The thesis addressed the saving behaviour of adolescents within the social context of the family, which has received little attention to date. The research regarded adolescent economic socialization and the development of saving behaviour as an integral part of general socialization and adolescent psychological development. The importance of saving was investigated relative to alternative ways for getting larger sums of money. Three large survey studies with adolescents and one survey study with adolescents and their parents were carried out. In Study 1, 470 students between the ages of 11 and 18 took part. The results of this study revealed that adolescents do think of saving as a means of accumulating larger sums of money. Studies 2 and 3 sampled 290 and 443 students between the ages of 11 and 17 and 13 to 14, respectively, providing empirical evidence of adolescents’ endeavour for independence, reflected by their saving motives as well as the changing of their attitudes towards saving as a skill. The thesis examined a number of significant predictors for adolescents’ general tendency to save. The studies linked adolescent saving with home atmosphere and perceived parenting style empirically for the first time. A path model illustrates the associations that were found between the behaviour and attitudes of the parents and the saving behaviour and attitudes of their adolescent child. It demonstrates that the development of saving behaviour is linked to the power relationship between parent and child. The findings support the behavioural life-cycle hypothesis as well as the benefits of being raised in an ‘authoritative home’ with regard to skills in saving.

Many tools have been developed to assess global, national or regional sustainable development policies. However, as governments develop sustainable policies, individuals must also feel empowered to affect their personal impact on the planet. This thesis integrates three sustainability concepts that lend themselves to individual sustainability: The natural step, life cycle assessment, and the ecological footprint. TNS serves to provide the meaning and substance toward sustainable development. LCA helps provide the framework for assessing sustainability. The EF calculator determines the driving components and measures the qualitative decisions made through TNS and LCA. From the analysis of the household footprint calculator a simplified footprint calculator was developed to assist individuals and communities in setting benchmarks and goals as they move away from over-consumption and towards a sustainable lifestyle.

<p>The rise of the twenty-first century has seen the further increase in the industrialization of Earth’s resources, as society aims to meet the needs of a growing population while still protecting our environmental and natural resources. The advent of the industrial bioeconomy – which encompasses the production of renewable biological resources and their conversion into food, feed, and bio-based products – is seen as an important step in transition towards sustainable development and away from fossil fuels. One sector of the industrial bioeconomy which is rapidly being expanded is the use of biobased feedstocks in electricity production as an alternative to coal, especially in the European Union.</p><p>As bioeconomy policies and objectives increasingly appear on political agendas, there is a growing need to quantify the impacts of transitioning from fossil fuel-based feedstocks to renewable biological feedstocks. Specifically, there is a growing need to conduct a systems analysis and potential risks of increasing the industrial bioeconomy, given that the flows within it are inextricably linked. Furthermore, greater analysis is needed into the consequences of shifting from fossil fuels to renewable feedstocks, in part through the use of life cycle assessment modeling to analyze impacts along the entire value chain.</p><p>To assess the emerging nature of the industrial bioeconomy, three objectives are addressed: (1) quantify the global industrial bioeconomy, linking the use of primary resources with the ultimate end product; (2) quantify the impacts of the expaning wood pellet energy export market of the Southeastern United States; (3) conduct a comparative life cycle assessment, incorporating the use of dynamic life cycle assessment, of replacing coal-fired electricity generation in the United Kingdom with wood pellets that are produced in the Southeastern United States.</p><p>To quantify the emergent industrial bioeconomy, an empirical analysis was undertaken. Existing databases from multiple domestic and international agencies was aggregated and analyzed in Microsoft Excel to produce a harmonized dataset of the bioeconomy. First-person interviews, existing academic literature, and industry reports were then utilized to delineate the various intermediate and end use flows within the bioeconomy. The results indicate that within a decade, the industrial use of agriculture has risen ten percent, given increases in the production of bioenergy and bioproducts. The underlying resources supporting the emergent bioeconomy (i.e., land, water, and fertilizer use) were also quantified and included in the database.</p><p>Following the quantification of the existing bioeconomy, an in-depth analysis of the bioenergy sector was conducted. Specifically, the focus was on quantifying the impacts of the emergent wood pellet export sector that has rapidly developed in recent years in the Southeastern United States. A cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment was conducted in order to quantify supply chain impacts from two wood pellet production scenarios: roundwood and sawmill residues. For reach of the nine impact categories assessed, wood pellet production from sawmill residues resulted in higher values, ranging from 10-31% higher.</p><p>The analysis of the wood pellet sector was then expanded to include the full life cycle (i.e., cradle-to-grave). In doing to, the combustion of biogenic carbon and the subsequent timing of emissions were assessed by incorporating dynamic life cycle assessment modeling. Assuming immediate carbon neutrality of the biomass, the results indicated an 86% reduction in global warming potential when utilizing wood pellets as compared to coal for electricity production in the United Kingdom. When incorporating the timing of emissions, wood pellets equated to a 75% or 96% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, depending upon whether the forestry feedstock was considered to be harvested or planted in year one, respectively.</p><p>Finally, a policy analysis of renewable energy in the United States was conducted. Existing coal-fired power plants in the Southeastern United States were assessed in terms of incorporating the co-firing of wood pellets. Co-firing wood pellets with coal in existing Southeastern United States power stations would result in a nine percent reduction in global warming potential.</p> / Dissertation

