The objective of thesis is to identify and subsequently analyze the issue of dynamics of agricultural foreign trade between the European Union and Russia. All of the used data come from the last two decades monitoring, showing the tendencies of development in the agrarian sector between the EU and Russia from the year of 1995 to 2015. The theoretical part of the thesis, presented in the form of a literature overview, describes the basic principles necessary for further analytical data processing, include theoretical models of international trade and its development, and characterizes the effect of globalization and regionalization processes and their impacts on the functioning of the agrarian trade. The first phase of the actual work is dedicated to the importance of the agri-food sector for both parties, the territorial and commodity structure of mutual trade, and the definition of the development and position of the European Union and Russia as trading partners. Furthermore, the flagship product groups are identified and subsequently examined with respect to the selected characteristics. Retrospective evaluation shows the role of the ongoing liberalization processes on the market and the importance of the European Union as a trading partner for the investigated state. The possibilities of the Czech foreign trade in the context of cooperation with Russia are analyzed in the concluding part.

This thesis aims to identify and subsequently analyse the agrarian foreign trade dynamics between the European Union and the countries of West Africa. All data are monitored over the last two decades and show the development trends of the agrarian sector in the relationship between EU 28 and West Africa as a whole; the author subsequently described selected countries of West Africa in detail. The first part of the thesis presents basic starting points for further analytical work. It is presented in the form of a literature review and includes theoretical insights into international trade and its development, points out the influence of globalisation and regionalisation and their impact on the agrarian trade. The first phase of the practical part deals with the territorial and commodity structure of trade where the development and position of the European Union in relation to the countries of West Africa is defined. The key product groups are identified and are evaluated in terms of selected attributes. Both the West Africa as whole and individual countries of the West African region were analysed from the point of view of being a global partner in the foreign trade. A retrospective assessment shows the importance of ongoing market liberalisation and the importance of the European Union as a trading partner for the area in question. In the last part, the possibilities of Czech foreign trade were analysed in the context of cooperation with the West African countries.

The Export-Import Bank of the U.S. (Eximbank) is a Federal government agency engaged in the financing of U.S. exports. It is entrusted with maintaining the competitiveness of U.S. exports in various key sectors of the economy. It is a product of F. D. Roosevelt's administration and recently celebrated its fiftieth birthday. Over the years, Eximbank's missions and activities have changed, both expanding and curtailing its responsibilities. The Bank's reputation in business and government circles has been and continues to be high; however, in recent years, the Bank has been subject to criticism by the Reagan administration which contends that the financial costs of the Bank outweigh its benefits. The Reagan Administration suggested reforms designed to limit the role of the Bank including elimination of the direct loan program. This thesis traces the development of Eximbank. It reviews literature on Eximbank. It sets forth the history of the Bank and discusses internal and external political and economic structures and processes. It explains some of the functional strengths and weaknesses that affect the Bank's behavior. It discusses four themes that have ordered the Bank's outlook, defined the Bank's priorities and influenced the Bank's performance: the organizational life cycle, the process of institutionalization, the public corporate orientation and the corporate characteristics; and the organizational-environmental adaptations. Finally, it reflects upon the Bank's ability to reformulate its activities and change its behavior for the politics and economics of the 1980s. / Ph. D.

Ce travail porte sur la modélisation et la résolution de problèmes d’optimisation robuste et multi-objectifs du transport multimodal. Après une synthèse des travaux de la littérature et des concepts de base de l’optimisation robuste et l’optimisation multi-objectif, nous proposons un nouveau modèle d’optimisation multi-objectif du transport multimodal des produits agricoles marocains vers des clients européens. L’objectif est de déterminer la meilleure stratégie d’exportation qui minimise simultanément le coût total de transport multimodal et l’overtime maximal en prenant en considération des contraintes réalistes. Nous proposons également des nouvelles approches de résolution avec une application sur un réseau de transport multimodal réel.Nous avons étudié une autre problématique du transport multimodal avec localisation de terminaux intermodaux. Outre la version déterministe, une optimisation robuste qui tient compte des incertitudes sur les capacités, les coûts d’utilisation et les coûts de transport. Deux approches hybrides ont été proposées pour la résolution du problème.Dans ces contributions, des modèles et des méthodes sont présentés, des remarques et des interprétations sont tirées à propos de l’impact de la périssabilité des produits et de la robustesse sur les flux, le choix des ports, des trajets et des modes de transport. / Because of the importance of multimodal transport for goods importation and exportation from Morocco to international customers, our goals are modeling and solving multimodal freight transportation problems by more focusing on some issues confronted by our country. After presenting the required mathematical background on robust and multiobjective optimization and surveying the literature works on multimodal transport problems, its variants and solution approaches; and instead of testing them only on traditional benchmarks; we dealt with new variants and methods. A multi-objective mathematical model is proposed to optimize the multimodal transport of agricultural products from Morocco to Europe. To solve this model adapted to a real network, two multiobjective version algorithms are presented in order to optimize simultaneously the total transportation cost and the over-time.Given the complexity of the global logistics chain by various operations and several stakeholders, the data of the problem may sometimes be ignored or uncompleted. That’s why we have developed a mathematical model for multimodal terminal location problem by integrating uncertainties of the transportation costs, the capacities and the using costs of terminals. A population based simulated annealing and a hybrid method combining an exact and a metaheuristic approaches are proposed to effectively solving the problem. The test is then performed on a real intermodal network. These contributions are concluded by remarks and highlights about the impact of perishability and robustness on flows, location strategies of ports, the choice of paths and transportation modes.

