Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 1995. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-83). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (doctoral)--Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 2002. / Thesis statement in Swedish and English abstract inserted. Appendix reprints four papers and manuscripts, three co-authored with others. Includes bibliographical references. Also issued electronically via World Wide Web in PDF format; online version lacks appendix.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2009. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Oct. 23, 2009). Thesis advisor: Wayne Clatterbuck. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Diss. rer. oec. Bern. / Im Verkauf: Berlin : dissertation.de - Verlag im Internet. Literaturverz.

This thesis provides a detailed analysis of the so-called `house money' or windfall endowment effect and its main determinants. Chapter 1 provides a detailed survey on the literature related to the house money effect. This effect according to Thaler and Johnson (1990) - refers to the situation where prior gains mitigate the influence of loss aversion and facilitate risk-seeking. The concept borrows its name from the expression employed in the gambling parlance of "playing with the house money", which is used when people gamble while ahead. As the literature has used a variety of concepts and ideas to describe the house money effect, this chapter presents and discusses them within the environment and the related literature that they have emerged. This is done in order to highlight the predominant answers to the main research questions raised in the various strands of the literature, namely: (i) whether people treat money differently depending on its origin; and (ii) the implications of the house money effect for the experimental methodology in economics. The literature is organised and presented according to the context in which the above two research questions have been examined. By presenting results in each particular context, we pin down the contextual differences that might be responsible for the presence (or absence) of the house money effect, and lay the initial ground work to answer a third research question: What drives the house money effect? In this regard, after we demonstrate the context-dependency of the house money effect we present the two main interpretations that it has received, namely that the house money effect is a result of different mental accounting over windfall gains (`windfall effect') or a result of fairness or deservingness concerns ('Lockean desert effect'). Chapter 2 re-examines the house money effect and explores its main driving forces. For that, we employ a novel experimental design utilising a within-subject approach, coupled with the use of three different contexts of economic decisions (a trust game, a set of lotteries and a public good game). Both the within-subject experimental design and the three contexts of economic decisions allow us to better test the two main interpretations of the house money effect. Our experimental data confirm the presence of the house money effect both in the decision to trust (but not in the decision of trustworthiness) in the trust game and in the decision to contribute in the public account of the public good game. However, our findings do not support the hypothesis that changes in risk behaviour of participants are due to different sources of money, suggesting that risk attitudes are robust and independent of the origin of money along the experiment. Therefore, our findings seem to favour interpretations of the house money effect as a result of 'just desert' or fairness preferences rather than the result of different mental accounting over windfall gains. Chapter 3 combines two branches of experimental literature, namely the house money effect and the literature on individual differences in social preferences. Both the house money effect and individual differences have been used extensively to explain cooperation in social dilemmas (and its decline over time). Here, we test the implications of house money on reciprocal behaviour, that is, whether participants in economic experiments are less likely to reciprocate when earned money rather than windfall money is at stake. Using the innovative experimental design of Fischbacher et al. (2001) with strategy method, we classify participants according to their behaviour in a linear public good game, and by adding the within-subject element in our experimental design we test the robustness of this classification across the different origin of endowments. Our results indicate that the types' classification is robust across the origin of money. Contrary to Harrison (2007), we find that participants' decision to free ride or not (contribute or not) is independent of the origin of money, but given that the decision to contribute has been made, contribution levels may vary -actually be lower- when money is earned rather than windfall endowed. We also elicit beliefs about others' contributions and test how these beliefs affected by the "house money" and in turn how they affect the decision to contribute. This discussion relates to what the literature has characterised so far as "anticipatory reciprocity".

Magister Legum - LLM

L'étude de l'écologie des micro-organismes est récente malgré son importance pratique et théorique intrinsèque mais également son rôle central dans la niche des macro-organismes. Les interactions plantes-champignons, de par leur importance socio-écologique et de leur diversité -- du mutualisme au parasitisme en passant par le commensalisme --, offrent un modèle judicieux pour étudier l'écologie des communautés de micro-organismes en interaction avec des macro-organismes. À l'aide de techniques de séquençage à haut débit (NGS) et d'analyse des réseaux, nous explorons certains déterminants de la structure des champignons des forêts corses à travers trois guildes : les champignons ectomycorhiziens, endophytiques et saprotrophes. Ce travail considère les processus de dispersion, les perturbations (feux et chablis), les facteurs environnementaux (par ex. la profondeur du sol) et les contraintes dérivées de l'interaction avec les hôtes (par ex. taxinomie). Les assemblages des communautés des différentes guildes présentent des patrons communs qui pourraient être issus de mécanismes identiques. Ainsi, l'ensemble des guildes étudiées présentent des variations fortes à l’échelle des micro-régions de Corse et entre forêts ayant des histoires de feux différentes. En revanche, l'importance des différents processus d'assemblage et les échelles spatiales auxquelles ils s'appliquent varient selon les guildes. Nous discutons des implications que suscitent ce travail pour les écologues des communautés et pour les gestionnaires d'espaces naturels. / Study of micro-organisms ecology arose recently despite its intrinsic importance -- both practical and theoretical --, but also despite its overriding role in the niches of macro-organisms. Plant-fungi interactions offer a relevant model to study the ecology of micro-organisms interacting with macro-organisms because of their considerable ecological and economical values in addition to their high taxonomic and ecological diversity. Using next-generation sequencing (NGS) and network analysis, we explore some drivers of fungal community composition in Corsica, at various scales and through three guilds: ectomycorrhizal, endophytic and saprotrophic fungi. We investigate the effect of disturbance (e.g. fire and treefall), environmental variables (e.g. soil depth), constraints due to the interacting plants (e.g. taxonomy) and dispersion on fungal communities. Some community assembly rules are similar across guilds. For instance, forests in different micro-regions of Corsica harbor dissimilar fungal communities. However relative importance of processes and the scales at which they occur vary across guilds. In Corsican pine forests, fifteen years after fire occurrence, soil fungal diversity is close to the level of diversity in unburnt stand. Despite the absence of effect on diversity, fire induces marked shifts in soil fungal community composition, in particular for soil saprobic fungi. We discuss the implication of this work for ecologists -- both plant and fungal ecologist -- and stakeholders.

