This diploma thesis discusses the problem of asymmetrically distributed information between economic agents who interact with each other. It describes the historical development of asymmetric information in economic theory. It mainly focuses on possible emergence of inefficiencies due to asymmetrically distributed information. It describes the model of adverse selection. The thesis also points out how it is possible to apply this model of adverse selection together with knowledge of contract theory to partly overcome these inefficiencies. The aim of the study is to show on concrete examples how to design optimal contract and how these optimal contract can minimize the impact of asymmetric information on economic efficiency.

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La thèse s’intéresse à l’émergence de la déforestation tropicale comme problème que doivent traiter les négociations internationales sur le changement climatique. Depuis 2005, les représentants gouvernementaux du monde entier investiguent les moyens d’organiser l’action internationale pour inciter, économiquement, à maintenir sur pied le stock de carbone des forêts tropicales. D’un tel projet découle une foule de problèmes que la thèse propose d’analyser par une enquête ethnographique et multisite. Certains sont engendrés par la dimension mondiale de l’entreprise : il faut décider entre Etats souverains, trouver des méthodes de mesure comparables et concevoir des systèmes de redistribution monétaires. Quand d’autres sont plus spécifiques aux pays forestiers tropicaux et leur forte dépendance à l’aide au développement : il faut faire avec les défaillances de l’administration et tenir compte de la parole des populations dites locales. La thèse montre que ces problèmes engendrent une activité distribuée, fragile et sélective. Parce que la coercition n’est pas possible, les ambitions de cet aménagement international sont modestes et les montages conçus pour inventer un mode de décision internationale, pour négocier la justesse des mesures du carbone ou pour induire des conduites morales font proliférer les médiations. / My work is about the constitution of tropical deforestation as a problem for climate change negotiations. Since 2005, governmental representatives have been investigating the means through which international action could be organized in order to maintain the carbon sequestered by tropical forests using economic incentives. This initiative has been fostering a range of issues that I analyze through a multisite ethnographical inquiry. Some of these problems are related to the initiative’s global dimension: sovereign states have to collectively decide, comparable measurement methods have to be created, and monetary redistribution systems have to be elaborated. Other problems are more specific to the situation of developing countries strongly dependent on development aid. In this latter case, public administration weaknesses cannot be ignored and the demands formulated by the so-called local communities cannot be bypassed. I show that these issues produce a distributed, fragile and selective activity. Since coercion is not an option, the ambitions of these international adjustments are modest and the arrangements created to invent international decision-making, to negotiate the right measure or to induce moral conducts make mediators proliferate.

The deficiency of sub-Saharan Africa urban land use planning regimes has received extensive discussion in the literature. As yet, little is known of the extent and magnitude of the economic impact of these planning regimes on the economic wellbeing of individuals and the society. This situation is further compounded by the lack of simplified and bespoke methodologies for calibrating economic impacts of planning policies even in the developed world where there are relatively huge volumes of organised data. This study aims to prescribe a simplified quantitative methodology, which is subsequently employed to gauge the economic impacts of these regimes. It proceeds on the central argument that planning regimes in the sub-region are weak with low compliance with planning regulations, partly because they do not provide incentives for property owners/developers/land users. The study adopts a cross-sectional survey strategywith questionnaires and administrative data extraction to procure the requisite data from Accra, Ghana to feed the devised methodological framework. The study establishes that Ghana’s urban land use planning regime, in its current form, imposes huge cost on residential property owners compared to its benefits; it creates a disincentive for property owners. A substantial amount of this cost emanates from pipe-borne water, and tarred roads and concrete drain infrastructural facilities. It is further established that the cost of title formalisation requirement constitutes a huge portion of the cost on express requirements under the planning regime. A major portion of this cost results from the cost other than official fees. However, on individual basis the requirement generates marginal net benefit. Incidental costs for the other express requirements, architectural design and building permit are also substantial. In terms of benefits, tarred roads and concrete drains, formalised title, electricity and pipe-borne water, individually, are found to generate the most benefits under the planning regime. The study makes a number of recommendations. These include formulation of planning policies on the basis of providing incentives to property owners/developer/land users, strategies for reduction of infrastructural and amenities costs, as well as incidental cost relating to compliance with the subject planning regime express requirements.