Le véhicule électrique est aujourd’hui présenté comme l’une des solutions alternatives sérieuses au véhicule à moteur à combustion interne, visant à limiter la consommation d’énergies fossiles, ainsi que les émissions de polluants locaux et de gaz à effet de serre. L’évaluation des forces et faiblesses de cette technologie au regard de l’environnement est aujourd’hui limitée, compte tenu notamment du peu de retour d’expérience sur ce type de véhicules.L’objectif de ce travail de recherche est de proposer une approche combinant une connaissance fine du véhicule étudié (obtenu notamment par des essais expérimentaux et l’utilisation de modèles de consommation) et de la méthode d’évaluation environnementale Analyse de Cycle de Vie (ACV), pour identifier les paramètres clefs du bilan environnemental, et par différentes analyses de sensibilité, d’en proposer une analyse détaillée. Pour y parvenir, des essais expérimentaux ont été réalisés sur un véhicule électrique à usage essentiellement urbain et son équivalent thermique. Un modèle permet d’estimer les consommations de véhicules selon leurs spécificités (chimie et capacité de batterie, rendement de la chaîne de traction) et leurs conditions d’utilisation (trafic, usages d’auxiliaires). Des hypothèses et scénarios sont également établis sur la durée de vie des batteries qui équipent le véhicule. Les jeux de données obtenus sont mis en œuvre dans l’ACV d’un véhicule électrique, et les résultats obtenus interprétés puis comparés à ceux du véhicule thermique équivalent. Enfin, analyses de sensibilité et test de divers scénarios permettent l’identification des paramètres clefs du bilan environnemental. / Today, the electric vehicle is seen as a potent substitute to the internal combustion engine vehicle, aiming at reducing consumption of fossil fuels, and emissions of local pollutants and greenhouse gases. The assessment of strengths and weaknesses of this technology from the environmental viewpoint is currently limited, especially considering the lack of experiment feedbacks.The objective of this research is to offer an approach combining a deep understanding of the studied vehicle (through experiments and use of consumption patterns) and the environmental assessment method “Life Cycle Analysis” (LCA), to identify the key parameters of environmental appraisal, and relying on different sensitivity analysis, to propose a detailed analysis.To achieve this, experimental tests were carried out on an urban electric vehicle and its internal combustion engine equivalent. A model was built to estimate the consumption of electric vehicles according to their characteristics (chemistry and battery capacity, vehicle energy efficiency) and use (traffic, use of auxiliaries). Assumptions and scenarios are also made on the lifetimes of batteries in the vehicle. The data sets obtained are implemented in the life cycle analysis of an electric vehicle, and the results are interpreted and compared to its internal combustion engine equivalent vehicle. In the end, sensitivity analysis and test of various scenarios allow the identification of key parameters for the environmental assessment.

