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A strong trend in Swedish retail has been and is that an increased amount of trade is moved to external shopping malls. Several city lines are negatively affected and lose purchasing power when shopping malls are established and attract customers. But what sets a store in a mall apart from a store in the middle of the city? In this study, we will examine how the customer bases differ between two similar stores that are located in the city centre and the shopping mall. The purpose of the study is to gain a greater understanding of how the customer bases at two similar stores differ depending on whether they are located in a shopping mall versus the city centre. The work must be able to report differences and similarities between shopping mall and the city retail customer base, as well as whether there are differences in price elasticity. The work will create a greater understanding of how customers differ and thus lead to information that can be useful for companies regarding decision-making regarding location and customer focus. This will be done through a comparative analysis of price elasticity and customer behaviour between the two stores. The study is based on a comparative case study with quantitative data collection to answer the study's purpose. The specific case being studied is the optics chain where two of their stores are being studied. The two analysis units are located in the city centre and the shopping centre, respectively. The data material collected consists of sales reports from each store. Calculation of price elasticity based on the collected data material and information about customers are studied and analysed. The results show that the customers in the city centre are less price sensitive than the customers for the store located in the shopping centre. The analysis links this to a difference in age groups among customers. 15–59 years are of a larger proportion in the city centre, which is the group that is most often professional and has a greater purchasing power. Larger agglomeration that occurs in shopping malls is also linked to the result. Greater purchasing power could also be demonstrated when the more exclusive arch groups were sold with a larger share in the city centre. The study shows that the stores complement each other. / En stark trend inom svensk detaljhandel har varit och är att en ökad mängd av handeln förflyttas till externa köpcentrum. Flera stadskärnor blir negativt påverkade och förlorar köpkraft då köpcentrum etableras och dra till sig kunder. Men vad är det som skiljer kunderna i köpcentrum från en butik mitt inne i staden? I den här studien ska vi undersöka hur kundbaserna skiljer sig mellan två likadana butiker som är belägna i stadskärnan respektive köpcentrum. Studiens syfte är att få en större förståelse om hur kundbaserna hos två liknande butiker skiljer sig beroende på om de är lokaliserade i ett köpcentrum kontra stadskärna. Arbetet ska kunna redovisa skillnader och likheter mellan köpcentrum och stadshandelns kundbas, samt om skillnader i priselasticiteten förekommer. Arbetet ska skapa en större förståelse för hur kunderna skiljer sig åt och därmed medföra information som kan vara till nytta för företag gällande beslutsfattning kring lokalisering och kundfokus. Detta kommer att göras genom en jämförande analys av priselasticitet och kundbeteende mellan de två butikerna. Studien grundar sig på en komparativ fallstudie med kvantitativ datainsamling för att svara på studiens syfte. Det specifika fallet som studeras är optikkedja där två av deras butiker studeras. De två analysenheterna är lokaliserade i stadskärnan respektive köpcentrum. Insamlade datamaterialet består av försäljningsrapporter från respektive butik. Beräkning av priselasticitet utifrån det insamlade datamaterialet samt info kring kunderna studeras och analyseras. Resultatet visar att kunderna i stadskärnan är mindre priskänsliga än kunderna för butiken lokaliserad i köpcentrum. Analysen kopplar detta till en skillnad i åldersgrupper hos kunderna. 15–59 år är av större andel i stadskärnan vilket är den grupp som oftast är yrkessamma och har en större köpkraft. Även större agglomeration som förekommer i köpcentrum kopplas till resultatet. Större köpkraft kunde även påvisas då de exklusivare båggrupperna såldes med större andel i stadskärnan. Studien kommer framtill att butikerna kompletterar varandra.

