This Bachelor’s thesis examines if and how the perceptions towards agricultural development differs between small-scale farmers, agricultural advisors and entrepreneurs with various age and level of knowledge. The case study was conducted in Babati District, Tanzania, during three weeks in the spring of 2015. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted, and to analyze the empirical results a theoretical framework was created to explain how poverty traps occur and point at possible strategies to dissolve them. The majority of the respondents expressed that the biggest obstacles and needs for small-scale farmers to be able to develop their farming is lack of capital to invest in inputs and knowledge on how to intensify their land use. The perception towards agricultural development seem to differ between generations, in that young farmers are taking part of new technology and methods when cultivating, unlike the older generation. The respondents’ general attitude towards foreign investments was predominantly negative, arguing that local knowledge is of importance if sustainable agricultural development is to be reached. To ease the agricultural development, increased knowledge on how to intensify the agricultural production and how to organize farmers’ associations is suggested.

Abstract The ability to absorb and use effectively FDI flows by countries to enhance their national productive systems is directly related to the degree of functioning of an economy’s national innovation system. We develop a heuristic NSI-FDI framework that proposed three types of NSIs (well functioning/strong, relatively well functioning, and weak) in relation with three types of corresponding FDI outcomes (High-end, Medium or Average, and Low-end). We then selected both large and small developing economies -- China, India, South Africa, Ghana, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zambia with both different NSIs and FDI flows. The countries were differentiated with respect to core differences in the types of NSIs. Using descriptive data we analysed the nature of FDI flows and their impacts or outcomes in these countries and showed that the characteristics of the NSI in these countries largely shaped the flow and the impact of FDI on these economies.

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

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This dissertation uses cooperative and non-cooperative game theory to examine the role of investment (broadly defined) in social organization. It's composed of three chapters. The first chapter examines bidirectional investment in partnerships and characterizes the stable relationships among the benefits players produce and receive, their costs, and their payoffs. The second chapter extends the model of the first chapter to allow for multilateral matching and investment; it shows that many of the results of the bilateral case remain true in the more general case. The third chapter examines investment in social links to secure future help and characterizes the equilibrium network/linking architecture and welfare.

This study proposes two methods, (1) a probabilistic method based on historical oil prices and (2) a method based on Gaussian simulation, to model future prices of oil. With these methods to model future oil prices, we can calculate the ranges of uncertainty in traditional probability indicators based on cash flow analysis, such as net present values, net present value to investment ratio and internal rate of return. We found that conventional methods used to quantify uncertainty which use high, low and base prices produce uncertainty ranges far narrower than those observed historically. These methods fail because they do not capture the "shocks" in oil prices that arise from geopolitical events or supply-demand imbalances. Quantifying uncertainty is becoming increasingly important in the petroleum industry as many current investment opportunities in reservoir development require large investments, many in harsh exploration environments, with intensive technology requirements. Insight into the range of uncertainty, particularly for downside, may influence our investment decision in these difficult areas.

"The so-called unfavourable balance may mean glorious things for a nation." Since a current account deficit and a net capital inflow are merely opposite sides of the same coin, there can be little doubt that the unfavourable balance, which Canada often has with the rest of the world, has been, in general, a great boon to the Canadian economy. [...]