The USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program's (SNAP) strives to connect SNAP recipients to local and healthful food sold at Farmers' markets. These efforts are an attempt to provide families, struggling to make ends meet, access to healthy foods and food purchasing power via the Federal Food Stamp program. However, of the 288 listed farmers' markets in Illinois only 25 are listed as SNAP/EBT accepting markets (2010 National Farmers Market Directory). The first part of this study uses the 61st Street Farmers Market as a case study, investigating the practical market operations and interpreting their method of EBT implementation to provide an established model of an existing and thriving farmers' market. Next, I will investigate the socio-economic characteristics (population, race, employment, income, poverty, education, age, and SNAP recipients) of Illinois farmers' markets accepting EBT. I will compare this data to other Illinois Farmers' markets that do not accept EBT and assess which non-accepting market locations would be most suitable for implementing EBT usage in the future. Finally, based on my case study and statistical analysis, I will discuss recommendations for farmers' markets to accept EBT into their markets. Findings indicate that there is no significant difference between the mean ranks of the socio-economic characteristics for the EBT and non-EBT accepting farmers' markets. Of the 8 socio-economic characteristics tested, the populations of SNAP recipients were analogous for each group: EBT and Non-EBT accepting farmers' markets.

Esta dissertação apresenta uma proposta de modelo de mercado financeiro artificial que reproduz séries de retornos com propriedades estatísticas universais semelhantes às observadas em séries reais. Dentre as propriedades, também chamadas de fatos estilizados na Economia, as séries artificiais de retornos exibiram ausência de autocorrelação para os retornos simples, leis de potência para autocorrelação para os retornos absolutos e quadráticos, excesso de curtose nas distribuições de retorno, gaussianidade agregacional e volatilidade clusterizada. Cabe salientar, que não há na literatura um outro mercado artificial que reproduziu tantos fatos estilizados conjuntamente. O modelo dinâmico e síncrono é baseado em agentes que transacionam ativos com risco como ações de empresa através de ordens de compra e venda enviadas ao mercado a cada período de tempo. O preço de mercado das ações é calculado da média ponderada pelo volume das ordens negociadas entre os agentes. O objetivo dos agentes é maximizar sua riqueza e, para isso, seguem ou a estratégia fundamentalista utilizando os dividendos para calcular os preços das ações ou a estratégia técnica baseada em análise de séries temporais. A principal contribuição da modelagem foi acrescentar às estratégias um fator de aprendizado em que o agente considera sua habilidade individual passada de previsão de riqueza esperada para calcular os retornos futuros. Este trabalho também mediu o coeficiente de Gini para descobrir como algumas variáveis de mercado afetavam a distribuição de riqueza dos agentes e, além disso, estudou quais valores de dividendo tornavam uma estratégia mais eficiente que outra. Por fim, incorporaram-se características evolutivas aos agentes possibilitandoos a trocar de estratégias no decorrer da simulação e, com isso, os resultados mostraram aumento da riqueza dos agentes. / This work presents a new artificial stock market model for reproducing price time series of assets in such market model. For a suitable validation of the model, we verified several statistical and universal properties (called stylized facts in the Economics Literature) and similar results are obtained with data extracted from real stock markets. We investigate several properties including absence of autocorrelation for simple returns and the power behavior law of autocorrelation for absolute and quadratic returns, excess of kurtosis, aggregational gaussianity, and clustered volatility. It is important to mention that no other similar artificial model has investigated so many statistical universalities. Our synchronous model is based on agents negotiating risk assets through purchase and sale orders. These orders are stored in books for each simulation step. The weighted average volume of all orders negotiated by the agents determines the price of an asset. For the sake of simplicity, our model considers two kinds of strategies: 1. Fundamentalist - where one uses the dividends to calculate the expected return of an asset; 2. Trend predictor - where one obtains the expected returns directly from an analysis of the price time series. One of the main contributions of our model was to add a term that works as the expected wealth of an agent. This is considered an important psychological factor in the decision making process. In addition, we consider an income inequality index to analyze the wealth distribution of the agents: the Gini-coefficient, which predicts an inequality interval of [0 (society completely fair),1 (society completely unfair)]. We also study the influence of the dividends and risk free assets parameters on this coefficient. Finally, some evolutionary features of the model are analyzed. Our results show an increase in agent’s wealth when strategies are updated according to the following criteria: if expected wealth does not reach a given threshold, the agent changes his strategy from Fundamentalist to Trend Predictor or vice-versa. If the expected wealth reaches the specified threshold, the agent keeps his initial strategy. We tested different threshold values in this analysis and the conclusion was confirmed in all cases studied.

