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The thesis attempts to test basic assumptions of religious economy model (REM) in the Korean context where a recent expansion of fortunetelling occurs. The thesis pays attention to both the supply-side and the demand-side factors of fortunetelling and then explain why the demand-side factors are more important for a better understanding of the popularity of fortunetelling in contemporary Korea. The supply-side factors such as religious regulation, competition, and religious freedom have not worked in Korea in the same way that REM observed in the Western context. Today the Korean religious market faces two unexpected phenomena: one is the popularity of fortunetelling culture, and the other is a slightly decreasing membership of Protestantism, which REM regards as the most competitive religion in religious market. Since the 1980s, traditional values of fortunetelling provided by mudangs or yeoksulgas has been reevaluated and reconstructed in various aspects. Based on the results of field research on participants in Korean fortunetelling, the thesis shows how and why the participants consume traditional fortuntelling service rather than prophetic functions of official religions. Conclusively, the thesis suggests that REM should take into consideration the demand-side factors more importantly when it tries to explain a Korean religious society.

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The examination of the topic of market risk management in Islamic finance is a complex endeavour. At a basic level, the subject matter, being multifarious in a manner that mixes religion and economics, requires the conjoining of religious faith with scientific objectivity in order to ascertain the truth contained in the scripture as it pertains to the Mua’amalat (dealings between individuals) matter of entering into financial contracts with others to manage market risk exposures. Moreover, the complexity is compounded due to the need to disentangle the ambiguity that has beset the discourse on the topic due to historically being mostly legal-centric with a focus on debating the contractual elements rather than attempting to comprehensively address the myriad issues that relate to market risk management in contemporary contexts. These issues, for the most part, revolve around the reliance on market risk transfer as a strategy and derivative contracts, with monetary underlying variables, as tools to implement that strategy. Thus, the journey of investigating the rationale, permissibility, and usage of derivative hedging instruments for market risk management in Islamic finance is, essentially, an undertaking that seeks to engage in a wide-ranging and multi-layered examination of the subject matter as well as the exploration of new areas of relative significance. This, in turn, and subsequent to the analysis of data generated from documentary sources and forty-one interviews which were collected from numerous sources within four locations, led to the elaboration of the contention that market risk management through derivative instruments for legitimate hedging purposes should not be prohibited in the Shari’a, albeit with certain conditions that limit unproductive behaviour. The basis for the aforementioned contention is built on the fact that market risk management has undergone a paradigm shift in how exposures are identified and measured as well as in the emergence of innovative tools which can result in a better ability to address the opportunities and challenges facing institutions that provide value to society (i.e., the real sector). Moreover, there is little substantive evidence that proves that the utilization of derivative instruments for hedging purposes leads its users to partaking in transactions that circumvent the prohibition of Riba (usury), Gharar (excessive uncertainty), and Maysir (gambling). In effect, the derivative instruments used for the management of market risks are not only disassociated from usurious debt transactions, they are also transacted in the financial markets in a manner that is transparent to all the parties involved. Along the same lines, the prohibition of Maysir, which is apparently an overarching concern, should be conceptualized with the focus on the proscription of the act of gambling, not necessarily the instruments (e.g., derivatives) and/or any particular framework (e.g., zero-sum arrangements). Ultimately, one should be cognizant of the fact that the true intentions of Islamic jurisprudence in Mua’amalat (as a manifestation of divine guidance) always centre on human well-being. Accordingly, the religious prohibitions are, in essence, within the realm of acts that adversely affect human well-being. This is a constant theme that is present throughout the thesis; and is one that exists at the heart of a wider aspiration of its adoption to a greater extent than is currently present in the Islamic finance discourse.

This thesis is the formulation of a theological response to the modern economic market. It argues for a Two Pillars paradigm for the economic market, whereby covenant and contract serve together as the two “pillars” that uphold economic order. The modern market is derived and developed upon the legal contract that supports and governs economic activities. Non-contractible assertions in the market remain background presuppositions, of which enactment depends largely on the individual economic agent. In the Two Pillars paradigm, I argue that the theological covenant and the legal contract are equally significant assertions that interact and complement each other to uphold a well-balanced economic market. They are both essential in deriving a market that promotes genuine human relationship, freedom and economic justice. In this study, the covenant foundation of society and its economic significance are rediscovered and examined. The universality and relevance of the covenant concept for economic order is explored, and the covenant compared and contrasted with the contract to show their distinctiveness, significance and interaction in the market. The Two Pillars paradigm is then presented and illustrated through the example of long-term employment arrangements to demonstrate its practicability and potential use as a dialogical framework to examine other economic relationships. Finally, market fundamentals including market motif, limits, assumptions, morality and regulations are explored in dialogue with the Two Pillars response to economics. This study should appeal to a wider audience beyond the ecclesiastical community, placing it in the arena of public theology. It draws upon the thoughts of economists to examine the Two Pillars paradigm in a wider context. The result is an interdisciplinary study offering a theological-based paradigm that addresses the situation of the modern market in a fundamental and practical way.

This thesis discusses the criticism of the businessman of the 1920s from the twenties through the 1960s.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Bryan W. Schurle / The objective of this thesis is to develop a simulation model to determine the probability of achieving a market share goal. Two different simulation models were developed and compared allowing the author to select the best model. The first simulation model developed used the current market share as the mean and the standard deviation of historical market share as the standard deviation. So, a market share of 31.00% and a standard deviation of 3.88% were used in the simulation. When these values were simulated the results determined the probability of achieving the market share goal of 33%. The simulation results indicated that only 12 out of 100 observations resulted in market share greater than the goal. Therefore, there is a 12% probability of achieving or exceeding the market share goal based on the current market share and historical market share standard deviation. To predict future market share, a regression model was used to determine the impact of factors on market share. The regression model was used to forecast an estimate of market share. This forecasted share of 31.13% was used as the mean and 3.45%, the standard error of the model, was used to generate a second simulation model. The simulation results indicated that 26 of 100 observations resulted in market share greater than the goal of 33%. This indicates that there is a 26% probability of achieving or exceeding the market share goal based on results using regression to predict future market share and variability in market share. The second simulation model generated from the market share forecast and standard error from the regression model produced the better results. When using a regression model, it resulted in a higher estimate for meeting the goal. The addition of independent variables that impact share explained more of the variability around the projected mean than the historical model did.

Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) has been the central assumption of financial modelling in the previous decades. At its core, it is a statement about the efficient incorporation of available information in the prices of assets, rendering each price a 'true' representation of the asset's intrinsic value. The notion of informationally efficient financial markets has been, since its formulation, entrenched in the very core of our understanding of how asset pricing works, yet, with ever so increasing frequency, when subjected to empirical scrutiny, it fails to prove its explanatory and predictive prowess. New academic strands emerged have emerged as a result, attempting to explain those empirical short-comings, with rather mixed results. The new models and theories often either explain a singular anomaly, rather than pro- viding a generalized and consistent theoretical framework, or are exclusive with the general state of financial markets, which tends to be efficient and rational. This thesis shall explore the relationship of information and financial mar- kets, taking into account developments that have occurred since the inception of the EMH. Subsequently it will present a new theoretical model for asset pric- ing and ipso facto the efficiency of financial markets, based on meta-analysis of information, along...

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