Interindustry transactions recorded at a macro level are simply summations of commodity shipment decisions taken at a micro level. The resulting statistical problem is to obtain minimally biased estimates of commodity flow distributions at the disaggregated level, given various forms of aggregated information. This study demonstrates the application of the entropy-maximizing paradigm in its traditional form, together with recent adaptations emerging from information theory, to the area of spatial and non-spatial input-output analysis. A clear distinction between the behavioural and statistical aspects of entropy modelling is suggested. The discussion of non-spatial input-output analysis emphasizes the rectangular and dynamic extensions of Leontief's original model, and also outlines a scheme for simple aggregation, based on a criterion of minimum loss of information. In the chapters on spatial analysis, three complementary approaches to the estimation of interregional flows are proposed. Since the static formulations cannot provide an accurate picture of the gross interregional flows between any two sectors, Leontief's dynamic framework is adapted to the problem. The study concludes by describing a hierarchical system of models to analyse feasible paths of economic development over space and time. / digitalisering@umu

The Canadian health care system is primarily public funded. With constant rise in health care costs, there is debate on how to best fund Canadian health care. <p>Public, private and mixed funding options are being discussed. The funding options people support will depend on how they view the health care system. Is health care a commodity or a public right? Pharmacists interact with patients daily and are involved in the delivery of health services. Their views on whether health care should be a public right or a commodity can add meaningful input to the debate.<p>The primary objective of this study was to develop a scale to measure pharmacists perceptions of health care as a commodity or a public right. In turn, this scale was used to see if a relationship exists between pharmacists orientation to health care (commodity vs. public right) and their support for different health care funding options.<p> A mail-in survey of community pharmacists in Saskatchewan was conducted based on the Dillman approach. The questionnaire consisted primarily of six-point Likert scale questions. Data analysis was performed using non-parametric tests such as Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests. One-way ANOVA was used for parametric data and post-hoc analysis was performed using Bonferroni test. Correlation of the scales was tested using Spearmans and Pearsons correlation coefficients. The response rate achieved was 64.2%.<p>The study results indicate that pharmacists are not willing to provide cognitive services free of charge. However, they are willing to continue providing OTC drug counseling free of charge. They will not restrict provision of cognitive services only to patients able pay. They prefer being reimbursed through other sources. They are unwilling to make time and income adjustments to improve patient health outcomes. They do not want to link the financial rewards they receive to the amount of benefit the patient receives.<p>Pharmacists favour the current system of funding health care in Canada but would prefer more choice in the delivery and funding methods. The results do not indicate any relationship between pharmacists orientation to health care (commodity vs. public right) and their level of support for different health care funding strategies. <p>The study conclusions suggest that pharmacists value and appreciate the direct impact of their work on patients. However they consider themselves to be professionals first and expect to be compensated financially for their services. Their willingness to spend time and effort towards provision of services as a public right seems to be predicated to a certain extent by the financial rewards they receive.

The Instruments installation represents the superimposition of two systems. The marketed elements that comprise the hegemony exerted by commodity culture are placed on top of the occult qabalistic Tree of Life. This overlaying makes the commentary that the pursuit of identity through commodified objects usurps and drowns out the natural fundamental components of the human psyche. The artist accomplishes this by creating various expressive multimedia sculptures out of actual objects. Each one is given a title that references a particular sphere on the Tree of Life glyph, for each piece is meant to represent that sphere’s aspect of the human entity as it is expressed in the commodity realm. The artist begins by introducing the reader to the artistic contexts and the various conceptual structures that serve to inform and describe his mode of working and its results. Subsequently, a detailed description of each work is given, simultaneously functioning as a necessarily brief survey of the spheres on the qabalistic glyph.

The Canadian health care system is primarily public funded. With constant rise in health care costs, there is debate on how to best fund Canadian health care. <p>Public, private and mixed funding options are being discussed. The funding options people support will depend on how they view the health care system. Is health care a commodity or a public right? Pharmacists interact with patients daily and are involved in the delivery of health services. Their views on whether health care should be a public right or a commodity can add meaningful input to the debate.<p>The primary objective of this study was to develop a scale to measure pharmacists perceptions of health care as a commodity or a public right. In turn, this scale was used to see if a relationship exists between pharmacists orientation to health care (commodity vs. public right) and their support for different health care funding options.<p> A mail-in survey of community pharmacists in Saskatchewan was conducted based on the Dillman approach. The questionnaire consisted primarily of six-point Likert scale questions. Data analysis was performed using non-parametric tests such as Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests. One-way ANOVA was used for parametric data and post-hoc analysis was performed using Bonferroni test. Correlation of the scales was tested using Spearmans and Pearsons correlation coefficients. The response rate achieved was 64.2%.<p>The study results indicate that pharmacists are not willing to provide cognitive services free of charge. However, they are willing to continue providing OTC drug counseling free of charge. They will not restrict provision of cognitive services only to patients able pay. They prefer being reimbursed through other sources. They are unwilling to make time and income adjustments to improve patient health outcomes. They do not want to link the financial rewards they receive to the amount of benefit the patient receives.<p>Pharmacists favour the current system of funding health care in Canada but would prefer more choice in the delivery and funding methods. The results do not indicate any relationship between pharmacists orientation to health care (commodity vs. public right) and their level of support for different health care funding strategies. <p>The study conclusions suggest that pharmacists value and appreciate the direct impact of their work on patients. However they consider themselves to be professionals first and expect to be compensated financially for their services. Their willingness to spend time and effort towards provision of services as a public right seems to be predicated to a certain extent by the financial rewards they receive.