Le rachat d’actions est devenu une technique de gestion des capitaux propres et des relations avec les actionnaires de plus en plus courante. Plusieurs études se sont intéressées aux déterminants de rachat d’actions. Cette recherche se positionne alors dans le prolongement de ces travaux en examinant les caractéristiques financières et de gouvernance susceptibles d’expliquer ce phénomène. Cependant, elle s’en différencie en mettant en évidence le rôle du cycle de vie de l’entreprise dans l’identification des périodes où les conditions de rachats sont les plus favorables.S’inscrivant dans le cadre d’une démarche hypothético-déductive, notre étude empirique est réalisée sur un échantillon de 754 programmes de rachat initiés par des firmes cotées sur le marché français entre 2002 et 2004. Afin de tester nos hypothèses de recherche, nous avons utilisé une méthodologie combinant l’analyse typologique, les tests univariés et les modèles de régression. L’examen des résultats montre certaines spécificités financières et de gouvernance des firmes qui réalisent des programmes de rachat d’actions par rapport à celles qui ne les réalisent pas. Par ailleurs, nous révélons une différence dans ces spécificités par rapport à la position dans le cycle de vie de l’entreprise. En effet, les firmes rachètent leurs actions pour couvrir leurs plans de stock-options dans les phases de démarrage et de croissance. Alors que le rachat sert à minimiser le risque des free cash-flows dans les phases de maturité et déclin. En outre, l’influence de la structure du conseil d’administration et l’actionnariat managérial sur la décision de rachat varient en fonction des phases du cycle de vie de la firme. / Stock repurchase is nowadays a widely used technique to manage equities and relations with shareholders. Several studies have dealt with the determinants of stock buyback. This thesis extends this research stream by examining the importance of the firms’ financial and governance characteristics on stock repurchase programs. In particular, it sheds lights on the role of corporate life-cycle in shaping firm behavior in this respect. Using a hypothetical-deductive approach, our study is carried out on a sample of 754 stock repurchase programs announced between 2002 and 2004 by French public firms. To test our research hypotheses, we combine various empirical methods including cluster analysis, univariate tests and logistic regression. The results show common financial and governance characteristics of firms that repurchase shares. More specifically, we provide empirical evidence that the effect of these characteristics varies depending on the life cycle position of the firm. Indeed, firms repurchase stocks to exercise their stock options during the start-up and growth phase to distribute excess free cash flow in the maturity and decline phases. Moreover, the effects of board leadership structures of directors and managers ownership on the decision to repurchase vary with the life-cycle phases.

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Aus der Einleitung: "In der Entwicklung technischer Produkte sind die Entwickler mit einer zunehmenden Komplexität der Produkte konfrontiert. Die Komplexität hat unterschiedliche Ursachen, wie bspw. eine höhere Anzahl an Anforderungen, eine steigende Anzahl an unterschiedlichen beteiligten Domänen oder eine kürzere Entwicklungszeit. Zusätzlich muss bereits während der Entwicklung der gesamte Lebenszyklus des Produkts bis zur Entsorgung beachtet werden. ..."

