The thesis analyzes the validity of consumer's surplus as a measure of welfare change. The analysis begins by examining the chronological development of the concept. Once an understanding of consumer's surplus is formulated, an evaluation of its use in modern ad hoc problems can be undertaken. Chapter II and III discuss the development of consumer's surplus from Classical economics to its modern reformulations, The concept's application to different problems is discussed in Chapter IV. Chapter V and VI deal with the intergration of consumer's surplus and the compensation principle. The primary conclusion is that the Laspeyres measure, in combination with the compensation test, provides a definitive measure of welfare change in a limited situation.

La théorie de la croissance endogène souligne l’importance de la formation pour exploiter le capital humain. Cela constitue un élément fondamental pour notre analyse sur la formation du transfert de la main d œuvre rural excédentaire en Chine.La formation de la main d œuvre rurale en Chine se divise en formation de la technologie agricole et formation du transfert, dont la première est destinée à la main d’œuvre rurale travaillant dans le secteur agricole et la deuxième est pour les ouvriers ruraux. Pour la formation du transfert, la formation à grande échelle a débuté en 2003 par « Le projet national deformation des ouvriers-paysans : 2003-2010 ». Ensuite, le gouvernement central a lancé « Le projet national « soleil » de transfert de la main d’oeuvre rurale » et « Le projet du renforcement de la formation et de l’emploi ». La formation de la main d’œuvre rural en Chine s’est caractérisée par l’orientation gouvernementale et les organismes professionnels de formation et les entreprises qui ne sont pas assez actives. Ces dernières années, bien que la formation de la main d’œuvre rurale en Chine ait connu une certaine réussite, il reste encore beaucoup de choses à résumer et à améliorer.Cette thèse s’est concentrée principalement sur l’analyse de la formation de la main d’œuvre rurale excédentaire en Chine.L’analyse est fondée sur des bases de statistiques. / The theory of endogenous growth underlines the importance of training for the utilization of human capital. This is a fundamental element of our analysis of the training of surplus rural labour in China. The training of the rural labour force in China is divided into training in agricultural technology and retraining for industry. The first type targets rural workers in the agricultural sector and the second is for rural workers in industry. Large-scale industrial retraining commenced in 2003 with the “National Training Project for Peasant Workers: 2003-2010”. Then central government launched the “National ‘Sun’ Project for the transfer of the Rural Labour Force” and the “Project for the Reinforcement of Training and Employment”.The training of the rural labour force in China has been characterised by governmental strategic orientation, and a lack of commitment on behalf of professional training organisations and companies. In recent years, despite some success in training the Chinese rural labour force, there are still many solutions to be found or improved. The main aim of this thesis is to analyse the training of the surplus rural labour force in China. Statistical databases are used for the analysis.

