O estudo tem por objetivo contribuir na construção de modelo econômico de precificação sustentável, mais especificamente na atividade do agronegócio do fumo, explicando a percepção dos fumicultores e empresas fumageiras da região Sul do Brasil sobre o valor da remuneração do trabalho no custo da safra negociada entre as partes, com vistas à minimização dos conflitos existentes. Para atingir tal objetivo foi utilizada uma pesquisa exploratória para a interpretação dos conceitos, natureza e mensuração do modelo negocial vigente, assim como a revisão e análise dos principais indicadores de mensuração a ele relacionados e a análise dos modelos de precificação existentes na literatura que forneceram o arcabouço necessário à construção do modelo proposto. Em um segundo momento, com base nos modelos de precificação analisados, foi identificado o modelo de precificação "K" (Markup) como a melhor alternativa para o modelo construído. Simulou-se, através de modelos econométricos, as relações entre as variáveis dos fatores de produção e do preço de venda do fumo industrializado pelas indústrias fumageiras, extraindo-se correlações entre elas, formadoras da base do modelo construído. A seguir, são apresentados dois ensaios de modelos de precificação propostos sendo definido o modelo construído, para o qual se utilizou as variáveis de custo da mão-de-obra de terceiros (safristas), mão-de-obra do agricultor proprietário da terra e demais custos fixos e variáveis para a composição do custo de produção da safra e do custo de oportunidade sustentável, sendo este suportado pela teoria do Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). Com base na teoria e nos resultados obtidos com a aplicação prática do modelo nos dados oriundos da pesquisa, foram extraídas algumas conclusões que definem o modelo construído como o mais apropriado para a precificação da safra de fumo que permite minizar os conflitos negociais entre os atores desse elo da cadeia produtiva. Observa-se que o modelo construído tende a eliminar os conflitos negociais entre os fumicultores e industriais fumageiras, visando a preservar a renda dos agricultores pela inserção no modelo de precificação do custo de oportunidade do agricultor como um prêmio de risco baseado no CAPM, proporcionando a permanência dos mesmos na atividade fumageira, além da possibilidade de utilização como ferramenta de minimização dos recursos utilizados para a preservação da rentabilidade do setor. Finalmente, conclui-se que este trabalho traz uma efetiva contribuição ao estudo de modelos econômicos de precificação no agronegócio, mais estreitamente na atividade do fumo. / The survey aims at contributing for the construction of an economic model of sustainable precification, more specifically in the tobacco agribusiness, explaining the tobacco farmers' perceptions and the tobacco companies at the Southern region in Brazil on the amount of the remuneration of the work on the cost of the crop negotiated between the parties aiming at the minimization of the existing conflicts. In order to reach this goal, it was used a exploratory research for the interpretation of concepts, nature and measurement of the ruling business model, as well as the review and analysis of the main indicators of related measurement and the analysis of the precification models in the literature which supplied the fundamentals necessary for the construction of the proposed model. Secondly, based in the precification models analyzed, it was identified the precification model "K" (Mark-up) as the best alternative for the constructed model. Through econometric models, it was simulated the relations between the variables of production factors and the selling price of the tobacco industrialized by the tobacco industries, extracting the correlations between them, the base formers of the constructed model. Next, two essays of proposed precification models are presented and it was used two variables: cost of third parties manpower, landowner manpower, and other fixed and variable costs for the composition of the crop production cost and the sustainable opportunity cost, the latter being supported by the Capital Asset Pricing Model -CAPM. Based in the theory and results obtained with the practical application of the model on the data from the research, some conclusions were obtained, defining the constructed model as the most appropriate for the tobacco crop precification, allowing the minimization of business conflicts between the actors of this link of the productive chain. It is observed that the constructed model tends to eliminate the business conflicts between tobacco farmers and tobacco industries, aiming at preserving the farmers' income by the insertion in the cost precification model of the farmer as a risk premium based in the CAPM, propitiating their permanence in the tobacco activity, besides the possibility of its utilization as a minimization tool of the resources used for the preservation of the sector profitability. Finally, it is concluded that this work brings an effective contribution to the study of economic models of precification in agribusiness, more strictly in the tobacco activity.

