The backbone of our industrialised society and economy is electricity. To avoid a catastrophic situation, a plan for how to act during a power shortage is crucial. Previous research shows that decision models provide support to decision makers providing efficient energy rationing during power shortages in the Netherlands, United States and Canada. The existing research needs to be expanded with a group decision model to enable group decisions. This study is conducted with a case study approach where the Swedish emergency preparedness plan in case of power shortage, named Styrel, is explored and used to evaluate properties of a proposed group decision model. The study consist of a qualitative phase and a quantitative phase including a Monte Carlo simulation of group decisions in Styrel evaluated with correlation analysis. The qualitative results show that participants in Styrel experience the group decisions as time-consuming and unstructured. The current decision support is not used in neither of the two counties included in the study, with the motivation that the preferences provided by the decision support are misleading. The proposed group decision model include a measurable value function assigning values to priority classes for electricity users, an additive model to represent preferences of individual decision makers and an additive group decision model to aggregate preferences of several individual decision makers into a group decision. The conducted simulation indicate that the proposed group decision model evaluated in Styrel is sensitive to significant changes and more robust to moderate changes in preference differences between priority classes.

L'étude des difficultés d'accès des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises (PME) tunisiennes aux fonds montre que ces entreprises connaissent un “déficit d'intégration bancaire” qui peut être expliqué par la théorie du rationnement du crédit. La réticence des banques tunisiennes à s'impliquer dans le financement des PME est en grande partie expliquée par les caractéristiques structurelles et financières du système bancaire tunisien qui connaît une prépondérance des banques de dépôts se traduisant par une limitation de la concurrence sur le coût de financement. Elle est aussi expliquée par les faiblesses qu'enregistre la Tunisie en matière de partage d'information de crédit et de protection légale des créanciers tout au long de l'opération de financement.La vérification empirique du rationnement des PME sur le marché du crédit bancaire tunisien est fondée sur une estimation d'un modèle de déséquilibre sur la base d'un échantillon de données de panel composé de 1760 PME sur la période 2001-2006. Les résultats obtenus montrent que les PME tunisiennes, dépendantes du crédit bancaire, cherchent à éviter de mobiliser cette source de financement chaque fois qu'elles enregistrent une augmentation de leurs ressources internes ou font recours au crédit fournisseur. La très forte aversion au risque des banques fait que la décision d'offre du crédit dépend principalement de la garantie réelle et se traduit par une proportion moyenne d'environ 90% des entreprises qui sont - partiellement ou totalement - rationnées. / The study of Tunisian Small and Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs) difficulties to access to funds shows that these enterprises experience a “banking integration deficit” that can be explained by credit rationing theory. The reluctance of Tunisian banks to become involved in SMEs' financing is largely explained by the structural and financial characteristics of the Tunisian banking system whereof of the dominance of commercial banks results in a limitation of competition on the financing cost. It is also explained by the weaknesses experienced by Tunisia as regards the sharing information and the creditors legal protection throughout the financing transaction.The empirical verification of Tunisian SMEs' credit rationing on the Tunisian bank credit market is founded on an estimate of a disequilibrium model on the basis of a panel data set of 1760 Tunisian SMEs over the period 2001-2006. Results show that Tunisian SMEs, dependent on bank credit, seek to avoid the call for this source of financing every time they experience an increase in their internal resources or have recourse to trade credit. The very strong risk aversion of banks makes the credit supply decision mainly dependent on real guarantee, and results to an average proportion of 90% - partially or totally - credit rationed enterprises.

This thesis examines the problem of utilitarian ageism in Quality-Adjusted Life Years and contrasts it with the biblical principles of community and honor that are to characterize treatment of the elderly. Chapter 1 provides a general orientation into the issue of health care allocation. Attention is given to the history of modern health care allocation and describes its rapid evolution. Chapter 2 provides a more detailed analysis of health care allocation demonstrating the necessity for some system of allocation in modern American health care. It concludes by presenting the QALY model as a potential basis for modern health care allocation decision making. Chapter 3 examines the problems of QALYs as a basis for health care allocation. After the use of quality of life and health life years is evaluated the relationship between utilitarianism and QALYs is explored, focusing on QALYs' discrimination against elderly. Chapter 4 examines the biblical perspectives of elder care, identifying the principles of honor and community as foundational. The underlining principles of justice and biblical love provide a foundation for biblical elder care. Chapter 5 compares the QALY and biblical models. The comparison is accomplished by noting the contrasts in philosophical foundations, economic strategies and priorities in the distribution of limited health care resources. Chapter 6 concludes by contending that QALY calculations are ageist and therefore an unjust basis on which to base decisions regarding the distribution of limited health care resources. This work contends that a potentially less efficient, but a better moral basis for resource allocation are the biblical principles of honor and community. These two principles enable a more holistic approach to dealing with the needy elderly in health care allocation. / This item is only available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. If you are not associated with SBTS, this dissertation may be purchased from <a href="http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb">http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb</a> or downloaded through ProQuest's Dissertation and Theses database if your institution subscribes to that service.

