I conducted two studies to explore cultural differences between Chinese and European Canadians in considering opportunity cost while making purchase decisions. In Study 1, participants (121 Euro-Canadians and 119 Chinese) read a scenario in which they would decide whether to buy a single product (e.g., a backpack) or not. Participants were randomly assigned to either a condition in which opportunity cost information was made salient or a control condition in which opportunity cost was not mentioned. I found that participants in the opportunity cost salient condition displayed a higher level of opportunity cost consideration than did participants in the control condition. When individual differences in the habit of considering opportunity cost and spending habits were controlled for, Chinese participants’ purchase decisions revealed a higher degree of opportunity cost consideration than those of European Canadians. Chinese were also more likely to mention opportunity cost thoughts than did European Canadians while making the decision. In Study 2, participants chose one of two laptops to buy (one was cheaper but had less memory than the other). The results demonstrated that Chinese living in Canada displayed a higher degree of opportunity cost consideration by opting more often for the cheaper laptop, than did European Canadians. However, the culture main effect was confounded by cultural differences in family income. Study 2 also replicated the results of Study 1 that Chinese were also more likely to mention opportunity cost thoughts than European Canadians while making the decision. Although inconclusive, these results suggest that opportunity cost consideration varies, at least to some extent, across cultures. Implications of the current research for consumer behavior and directions for future research are discussed. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2013-08-01 15:22:09.816

This thesis investigates the revenue management (RM) problem encountered in an airport carpark of finite capacity, where the available parking spaces should be sold optimally in advance in order to maximise the revenues on a given day. Customer demand is stochastic, where random pre-booking times and stay lengths overlap with each other, a setting that generates strong inter-dependence among consecutive days and hence leads to a complex network optimisation problem. Several mathematical models are introduced to approximate the problem; a model based on a discrete-time formulation which is solved using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and two single-resource models, the first based on a stochastic process and the other on a deterministic one, both developed in continuous-time that lead to a partial differential equation (PDE). The optimisation for the spaces is based on the expected displacement costs which are then used in a bid-price control mechanism to optimise the value of the carpark. Numerical tests are conducted to examine the methods’ performance under the network setting. Taking into account the methods’ efficiency, the computation times and the resulting expected revenues, the stochastic PDE approach is shown to be the preferable method. Since the pricing structure among operators varies, an adjusted model based on the stochastic PDE is derived in order to facilitate the solution applicable in all settings. Further, for large carparks facing high demand levels, an alternative second-order PDE model is proposed. Finally, an attempt to incorporate more information about the network structure and the inter-dependence between consecutive days leads to a weighted PDE scheme. Given a customer staying on day T, a weighting kernel is introduced to evaluate the conditional probability of stay on a neighbouring day. Then a weighted average is applied on the expected marginal values over all neighbouring days. The weighted PDE scheme shows significant improvement in revenue for small-size carparks. The use of the weighted PDE opens the possibility for new ways to approximate network RM problems and thus motivates further research in this direction.

Affordable housing has been a predominant issue in New Orleans. The demand of affordable housing units in the city far exceeds the supply available. HousingNOLA established the demand of 33,600 of affordable housing opportunities in New Orleans. There are various challenges to increasing the supply of affordable housing from project scale, design and construction, complexity of financing, building regulations, and land use policies. Moreover, funding available for affordable housing at the federal and state level have negatively impacted developer's willingness to pursue this project while forcing the developer to create more with less. These challenges manifest themselves in additional costs and time. In partnership with HousingNOLA, the investigation revolves on how construction costs in affordable development could be reduced to increase the supply to meet the demand. First, the investigation focused on clarifying if construction costs were high in the City of New Orleans. In addition, it identified factor that increased construction costs within New Orleans. Thirdly, through the study of new building technologies, provide alternative construction methodology with the potential to create more affordable housing units. Lastly, propose recommendations for next steps in the creation of affordable housing in New Orleans to HousingNOLA. / 0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

Maintenance costs in deregulated power systems play an important role. This mainly includes direct costs associated with material and labor costs; and indirect costs associated with spare parts inventory, shipment, test equipment cost, indirect labor, and opportunity costs. The cost function is used as the sole or main component of the objective function in maintenance scheduling and planning activities. The cost has been modeled in literature with several representations for centralized power systems. With deregulation of power industries in many countries the costs representation to be used within the maintenance model in the decentralized power systems has become an important research question. This paper presents modeling of different components of maintenance costs that can be used within the main objective function of the maintenance scheduling and planning problem for the deregulated environment.

