published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

This article considers three standard asset pricing models with adaptive agents and stochastic dividends. The models only differ in the parameters to be estimated. We assume that only limited information is used to construct estimators. Therefore, parameters are not estimated consistently. More precisely, we assume that the parameters are estimated by exponential smoothing, where past parameters are down-weighted and the weight of recent observations does not decrease with time. This situation is familiar for applications in finance. Even if time series of volatile stocks or bonds are available for a long time, only recent data is used in the analysis. In this situation the prices do not converge and remain a random variable. This raises the question how to describe equilibrium behavior with stochastic prices. However, prices can reveal properties such as ergodicity, such that the law of the price process converges to a stationary law, which provides a natural and useful extension of the idea of equilibrium behavior of an economic system for a stochastic setup. It is this implied law of the price process that we investigate in this paper. We provide conditions for the ergodicity and analyze the stationary distribution. (author's abstract) / Series: Working Papers SFB "Adaptive Information Systems and Modelling in Economics and Management Science"

Information technology and social media have been a driving force in the economy and have transformed all aspects of business in recent decades. Understanding social networks is necessary to evaluate their impacts and examine key business issues involving information and technological innovations. The dissertation contains three chapters exploring those issues. In the first chapter, I propose an optimal procurement mechanism for mobile data offloading, covering both technological and business aspects. The unprecedented growth of cellular traffic driven by web surfing, video streaming, and cloud-based services is creating challenges for cellular service providers to fulfill the unmet demand. My present work contributes to the existing literature by developing an analytical model, which considers the unique challenge of integrating the longer range cellular resource and shorter range WiFi hotspots. In the second chapter, I examine the effect of a social network on prediction markets using a controlled laboratory experiment. In prediction markets, people place bets on events that they think are most likely to happen, thus revealing in a sense the nature of their private information. Through a randomized experiment, I show that when the cost of information acquisition is low, a social-network-embedded prediction market outperforms a non-networked prediction market. The third chapter studies different forms of social learning in the context of location-based networks: observational learning and the saliency effect. In recent years, the location-sensing mobile devices offer geographic location capabilities to share users' information about their locations with their friends. In our context, observational learning corresponds to the fact that "check-ins" made by friends help users learn the quality information of a venue; the saliency effect refers to that check-ins lead some of the uninformed consumers to discover a new venue. / text

A model for the explanation of socioeconomic change in West Africa is presented, and tested with data from Zinder province, Niger Republic. A Marxist social formation analysis provides a model of change and continuity in peripheral, precapitalist modes of production, and of economic causality. A regional marketing systems analysis elaborates on the effects of exchange systems upon production systems and suggests quantitative data by which the Marxist model is tested. Marketing arrangements in Niger are discussed. An analysis of the Nigerien economy is presented. The way French, EEC, and Nigerien government policies have shaped the extraversion, mercantilism, and dependence of the economy is clarified. Then, the manipulation of exchange and production within Niger by state marketing agencies is explored. A regional systems analysis of marketing in Zinder province is carried out, including the system's history since precolonial times. The modern systems are described with price correlations, commodity flows, mobile trader circuits and strategies, and consumer behavior. Marketing and relations of production and reproduction in three communities, an agricultural village, a pottery-producing one, and a handicraft tannery were linked. Variations in household morphology and task performance, in gandu and master-apprentice workshop organization, in specialization in output, and in exchange and distribution of resources are related to the hierarchical position and functions of markets in which each community has participated historically. The key hypothesis was confirmed: local modes of production are now articulated with the modern world system. However, local modes have not been completely transformed from their antecedents. The structure of exchange makes it advantageous for foreign entrepreneurs and the Nigerien government to allow local modes to persist, while decapitalization, and tenacious political and reproductive relationships discourage transformation from below. By adding a regional systems perspective to a social formation analysis, a rich and testable description of the factors both facilitating and impeding changes in articulated modes of production was obtained.

This paper examines the effect capital flows from the introduction of exchange traded funds (ETFs) have on emerging markets. Recent years have seen more capital transfer into emerging markets, and the advantages ETFs offer have helped expedite the process. Increased liquidity and a large diverse collection of holdings help manage the high degree of volatility inherent to these markets. The holdings of the ETFs are tested for returns above their market average for the period surrounding the initial trading date of the fund. Positive effects were seen on individual stocks, but overall the findings suggest no significant mean excess return exists for the period related to the creation of an ETF.

This thesis presents an inquiry into the concept and phenomena of content marketing and its corresponding market in Sweden by attending to its constituent practices. By adopting a practice based approach to markets, influenced by recent developments in economic sociology, it utilizes a constructivist  view of markets as constantly forming and emerging. This allows examination of a concept that is novel, ambiguously defined yet increasingly popular by focusing on its practical enactments along with actors' conceptions and ideas in order to study what constitutes content marketing. By archival analysis of trade media, examination of industry media and in-depth interviews with content marketing practitioners the paper highlights the formatting effect of ideas on practice, the existence of multiple and conflicting definitions and enactments of content marketing and the implications thereof. It also shows how different categories of content marketing practice are connected and interlinked, before arriving at a definition drawing on practitioners descriptions, enactments and ideas central to the market. The thesis contributes with an inquiry into content marketing where academic research is scant and also provides an empirical application of theory from the growing research tradition concerned with a practice approach to markets.

