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UNDERSTANDING SMALLHOLDER FARMERS' POST-HARVEST CHOICES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: EVIDENCE FROM MALAWITabitha C Nindi (8975894) 17 December 2020 (has links)
<p>This dissertation has three essays that are
focused on understanding smallholder farmers’ choices in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly,
Malawi. The first essay uses a clustered randomized control trial (RCT) to
evaluate the impact of storage and commitment constraints on farmers’ legume
storage bevavior. The second essay is motivated by the incomplete quality
information problem within informal markets that undermines consumers’ demand
for quality and lead to lemons market. In this essay, we use a clustered RCT
along with the Becker DeGroote Marshack auctions amongst 1,098 farm households
to evaluate whether providing food safety (aflatoxins) information increases
consumers’ demand for grain quality and whether that demand for quality varies
depending on food availability. The third essay uses stochastic dynamic
programming to explore the role of market risk and expenditure shocks on
smallholder farmers’ storage and marketing behavior.</p>
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Market Requirements for Pumped Storage Profitability : Expected Costs and Modelled Price Arbitrage Revenues, Including a Case Study of JuktanSalevid, Karin January 2013 (has links)
The rapid integration of intermittent renewable energy sources (IRES) has caused a growing demand for power system flexibility on energy markets all over Europe. Being the only commercially proven large scale energy storage technology, pumped storage hydro power (PSHP) has by several studies been suggested as an efficient solution to mitigate the impact of IRES. However, despite the perceived technical demand profitability remains as a major obstacle for PSHP development. In this study, a market requirement for PSHP profitability, defined in terms of price volatility, is presented. Considering capital and operational expenditures as well as modelled potential price arbitrage revenues for a greenfield PSHP plant, it may be used as a tool for initial assessments of PSHP profitability in relation to market outlooks or modelled future prices. The results have further been used in a case study, where the price volatility required to motivate a restoration of the now decommissioned Swedish PSHP plant Juktan has been determined. The results show that the high capital expenditures characterising PSHP development do comprise in a high risk for developers; while feasibility depends on the sustainment of a highly volatile price climate during several decades, energy markets are often extremely uncertain.
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