<p>In Eskilstuna and Sweden in general the level of reuse of surplus material containing soils and rocks from excavation is low. In this report the potential for increasing the reuse of excavated material in Eskilstuna by using a web-based earth information database has been examined. The purpose of a web-based earth information database is to connect those who have surplus material with those who need material for a fast and simple transaction. The intention is to give Eskilstuna a more environmentally and economically efficient handling of surplus material by increasing the level of reuse and thereby reducing the amount of surplus material that is wasted and emissions given off to the atmosphere during transportation. The potential has been examined in two different ways, by tracing information about a number of projects to see if excavated material driven to the dump could have been used in another project and by interviewing eight of the work leaders active in Eskilstuna. The potential has been determined to be low based mostly on the interviews and on the current legislation. Although many of the work leaders were positive to use an earth information database there is too much speaking against it. For example the contractor who wants to use another contractor’s surplus material has to apply to the local authority six weeks ahead. In the work place the limited time and space, which are the two most important factors for being able to reuse material on site, doesn’t allow the paperwork to take so long time. But it’s not impossible to launch a web-based earth information database in Eskilstuna and recommendations has been given for important considerations if one is to be initiated.</p>

Les caractéristiques de l'offre de gaz en Europe et les spécificités du marché gazier ont conduit les régulateurs à adopter des régulations asymétriques, prenant la forme de gas release et d'objectifs de pertes de parts de marché. Les expériences empiriques montrent, en accord avec la théorie économique, que ces mesures rendent des concurrents actifs sur le marché et ne découragent pas les investissements. En terme de concurrence, les effets sont plus mitigés. Certains effets positifs trouvent certainement leur cause dans la croissance de la consommation qui est parfois exponentielle ou le développement des infrastructures d'importation et de transport. Ces mesures peuvent cependant favoriser les comportements collusifs, les stratégies d'écrémage ou de « reverse cherry picking », ainsi que des entrées inefficaces, rendues possibles car le concurrent est protégé pour une période de temps donnée. Un gas release crée une relation commerciale entre l'opérateur historique et son concurrent, ainsi qu'un système de contraintes sur les capacités de chacun. Les stratégies de prix ou de quantités sont alors modifiées. Les prix d'équilibre sont plus volatils et peuvent s'éloigner nettement du « mark-u p » de concurrence. De même, les stratégies d'un modèle de COURNOT se complexifient. L'opérateur historique, si les quantités rétrocédées sont fortes et ses approvisionnements faibles, peut laisser augmenter volontairement ses coûts pour accroître ses profits. Cette stratégie d'augmentation des coûts des rivaux est d'autant plus possible que le prix de rétrocession est proche de ses coûts d'approvisionnement. Elle ne détériore pas le surplus des consommateurs mais diminue le bien-être. Le régulateur peut restaurer l'incitation à l'efficacité en fixant une proportion rétrocédée en fonction du niveau des approvisionnements observé. Cette proportion ne doit pas être trop faible pour faire bénéficier le marché de l'incitation à l'efficacité de l'opérateur historique et des ventes plus importantes des deux opérateurs. Dans un même temps, une proportion trop élevée accentue les possibilités d'augmentation des coûts des rivaux ou de collusion.

This dissertation has two main objectives. The first one is to construct historical macroeconomic series for Sweden using a consistent method throughout the relevant periods, and which rely on modern methods of national accounting. The second objective is to investigate patterns of economic growth, accumulation and crisis in Sweden 1800-2000, based on the constructed data series. New annual data series of Gross Domestic Product and its division into activities (type of production) and expenditures (consumption, investment and foreign trade), Net Domestic Product, stocks of produced assets and consumption of fixed assets are constructed for the period 1800-2000; series of employment, wages, imputed labour income of self employed and surplus for the period 1850-2000; and series of worked hours for the period 1950-2000. Summary tables of the main aggregate variables are presented at the end of the dissertation. The intent is to make the data material available online (also at a more disaggregated level) at: http://www.historia.se. Although the present study criticises the somewhat deterministic vision of many long cycle theories, it also demonstrates that the concept of long cycle can be applied when studying long-term fluctuations in GDP per capita, provided that the notion of a fixed periodicity of long cycles is abandoned. Long-term economic fluctuations are irregular, but so is also the short-term business cycle. Different historical tendencies and trends are investigated. The decline of the relative size of industrial activities in the last half of 20th century was not as dramatic, if unpaid household labour is considered and that many services are industry-related. The Marxist theory of a Tendency for the Rate of Profit to Fall is partly confirmed as a secular process up to the 1970s, but profitability has rebounded in the last two decades of the 20th century. During the 1990s, the investment ratio declined to historically low levels and the volume value of the net stock of buildings and structures fell for the first time since the 1830s. A comparison is also made of depressions in Sweden since 1850. During the 19th century, depressions were largely induced by the agricultural sector, and during the 20th century by industrial activities. However, the transition to the modern business cycle was not sudden but rather protracted. Another finding is that the 1990s depression was somewhat deeper than the 1930s depression in terms of GDP contraction.

