In the first chapter, I investigate the welfare effect of the government subsidizing medical insurance. To that extent, I construct and simulate a partial equilibrium computational model of medical care consumption and choice of insurance contracts. I use the overall utility of agents as a welfare measure and find that it is not welfare improving to subsidize uninsured agents by taxing insured ones. In addition I use the framework to verify the insurance contract choice effect and find a strong insurance contract choice effect. In Chapter 2, I investigate the effect of the price setting process under managed health care plans, such as HMOs and PPOs, on prices, profits of insurance companies and medical care providers, and household’s welfare compared to the indemnity plans prevalent before the advent of managed care. I construct a simple game played between a representative insurance company and a medical care provider to determine the price of medical care paid by insured and uninsured households. In addition, insurance companies set premiums not through solving the usual principal-agent problem which forces a zero profit condition, but rather and more realistically by optimizing profits. The outcome of this game is compared to the outcome of the indemnity plans where no price negotiations would occur. In Chapter 3, I investigate the effect of the suggested reform to the United States’ tax code in treatment of housing assets. In particular, I study the effect of the abolishment of the preferential tax treatment of housing assets (tax deductible mortgage interest payments and tax-free imputed rents) on the ownership and foreclosure rates in the housing market. I construct a model where heterogeneous agents decide on housing tenure in which default on housing mortgages occurs in equilibrium. I use this model to quantify the effect of this preferential tax treatment. I find that the elimination of the preferential tax treatment of housing assets results in a 33.4% reduction in foreclosures. Specifically, only eliminating the tax deductibility of interest on mortgage payments leads to a 12.4% reduction in foreclosure rates, while only taxing imputed rents generates a 32.5% reduction in foreclosure rates. / text

Subsidijos yra vienas iš sudėtingiausių ir daugiausia ginčų sukeliančių tarptautinės teisės klausimų. Viena vertus, vyriausybės teikia subsidijas siekdamos visiškai teisėtų nacionalinės ekonominės ir socialinės politikos tikslų. Tačiau, kita vertus, subsidijos gali sukelti nenumatytus tarptautinės prekybos iškraipymus. Dėl jų neigiamo poveikio subsidijos yra sudėtingo tarptautinės ir viršvalstybinės teisės normų rinkinio, kuriuo siekiama atskirti ir reguliuoti „nesąžiningas“ subsidijas, subjektas. Šiame magistro darbe nagrinėjama apsaugos nuo neigiamo subsidijų poveikio prekybos partnerių interesams problematika, ieškant atsakymų į klausimus, kodėl apsauga yra būtent tokia, ir ar subsidijų (ir joms atsverti taikomų kompensacinių muitų) naudojimą reglamentuojančios taisyklės yra pakankamos. / Subsidies are one of the most complicated and contentious questions in international law. On the one hand, subsidies are used by governments to serve fully legitimate objectives of national economic and social policy. On the other hand, however, subsidies may create unintended distortions in international trade. Due to adverse effects subsidies are the subject to an intricate set of legal rules of international and supra-national law, which attempts to distinguish and regulate „unfair“ subsidies. This master‘s thesis examines the issue of protection from adverse effects on the interests of trading partners, attempting to answer the questions, why this is the case and whether the disciplines governing the use of subsidies – and countervailing duties to offset them – is complete.

Ecosystems are linked by spatial subsidies, the bi-directional flows of nutrients, materials and energy that cross ecosystem boundaries. Considered one of the planet’s most productive and diverse meta-ecosystems, the broad interface between land and sea is crossed by innumerable abiotic and biotic spatial subsidies, including migratory animals. Routinely crossing ecological boundaries, migrants play significant roles in subsidizing receiving ecosystems, including influencing ecosystem productivity, diversity, community structure and trophic cascades. On the Pacific coast of North America, spatial subsidies driven by migratory Pacific salmon have been intensively studied. Like many of the world’s migrants, however, salmon populations have declined considerably and most of our scientific knowledge has been gained from a diminished subsidy. Other subsidies, including those driven by migratory species in decline, remain relatively unknown. Each year, Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) migrate to shallow waters to spawn on nearshore and intertidal substrates. Despite suggestions in the literature that herring, an abundant, nearshore/intertidal spawning forage fish, subsidizes coastal ecosystems, there had been no investigation of cross-ecosystem interactions. Just as stable isotopes and fatty acids have been used to explore wrack (drift macrophytes) subsidies to intertidal ecosystems, we combined both approaches to trace the input of Pacific herring and wrack to semi-terrestrial amphipods (Traskorchestia spp.), which are highly abundant detritivores in beach ecosystems. Brown algae and seagrass were major contributors to amphipods but when available, herring was also a significant resource. Because amphipods are prey for terrestrial consumers, including bears (Ursus spp.), we also identified indirect trophic linkages between herring and terrestrial ecosystems. Bears are major consumers and vectors of salmon into terrestrial ecosystems, but little is known regarding their involvement in other spatial subsidies. Using a model-based inference approach paired with remote cameras to monitor intertidal black bear (U. americanus) activity, we determined that the best predictors of black bear intertidal activity were major intertidal prey items (herring and amphipod biomass) and Julian day. Bears positively responded to herring and amphipod biomass on beaches but it was the analysis of scats that determined the contribution of herring eggs to the diets of bears. In 2010, the herring spawn was relatively poor and consumption of eggs was negligible, with amphipods constituting a major portion of bear diets. In following years, herring egg loading was relatively high and eggs were the dominant dietary item in bear scats. Tracing the contribution of herring into terrestrial areas proved challenging and instead, we furthered knowledge of the within-watershed spatiotemporal influences of salmon on conifer tree ring growth and δ15N signatures. Both tree ring growth and δ15N signatures tracked the known spatial distribution of salmon carcasses. Using a model-based inference approach, salmon abundance and interaction terms of salmon*temperature and salmon*distance into the forest best predicted tree growth. In contrast, salmon abundance was not a leading predictor of δ15N. By broadening our understanding of the fine-scale influence of salmon on a stand of ancient trees, this research is expected to contribute to future exploration of the terrestrial influences of Pacific herring. / Graduate / 0329 / cfox@uvic.ca

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 117-122).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 176-184).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Also available in print.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 117-122). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 176-184). Also available in print.

For the past 30 years the dominant approach to managing rural water services in low and lower middle income countries has been the community management approach. Yet there is increasing evidence the model is not fit for purpose as too many services fail. The next generation ideas for community management emphasise the need for continuous on-going support to communities – an approach known as the community management plus approach. This thesis tests and develops this next generation community management plus paradigm. It analyses field data from twenty case studies of ‘reportedly successful’ community management programmes across seventeen states in India. Bringing together data from 2,355 household surveys, 272 interviews and 130 focus groups it provides a synthesis that assesses the type and level of support found in successful examples of community management. The evidence from these case studies demonstrates that communities receive significant recurrent subsidy covering between 7-48% of operational expenditure. This is in marked contrast to the conventional principles of community management whereby communities cover 100% of these costs. Analysis of organisation types also shows how community management has been shaped by the devolution of governance in rural India. Many community management programmes involve a structural overlap between the local self- government institution of the Gram Panchayat and water committees. The thesis argues this represents a shift to the ‘institutionalised co-production’ of rural water services, involving both the state and private citizens in public service delivery. Overall, the research shows that successful community management in India involves continuous on-going support as per the community management plus paradigm. However this has required the nesting of the model within the broader system of local self-government which blurs the lines between public and community management.