This dissertation consists of three quantitative papers addressing contemporary issues in health policy. The first paper draws on a survey of 2,678 adults from the United States and four European countries to assess demand for a hypothetical early medical test for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Overall, 67% of respondents reported that they would be "very" or "somewhat" likely to get the test if it were available. Through logistic regression analysis, we find that interest was higher among those worried about developing AD, with an immediate blood relative with AD, and who have provided care for AD patients. Knowing that AD is fatal did not influence demand, except among those with an affected blood relative. We expect that a test becoming available could precipitate the creation of a large constituency of asymptomatic, diagnosed adults, affecting a range of health policy decisions. The second paper utilizes Current Population Survey data to explore state-level Medicaid enrollment rates among eligible parents between 2003 and 2010, focusing on the interaction of race and ethnicity and political ideology. Using logistic regression analysis, we find that average take-up for Hispanics in conservative states was 23%, whereas take-up was 38% for both whites and blacks in those states, adjusting for state and individual demographics. These differences abated in liberal and moderate states. Among eligible Hispanics, enrollment rates were less than half as high in conservative states than in liberal states (23% versus 61%). Adjusting for differences in state Medicaid policies narrowed these disparities significantly, highlighting the importance of new provisions aimed at streamlining enrollment procedures across all states. The last paper draws on public and private data from 2007 to 2010 to analyze how administrative spending by health insurers and providers varied across states with different levels of insurance and hospital market concentration. Using regression analysis, we find that in provider offices, high levels of insurance concentration were associated with lower administrative costs. If all states were as concentrated as the most concentrated state in our sample, we would expect nationwide savings of $3.6 billion in administrative expenses. However, market concentration did not reduce administrative spending by insurers or hospitals.

Abstract The thesis is trying to find out if Czech republic disposes really big companies in the manufacturing industry and analyze attitude of czech government towards important companies. Situation in Czech republic compares with Finland and Slovakia. Theoretical part describes certain types of market structures and their effect to competition. Reports competition concepts by chosen economic schools as well as antitrust policy and unfair competition. In the end it shows company types by size and interest groups that are connected not only with big companies. Analytical part research market concentration in czech manufacturing industry with special focus on market concentration -- company size relationship. Following part compares world largest companies with biggest czech, slovak and finnish ones. Last part points government attitude towards big companies by examples Škoda Auto, a.s., ČEZ, a.s., Slovenský plynárenský priemysel, a.s. and Nokia.

This study analyses the bank market competition and bank interest margins in the European Union member countries banking sector during the period 2007–2019, using panel data analysis and aggregated data for each country ́s banking sector. Our starting point is the theory about market structure and two structural indexes are used as proxies of the degree of market competition. The methodology is based on the model developed by Ho and Saunders (1981), where the bank is viewed as a risk averse dealer amongst borrowers and lenders. This model has later been extended to fit analyses on nationally aggregated levels, which is appropriate in this study. The result show that bank concentration is not statistically significant in explaining variability of interest margin in the EU banking sectors. Instead, the statistically significant determinants of interest margins are more bank specific variables, such as average operating cost and credit risk. Although this study cannot claim economic significance, it provides information that economic policies should be designed to lower average operating cost rather than market competition, in order to lower interest margin. / I denna studie analyserar vi konkurrensen på bankmarknaden och bankernas räntemarginaler i Europeiska unionens medlemsländers banksektor under perioden 2007–2019, genom paneldataanalys och aggregerad data för varje lands banksektor. Vår utgångspunkt är teorin om marknadsstruktur och vi använder två strukturella mått för att mäta konkurrens på marknaden. Metoden är baserad på den modell som Ho and Saunders (1981) utformade, där banken ses som en riskavert förmedlare mellan låntagare och långivare. Modellen har sedan utökats till att lämpa sig för analyser på en nationellt aggregerad nivå, vilket är passande för denna studie. Resultatet visar att konkurrens på bankmarknaden inte på ett statistiskt signifikant sätt förklarar variabilitet i räntemarginalen. Istället visar resultatet att de statistiskt signifikanta faktorerna för räntemarginalen är mer bankspecifika variabler, såsom genomsnittlig operationell kostnad och kreditrisk. Trots att denna studie inte kan påvisa ekonomisk signifikans, ger den information om att ekonomiska policys bör utformas för att sänka den genomsnittliga operationella kostnaden snarare än att öka marknadskonkurrens, för att minska räntemarginalen.

