The world is experiencing yet another energy- and fuel predicament as oil prices are escalating to new hights. Alternative fuels are being promoted globally as the increasing gasoline prices trigger inflation. Basic food commodities are some of the goods hit by this inflation and the purpose of this thesis is to analyse whether the higher maize and sugar prices are having any effect on the expanding ethanol production. This thesis focuses on the two major crop inputs in ethanol production: maize (in the US) and sugar cane (in Brazil). Econometric tests using cross-sectional data were carried through to find the elasticities of the variables. The crops prices were tested against ethanol output using the log-linear model in several regressions to find a relationship. In addition, the output levels of the crops were tested using the same method. It was found that maize prices and output affects ethanol production. Sugar cane prices do not have any significant impact on ethanol production while sugar cane output has a small, yet significant relationhip with ethanol. Consequently, ethanol’s rise in the fuel market could be a result of increased maize input, rather than sugar. / Dagens värld upplever ännu ett energi- och bränsle predikament när oljepriser eskalerar mot nya höjder. Alternativa bränslen marknadsförs globalt samtidigt som de stigande bensinpriserna stimulerar inflationen. Några av de varor som drabbas av denna inflation är grundläggande livsmedelsprodukter och syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera huruvida de högre priserna på majs och socker påverkar den expanderande etanolproduktionen. Uppsatsen fokuserar på de två stora grödor som används som insatsvaror vid framställningen av etanol: majs (i USA) och sockerrör (i Brasilien). Ekonometriska tester genomfördes för att erhålla variablernas elasticiteter med hjälp av den cross-sectional data som behandlades. Genom log-linear modellen utfördes det ett antal regressioner för att hitta ett samband mellan grödornas priser och etanolproduktionen. Därutöver genomfördes tester för att hitta sambandet mellan grödornas utbud och etanol med hjälp av samma modell. Det upptäcktes att både pris och utbudet av majs påverkar etanolproduktionen. Sockerrörspriser har ingen signifikant inverkan på etanolproduktionen medan utbudet av sockerrör har en signifikant, om än svag, relation till etanol. Följaktligen kan etanols tillväxt i  bränslemarknaden tolkas som ett resultat av en stigande majsinsats snarare än sockerinstats vid etanolframställningen.

<p> </p><p>The world is experiencing yet another energy- and fuel predicament as oil prices are escalating to new hights. Alternative fuels are being promoted globally as the increasing gasoline prices trigger inflation. Basic food commodities are some of the goods hit by this inflation and the purpose of this thesis is to analyse whether the higher maize and sugar prices are having any effect on the expanding ethanol production. This thesis focuses on the two major crop inputs in ethanol production: maize (in the US) and sugar cane (in Brazil). Econometric tests using cross-sectional data were carried through to find the elasticities of the variables. The crops prices were tested against ethanol output using the log-linear model in several regressions to find a relationship. In addition, the output levels of the crops were tested using the same method. It was found that maize prices and output affects ethanol production. Sugar cane prices do not have any significant impact on ethanol production while sugar cane output has a small, yet significant relationhip with ethanol. Consequently, ethanol’s rise in the fuel market could be a result of increased maize input, rather than sugar.</p><p> </p> / <p>Dagens värld upplever ännu ett energi- och bränsle predikament när oljepriser eskalerar mot nya höjder. Alternativa bränslen marknadsförs globalt samtidigt som de stigande bensinpriserna stimulerar inflationen. Några av de varor som drabbas av denna inflation är grundläggande livsmedelsprodukter och syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera huruvida de högre priserna på majs och socker påverkar den expanderande etanolproduktionen. Uppsatsen fokuserar på de två stora grödor som används som insatsvaror vid framställningen av etanol: majs (i USA) och sockerrör (i Brasilien). Ekonometriska tester genomfördes för att erhålla variablernas elasticiteter med hjälp av den cross-sectional data som behandlades. Genom log-linear modellen utfördes det ett antal regressioner för att hitta ett samband mellan grödornas priser och etanolproduktionen. Därutöver genomfördes tester för att hitta sambandet mellan grödornas utbud och etanol med hjälp av samma modell. Det upptäcktes att både pris och utbudet av majs påverkar etanolproduktionen. Sockerrörspriser har ingen signifikant inverkan på etanolproduktionen medan utbudet av sockerrör har en signifikant, om än svag, relation till etanol. Följaktligen kan etanols tillväxt i  bränslemarknaden tolkas som ett resultat av en stigande majsinsats snarare än sockerinstats vid etanolframställningen.</p>

