Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Marburg.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Breslau, 1914. / Includes bibliographical references ([vii]-x).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Breslau, 1906. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [vii]-x).

This dissertation studies three different aspects linked to the literature on self-enforcing dynamic contracts. Namely, this dissertation examines how a solution to this type of economic models may be obtained numerically, how important enforcement issues might be for a common question in economics, and how the presence of self-enforcing constraints may be investigated empirically. It is composed of three essays. The first essay develops a numerical method designed to approximate the solution of models with self-enforcing constraints using a dynamic programming approach. This method may also be used to approximate the solution of general dynamic models with occasionally binding inequality constraints. It complements standard value function iteration algorithm with an interpolation scheme which preserves the concavity and the monotonicity of the value function. It has the advantage over usual value function iteration algorithms of procuring a reasonable degree of accuracy at a relatively lower computational cost. The second essay uses dynamic contract theory to analyze the joint behavior of investment decisions and financial flows when contracts between lenders and borrowers are subject to enforcement constraints. In contrast to the usual belief that financing constraints lead firms to underinvest, this essay shows that firms are likely to overinvest. While overinvestment is shown to be consistent with the empirical finding that investment spending is excessively sensitive to variations in internal funds' abundance, it does not give rise to a financial accelerator. The key feature of this model is that firms' production and financial capacities are simultaneously determined. Firms overinvest when external funds are relatively inexpensive if they apprehend the possibility of becoming financially constrained in the future. By increasing their production capacity in such a way, firms alleviate eventual shortages of funds arising from the fact that external finance has become limited. Finally, the third essay studies how a common implication arising from the literature on self-enforcing contracts may be tested empirically. A key feature of a long-term self-enforcing contract is that the quantity subject to its terms evolves over time according to a simple updating rule; it is set to its full-enforcement level whenever doing so does not induce one of the agents to renege. Otherwise, it is set to a self-enforcing level. Using the example of Thomas and Worrall's (1988) labor contract model (to which productivity growth is added), it is shown that this updating rule may be expressed as an endogenous switching-regression model. Panel data may be used to estimate this model. When there are measurement errors, Monte-Carlo experiments show that the switchingregression model usually has a poor goodness of fit in small data sets. However, despite this finding, tests of the null hypothesis that conventional contract models generate the data under scrutiny still have a high power against the alternative hypothesis that this data is characterized by the presence of enforcement constraints. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

Security breach disclosure is the public disclosure of information regarding a data security incident. It allows organizations to communicate salient information to the affected parties and stakeholders regarding the nature and impact of the breach, and remediating solutions undertaken regarding the breach. Recent cases of large-scale security breaches have revealed that security breach disclosure remains a challenging subject for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers. There is a lack of understanding and consensus on what breaches need to be disclosed and little evidence on how actual practices are employed. Using an adapted grounded theory methodology that combines computerized textual extraction and ground theory coding techniques, this study explores relevant issues through four research questions with distinct objectives that would enhance understanding of the issues in public breach disclosure. First, recent regulations from the US, EU, and Canada are reviewed to identify the core elements in breach disclosure. Second, this study develops methods to extract information content from disclosures. Third, matrices and measuring instruments are developed to evaluate the quality, and last, a framework is proposed to map out the paths and directions for future research. These advancements lay the crucial groundwork in the field of security breach disclosure and will contribute greatly towards future policies, practice, and research. The expected societal significance of this research is profound. The research is relevant to practitioners, regulators, and the information security community as it provides valuable insight on current challenges and future directions. The ultimate goal is to strengthen our understanding of security breach disclosure and enhance the accumulation and transfer of knowledge obtained through security breach disclosure; thereby providing organizations, regulators, and the information security community with the information necessary to develop policies, tools, and controls for identifying, managing, and reducing the risks of future security incidents. The proposed core elements, methods of extracting relevant information content, quality evaluation matrices, and framework mark a significant advancement towards this vision. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Recent cases of security breach at Equifax, Yahoo, and Uber have raised attention from the public and regulators on the issues of public disclosure of security incidents. However, the lack of understanding and research in security breach disclosures has hampered our ability in defining what needs to be disclosed, understanding what are actually disclosed, and determining how well the incidents are disclosed. These issues are urgent and important thus warrant considerable efforts to carefully examine the current landscape of policy and practice, and to provide methods to evaluate disclosures so that meaningful advancements in research and improvements in practice can be made. This study recommends a set of core elements in disclosure, develops methods to extract information from disclosure, establishes ways to evaluate quality, and proposes a framework that maps out future research. These are important advancements in the study of security breach disclosure and will contribute greatly towards future policies, practice, and research.