This study analyzes the market share of the top 10 home builders in nine Metropolitan Statistical Areas, along with fourteen other independent variables, to find a statistical relationship with median home sales price. Through a stepwise regression of the independent variables it is determined that there is no correlation between median home sale price and market share of the top 10 home builders. In the stepwise regression two variables are found to be correlated to median homes sales price: Owner Occupancy Percentage and Residential Construction Wages, a data point compiled for this study. A linear regression is run between market share of the top 10 and median home sale price and no correlation is found. / Master of Science

This thesis deals with both theoretical and practical aspects of banking fee and commission income in the European Union. Since fee income represents the largest part of non-interest income earned by banks, it remains a major challenge for bank management to set and maintain an appropriate fee policy. Nevertheless, solving for the optimal fee structure has not yet been accomplished either on a theoretical level, or in actual practice. In the thesis, we analyse fee income in EU banking sectors. Our results show that the Czech banking sector was not abnormally dependent on fee income compared to other EU countries in the period 2007-2012. As a result, we argue that the high profitability of Czech banks cannot be attributed to abnormal banking fees and commission income, but rather other factors should be considered. Moreover, we study the determinants of fee income share in individual banks and discuss the impact of market concentration on the magnitude of banking fees. We conclude that banks facing higher competition tend to expand more aggressively into non- traditional activities and therefore they report higher fee income shares. We also study the relationship between banking fees and banks' performance. The results are mixed depending on applied profitability measure, but in general, banks with...

This thesis presents an econometric methodology for analyzing the impact of market concentration (HHI) on the day rate prices paid by E&P operators for the lease of drilling rigs. It is an extension of the work of Lee (2008), ‘Measuring the Impact of Concentration in the Drilling Rig Market’. Specifically, the work entailed using a more detailed time series data than was initially used (quarterly), analyzing impact of concentration on day rate prices by water depth specification of drilling rigs, and accounting for the impact of autocorrelation on the analysis. The results for jack-ups, without adjustment for autocorrelation, supported the results of the prior study i.e. showing that increase in HHI causes rig day rate price increase. However, the results for semi-submersibles was inconclusive as it varied from region to region and also was contrary to the assumptions of positive relationships between HHI and day rate prices made in this study. These results imply that market concentration caused both price increase and decrease within the industry depending on whether it increased market power or increased cost efficiency and technological ability. / text

This master thesis is focused on the market concentration in six sectors of public procurements in the Czech Republic, and the relationship between level of market concentration, profitability of the companies, final price and number of bids. The analyzed procurements refer to food industry, electricity, postal and telecommunications services, solar energy, IT and automotive sector from period of 2007-2010. Concentration ratio, Herfindahl-Hirschman index and Gini coefficient were used to quantify market concentration. The first four of above mentioned public procurement markets seem to be highly concentrated according to these indicators; the remaining two cases are unconcentrated or moderately concentrated. Correlation analysis was used for each sector. The analyzed variables were: market shares of the companies, their profitability, average number of bids and average proportion of the final and expected price in tenders which the company won. Further, the relationship between market concentration indicators and average variables for the relevant sectors was assessed.

This thesis consists of five essays dealing with the fee and commission income in European banks from the macro, sector and bank level perspectives. This topic is of high relevance since fee income represents the largest part of the non-interest income of EU banks. The first part of the thesis deals with banks in general terms, while the second part is focused solely on cooperative banks, which represent approximately 20% of the EU banking sector. We compare the magnitude of the bank fee income across EU countries and study its determinants and impacts on banks' performance. The first essay compares the magnitude of the fee income across EU countries with a special emphasis on the Czech Republic from a macroeconomic perspective. First, we conclude that Czech banks are not abnormally dependent on fee income and their outstanding performance can be attributed to sound risk management, high liquidity and sufficient capital buffers rather than to excessive fees. Second, our evidence suggests that the share of fee income had an increasing trend in EU countries in recent years, which might be connected to the effort to maintain sufficient profitability in the low interest rates environment. We also discuss how new entrants, the so called low-cost banks, changed the banking sector in the Czech Republic....

