Objective The goal of this dissertation was to identify evidence regarding potential means to reduce healthcare spending on youth injury while protecting and promoting the health of our youth. The first analysis estimated and analyzed both the financial costs and time lost from sports injuries among inpatient and ED youth patients to aid in identifying key populations, raising awareness to policy makers, and emphasizing the need of prevention programs for sports injury. The second analysis analyzed the effect of volume and trauma center (TC) ownership type on trauma alert response charges, which are billed to injured patients for a trauma team activation. The objectives of the third analysis were to evaluate associations of mechanism of injury in youth who have been misclassified as trauma alerts, and to analyze the effect of misclassified youth on healthcare costs. Methods The first study was a retrospective analysis of sports injuries identified in Florida’s Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA) 2010-2014 all-inclusive inpatient and ED datasets. The study population included all hospital patients, aged 5 to 18 years, with a recorded injury from sport. Fixed effects linear and negative binomial regression were used. In the second analysis, every inpatient who visited a TC in Florida and was billed a trauma response charge from 2012 to 2014 was included for a total of 45,993 observations. Multiple linear regression, controlling for patient and hospital factors, was used to find associations between volume and trauma response charges and hospital ownership type and charges. Severity elasticity of trauma response charges was calculated by ownership type. AHCA's 2012-2014 inpatient and financial data were used in the third analysis. The study population included patients, aged 5 to 18 years with no surgery, an ICISS score ≥ .90, a hospital stay less than 24 hours, discharged to home, with recorded mechanism and defined injury. Misclassified patients were those designated as a trauma alert in the field. Logistic and multivariable linear regression were used. Results Over the five year period, sports injuries in Florida youth cost $24,555,547 for inpatient care and $87,083,482 for ED care. Youth spent 10,397 days in the hospital and a total of 536,893 hours in the ED. Youth averaged $6,039 and 2.5 days for an inpatient visit and $439 and 2.3 hours for an ED visit in costs from sports injuries. Volume had a significant, inverse relationship with trauma response charges. For-profit TCs had statistically higher trauma response charges and government owned TCs had statistically lower trauma response charges than not-for-profits. For-profit TCs had an inelastic response to severity for trauma response charges. The mechanisms of injury of firearm, motor vehicle traffic, and transport were significantly, positively associated with misclassification as a trauma alert. Inpatient costs were associated with an 87% increase for patients who were misclassified as a trauma alert. Conclusion Older athletes and males consistently have high healthcare costs from sports. Baseball, basketball, bike riding, football, rollerskating/skateboarding, and soccer are sports with high costs for both ED patients and inpatients and would benefit from prevention programs. Injuries from noncontact sport participants are few but can have high costs. These athletes could benefit from prevention programs as well. Trauma response charges are higher when patient volume is reduced and at for-profit TCs. If injured youth had visited government or not-for-profit TCs, an estimated annual $6.5 to $8.3 million reduction in trauma response charges would have occurred. Reducing these charges are a potential way to reduce excessive healthcare spending without decreasing quality. Mechanism of injury is not a reliable predictor of trauma and was associated with misclassification of pediatric patients with minor injuries as trauma alerts. Costs were higher for mildly injured patients who were trauma alerted, in part due to the trauma alert charge.

Currently 35 per cent of the total water storage available in South African dams has deteriorated in water quality due to excessive nutrient loading. Eutrophication poses a significant threat to freshwater resources in South Africa. Although there are policies in place to deal with this threat, the problem of eutrophication still persists. The main goal of this study was to investigate the existence of tradeoffs between the different economic costs associated with eutrophication in the Vaal River System. This was done with the aim of understanding the water quality management policy implications that follow as a result of the existence of tradeoffs between the different economic costs associated with eutrophication in the Vaal River System. This study contributed to the understanding of the current and historic impact of eutrophication on the Vaal River System. Using Seemingly Unrelated Regressions (sample period 1996 – 2006), similar to De Villiers (2009) and Mostert (2009), this study revealed that the impact of eutrophication on property prices in the study areas was not discernible. This study further confirmed that eutrophication had an economic impact on agriculture and water treatment. Future research is necessary to estimate coefficients in the case of extreme eutrophication level changes. Estimation techniques such as System Wide Dynamic Modelling, which combines traditional data and expert opinion, can capture the impacts of extreme eutrophication level changes. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Economics / unrestricted