本研究對中國大陸房地產市場設立需求及供給函數，並使用中國大陸2001 到2009 年的省級資料進行研究分析，以探討中國大陸房地產市場的所得彈性、價格彈性與貸款成數對中國大陸房地產市場供給與需求的影響。 經由實證估計出來的所得彈性值域為1.77 ~ 3.00，價格彈性值域為0.08 ~ -0.80。相較於過往的文獻與研究，估計到的彈性較高，顯現出即便中國大陸房價持續飆漲，民眾仍肯購置房產，且房價飆漲對於房地產市場的需求量影響有限，乃因民眾對於未來的經濟情勢持樂觀的態度。 而貸款成數方面，在貸放資金大增的環境下，對於中國大陸的房地產需求及供給市場大抵而言有顯著影響，而貸款成數的增加也使得房地產需求及供給量跟隨增加。 / The research constructed the demand and supply function for the market of China's real estate, and used the provincial data in China from 2001 to 2009 to analysis. Based on the information, we discussed the income elasticity and the price elasticity, and furthermore the impacts of the percentage of loans on the China's real estate market. According to the empirical estimate, the range of income elasticity was from 1.77 to 3.00, and for the price elasticity, it was from 0.08 to -0.80. Compare with those previous studies, the higher level of elasticity represented that although the real estate price continued soaring in China, people were still willing to purchase. Moreover, the soaring price had a limited influence in the demand of real estate market, and the main reason was that people were all optimistic about the future. To the percentage of loans, in this environment of the sharp increase in money lending, we found that it affect the demand and the supply market of real estate significantly, and with the relaxation of credit control, it led the demand and the supply of real estate to increase.

In this thesis, we analyze the impact of the decentralization of price and leadtime decisions made by the marketing and production departments, respectively, in a make-to-order firm. We first study a monopoly environment, and find that in the decentralized setting, the total demand generated is larger, leadtimes are longer, quoted prices are lower, and the firm profits are lower as compared to the centralized setting. We show that coordination can be achieved using a transfer price contract with bonus payments, where both departments receive a fraction of the total revenues generated as a bonus payment. In the second study, we extend this work to a duopoly environment, where two firms compete on the basis of their price and leadtime quotes in a common market. We find that under intense price competition, firms may suffer from a decentralized structure, particularly under high flexibility induced by high capacity, where revenue based sales incentives motivate sales/marketing for more aggressive price cuts resulting in eroding margins. We take the parameters of the demand models in the first two studies as constant, while estimating those parameters based on historical data is a very important problem in practice. In the last study of this thesis, we address the challenges encountered in estimating the price sensitivity of customers shifting focus to the passenger travel industry. We explore how to obtain better price elasticity estimates through an empirical study with an emphasis on the endogeneity problem, which arises as a result of the simultaneous determination of supply and demand. We show that if one does not account for endogeneity, price elasticities may induce an upward-sloping demand curve suggesting that high price produces high demand, or may be biased downward to the extent that elastic demand curves are incorrectly classified as inelastic. We show the improvement in price elasticities through an instrumental variable approach.