Esta tesis es una colección de tres ensayos en el campo de la economía industrial. Los dos primeros ensayos son contribuciones empíricas en el tema de la discriminación de precios. El último ensayo está relacionado con la heterogeneidad en las expectativas futuras de precios. Ese ensayo es una contribución a la literatura que trata el tema de demanda dinámica. El objetivo del primer capítulo es determinar la relevancia de la discriminación de precios en los mercados de alimentos orgánicos (cereales para desayuno). El principal problema al responder a esta pregunta es que los costes no son observables y, por lo tanto, a priori, no puedo saber si el sobreprecio de los alimentos orgánicos se debe a la discriminación precios o simplemente por diferencias de costes. Para evitar este problema, utilizo un modelo de elección discreta para obtener la elasticidad de la demanda y, con un modelo de oferta, obtener el valor de los costes marginales. Lo resultados indican que, aproximadamente, el 6% de la diferencia de precio entre productos orgánicos y productos no orgánicos se debe a la discriminación de precios. Además, yo encuentro que un impuesto en los productos no orgánicos no es suficiente para disminuir la discriminación de precios, y tiene un efecto negativo en el bienestar social: hay reducción en el excedente del consumidor que es superior al aumento de los beneficios de las empresas. Por fin, encuentro que la discriminación de precios resulta de la existencia de consumidores con renta alta en el mercado. En el segundo capítulo yo estudio si hay una relación no monótona entre los descuentos por cantidad y el nivel de competencia en el mercado. Los resultados encontrados sugieren que la relación es sí no-monótona y que tiene formato en U. Eso implica que los descuentos por cantidad son más comunes en los mercados menos concentrados y en los más concentrados. Además, los resultados sugieren que la firma líder es la responsable por esa situación. Por fin, el tercer capítulo analiza la heterogeneidad en la expectativa de precios en el mercado de un bien no duradero (refrescos) y que son comprados con alta frecuencia. Los resultados sugieren que, en media, los consumidores son racionales y forman expectativas con respecto al futuro. Sin embargo, consumidores de baja renta forman expectativas basadas en un modelo de Markov de primer orden (donde solo importa el precio actual y del período anterior para formar sus expectativas), y a los consumidores con renta mediana solo les importa el precio actual al decidir comprar (o sea, son impacientes - miopes).

Šiame darbe yra atskleidžiama ir analizuojama audito pasiūla tenkanti kapitalo rinkoms, nagrinėjama jos nepakankamumo problema. Darbo tikslas yra, įvertinus globalius audito pasiūlos pokyčius ir jų įtaką kapitalo rinkoms, atlikti audito pasiūlos ir auditoriaus pasirinkimo veiksnių Baltijos šalių kapitalo rinkoms tyrimą. Darbas skirstomas į tris pagrindines dalis. Pirmojoje dalyje apibūdinamas auditoriaus vaidmuo bei jo reikšmė ekonomikai, atskleidžiamas sisteminės rizikos, kylančios iš audito rinkos pasiūlos nepakankamumo, mastas, aptariamos pagrindinės priežastys, lemiančios esamą audito pasiūlos struktūrą. Antrojoje darbo dalyje analizuojamas darbo objektas – išorinio nepriklausomo finansinio audito pasiūla kapitalo rinkoms, pateikiama darbo tyrimo metodologija. Trečiojoje darbo dalyje aprašomi atlikto tyrimo rezultatai, iškeltų darbe hipotezių tikrinimas, pateikiamos rekomendacijos tyrimo metu nustatytose probleminėse srityse bei tyrimo rezultatų taikymo ir tyrimo plėtotės galimybės. Gauti darbo rezultatai parodė, jog audito rinkos koncentracija visose trijose Baltijos akcijų biržose yra aukšta ir kelia sisteminės kapitalo rinkų rizikos pavojų. Pagrindiniais auditoriaus pasirinkimo veiksniais buvo priimti audituojamos įmonės dydis bei kapitalo kilmė. / This paper discloses and analyses the audit supply for the capital markets and examines its insufficiency problem. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the global changes in the audit supply and to perform a research of audit supply and influencing factors when choosing the auditor in the capital markets of Baltic countries. The paper consists of three main parts. The first part presents the role of the auditor and its significance to the economy, the extent of the systemic risk entailed by the insufficiency of the audit supply, discusses the main causes of the current structure of the audit market. In the second part of this paper the external independent financial audit supply for the capital markets, which is the object of this paper, is analyzed. Also, the research methodology is presented. In the third part of this paper the results of the research and hypothesis testing are presented. It also provides the guideline on the identified problem areas as well as applicability and development capabilities of the research made. The main conclusions showed that the audit market concentration in all three Baltic stock exchanges is high and poses a systemic risk to the capital markets. The key factors when choosing the auditor in the capital markets of Baltic countries is the size and the capital origin of the company.