Consumer acceptance of buying goods and services online via the Internet is growing, although e-ecommerce has been mostly a mirror of traditional methods of pricing transactions – fixed price or auctions. The proliferation of personal mobile devices with pervasive Internet access and localization capability means a richer set of pricing parameters can be used. Allowing buyers and sellers to more explicitly price requests and filter offers, including information about time and place, allows for better transaction results for both parties. This paper examines the impacts of including the time and place of performance of a service as part of the price. A system for implementation is proposed, a simulation of the system is evaluated, and the results presented. / text

ABSTRACT Deposit Insurance: Is it good for the development of Financial Markets? BY Kaysia Therese Campbell April 25, 2006 Committee Chair: Dr. Stephen Smith and Dr. James Owers Major Department: Finance The literature on deposit insurance has focused primarily on the role it plays in promoting banking sector stability and growth, while little attention has been placed on its possible effect on the development of other markets. Failure to examine the impact of deposit insurance on other markets could lead to premature conclusions about the full effect it has on total financial market development and, in turn, economic growth. Using panel data and cross sectional averages on 96 countries covering the time period 1975 – 2004 to distinguish between short run and long run effects, and including a host of controls, I find evidence that deposit insurance is associated with greater long run, total financial market development, as measured by the size and activity of banks, equity markets, bond markets and non-bank financial intermediaries. This indicates that it is able to accelerate banking sector development without necessarily retarding the development of other markets so that overall financial market development is improved. It is important to note that this is primarily evident for countries with a strong legal and contracting environment. The results also suggest that the immediate impact of deposit insurance is greatest for middle income economies but over time there is no clear evidence that this persists. Using design features thought to contribute to the generosity and ability of the scheme to curb moral hazard and provide a credible guarantee, I construct two indices to summarize the various design features and examine their impact on financial market development. I find that countries adopting more credible schemes appear to have smaller and less active markets over time. However the results also indicate that more credible and generous design features are better able to promote total market activity in the long run. The hopeful conclusion to be made from this study is that the positive influence of deposit insurance on the banking sector is translated into the entire financial market system over time and may be irrespective of a country’s particular stage of economic development.

This thesis investigates the ways in which the selling and utilizing of medicinal plant remedies in Asunción, Paraguay intersects with conceptualizations of Paraguayan cultural identity, traditional gendered knowledge systems, and with the socioeconomic realities of vendors and consumers. Engaging with anthropological theories of the political economy of health, cultural identity, and the socioeconomics of women workers in Latin America, it explores how the use of indigenous healthcare practices engages with notions of Paraguayan identity and traditional knowledge, including the transmission of gendered knowledge. Through data collected in semi-structured interviews with market vendors of medicinal plants in Asunción, this thesis investigates the connections between indigeneity and land, cultural and symbolic identity and food, and the livelihoods of medicinal plant vendors, in order to argue that the selling of these traditional plant medicines in the local markets of Asunción solidifies Paraguayan identity by providing daily affordable access to consumable symbols of “Paraguayanness.” / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

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The Capital Asset Pricing model (CAPM) is the most widely used equity valuation model in both the United States of America (U.S.) and South Africa, thus its importance in corporate finance cannot be underestimated. The largest criticism of the CAPM lies in the difficulties with estimating its parameters and in particular the return on the market parameter. Roll (1977) believed that it is impossible to estimate the market portfolio let alone find a good proxy for it. The common trend amongst practitioners is to use a broad based stock index such as the S&P 500 or in South Africa‟s case the All Share Index (ALSI) as a proxy for the market portfolio. However these methods are questionable, as the market portfolio theoretically contains all risky assets held in proportion to their market value, and stock indices ignore large asset classes such as bonds. Furthermore, using a broad based stock index in the South African context ignores South African specific problems such as the supposed segregation of the market to the Resource and Financial and Industrial sectors. Therefore the purpose of this study was to determine whether simply using the broad based stock index, the ALSI, as a proxy for the market portfolio would suffice or whether the inclusion of debt instruments and the acknowledgement of the segregation on the JSE would enhance the proxy‟s performances. First a set of theoretical requirements that a proxy must satisfy to be considered a suitable proxy for the market portfolio were derived. Then a review of literature on the matter was undertaken, which showed that studies in both the U.S. and South Africa had had mixed results. Next, the various proxies were formed, and tested using the two-pass regression method. The two-pass regressions that were run with the model comprising solely of the ALSI as a proxy, produced a negative sloping SML. This result suggested an inverse relationship between risk and return, which is contradictory to the theory set out in chapters two and three. Thus robustness tests were performed on the model, but none solved the problem. Next the proposed multifactor models were tested to see if they would enhance the results of the first model. Although the results improved slightly, they too did not solve the problem. Thus, in conclusion it was found that incorporating a bond index into the proxy for the market portfolio did not significantly enhance the use of the CAPM in South Africa. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

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Problem: How can segments on Aktietorget explain how a lemon market can not only survive but grow? Purpose: The purpose is to try to explain how Aktietorget can grow under lemon market conditions by gauging investor groupings investment tendencies. Method: Quantitative archival study regarding returns and price per share depending on investor identity. Conclusion: Finance industry investor yields higher returns, which implicates the possibility of rational investing. This is attributed to either identity inherited capabilities or them being agents in the place of the principal. The private investor on the other hand is full principals and has a tendency towards low price per share. All other capital on Aktietorget conforms to the lottery characteristics of Aktietorget.

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