Travel agents provide an essential range of air travel marketing services which result in large commission expenses for air carriers. Commission expenses have risen to such an extent that air transport analysts and others in Canada have openly criticized remuneration policies now in practice. They have questioned whether the travelling public is receiving a full value for the commissions which travel agents receive; they have cited rising commission expenses as evidence of economic inefficiency within the air travel marketing system. The role which the travel agent plays in the airline industry is described taking into consideration travel agents, air carriers and air passengers. Relevant background information related to the travel agent remuneration issue is presented by describing issues affecting the ability of independent agencies to provide travel services. This thesis approaches the travel agent remuneration problem using policy analysis to select a remuneration scheme which will best satisfy a select list of objectives. The objectives used in the evaluation of remuneration schemes include service objectives such as retaining travel agent impartiality, economic objectives such as implementing the "user pay" philosophy, political objectives such as avoiding obvious cross subsidization of different user groups and "regional development" objectives such as providing adequate service levels to small communities. Description of developments in issue areas including travel agent industry entry requirements, competition for market segments and the introduction of electronic reservations systems to travel agents is presented in order to better understand the likelihood of remuneration schemes achieving objectives. Three basic types of remuneration alternatives, net fare, uniform commission and incentive commission are considered. Both regulated and unregulated incentive commissions are analyzed since their impacts vary significantly. The regulated incentive commission alternative is selected as the optimal travel agent remuneration scheme. The selection of this alternative results in a compromise between the full achievement of the various objectives. Under this alternative, the benefits and costs of regulatory involvement in the setting of remuneration levels are assured. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

A sample of motor vehicle accident victims hospitalized at Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, was chosen to analyze the relationship between hospital costs and the severity of the patient's injury or illness. Severity was measured using two scales, specifically, the Injury Severity Scale and the Abbreviated Injury Scale. Hospital costs were also measured, using two different methodologies. The first was the Per Diem costs that were derived by dividing all related annual costs by the number of patient separation days in 1975. A Per Diem episodic cost was determined by multiplying length of stay by the daily average cost. The second approach used a step-down technique that distributed all non-patient care related hospital services across direct patient care departments, cost centres or programs. Unit costs were then developed for each cost centre, depending upon their annual workload. The 1975 medical record for each patient in the sample was analyzed to determine the number of work units used in each cost centre during the patient's hospital stay. A Step-Down episodic cost was determined by totalling all costs from each cost centre that provided services to the patient. A paired t-Test did not show a significant difference between the Per Diem and Step-Down episodic costs. It was assumed that the range of severity of the patient in the sample weakened this t-Test, severity measured by I.S.S. was grouped in low, medium, and high categories, or when severity was measured by A.I.S., the paired t-Test did show that there was a significant difference in the two costing methodologies. The regression analysis identified a significant relationship between both episodic costs and severity. The strongest relationship occurred when severity was measured by I.S.S. and costs were determined, using the Step-Down methodology (R² = 0.26, F = 35.45). When other related independent variables (i.e., death as outcome and operation not performed) and all interaction terms were introduced, the regression co-efficient increased to R² = 0.45 and the F value increased to F = 24.9. Recommendations were made to include a severity rating on all hospitalized patients' records to assist in patient classification. A final outcome of this study was identifying the value of a Step-Down approach to determining hospital costs and identifying the limitations of the Per Diem methodology of hospital accounting. / Medicine, Faculty of / Population and Public Health (SPPH), School of / Graduate

The objective of this study is to analyze factors affecting U.S. bilateral trade with her major trading partners, including exchange rate, GDP, economic structure, market openness, and free trade agreements. Six commodity groups included in this study are agriculture, low technology, mid-low technology, mid-high technology, high technology, and overall trade. This research employs Bayesian econometric procedure to solve cross-sectional heterogeneity problem in estimating the bilateral trade model with the U.S. major trading partners for six commodity groups. Estimation results show that capital-labor ratio is more influential in U.S. bilateral trade with her major trading partners than exchange rate. In addition, U.S. trade is largely intra-industry trade except agricultural goods, which are based on resource endowments.

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

The Great Recession has brought income inequality to the forefront of the American psyche. Parallels have been made between the Great Depression and the Great Recession, and as such, economic history can act as a powerful analytical tool in directing policy. The first essay in Income Inequality during the Great Depression is a qualitative analysis of income transitions from 1929 to 1933 using 33 representative cities as surveyed by the Civil Works Administration. The second essay investigates the welfare effects of income inequality on infant mortality during the Depression. And the third essay on noninfant mortality gives context to the analysis of infant mortality and stillbirths.