Agriculture is considered a critical sector in attaining economic growth for most economies in Africa. However, for the sector to play its role, it needs to be commercialised to enable smallholder farmers to participate in markets and, hence, improve their incomes and livelihoods. In most developing economies, smallholder farmers find it difficult to participate in markets because of the numerous constraints and barriers mostly reflected in the transaction costs that make access to input and output markets difficult. When analysing the effects of transaction costs on market participation, much attention has been accorded to farmers while ignoring middlemen/traders who are also part of the marketing system. Furthermore, studies on the effect of transaction costs on market participation tend to focus on grains and cereals while ignoring agrocommodities that are more perishable. The purpose of this study was to holistically examine the effects of transaction costs on participation of smallholder farmers and middlemen in banana markets of the Great Lakes region in central Africa. The study adopted a non-separable household model which incorporated fixed and proportional transaction costs in the function of maximising utility subject to resource constraints. The Heckman procedure was used to determine the factors affecting the discrete choice of smallholder farmers on whether to sell and quantities to sell while catering for selection biases. Probit analysis was used to determine the farmers’ choice of selling point while the ordinary least squares method was used to analyse the extent of participation of traders. Variables capturing transaction costs in regards to information gathering, negotiating, contracting, monitoring and enforcing of contracts were used in the analyses. The empirical analyses were based on secondary data availed for 2666 farming households and 494 traders located in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. The results of the study indicate that fixed and proportional transaction costs distinctly affect the participation of smallholder farmers in markets. Belonging to farmer groups facilitates information exchange which reduces fixed transaction costs and, hence, increases the likelihood of farmers to participate in markets. The size of a household, distance to markets and ownership of transport means, which is linked to proportional transaction costs, influence the extent of farmer participation in markets. The choice of selling point was significantly influenced by household size, the gender of the household head, off farm revenue, access to price information and the extent of remoteness of household. The effects of transaction costs on market participation of smallholder farmers were more evident in the analyses for bananas than in the one for beans. The participation of traders was significantly influenced by gender, trading experience and supply distance which relate to the bargaining prowess, business networks and per unit transport cost, respectively. Interventions geared towards supporting associations for farmers may facilitate information exchange and enhance bargaining and contracting skills which subsequently reduce transaction costs. Policies aimed at supporting investment in rural infrastructure, in terms of feeder road networks and market places, can lead to reduction in transaction costs and thereby enhance participation of farmers and traders in markets. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted

The Public Hurricane Model developed at FIU by a team of scientists has to be certified by the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology. The commission ensures that all hurricane loss models meet certain standards, as models are used extensively by regulators and insurance firms to produce inputs used in the homeowner insurance rate making process. The focus of this thesis is to conduct sensitivity and uncertainty analysis through the calculation of standardized regression coefficients and expected percentage reductions in expected loss costs in order to meet the commission standards. The commission approved the model after very extensive and rigorous review by a panel of experts. The results generated for sensitivity and uncertainty, form S-6, showed the importance of the Holland B parameter regardless of hurricane category, with the radius of maximum winds increasing in importance for stronger hurricanes.