個人捐贈為教育、文化及公益慈善機構或團體的重要經費來源，目前我國於租稅上，提供捐贈者可扣抵其課稅所得的租稅誘因，相當於政府利用補貼的方式，降低了捐贈者的捐贈成本。但是否能有效達到激勵捐贈者的效果，則待實證研究分析。 本研究利用民國92年綜合所得稅申報資料分析，實證結果得知，慈善捐贈金額與可支配所得呈正向且顯著的關係；租稅價格變動對慈善捐贈金額變動有負向且顯著之影響，顯示目前政府的租稅政策能夠有效刺激捐贈，但針對高所得者價格彈性的有效性則降低。薪資所得佔可支配所得比率與捐贈金額呈正向之關係。納稅義務人的年齡越大、未婚、女性，較有慈善捐贈的意願。但納稅人申報扶養親屬人數較多及申報自用住宅購屋借款利息較多者，捐贈意願較低。最後，納稅義務人所在的地區也會影響其捐贈支出，隨著納稅人可支配所得增加，地域性的影響也逐漸減小。 / Individual charitable giving is an important source of finance for a wide variety of nonprofit organizations. Charitable contributions are deductible in determining taxable income; therefore, the current income tax system makes the price of charitable contributions less than the price of other goods and services. The deduction can be viewed as a tax subsidy. Whether the tax subsidy can stimulate charitable giving or not should be examined by empirical research. This study uses tax return data obtained from the Taiwan Government Finance and Tax Statistical Databank (for the year 2004). The results indicate that the income elasticity of charitable giving has positive and significant effect on charitable giving; while the tax price elasticity estimate is found to have a negative effect, except for the group of high income taxpayers. Beside price and income, salary to disposable income ratio varies with the giving. Female, married, and elder taxpayers are more likely to donate. However, a taxpayer who claims more deductions for dependents or primary residential house interests will be reluctant to give money to charities. The taxpayer’s registered permanent residence is found to have a strong influence on charitable giving. Nevertheless, as taxpayer’s disposable income increases, the regional factor is diminished gradually. The evidence presented in this study provides a useful foundation for the government to devise the future policy on the charitable deductions.

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Submitted by Marcus Lavorato (marcus.lavorato@fgv.br) on 2010-08-27T18:27:02Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação Mestrado Profissional - Marcus Lavorato - Versão Final.docx: 227127 bytes, checksum: f67a5b6b982cbe7333e06ab085f6206a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Gisele Gammaro(gisele.gammaro@fgv.br) on 2010-08-27T20:40:04Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação Mestrado Profissional - Marcus Lavorato - Versão Final.docx: 227127 bytes, checksum: f67a5b6b982cbe7333e06ab085f6206a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2010-08-30T12:23:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação Mestrado Profissional - Marcus Lavorato - Versão Final.docx: 227127 bytes, checksum: f67a5b6b982cbe7333e06ab085f6206a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-05-13 / This paper estimates the price elasticity demand for steel in Brazil from aggregated and disaggregated data of the steel industry. The results using disaggregated panel data suggest the existence of an aggregation bias in the estimation using aggregated data, and these bias would underestimate the price elasticity of the steel sector. In order to compare the relations between the price elasticities of long and short term, dynamic heterogeneous panel were estimated by Mean Group and Pooled Mean Group estimators. It’s important to highlight that, according to the author knowledge, this is the first study to use panel data estimation for demand price elasticity to steel products in Brazil, in a manner to control for the heterogeneity across different steel products. / Essa dissertação apresenta estimativas para a elasticidade-preço da demanda por aço no Brasil, a partir de dados agregados e desagregados da indústria siderúrgica. Os resultados das estimativas a partir do painel com dados desagregados sugerem que existe um viés de agregação nas estimativas já realizadas a partir de dados agregados, e esse viés subestimaria a elasticidade-preço do setor siderúrgico. Com a finalidade de comparar as relações entre as elasticidades-preços de curto e longo prazo foram estimados painéis heterogêneos dinâmicos, através de estimadores Mean Group (MG) e Pooled Mean Group (PMG). É importante ressaltar que, de acordo com o conhecimento do autor, este é o primeiro estudo a usar estimação em painel para estimação da elasticidade-preço da demanda por produtos siderúrgicos no Brasil, dessa forma, controlando a estimativa pela heterogeneidade entre os tipos de aço.

