an analysis of the intent behind that form. In these essays and poems, the author accounts for her years on the Texas Panhandle, in Montana, and a year spent teaching in Prague, Czechoslovakia. These locations furnish the moments and incidents of conflict and resolution that make up the dramatic incidents of the included material.

No description available.

Edited by Ali S. Argon. / Published in honor of Egon Orowan. / Includes bibliographies.

No description available.

Yoshimura’s Ghost: Essays on Rural Japan is a collection of six essays exploring the cultural phenomena and daily life of rural Japan. The collection represents my experiences of living as an educator, wife, and mother living in a post 9/11 world. Although not chronological, the essays flow episodically and illustrate examples of the social and cultural concepts that struck me as elements of otherness. Some of the essays in this collection examine the parallels between the exclusion and isolation I felt in Japan as compared to other marginalized groups. Several of the essays describe the culture of Japanese schooling, perhaps offering a perspective only accessible to a foreigner seeing the ways in which a centuries old culture, which is in many ways the most “modern” of any on the planet, absorbs and makes its own cultures from around the world.

This dissertation studies how society views corruption at different stages of economic development. It develops a theoretical framework that shows that at low levels of income or development, corruption increases and at high levels of income and development, corruption decreases. This theoretical proposition is also investigated empirically. The empirical analyses support the proposed theory and hint that fiscal policy, socioeconomic conditions, and incidences of war play significant roles in determining a country’s corruption level. In addition, this dissertation also explores the relationship between merchandise and service trade. I show theoretically that the two are related and determined simultaneously. An empirical investigation also confirms this proposition. Lastly, I investigate the issue of pollution in developing countries. I explore the existence of an inverted u-shaped relationship between emissions and income. I examine the role played by foreign investment in improving emissions in developing countries. The results support the inverted u-shaped relationship and suggest that environmental aid does not reduce emissions in developing countries.

Esta tesis trata de ser una contribución a la literatura en predicción con modelos no lineales en diversas vías. En el primer capítulo, se extienden a un contexto multivariante los modelos STAR para investigar las relaciones no lineales que aparecen entre la producción de la economía americana y el Composite index of Leading Indicators (CLI). Usando la estimación máximo verosímil, se extienden al contexto VAR los test de linealidad, selección de modelos y adecuación de modelos. Se encuentra evidencia empírica en favor del uso de modelos logísticos para identificar los estados de la economía. En el segundo capítulo, se encuentra que el filtro óptimo para convertir los datos del CLI en una probabilidad de recesión es la combinación de un modelo Markov-switching y de una especificación no-paramétrica. Usando este filtro, se muestra como una tasa de crecimiento del indicador igual a cero no es nada en sí misma sino que se debe usar el filtro apropiado para que, teniendo en cuenta el estado de la economía, convierta este dato en una apropiada probabilidad de recesión. Finalmente, en el tercer capítulo se estudian relaciones de cointegración en las cuales, incluso aunque el atractor a largo plazo se asuma lineal, la fuerza con la que los errores de cointegración se desvanecen depende del estado del ciclo económico con un modelo Markoz-switching. Se muestra como este hecho conecta con la idea de tendencias estocásticas comunes no lineales. Así mismo, se estudia la repercusión sobre las funciones de respuesta al impulso y la descomposición de la varianza. / This dissertation, is an attempt to contribute to the literature on nonlinear forecasting in several ways. In the first chapter, I extend to a multiple equation framework the STAR models in order to investigate the nonlinear interactions between US output (GDP) and the Composite index of Leading Indicators (CLI). Using maximum likelihood as the base for estimation, I extend to the VAR case linearity tests, model selection tests, and model adequacy tests. Additionally, I find empirical evidence in favor of using logistic models for capturing the business cycles phases. In the second chapter, I find that the optimal filter to convert the CLI releases into a probability of recession is a combination of the forecasts from a Markov-switching model and a nonparametric specification. Using this filter, I show how a release of zero rate of growth for the CLI must be interpreted carefully since it implies different probabilities of recession depending on the actual state of the economy. Finally, in the third chapter, I study cointegrating relationships such that, even though the long-run attractor is linear, the strength with which the equilibrium errors vanishes is assumed to follow a Markov-switching dynamics. I show that this assumption connect with the idea of nonlinear common stochastic trends. In addition, I study its implication for asymmetric impulse responses and variance decomposition.