<p>Among the most significant changes to the agricultural sector in the twentieth century include a sharp decline in employment and the numbers of farms, a decline in the proportion of total value that accrues to agricultural producers, and an increase in farm level and regional specialization. Within the U.S., substantial differences in the characteristics of agricultural producers and the spatial distribution of production persist amid industry change. These changes coincided with changes in global markets, domestic consumption, consolidation and concentration within the processing and retailing sectors, and government policy. The causality that lies behind these developments is the key puzzle that this study addresses. </p><p>This study advances an institutional explanation of industry formation across locations within the U.S. Differences in industry constitution at the local level produce different impacts of and responses to global markets, reflected by economic changes and policy developments, as actors work to secure stability and advantage in markets (Fligstein 2001). This study uses the global value chains' definition of the industry, which incorporates the network of actors arrayed along a process of production, to capture the set of actors with the capacity to affect industry operation (Gereffi 1994). An assessment of the relative importance of local economic characteristics, global markets, organization and coordination within industries, and government policies to where production locates in the primary objective of the study.</p><p>The pork and non-cigar tobacco industries across several states within the United States from 1959 through 2005 allow for a contrast along the key changes identified above. Within case comparison is used to construct causal narratives of industry change at the state level. Panel and pooled time series analysis assess the relative importance the factors to agricultural change.</p><p>Local economic characteristics largely fade from significance with the inclusion of the theoretical perspectives. Total and net trade in agricultural and manufactured products is generally significant across industries for production, although this is not the case for specific tobacco types. The proportion of farms composed of small farms is significant for production and for farm structure in both industries. The presence of manufacture is significant for hog production and could not be assessed for tobacco. While federal policies are broadly significant for the tobacco industry, identified state policies exhibit few consistent effects for hog production. Importantly, farm structure measures were only available for Census years, which reduces sample size. Second, many of the measures are industry-specific, which reduces comparability.</p> / Dissertation

It is a well-known fact that macro-economic conditions, such as prices of commodities (e.g. oil, cement and steel) affect the cost of construction projects. In a volatile market environment, highway agencies often pass such risk to contractors using fixed-price contracts. In turn, the contractors respond by adding premiums in bid prices. If the contractors overprice the risk, the price of fixed-price contract could exceed the price of the contract with adjustment clauses. Consequently, highway agencies have the opportunity to design a contract that not only reduces the future risk of exposure, but also reduces the initial contract price. The main goal of this dissertation is to investigate the impact of commodity price risk on construction cost and the optimal risk hedging of such risks using price adjustment clauses. More specifically, the objective of the dissertation is to develop models that can help highway agencies manage commodity price risks. In this dissertation, a weighted least square regression model is used to estimate the risk premium; both univariate and vector time series models are estimated and applied to simulate changes in commodity prices over time, including the effect of correlation; while the genetic algorithm is used as a solution approach to a multi-objective optimization formulation. The data set used in this dissertation consists of TxDOT bidding data, market-based data including New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) future options data, and Engineering News-Record (ENR) material cost index data. The results of this dissertation suggest that the optimal risk mitigation actions are conditional on owners' risk preferences, correlation among the prices of commodities, and volatility of the market.