Data for this study were age-adjusted linear scores on all cows scored between 1980 and 1993. Lifetime production information on these cows and their herdmates was used to calculate Relative Net Income adjusted for opportunity cost (RNIOC) for the 2,249,835 cows with an 84 month herdlife opportunity. The effect of inbreeding was analyzed using both a fixed and animal model, with little difference in results. Inbreeding depressed RNIOC by $12.69 in a fluid market and $11.53 in a manufacturing market per 1% increase in inbreeding. Addition of somatic cell information in the profit function had little effect. Heritabilities of profit functions were .16 and .14 for a fluid and manufacturing market, respectively. Animal model estimates of inbreeding depression were +.16 days, -6.7 days and -5.1 days for age at first freshening (AFF), days of productive life (DPL) and days in milk (TDIM), respectively. Inbreeding decreased first lactation mature equivalent milk, fat, and protein by 23.7 kg, .85 kg, and .76 kg, respectively and lifetime milk, fat, and protein production by 176.9 kg, 6.4 kg, 5.6 kg, respectively per 1% increase in inbreeding. Inbreeding had little effect on conformation traits. Effects of inbreeding were cumulative, exacting a larger effect on lifetime profit functions than on individual traits, when expressed as a percent of additive standard deviation. This study gives evidence that though not alarming, inbreeding has a deleterious effect on the lifetime performance of dairy cattle. / Master of Science

This research analyzes private and social costs of forest conservation in Yaque del Norte watershed, DR. It calculates private costs as average annual income from farming activities and social costs as the externalities from erosion and CO2 emissions. Social cost estimates are based on the difference in erosion and CO2 between conserved forest and other land use categories. The effect of soil erosion on the wellbeing of people is measured by its effect on reduced space at Tavera dam for water availability to generate electricity and to irrigate agricultural lands downstream. The social cost of increased annual carbon emission from potential land use change is estimated using IPCC default emission factors and social cost of carbon estimates. Private costs are inferred from a nonlinear binary response model that estimates the relative importance of factors affecting forest conservation decisions of households. Results show that payment level, measured through rental value, is not significant for landholders' decisions to sign a PES contract. Annual cropland is the most profitable land use in the area. Other important, but less profitable, land covers are pasture, coffee and managed forest. Cropland also generates the highest cost for society in terms of erosion and CO2 emissions. The comparison of private and social costs shows that only livestock generates a social cost that exceeds average private income. If forest conservation were to be justified based on social benefits, the analysis must include a more comprehensive assessment of what people value from conserved forest in YNW, such as the effect of erosion for water treatment costs. Any proposal to retain forests social benefits, such as REDD+ initiative, should take into account the high cost forgone by forest owners when deciding the distribution of benefits of carbon sequestration. / Master of Science / Environmental services generate benefits for both private and public entities, which increases the complexity of calculating optimal levels for payment for environmental services (PES). A pilot PES project in the Yaque del Norte watershed of the Dominican Republic is an excellent example of this complexity; with benefits from upland forest conservation accruing to a hydroelectric company, a water supply company, and society at large. Reducing soil erosion through forest conservation can preserve dam capacity for hydro-electric power generation, preserve water quality and lower treatment costs, and reduce the global economic costs of CO₂ emissions. This study evaluates the socio-economic costs of forestland conservation in the Yaque del Norte catchment. The social benefits of carbon stored under forest land are compared to benefits under alternative land uses. In addition, forest land benefits from erosion prevention are estimated using a Universal Soil Loss Equation. Calculated benefits from forestland conservation are then compared to landuse opportunity cost estimates generated through a farm-level survey in the area. Study results show that the opportunity cost of forest conservation in the Yaque del Norte is high; ranging from between RD$10,000 and RD$200,000 per hectare per year. If society