This thesis aims at contributing to the existing studies in the dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model, particularly in the new Keynesian models, on three aspects. It consists of three chapters. Chapter 2 is on “Dynamic new Keynesian Life-Cycle Model.” Chapter 3 is on “Re-thinking Price Stability in an Economy with Endogenous Firm Entry: Real Imperfections under Product Variety.” Chapter 4 is on “Growth Expectation.” Abstracts of each Chapter are as follows. In Chapter 2, we first construct a dynamic new Keynesian model that incorporates life-cycle behavior a la Gertler (1999), in order to study whether structural shocks to the economy have asymmetric effects on heterogeneous agents, namely workers and retirees. We also examine whether considerations of life-cycle and demographic structure alter the dynamic properties of the monetary business cycle model, specifically the degree of amplification in impulse responses. According to our simulation results, shocks indeed have asymmetric impacts on different households and the demographic structure does alter the size of responses against shocks by changing the trade-off between substitution and income effects. In Chapter 3, we re-think price stability in an economy with endogenous firm entry under possible distortions. We first demonstrate that endogenous entry causes real imperfections. Reflecting fluctuations in the number of varieties, the gap between the natural and the efficient level of output is no longer constant and variant to shocks. As a result, the central bank faces a trade-off between stabilizing inflation and welfare-relevant output gap. Then, we show that this results in the non-zero optimal rate of inflation. We further check whether welfare can be enhanced by targeting welfare-based inflation instead of cross-sectional average inflation contrary to the previous findings. Simulations even with such distortions as unknown natural interest rate or no fiscal remedy for efficient non-stochastic steady states, however, support cross-sectional average inflation targeting although there may exist some small gains by referring also to welfare-based inflation rates. Incomplete stabilization may enhance welfare in an economy when agents cannot internalize the externality on the love for variety. Chapter 4 is about the difficulty in producing reasonable business cycles for the expectation shock about higher future technology. For a long time, changes in expectations about the future have been thought to be significant sources of economic fluctuations, as argued by Pigou (1926). Although creating such an expectation-driven cycle (the Pigou cycle) in equilibrium business cycle models was considered to be a difficult challenge, as pointed out by Barro and King (1984), recently, several researchers have succeeded in producing the Pigou cycle by balancing the tension between the wealth effect and the substitution effect stemming from the higher expected future productivity. Seminal research by Christiano et al. (2007a) explains the “stock market boom-bust cycles,” characterized by increases in consumption, labor inputs, investment and the stock prices relating to high expected future technology levels, by introducing investment growth adjustment costs, habit formation in consumption, sticky prices and an inflation-targeting central bank. We, however, show that such a cycle is difficult to generate based on “growth expectation,” which reflect expectations of higher productivity growth rates. Thus, Barro and King’s (1984) prediction still applies.

The cellular slime moulds or dictyostelids, are a major group of edaphic (soil-dwelling) unicellular eukaryotic micro-organisms which feed on bacteria in the humus layer of tropical and temperate soils. The extraordinary behaviour of dictyostelids where solitary, predatory amoebae become social, forming a multi-cellular spore-producing ‘organism’ when their food supply becomes limited has fascinated generations of researchers. Since their discovery the taxonomy of the cellular slime moulds has been largely based on morphological features, revised many times, but still remains unresolved and controversial. One focus of discussion is the controversial relationship between the two principal genera of Dictyostelium and Polysphondylium, which by virtue of a common amoeba type are placed in the same family - Dictyosteliaceae. Despite the current distinction between Dictyostelium and Polysphondylium it is impossible to definitively resolve these genera, or indeed the broader classification of cellular slime moulds, using only morphological features. Given that dictyostelids are both of major ecological importance and often used as a model eukaryotic system, it has become imperative to resolve these taxonomic uncertainties and to finally establish the validity of one or two genera. This study used two PCR based techniques: (1) direct sequencing of the ITS 1 and ITS 2 regions of the rDNA complex together with (2) ISSR-PCR, a standard molecular technique but rarely applied to the dictyostelids. The latter requiring the development of a working protocol before it could be implemented. The sequence data from 51 different dictyostelid species and isolates was aligned with CLUSTAL and analysed via PAUP. This study clearly demonstrates that molecular markers cannot distinguish Dictyostelium (sensu stricto) from Polysphondylium (sensu stricto): indeed it presents evidence to support the existence of a single genus. The implications of these results are unequivocal: the current systematics of cellular slime moulds, based on morphological characters, must be revised.

I use porcelain clay because it allows me to focus on the subtle color shifts between white, beige, and gray. The forms I make in clay are associated with tangled roots, naked tree branches, hollow logs, and bones. I reveal this with a dense mass of curvilinear hollow forms that stack into a rhythmic linkage. They twist and turn, relying on gravity to dictate their structure within the installation. The ends of some are closed while others remain open to expose their interior. The tearing and perforations on the surface of each piece are employed to emphasize deterioration. In opposition to the tearing and perforations, I also add concave lines to the surface creating a flowing moving force. The surface is both visually active and smooth, allowing the eye to roam and focus on specific areas. I'm also working with the accumulation of pieces to communicate growth. The individual pieces rest on one another, growing into an interlocking structure. The pedestal is a formal presentation that is specific to the space. For this installation, I wanted to make the work monumental by elevating an accumulation of pieces. When walking around the artwork, there's an opening in the platform for one person to walk in and be surrounded by the two sides of the piece. The work is above eye level and surrounds the viewer at both sides. I want people to view the mass from the outside, but to also have an experience from the inside.