The purpose of this dissertation is to extend the communication model to a situation where the agent searches for pre-decision information with effort in his own self-interest. We first introduce the agency model that involves the agent's information-searching behavior, the choice of information...

The dissertation examines an informal financial institution in Cameroon: the Rotating Saving and Credit Association. Its describes the operational procedures. RoSCAs are associations formed by a core of individuals who willingly and regularly contribute periodically a fixed or variable amount to...

The aim of this research is to investigate the hypothesis that the government may have interfered with the functioning of the private sector in Brazil, through the economic phenomenon which has been referred to in the economic literature as the "crowding-out" effect.

Transition economies in Central and Eastern Europe have already completed the initial stabilization reforms and initiated the process of accession to European political and economic structures. Nonetheless, consensus exists that transition reforms are not complete. The state continues to exhibit...

Through the remarkable growth of over a decade China's rural industry has already become an important pillar of its national economy. The primary goal of this dissertation is to place China's rural industry in a historical and a market economic perspective in an efforts to link its rapid...

This dissertation extends previous research on bubbles by investigating whether changes in the financial asset prices of the S&P500 reflect changes in fundamentals. We propose that if this is not the case the volatility is due to a bubble. Hence, this is the general hypothesis from which several...

This thesis takes a theoretical and analytical look at the implicit prices of housing characteristics in a South Florida submarket. Chapter II analyzes some of the vast body of previous studies that employ Econometric Techniques. Chapter III presents the information revealed by an examination of...

This thesis examines as well as compares three oligopoly models. In Seade (1980), the effect of entry on outputs and profits is analyzed. Firms may respond to entry in a perverse way by increasing their outputs. The equilibrium price set by firms always rests above marginal costs. In Perloff and...

This thesis contains an empirical study of nonprofit cultural organizations in the state of Florida. Transcendental and Cobb Douglas functions are compared for a sample of 76 organizations. The organizations produce under conditions of decreasing returns to scale and both labor and capital are...

This thesis theoretically and empirically analyzes the effects of Foreign Direct Investment on Third World countries. The competing theories of the impact of FDI on developing countries are examined. The contradictory results of former econometric tests and empirical surveys measuring the impact...