Market abuse practices have clearly harmed the integrity of financial markets and damaged investors’ confidence. Market abuse takes two forms: insider dealing and market manipulation. These cover a variety of illegal practices, such as misusing inside information, pursuing courses of conduct which lead to artificial transactions, giving false or misleading information, and distorting the market in other ways. This thesis aims to examine the two forms of market abuse (insider dealing and market manipulation) under the UAE legal system. Particular attention is given to Federal Law No. 4 of 2000, known as the Emirates Securities & Commodities Authority Law (ESCA Law 2000). Other regulations which affect the market place are also covered. The core question addressed in this thesis is to what extent ESCA Law 2000, and other regulations promulgated pursuant thereto, are efficient in combating market abuse practices and how they have been applied to protect market integrity and the market participants. The thesis investigates the deficiencies of the existing law through a legal comparative study of the jurisdictions of the UK and the Dubai International Financial Centre. This is followed by an applied study which consists of a questionnaire and interviews. The applied study, conducted in the UAE, aims to investigate the perspectives of legal experts, other specialists and investors towards the regulation of the securities markets in the UAE. Applied study and comparison eventually provide the basis for recommendations for the improvement of the UAE legal system, with respect to market abuse practices.

Autor no autoriza el acceso a texto completo de su documento hasta el 15/1/2021. / Ingeniero Civil Industrial / Se presenta un modelo dinámico de múltiples mercados financieros, organizados como limit order markets, en el cual agentes endógenamente toman decisiones óptimas para maximizar el valor esperado de sus ganacias. Los agentes toman sus decisiones considerando incentivos propios, condiciones de mercado, potenciales decisiones de trading futuras y diferentes estrategias adoptadas por otros agentes. Para efectos de la presente investigación, se compara el escenario de un único mercado financiero ( single market ) con un escenario de dos mercados interconectados que compiten por el flujo de órdenes ( multi markets ). Los resultados indican que la posibilidad de transar en múltiples mercados, beneficia ampliamente a agentes sin valoración privada por el activo, ya que buscan oportunidades de transar en ambos mercados, mientras que perjudica el bienestar de agentes con motivación intrínseca para transar, dado que obtienen peores condiciones de negociación. Por otro lado, se observa una reducción en varias medidas de liquidez en multi markets, lo que sugiere la existencia de externalidades positivas asociadas a mercados consolidados.

The main goal of this study was to investigate whether residents of rural areas especially in deprived communities in BC have reasonable geographic access to healthy and affordable food providers (e.g., supermarkets, grocery stores, and farmers’ markets), and if lack of access impacts their weight status. As well, I investigated the extent to which farmers’ markets improve food accessibility in BC’s rural food deserts. In order to identify food deserts, the methodology which has been developed by USDA was modified and adapted to BC’s rural situations. In the first step, using Principal Component Analysis, deprived rural regions were identified based on selected socioeconomic and demographic variables. Then, using ArcGIS Network Analyst extension, the distance based on driving time from the Population Weighted Centroid of each rural region to the closest supermarket or grocery store was calculated on BC road networks. A 15 minute driving time cut-off was set to identify low access areas. Deprived rural regions which were also classified as low access were identified as food deserts. The impact of food accessibility on the weight status of rural British Columbians was investigated using the 2013-14 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). A hierarchical regression model was constructed with weight status of residents as the dependent variable and distance to the closest supermarket or grocery store as the independent target variable. I found that food deserts are more concentrated in the Central Coast, Cariboo, and Peace River regions of the province. In addition, farmers’ markets play no role in providing healthy foods to the residents of food deserts. Lastly, distance from food stores is not significantly associated with the weight status of rural respondents in CCHS data. The findings of this study can be highly beneficial to government officials within different jurisdictions and health practitioners to develop or refine food policies toward providing healthy and affordable food to deprived residents and Aboriginal peoples in rural and remote communities. / Graduate

This thesis is a collection of essays where I explore and extend the study of the role of financial frictions for the determination of asset prices, financial stability, and economic resilience. The frictions included in the analysis are individual and aggregate uncertainty, agent heterogeneity, money, liquidity and default. The first essay is an empirical study that motivates my research objectives. This work starts with the exploration of the role of liquidity on asset prices, specifically on sovereign bonds of emerging countries. I present a comprehensive model where I developed a novel methodology for finding the role of liquidity in the determination of asset prices during the financial crisis. In the second essay, illuminated by the empirical findings, I apply and expand the general equilibrium theory of money, default and financial stability. The contributions at the theoretical level are the extension of two-period model with discrete state space to the infinite horizon dynamic stochastic setting, and the inclusion of liquidity restrictions. In the third essay, I further extend this framework, allowing for production technology and endogenous market liquidity. Given the theoretical setting, I have analyzed the responses of financial stability and economic performance variables to real and financial shocks. Finally, in the fourth essay I produce an empirical application of this work. I apply a novel semi-parametric financial stability metric, and evaluate its relevance for the determination of asset prices, in the presence of liquidity restrictions. As a result, this thesis suggest plausible explanations for financial and economic issues that conventional models have not dealt with adequately.