The goal of this research was to determine which population factors were associated with iPad pricing differences across countries. Specifically, this paper measured the relationship between iPad prices in a given country and its U.S. dollar exchange rate, amount of income inequality, Gross Domestic Product per capita, luxury good sales growth, Individualism Index score, and population density. Panel data was collected for the iPad 2, the iPad Retina, and the iPad Mini tablets from 38 countries of varying geographic locations, economic paradigms, and political structures. The pooled data set yielded 114 observations in total. Regressing iPad price as a percent of national average income revealed a positive relationship between price and status consciousness as well as cultural individualism. There existed a negative relationship between iPad price and luxury sales growth. These results indicated that the iPad served as a status symbol with higher demand in countries that promoted individualism and exhibited higher degrees of income inequality.

The aim of this diploma thesis is to compare price differences between preliminary and final price of a given construction. Thus, the basis is the given construction, whose price was increased in pursuance of construction operations from preliminary to final price, supplemented with price variations, which is, in this case, the basic concept. This thesis is divided into theoretical and practical parts. The theoretical part defines terms and concepts associated with this issue and the practical part deals with an actual case, in which the situation is laid out and the individual prices are described, along with the comparison and explanation.

This diploma thesis deals with the cost analysis and cost optimization of an exact project of a wooden house in a construction company. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part is the research part, where basic concepts are defined. The second part of this thesis is the practical part which includes a brief description of the concerned wooden house with its preliminary and final budget. Individual parts of these budgets are subject to the cost analysis. As a result of the cost analysis the price differences between the budgets are shown. In the next step the verification bill of quantities with an item based budget in the ÚRS price system is put together. It is used for comparison and determination of price differences. According to the obtained data, optimization of the preliminary budget is proposed. At the end of this thesis an overall evaluation of price differences and proposed measures are described.