There are two main views of advertising – the informative view and the persuasive view. This thesis studies aspects of the informative view. One aspect of interest is whether firms can benefit from collusion on advertising even though advertising is only informative. If so, will this enhance or lower welfare? There are several reasons why firms may want to collude on adver­tising. First, the legal field is tilted in favour of nonprice collusion. Second, it is not at all obvious that collusion on price is more profitable than collusion on advertising and third, the analyses of Grossman and Shapiro (1984) and others show that profits can be increased by restricting advertising. In Paper 1, we examine firms’ incentives to collude on advertising and the implications for welfare. We find that collusion on advertising and competition on price is more profitable than competition on both price and advertising. We also find that semicollusion on advertising is detrimental to welfare. This suggests a need for monitoring, especially since it is in the interest of firms to restrict price advertising. We also compare semicollusion on price to semicollusion on advertising. We find that, in general, semicollusion on price does not lead to higher profits compared to semicollusion on advertising. Hence we lend theoretical support to the empirical literature that consistently find evidence of semicollusion on advertising rather than on price. Another important issue concerns the effect, on prices and profits, of ad-vertising only a subset of the product range. Many firms, in particular those in the retail sector, sell a wide variety of products but only advertise a few. Recent empirical evidence suggests that prices of unadvertised products are higher (Milyo and Waldfogel, 1999). Theoretically, little is known. In Paper 2, we study the effects of advertising only a subset of products. We allow for both low and high differentiation and, at the same time, we explicitly model the advertising decision. We find that the extend of differentiation between competing firms plays an important role in the analysis of loss leader pricing. When firms sell products with the same reservation price, loss leader pric­ing obtains only when differentiation is low. When products are less similar however, price competition is less intense and, as a result, firms advertise prices above marginal cost. Our loss leader pricing results enable us to shed some light on the seemingly paradoxical empirical findings in the marketing literature that loss leader pricing fails to increase store traffic, loss leader sales and hence to increase profits. We also consider a different subject – price discrimination. Although it is well understood that movements in the exchange rate have a bearing on firm profitability and hence affect firm behaviour, the role of exchange rate variability in the firm’s choice of the number of varieties to produce has (to my knowledge) not been explored. This, despite the fact that the product mix is an important aspect of firm strategy. By tinkering with the number of varieties, a firm can bolster its ability to extract consumer surplus. In Paper 3, we explore this issue. We show that variability in the exchange rate induces the firm to vertically segment markets (i.e., offer two varieties in each market). This happens because exchange rate variability affects income dispersion and hence the firm’s incentives to extract consumer surplus. To better extract surplus, the firm offers two price-quality menus, high quality variant (priced high) for top-end surplus extraction and a low quality variety (priced low) to address market coverage concerns. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2005 S. 3-9: sammanfattning, s. 13-95: 3 uppsatser</p>

The aim of this thesis is to develop algorithmic methods for computing particular performance measures of interest for a general class of discrete-based insurance risk models. We build upon and generalize the insurance risk models considered by Drekic and Mera (2011) and Alfa and Drekic (2007), by incorporating a threshold-based dividend system in which dividends only get paid provided some period of good financial health is sustained above a pre-specified threshold level. We employ two fundamental methods for calculating the performance measures under the more general framework. The first method adopts the matrix-analytic approach originally used by Alfa and Drekic (2007) to calculate various ruin-related probabilities of interest such as the trivariate distribution of the time of ruin, the surplus prior to ruin, and the deficit at ruin. Specifically, we begin by introducing a particular trivariate Markov process and then expressing its transition probability matrix in a block-matrix form. From this characterization, we next identify an initial probability vector for the process, from which certain important conditional probability vectors are defined. For these vectors to be computed efficiently, we derive recursive expressions for each of them. Subsequently, using these probability vectors, we derive expressions which enable the calculation of conditional ruin probabilities and, from which, their unconditional counterparts naturally follow. The second method used involves the first claim conditioning approach (i.e., condition on knowing the time the first claim occurs and its size) employed in many ruin theoretic articles including Drekic and Mera (2011). We derive expressions for the finite-ruin time based Gerber-Shiu function as well as the moments of the total dividends paid by a finite time horizon or before ruin occurs, whichever happens first. It turns out that both functions can be expressed in elegant, albeit long, recursive formulas. With the algorithmic derivations obtained from the two fundamental methods, we next focus on computational aspects of the model class by comparing six different types of models belonging to this class and providing numerical calculations for several parametric examples, highlighting the robustness and versatility of our model class. Finally, we identify several potential areas for future research and possible ways to optimize numerical calculations.