With the maturity of the semiconductor and communication technology, and vehicle technology is unable to break through obviously, therefore automobile corporations begins to try to apply the electronic product to the field of the vehicle in order to separate the difference district of the products, besides offering and is different from the function that machinery displays, its range of application is not only products, such as engine, transmission or chassis, but march toward with voluntarily safe, driving convenience, functional intelligence, relevant products of taking comfortableness and high dependability gradually, so involving the new industry in relevant technology, such as car making, electron, photoelectricity, communication, the auto-electron is attracted attention by the world. In global capitalism, economic activity is not only international in scope, it is also global in organization. 'Internationalization' refers to the geographic spread of economic activities across national boundaries. As such, it is not a new phenomenon. Indeed, it has been a prominent feature of the world economy since at least the seventeenth century when colonial empires began to carve up the globe in search of raw materials and new markets for their manufactured exports. 'Globalization' is much more recent than internationalization because it implies functional integration between internationally dispersed activities. So synthesize above-mentioned, I am going to use this regard globalizing the concept as theory 'Global commodity chain' of foundation, to inspect the electronic industry of the automobile of Taiwan, and plus the policies of automobile electron like 'IA completed vehicle plan' and its network structure. This research, in order to obtain each other's network inter-dynamic relation among industry, manufacturer, adopt the depth interview. The result of study is found, one of two kinds of driven ways derived out for the global commodity chain of the electronic industry mode of production of the automobile of Taiwan is 'buyer driven', the main reason is to urge the strength of industry's technology and products trend is coming from automobile corporation as 'branded manufacturers', and is absorbed in belonging to the roles of 'the factory' in the electronic manufacturer of Taiwan of the production field; And this industry is new industries derived out after combining with the electronic industry by the automobile, so the automobile and electron are on the inter-dynamic relation, and cooperative through 'security regardless parts', 'system software', 'call-center service¡¦; However government policies can actually drive the industry to develop, and combine the energy of the automobile and electronic industry, but government should offer more encourage policies to replace managing, restricted ones.

近年來台灣報業經營不善、新聞質量江河日下，基層新聞從業人員飽受雙重壓力－外有社會各界的針砭與責難，內臨管理階層的壓逼，乃至於解職。本研究認為，前述現象的形成，成因眾多，然而媒體「勞動」乃是價值產生的泉源，卻未曾得到管理階層正視，應是相當重要的因素之一。本文因此透過「閱聽人商品」的辨析，指出生產價值者並非閱聽人之勞動之後，轉進有關價值的真正來源，也就是「記者」的勞動，以及「記者後備軍」之「勞動」，次第分析。透過對這三類主體的「媒體勞動」之分析，研究者希冀本論文－（一）藉由相關理論的比對與整理，從勞動的角度，初步建立理解資本體制的商營媒介之概念架構；（二）論稱「報業危機」的根本原因在於報業主採取了不利於「生產性勞動」的生產策略；（三）經由個案觀察，對做為未來記者的「記者後備軍」（學生）進行探索式觀察，以作為日後探論本領域其他「非典型勞動」的基礎。 / In recent years, Taiwanese newspaper industry has suffered from substaintial financial losses, and consequently its quality deteriorated. As such, the newsworkers faced double-bounded pressusures－ there have been acute criticisms from the society, and there is enforced worsening of working conditions, for many instances that they are made redundant. There might be various reasons responsible for the phenomenon above, however, the researcher contends that the most important factor is the management does not take the media "labour" as the real source of the value. Therefore, this article kept the audience out of the valorization by discerning the "audience commodity", and pointed out that the fountain of value might only be the labour power those journalists and the "reserve-army-of-journalsit" provided. By analizing the three categories of the "media labor", the author hopes this dissertation－(1) to build up a primary concept framework from the stand of "labor" to understand the media biz in capitalism by theoretical comparison, (2) to argue that the fundemental cause for the press crisis is the press owner took strategies in disadvantage of "productive labor", and (3) to offer a basis to explore the other "informal labor" in this field by an observation toward a group of " reserve army of journalist", who are students currently served for press for chances to be journalists in the future.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 2000. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 140-152).

In this study we analyse the role of speculation in forging cross-market linkages between agriculture, equity and crude oil over the period 1992-2014. The market interdependence of ten U.S. traded agricultural commodities futures is measured through the spillover index of Diebold and Yilmaz (2009, 2012) and the dynamic conditional correlation framework of Engle (2002). Utilising data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, ve dierent measures of speculation are constructed, which are used to examine the long-run and short-run dynamics between market integration and speculation. To explore time-varying characteristics in this relationship, and as a test for robustness, we perform a sub-sampling analysis for the periods 1992-2006 and 2006-2014. We show that cross-market linkages grew stronger post-2005, particularly in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. The results of our econometric analysis indicate that any conclusions regarding the role of speculation in this process are highly sensitive both to the choice of market integration measure, as well as to how the extent of speculation is captured. Overall, though, there is little to indicate that speculation has played an important role in creating cross-market linkages. We do provide some evidence of market integration increasing with market size, but other factors, such as inflation and exchange rates, seem to provide better explanations of agriculture-equity-energy price dynamics. In line with previous research, we also find market interdependence to increase with stock market uncertainty, which suggests that the diversification benefits of commodity futures investments are actually reduced when needed the most. Considered together with our findings on the sizes of markets, which are increasingly made up of speculators, it appears at least possible that financialisation has made food markets more vulnerable to disturbances in financial markets.