We highlight the importance of "centrality" for pricing. Firms characterized by a more central position in a spatial network are more powerful in terms of having a stronger impact on their competitors' prices and on equilibrium prices. These propositions are derived from a simple theoretical model and investigated empirically for the retail gasoline market of Vienna, Austria. We compute a measure of network centrality based on the locations of gasoline stations in the road network. Results from a spatial autoregressive model show that prices of gasoline stations are more strongly correlated with prices of central competitors.

M.Comm / This dissertation comprises of four parts that attempt to explain the history and application of shadow pricing in South African water projects with reference to water resource development and water pricing reforms. Water is a precious resource and people simply cannot survive without fresh water. It becomes a vital function to then price water correctly and therefore revolutionise the way water is treated. The application of CBA has become increasingly important over recent years Governments often finance these projects, but there is a need for a consistent or standard framework to evaluate capital projects to minimise the risk and possible losses. As a result a manual and method to evaluate spending priorities was developed in the 1980’s in South Africa. CBA has found extensive applications in the field of water development. Important issues such as the opportunity cost of water and a method to calculate the economic value or the opportunity cost of water have been developed further in South Africa over the past few years. It emphasises that pricing water can be a complicated process affected by various forces, many of which are difficult to define and model. The History and Application of Shadow Pricing in South African Water Projects Page v This dissertation demonstrates that the strategies employed in each country are different variations of CBA, with the use of shadow pricing and are adapted to each countries varying circumstance. The political experiences in South Africa have placed strain on the countries scarce national resources. As a result there is a need for some kind of framework and method to evaluate spending and pricing of infrastructure and importantly the development of water pricing reforms and management thereof. The study concludes that there is limited literature that actually defines and explains how shadow prices are calculated in water resource management. Wrong policy or planning decisions can often be a result of price distortions. Therefore, countries are becoming more aware that external factors, such as social welfare and the environment need to be taken into consideration.

M.Comm. / Southern Africa is considered by the rest of the world to be a water scarce region. Previously within the region water was not regarded as a high profile subject in the development process. A paradigm shift is required in the region to recognise the need to concentrate on demand management instead. The paper briefly examines the climatic conditions as a contributing factor to scarcity of the water resources. It further focuses on the human factor which is regarded as a factor that can be managed as opposed to the climatic conditions. In managing the human factor, the usage of water cannot remain the same as it was before the scarcity problem that the SADC region is faced with. It is also recognised that water resource is necessary for survival, therefore basic human requirements are examined. This scarcity makes water to be regarded as an economic good. The paper further explains the elements that make water to be regarded as an economic good. Water being an economic good, it commands a price. The study explains pricing the resource as the only method of making the population understand about the importance of the resource. Different pricing methods are explained in detail. To demonstrate this demand management of water the study interrogates three cities namely Soweto, Cape Town and Durban. In this interrogation the demand management techniques used and their efficiency are compared and contrasted to ascertain the efficiency of the chosen demand management techniques and the existence of gaps within these techniques.

This study traces the annual average prices received per hundredweight for veal calves at the Chicago market and the annual average weekly earnings of employees in all manufacturing industries. The period of time covered by the study is 1900 to 1951.

This thesis is designed to emphasize and illustrate that marginal costing is a tool of management that can make clear the how, when, why, and wherefor of the price determining affect and its results.

The purpose of this research is to study and improve decision accuracy in the real world. Spot price prediction of petroleum products, in a budgeting context, is the task chosen to study prediction accuracy. Prediction accuracy of executives in a multinational oil company is examined. The Brunswik Lens Model framework is used to evaluate prediction accuracy. Predictions of the individuals, the composite group (mathematical average of the individuals), the interacting group, and the environmental model were compared. Predictions of the individuals were obtained through a laboratory experiment in which experts were used as subjects. The subjects were required to make spot price predictions for two petroleum products. Eight predictor variables that were actually used by the subjects in real-world predictions were elicited through an interview process. Data for a 15 month period were used to construct 31 cases for each of the two products. Prediction accuracy was evaluated by comparing predictions with the actual spot prices. Predictions of the composite group were obtained by averaging the predictions of the individuals. Interacting group predictions were obtained ex post from the company's records. The study found the interacting group to be the least accurate. The implication of this finding is that even though an interacting group may be desirable for information synthesis, evaluation, or working toward group consensus, it is undesirable if prediction accuracy is critical. The accuracy of the environmental model was found to be the highest. This suggests that apart from random error, misweighting of cues by individuals and groups affects prediction accuracy. Another implication of this study is that the environmental model can also be used as an additional input in the prediction process to improve accuracy.