O objetivo deste trabalho é contribuir com o aperfeiçoamento das informações contábeis para a gestão das Instituições de Ensino Superior com Certificado de Entidade Beneficente de Assistência Social - IESCEBAS, por meio da proposição de um modelo de apuração e evidenciação do resultado com o Certificado de Entidade Beneficente de Assistência Social. O estudo desenvolve-se a partir da análise dos seguintes aspectos: caracterização e definição de uma IESCEBAS, processo de gestão e sistemas de informações com base numa abordagem sistêmica. Os gestores, governo e sociedade necessitam de informações úteis e confiáveis sobre os resultados com o CEBAS para a tomada de decisões. Porém, conforme se constatou pela pesquisa de campo realizada por meio de questionários e análises das demonstrações contábeis, que a prática adotada pelas instituições objeto de estudo e também a norma editada pelo Conselho Federal de Contabilidade, não são adequadas para fornecer informações que subsidiem os gestores, governo e sociedade na tomada de decisões. Ao discorrer sobre os conceitos de receitas, custos, ativos, passivos e custo de oportunidade, conclui-se que o CEBAS gera impactos patrimoniais e econômicos que devem ser apurados e evidenciados pela contabilidade. Contudo, verificou-se pela análise dos resultados da pesquisa de campo, que não existe clareza quanto aos procedimentos contábeis e à legislação aplicáveis na apuração e evidenciação desses impactos pela contabilidade. A partir desta constatação, é proposto um modelo de apuração e evidenciação dos resultados com o certificado das IESCEBAS, de modo a subsidiar os gestores, governo e sociedade na tomada de decisões. Ao final, o modelo proposto é aplicado ao caso de duas IESCEBAS, com a finalidade de verificar sua utilidade. / This study aims to contribute to the improvement of accounting information for administering Higher Education Institutions with a Philanthropy Certificate - IESCEBAS, through the proposal of a model for verifying and disclosing the income obtained through the Philanthropy Certificate. The study is based on the analysis of the following aspects: characterization and definition of an IESCEBAS, management process and information systems on the basis of a systemic approach. The managers, government and society need useful and trustworthy information about the results obtained through the Philanthropy Certificate with a view to decision-making. Nevertheless, as we observed from the field research held by means of questionnaires and from the analysis of the financial statements, the practice adopted by the institutions in this study as well as the norm issued by the Brazilian Federal Accounting Council are not adequate to supply information that assists the managers, government and society in decision-making. Our discussion of the revenues, costs, assets, liabilities and opportunity cost concepts leads us to the conclusion that the Philanthropy Certificate generates equity and economic impacts that have to be verified and disclosed by accounting. However, we observed from the analysis of the field research results that there are uncertainties with respect to the accounting procedures and legislation that should be applied in the verification and disclosure of these impacts by accounting. On the basis of this observation, we propose a model for verifying and disclosing the income obtained through the Philanthropy Certificate, so as to assist the managers, government and society in making decisions. Finally, the proposed model is applied to two IESCEBAS, with a view to verifying its usefulness.

¡@Ever since the foundation in 2000, the branches of Administrative Enforcement Agency have been handling the cases of monetary payment duty in public law with the total amount reaching 3,0178,624, by only about the workforce of 400 people in average while bringing in 1,133,000,000 financial income for the nation in six years. Among these cases, 24,386,174 are closed, which are more effective than in the past and helpful in keeping the publics from evading their duties by luck and therefore realizing the social fairness and justice, thus manifesting the public authority. However, there are still many problems hiding behind the new organizations and their systems, as the number indicates: unresolved cases reach 5,809,904 while 3,732 1,1609,753 dollars are unexecuted. In order to reduce the number of unclosed cases and enhance the administrative efficiency from two indexes: rate of the case-closing and levied tax, the thesis had combined the transaction cost theory from the Coase Theorem with the concept of opportunity cost in law economics, and had discussed the forming causes and strategies from three aspects under the principle of maximum efficiency, while not omitting the point of view of the public choices by the people of the duty. Three main conclusions are therefore made as follow: Firstly, speaking of system in terms of case management and evaluation, the amount of case closed must outnumbers the case received, while different types of cases (according to the amount of money) must be reduced in proportion; moreover, specific execution procedure should be arranged according to its types, and to indicate a clear termination of the time rather than being delayed for too long. Secondly, as far as the case efficiency is concerned, the more payment channel ,the better. In addition, by using information technology, it is effective in exchanging the information among different individuals, and speeding up the case to be closed. Thirdly, in the part of case receiving, be sure to monitor the loading of cases according to the workforce and to adjust the human resource or control the speed of case receiving. Setting up the voucher re-transfer evaluation mechanism to avoid the running-empty of administrative procedure and the waste of resource; to build up the pre-case database and to provide decision support system of the case execution so as to reduce the cost of research and decision making.