This study is based on data regarding the social, economic, and demographic characteristics of 130 countries, and uses fixed effects estimation for the model analysis. It demonstrates that tourism development represents a complex process, which requires the implication of a multitude of stakeholders. Macroeconomic factors, such as GDP per capita growth and economic openness, are having a positive impact because they benefit private ownership and motivate people to open tourism-related businesses. Overall, higher carbon dioxide emissions and worse safety are having a negative effect over tourism development. Human development factors, such as education, are generally beneficial to the long-term tourism growth because they serve as positive externalities. Clustering the initial dataset based on various economic, demographic and social factors brought several new conclusions. Particularly, GDP per capita growth is not an important tourism development factor among developed countries, whereas the dummy variable for the year 2010 is a substantial one. Education and economic freedom are particularly important regressors for post-socialist states. The former is also crucial among African countries and in the Latin American region, where safety has also an essential impact over tourism development. Finally, tourism in small states would benefit the most from lower emissions,whereas in big states the best strategy for the policymaker would be to increase safety measures.

This thesis examines inter-industry wage differentials in the Czech Republic, using the European Union - Statistics on Income and Living (EU-SILC 2009) survey as our primary data source. Findings show that even after controlling for large number of workers and jobs characteristics wage differences based on industry affiliation still persist. The variation of the inter-industry wage differentials amounts to approximately 5 percent with the maximum wage level difference of 25 percent between the financial sector and agriculture. By applying two distinct methodologies we tested the hypothesis that the inter-industry wage differentials are actually caused by higher concentration of workers with better unmeasured abilities in higher-paying industries. Neither of the two methods rejected the unobserved ability hypothesis. Finally, our analysis also shows that the inter-industry wage differentials can be to a certain extent attributed to rent-sharing and different labour turnover costs across sectors.

The class of models which is studied in this paper, multi-unit longitudinal models, combines both the cross-sectional and the longitudinal aspects of observations. Many empirical investigations involve the analysis of data structures that are both cross-sectional (observations are taken on several units at a specific time period or at a specific location) and longitudinal (observations on the same unit are taken over time or space). Multi-unit longitudinal data structures arise in economics and business where panels of subjects are studied over time, biostatistics where groups of patients on different treatments are observed over time, and in situations where data are taken over time and space. Modelling issues in multi-unit longitudinal models with random coefficients and patterned correlation structure are illustrated in the context of two data sets. The first data set deals with short time series data on annual death rates and alcohol consumption for twenty-five European countries. The second data set deals with glaceologic time series data on snow temperature at 14 different locations within a small glacier in the Austrian Alps. A practical model building approach, consisting of model specification, estimation, and diagnostic checking, is outlined. (author's abstract) / Series: Forschungsberichte / Institut für Statistik

- 1 - Abstract The intent of this thesis is to evaluate the differences in facial morphology of children between 3 and 15 years of age based on 3D facial models and cross-sectional data. Due to improper use of cross-sectional data for studying growth, the next part of the thesis is focused on the comparison of cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches in research. The longitudinal observation of facial developmental changes can be considered as actual growth. The cross-sectional database contains 839 3D facial models (397 boys, 442 girls). Three previously published longitudinal databases were used for comparison. Their age intervals were as follows: 3 to 6 years (12 boys, 14 girls), 6 to 12 years (15 boys, 18 girls), 12 to 15 years (23 boys, 22 girls). Geometric morphometric methods were used to analyse facial models (Coherent Point Drift - Dense Correspondance Analysis, Per Vertex T-Test and Principal Component Analysis). The results were visualized using superimposition colour maps, shell distance significance maps and their interlacing. When annual consecutive age intervals were used for cross-sectional data, we could not observe the fluency of differences in facial morphology between age categories, which we can observe during actual growth. When wider age intervals were used for cross-sectional...

- 1 - Abstract The intent of this thesis is to evaluate the differences in facial morphology of children between 3 and 15 years of age based on 3D facial models and cross-sectional data. Due to improper use of cross-sectional data for studying growth, the next part of the thesis is focused on the comparison of cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches in research. The longitudinal observation of facial developmental changes can be considered as actual growth. The cross-sectional database contains 839 3D facial models (397 boys, 442 girls). Three previously published longitudinal databases were used for comparison. Their age intervals were as follows: 3 to 6 years (12 boys, 14 girls), 6 to 12 years (15 boys, 18 girls), 12 to 15 years (23 boys, 22 girls). Geometric morphometric methods were used to analyse facial models (Coherent Point Drift - Dense Correspondance Analysis, Per Vertex T-Test and Principal Component Analysis). The results were visualized using superimposition colour maps, shell distance significance maps and their interlacing. When annual consecutive age intervals were used for cross-sectional data, we could not observe the fluency of differences in facial morphology between age categories, which we can observe during actual growth. When wider age intervals were used for cross-sectional...