O crescente valor pago pela fatura de energia elétrica sucedendo um período de indisponibilidade quando do racionamento em 2001, concomitantemente com as novas regulamentações do setor elétrico, fizeram com que algumas indústrias buscassem melhor entender o negócio energia elétrica de forma a se precaver de um possível novo racionamento. As indústrias foram em busca de preços mais atrativos, objetivando garantir seu processo produtivo com competitividade. O setor elétrico buscou estimular o investimento privado e o crescimento sustentável do mercado de energia elétrica no Brasil, e também incentivar o usuário final a melhor fazer a gestão dos gastos e consumos de energia elétrica através de novas regulamentações, incentivos à eficiência energética, acelerando a competitividade nos preços de energia elétrica, entre outras ações. Este trabalho apresenta um resumo dos fatos relevantes que ocorreram no setor elétrico brasileiro e cita os principais impactos ocorridos na indústria, a transformação do consumidor em cliente, ou seja, de mero pagador de fatura ao responsável pela escolha do fornecedor e o atual gestor do gasto e do consumo de energia em sua indústria. Esta dissertação propõe um modelo de gestão de energia elétrica baseado em um caso de sucesso ocorrido numa grande indústria de alimentos do Brasil, apresentando os resultados obtidos. / The increasing amount paid for the electricity energy invoice after the period of unavailability on the occasion of the energy rationing in 2001, concurrently with the new regulations of the energy sector, have made some industries pursue a better understanding of the energy business in order to avoid a possible new energy rationing. The companies have also been searching for more attractive prices, aiming at ensuring competitiveness in their production process. The electrical energy sector has sought to stimulate private investment and sustainable growth of the energy market in Brazil, apart from providing incentive for the end user in terms of improving their expenditures and energy consumption management through new regulations and incentives for energy efficiency, accelerating the competitiveness of energy price, among other actions. The contents of this dissertation present a summary of relevant facts that occurred in the Brazilian electricity sector. Moreover, they cite the major impacts on the industry, the transformation of consumers into customers, i.e. from a mere bill payer to a customer who is responsible for choosing the energy provider, also becoming the current expenditure and energy consumption manager of their own company. This dissertation proposes a model of energy management based on a successful case occurred in a major food processing industry in Brazil, presenting the results.

Cette thèse comporte six articles répartis en quatre chapitres. Les trois premiers chapitres sont constitués chacun d'un article théorique alors que le quatrième chapitre est composé de trois articles empiriques. Le premier chapitre envisage un cadre avec deux catégories d'agents, l'un souhaitant vendre alors que l'autre souhaite acheter. Sont analysés les problèmes liés aux signaux spéculatifs et est également estimé le risque auquel sont confrontés les opérateurs en excès de confiance. Le second chapitre étudie le rationnement du crédit et met en évidence une situation où la prise de décision est associée à une échelle fixe dans l'investissement. Le troisième chapitre aborde la théorie des mécanismes d'incitation et met en évidence une condition de tri en théorie des incitations. Le principal est confronté à un dilemme car il ne peut pas maintenir un risque identique lors de l'analyse de la statique comparative de l'investissement. Le quatrième chapitre est segmenté en trois articles empiriques, à savoir une étude de la liquidité systémique de l'investissement, la régulation des banques de petite dimension, et, enfin, le lien entre la taille des économies, la viabilité de la dette et les inégalités de détention de capital à la Piketty. / This thesis contains six articles gathered in four chapters. The three first chapters each consist of a theoretical article while the fourth chapter is composed of three empirical articles. The first chapter addresses a framework where a trader wants to buy white another trader wants to sell, these two traders standing in parallel. It seems plausible, yet it requires further examination on aggregate measures of fundamentals, to estimate the risks faced by overconfident agents. The second chapter is devoted to the analysis of credit rationing and illustrates a situation requiring decision-making measured by some fixed scale in investment. In the third chapter, the model shows a sorting condition in the theory of incentives, the principal having the dilemma that he cannot maintain risk preference according to the comparative statics of investment. In the fourth chapter, three empirical articles are presented : the first relates to systematic liquidity in the investment, the second the regulation of small banks and the third analyzes economic size and the viability of the debt while providing an articulation with the capital inequality emphasized by Piketty.