This research develops a food demand system model based on the Linear Almost Ideal Demand System (LA/AIDS). The major contribution of this research is that the opportunity cost of time on food cooking/cleaning up is modeled in the demand system. Different from the traditional one constraint demand, this two constraints LA/AIDS model better captures consumer behavior and attitude toward food choice –food at home (FAH), sugar sweetened beverage (SSB), food away from home (FAFH). Using Statistics Canada Food Expenditure Survey (FES) and General Social Survey-time use, a two sample two stage least square (2S2SLS) is an applied in the data estimation. The empirical results show most coefficient estimates and own price elasticities are significant. FAH and FAFH are found to be more price elastic compared to a one constraint model, and SSB is found to be more price inelastic. This research provides a new perspective to estimate potential food policies, such as, a tax on SSB, or a food tax on "junk food".

O estudo tem por objetivo contribuir na construção de modelo econômico de precificação sustentável, mais especificamente na atividade do agronegócio do fumo, explicando a percepção dos fumicultores e empresas fumageiras da região Sul do Brasil sobre o valor da remuneração do trabalho no custo da safra negociada entre as partes, com vistas à minimização dos conflitos existentes. Para atingir tal objetivo foi utilizada uma pesquisa exploratória para a interpretação dos conceitos, natureza e mensuração do modelo negocial vigente, assim como a revisão e análise dos principais indicadores de mensuração a ele relacionados e a análise dos modelos de precificação existentes na literatura que forneceram o arcabouço necessário à construção do modelo proposto. Em um segundo momento, com base nos modelos de precificação analisados, foi identificado o modelo de precificação "K" (Markup) como a melhor alternativa para o modelo construído. Simulou-se, através de modelos econométricos, as relações entre as variáveis dos fatores de produção e do preço de venda do fumo industrializado pelas indústrias fumageiras, extraindo-se correlações entre elas, formadoras da base do modelo construído. A seguir, são apresentados dois ensaios de modelos de precificação propostos sendo definido o modelo construído, para o qual se utilizou as variáveis de custo da mão-de-obra de terceiros (safristas), mão-de-obra do agricultor proprietário da terra e demais custos fixos e variáveis para a composição do custo de produção da safra e do custo de oportunidade sustentável, sendo este suportado pela teoria do Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). Com base na teoria e nos resultados obtidos com a aplicação prática do modelo nos dados oriundos da pesquisa, foram extraídas algumas conclusões que definem o modelo construído como o mais apropriado para a precificação da safra de fumo que permite minizar os conflitos negociais entre os atores desse elo da cadeia produtiva. Observa-se que o modelo construído tende a eliminar os conflitos negociais entre os fumicultores e industriais fumageiras, visando a preservar a renda dos agricultores pela inserção no modelo de precificação do custo de oportunidade do agricultor como um prêmio de risco baseado no CAPM, proporcionando a permanência dos mesmos na atividade fumageira, além da possibilidade de utilização como ferramenta de minimização dos recursos utilizados para a preservação da rentabilidade do setor. Finalmente, conclui-se que este trabalho traz uma efetiva contribuição ao estudo de modelos econômicos de precificação no agronegócio, mais estreitamente na atividade do fumo. / The survey aims at contributing for the construction of an economic model of sustainable precification, more specifically in the tobacco agribusiness, explaining the tobacco farmers' perceptions and the tobacco companies at the Southern region in Brazil on the amount of the remuneration of the work on the cost of the crop negotiated between the parties aiming at the minimization of the existing conflicts. In order to reach this goal, it was used a exploratory research for the interpretation of concepts, nature and measurement of the ruling business model, as well as the review and analysis of the main indicators of related measurement and the analysis of the precification models in the literature which supplied the fundamentals necessary for the construction of the proposed model. Secondly, based in the precification models analyzed, it was identified the precification model "K" (Mark-up) as the best alternative for the constructed model. Through econometric models, it was simulated the relations between the variables of production factors and the selling price of the tobacco industrialized by the tobacco industries, extracting the correlations between them, the base formers of the constructed model. Next, two essays of proposed precification models are presented and it was used two variables: cost of third parties manpower, landowner manpower, and other fixed and variable costs for the composition of the crop production cost and the sustainable opportunity cost, the latter being supported by the Capital Asset Pricing Model -CAPM. Based in the theory and results obtained with the practical application of the model on the data from the research, some conclusions were obtained, defining the constructed model as the most appropriate for the tobacco crop precification, allowing the minimization of business conflicts between the actors of this link of the productive chain. It is observed that the constructed model tends to eliminate the business conflicts between tobacco farmers and tobacco industries, aiming at preserving the farmers' income by the insertion in the cost precification model of the farmer as a risk premium based in the CAPM, propitiating their permanence in the tobacco activity, besides the possibility of its utilization as a minimization tool of the resources used for the preservation of the sector profitability. Finally, it is concluded that this work brings an effective contribution to the study of economic models of precification in agribusiness, more strictly in the tobacco activity.