Diss. Göteborg : Univ., 2002.

The first chapter talks about general aspects of wine, its typology and historical development of production and trade in wine but also about specific aspects of wine marketing. The second chapter is devoted to analyzing main producers, importers and exporters of wine together with contemporary trends in wine sector. The last chapter compares the EU's and Australia's trading policy, dealing with the Agreement between the EU and Australia on trade in wine and in the end is dedicated to the issue of the geographical indications at the WTO.

Cette thèse examine les déterminants qui expliquent les types de contrats choisis par les exportateurs et les importateurs pour gérer les risques du commerce international. Elle analyse le cas des exportations chiliennes comme l'un des leaders de l'hémisphère sud sur le commerce des fruits. En appliquant la Théorie de Coûts de Transaction et l'Analyse Institutionnelle, ce travail étudie l'influence de l'incertitude environnementale et comportementale ainsi que la spécificité des actifs sur le degré de complétude, la formalisation et l'exécution des contrats. Cette recherche applique une méthodologie multistrand intégrant des méthodes qualitatives et quantitatives. L'analyse utilise les informations provenant de 39 entretiens directs avec des exportateurs et des importateurs et de 65 enquêtes auprès d' exportateurs conduites à l'aide d'un questionnaire. Elle s'appuie également sur une base de données exhaustive issue des douanes chiliennes et documentant les 170370 transactions avec leurs contrats respectifs réalisées par le Chili dans ses exportations vers l'ensemble du monde sur la période 2009-2010. Elle s'appuie enfin sur 44 cas d'arbitrage international dans le commerce de fruits et légumes. Les résultats montrent que les niveaux d'incertitude environnementale liés aux « risques - pays importateurs » conduisent à des contrats plus complets tandis que des niveaux d'incertitude liés à la périssabilité des fruits conduisent à des contrats moins complets. De son côté, la pénurie d'offre sur le marché met l'entreprise exportatrice dans une position favorable pour négocier des contrats plus complets. Ces transactions internationales sont supportées par des moyens oraux et écrits; dans le négoce international des fruits, les contrats signés sont plus importants que pressenti, et leur rôle est davantage destiné à satisfaire les exigences institutionnelles qu'à compenser les risques. Pour faire respecter les contrats, les entreprises adoptent des mécanismes formels comme les inspections, les assurances et l'arbitrage, ainsi que des mécanismes informels tels que la confiance et la réputation. Cette étude a ses limites car elle porte principalement sur le point de vue de l'exportateur, la base de données des douanes ne fournissant pas l'identité de l'importateur et l'analyse transversale ne permettant pas d'observer l'évolution des pratiques contractuelles dans la durée. Jusqu'à présent, peu de recherches empiriques ont été faites sur les contrats intégrés dans différents contextes institutionnels; cette thèse contribue donc à la connaissance des choix contractuels dans 117 pays importateurs et plus généralement à la compréhension du commerce international des produits périssables. Elle est sur le plan académique, une contribution à la littérature économique et gestionnaire des contrats (complétude, formalisation, exécution) et des changements de forme de gouvernance dans les filières internationales. / This doctoral dissertation examines the determinants explaining the type of contracts chosen by exporters and importers to manage the hazards of international trade. It analyzes the case of Chilean off-season exports as one of the southern-hemisphere leaders in the fruit trade. Applying Transaction Cost Economics and Institutional Analysis as a framework, this work will analyze the influence of environmental and behavioral uncertainty and time-specificity on the degree of completeness, formalization and enforcement of contracts. A multi-strand research design integrating qualitative-quantitative methods is applied to analyze information gathered through: 39 face-to-face interviews with exporters and importers; questionnaire surveys from 65 exporters; an exhaustive Chilean customs database containing 170,370 shipments and contracts from Chile to worldwide buyers; and 44 international arbitration cases for the fruit and vegetable trade. The results show that high levels of uncertainty in the alternative importing countries increase the use of more complete contracts. When levels of fruit perishability are high, this often leads to less complete contracts. Shortage of market supply allows the exporting company a favorable position to negotiate a more complete contract. International transactions are supported by oral and written means; the use of signed contracts is more important than perceived in the fruit industry, but its role is more oriented to respond to institutional requirements rather than as a mechanism to offset hazards, such as exporting to risky countries or dealing with distrustful importers. To enforce contracts firms adopt formal and informal mechanisms. These include inspections, insurance, arbitration, in addition to trust and reputation. Limitations of this study include: the customs database does not include the identity of the importer, the cross-sectional analysis performed does not allow observing the evolution of contracting practices, the study is placed predominately from the exporter's perspective. There is also little empirical research on contracts analyzing transactions embedded in different institutional settings. This thesis contributes to the knowledge of contractual choices in 117 importing countries. It contributes to the understanding of international trade of perishable products. It also contributes to the economics and management literature on international contract completeness, formalization, enforceability, and to literature focusing on the changes of governance in the international supply chains.

