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In the last three decades regional economic co-operation and integration attracted a great deal of interest in Southern Africa, as elsewhere in the Third World. Early attempts at regional integration in Southern Africa were generally characterised by poor and disappointing performance. Recent changes at both regional and international contexts suggest the need to rethink regional integration as part of an overall economic development strategy and as means to attain further political and security stability. This thesis examines the theory and practice of regional integration in developing countries during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Particular focus is directed at the theoretical and practical implications of different integration approaches for Southern Africa, as well as at the rationale for the revival of this development strategy in the 1990s. Integration schemes of various conceptual natures did not fulfil the expectations included either in the theoretical postulates or in the formal treaties. However, macroeconomic reforms centred in SAPs and their international development context as well as the post-apartheid regional context add new dimensions to regional co-operation and integration for development in the SAR. Among other things they imply a change in the emphasis from inward-looking to outward-looking integration strategies. By yielding the need for reconciling trade liberalisation and RECI this new dimension in integration poses a new challenge to both the contemporary integration approaches and the respective policy implications. Further research is required to determine the optimality of an "adjusted" integration approach, combining elements of the above perspectives.

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This thesis examines the size and distribution of benefits from the use of transgenic tobacco as a production vehicle for pharmaceutical proteins. Ex-ante welfare benefits are estimated for the introduction of two biotech innovations. In both cases economic surplus model with imperfect competition is employed to assess the size and distribution of benefits from these alternative uses of tobacco. An introductory chapter presents an overview of the topic followed by chapters 2 and 3 which contain the two case studies. The first paper (chapter 2) examines the case of Human Serum Albumin production from transgenic tobacco. The second paper (chapter 3) examines the case of Glucocerebrosidase Enzyme from transgenic tobacco. Results demonstrate that new products from bio-pharming applications stand to generate significant social benefits. The introduction of Human Serum Albumin generates average annual gains of $46 million and the introduction of Glucocerebrosidase Enzyme generates average annual gains of $500 to $600 million. / Master of Science