values carbon and soil retention as the direct benefits drawn from conserved forest, only lands with low very opportunity costs will be conserved. However, inclusion of the indirect external benefits of forestland conversion suggests that in many cases forest conservation generates greater social benefits than the private benefits associated with alternative land uses from conversion. PES payment levels of RD$5,000/ha/yr that internalize these external social benefits to forest land holders appear to be sufficient to preserve a significant share of current land and generate net social benefits. Further, part of the costs of these PES payments can be borne by hydro-electric and water companies, as they benefit directly from forest land conservation.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:36:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RidalvoMAO_TESE.pdf: 3012875 bytes, checksum: f4ffef2e215903a0c0f94266c9f9e251 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-30 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / Access is a problem of higher education in Brazil that has existed since the formalization of this has occurred since the installation of the Portuguese court in Brazil in 1808. Only 10% of young people between 18 and 24 years of age attending this level of education in 2000, arriving in 2010 just 15%, far from that determined the National Education Plan in 2001, triple that percentage by the year 2010. In addition, a majority of seats of public HEIs is populated by students from the private network, especially in high-demand courses. In this context, this study aims to identify the costs related to the trajectories of students who were successful in the vestibular UFRN editions from 2006 to 2010. Presents an overview of higher education in Brazil, a brief history of vestibular, as well as new forms of access, and some of the policies to expand such access, highlighting the argument Inclusion UFRN. Focusing on the theme of the paper presents the concepts of opportunity costs and social. After collecting data through a questionnaire and consultation of databases COMPERVE was developed to search for a descriptive and analytical, with the participation of 3,995 students, of whom 1642 (41.1%) had completed secondary education in schools public, and 2,078 (52%) in private schools. The profile indicates that 90% are single, about 50% are 21 years of age, are white and female. In the course of preparation for college entrance exams, 80% chose the course during or after completion of the last year of high school, and almost 70% said they had started preparing at that time. Findings related to the costs involved with this preparation indicate that, in most cases there were school fees and disbursements and workshops, and the purchase of books and other materials, with parents primarily responsible for this cost, the amount disbursed each month was up $ 300 for 64% of respondents and only 7% of them exceeded $ 1,000, the major non-financial costs were characterized by the following resignations: job opportunities (24%) or temporary work (20%) courses of languages (26%), leisure activities (48%), leisure travel (43%), and parties and / or shows (54%). Of social investments by the government, stand out in the tax waiver scholarships for study in private institutions, grant exemption from the registration fee of vestibular, the preparatory courses UFRN, and seminars by COMPERVE / UFRN with networks of high school. From the junction of the opportunity costs (private costs) and social costs (public costs), a new concept: the social opportunity cost, which measures the combined efforts of families and government to finance the opportunity to access higher education of an individual. This concept can and should be incorporated as a strategic vector for the sake of democratic university, which reflects the social model that is sought / O acesso ? um problema do ensino superior no Brasil que existe desde a formaliza??o deste, ocorrida ap?s a instala??o da corte portuguesa no pa?s, em 1808. Somente 10% dos jovens entre 18 e 24 anos de idade frequentavam esse n?vel de ensino no ano 2000, chegando em 2010 a apenas 15%, muito distante do que determinava o Plano Nacional de Educa??o em 2001: triplicar aquele percentual at? o ano 2010. Al?m disso, a maioria das vagas das IES p?blicas ? preenchida por alunos provenientes da rede privada, principalmente nos cursos de alta demanda. Nesse contexto, o presente estudo objetiva identificar os custos relacionados com as trajet?rias dos estudantes que obtiveram sucesso no vestibular da UFRN nas edi??es de 2006 a 2010. Apresenta uma retrospectiva do ensino superior no Brasil, um breve hist?rico do