In Eskilstuna and Sweden in general the level of reuse of surplus material containing soils and rocks from excavation is low. In this report the potential for increasing the reuse of excavated material in Eskilstuna by using a web-based earth information database has been examined. The purpose of a web-based earth information database is to connect those who have surplus material with those who need material for a fast and simple transaction. The intention is to give Eskilstuna a more environmentally and economically efficient handling of surplus material by increasing the level of reuse and thereby reducing the amount of surplus material that is wasted and emissions given off to the atmosphere during transportation. The potential has been examined in two different ways, by tracing information about a number of projects to see if excavated material driven to the dump could have been used in another project and by interviewing eight of the work leaders active in Eskilstuna. The potential has been determined to be low based mostly on the interviews and on the current legislation. Although many of the work leaders were positive to use an earth information database there is too much speaking against it. For example the contractor who wants to use another contractor’s surplus material has to apply to the local authority six weeks ahead. In the work place the limited time and space, which are the two most important factors for being able to reuse material on site, doesn’t allow the paperwork to take so long time. But it’s not impossible to launch a web-based earth information database in Eskilstuna and recommendations has been given for important considerations if one is to be initiated.

The main objective of this thesis is to examine the theory of capitalism and its ontological foundations through the major works of Marx and Deleuze&amp / Guattari. In his monumental book called Capital, Karl Marx develops an account of capitalism based on his understanding of philosophy of which takes its roots from Hegel and Feuerbach. Additionally, English political economy and French socialism serve as reliable grounds for Marx&amp / #8217 / s analysis. In light of the writings of these historical precursors, Marx constitutes a profound critique of capitalist mode of production. On the other hand, Deleuze and Guattari, as the representatives of contemporary French philosophy, develop a different account of capitalism in their influential book called Anti-Oedipus. By relying upon Nietzsche, in Anti-Oedipus, Deleuze and Guattari examine capitalism in a non-dialectical manner. Despite the fact that they reject the major aspects of Marxian mode of thinking, they concentrate on the similar questions shared by Marx. The question of capitalism and its conception as an immanent system which reproduces itself by means of capital appears as the common problem that directs them to think analogously. In this respect, this thesis is an attempt to discover the points of ruptures and the points of continuities in two different account of capitalism.

自1980年代起新自由主義的崛起，主張自由市場、自由貿易、和不受限制的資本流動，認為這樣將能創造出最大的社會、政治、和經濟的利益，並以全球化來運用全世界的資源，但卻反而使失業成為全球性的普遍趨勢。在歷經了幾次的全球性金融危機，尤其是近年2008年由美國次貸危機引起的全球金融海嘯，更是令各國的失業率皆明顯上升。隨著新自由主義全球化的擴張，主流經濟學對於日漸嚴重的失業問題顯然已不足以提供充分的解釋，因而社會上開始對失業現象尋求另一種解釋。 本研究希望對於現今的失業現象，找出一個較為合理的解釋。首先分別闡述了主流經濟學和馬克思《資本論》中對於失業問題的解釋，再就馬克思在《資本論》中對相對過剩人口的定義，將台灣產業後備軍分為四種類型，並以時間序列對台灣勞動力市場中，產業後備軍的定量及流動量做分析，觀察其整體走勢及在景氣衰退期的變化。由第三章中的統計表以及趨勢圖，我們觀察出數種現象，有力的直接支持了《資本論》中所指出的，資本主義的內在規律對勞動階級影響的看法。 從本篇研究和Deepankar Basu（2013）在“The Reserve Army of Labor in the Postwar U. S. Economy”文中對美國失業現象作的分析，均得出一致性的結論，即馬克思對於失業的解釋是較為科學且周全的，認為《資本論》對於資本主義中的失業現象的觀點，是相較於主流經濟學學說，更具有科學性和合理性的論述。 / Neoliberalism, which claims that free markets and trade, globalization of world resources, and unrestricted capital flow will maximally benefit the interests of society, politics, and the economy, rose to prominence in the 1980s. However, the outcome was far from the perceived ideal, resulting in an increase in worldwide unemployment. After several global financial crises, in particular the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008, the unemployment rate dramatically increased in every country. With the expansion of neoliberal globalization, the worldwide unemployment problem has become increasingly unmanageable with mainstream economic policies, prompting economists everywhere to seek alternative solutions to this issue. The purpose of this study is to find a more accurate explanation of the current worldwide unemployment problem. First, we will frame the unemployment problem from the perspective of mainstream economics and contrast it with that of “Das Kapital”. Next, we will classify Taiwan’s reserve army of labor into four categories, according to the definition provided in “Das Kapital”. Thirdly, we will analyze the stocks and flows of Taiwan’s reserve army of labor via time series, and observe the trends and changes during economic recessions. Finally, after analysis of the statistical tables and run charts in chapter 3, we validate the perspective taken by “Das Kapital” - that the inherent law of capitalism has negatively influenced the working class. From the analysis of unemployment in America performed by Deepankar Basu（2013）along with this study, we can conclude “Das Kapital” explains the unemployment problem of capitalism in a more scientific and comprehensive manner when compared to the explanations provided by mainstream economic theory.