A metrópole de São Paulo passa por profundas transformações desde a década de 1990. O chamado vetor sudoeste se elaborou como a novacentralidade econômica do país. Esse processo se remete à reprodução do espaço urbano como condição, meio e produto da acumulação de capital. A potência desse fenômeno e dessa condição é relativamente nova. A história da concentração geográfica do capitalna cidade de São Paulo favoreceu sempre a abertura de novas oportunidades de investimentos in loco, mas a intensidade do processo aumenta exponencialmente quando um movimento de concentração começa a dar lugar à centralização geográfica do capital.A partir daí, a concentração se torna, ela mesma, a condição de reposição de novas oportunidades de investimentos na centralidade constituída, numa dinâmica que consome configurações espaciais previamente capitalistas. Trata-se de uma acumulação especificamente urbana. No Brasil, essa dinâmica espacial do capital não foi tão significativa até a década de 1990. A hipótese que explica esse descompasso no caso brasileiro reconhece a prioridade do processo de produção sobre a reprodução do espaço urbano. Isso significa que a urbanização se estendeu no tempo porque pôde se estender no espaço. A urbanização expandida do território brasileiro foi aqui objeto da ação de um Estado comprometido com a realização do capital e assim absorveu lucrativamente os excedentes frequentemente gerados na economia brasileira. Com a crise do Estado desenvolvimentista e com as condições apresentadas nos grandes centros nacionais, o processo de valorização exigiu mais do que se podia conseguir com a manutenção de uma enfraquecida dinâmica expansionista. Aqui o Estado se reorganiza e cria novos instrumentosque o permitem atuar na escala metropolitana. A produção de novas centralidades, como momento da reprodução do espaço urbano, e a centralização geográfica diminuem a importância das dinâmicas expansionistas na realização do capital. A intensificação geográfica do capital, na era das finanças mundializadas, passa a compor o centro das estratégias de acumulação. / The metropolis of São Paulo has undergone profound changes since the 1990s. The so-called southwest vector has established itself as the new economic centre in the country. This process relates to the reproduction of the urban space as a condition, means and product of capital accumulation. The strength of this phenomenon and of this condition is relatively new. The history of the geographical concentration of capital in the city of São Paulo has always privileged new investment opportunitiesin loco, however, whenever the movement of concentration starts to give way to geographic centralization of capital, the process intensifies exponentially. At this point, the concentration itself becomes the condition for the reestablishment of new investment opportunities in the recently instituted centrality: a dynamics that consume previous capitalist spatial configurations. And thisis a specifically urban accumulation. In Brazil, the spatial dynamics of capital had not been significant until the 1990s decade. The hypothesis used to explain the mismatch in the case of Brazil recognizes the priority of the production process over thereproduction of the urban space. That means that the urbanization has extended in time just because it could extend in space. The expanded urbanization of the Brazilian territory has been the result of a state policy committed to capital development, therefore, it has absorbed profitably the surpluses frequently generated in the Brazilian economy. Due to the crisis of developmentalism and the conditions prevailing in the major national centers, the valorization process required more than could be achieved with the maintenance of a weak expansionist dynamics. From this point on, the state reorganizes itself and creates new instruments that permit action at the metropolitan scale. The production of new centers, as a dimension of the reproduction of urban space, as well as the geographical centralization, diminish the importance of the expansionist dynamics for capital. In the age of global finance, the geographical intensification of capital becomes the mainstay of accumulation strategies.

Concerns over both environmental issues and about the depletion of fossil fuels have acted as twin driving forces to the development of renewable energy and its integration into existing electricity grids. The variable nature of RE generators assessment affects the ability to balance supply and demand across electricity networks; however, the use of energy storage and demand-side response techniques is expected to help relieve this situation. One possibility in this regard might be the use of water electrolysis to produce hydrogen while producing industrial-scale DSR services. This would be facilitated by the use of tariff structures that incentive the operation of electrolysers as dispatchable loads. This research has been carried out to answer the following question: What is the feasibility of using electrolysers to provide industrial-scale of Demand-side Response for grid balancing while producing hydrogen at a competitive price? The hydrogen thus produced can then be used, and indeed sold, as a clean automotive fuel. To these ends, two common types of electrolyser, alkaline and PEM, are examined in considerable detail. In particular, two cost scenarios for system components are considered, namely those for 2015 and 2030. The coastal city of Darnah in Libya was chosen as the basis for this case study, where renewable energy can be produced via wind turbines and photovoltaics (PVs), and where there are currently six petrol stations serving the city that can be converted to hydrogen refuelling stations (HRSs). In 2015 all scenarios for both PEM and alkaline electrolysers were considered and were found to be able to partly meet the project aims but with high cost of hydrogen due to the high cost of system capital costs, low price of social carbon cost and less government support. However, by 2030 the price of hydrogen price will make it a good option as energy storage and clean fuel for many reasons such as the expected drop in capital cost, improvement in the efficiency of the equipment, and the expectation of high price of social carbon cost. Penetration of hydrogen into the energy sector requires strong governmental support by either establishing or modifying policies and energy laws to increasingly support renewable energy usage. Government support could effectively bring forward the date at which hydrogen becomes techno-economically viable (i.e. sooner than 2030).