Background: Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) is something that lately has gained increasing relevance and importance when it comes to consumers purchase decisions. Online reviews are considered to be the most important and reliable form of eWOM and it refers to when consumers communicate with other consumers online regarding their previous shopping experiences. In order to increase the generalizability and understanding of motives that influence consumers intention to write online reviews, authors of previous studies have suggested that future research should intend to focus on motives that influence intention to write online reviews in other contexts that are not aimed towards the service industry. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explain how personal- and social motives influence consumers intention to write online product reviews. Methodology: For this explanatory study, a quantitative strategy with a cross-sectional research design were used in order to test the model founded on two major hypotheses. The data was gathered through a self-completed questionnaire with a sample of 222 respondents. Findings: In this study, two major hypotheses were conducted in order to explain how personal motives and social motives influence consumers intention to write online product reviews. After analysing the data that emerged from the survey, a conclusion can be drawn that the hypothesis concerning personal motives and its influence on consumers intention to write online product reviews was accepted whereas the hypothesis concerning social motives was rejected. Conclusion: In this study, it has been recommended that future studies should test the suggestions found in this study with a more diverse sample in order to increase the generalizability of the theoretical implications. Furthermore, directions for future research will also recommend testing the modified model that emerged in this paper in order to detect if there are any additions that need to be added to increase the predictability of the findings.

Les sécheresses des années 1970 accentuées dans les années 1980 et les aménagements hydroagricoles ont eu pour conséquence une certaine dégradation des ressources naturelles du delta intérieur du fleuve Niger (DIN). Cette dégradation des ressources naturelles associées à la pression croissante de la population sur le milieu a conduit à une gestion conflictuelle de ces ressources. De plus, le système d’exploitation actuel des ressources et le fonctionnement hydrologique font du DIN un écosystème complexe à gérer. Dans ces travaux, nous adoptons une approche intégrée et pluridisciplinaire pour aborder la problématique de gestion des ressources du DIN. L’approche mobilise l’hydrologie, la sociologie, l’agronomie et l’économie. L’analyse des données hydrologiques a permis de mettre en évidence une différence significative entre les dates de passage des maximums des fleuves Niger et Bani qui alimentent le DIN. Cette différence impacte les calendriers des principaux systèmes de production contribuant ainsi à exacerber les conflits. Les stratégies de gestion élaborées avec les parties prenantes, allient des pratiques de sécurisation et de maîtrise de l’eau, d’intensification, de régénération des ressources, de renforcement des capacités et des incitations économiques. Par ailleurs, dans un contexte de variabilité climatique accrue, nous avons analysé les perceptions d’un échantillon de pêcheurs, d’éleveurs et de cultivateurs sur la prévision du climat et sur l’intérêt des prévisions climatiques et des crues. Il ressort que les besoins en information climatique des usagers d’une plaine inondable comme le DIN se rapportent surtout aux dates de début de saison, de passage des maximums de crue, de la date d’arrivée des crues et des hauteurs maximales de crue. L’intérêt économique simulé de l’information climatique pour un système agraire de riziculture inondée présente un gain moyen de 10%. Par contre le coût des éventuelles erreurs de prévision serait particulièrement élevé pour les producteurs avec un déficit moyen sur le revenu de 24%. / The droughts of the 1970s intensified in the 1980s and the development of irrigation schemes upstream of the Inner Niger Delta in Mali (IND) have resulted in the degradation of natural resources. This degradation of natural resources associated with the increasing population pressure on the environment has led to a more conflictive management of these resources. In addition, the current operating system of resources and the hydrological functioning of the IND make the management of the ecosystem more complex.In this work, we adopt an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to address the IND resource management issues. The approach mobilizes hydrology, sociology, agronomy and economy.The analysis of hydrological data has highlighted a significant difference between the maximum passing dates of the two rivers that supply the IND. This difference impacts the schedules of the main production systems thus contributing to exacerbate conflict. The management strategies developed with stakeholders combine the practices of security and water control, intensification, resource regeneration, capacity building and economic incentives. Moreover, in a context of increased climate variability, we analyzed the perceptions of a sample of fishermen, herders and farmers on climate prediction and their interest of climate and flood forecasts.. It appears that the need for climate information of floodplain users as IND relate mainly to the onset date of rainy season, flood maximum passaging date, the arrival of floods and flood peak heights.The simulated economic value of climate information for an agrarian system of flooded rice obtains an average gain of 10%. As against the cost of possible prediction errors is particularly high for producers with an average deficit on income of 24%.

A presente dissertação analisa como a ausência de incentivos adequados no seguro saúde ocasiona o surgimento do fenômeno conhecido como risco moral e suas conseqüências na determinação da demanda de serviços médicos. O trabalho envolve a revisão da literatura e a estimação de um modelo econométrico que avalia a efetividade dos mecanismos de regulação no controle do risco moral por parte do paciente. A principal conclusão é que o risco moral por parte do paciente é importante para os serviços ambulatoriais, mas não ocorre nos serviços hospitalares. / This dissertation analyses how the lack of appropriate incentives motivates the emergence of moral hazard in health insurance and its consequences in the determination of medical services demand. The involves the literature review and the estimation of a econometric model, which evaluates the effectiveness of rationing mechanisms in the control of moral hazard motivated by the patient. The main conclusion is that moral hazard motivated by the patient is significant for ambulatory care, but it does not occur for inpatient care.