O crescente valor pago pela fatura de energia elétrica sucedendo um período de indisponibilidade quando do racionamento em 2001, concomitantemente com as novas regulamentações do setor elétrico, fizeram com que algumas indústrias buscassem melhor entender o negócio energia elétrica de forma a se precaver de um possível novo racionamento. As indústrias foram em busca de preços mais atrativos, objetivando garantir seu processo produtivo com competitividade. O setor elétrico buscou estimular o investimento privado e o crescimento sustentável do mercado de energia elétrica no Brasil, e também incentivar o usuário final a melhor fazer a gestão dos gastos e consumos de energia elétrica através de novas regulamentações, incentivos à eficiência energética, acelerando a competitividade nos preços de energia elétrica, entre outras ações. Este trabalho apresenta um resumo dos fatos relevantes que ocorreram no setor elétrico brasileiro e cita os principais impactos ocorridos na indústria, a transformação do consumidor em cliente, ou seja, de mero pagador de fatura ao responsável pela escolha do fornecedor e o atual gestor do gasto e do consumo de energia em sua indústria. Esta dissertação propõe um modelo de gestão de energia elétrica baseado em um caso de sucesso ocorrido numa grande indústria de alimentos do Brasil, apresentando os resultados obtidos. / The increasing amount paid for the electricity energy invoice after the period of unavailability on the occasion of the energy rationing in 2001, concurrently with the new regulations of the energy sector, have made some industries pursue a better understanding of the energy business in order to avoid a possible new energy rationing. The companies have also been searching for more attractive prices, aiming at ensuring competitiveness in their production process. The electrical energy sector has sought to stimulate private investment and sustainable growth of the energy market in Brazil, apart from providing incentive for the end user in terms of improving their expenditures and energy consumption management through new regulations and incentives for energy efficiency, accelerating the competitiveness of energy price, among other actions. The contents of this dissertation present a summary of relevant facts that occurred in the Brazilian electricity sector. Moreover, they cite the major impacts on the industry, the transformation of consumers into customers, i.e. from a mere bill payer to a customer who is responsible for choosing the energy provider, also becoming the current expenditure and energy consumption manager of their own company. This dissertation proposes a model of energy management based on a successful case occurred in a major food processing industry in Brazil, presenting the results.

Abstract not available

<p>This thesis consists of five chapters.</p><p><b>Chapter 1 and 2 </b>The first chapter presents the introduction and the summary and the second chapter provides details on the survey and the data collection.</p><p>Chapter 3 The demand and supply of credit in the rural finance markets are investigated in this paper using data on 989 households, in Orissa, India. The aim is to study the effects of household, farm productive characteristics and the policy variables on the demand and supply of credit. A type 3 Tobit model is estimated which corrects for sample selection and endogeniety bias. In addition, a generalised Double Hurdle model is estimated where the household's access to credit is treated distinctly from decisions about the interest rate charged. The results from the type 3 tobit model suggest that the size of the operational holdings, net-wealth, the dependency ratio, educational level of the household and the wages and output prices are important determinants of the demand and supply of credit. The Double Hurdle model suggests the important result that the size of land owned plays a crucial role in whether the household obtains a loan or not.</p><p>Chapter 4 Based on the 'Rural Credit Market Survey of the Puri district in India', this paper investigates evidence on segmentation in the rural credit markets of Puri district. It further investigates the presence of any systematic association between the type of collateral offered by the household and the rate of interest at which it borrows. The data shows differences in the loan characteristics between the households borrowing from the formal and the informal sector. The empirical results confirm the presence of segmentation in the Puri credit market. For the households borrowing from the informal sector and the moneylenders, evidence also shows that the marketability of the collateral is inversely related to the interest rate. However, no such clear relationship is found for households borrowing from the formal sector.</p><p><b>Chapter 5 </b>In the theoretical and the empirical literature on rural credit markets it is widely assumed that the households are credit rationed in the formal sector, which offers subsidised credit. This view rests on the assumptions that all households have a positive demand for formal credit and that it is the cheaper source of credit. Three different models of formal credit rationing are estimated in this paper. The first model is a conventional credit-rationing model. The second model assumes that the probability to borrow from the formal sector is jointly determined by the demand for credit and the decision of the bank on access. Finally, the third model relaxes both these assumptions and the household chooses between borrowing from the formal or the informal sector. The results confirm that the access to the formal sector in the Puri rural credit markets is limited and that there exists a high demand for credit. This suggests a high degree of effective credit rationing by the formal sector in Puri. </p>