O estudo tem por objetivo contribuir na construção de modelo econômico de precificação sustentável, mais especificamente na atividade do agronegócio do fumo, explicando a percepção dos fumicultores e empresas fumageiras da região Sul do Brasil sobre o valor da remuneração do trabalho no custo da safra negociada entre as partes, com vistas à minimização dos conflitos existentes. Para atingir tal objetivo foi utilizada uma pesquisa exploratória para a interpretação dos conceitos, natureza e mensuração do modelo negocial vigente, assim como a revisão e análise dos principais indicadores de mensuração a ele relacionados e a análise dos modelos de precificação existentes na literatura que forneceram o arcabouço necessário à construção do modelo proposto. Em um segundo momento, com base nos modelos de precificação analisados, foi identificado o modelo de precificação "K" (Markup) como a melhor alternativa para o modelo construído. Simulou-se, através de modelos econométricos, as relações entre as variáveis dos fatores de produção e do preço de venda do fumo industrializado pelas indústrias fumageiras, extraindo-se correlações entre elas, formadoras da base do modelo construído. A seguir, são apresentados dois ensaios de modelos de precificação propostos sendo definido o modelo construído, para o qual se utilizou as variáveis de custo da mão-de-obra de terceiros (safristas), mão-de-obra do agricultor proprietário da terra e demais custos fixos e variáveis para a composição do custo de produção da safra e do custo de oportunidade sustentável, sendo este suportado pela teoria do Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). Com base na teoria e nos resultados obtidos com a aplicação prática do modelo nos dados oriundos da pesquisa, foram extraídas algumas conclusões que definem o modelo construído como o mais apropriado para a precificação da safra de fumo que permite minizar os conflitos negociais entre os atores desse elo da cadeia produtiva. Observa-se que o modelo construído tende a eliminar os conflitos negociais entre os fumicultores e industriais fumageiras, visando a preservar a renda dos agricultores pela inserção no modelo de precificação do custo de oportunidade do agricultor como um prêmio de risco baseado no CAPM, proporcionando a permanência dos mesmos na atividade fumageira, além da possibilidade de utilização como ferramenta de minimização dos recursos utilizados para a preservação da rentabilidade do setor. Finalmente, conclui-se que este trabalho traz uma efetiva contribuição ao estudo de modelos econômicos de precificação no agronegócio, mais estreitamente na atividade do fumo. / The survey aims at contributing for the construction of an economic model of sustainable precification, more specifically in the tobacco agribusiness, explaining the tobacco farmers' perceptions and the tobacco companies at the Southern region in Brazil on the amount of the remuneration of the work on the cost of the crop negotiated between the parties aiming at the minimization of the existing conflicts. In order to reach this goal, it was used a exploratory research for the interpretation of concepts, nature and measurement of the ruling business model, as well as the review and analysis of the main indicators of related measurement and the analysis of the precification models in the literature which supplied the fundamentals necessary for the construction of the proposed model. Secondly, based in the precification models analyzed, it was identified the precification model "K" (Mark-up) as the best alternative for the constructed model. Through econometric models, it was simulated the relations between the variables of production factors and the selling price of the tobacco industrialized by the tobacco industries, extracting the correlations between them, the base formers of the constructed model. Next, two essays of proposed precification models are presented and it was used two variables: cost of third parties manpower, landowner manpower, and other fixed and variable costs for the composition of the crop production cost and the sustainable opportunity cost, the latter being supported by the Capital Asset Pricing Model -CAPM. Based in the theory and results obtained with the practical application of the model on the data from the research, some conclusions were obtained, defining the constructed model as the most appropriate for the tobacco crop precification, allowing the minimization of business conflicts between the actors of this link of the productive chain. It is observed that the constructed model tends to eliminate the business conflicts between tobacco farmers and tobacco industries, aiming at preserving the farmers' income by the insertion in the cost precification model of the farmer as a risk premium based in the CAPM, propitiating their permanence in the tobacco activity, besides the possibility of its utilization as a minimization tool of the resources used for the preservation of the sector profitability. Finally, it is concluded that this work brings an effective contribution to the study of economic models of precification in agribusiness, more strictly in the tobacco activity.