This dissertation consists of three essays, taking different perspectives on human capital. The first essay looks at human capital from a growth perspective. Essays two and three focuses on the individual’s occupational decision and its relation to family background. The first essay attempts to capture the effects on long run economic growth and transitional dynamics of the interaction between human capital and R&amp;D. We do this by allowing for endogenous human capital accumulation in an economy where the number of products and technologies expands because profit maximizing entrepreneurs do R&amp;D. We find that, in the absence of scale effects, long run growth is determined by the economy’s capacity to accumulate human capital. A relative lack of R&amp;D capital causes the economy to grow slowly during its transition to the steady state, while a relative abundance of R&amp;D capital gives high growth rates during transition. In the second essay, the classical Roy-model of selection on the labor market is extended in order to analyze intergenerational mobility. This is done through the introduction of ability uncertainty that is linked to family background. In contrast to to additional human capital models of intergenerational mobility, this mechanism rather than differences in access to capital markets links occupational oucomes of offspring to parents. We study the effects of income redistribution on mobility and talent allocation. It is found that redistribution has implications for intergenerational mobility and talent allocation through its influence on individual occupational choices. However, we conclude that the presence of a trade-off between redistribution and intergenerational mobility depends on the extent of similarity of occupations with regard to ability sensitivity and wage rates, and on the degree of individual risk aversion. Whether redistribution occurs only within an occupation or simultaneously within and across occupations is also inportant for the implicatons for mobility and talent allocation. In essay three, a model of occupational choice and human capital investment is developmed and tested. The model allows family background to influence occupational choice through access to economic resources, differences in costs of schooling, and ability uncertainty linked to background similar to that discussed in essay two. It is predicted that life time utility of children from less well-off background is more sensitive to economic incentives when risk aversion is strong. The model also predicts that people are more sensitive to economic incentives when considering occupations distant from their parent occuations. The implications of the theoretical model are tested and largely confirmed on Swedish data using a mixed multinominal logit framework which explicitly accounts for unobserved ability heterogeneity. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 1998</p>

A saúde faz parte da agenda de preocupações permanentes do governo e também de entidades não-governamentais de todo o mundo. A saúde do trabalhador, como assunto de interesse coletivo, está inserida dentro desse contexto. No Brasil, onde o índice de acidentes e doenças ocupacionais é significativo, tem-se exigido cada vez mais atenção das autoridades competentes para promover políticas públicas, que reforçem a prevenção e a segurança no meio ambiente do trabalho. Este trabalho tem como objetivo identificar o sistema de incentivos, da Teoria Econômica e aplicá-los no Direito do Trabalho como instrumento de auxilio na prevenção ou diminuição dos infortúnios laborais, através da Análise Econômica do Direito. Observar o Direito não só como um sistema de coerção, mas também como um sistema de incentivos com preços implícitos permite que se direcionem as escolhas dos indivíduos aos objetivos propostos pela legislação. / Submitted by Marcelo Teixeira (mvteixeira@ucs.br) on 2014-05-23T17:39:20Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Barbara Bedin.pdf: 599045 bytes, checksum: d75c54cc890ca82cb677917d1d98b8e8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-05-23T17:39:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Barbara Bedin.pdf: 599045 bytes, checksum: d75c54cc890ca82cb677917d1d98b8e8 (MD5) / The health is a part of the government´s permanent concerns agenda and also of non-governmental entities at the entire world. The worker´s health as collective interest subject is inserted inside of this context. In Brazil, where the occupational diseases and accidents is significant, it accounts itself demanded more and more attention from the competent authorities to promote public politics that they strengthen the prevention and the security in the environment of the labor. This work has as objective to identify the Economic Theory´s incentives system and apply them in the Labor Law as instrument of help in the prevention or reduction of the labor misfortunes, through the Economic Analysis of the Law. To observe the Law not only as a coercion system, but also as a incentives system with implicit prices it allows that the individuals´ choices are directed to the proposed objectives by the legislation.

A presente dissertação analisa como a ausência de incentivos adequados no seguro saúde ocasiona o surgimento do fenômeno conhecido como risco moral e suas conseqüências na determinação da demanda de serviços médicos. O trabalho envolve a revisão da literatura e a estimação de um modelo econométrico que avalia a efetividade dos mecanismos de regulação no controle do risco moral por parte do paciente. A principal conclusão é que o risco moral por parte do paciente é importante para os serviços ambulatoriais, mas não ocorre nos serviços hospitalares. / This dissertation analyses how the lack of appropriate incentives motivates the emergence of moral hazard in health insurance and its consequences in the determination of medical services demand. The involves the literature review and the estimation of a econometric model, which evaluates the effectiveness of rationing mechanisms in the control of moral hazard motivated by the patient. The main conclusion is that moral hazard motivated by the patient is significant for ambulatory care, but it does not occur for inpatient care.