Submitted by Rosivalda Pereira (mrs.pereira@ufma.br) on 2017-05-24T18:14:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 JesseSalesRego.pdf: 1367385 bytes, checksum: b922c47e1d339b723df57400b026874c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-24T18:14:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JesseSalesRego.pdf: 1367385 bytes, checksum: b922c47e1d339b723df57400b026874c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-29 / The present dissertation aims to present the social security debate in Brazil, in the World and its macroeconomic implications. The choice for this theme is justified by the absence of studies that, in addition to the technical aspects behind social security systems, present together historical, philosophical and, above all, political economy questions. For this, the debate is classified into two main categories: the conservative perspective and the perspective of the demand for social security. In addition, the debate in Brazil is focused on the macroeconomic controversies and on the relationship between social security spending and fiscal equilibrium. / A presente dissertação tem por objetivo apresentar o debate previdenciário no Brasil, no Mundo e suas implicações macroeconômicas. A escolha por esse tema justifica-se pela ausência de estudos que para além dos aspectos técnicos, por trás dos sistemas previdenciários, apresentem juntamente questões históricas, filosóficas e principalmente de economia política. Para isso, classifica-se o debate em duas grandes categorias: a da perspectiva conservadora e a da perspectiva das demanda por seguridade social. Além disso, apresenta-se o debate no Brasil com foco nas controvérsias macroeconômicas e na relação gasto previdenciário x equilíbrio fiscal.

Um sistema financeiro eficiente é capaz de oferecer produtos e serviços adequados, especialmente crédito, com preço acessível, possibilitando a inclusão social dos cidadãos. O objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar a contribuição do Sistema de Crédito Cooperativo para o aumento da eficiência econômica do Sistema Financeiro Nacional. O cooperativismo é o movimento que preconiza a colaboração e associação de pessoas com os mesmos interesses, a fim de maximizar resultados em suas atividades econômicas. Formalmente, o movimento surgiu em 1844, em Rochdale (Manchester/Inglaterra). No Brasil desde 1902, quando constituída a primeira cooperativa em Linha Imperial, atual município de Nova Petrópolis/RS, as cooperativas de crédito diferenciam-se do sistema bancário tradicional na medida em que aplicam os recursos na própria comunidade onde os captam. A evolução da legislação brasileira possibilitou a formação de grandes sistemas (SICOOB, SICREDI, UNICRED, CECRED e CONFESOL), sendo a capilaridade do segmento cooperativo um aspecto importante no aumento da eficiência do Sistema Financeiro Nacional (SFN), permitindo maior acesso as localidades e cidadãos que utilizam seus serviços. Em termos de mercado, o crédito cooperativo vem na última década apresentado crescimento superior a 20% ao ano e apesar de representar apenas 3% do crédito no Sistema Financeiro Nacional, tem grande destaque no financiamento rural, onde 41% do crédito originado no segmento cooperativo tem este objetivo, enquanto que no SFN, não chega a 10% (Banco Central do Brasil, 2012). Em termos de inadimplência de crédito, as cooperativas registraram picos de 2,39% em 2010, quando o mercado registrou taxas de 5,9% neste mesmo período. Ademais, contatou-se que as taxas praticadas pelas Cooperativas de Crédito em 2010 foram em média 31% menores que as praticadas pelo mercado de crédito convencional. Isso proporcionou um excedente do consumidor para os associados de R$ 2,87 bilhões em juros não pagos que retornaram para a economia, demonstrando a importância das cooperativas de crédito para o aumento da eficiência do Sistema Financeiro Nacional. / An efficient financial system is able to offer appropriate products and services, especially credit, affordable, enabling social inclusion of citizens. The objective of this study was to analyze the contribution of the Cooperative Credit System to increase the economic efficiency of the National Financial System. The cooperative movement is the movement which advocates collaboration and association of people with similar interests, in order to maximize results in their economic activities. Formally, the movement emerged in 1844 in Rochdale (Manchester/England). In Brazil since 1902, when the first cooperative formed in Imperial Line current municipality of Nova Petrópolis/RS, credit unions differ from traditional banking system to the extent that apply resources in their own community where the capture. The evolution of Brazilian law allowed the formation of large systems (SICOOB, SICREDI, UNICRED, CECRED and CONFESOL), the capillarity of the cooperative sector an important aspect in increasing the efficiency of the National Financial System (SFN), allowing greater access locations and citizens who use their services. In terms of market share, credit unions in the last decade has presented more than 20% per year growth and despite representing only 3% of credit in the financial system, has great prominence in rural finance, where 41% of loans originated in the cooperative sector has this goal, while SFN, does not reach 10% (Central Bank of Brazil, 2012). In terms of credit default cooperatives recorded peak of 2.39% in 2010, when the market rate of 5.9% recorded in the same period. Moreover, if contacted that the rates charged by credit unions in 2010 were on average 31% lower than those charged by conventional credit market. This provided a consumer surplus for members at R$ 2.87 billion in unpaid interest returning to the economy, demonstrating the importance of credit unions to increase the efficiency of the National Financial System.