Backround. Based of my personal observations when employed as a pharmacist in a Saudi hospital it was clear that there were problems with medicine supply to outpatients. This thesis was designed to scientifically investigate the types of shortages, the reason(s) for such problems and potential solutions to the problem. Methods . This study was undertaken using a variety of experimental techniques to determine the views and perceptions of patients, pharmacists, physicians and administrative staff of the hospital under examination. To establish the scale of the problem: focus groups (n=25), structured questionnaires, structured interviews/meetings for health care professionals and a national survey (n=650) were the research tools used to objectively determine the relevant data. The data were analyzed by appropriate statistical methods. Results and Discussion That there was a real problem was quickly established in the data obtained from patients. A similar finding was made for each of the 'professional groups'. The central problem was one of shortages of medicines for prescriptions presented by outpatients. It was not a case the medicines were simply not available because they were never stocked but rather a simple shortage in the dispensary stock. It was established the lack of medicines was not due to central budget arrangements but involved prescribing quantities outside of the hospital guidelines which no degree of planning could accommodate. There was also the very unexpected finding that a prescription could be filled in a variety of hospital dispensaries as individuals could access more than one hospital or they could consult more than one physician for the same condition and obtain effectively double the supplies. Communications between the hospital and patients and the health care professionals could all be improved by perhaps increasing the knowledge of the patient about the correct use of medicines. Recommendations. A series of recommendations for future work is provided

The aim of this thesis is to develop algorithmic methods for computing particular performance measures of interest for a general class of discrete-based insurance risk models. We build upon and generalize the insurance risk models considered by Drekic and Mera (2011) and Alfa and Drekic (2007), by incorporating a threshold-based dividend system in which dividends only get paid provided some period of good financial health is sustained above a pre-specified threshold level. We employ two fundamental methods for calculating the performance measures under the more general framework. The first method adopts the matrix-analytic approach originally used by Alfa and Drekic (2007) to calculate various ruin-related probabilities of interest such as the trivariate distribution of the time of ruin, the surplus prior to ruin, and the deficit at ruin. Specifically, we begin by introducing a particular trivariate Markov process and then expressing its transition probability matrix in a block-matrix form. From this characterization, we next identify an initial probability vector for the process, from which certain important conditional probability vectors are defined. For these vectors to be computed efficiently, we derive recursive expressions for each of them. Subsequently, using these probability vectors, we derive expressions which enable the calculation of conditional ruin probabilities and, from which, their unconditional counterparts naturally follow. The second method used involves the first claim conditioning approach (i.e., condition on knowing the time the first claim occurs and its size) employed in many ruin theoretic articles including Drekic and Mera (2011). We derive expressions for the finite-ruin time based Gerber-Shiu function as well as the moments of the total dividends paid by a finite time horizon or before ruin occurs, whichever happens first. It turns out that both functions can be expressed in elegant, albeit long, recursive formulas. With the algorithmic derivations obtained from the two fundamental methods, we next focus on computational aspects of the model class by comparing six different types of models belonging to this class and providing numerical calculations for several parametric examples, highlighting the robustness and versatility of our model class. Finally, we identify several potential areas for future research and possible ways to optimize numerical calculations.