We compare selected European countries using an economic dependency ratio which emphasizes the role of age-specific levels of production and consumption. Our analysis reveals large differences in the age- and gender-specific level and type of production activities across selected European countries and identifies possible strategies to adjust age-specific economic behaviour to an ageing population. The cross-country differences in economic dependency of children and elderly persons are largely determined by the age at which people enter, respectively exit, the labour market. The ability of the working age population to support children and elderly persons in turn is strongly influenced by the participation of women in paid work. We also provide a measure for the age-specific production and consumption in form of unpaid household work. The inclusion of unpaid household work leads to a decrease of the gender differences in production activities and indicates that the working age population supports children and elderly persons not only through monetary transfers but also through services produced by unpaid work (e.g. childcare, cooking, cleaning. . .). Given the available data, we cannot distinguish the age profile of consumption by gender and have to assume - in case of unpaid work - that each member of the household consumes the same. Hence, our results have to be regarded as a first approximation only. Our paper aims to argue that a reform of the welfare system needs to take into account not only public transfers but also private transfers, in particular the transfers in form of goods and services produced through unpaid household work.

Tato diplomová práce se zabývá analýzou současného elektronického obchodování a e-business. Na základě rozboru aktuálního stavu současného internetového obchodování je provedena analýza konkrétního e-shopu za pomoci dostupných metod.

Experimental cold modelling of hearth drainage was performed at Bluescope Steel Research Laboratories to understand the impact of variable drainage rate on slag removal. These drainage studies were designed to simulate real operational aspects such as: continuous casting, variable tapping rate and inflow liquid distribution. During the analysis of these drainage experiments it was demonstrated that the residual-flowout correlation in use since the 1970??s may possibly be incomplete or inaccurate. The removal of slag from the blast furnace hearth is the greater concern of the two liquids produced in the iron making process. In the 1970??s operational difficulties arose when large volumes of residual slag remained in the furnace after casting. This prompted research related to the flow of viscous liquids through uniformly packed beds providing fundamental insight on the most effective means of removal of slag from the blast furnace hearth. The core subject of this study, the residual-flowout correlation developed by Fukutake and Okabe that is used to predict cast duration and liquid accumulation in the blast furnace hearth is discussed in detail. The residual-flowout correlation is examined for four different sets of conditions based on constant or increasing slag drainage, with and without liquid dripping. The outcome of this study will improve our understanding of the residual-flowout relationship and develop it further, so that drainage conditions whether for constant or increasing drainage rates, with or without dripping, will hold using the one general Fl equation.

In the standard Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), the strong disposability and convexity axioms along with the variable/constant return to scale assumption provide a good estimation of the production possibility set and the efficient frontier. However, when data contains some or all measures represented by ratios, the standard DEA fails to generate an accurate efficient frontier. This problem has been addressed by a number of researchers and models have been proposed to solve the problem. This thesis proposes a “Maximized Slack Model” as a second stage to an existing model. This work implements a two phase modified model in MATLAB (since no existing DEA software can handle ratios) and with this new tool, compares the results of our proposed model against the results from two other standard DEA models for a real example with ratio and non-ratio measures. Then we propose different approaches to get a close approximation of the convex hull of the production possibility set as well as the frontier when ratio variables are present on the side of the desired orientation.

In the standard Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), the strong disposability and convexity axioms along with the variable/constant return to scale assumption provide a good estimation of the production possibility set and the efficient frontier. However, when data contains some or all measures represented by ratios, the standard DEA fails to generate an accurate efficient frontier. This problem has been addressed by a number of researchers and models have been proposed to solve the problem. This thesis proposes a “Maximized Slack Model” as a second stage to an existing model. This work implements a two phase modified model in MATLAB (since no existing DEA software can handle ratios) and with this new tool, compares the results of our proposed model against the results from two other standard DEA models for a real example with ratio and non-ratio measures. Then we propose different approaches to get a close approximation of the convex hull of the production possibility set as well as the frontier when ratio variables are present on the side of the desired orientation.

The research focuses on testing the film cooling effectiveness on a gas turbine blade suction side surface. The test is performed on a five bladed cascade with a blow down facility. Four different blowing ratios are used in this study, which are 0.5, 1.0, 1.6, and 2.0; mainstream flow conditions are maintained at exit Mach number of 0.7, 1.1 and 1.3. Nitrogen is injected as the coolant so that the oxygen concentration levels can be obtained for the test surface. Based on mass transfer analogy, film cooling effectiveness can be computed with pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique. The effect of blowing ratio on film cooling effectiveness is presented for each testing condition. The spanwise averaged effectiveness for each case is also presented to compare the blowing ratio and mainstream effect on film cooling effectiveness. Results show that due to effects of shock, the optimum blowing ratio is 1.6 for exit Mach number of 1.1 and 1.3; however; without the effects of shock, the optimum blowing ratio is 1.0 for exit Mach number of 0.7.

In this paper, we investigate the information content of the insider trading. We use book to market ratio to judge the stock price of the firms which tend to be overvalued or undervalued. We suppose that the higher the book to market ratio is, the more the insider buy; vice versa. According to the past papers, seasoning equity offering often happens when the stock price is overvalued. On the other hand, the stock repurchase often happens when the stock price is undervalued. As a result, we propose that if the seasoning equity offering happens, the insiders will sell more holding stocks. If the stock repurchase happens, the insiders will buy more holding stocks. Besides, we try to understand if we can use the insider trading and the book to market ratio to be the signal of seasoning equity offerings or stock repurchase. These empirical results are not the same as our hypotheses because of the specific reason¡Xmost of the corporations in the sample are operated by family. Therefore, they won¡¦t sell their stocks easily. We have to understand the real trading motivation in the subsequences study.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Psychology, Dec. 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-96). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.