Stronge, William B.

In finance, the term 'duration' means the effective length of a financial obligation which is discharged in installments. This concept has a number of applications in finance like calculating the change in the price of bonds due to the change in interest rates, immunizing the value of bonds, etc. Common stocks are also financial obligations and are considered to have durations. For bonds and similar strong contractual obligations, duration and its applications are clear cut and are used widely. For common stocks duration evaluation is difficult and its practical applications hardly exist. Moreover, there are no publications of numerical results where duration was applied to common stocks. These facts make it doubtful whether duration can be applied to common stocks. The results of the empirical research here, with numerical results, make it doubtful that duration can be applied to common stocks or to explain price fluctuations of common stocks.

This thesis reviews the causes of and policies used to end hyperinflation using the Brazilian experience between 1980 and 1995. The work of Thomas Sargent in (Hall, 1982) and Phillip Cagan (1956) found a number of common features regarding the causes and the ending of hyperinflation in a number of European countries in the early 1920s and 1940s. They noted that vigorous monetary and fiscal measures were needed to finally end the rapid rise in prices. Second, there was a final jump in the money supply in the months after the rise of prices had ended. Third, the price level did not decline after inflation terminated. And fourth, in each case, the tax burden was increased (through an increase in taxes and a cut in government expenditures). The thesis found that the Brazilian hyperinflation displayed the characteristics previously found by Cagan and Sargent. Furthermore, the policies used to end the inflation and resulting impacts were very much in line with the experiences of the countries studied by Cagan and Sargent.

This thesis is a study of China's economic transition from the traditional Soviet type socialist command economy which existed before 1978 to a market economy which China wants to achieve. Historical comparisons are applied to see the difference between early economic development and present reform efforts in China. The problems that China has encountered during the transition period also are presented and analysis are given.

This thesis is in three parts. In the first, the cultural economics literature which concerns the labor market for musicians is reviewed and its major theoretical and empirical points are examined. The second part begins by briefly surveying the history and main topics in game theory, providing sufficient background for an understanding of the simplified Rubinstein-Stahl bargaining model, which is then described. The third part applies this model to the process by which concert fees are settled upon, and leads to a number of conclusions. Among these are that subjective discount rates reflect bargaining power in the situation described, and that these discount rates are affected by the notorieties of the parties involved.

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 employed in amounts beyond the point where their marginal revenue products equal their input prices. Labor is disaggregated between artists and adjuvants, with the former functioning as essential to production and the latter not being essential to production.

This thesis examines the extent of J-curve effects in U.S. foreign trade between 1971 and 1989. Three distinct types of trade were specified and examined for this purpose: (1) aggregate; (2) by individual countries; (3) by products. The empirical findings indicate that the aggregate trade balance of the United States displayed the J-curve pattern in reaction to relative price changes during the period and the J-curve effect also held for trade with some countries and by some products.

The problem of restrictions on trade is the basis of this paper. More specifically, the implications of the U.S.-Canadian Lumber Agreement are outlined in the Introduction. Chapter II offers a history of modern international trade theory as well as current trade theories. The next chapter further dissects a particular theory; the effects of trade-restriction reduction. In Chapter IV a model of the Canadian export tariff as proposed in the 1986 Agreement is explained as are empirical results and their effects on the U.S. economy.

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 South Florida data. Several different models are tested and compared. Locational differences between properties are measured and accounted for. Increasing and diminishing returns of certain house characteristics are considered. Chapter IV uses econometric models to analyze tax assessment bias and to test the efficiency of the housing market. Chapter V is a summary of the conclusions and recommendations generated by this analysis.

This thesis presents the theory and an application of Bayesian econometrics. The classical theory of econometrics is also presented for a comparison study. In the Bayesian case the theory of the prior information, which is the distinguishing characteristic of the Bayesian approach, is presented by considering the cases of informative and non-informative priors. The classical and Bayesian approach represent the two fundamental, although opposite in the concept of probability, schools of thought in statistics and econometrics. An application to the estimation of standard macroeconomic equations is also included where both classical and Bayesian techniques are employed.

This thesis examines the determinants of that part of national gross
fixed investment which is undertaken by the private sector. Any
investment process is subject to a number of separate time lags,and as
a result, lagged explanatory variables were used in this study to
explain the past trends and the recent surge in capital spending. The
cashflow and q models distinguished themselves from other models as
relatively accurate descriptive of investment spending. It should be
noted, however, that the description of investment spending that
appears to have worked well in the past does not have to work so well
in the future because economic conditions change.