In the thesis we analyze sixteen commodity futures markets belonging to four families (energy type, grains, metals and other agricultural commodities) utilizing futures prices of front, back and roll futures contracts. As the tests for cointegration between front and back futures prices give us contradictory results we concentrate on roll contracts defined as the difference between front and back commodity futures contracts. We found that all commodity roll futures except natural gas and wheat futures exhibit long memory, which is usually connected with the fractal market hypothesis. Further, we employ specific ARMA and ARFIMA models and rolling window one-day-ahead technique to predict roll futures contract prices. Based on analysis of relation between resulting predictability and liquidity of roll futures contracts we concluded that lowest predictability is linked with the lowest liquidity among all commodities except metals and found evidence that predictability is positively dependent on liquidity among all commodities except metals, lumber, soybean oil and soybeans. The revealed dependence is strongest for energy type commodities. The relations and dependencies on the commodity futures markets are of high importance for all market participants such as hedge managers, investors, speculators and also for...

The objective of the thesis is to find out whether expansionary monetary policy creates an upward pressure on asset prices and can thus create asset price bubbles, or more precisely significantly contribute to their creation. In doing so, we test the significance and the sign of coefficient on monetary policy stance indicator as a determinant of real estate and stock prices on 19 OECD countries quarterly panel data since 1980. Further we assess periods of real estate and stock price bubbles and periods of expansionary monetary policy and examine their relationship. The asset price bubbles are assessed on the basis of relevant price indices developments without examining the underlying fundamentals. Based on our results it appears that expansionary monetary policy has a positive effect on real estate prices and can thus contribute to formation of real estate bubbles. The effect on stock prices is ambiguous and mostly statistically insignificant. By examining the relationship between assessed asset price bubbles and periods of expansionary monetary policy we found out that monetary expansion is neither sufficient nor necessary condition for formation of asset price bubbles but also that there is a relatively strong relationship between these events. JEL Classification C23, E43, E52, E58, G12, N10, N20...

Nous soutenons la thèse que la sécurité alimentaire des pays d'Afrique sub-saharienne peut être renforcée par une meilleure maitrise de l'instabilité des prix des matières premières agricoles constituant leur panier alimentaire de base. A cet effet, nous évoquons dans un premier temps les mécanismes de fonctionnement des marchés agricoles, le rôle qu'y joue la notion de prix ainsi que le lien existant entre l'évolution instable des prix et l'insécurité alimentaire. Nous nous intéressons ensuite au lien existant entre l'insécurité alimentaire et la régulation du secteur agricole, en particulier dans le cadre des échanges internationaux et régionaux. Nous procédons enfin au traitement formalisé de l'insécurité alimentaire. En ayant recours aux outils économétriques, nous mettons en évidence le caractère instable des prix au niveau individuel des pays ainsi que les interdépendances entre les prix des différentes denrées alimentaires et des différents pays. Des mesures de sécurisation alimentaire sont suggérées tout au long de la thèse pour les pays d'Afrique sub-saharienne étudiés. Nous estimons que ces mesures peuvent servir de pistes de réflexion pour l'établissement de politiques économiques agricoles nationales et régionales. Ces politiques auraient pour but final de garantir la sécurité alimentaire des populations des pays de l'Afrique sub-saharienne par une meilleure maitrise de l'instabilité des prix alimentaires. / In our thesis, we assume that African Sub-saharan countries' food security status can be enhanced through a better management of agricultural commodities prices instability, which constitutes the basic food basket of local populations. To this aim, we initially review the dynamics of agricultural markets and the role played by “prices” in this mechanism as well as the existing linkages between unstable price trends and the notion of food insecurity. Focus is then directed to the relationship between “food insecurity” and the regulation of the agricultural sector, in particular within international trade theory frameworks.Finally, we proceed to the assessment of “food insecurity” through the empirical analysis of the instabilities affecting food prices of the region, and also that of price transmission and linkages within and between countries. We then highlight prices instabilities at individual (country) level, as well as the linkage of these prices (therefore of their unstable components) between the various constituents of the basic food basket of a given country, or that of neighboring countries.All along our thesis, food insecurity resilience measures for these countries are suggested. These measures are believed to potentially serve as initial steps in the establishment of national and regional agricultural policies aiming at attaining/safeguarding food security in African sub-Saharan countries.

The impact of rare disasters on equity premium and term premium in a New Keynesian DSGE model is explored in the thesis. Andreasen's (2012) model with Epstein-Zin preferences, bonds and a rare disaster shock in total factor productivity process is extended by a variable capital stock and an equity-type asset. We find that the variable capital significantly changes behavior of the model, capital depreciation must be substantially increased to counter the effect of variable capital and stochastic mean of inflation increases. The model calibrated to the US economy and a high risk aversion generates 10-year term premium of 90 basis points, rare disasters increase the premium only by 3 basis points. The equity premium is 163 basis points and rare disasters increase it also only by 3 basis points. The model with a low coefficient of relative risk aversion of 5.5 generates negative risk premia. Rare disasters increase the risk premia by mere 4 basis points in comparison to a model with i.i.d. shocks. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)