This dissertation addresses the question of whether a monopolistic banking system can lead to a higher steady state level of capital stock. Specifically, this research analyzes the comparative advantage of a monopoly banking system. By doing that, it examines factors that contribute to the...

Offshore sources, in both shallow and deep waters, are increasingly important contributors to global oil and natural gas production. As both resource owner and taxing authority, national governments play an important role in the production of these offshore hydrocarbons. How the policy choices...

Based on a previous study by Amador and Weill (2009), I study thediffusion of dispersed private information in a large economy subject to a”catastrophe risk” state. I assume that agents learn from the actions of oth-ers through two channels: a public channel, that represents learning...

The scope of my dissertation is to understand how consumers’ online communication affects consumers’ behavior and market outcomes. The recent growth of consumer generated media (CGM), also known as “new” media, has provided consumers easier interaction, both to search for product...

Agriculture remains a key component of economic development, but the methodology for how development policies are determined has changed for developing countries. In the last decade, the focus of economic growth in developing countries has shifted from country-wide prescriptions to testable...

Critics of the trait approach to the study of entrepreneurship have called for adaptation of theory from other disciplines to explain entrepreneurial behavior. This study responds by focusing on the first step in the process by which entrepreneurial career preference is developed. Social...

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. October 2010. Major: Conservation Biology. Advisor: Kristen C. Nelson, PhD. 1 computer file (PDF); x, 182 pages, appendices 1-3.