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Constrained electrical power systems and the long lead times ne eded for new capacity necessitate interim demand side management measures such as t ime-of-use (TOU) pricing. This form of electricity pricing has the potential to reduce system peak demand and thus improve the efficiency of power systems. Such time differenti ated pricing mechanisms have been used successfully in the industrial and commercial secto rs to shift demand out of the peak periods but have yet to be implemented in the residential sector in South Africa (SA). TOU schemes are based on the cost of supply and reflect, in part , the changes in short-run marginal costs. In contrast the conventional residential tariffs in SA are based on flat rate structures and recover long-run costs only. The analysis of the impact of such schemes, for both the utility as well as the customers, is gaining importance once more, particularly when most utilities are contemplating the implementation of smart s ystems and advanced metering infrastructures and the costs associated with this. A recent TOU pilot project, HomeFlex, is analysed from an ec onometric point of view. Panel data sets for both treatment groups and the control group ar e obtained from the pilot project database for each customer in two separate experiments in two separate geographic areas. The Caves and Christensen approach is used and the const ant elasticity of substitution functional form is chosen. Conditioning variables such as daily consumpti on per customer as well as climate effects are included in the ordinary lea st squares regression in order to establish the relationship between peak and off-peak consumption and the extent of the substitutability of these two commodities. The elasticity of substitution estimates obtained for stage 1 of the analysis range from 0.339 to 0.384. The conditioning variables enter the analysis as modifie rs to the estimates but their effect is insignificant. The stage 2 estimates range from 0.457 to 0.518. The effect of the conditioning variables is also statistically insignificant at this stage. The effect of the daily and weekly price ratio is therefore the primary factor in det ermining the response of customers to TOU pricing in the HomeFlex project. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

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The following items are discussed in the scientific work: -quality costs; -continuous improvement, the influence of quality costs accounting and analysis over the continuous improvement; - introduction of quality costs accounting in the company, analysis of quality costs and improvement possibilities on the example of Stock Company “Ekranas”; -the problems related to the quality costs striving for continuous improvement. The aim of the work is to find out the influence of quality costs accounting and analysis methods over the continuous improvement on the example of Stock Company “Ekranas” and to prepare suggestions for the methods of company’s quality costs accounting and analysis. .

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We study optimal replacement and abandonment decisions for real assets, when both revenues and costs are uncertain and deteriorate with age. We develop an implicit representation of the renewal boundary as the solution to a set of simultaneous equations. This quasi-analytical method has the merit of computational ease and transparency. We show that the correlation between revenues and operating costs has a significant influence on the renewal boundary, and that the increase in revenue immediately following a renewal has a greater relative influence on the boundary than either operating cost or renewal cost. The quasi-analytical method is sufficiently flexible to deal with other real option models involving 2 variables.

This thesis investigates the impact of domestic transport costs and location on exports originating from exporting regions within a developing country. It is presented in the form of three articles, each addressing a different aspect. These articles are accompanied by a literature review of the background and impact of domestic transport costs on trade. The first article provides empirical evidence for the significance of domestic transport costs in exports and the spatial location of manufacturing exporters. Cubic-spline density functions are used and the results indicate (a) the proximity to a port is an important consideration in most export-oriented manufacturing firms' location, with more than 70% of manufactured exports in South Africa originating from a band of 100 km from an export hub; and (b) there appears to be a second band of these firms at a distance of between 200 and 400 km from the hub. Between 1996 and 2004, manufactured exports in the band between 200 km and 400 km from the nearest hub increased, suggesting either an increase in manufactured exports that depend on natural resources due to demand factors, and/or a decrease in domestic transport costs, amongst others. The second article investigates the question of the location of exporters of manufactured goods within a country. Based on insights from new trade theory, the new economic geography (NEG) and gravity-equation modelling, an empirical model is specified with agglomeration and increasing returns (the home-market effect) and transport costs (proxied by distance) as major determinants of the location decision of exporters. Data from 354 magisterial districts in South Africa are used with a variety of estimators (OLS, Tobit, RE-Tobit) and allowances for data shortcomings (bootstrapped standard errors and analytical weights) to identify the determinants of regional manufactured exports. It is found that the home-market effect (measured by the size of local GDP) and distance (measured as the distance in km to the nearest port) are significant determinants of regional manufactured exports. This article contributes to the literature by using developing country data, and by adding to the small literature on this topic. This article complements the work of Nicolini (2003) on the determinants of exports from European regions and finds that the home-market effect is relatively more important in the developing country context (South Africa), a finding consistent with theoretical NEG models such as those of Puga (1998). The third article is an empirical study of the relationship between export diversity and economic growth in a developing country context. Using export data from19 sectors within 354 sub-national (magisterial) districts of South -Africa, various measures of subnational export diversity are constructed. It is found that it is not only important how much is exported, but that it is also important what it is that is exported. Regions with less specialisation and more diversified exports generally experienced higher economic growth rates, and contributed more to overall exports from South Africa. It is also found that distance (and thus domestic transport costs) from a port is inversely related to the degree of export diversity. Estimating a cubic-spline density function for the Herfindahl index measure of export diversity, it is found that export diversity declines as the distance from a port (export hub) increases. Most magisterial districts with high export diversity values are located within 100 km of the nearest port. Furthermore, comparing the cubic-spline density functions for 1004 with those of 1996 shows that distance (domestic transport costs) has become more important since 1996 (under greater openness) with magisterial districts located further than 100 km from the ports being less diverse in 2003 than in 1996. One may speculate that a possible explanation for this changing pattern of export diversity may be the impact of greater foreign direct investment (FDI) in South Africa since 1996. / Thesis (Ph.D. (International Commerce))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007