South Africa’s private sector and the practice of using market processes are often dismissed by the government as service providing options, because they increase costs and fail the poor population. There is some substance to the government’s position, given that there is a natural monopoly advantage in water service provision. Under these circumstances it could be expected that a single firm would emerge as dominant in the provision of these services to urban customers. Were this firm a private one, and unregulated, it could be expected to practice exploitative pricing, make excess profits, and undersupply waste water management service. A private firm would also not provide services to the poor unless their service was subsidised. However most of these deficiencies can be regulated (as shown in Chapter Four), and also occur under public sector provision (as shown in Chapter Five) Are the private sector failures sufficient reason to abandon the market and private sector as mechanisms to deliver water service in South Africa? This dissertation finds little use is made of market processes and the private sector in water service provision (Chapter One), despite there being legal provision for such involvement (Chapter Two). It also finds that public water service providers are not subject to competition policy and consumer protection provisions, whereas private sector providers would be (Chapter Three). The administration of questionnaires to municipalities and the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) show that the various water service providers often operate under unique circumstances, making it difficult to extrapolate management insights from one municipality to another (Chapter Six). A case study on Nelson Mandela Bay Municipal tariff setting reveals a mismatch between economic principle and policy practice, and suggests that economic principle plays a lesser role in the design of tariff structures than other factors (Chapter Seven). Given the problems that are occurring in public sector water service provision, the dissertation concludes the case for dismissing private sector or public utility models for water service delivery may be weaker than is believed by the South African government.

The impact of immigrants on the labour market in the South African context has always been a long standing issue with both government and natives’ fearing for the latter’s displacement effect, pressure on wages and resources. Migrants are blamed for poor labour market conditions of a host country. Literature reviewed from Africa and elsewhere shows that migrants have negative outcomes on the host country’s labour market. For this study an Error Correction Model on time series data from 1980-2006 has been estimated. The study estimated two models that is the unemployment and the wages models. The variables used for estimation are immigration, inflation and the Gross Domestic Product. The study surprisingly found a positive impact of immigrants on wages but the effect on employment was negative and significant. It is important to note here that the calculated impact is only for the documented immigrants the impact the illegal ones is not known.

This diploma thesis deals with prostate cancer, contains informations about this affection and in the practical part I deal with costs, which are used on treatment for prostate cancer. The theoretical part presents prostate cancer, its symptoms, risky factors and diagnostic. Furthermore introduces treatment methodes of prostate cancer, its classifying and insertion to stages. In the theoretical part are calculated costs on the individual modalities of prostate cancer treatment. These costs are compared with datas received from Hospital in Jihlava during the treatment of this affection. In the end sumarise costs of this treatment and analyse propriety of punctual screening of illness.

In my dissertation there are all basic data and abstracts, which involve the questions of fleet of Zdravotnická záchranná služba Jihočeského kraje. Mostly I was concentrated on the structure of fleet as well as costs. Currently I tried to describe the problems of logistics and fleet management. Through the analysis of fleet I solved the questions related to costs and incomes of this company. Further I prepared structural analyse, which concentrates on the number and types of cars, also the satisfaction, which is connected with their using. The detailed analysis enabled me to penetrate and explore the branch of costs and incomes. All data are described with graphs and tables.

The theoretical part of the thesis includes the main characteristics of firm's accounting statements and the use of information from accounting statemensts. In the chapter called "The use of information from the accounting statements" is also availability, reliability, intelligibility and comparability of data. The last part of the theoretical thesis are the time limits of publication data. The practical part of the thesis includes the main characteristics of the H. S. O. stavební a obchodní spol. s r. o. and the firm's accounting statements. Next chapter consists of the analysis of costs, revenues and income statement in the time series (the analyse of income statement summarizes costs and revenues). The time series is from 2005 to 2007. The last part of the thesis includes the cash flow analyse in the time series.

Business management is nowadays to a great extent information demanding. It is important to understand the environment in which the company is functioning. Almost every company possesses databases of customers, competitors, suppliers and others according to its needs. It is obvious that no company can do without the information concerning its internal activities, for instance, systems of cost management, motivational and supervisory systems. To be able to adapt to the changing environment, as well as to changes inside the company, each firm should have a carefully worked-out information system. The aim of this thesis is to suggest proper measures to improve the cost management information system of a chosen company, using the given data and practices of controlling. As the methods of research there are mostly used description, analysis and comparison.