During the last two decades, the European Union (EU) has experienced closer market integration through the removal of trade barriers, the establishment of a single market, and the reduction of exchange rate volatility. In addition, there have been several structural reforms in product markets designed to increase competition, monitor cross-country price differences and increase transparency. One anticipated effect of market integration is price convergence, because of the reduced potential for price discrimination across the EU. This dissertation explores market integration and price convergence in the European pharmaceutical market, which is the fifth largest industry in the EU. Since 1985, many EU directives have been adopted to achieve a single EU-wide pharmaceutical market, with the aim of enhancing the quality of life for European citizens and the European pharmaceutical industry's competitiveness and research and development capability. Using annual 1994--2003 data from five EU countries on prices of drugs used to treat cardiovascular disease, this dissertation explains how the integration process has affected cross-country drug price dispersion in the EU. The results show strong evidence of price convergence in the pharmaceutical market, with long term price differences arising from country fixed effects.

This dissertation consists of three papers that explore the intersection between geography and housing markets. The research examines both how geographic context shapes housing prices and how house prices influence geography through household location decisions.The first paper explores the spatial structure of housing prices within Tucson, Arizona. Hedonic house-price studies typically assume that housing attribute prices are constant over space. The research tests this assumption and compares two methods of incorporating spatial-varying parameters into house-price models: geographically weighted regression and the spatial expansion method. The results provide evidence that housing attribute prices do indeed vary with geographic context and suggest that more reliable parameter estimates and better house-price estimation accuracy can be achieved through the use of these techniques.The second paper builds upon the first by examining how more realistic conceptions of housing market spatial structure influence the hedonic price estimates of location-specific externalities. The empirical analysis examines how two key spatial effects, spatial dependence and spatial heterogeneity, impact the marginal price estimates for proximity to the Rillito River, within Tucson, Arizona. Both spatial effects are found to influence the resulting estimates, but spatial heterogeneity is of greater practical importance as the price estimates vary widely with geographic context. This research highlights the importance of considering both spatial effects in hedonic externality valuations.The final paper explores how housing prices influence interregional migration patterns, and more specifically, how their influence varies with both stage in the life course and educational attainment. The research models metropolitan migration within the United States during the period 1995 to 2000. The results indicate that housing prices play an important role in driving regional demographic change, as their influence varies with both demographic characteristics. High housing prices deter individuals in their late twenties and early thirties, but their influence wanes during middle age. House prices become more important as individuals near retirement. The results also provide evidence that college graduates respond more to house price differentials than do persons with lower levels of educational attainment.

In this thesis I estimate a monetary value of the risk attached to living near a hazardous waste site in the town of Teckomatorp. This site is the result of hundreds of rusty leaking barrels of toxins being buried in the ground by the company BT Kemi in the 1970’s. Ever since then the site has been remediated in several steps and is still contaminated today. For estimating the perceived risk of living near this site I use a hedonic price model (HP) which is a form of a revealed preference approach. In a HP model the price of a market good is a function of different utility-bearing characteristics and the estimated parameters can be used to calculate the implicit prices of these characteristics. In this case I use a data set from the National Swedish Institute for Building Research (IBF) and regress property price on a number of housing characteristics. I compare an estimated town-effect for Teckomatorp with the estimates for two control towns: Billeberga and Anderslöv. I can confirm my hypothesis that, after controlling for housing characteristics, there is a negative effect on prices of property in Teckomatorp. I find that property prices are on average 46878 SEK lower in Teckomatorp than in the two control towns.

The financial crisis of 2008 had systemic implications in the financial services industry spilling over into sectors such as the leverage loan market. I use regression analysis between two data sets (before and after the crisis) to understand the determinants of loan spreads for corporate loans of $100 million and larger, particularly the determinants which constitute bank effects, of the lead lending bank in the loan. I find that the effect of bank monitoring power is not a significant determinant of loan spreads, bank risk was significant before the crisis but not after, and bank size is significant both before and after. There is an inverse relationship between bank size and loan spread such that firms looking to take out a loan would receive a lower spread by mandating a larger bank as the lead arranger, and there is no longer a premium for mandating lead banks with less risk.

The buildings sector consumes approximately 40% of energy in the United States, and presents a major opportunity for reducing society's energy consumption and environmental impact. Given the potential downside impacts of climate change and resource depletion, it is imperative that the construction industry deliver buildings that meet owner requirements while using less energy and natural resources. In response to this challenge, the construction industry has adopted voluntary green building programs that provide guidelines for construction projects wishing to reduce their environmental impact. Green building programs also present the opportunity for those pushing beyond the status quo to receive increased recognition and market visibility; however, certification under these programs is not without an added cost. The added cost of certification varies by project, but building owners and builders must be able to justify this added cost through increased market recognition and sales and leasing prices. Given the relatively low recognition of a price premium for green certified residential properties by the real estate appraisal community and financial institutions, a need exists to demonstrate the added market recognition of these homes. Through the development of a hedonic regression pricing model this study isolates the effects of green building certification on housing sales prices, in order to prove the hypothesis that a significant increase in sales price is associated with green certified housing.