Thousands of miles of levees exist in the United States and around the world and failure of these levees as a result of breaching has the potential to cause severe flooding damage. A technology, the PLUG, has been developed to temporarily reduce the flow through a levee breach as an alternative to traditional methods. This study is focused on developing initial guidance on the parameters for sizing a PLUG using a 1:100 (model:prototype) Froude scaled model. It was found that for the PLUG to effectively reduce flow through the breach, the required ratio of the PLUG length to the breach width is greater than two (L/W > 2), and that effectiveness increases as the ratio between the PLUG diameter and water depth (D/d) increases. Effectiveness also increases when the percent fill (P) is between 65 – 75 percent. Trends in the threshold between catastrophic failure and success were also noted.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

Os institutos clássicos do direito das obrigações, notadamente os conceitos de obrigação, adimplemento e inadimplemento precisam ser relidos à luz dos valores da Constituição Federal de 1988 e dos princípios e das cláusulas gerais trazidos pelo Código Civil de 2002, em especial a boa-fé objetiva. A noção tradicional de obrigação, consubstanciada na ideia de uma submissão do devedor ao credor, vem sendo paulatinamente abandonada em favor de um novo conceito de relação obrigacional, composto por direitos e deveres recíprocos que convergem para a consecução de um objetivo comum: o adimplemento. Assim examinado, o adimplemento consiste em um processo dinâmico dentro do qual o devedor deve executar uma série de atos e observar inúmeros deveres (principais, secundários e laterais) necessários ao adimplemento. Foi diante dessa premissa que a doutrina moderna começou a sustentar que a infringência de deveres de conduta e de deveres anexos ao longo da relação obrigacional pode configurar um inadimplemento antecipado do contrato, que se refere às hipóteses em que o inadimplemento resta configurado a despeito de ainda não se ter atingido o termo contratual. Esse estudo visará analisar o conceito e demonstrar a necessidade da consolidação do inadimplemento antecipado como um mecanismo de proteção do credor, examinando a sua possibilidade de aplicação no direito brasileiro, os seus requisitos, a sua natureza jurídica, os seus limites e os seus efeitos. / The classic institutes of contract law, notably the concepts of obligation, performance and breach of contract need to be reread pursuant to the values of the Federal Constitution of 1988 and the principles and general clauses brought by the Civil Code of 2002, in special the good faith. The traditional notion of obligation, based on the idea of the debtors submission to the creditor, has been gradually abandoned in favor of a new concept of obligatory relationship, composed of reciprocal rights and duties converging to achieve a common goal: performance. Thus, performance consists of a dynamic process in which the debtor must perform a series of acts and observe numerous duties (primary, secondary and lateral duties arising of good faith) necessary for performance. It was under this premise that modern legal scholars began to argue that any breach of duties along with the obligatory relationship can configure an anticipated breach of contract, which refers to cases in which the breach is affirmed before the contractual term. This essay aims to analyze the concept and demonstrate the need for consolidation of the anticipated breach as a creditor protection mechanism, examining its application possibility under Brazilian law, along with its requirements, legal status, limits and effects.

Univ., Diss.--Nijmegen, 2007.