O objetivo deste trabalho é contribuir com o aperfeiçoamento das informações contábeis para a gestão das Instituições de Ensino Superior com Certificado de Entidade Beneficente de Assistência Social - IESCEBAS, por meio da proposição de um modelo de apuração e evidenciação do resultado com o Certificado de Entidade Beneficente de Assistência Social. O estudo desenvolve-se a partir da análise dos seguintes aspectos: caracterização e definição de uma IESCEBAS, processo de gestão e sistemas de informações com base numa abordagem sistêmica. Os gestores, governo e sociedade necessitam de informações úteis e confiáveis sobre os resultados com o CEBAS para a tomada de decisões. Porém, conforme se constatou pela pesquisa de campo realizada por meio de questionários e análises das demonstrações contábeis, que a prática adotada pelas instituições objeto de estudo e também a norma editada pelo Conselho Federal de Contabilidade, não são adequadas para fornecer informações que subsidiem os gestores, governo e sociedade na tomada de decisões. Ao discorrer sobre os conceitos de receitas, custos, ativos, passivos e custo de oportunidade, conclui-se que o CEBAS gera impactos patrimoniais e econômicos que devem ser apurados e evidenciados pela contabilidade. Contudo, verificou-se pela análise dos resultados da pesquisa de campo, que não existe clareza quanto aos procedimentos contábeis e à legislação aplicáveis na apuração e evidenciação desses impactos pela contabilidade. A partir desta constatação, é proposto um modelo de apuração e evidenciação dos resultados com o certificado das IESCEBAS, de modo a subsidiar os gestores, governo e sociedade na tomada de decisões. Ao final, o modelo proposto é aplicado ao caso de duas IESCEBAS, com a finalidade de verificar sua utilidade. / This study aims to contribute to the improvement of accounting information for administering Higher Education Institutions with a Philanthropy Certificate - IESCEBAS, through the proposal of a model for verifying and disclosing the income obtained through the Philanthropy Certificate. The study is based on the analysis of the following aspects: characterization and definition of an IESCEBAS, management process and information systems on the basis of a systemic approach. The managers, government and society need useful and trustworthy information about the results obtained through the Philanthropy Certificate with a view to decision-making. Nevertheless, as we observed from the field research held by means of questionnaires and from the analysis of the financial statements, the practice adopted by the institutions in this study as well as the norm issued by the Brazilian Federal Accounting Council are not adequate to supply information that assists the managers, government and society in decision-making. Our discussion of the revenues, costs, assets, liabilities and opportunity cost concepts leads us to the conclusion that the Philanthropy Certificate generates equity and economic impacts that have to be verified and disclosed by accounting. However, we observed from the analysis of the field research results that there are uncertainties with respect to the accounting procedures and legislation that should be applied in the verification and disclosure of these impacts by accounting. On the basis of this observation, we propose a model for verifying and disclosing the income obtained through the Philanthropy Certificate, so as to assist the managers, government and society in making decisions. Finally, the proposed model is applied to two IESCEBAS, with a view to verifying its usefulness.