vestibular, bem como das novas formas de acesso, e algumas das pol?ticas de amplia??o desse acesso, destacando o Argumento de Inclus?o da UFRN. Focando o tema central do trabalho, s?o apresentados os conceitos de custos de oportunidade e sociais. Os dados dessa pesquisa, de car?ter descritivo e anal?tico, foram coletados por meio de um question?rio eletr?nico e de consultas aos bancos de dados da COMPERVE, com a participa??o de 3.995 alunos, dos quais 1.642 (41,1%) cursaram o ensino m?dio em escolas da rede p?blica, e 2.078 (52%) em escolas da rede privada. O perfil indica que 90% s?o solteiros; cerca de 50% tem at? 21 anos de idade, s?o de cor branca e do sexo feminino. Na trajet?ria de prepara??o para o vestibular, 80% escolheram o curso durante ou ap?s a conclus?o do ?ltimo ano do ensino m?dio, e quase 70% afirmaram ter iniciado a prepara??o nessa mesma ?poca. Descobertas relacionadas aos custos envolvidos com essa prepara??o apontam que: na maioria dos casos houve desembolsos com mensalidades escolares e cursinhos, e com a aquisi??o de livros e outros materiais, sendo os pais os principais respons?veis por esse custeio; o valor desembolsado mensalmente foi de at? R$ 300 para 64% dos respondentes e, para apenas 7% destes ultrapassou R$ 1.000; os principais custos n?o financeiros se caracterizaram pelas seguintes ren?ncias: oportunidades de empregos (24%) ou trabalhos tempor?rios (20%); frequentar cursos de idiomas (26%); atividades de lazer (48%); viagens de lazer (43%); e festas e/ou shows (54%). Dos investimentos sociais por parte do governo, destacam-se a ren?ncia fiscal na concess?o de bolsas de estudo em IES privadas, a concess?o de isen??o de taxa de inscri??o do vestibular, os cursinhos preparat?rios da UFRN, e a realiza??o de semin?rios pela COMPERVE/UFRN com as redes de ensino m?dio. A partir da jun??o dos custos de oportunidade (custos privados) com os custos sociais (custos p?blicos), surge um novo conceito: o de custo social de oportunidade, que mede o esfor?o conjunto das fam?lias e do governo para o financiamento da oportunidade de acesso ao ensino superior de um indiv?duo. Esse conceito pode e deve ser incorporado como um vetor estrat?gico para a causa da universidade democr?tica, que reflete o modelo de sociedade que se busca

This study examines the impact of the opportunity cost of urban land on urban growth. Based on prices, costs and productivity data on agricultural commodities at county levels, the opportunity cost of land was measured by the weighted revenue, cost, and government payment per acre of farm lands. Aggregating county data to metropolitan area levels, a panel data for 269 metropolitan areas from 1978-2000 were constructed. This study found that, as predicted by the theory, cities grow slower when revenue increases or cost decrease in the area. The impact of commodity program payment was also examined. Our results show that price shocks and agricultural subsidies do have an instantaneous impact on urban growth by a ecting the opportunity cost of urban land.

Several Swedish sawmill groups have recently developed product-costing systems to possibly compensate for diminishing production knowledge in recently centralized market organizations. The concept of product costs is challenging in sawmilling, since production is of a joint type – each log typically yields many products. The newly developed costing systems rely on traditional accounting-based methods and are of little use in decision-making because the resulting cost figures do not normally estimate actual cost changes. This thesis develops an alternative, theoretically defendable method based on linear programming, and tests it on a pine sawmill. Computer simulations are compared with traditional methods, and to analyze the effects of managing the salesmen by the product costs of the suggested method. The thesis relies on the joint-cost accounting discourse from the 1980s, which was abandoned before any essential application was found. This application has now been found through changes in the sawmill industry, and the discourse is here revived practically and theoretically. The sawmills are modeled with relative capacity restrictions and with constraints on the flexibility of their timber supply. Sales decisions based on product costs from the suggested method seem to successively improve company profit. To be successful, the product costs have to be recalculated regularly. Analyses indicate that with flexibility in purchasing timber and a low cost difference between buying scarce products and selling surplus products externally, the necessary length of the recalculation period and the usefulness of the suggested method both increase markedly.

none

No description available.