La tesis consiste en tres diferentes ensayos que analizan de forma teórica distintos temas relacionados con la organización industrial de las telecomunicaciones. El primer ensayo trata de competencia oligopólica en los mercados de telecomunicaciones, cuando las empresas cobran tarifas planas a los usuarios finales. No obstante las tarifas planas sean muy comunes en la actualidad, los economistas han prestado poca atención a esta práctica de fijación de precios. Las teorías actuales argumentan que, bajo este esquema de competencia, la regulación del mercado no afecta el bienestar social si un duopolio de operadores compite para los usuarios finales. En la tesis se demuestra que, cuando hay competencia imperfecta entre por lo menos tres operador, el bienestar social es sensible a la regulación del precio de acceso. Además se analizan los efectos de asimetrías informativas en los niveles de eficiencia en la prestación de servicios de telecomunicaciones, y se caracterizan los precios de acceso óptimos. Se incluyen también otras indicaciones de políticas económicas. El segundo ensayo es un estudio sobre cómo el precio de acceso afecta la elección de los precios minoristas. Se demuestra que, cuando el precio de acceso es alto, los proveedores cobran un precio sólo a los llamantes. Sin embargo, cuando el precio de acceso es bajo, los proveedores cobran también los receptores. Además se comparan el nivel de penetración del mercado y el bienestar total entre los dos regímenes de precios. El modelo sugiere que, para valores altos de la externalidad de las llamadas, la penetración de mercado y el bienestar total son más grandes en un régimen de donde paga también el receptor si el precio de acceso es casi cero. Diversamente, cuando la externalidad de las llamadas es baja, el equilibrio de mercado es caracterizado por un régimen donde paga sólo el llamante si el precio de acceso es alto. El resultado es que la penetración del mercado y el bienestar total son máximos. Por último, en el tercer ensayo se desarrolla un modelo de competencia en la prestación de servicios de Internet y de contenido como un mercado de dos lados y se evalúan los efectos de la neutralidad de la red sobre los incentivos de los proveedores de servicios Internet (ISP) en las inversiones en innovación. En este marco, los ISP tienen capacidades asimétricas de red y los proveedores de contenidos (PC) distribuyen contenidos asimétricos. Los consumidores deciden con qué proveedor de Internet conectarse y cuál contenido navegar. Cuando los ISP priorizan uno de los contenidos, los usuarios finales migran desde el ISP más grande al más pequeño. Si los ISP pueden cobrar una cuota relativamente alta para proveer el servicio de prioridad, ambos ISP tienen menores incentivos para expandir sus redes en comparación con el caso en el cual se impone la neutralidad de la red. / The thesis provides three different essays that theoretically analyze different topics regarding the industrial organization of telecommunications. The first essay discusses oligopolistic competition in telecommunications markets where flat tariffs are applied to the end-users. Despite fixed fees being very common at present, economists have paid little attention to this pricing practice. Current theories indicate that, under this scheme of competition, regulators cannot affect social welfare when a duopoly of telecom operators competes for end-users. In the thesis, I show that, when imperfect competition among at least three operators takes place, social welfare is sensitive to regulation of the access price. Moreover I allow for asymmetries in the efficiency of providing telecommunication services, and I characterize the optimal access prices. Further policy indications are also included. The second essay is a study on how the access price affects a network operator’s choice of the retail pricing regime. It is shown that, when the access price is high, providers decide to only charge the callers (Calling Party Pays). However, when the access price is low, providers also charge the receivers (Receiving Party Pays). Moreover, market penetration and total welfare are compared between the two pricing regimes. The model suggests that, for high values of the call externality, market penetration and total welfare are larger in a Receiving Party Pays regime when the access charge is close to zero. Conversely, when the call externality is low, a Calling Party Pays regime is the market outcome when the access charge is higher. As a result, market penetration and total welfare are maximized. Finally, in the third essay, it is developed develop a model of competition in Internet provision and content service as a two-sided market and evaluate the effects of network neutrality on the incentives of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to invest in innovation. In this framework, ISPs have asymmetric network capacities and Content Providers (CPs) distribute asymmetric contents. Consumers decide which provider to connect to and which content to browse. When ISPs prioritize one of the contents, end-users migrate from the larger ISP to the smaller. If ISPs can charge a relatively high fee to CPs to provide the prioritized service, both ISPs have lower incentives to expand their networks compared to the case where network neutrality is imposed.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until June 1, 2014. Includes bibliographical references (leave 168)