No description available.

La dépendance aux ressources naturelles entraîne de nombreux défis pour les décideurs publics. Fort de ce constat, se pose avec acuité la question suivante: dans quelle mesure les gouvernements des pays d’Afrique sub-Saharienne sont à même d’employer leurs leviers de politiques fiscales et monétaires afin de limiter les effets négatifs de la dépendance aux ressources naturelles et d’entraîner un cercle économique vertueux? Le second chapitre de la thèse distingue les mécanismes de court terme et de long terme de la dépendance aux ressources naturelles en utilisant une approche en deux temps: d’abord les variables explicatives sont cointégrées pour établir les relations de long terme puis un modèle à correction d’erreur est estimé pour capter les relations de court terme de retour à l’équilibre.Sur le long terme, l’effet négatif de la dépendance est confirmé. Cependant, les pays dotés d’institutions de mauvaise qualité sont plus vulnérables car non seulement ils subissent l’impact de long terme mais la dépendance aux ressources affecte négativement le processus de retour à l’équilibre sur le court terme. Enfin, les résultats montrent que dans le cadre d’institutions de qualité supérieure, la dépendance aux ressources naturelles peut avoir un impact positif sur la reprise économique. Dans un troisième chapitre, un modèle pvar compare les intéractions macro-économiques dans la zone monétaire franc CFA, ancré à l’euro, par rapport aux pays comparables hors zone franc CFA. En prenant en compte la forte présence de matières premières dans leurs exportations, les résultats montrent que la zone franc CFA ne subit pas de perte de compétitivité de par son appartenance à une zone monétaire. En revanche, les investissements directs de l’étranger n’entraînent pas des effets positifs sur la croissance de la même ampleur que ceux observés hors de la zone franc CFA. Le quatrième chapitre contribue à la littérature associée à la gestion optimale des ressources fiscales, notamment dans le cadre d’un boom des matières premières. Les résultats montrent que dans le cadre d’un accès réduit aux marchés de capitaux, les périodes de boom de matières premières sont des opportunités capitales pour stimuler la croissance via l’investissement public, alors que les contraintes fiscales sont temporairement relâchées. Toutefois, l’efficacité de ces accroissements d’investissement est conditionnelle à un niveau d’endettement public soutenable. / This thesis belongs to the literature on natural resource dependence and brings a new perspective by focusing on the sub-Saharan African region. This dependence introduces numerous challenges for policy makers both in terms of fiscal and monetary policy. The main research question explored in this thesis is the following : to which extent sub- Saharan African governments can rely on fiscal and monetary policies to mitigate the adverse impacts of commodity dependence and trigger positive spillover and achieve sustainable growth? The second chapter of the thesis unfolds short-term versus long-term mechanisms of the resource curse by using a two-step analysis: an error-correction model is performed after co-integrating the explana- tory variables. Main findings highlight the crucial role of institutions. On the long run, the negative impact of the dependence is confirmed independently of the institution quality. However, countries with weak institutions are more vulnerable to the curse because the re- source dependence not only negatively impacts long-term growth but also adversely impacts the recovery process. Finally, in a strong in- stitutional environment, results points to a potential positive impact of natural resources during recovery process. In the third chapter, a panel vector auto-regressive model compares macro-economic interactions in the pegged CFA monetary union versus a comparable sample. Considering their export structure dominated by raw commodities, results suggests that the CFA zone members do not suffer from a loss of competitiveness from belonging to the monetary union. However, foreign direct investments fail to generate the same spillover effect in the CFA zone compared to non-CFA countries. The forth chapter provides insights on the optimal management of fiscal resources, especially during a windfall period. Growth elasticities of different government choices regarding revenue allocation is performed. Results show that in a con- text of limited access to capital, resource windfall are considered as a crucial opportunity to scale up investment. In fact, below a level of public capital stock (estimated around 750 USD per capita), public investment during a boom has a four-fold higher impact on growth than above the threshold. This scaling up is conditional on low levels of public debt: countries featuring unsustainable public debt levels should prioritize the restoration of stronger foreign reserves