The thesis brings a comprehensive analysis of the food crisis of recent years. There was a dramatic increase in staple food prices in 2007-2008 and 2010-2011 which combined with persistent poverty is a serious problem for many millions of people. The objective of the thesis is to analyze the causes of this phenomenon. There are also examined socio-economic effects of rising global food prices on the quality of life in developing countries. In this sense, research is carried out whether the appropriate means helped to solve the food crisis and there are also suggested other options to address the current situation in order to reduce hunger and undernutrition in the world and avoid other people fall into poverty. Research is conducted using the method of observation, causal analysis and synthesis.

Guo, Chenkai. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-60). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.iii / Chapter 1 --- Introduction and Literature Review --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Problem Description and Preliminary Results --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- Traditional Decentralized Supply Chain --- p.7 / Chapter 2.2 --- Centralized Supply Chain --- p.10 / Chapter 3 --- Transportation Discount Incentive Scheme --- p.12 / Chapter 3.1 --- TDI Scheme I --- p.12 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Optimal Order Quantity for q ≤ q- --- p.13 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Optimal Order Quantity for q > q- --- p.17 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- Inducing Coordination --- p.18 / Chapter 3.2 --- TDI Scheme II --- p.22 / Chapter 3.3 --- TDI Scheme III --- p.25 / Chapter 4 --- Third-party Logistics --- p.28 / Chapter 4.1 --- 3PL Problem Formulation --- p.28 / Chapter 4.2 --- Optimal Decisions in the Decentralized Supply Chain --- p.31 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Optimal Decisions of the Distributor --- p.32 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Optimal Decisions of the 3PL Provider --- p.33 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Optimal Decisions of the Producer --- p.35 / Chapter 4.3 --- Optimal Decisions in the Centralized Supply Chain --- p.37 / Chapter 4.4 --- Designing a Coordination Mechanism --- p.41 / Chapter 5 --- Computational Studies --- p.46 / Chapter 5.1 --- Numerical Study of the 3PL Model --- p.46 / Chapter 5.2 --- Comparison between the Supply Chain with and without the 3PL provider --- p.49 / Chapter 6 --- Conclusion and Discussion --- p.54 / Chapter 6.1 --- TDI Concluding Remarks --- p.54 / Chapter 6.2 --- 3PL Concluding Remarks --- p.55 / Chapter 6.3 --- Future Work --- p.56 / Bibliography --- p.58

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The upward movement in oil and food prices in the 2000s has triggered interest in the information transmission mechanism between the two markets. This research investigates the volatility spillover between oil, food, and agricultural raw material price indexes for the period January 1980 to April 2008. The results of the Cheung-Ng procedure show that variation in oil prices does not Granger cause the variance in food and agricultural raw material prices. However, there is bi-directional spillover between agricultural raw material and oil markets. Besides, it examines volatility spillover between maize, wheat, soybean, rice, and oil spot prices for the period January-1998 to February-2009. The results show that volatility spillover in oil returns leads fluctuations in maize, soybean, wheat, and rice returns in 3 months. In addition, there are bi-directional spillovers between oil and soybean returns, rice and wheat returns. This topic is essential for countries whose populations grow rapidly because forecasting of commodity prices plays an important role in instituting the economic policy. Also, understanding the dynamics of the economy leads to better economic policies. Thus, results are important for investors and policy makers interested in price shocks and transmission.

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No description available.

The market structure of the food retailing industry has evolved to one which is comprised of numerous types of outlets, each using different basic strategies for doing business. A field experiment was implemented in stores which were assumed to operate with strategically opposite marketing philosophies. Results demonstrate that when prices were either raised or lowered, the sales in the stores that use "low pricing" as a core strategy were affected more than the stores which use a strategy other than low price. A survey conducted in the test stores shows that the shopping profiles of the customers in both store types differ. Statistically significant differences between the two customer groups as to ideal store attributes desired, lifestyles (A.I.O.'s) and demographics were determined. The results yield important implications for theory, methodology and for managers in all levels of the distribution channel.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Department of Economics, December 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

This thesis is based on three papers examining Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) financial markets. The member countries of the GCC are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. These countries have transitioned from developing to frontier markets over the past ten years, but there is considerable debate about whether GCC economies are efficient or affected by shocks in oil and other commodity markets. The first paper (chapter 2) considers GCC stock market returns and examines how they are affected by oil price shocks using a bivariate VAR-GARCH(1,1) approach. The conclusion of this essay is that GCC economies are more affected by shocks than are other countries considered for comparison purposes. The second paper (chapter 3) discusses how food prices are affected by oil price shocks, and it examines possible parameter shifts between food and oil that result from four recent events, including renewable fuel policies and the financial crisis. The third paper (chapter 4) uses an empirical approach to compare a least squares model and a non-linear Markov switching model to measure the effect of newspaper sentiment on stock market performance. The results indicate that all information is important to stock market investors and that non-linear models are better predictors of stock market performance then linear models when using data from newspaper articles. Chapter 5 offers some final conclusions and remarks.