The first goal of the present work focuses on the need for different rationing methods of the The Global Change and Financial Transition (GFT) work- ing group at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK): I provide a toolbox which contains a variety of rationing methods to be ap- plied to micro-economic disequilibrium models of the lagom model family. This toolbox consists of well known rationing methods, and of rationing methods provided specifically for lagom. To ensure an easy application the toolbox is constructed in modular fashion. The second goal of the present work is to present a micro-economic labour market where heterogenous labour suppliers experience consecu- tive job opportunities and need to decide whether to apply for employ- ment. The labour suppliers are heterogenous with respect to their qualifi- cations and their beliefs about the application behaviour of their competi- tors. They learn simultaneously – in Bayesian fashion – about their individ- ual perceived probability to obtain employment conditional on application (PPE) by observing each others’ application behaviour over a cycle of job opportunities. / In vorliegender Arbeit beschäftige ich mich mit zwei Dingen. Zum einen entwickle ich eine Modellierungstoolbox, die verschiedene Rationierungs- methoden enthält. Diese Rationierungsmethoden sind entweder aus der Literatur bekannt, oder wurden speziell für die lagom Modellfamilie ent- wickelt. Zum anderen zeige ich, dass man mit Hilfe von Rationierungsmetho- den aus der Modellierungstoolbox einen fiktiven Arbeitsmarkt modellie- ren kann. Auf diesem agieren arbeitssuchende Agenten, die heterogen im Bezug auf ihre Qualifikation und ihre Vorstellungen über das Bewerbungs- verhalten ihrer Konkurrenten sind. Sie erfahren aufeinanderfolgende Job- angebote und beobachten das Bewerbungsverhalten ihrer Konkurrenten, um in Bayesianischer Weise über ihre individuelle Wahrscheinlichkeit eine Stelle zu erhalten zu lernen.

This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 and 2 The first chapter presents the introduction and the summary and the second chapter provides details on the survey and the data collection. Chapter 3 The demand and supply of credit in the rural finance markets are investigated in this paper using data on 989 households, in Orissa, India. The aim is to study the effects of household, farm productive characteristics and the policy variables on the demand and supply of credit. A type 3 Tobit model is estimated which corrects for sample selection and endogeniety bias. In addition, a generalised Double Hurdle model is estimated where the household's access to credit is treated distinctly from decisions about the interest rate charged. The results from the type 3 tobit model suggest that the size of the operational holdings, net-wealth, the dependency ratio, educational level of the household and the wages and output prices are important determinants of the demand and supply of credit. The Double Hurdle model suggests the important result that the size of land owned plays a crucial role in whether the household obtains a loan or not. Chapter 4 Based on the 'Rural Credit Market Survey of the Puri district in India', this paper investigates evidence on segmentation in the rural credit markets of Puri district. It further investigates the presence of any systematic association between the type of collateral offered by the household and the rate of interest at which it borrows. The data shows differences in the loan characteristics between the households borrowing from the formal and the informal sector. The empirical results confirm the presence of segmentation in the Puri credit market. For the households borrowing from the informal sector and the moneylenders, evidence also shows that the marketability of the collateral is inversely related to the interest rate. However, no such clear relationship is found for households borrowing from the formal sector. Chapter 5 In the theoretical and the empirical literature on rural credit markets it is widely assumed that the households are credit rationed in the formal sector, which offers subsidised credit. This view rests on the assumptions that all households have a positive demand for formal credit and that it is the cheaper source of credit. Three different models of formal credit rationing are estimated in this paper. The first model is a conventional credit-rationing model. The second model assumes that the probability to borrow from the formal sector is jointly determined by the demand for credit and the decision of the bank on access. Finally, the third model relaxes both these assumptions and the household chooses between borrowing from the formal or the informal sector. The results confirm that the access to the formal sector in the Puri rural credit markets is limited and that there exists a high demand for credit. This suggests a high degree of effective credit rationing by the formal sector in Puri.