Doctor of Philosophy

This paper analyses the effect of environmental and quality improvement practices on the value added of the fruit and vegetable sector. These practices form part of the incentive-based programmes established by the Common Agricultural Policy. Taking the investment in quality-environmental...

This paper analyzes the effects of different sequences of remedies on the incentives of sellers to invest in product quality and on the probability of contract termination. Despite ambitious efforts by the EU to harmonize national legislation, sales laws still differ significantly in Europe. The...

As a resilience enhancing practice, business continuity management (BCM) can play an important role in aiding preparation of the insurance industry for coping with the losses incurred by major discontinuity incidents: regardless of cause. Acknowledging the increasing frequency of unpredictable...

Media coverage of humanitarian crises is widely believed to influence charitable giving, yet this assertion has received little empirical scrutiny. Using Internet donations after the 2004 tsunami as a case study, we show that media coverage of disasters has a dramatic impact on donations to...

The objective of this chapter is to evaluate the theoretical debate on the choice of an exchange rate regime in light of the empirical evidence with a view to suggesting appropriate exchange rate regimes that are conducive for poverty reduction. Due to its obvious implications for poverty, the...

It seems there is a pessimistic view about the need and effectiveness of industry policy in an era of unprecedented globalization. The discussion about industry policy has been mostly on the fiscal, credit, and tariff measures, which are generally designed to favor particular activities....

In terms of risk measurement, probability and quantile risk estimation have developed enormously in the past decade, from value-at-risk measures to coherent measures such as expected shortfall. These measures allow an investor to determine their risk profile accounting for losses (quantiles) at...

Surveys continue to highlight that most senior business executives aredissatisfied with the value they believe their organizations are deriving frominvestments in information technology. What is often forgotten is that IT initself has no inherent value. This value must be unlocked, and only...

Development economists generally argue that poor countries at their early stages of development are often faced with limited domestic resources for development, and can therefore borrow from the developed nations to boost their rate of growth and development. This financing gap problem, which is...