Cooperativas de crédito são criadas como extensão da economia de seus cooperados e com objetivo de prestar serviços financeiros a eles. Atuam similarmente a outros tipos de instituições financeiras, captando depósitos de usuários superavitários de liquidez, oferecendo crédito a usuários deficitários e prestando serviços diversos de pagamentos e compensação de documentos. Uma das diferenças fundamentais, entretanto, é que nas cooperativas os usuários são também os proprietários, destinatários portanto da divisão das sobras operacionais resíduo financeiro geradas pela organização periodicamente. Sobras em cooperativas de crédito, assim como lucro em instituições financeiras de propriedade de investidores, advêm do superávit gerado nas operações com os usuários. Em cooperativas, entretanto, o superávit é gerado em operações com os próprios sócios, devendo lhes ser devolvidas posteriormente e proporcionalmente às operações que as deram origem. Essa devolução pode ser feita como depósito à vista nas respectivas contas correntes, ou como integralização de quota-parte nas contas de capital social; ou ainda, partes maiores ou menores dessas sobras podem ser alocadas em reservas e provisões indivisíveis aos cooperados, uma característica desse tipo de organização. Assim, um conjunto de decisões à disposição dos dirigentes e gestores dessas organizações diz respeito à geração e à distribuição de sobras, sendo portanto relevante seu estudo e avaliação. Nesse trabalho é desenvolvido um modelo para tipificação de cooperativas de crédito, de acordo com os padrões de distribuição de resultados aos cooperados i.e. sobras líquidas ajustadas. A partir do modelo de tipificação proposto, estudam-se e classificam-se as sete maiores cooperativas de crédito rural do Estado de São Paulo, utilizando-se dados contábeis públicos e coletados por meio de questionário. São analisados dessas cooperativas números contábeis característicos ativo total, passivo exigível, patrimônio líquido e sobras e perdas,além de composição do quadro social , bem como taxas de spread aplicadas nas atividades de intermediação financeira e indicadores de rentabilidade. A partir do modelo de tipificação, classificam-se as cooperativas amostradas em três grupos, conforme padrão de distribuição de resultados dos últimos cinco anos, de 2003 a 2007. Nesses grupos, observam-se padrões de comportamento em relação ao tamanho das cooperativas ativo total e dos respectivos quadros sociais total de cooperados ativos. As maiores cooperativas da amostra são as que devolvem parte considerável das sobras em conta corrente; as duas intermediárias são as que devolvem a maior parte no capital social; e as duas menores cooperativas da amostra são as que destinam a maior parte das sobras a reservas e provisões indivisíveis. Idem pode ser dito com base nos quadros sociais, com uma exceção. Por outro lado, não se observa correspondência entre os padrões de distribuição de resultados e níveis de rentabilidade, como sugerido na hipótese à pesquisa. Assim, os resultados sugerem a utilização da margem decisória em relação à geração e à distribuição de sobras em cooperativas de crédito, à disposição de seus dirigentes e gestores, como um mecanismo de aprisionamento (hostage arrangement; SPEKLÉ, 2001) dos cooperados para com suas cooperativas. Ou seja, essas decisões comporiam um sistema de controle gerencial destinado a incentivar a atuação de cooperação dos cooperados. / Credit unions are created as firm extensions of their member´s economies, designed to provide financial services to them. They act similarly to other types of financial institutions, capturing deposits from surplus spending users, providing credit to deficient liquidity users, as well as providing payments and compensation services. One fundamental difference, however, is that credit union members are users as well as owners, thus addressed the division of the operational surpluses generated periodically by the organization. Surplus in credit unions, similar to profits in investor-owned financial institutions, come from transactions with its users. Nonetheless, in cooperatives surplus is generated in transactions with their own members. Hence, it should be returned to them, by the amount of patronage of each active one. They could receive it as deposits in their cash accounts, or in their capital accounts. Otherwise, large or small parts of the surplus may be allocated to the cooperative´s indivisible reserves, a characteristic feature of cooperative organizations. Thus, a set of decisions are available to the leaders and managers of these organizations concerning the generation and distribution of surpluses. In this dissertation a model is developed to classify credit unions, according to the patterns of distribution of surpluses to members. From this model, serve large credit unions from São Paulo are studied, using public and questionnaire specific datasets. Accounting numbers as well as spread rates and performance indicators are presented and analyzed, regarding the research about the distribution of surpluses in credit cooperatives. From the model proposed, the seven cooperatives are classified into three groups, according to the distribution of surpluses pattern showed in five years, from 2003 to 2007. In these groups, there are patterns of behavior in relation to the size of the cooperatives - assets as well as amount of active members. The largest cooperatives in the sample are those that return part of the surplus on cash accounts; the two intermediary return most part in capital accounts; and the two smallest are those that allocate most of the surplus to indivisible reserves. Nonetheless, there is no correspondence between the patterns of distribution of results and the levels of profitability, as suggested in the hypothesis. The results suggest the use of the decision power of its managers and leaders, regarding the distribution of surplus, as \"hostage arrangements\" (SPEKLÉ, 2001), i.e. mechanisms designed to attract its members back and strongly for the cooperation environment.

