published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Economics and Finance / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This paper examines the relationship between energy and economic growth in the case of Sweden.  It analyzes the role energy plays in the level of economic activity. The prevailing economic theories focus more on other factors as important for the economic growth. The included statistical data shows that the total energy use in Sweden has declined in the last couple of years. This is mainly as a result of the shift in energy use to higher quality fuels, electricity, optimized production process and machinery, and increased use of renewable energy sources. This paper investigates the connection between total energy use and levels of economic activity in Sweden. Furthermore, it discusses Sweden’s energy policy activities and their economic and environmental implications. Instead of looking at the entire economy, as some earlier papers, the focus is placed on the industrial and service sectors. This gives the possibility to better analyze the implemented energy policies, showing their effectiveness at these sectors. Time series analysis is employed following a four step procedure. First it is the Augmented Dickey-Fuller test performed, followed by the Johansen test and the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). The results from VECM are interpreted with the help of the Wald test. The results from this four step procedure showed univariate cointegration between Industry`s output and energy consumption and bivariate cointegration between Service`s output and energy consumption. The paper further shows that there is a relation between the types of energy used in the economic sectors and the sectors` productivity levels. This paper also aims to demonstrate the environmental and economic effects from such relation.

This thesis contains three empirical essays on the economics of house price dynamics. The first essay derives a forward-looking rational expectations house price model and empirically tests its ability to explain short-run fluctuations in real house prices. A novel approach to proxying imputed rents of owner-occupied housing, as a function of housing market fundamentals, is derived and combined with a housing market arbitrage relation to derive a present value model for real house prices. Tests of the rational expectations, nonlinear cross-equation restrictions reject the joint null hypothesis of rational expectations and the asset-based housing price model for quarterly, single-detached house prices in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, over the 1979-1991 sample period. The model fails to fully capture observed house price dynamics in two real estate booms but tracks real house prices well in less volatile times, suggesting that prices may temporarily deviate from fundamental values in real estate market upswings. The second essay develops and applies a test of the joint null hypothesis of rational expectations, and no risk premium in the Vancouver condominium apartment market. The results show that, on average, ex post house price changes move in the opposite direction than their rational expectation under risk neutrality. This essay also documents the predictability of excess annual condominium returns using lags of annual returns and the rent/price ratio, and quarterly returns with short-term nominal interest rates. It further shows that deviations of house price changes from their (risk neutral) rational expectation are both stationary and related to the stage of the real estate price cycle. The third essay examines whether a time-varying housing market risk premium can explain deviations in house price fluctuations from those predicted by the rational expectations hypothesis under risk neutrality. If homeowners are risk averse and housing price risk is not completely diversifiable then housing market efficiency implies that re turns to housing investment should be positively correlated with a premium for bearing risk. The first part of the essay shows that, in theory, the finding of negative slope co-efficients in tests of unbiased house price expectations under risk neutrality (in chapter 3) is attributable to omitted risk considerations if two conditions are satisfied: (1) the covariance between the risk premium and expected house price appreciation under risk neutrality is negative, and; (2) the variance of the risk premium is considerably larger than the variance of expected appreciation under risk neutrality. The second part of the essay uses a conditional capital asset pricing model to investigate whether predictable returns in the Vancouver housing market are time-varying risk premia. The empirical results are inconclusive.

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Wetlands provide recreation and cultural values including scenic views, aesthetics, open-spaces, and leisure opportunities to surrounding residents. This study applies a hedonic approach to estimate the impact of wetland amenities on nearby single family homes using actual sales prices of properties from 1991 to 2005 in Chatham County, Georgia, where wetland resources are unevenly distributed in terms of types and quantities of wetlands. Separate hedonic models are investigated to understand the spatial variation of wetland amenity effects across different study areas in Chatham County. This study finds that wetland amenity values vary mainly with the characteristics of study location. In a rural setting where wetland resources are ample and sufficient. Wetland amenities have negative impacts on the sales price of nearby single family homes. Forested wetlands, the size of the nearest wetland, and wetland proximity negatively impact the sales price of the properties. In an urban setting where wetland resources are extremely limited, wetlands have significant positive amenity effects. The size of the nearest wetland positively impact the sales price of nearby single family homes, but type of wetlands turns into insignificant. In a suburban area with diverse wetland recourses in term of types of wetlands, mixed amenity effects are found. In general immediate access to a wetland, especially a large size one, positively impact nearby single family homes. Type of wetlands plays a key role in deciding the direction and magnitude of wetland amenity effects in a suburban area. The findings of the study suggest that policy makers need to think about both the characteristics of wetlands and their spatial context when providing or protecting wetland amenities.

While conventional economic theory posits that price is determined by the interplay between the forces of supply and demand, review of literature reveals that the findings of industrial surveys and empirical studies of the pricing behaviour of firms have cast doubts on the validity of this hypothesis. A close scrutiny of the literature shows that there are two main hypotheses of pricing, namely, the excess demand hypothesis and the mark-up hypothesis. The former is associated with the conventional view that price is determined by the interaction of demand and supply, while the latter hypothesis is often associated with business practice in the real world. A majority of empirical studies lends support to the mark-up hypothesis. However, there is also a sizable number of studies that lend support to the excess demand hypothesis. This study uses data for the South African manufacturing sector to test the validity and the explanatory power of these hypotheses. The difference between this study and most of the previous studies is the fact that in the present study an attempt is made to use disaggregated data in the actual testing of the hypotheses. While the results of this study demonstrate overwhelming support for the mark-up hypothesis, they also demonstrate that the role played by demand can not be dismissed. / Thesis (M.Comm.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1996.

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Photocopy of typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1980. / Bibliography: leaves [127]-129. / Microfiche. / viii, 129 leaves, bound 28 cm