Un mercado implica, de manera general, un conjunto de interacciones relativamente complejas entre agentes a lo largo del tiempo. En consecuencia, recientes investigaciones en el campo de las finanzas intentan integrar el comportamiento estratégico de los agentes en los modelos existentes. Dos importantes líneas de investigación en las que la incidencia del comportamiento estratégico ha sido ampliamente explotado son la valoración de la deuda de la empresa y la microestructura del mercado. En el segundo capítulo se desarrolla un eventual modelo de valoración para bonos de cupón cero en mora. Con el objetivo de destacar el papel del vencimiento y de la colocación de la demanda del prestatario en la jerarquía de la deuda de una empresa, tomaremos el caso de una empresa que emita dos bonos con vencimiento y prioridad distintos. Este modelo nos permite analizar las implicaciones, tanto de la renegociación de la deuda como de la estructura del capital de la empresa en el precio de los bonos. Veremos que la renegociación conlleva un cambio significativo en el precio de los bonos y que su efecto se dispersa a través de varios canales: incrementando el valor de la empresa, reasignando pagos y evitando liquidaciones costosas. Asimismo, la presencia de dos acreedores tiene implicaciones cualitativamente diferentes en precio, y a la vez pone énfasis en la importancia de los contratos de bonos y la renegociación de la totalidad de la deuda. En el tercer capítulo se desarrolla el modelo de tráfico de información privilegiada en el que los agentes tienen información privada sobre el valor de liquidación o sobre la oferta y actúan de modo estratégico para maximizar sus beneficios. El operador de ofertas informado tiene un doble papel en la creación de mercados y en la revelación de información. Este operador, no sólo revela parte de la información que posee, sino que también induce a otros operadores a revelar una mayor parte de su información privada. La presencia de varios tipos de información reduce la liquidez del mercado e induce a la no-monotonicidad de los indicadores de mercado respecto a la variación del valor de liquidación. El cuarto capítulo aborda temas de microestructura, esta vez en relación con la tributación con problemas de incertidumbre. Se desarrolla un modelo en el que consideramos las implicaciones del informe fiscal en los beneficios por tráfico de información privilegiada. Se modela la interacción entre la empresa y la agencia de auditoría fiscal como relación principal-agente sin compromiso. Por otro lado, los mercados financiero se modelan de acuerdo con Kyle (1985), con la diferencia de que el creador de mercados establecerá un precio condicionado por dos factores el flujo total de pedidos y el informe fiscal recibido por la agencia de auditoría fiscal. Modelar la interacción entre la agencia tributaria y la empresa nos permite endogenizar el factor público. Nuestro modelo apunta a que los efectos que producen las interacciones entre la empresa y la agencia de auditoría fiscal en el comportamiento del creador de mercados y el poseedor de información privilegiada son significativos. Así pues, existen varios canales a través de los cuales el informe fiscal influye en los beneficios de quien posee información privilegiada. El informe fiscal afecta al valor de liquidación de la empresa que opera en mercados financieros de dos modos: mediante los impuestos directos pagados honradamente y mediante los esfuerzos de auditoría (lo que en nuestro modelo depende del informe fiscal). A su vez, el valor de liquidación afecta a la demanda y, consecuentemente, al flujo de pedidos. Finalmente, puesto que el creador de mercados utiliza los informes fiscales como factor esto afecta directamente a los precios establecidos por el creador de mercados y, consecuentemente, a toda la actuación del mercado. / A market typically involves a relatively complex set of interactions between agents over time. Consequently, recent research in finance tries to integrate strategic behaviour of the agents in the existing models. Two important directions of research where the incidence of strategic behavior has been widely exploited are valuation of corporate debt and market microstructure. In the second chapter we develop a contingent valuation model for zero-coupon bonds with default. In order to emphasize the role of maturity time and place of the lender's claim in the hierarchy of debt of a firm, we consider a firm that issues two bonds with different maturities and different seniorage. The model allows us to analyze the implications of both debt renegotiation and capital structure of a firm on the prices of bonds. We obtain that renegotiation brings about a significant change in the bond prices and that the effect is dispersed through different channels: increasing the value of the firm, reallocating payments, and avoiding costly liquidation. Moreover, the presence of two creditors leads to qualitatively different implications for pricing, while emphasizing the importance of bond covenants and renegotiation of the entire debt.In the third chapter we develop a model of insider trading where agents have private information either about liquidation value or about supply and behave strategically to maximize their profits. The supply informed trader plays a dual role in market making and in information revelation. This trader not only reveals a part of the information he owns, but he also induces the other traders to reveal more of their private information. The presence of different types of information decreases market liquidity and induces non-monotonicity of the market indicators with respect to the variance of liquidation value.The fourth chapter is concerned also with microstructure issues, this time in connection with a taxation under uncertainty problem. We develop a model in which we consider the implications of tax report on the profits from insider trading. We model the interaction between the firm and the tax auditing agency as a principal-agent relationship with no commitment. On the other hand, the financial markets are modelled as in Kyle (1985), with the difference that the market maker will set the price conditional on two signals: the total order flow and the tax report received by the tax auditing agency. Modelling the interaction between the tax agency and the firm allows us actually to endogenize the public signal. Our model points out that the effects the interactions between the firm and the tax auditing agency have both on market maker's and insider's behaviour are significant. Thus, there exist several channels through which the tax report affects the profits of the insider. The tax report affects the liquidation value of the firm traded in financial markets in two ways: through the direct taxes honestly paid and through the auditing effort (which in our model is contingent on the tax report). On its turn, the liquidation value affects the demand and therefore the order flow. Finally, since the market maker uses the tax report as a signal, it directly affects the pricing rule set by the market maker, and therefore, all the market performance.