This dissertation consists of three chapters that estimate the elasticities regarding price and time in trade and household production. Chapters 1 and 2 estimate price elasticities. Chapter 1 estimates the one-factor-one-price elasticity of substitution (OOES)—or how the percentage change in the quantity of one good responds to the percentage change in the price (of itself or another good)—in an international trade context. Chapter 2 estimates the two-factor-one-price elasticity of substitution (TOES)—or the difference of percentage changes between two quantities with respect to the percentage change in the price of one good—in the context of household food production. Chapter 3 estimates the elasticity of export quantity and value with respect to delays in the time it takes to load or unload products at US ports. Chapter 1 estimates the price elasticities in agricultural trade. Armington elasticities, the elasticity of substitution between goods from different countries, are key parameters in agricultural trade policy evaluation and welfare calculation. We estimate Armington elasticities for a selected basket of 38 agricultural commodities in 5 categories by compiling a sample of 118 countries' production and trade flows. Following and extending Feenstra et al. (2018), we estimate both the micro-elasticity of substitution between foreign sources of imports and the macro-elasticity of substitution between home and imported products at the commodity level. The median of the micro- and macro-elasticities are 6.4 and 5.0, respectively. Meat products have the lowest micro- and macro-elasticities, with the micro-elasticities ranging from 4.2 (pork) to 5.0 (poultry) and the macro-elasticities ranging from 2.9 (pork) to 4.5 (beef). Crops products have the widest range of Armington elasticities, with micro-elasticities ranging from 2.5 (pigeon peas) to 90.3 (peanuts), and macro-elasticities ranging from 1.2 (pigeon peas) to 20.1 (peanuts). In line with the literature, we find that 75 percent of the agricultural commodities have numerically smaller macro-elasticities than micro-elasticities, even though only 6 of them (pork, poultry, corn, peanuts, apples, and peppers) are statistically smaller at the 5 percent level. We explore the robustness of our estimates by slicing the sample into separate periods and importing countries. Finally, we discuss the policy implications of our estimates on predicting trade due to tariff changes and understanding welfare gains from agricultural trade. Chapter 2 estimates the goods-time elasticity of substitution (EOS), the responsiveness of the difference between money and time in household production for change of opportunity cost of time (OCT). This chapter bridges the gap between literature that directly and indirectly estimates the goods-time EOS in household production. Inspired by the studies in environmental economics, we argue the opportunity cost of time in household production not only depends on wage but life-cycle dynamics and household demographics as well. We proceed with the estimation by two strategies: direct estimation of the household production, and the demand-supply approach borrowed from Feenstra's (1994) research on trade elasticities. Both strategies report the estimates are much larger than unit and closer to previous indirect estimates. We show our results are robust when applied to Aguiar and Hurst's (2007) sample, in which they employed the indirect estimation. The larger goods-time EOS indicates policies aiding households with money for groceries like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are more sufficient, since money for certain groceries can more easily substitute for time in making meals. Chapter 3 explores the elasticity of trade with respect to port congestion time. U.S. ports have struggled with significant supply chain congestion during the past two years. Anecdotal evidence shows the increasing port congestion brought substantial losses to U.S. exports, particularly agricultural shipments. However, previous studies are limited by the availability of explicit data on congestion times for unloading. This study first quantifies the association between port congestion days and U.S. agricultural exports, using monthly export data of top U.S. ports and their monthly average container and bulk shipments delays. We find one extra day delay of container shipments decreases U.S. agricultural monthly exports by 5 percent in quantity or 2 percent in value on average. That amounts to $63 million in monthly loss of export value on average, and Western U.S. ports are responsible for 69 percent of this total. The effect is most pronounced for the Western U.S. exports of bulk commodities, where congestion results in a 9 percent loss in quantity or 8 percent loss in value. For Eastern U.S., the most salient effect is on consumer commodities, with a loss of 3 percent in quantity and 3 percent in value. For the Gulf region, the largest effect is on bulk commodities, with a loss of 4 percent in quantity and 5 percent in value. The impacts of congestion on bulk shipments are both statistically and economically insignificant. However, we find some evidence that exporters substitute bulk cargoes with containers when bulk shipment delays at ports increase. The substitution of container shipments with bulk shipments, however, is unlikely. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation explores price and time factors in trade and household production. All three chapters estimate the percentage change in a variable for the percentage change to some other variables (i.e., an elasticity). Chapter 1 estimates the elasticities in international agricultural trade. The core concept the first chapter relies on is the one-factor-one-price elasticity of substitution (OOES), or how the percentage change in the quantity of one good responds to the percentage change in the price (of itself or another good). Chapter 2 estimates the two-factor-one-price elasticity of substitution (TOES)—or the difference of percentage changes between two quantities with respect to the percentage change in the price of one good—in household food production context. The third chapter estimate the responsiveness of export quantity/value to time delays at port. The first chapter examines how the demand for agricultural product imports will respond to price change. The study quantifies the responsiveness at two levels—micro and macro—using the Armington model, in which the product from each country is considered as a "variety". The micro-level elasticities capture the import demand responsiveness for a country of variety, say, Australian beef, when beef import price from Australia changes; The macro-elasticities capture the import demand responsiveness when, say, beef import prices from all countries change. We estimate both elasticities for a basket of 38 commodities, to shed light on policies such as "trade war" and multilateral trade agreements. In the median, one percent increase in price from a country of variety decreases 6.4 percent of demand for it; one percent decrease of price from all countries increases import demand by 5.0 percent. The second chapter studies the substitutability between money and time in household production, or the goods-time elasticity of substitution (EOS), which captures the percentage change of money (for grocery purchases) relative to time (for food preparation and cleaning up, etc.) for the change of price of time. But what is the price of time in food production? Economists use the term opportunity cost of time (OCT), the highest value that household could spend their time on if not on food production. While most economists agree that OCT correlates with wage, this chapter argues the correlation differs by life cycle and household characteristics. What's more, OCT should also include non-wage factors like household characteristics. Maybe households with children in their middle age just value time with children more than the market wage. In this case, the value of time with children, instead of wage, could be their OCT in food production. Based on these arguments, the study estimates the goods-time EOS is much larger than in previous studies. The magnitude of goods-time EOS has strong policy implications for policies like the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides lower-income households money to buy groceries. If money and time are more substitutable, SNAP benefits will be more sufficient since money for certain groceries can more easily substitute for time in making meals. If goods-time EOS is small, however, SNAP benefits will be less sufficient, since the groceries are hardly substitutable for time in food production, and households still need to input a significant amount of time. The third chapter considers the time factor in international trade. It leverages the bottleneck of the international supply chain, port delays, in past years to study the elasticity of trade with respect to port congestion time. The study focuses on U.S. agricultural exports of bulk shipments and container shipments. We estimate that each day of container shipment delay is associated with 5 percent decrease in export quantity and 2 percent decrease in export value. Compared with the estimates of micro-elasticities in Chapter 1, one-day delay of container shipment is equivalent to imposing extra 0.8 percent of tariff on U.S. agricultural products in the median. The effect of bulk shipment delay is muted. Chapter 3, combined with Chapter 1, sheds light on the price of time in agricultural trade.

Subsidies to professional sports teams remain a controversial issue, and in most European countries these subsidies have decreased over the past decades. However, in Sweden they are a common occurrence, municipalities are giving generous amounts of money to their local team. To justify these subsidies, proponents of sports team claim their great economic impact on the local area. Nevertheless, in the sport economic literature, most of the researchers cannot find any positive impact and some of them even find negative impact from a hosting a professional sports team. This study will give an explanation and extension to the earlier articles about sport economics written in Sweden by Emelie Värja (2014) and Lars Behrenz (2009). In this essay we will present two models. The idea behind our first model is to investigate if professional sport events should be considered as a substitute to other leisure activities. This model indicates that there is a substitution effect between ice hockey games and cinema admissions in Sweden. The outcome from our other model which studies the condominium market strongly contradicts the generous sport subsidies given by Swedish municipalities. The results indicate that the presence of a professional ice hockey team lowers the condominiums prices.