Este tem trabalho tem por objeto a constituição da economia colonial no extremo sul da América portuguesa, em territórios que hoje compõem o estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Investiga-se como foram construídas suas estruturas produtivas mais típicas e como este espaço foi incorporado economicamente ao império português na América. Analisa-se a estrutura agrária através das estâncias, charqueadas e das unidades familiares da região de colonização alemã. O Rio Grande do Sul constituiu-se em importante região produtora de alimentos, charque e trigo, para o mercado interno da América portuguesa. Os dados obtidos através do Arquivo do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul para a região de São Leopoldo nos levou a concluir que a região de colonização alemã dependia do setor voltado ao comércio externo, indo, assim, a favor da tese de Caio Prado Jr. / This work addresses colonial society in the southern part of Portuguese America, in the territories that are the now the state of Rio Grande do Sul. I explore the ways in which this region's productive structures were constructed and how they were incorporated into the economy of the American par of the Portuguese Empire. I analyze the region's agricultural structures by looking at estancias (farms), charqueadas and the other family production units. The State of Rio Grande do Sul became an pivotal supplier food, such as charque and wheat, for internal market of Portuguese America. Dice obtained of Archive of Rio Grande do Sul for São Leopoldo region's to take finished which the zone of German colonization be based of sector outside market in favourable of Caio's Prado thesis.

abstract: This work presents research on practices in the day-ahead electric energy market, including replication practices and reliability coordinators used by some market operators to demonstrate the impact these practices have on market outcomes. The practice of constraint relaxations similar to those an Independent System Operator (ISO) might perform in day-ahead market models is implemented. The benefits of these practices are well understood by the industry; however, the implications these practices have on market outcomes and system security have not been thoroughly investigated. By solving a day-ahead market model with and without select constraint relaxations and comparing the resulting market outcomes and possible effects on system security, the effect of these constraint relaxation practices is demonstrated. Proposed market solutions are often infeasible because constraint relaxation practices and approximations that are incorporated into market models. Therefore, the dispatch solution must be corrected to ensure its feasibility. The practice of correcting the proposed dispatch solution after the market is solved is known as out-of-market corrections (OMCs), defined as any action an operator takes that modifies a proposed day-ahead dispatch solution to ensure operating and reliability requirements. The way in which OMCs affect market outcomes is illustrated through the use of different corrective procedures. The objective of the work presented is to demonstrate the implications of these industry practices and assess the impact these practices have on market outcomes. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 2016

Este tem trabalho tem por objeto a constituição da economia colonial no extremo sul da América portuguesa, em territórios que hoje compõem o estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Investiga-se como foram construídas suas estruturas produtivas mais típicas e como este espaço foi incorporado economicamente ao império português na América. Analisa-se a estrutura agrária através das estâncias, charqueadas e das unidades familiares da região de colonização alemã. O Rio Grande do Sul constituiu-se em importante região produtora de alimentos, charque e trigo, para o mercado interno da América portuguesa. Os dados obtidos através do Arquivo do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul para a região de São Leopoldo nos levou a concluir que a região de colonização alemã dependia do setor voltado ao comércio externo, indo, assim, a favor da tese de Caio Prado Jr. / This work addresses colonial society in the southern part of Portuguese America, in the territories that are the now the state of Rio Grande do Sul. I explore the ways in which this region's productive structures were constructed and how they were incorporated into the economy of the American par of the Portuguese Empire. I analyze the region's agricultural structures by looking at estancias (farms), charqueadas and the other family production units. The State of Rio Grande do Sul became an pivotal supplier food, such as charque and wheat, for internal market of Portuguese America. Dice obtained of Archive of Rio Grande do Sul for São Leopoldo region's to take finished which the zone of German colonization be based of sector outside market in favourable of Caio's Prado thesis.

