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After its accession to the WTO, under the open market for agricultural products and reducing domestic support, Taiwan needs to import brown rice of at least 144,000 metric tons, following the rule of minimum access in order to meet the requirements¡¦ of the WTO. To protect farmer¡¦s interest and agriculturalecology, the Taiwan government continues to implement paddy land utilization adjustment policy and price guarantee policy, which sustains government supplement to rice but it fails to reach the good of price stability in the market. This means all related policies still have room for improvement. In recent years, new rounds of negotiation for agriculture under the WTO framework have begun and, due to the pressure of negotiation, it is unavoidable to implement import tariff for rice. Thus, Taiwan¡¦s agricultural sectors are under the threat of a collapse, and to maintain the development of rice farming industry under the WTO regulations will be a very important issue. Also, the government should take more aggressive and prospective measures to overcome the current difficulties of the rice industry. This paper will explore rice policies in Taiwan and propose on improvement with consideration for a long term agricultural policy. Taiwan implements paddy land utilization adjustment policy for the preparation of tariff systems. Although this will meet the WTO regulation in the short term, it would experience risks and challenge, in the future. Currently, alternative plans are not available and what is suggested in this paper basically follows the American FSRIA and Japanese rice stability policies to reach a balance between government and farmers under the WTO regulation, trying to eliminate market intervention and reduce government¡¦s financial burden. With the decline of rice price and rent, the rice industry will develop towards a large scale of management and rice competitiveness will be upgraded, which will then increase farmer¡¦s revenue even when subsidies are reduced.

This study aims to examine the empirical evidence on the relationship between price and quantity/demand relation in the hot yoga market in Taipei. While doing so, this study also tries to generate awareness on the importance of price policy and market segmentation to maximize industry profitability and market share. The primary research undertaken in this study has carried out direct survey of Taipei consumers via questionnaire and applied SPSS statistical analysis, to find out the most accepted price band consumers are willing to pay and the major factors participating in their decision processes. Attrition and membership turnover is endemic in the fitness industry. One of the largest studies undertaken on the topic of membership retention rate, was conducted in the UK and found that the attrition varied from 11 to 62 percent. After 12 months, the best clubs lost one member out of every ten and the worst were losing more than six out of ten per year. Termination of membership appear closely related to cost dissatisfaction (FIA, 2001). Understanding the underlying factors to influence cost dissatisfaction can serve as basic information to increase membership retention rate and essential reference information for new entrant’s price policy and marketing programs. / Abstract This study aims to examine the empirical evidence on the relationship between price and quantity/demand relation in the hot yoga market in Taipei. While doing so, this study also tries to generate awareness on the importance of price policy and market segmentation to maximize industry profitability and market share. The primary research undertaken in this study has carried out direct survey of Taipei consumers via questionnaire and applied SPSS statistical analysis, to find out the most accepted price band consumers are willing to pay and the major factors participating in their decision processes. Attrition and membership turnover is endemic in the fitness industry. One of the largest studies undertaken on the topic of membership retention rate, was conducted in the UK and found that the attrition varied from 11 to 62 percent. After 12 months, the best clubs lost one member out of every ten and the worst were losing more than six out of ten per year. Termination of membership appear closely related to cost dissatisfaction (FIA, 2001). Understanding the underlying factors to influence cost dissatisfaction can serve as basic information to increase membership retention rate and essential reference information for new entrant’s price policy and marketing programs.

This study provides a comparative analysis of pricing promotions, which create an incentive to buy in Russian and Swedish fashion e-shops. The aim of this work is to determine the national differences in sales promotions used in e-commerce in these countries. This work confirms the existence of modern marketing trend in the e-commerce, which uses discounts as a tool for communication with consumers and for retaining them in the shop as a regular customer, and not just for traditional use of discounts as a way to sell remaining goods. To conduct the study the collected data obtained through systematic observation of application of discounts and promotions as marketing tools in the e-shops in these countries. Following the comparative analysis of statistical data we were able to determine the difference in the periods of sales, the maximum and minimum level of price falls, to create a typology of discounts, typical for both countries and for each of them separately. The recommendations for online retailers who develop the markets of these countries with regard to national specifics in communication with the consumer and based on the most popular types of discounts and promotions are also the important part of this work. The results of this study refute the words of the expert Simonetta Carbonaro that the modern approach to pricing policy in the e-commerce is a "suicide of fashion retail."