First chapter aims to quantify the role of trade in capital goods in cross country income differences. I construct a multi-country general equilibrium model of trade along the line of Eaton and Kortum (2002) and Alvarez and Lucas (2007) and introduce trade in capital goods and capital accumulation. In this framework, comparative advantage and the costs of international trade determine the pattern of production, specialization, and trade. I calibrate the model for 53 countries by estimating trade barriers and calibrating productivity parameters to match the bilateral trade data in 1996. The model is used to analyze full trade liberalizations. I find that removing barriers on investment goods accounts a large portion of reducing cross-country income differences and welfare gain. Counterfactual exercises suggest that developing countries gain relatively more than developed countries. In the second chapter, I focus on the impact of free trade on exportimport ratios in two different sectors. I employ a multi-country general equilibrium model of bilateral trade patterns along the line of Eaton and Kortum (2002) and Alvarez and Lucas (2007). I calibrate the model for 20 countries by estimating trade barriers and calibrating productivity parameters to match the bilateral trade data in 1996. The model is used to analyze full trade liberalizations. The impacts of free trade are predicted to be an increase in the export-import ratios in the comparative advantage sector and a decline in the comparative disadvantage sector, on average. In developing countries the average percentage change in export-import ratios exceeds the average percentage change in export-import ratios in developed countries. Finally, in the third chapter, I focus on the intergenerational human capital transmission. I develop and calibrate a theoretical model that considers three mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of human capital: (i) persistence in learning ability; (ii) parental investment in child’s human capital; (iii) higher teaching productivity of parents with more human capital. Within this framework, I find that (i) and (ii) plays important roles while (iii) does not. In addition the model generates the documented fact that higherwage parents spending more time teaching their children in spite of the higher opportunity cost. I asses the role of nature and nurture effects in intergenerational persistence of earnings and I find that nature accounts a large portion of the intergenerational persistence in earnings. I also quantify the relative importance of these mechanisms on wage inequality. / text

This master thesis deals with the gross domestic product as one of the basic macroeconomic indicators. The subject of the work is also examining the situation of Czech agriculture. The work presents theoretical basis for understanding the basic relations and concepts that relate to the gross domestic product. They describe the various methods of GDP calculation and underlying economic factors, which contribute to the final value of GDP. In detail, the work deals with the development of Czech gross domestic product since 1993, and its comparison with not only with neighboring states, but also with other European Union countries. The last part deals with the position of Czech agriculture and its development since 2003. In addition, he also position of individual plant and animal production, number of employees and contribution to gross domestic product. In the final part, the work tries to summarize the trend of the gross domestic product of the Czech Republic and agriculture as its integral part.

There is some rating of the production of milk and its consumption in Czech Republic in this work. Then there is some rating of consumer preferences, import and export and their commodity and territorial structure. This work also preview price trends and economics of milk production.