Although researchers during the last 5 years have been doing a lot of study onemerging market innovations, and of which Frugal Innovation had its special place. They haveparticularly concentrated on this innovation type on how it re-emerged in the emergingcountries especially India and China and gave it new theoretical definition and a framework.Although this frugal innovation usage is constrained only to the firms located in those emergingmarkets and this innovation has not seen much application in the western smaller firms. In thisresearch our main idea is to develop a theoretical model on frugal innovation for the westernsmaller firms, where currently not much emphasis is given by the previous researchers in thiscontext. To achieve this we have been involved in an action research with a company lookingto enter an emerging market by using frugal innovation strategy for their product development.The output of this research is a theoretical framework model which is sequential and includesall the stages that a firm has to follow as part of a frugal innovation strategy having not muchknowledge of the emerging markets or its customers and who had to rely on external partnersin developing countries to successfully develop frugal innovations. We have also identifiedchallenges firms face in this context and listed out alternatives at each level of the strategy,finally concluded by listing out the future scope of research on frugal innovation in thisparticular area.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study examines how families judge and choose high schools. The review of literature relating to school choice provides a theoretical framework for the study. The review includes an international perspective including both developed countries such as United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, England and Wales, the Netherlands, Scotland and Sweden, and developing countries including India, Chile, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritania, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire and South Africa. The context within which school choice occurs in South Africa is examined. This context includes continued influence of Apartheid policies and current legislation including the South African Schools Act, The Admission Policy for Ordinary Schools Act and the Norms and Standards for Schools Funding. The literature review includes a critical analysis of the research, both Local and International, which addresses questions as to which factors are considered when judging and choosing schools, who makes the choice school, when the choice of school is made and which sources of information inform the choice of school. The empirical study examines the process of high school choice in urban Cape Town. The group areas Act and other Apartheid policies have created a situation where the respondents have a large number of high schools from which to chose. The selected area reflects diversity in Socio-Economic status, including both privately owned homes and council rental flats and houses. The study is limited to English medium or dual medium schools in the area. It includes both co-ed and single gender schools. / South Africa

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / This thesis interrogates the claim that resource-poor, rural land seekers can acquire land through the land market which constitutes the central mechanism of land redistribution in South Africa's market-based land reform programme. The study explores two key aspects in relation to this claim. Firstly, it provides a critique of the underlying assumptions prevalent in much of the current market-based land reform policy, as advocated by its national and international proponents, and the manner in which the market as a mechanism for land redistribution has been conceptualized and its outcomes envisaged. Secondly, it considers the extent to which this conceptualization - which it is argued, draws on idealized and abstracted notions of land market functioning - is realized and examines the extent to which the espoused outcomes of market-based land reform policy are aligned with or contradicted by the functioning of real markets and the experiences of resource-poor land seeking people in their attempts to engage in the land market with limited state support. The details of the market's operation are analysed, with a distinction made between the operational practice of real markets - based on direct evidence-based observation and degrees of policy abstraction and theoretical assumptions regarding how markets should or might operate. The study's methodological framework draws on an agrarian political economy perspective, as used by theorists such as Akram-Lodhi (2007) and Courville (2005), amongst others. This perspective enables a consideration of the various contexts and socially embedded processes involved in land transactions and the extent to which these are shaped and framed by the politics of policy-making. In line with this perspective, the study focuses on the social relations brought to bear on the acquisition of land and the way in which land markets operate. It is suggested that land is not solely viewed as an economic commodity by land-seekers. Furthermore, it was found that markets cannot be understood as neutral institutions in which participants are equal players. / South Africa

The thesis disserts about foreign market entrance of corporation Geodis. The first part is dedicated to corporation characterization. The base of the thesis is composed of the foreign markets activities, entrance to it, foreign competitors and business partners abroud. Marketing mix is also inscribed in detail. The last part is dedicated to possible future progress of Geodis.

Thesis (MSc. Agriculture (Agricultural Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / The study focused on the market participation of the smallholder sunflower farmers of Sekhukhune District in Limpopo Province of South Africa. A total of 100 smallholder sunflower farmers of Sekhukhune were randomly selected for the study. Data was gathered through the use of structured questionnaires with open-ended questions. The data was analysed using the Logistic Regression model on SPSS 26.0 (statistical package for social sciences). The probability of the smallholder sunflower farmers participating in markets was determined significantly by gender of household head, farm size, level of education, marketing experience, distance to the market, ownership of vehicle and stakeholder availability. Recommendations were made with regard to that of training, monitoring, funding, Government support, access to production land and the involvement of organizations with the smallholder sunflower farmers. Training should be provided for the smallholder sunflower farmers because farmers are always faced with new technology and market changes, there should be a budget that is put aside for the funding of the smallholder farmers, monitoring programs should be implemented in order to monitor the progress of the smallholder farmers, increased access to production land for farming, government support through financial and input support, smallholder farmers should get involved with organizations that can help them with training and funding, and the government should implement policies that are commodity based. Key words: smallholder farmers, market participation, Logistic Regression Model, sunflower, Limpopo province