Με την παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή εξετάζουμε τις επιπτώσεις της απελευθέρωσης της ελληνικής τηλεπικοινωνιακής αγοράς στη δομή της αγοράς, στην τιμολόγηση και στην απασχόληση από το 1992 έως το 2005. Τα στοιχεία αφορούν 44 από τις πιο σημαντικές επιχειρήσεις της σταθερής τηλεφωνίας, της κινητής τηλεφωνίας και του διαδικτύου, και συλλέχθησαν με τη μέθοδο των συνεντεύξεων με τη βοήθεια ερωτηματολογίου. Η αξιολόγηση των στοιχείων έγινε τόσο περιγραφικά όσο και οικονομετρικά. Τα περιγραφικά μας αποτελέσματα υποστηρίζουν αρκετές άλλες έρευνες που συμπεραίνουν ότι η απελευθέρωση της αγοράς μειώνει το βαθμό συγκέντρωσής της, αυξάνει τον ανταγωνισμό, προκαλεί μείωση τιμών και αυξάνει συνολικά την απασχόληση. Στο οικονομετρικό επίπεδο, χρησιμοποιήσαμε Panel Feasible Generalised Least Squares (FGLS) που θεωρείται κατάλληλο εργαλείο για δείγματα, όπως το δικό μας, τα οποία αποτελούνται από διαστρωματικά δεδομένα για χρονικές περιόδους μεγαλύτερες της μιας, και δεν υπάρχει συσχέτιση μεταξύ των μη παρατηρούμενων παραγόντων και των ερμηνευτικών μεταβλητών. Η οικονομετρική έρευνα έδειξε ότι στο νέο ανταγωνιστικό περιβάλλον (όπως αυτό προέκυψε από την οικονομετρική ανάλυση) η ιδιωτική ιδιοκτησία και η ύπαρξη εξειδικευμένου προσωπικού στον εμπορικό και τεχνικό τομέα φαίνεται να επηρεάζουν θετικά το μερίδιο αγοράς των επιχειρήσεων. Επιπλέον, η κατοχή ενός μεγάλου μερίδιου αγοράς παρέχει μεγαλύτερη δυνατότητα στις επιχειρήσεις να μειώσουν τις τιμές των υπηρεσιών τους. Τέλος, η απασχόληση επηρεάζεται κυρίως από την ιδιωτική ιδιοκτησία. Κατ’ αυτόν τον τρόπο, το άρθρο μας προσφέρει χρήσιμη οικονομετρική πληροφόρηση σε ένα πεδίο που παρατηρείται ακόμη ένα μεγάλο ερευνητικό έλλειμμα. / -

This thesis explores the necessary conditions for voluntary wage restraint in advanced industrialized democracies. In particular, it addresses the question of how governments can get union movements to trade their labour market power for non-wage objectives, and how union peak organizations can secure near universal compliance with a voluntary wages policy, notwithstanding the pressures upon individual unions to free ride. Rational choice theory furnishes the initial analytical framework. Within these terms it will be argued that the problem of securing voluntary restraint has the strategic structure of a prisoner's dilemma. In other words, the situation entails an inherent conflict between individual and collective interests. Moreover, this conflict is not merely between the short-term interests of individual unions and those of the whole labour movement, but also between labour (wages) and capital (profit). Given this situation, the thesis will investigate the conditions under which rational, self-interested unions, seeking to maximize some combination of real wage, relative wage and employment objectives, and operating in the context of uncertainty, decentralized bargaining and a significant degree of monopoly power in the labour market, will voluntarily be prepared to restrain their wage demands. Following this exploration, the behavioural assumptions of rational choice theory will be modified to allow for the fact that economic agents are also motivated by various normative commitments, and that these can be sufficient in certain circumstances to overcome the free-rider problem. This new theoretical approach will then be employed in a detailed examination of the Social Contract between the British Labour Government (1974-79) and the Trades Union Congress. It will be concluded that certain moral, political and ideological commitments played a crucial role in the negotiation, implementation and eventual collapse of the Social Contract. It should be noted that this inquiry is based upon published sources and interview data.

The thesis deals with pricing strategies for multichannel retailers, especially traditional stores which additionally manage an online shop. The problem of integrating two sales channels and applying a well-suited pricing strategy is still an emergent question. This work develops a stochastic model to represent consumer behavior on pricing. On the one hand the model contains two probability functions which render consumers' reservation prices for each individual channel. On the other hand the stochastic model is based on numerous distributions which represent switching probabilities from and to each separate channel. The various distribution functions will be estimated from the results of a survey. To highlight differences of pricing strategies due to several product categories a cross comparisons of books, clothes and digital cameras will be presented. The results show that there are differences in multichannel pricing of the various products. These inequalities stem from consumers' perceptions of the sales channels. For each product a separate sales channel is preferred by consumers. Therefore, one channel exhibits some advantage versus the alternative channels. This advantage is reflected in different pricing strategies. Further appropriate marketing strategies could help a firm to counter discounting by its competitors. So firms should keep an eye on the reservation price structure of its consumers as well as their demanded marketing activities. (author's abstract)

Habilitationsschrift--Bonn, 1977. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 437-459) and index.

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