This thesis begins by revisiting and building on themes of labour market segmentation, with particular reference given to Marx's seminal account of segmentation in Capital, Vol.1 (Chapter 25). Marx distinguishes between an active army - the stable full-time employed - and the relative surplus population - the precariously employed reserve army and the residual surplus - and suggests further fragmentation of these main groups into sub-strata. Marx's perspective of segmentation is grounded in fragments of a general theory of employment that, as a long-term tendency, identifies continual advances in constant capital that abolish work and proliferate the reserve army. This thesis builds on these themes by formulating a concept, the 'transference dynamic', which underpins a general theory of employment segmentation. A short history of segmentation under capitalism traces recent phases of development in both developed and lesser-developed nations. Stress is placed on the role of political configurations that regulate capitalism in ways that can either counter the general tendency, such is the case under the Fordist model of capitalism, or strengthen its logic. The theory of employment segmentation and the lessons drawn from the historical account are spliced together with an analysis of the contemporary phase of capitalism, labelled here as the neoliberal model of development. It is demonstrated that the coercive international regulatory dynamic of the neoliberal model reasserts and extends the competitive principle of the capitalist mode of production. Through this extension, nations are transformed into competition-states vying for scarce and globally mobile capital to operate on their shores - the primary source of national prosperity and employment - by implementing capital-friendly neoliberalized policy. This analysis of neoliberal global capitalism reveals an expanding surplus population within a context of deepening international segmentation. This employment crisis is expressed as a hierarchy of nations that is determined in part by their uneven development. Those at the bottom of the hierarchy, comprising a majority portion of the world's population, contain a massive reserve army and residual surplus population unincorporated into wage-based capitalism, without any obvious support of means of life and with little hope for the future. Finally, mainstream solutions are criticized for failing to address either long-run or contemporary drivers of the employment crisis. In response, this thesis pitches a project of multi-faceted radical reform that counter-regulates capitalism by adopting a combination of local, national, regional and global forms of democratic socialist governance.

<p>Essentially this project report is a discussion of mathematical modelling in pension funds, presenting sections from Cairns, A.J.D., Blake, D., Dowd, K., Stochastic lifestyling: Optimal dynamic asset allocation for defined contribution pension plans, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Volume 30, Issue 2006, Pages 843-877, with added details and background material in order to demonstrate the mathematical methods. In the investigation of the management of the investment portfolio, we only use one risky asset together with a bond and cash as other assets in a&nbsp / continuous time framework. The particular model is very much designed according to the members&rsquo / preference and then the funds are invested by the fund manager in the financial market. At the end, we are going to show various simulations of these models. Our methods include stochastic control for utility maximisation among others. The optimisation problem entails the optimal&nbsp / investment portfolio to maximise a certain power utility function. We use MATLAB and MAPLE programming languages to generate results in the form of graphs and tables</p>

This paper analyzes macroeconomic factors and their effect on 2-year government bonds of 11 countries in the European Monetary Union. I specifically looked at how a simultaneous budget and trade surplus effect a country's bond yield spread relative to Germany's bond yield. My model showed that double surplus countries have a larger yield spread than countries that do not have a double surplus.