Rise of imperfect competition, more precisely its oligopoly form, has became very wide spreed. In certain extent we can say that this is a result of government regulation in different areas of national economy. Aim of this work was to analyze and compare television stations market in SR and CR and evaluate those interactions among channels in their respective economies, which lead to rise in the concrete situation on the market. Also to show some oportunietis, that might be exploited by new TV companies entering this industry. Most importent in this sector will by liberalization, which will lead to better form of competetiv advantage and will bring more costumers to this market. It partly explains horizont of digital broadcasting, which implementing currently runs in all Europe contries.

This dissertation is comprised of three essays that generate methods to measure the ex-ante economic impacts of agriculture technology innovations. The first essay entitled 'Valuing Intellectual Property Rights in an Imperfectly Competitive Market: A Biopharming Application' presents a method for valuing the intellectual property rights (IPRs) for an innovation that lowers product production costs below those associated with the patented process of a monopolist. The application to Glucocerebrosidase enzyme from transgenic tobacco suggests an intellectual property rights (IPRs) value of about $1.75 billion. Despite the innovator's market power, significant surplus gains also accrue to consumers. Further, U.S. antitrust laws that prohibit IPRs acquisition by the current monopolist increase consumer welfare by almost 50 percent. The second essay entitled 'Ex-Ante Analysis of the Benefits of Transgenic Drought Tolerance Research on Cereal Crops in Low-Income Countries' develops a framework to examine the ex-ante benefits of transgenic research on drought in eight low-income countries, including the benefits to producers and consumers from farm income stabilization and the potential magnitude of private sector profits from IPRs. The framework employs country-specific agroecological-drought risk zones and considers both yield increases and yield variance reductions when estimating producer and consumer benefits from research. Benefits from yield variance reductions are shown to be an important component of aggregate drought research benefits, representing 40 percent of total benefits across the eight countries. Further, estimated annual private sector benefits of $US 178 million suggest that significant incentives exist for private sector participation in transgenic drought tolerance research. The third essay entitled 'Ex-Ante Evaluation of Alternative Strategies to Increase the Stability of Cropping Systems in Eastern and Central Africa' examines the ex-ante economic impact of transgenic drought resistance maize breeding and of conventional maize, millet and sorghum drought resistance breeding in Kenya, Uganda, and the Amhara region in Ethiopia. An expected utility framework is combined with a partial equilibrium model and a spatial drought risk zonation scheme to estimate benefits from mean yield increases and yield variance reductions at the market level as well as at the household level for maize, millet and sorghum producers in the administrative regions of each country. Results suggest that annual ex-ante benefits of $87 million, $6.8 million and $4.8 million can be generated from public sector conventional breeding research on maize, sorghum and millet, respectively. Private sector transgenic drought tolerance research may also generate substantial benefits of $97 million for maize producers and consumers, particularly through the reduction of yield variance arising from drought, and an additional $21 million as profits from intellectual property rights protection. / Ph. D.

The question of how to design efficient environmental policies has become one of the most important questions of our time, but finding the answer it is not easy. Simple models of environmental regulation do not take into account the complexity of real markets. One aspect that is sometimes ignored is the market structure of the regulated industry. This critical review of the literature shows that market structure can both influence and be influenced by environmental regulation and that determining the optimal environmental policy is complicated.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(経済学) / 甲第18638号 / 経博第500号 / 新制||経||271(附属図書館) / 31552 / 京都大学大学院経済学研究科経済学専攻 / (主査)教授 照山 博司, 教授 柴田 章久, 准教授 敦賀 貴之 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Economics / Kyoto University / DGAM

The Law of One Price (LOP) is one of the most frequently tested economic laws. In simple terms the LOP states that once price is converted to a common currency, the same goods should sell for the same price in different countries. We have extracted the data from the price comparison website PriceSpy over seven different countries to analyze the trend in price dispersion. The methodologies we have used were regression for comparison of three different country pairs along with descriptive statistics to analyze the price dispersion trends related to the exchange rate. We concluded that there are many factors to make the fluctuation in prices and deny the LOP.