The thesis focuses on the influence of new natural gas sources on energy security in the USA. The new sources include mainly shale gas, but also tight gas and others. The main objective of the thesis is to evaluate the impact of changes in production and trade in gas on energy security and self-sufficiency of the USA. The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is theoretic and thus provides the frameworks for the following parts of the thesis. It focuses on the security concept in literature and in the papers of international energy agencies, e.g. IEA. For the purposes of the thesis, energy security is defined as the ability of a state to secure uninterrupted and stable supply of energy at a reasonable price of sufficiently diversified energy sources, which can be flexibly substituted among each other without additional costs by the end consumers. The second chapter concentrates on energy security in the USA, the development of energy legislation and the position of the United States in international comparison from this point of view. The third chapter deals with the technical background of production and its legislative status of the USA. To compare, it also addresses the production legislation in some EU countries. It follows up market implications of increased domestic production, specifically its profitability, changes in energy mix and in trading position of the USA in energy sources. The fourth chapter analyzes price impacts using change in domestic and foreign demand and supply in natural gas, including their price elasticity, and the price development itself. The fifth chapter summarizes, based on the findings from previous chapters, perspectives of the future development, mainly impacts on economy and potential export. The thesis comes to the main conclusion stating that the production from domestic sources shall have a positive impact on energy security not only in the USA, but also consecutively in other countries dependent on import of energy sources through higher diversification of source countries. Better available commodity may contribute to greater price competitiveness of domestic products on international markets and help to substitute coal with gas in energy mix. The biggest risk is seen in the low gas price that makes the production economically unprofitable. However, the gas price should maintain the level which would allow for profit of the producers, reasonable price for the consumers and increased level of energy security thanks to further development of the production technology, its better price availability and increased demand on cleaner energy sources.

This master thesis deals with the issue of special discounts. Assessments and proposals of successful special offers are based on the analysis of demand price elasticity. The key attribute of this work is the knowledge of product’s price elasticity of demand. The analysis of price elasticity of demand is based on real data. The paper is terminated with suggestions on creating and planning special discounts developed in consideration of the retailers’ specific goals.

Product pricing is an always present issue and there are a number of different traditional pricing strategies that can be applied depending on the situation. With an increasing amount of available data, as well as new improved methods to take advantage of this information, companies are presented with the opportunity to become more data driven in their decision making. The aim of this this thesis is to examine the possibilities of using statistical machine learning methods, more specifically neural networks, to predict what effect price changes have on sales numbers, and to identify what features are of importance when making these predictions. This would allow us to use a more data driven pricing strategy. The work is done in collaboration with Kjell \& Company, a Swedish consumer electronics retailer.  The results of this thesis shows that no predictions regarding sales can be done with any meaningful accuracy using the limited features available at the time of this thesis. More work has to be done in order to identify and quantify more value contributing features. Due to the limitations of the results presented here, no conclusions can be made regarding applying neural networks for these types of problems in general, based on the results of this report. However, the author still believes that it is a promising area of research, and that with a greater domain knowledge, interesting results could be achieved using similar methods. / Prissättning är ett alltid närvarande problem, och det finns ett antal olika traditionella strategier för prissättning som kan användas beroende på situationen. I samband med att mer och mer data blir tillgänglig, samt att nya metoder som kan användas för att ta tillvara på informationen läggs fram, presenteras företag med möjligheter att bli mer datadrivna i sitt beslutsfattande. Syftet med den här rapporten är att undersöka möjligheterna att använda statiska maskininlärningsmetoder, specifikt neurala nätverk, för att förutsäga vilken påverkan prisändringar har på försäljning samt vilka faktorer som är viktiga för att kunna göra dessa förutsägningar. Detta skulle innebära att man kan en mer datadriven prisstrategi. Arbetet görs i sammarbete med Kjell \& Company, en svensk butikskedja med fokus på hemelektronik. Resultaten av det här projektet tyder inte på det går att göra förutsägningar med någon meningsfull noggrannhet med den data som var tillgänglig. Mer arbete måste göras för att identifiera och kvantifiera nya parametrar, föreslagsvis parametrar med större koppling till värdeskapande faktorer. Baserat på de begränsade resultaten från detta arbete, går det inte att dra några slutsatser angående användandet av neurala nätverk i denna typ av problem i allmänhet. Dock anser författaren att det är ett lovande område med stora möjligheter, och att man med bättre domänkunskap borde kunna få fram intressanta resultat med liknande metoder.