Chow, Chui Ngan. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-79). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Interest Rate Models --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- Short Rate Models --- p.7 / Chapter 2.2 --- Heath-Jarrow-Morton Framework --- p.8 / Chapter 2.3 --- Bond Market Models (BMM) --- p.9 / Chapter 3 --- Mortality Models --- p.13 / Chapter 3.1 --- Deterministic Survival Functions --- p.13 / Chapter 3.2 --- Stochastic Mortality Models --- p.15 / Chapter 4 --- Guaranteed Annuity Options under BMM --- p.16 / Chapter 4.1 --- Model Settings --- p.17 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Financial Variables --- p.17 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Mortality --- p.19 / Chapter 4.2 --- Guaranteed annuity option --- p.21 / Chapter 4.3 --- Numerical results --- p.23 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Simulation Study --- p.24 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Empirical results --- p.29 / Chapter 5 --- Longevity Bond Market Models --- p.34 / Chapter 5.1 --- Model Settings --- p.35 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Theoretical Settings --- p.35 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Risk-free Bonds and Longevity Bonds --- p.36 / Chapter 5.2 --- Applications on Potential Mortality-Linked Products --- p.41 / Chapter 5.3 --- Numerical Results --- p.45 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Simulation Settings --- p.46 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Simulation Results --- p.49 / Chapter 6 --- Conclusion --- p.53 / Chapter A --- Equation Derivation --- p.56 / Chapter A.l --- Proof for Proposition (4.2.1) --- p.56 / Chapter A.2 --- Proof for Proposition (4.2.2) --- p.58 / Chapter A.3 --- Proof for Proposition (5.3.1) --- p.61 / Chapter A.4 --- Proof for Proposition (5.3.2) --- p.66 / Chapter B --- Results --- p.71 / Chapter B.l --- Valuation Results for GAO under BMM --- p.71 / Chapter B.1.1 --- Simulation Situations --- p.71 / Chapter B.1.2 --- Calibration Results --- p.72 / Chapter B.1.3 --- Valuation Results --- p.74

Este trabalho apresenta uma abordagem inovadora para a modelagem do risco cambial. Ao invés de utilizar regressões de MQO \"equação por equação\", explora-se a correlação contemporânea e estrutural entre os choques de preferência num sistema de equações de precificação de ativos. Estima-se um modelo via SUR em uma amostra de excessos de retorno de países entre 1999Q1 e 2014Q2, utilizando-se novos fatores de risco associados ao PIB das diferentes economias. O modelo empírico é derivado de preferências que são consistentes com um problema de economia aberta, em contraste com a abordagem habitual que utiliza o crescimento do consumo de bens duráveis e não-duráveis como fatores de risco. A estratégia econométrica escolhida leva a uma melhora significativa da precisão das quantidades de risco (betas) estimadas. A relação positiva entre taxas de juros e quantidades de risco, contudo, não é corroborada para todos os betas. / This thesis presents an innovative approach for modeling currency risk. Instead of using equation by equation OLS, we explore the structural contemporaneous correlation between preference shocks across a system of asset pricing equations. SUR regressions as well as new risk factors lead to a marked improvement in efficiency for the estimation of the quantities of risk (betas) in a sample of country excess returns from 1999Q1 to 2014Q2. However, the monotonic relation between interest rates and quantities of risk is not statistically significant for all betas. Our model is derived from preferences that are consistent to an open economy problem, in contrast to the typical approach of using durable and non-durable consumption growth as risk factors.

Many four year institutions are reorganizing their processes and structures to develop a more inclusive model related to campus diversity efforts. Minimal information has been reported about two year institutional efforts toward inclusive excellence. Given the predicted demographic shifts of the nation and more specifically, the projected increase in enrollments of racially and ethnically diverse student bodies in community colleges, it is essential for higher education administrators and policymakers to understand the structures needed to support minority student success at community colleges. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine institutional support structures around inclusive excellence. An Institutional Diversity Practice Index (IDPI) was created using eleven key indicators found within the literature related to institutional practices that enhance minority student success. The absence or presence of practices at each school were tallied to create two groups. Groups were then compared to determine whether significant differences existed between retention and graduation rates, as well as differences in selected items on the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) related to diversity and support. Due to the sample size limitations of minority student enrollment, the 13 community colleges in this study were classified into one of two groups: Higher Institutional Diversity Practice Index (6 practices or more) and Lower Institutional Diversity Practice Index (5 practices or less). Archival data were used to examine retention rates, graduation rates, and student engagement indictors from the CSSE survey. The sampling frame for the study included all 13 TBR community college students during the academic 2013-2014 academic year. Findings indicated that institutions who were classified in the higher practice group reported higher retention rates of African American and Hispanic students. There were no statistically significant differences between the high and low group with regard to graduation rates or student engagement indicators on the CSSE survey. A larger sample size would be required to determine what combination of institutional practices predict minority student retention and graduation rates. Overall, this study plows new ground and provides information related to the current landscape of institutional structures that support minority student success in Tennessee.