Pleasure is part of hedonic well-being, with roots back to Epicurus 2000 years ago. With the new evolving neuroscientific methods of the late 20th and beginning of the 21st century, we are now able to study the biological components of pleasure. This thesis aims to review empirical studies on the neural correlates of pleasure, which can have important implications for well-being, and treatment of addiction and affective disorders. Recent studies have suggested that pleasure can be separated into coding and causing. Discoveries show that causing of pleasure is created in so called hedonic hot spots, areas of the brain that intensely creates pleasure in the shell of nucleus accumbens and in the ventral pallidum. Areas that codes pleasure on the other hand is represented into more cortical areas of the brain, including orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insular cortex. There has been a growing understanding about how pleasure is represented in the brain, and a discussion on interpretations and limitations are provided followed by future research suggestions in the final section.

Syftet med denna studie är att analysera vad det är som påverkar bostadspriserna på Uppsalas bostadsmarknad. Det är spekulanternas önskemål och krav, det vill säga deras betalningsvilja som påverkar priset. Det kan skilja sig mellan olika spekulanter men för det mesta ses ett tydligt mönster. Spekulanter värdesätter t.ex. områden som ligger nära centrum. Detta kan bero på att Uppsala är en studentstad där det är många studenter som rör sig från och till staden varje år. Bekvämlighet och närhet till bland annat universitet väger in mycket. Studiens statistik kommer från en av Uppsalas största mäklarbyråer Widerlöv & Co. Möjligheten att bolla tankar och idéer med några av deras mäklare som har varit aktiva i branschen länge har varit värdefull. / The purpose of this study is to get an overview of what it is that affects housing prices at Uppsala's housing market. My conclusion is that speculator´s willingness to pay is effected by their wishes and demands. Speculator´s appreciate the areas close to the city center. This may be due to Uppsala is a university town where there are many students who are moving from and to the city every year. For example convenience and proximity to university is often a high wish. I had access to statistics from one of the Uppsala´s largest real estate agency Widerlöv & Co. I also had the opportunity to discuss ideas with some of their brokers who have been active in the industry for a long time.

With the South African retail industry being a major and attractive industry, marketers and retailers are pressured to obtain and maintain a competitive advantage by developing marketing strategies that appeal to various consumers. Retailers need to focus on satisfying consumers’ needs, as well as offering a full shopping experience. Shopping entails more than the mere selection of products. Consumers’ motivation or driving force behind the act of shopping is embedded in satisfying internal needs. These motivations are grouped into two collections, namely hedonic and utilitarian shopping motivations. Consumers driven by hedonic shopping motivations are interested in the shopping experience, as well as the experiential and emotional aspects thereof. However, consumers driven by utilitarian shopping motivations are goal-oriented and concerned with the task-related value and the functional aspects of shopping. Marketers and retailers may use consumer-shopping motives to divide the market into segments and develop strategies to target specific segments. Published literature on the consumer behaviour of the South African black Generation Y cohort is limited and an absence occurs with reference to the shopping motivations of this cohort. In the South African context, individuals born between 1986 and 2005, labelled Generation Y, account for 38 percent of the total South African population, and the black Generation Y individuals represent 83 percent of the total Generation Y cohort. Individuals within the black Generation Y cohort attaining tertiary qualifications are likely to represent the future ‘Black Diamonds’, enjoying higher earnings and a higher social status, which together is likely to make them opinion leaders amongst their peers. For that reason, the black Generation Y student cohort is an exceptionally attractive market segment, and it is critical for retailers and marketers to understand their shopping behaviour and motivations in order to develop effective marketing strategies. The purpose of this study was to determine South African black Generation Y students’ utilitarian and hedonic shopping motivations. The target population of this study comprised full-time undergraduate black Generation Y students; aged between 18 and 24 years and enrolled at South African registered public higher education institutions (HEIs). The sampling frame comprised the 23 registered South African public HEIs. A non-probability judgement sample method was utilised to select one traditional university and one university of technology in the Gauteng province, from the sampling frame. For this study, a convenience sample of 600 black Generation Y students enrolled at these two South African HEIs during 2013 was drawn. The relevant primary data was obtained by means of a self-administered questionnaire, which was hand delivered to the contacted lecturers at each of these two HEIs. These lecturers distributed the self-administered questionnaire during one lecture period. This questionnaire requested the participants to indicate on a six-point Likert scale the level of their agreement or disagreement on 26 items designed to measure their utilitarian and hedonic shopping motivations, as well as to provide certain demographic data. The findings of this study indicate that within the hedonic subscale, black Generation Y students found value and adventure shopping to be the strongest motivators for shopping. Within the utilitarian subscale, black Generation Y students found achievement to be the strongest motivator for shopping. Previous research found gender to have an influence on the hedonic and utilitarian shopping motivations of consumers. This study confirms previous findings where statistically significant differences were found between the shopping motivations of male and female black Generation Y students. The study found significant differences concerning the first-, second- and third-year black Generation Y students’ hedonic and utilitarian shopping motivations. Insights gained from this study will help both marketers and retailers understand the current black Generation Y consumers’ motivations for shopping with reference to hedonic and utilitarian shopping motivations. / MCom (Marketing Management), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

法拍屋市場已成為台灣重要的購屋管道之一，然而房地產為異質商品，其價格受到品質差異的影響很大。其中法拍屋底價的訂定方式和一般房屋不同：拍賣底價由公定房屋估價人員根據區域資料使用特徵價格理論方法先訂出初估價格，再與債權人、債務人三方協商討論而訂定。故本論文加入「定價偏誤」因子，以特徵價格模型探究民國八十九年至九十一年間影響台北縣市法拍屋拍定價格的各項因素及影響程度，並得出如下之結論: 1.影響台北縣市法拍屋拍定價格的顯著因子及影響幅度為:定價折價程度(影響幅度0.9798%)、總建物面積(影響幅度0.4709%)、土地持分價格(影響幅度0.4838%)、拍次(隱含價格-17.0308萬元)、競標人數(隱含價格7.611萬元)、房屋現況(非空屋)(隱含價格-18.950萬元)、房屋現況(出租)(隱含價格40.501萬元)、車位(隱含價格80.772萬元)、點交(隱含價格8.8073萬元)、建材(隱含價格69.748萬元)、建物型態(一樓) (隱含價格648.856萬元)、建物型態(大樓) (隱含價格674.94萬元)、建物型態(公寓) (隱含價格464.385萬元)、建物型態(透天) (隱含價格516.971萬元)、房價指數(隱含價格-8.888萬元)、區位變數(台北市) (隱含價格80.429萬元)。 2.分別比較台北縣市法拍屋資料，可以發現持分土地價格(+)、競標人數(+)、車位有無(+)、是否點交(+)對台北市法拍屋拍定價格影響較大;而總建物面積(+)、拍次(-)、建材(+)、建物型態、房價指數(-)對台北縣拍交價格影響則較大。 / Real estate properties are real assets that can produce goods and service in the economy. Among them, the foreclosure market has become an imperative means to acquiring a house. The auction market in Taiwan is composed of non-performing assets. They’ll have a discount up to 20% in every action. Is this a really good target to invest? In fact, houses are heterogeneity assets; they can only be estimated correctly by controlling of variables such as location variables and the physical condition of the property. Moreover, the listing price of foreclosure is quite different from that of an ordinary house. It is first calculated by appraisers, and the final listing price is obtained by the negotiation of the court, creditor and debtor. Thus, there could be mispricing of list price, and this mispricing is expected to have an impact on the selling price. This study applies Hedonic model and uses data from year 2000 to 2002 of Taipei City and Taipei County to examine the effect of these physical and foreclosure elements on the selling price of foreclosure and thus reach the following conclusions: 1.All the foreclosure and physical condition variables are remarkable in our sample, as well as the location variable. They are degree of underpricing, total building area, holding land price, the bid times, numbers of bidders, current status of this building, parking space, situation of handing over item by item, building material, object type, housing price index and location. 2.It shows that holding land price(+),numbers of bidders(+),parking space(+),situation of handing over item by item(+) have greater influence on the foreclosure selling price in Taipei city while total area(+),number of auctions(-), material used(+),object type, and housing price index(-) weight more on the selling price in Taipei county.

This thesis investigates the use of hedonic pricing models to value intangible assets that are owned by firms. This novel approach falls within the neoclassical methodology for the valuation of financial assets, and extends the framework by ordering an alternative methods by which assets may be compared. The firms performance, as measured by reported financial data and embodied in the DuPont ratios of the firm, is used to derive the characteristics of intangible assets. The shadow prices of these characteristics are estimated and used to derive a market-related value for the intangible assets. The empirical results support using this approach to value intangible assets.