Scheidell, John M.

In classical economic theory, competition consisted of buyers outbidding
one another and sellers underbidding one another; and it was
argued that, for sufficiently large markets, competition would yield uniform
prices in equilibrium. Neoclassical economists subsequently investigated
the role of preferences in trading, concluding that, in equilibrium,
each trader would obtain the most desirable commodity bundle
affordable at prevailing prices, given his initial resources. In the
process, however, neoclassical economists ultimately made price uniformity
an assumption, assumed individuals incapable of influencing prices
under any circumstances, and redefined competition to mean price-taking
behavior. By thus denying individuals any active role in price determination,
an inconsistency was introduced into the theory. This thesis
eliminates the inconsistency by combining classical competitive behavior
and the neoclassical insights into the role of preferences, to produce an
axiomatic theory of competition within which the characteristics of equilibrium
(uniform prices and utility maximization) are rigorously derived.

This thesis contains an investigation of the potential for increasing
dental productivity in Florida. This investigation of the
Florida dental care industry is conducted from a micro-economic-theoretical
perspective. It is performed under a methodological
framework that incorporates the estimation of a dental production
function for Florida using data on general practices from the ADA
1977 Survey of Dental Practice and employing the transcendental
logarithmic production function. As a complement to this estimation
a survey of the relevant literature and an examination of the
general characteristics of Florida dental practices are presented.
The general implication is that the productivity of Florida practices
could be increased and associated delivery costs could be
reduced by expanding the market for dental services, adding more
staff, and increasing the number of dentists per practice, as well
as by a more efficient use of dental personnel including auxiliaries
with expanded functions.

This thesis focuses on the "ideal effects'' of regulation
on public utilities. The effects are deduced by comparing
and interpreting conditions for maximization of various
models, with and without regulatory constraints. Three objective
functions are considered: welfare maximization, profit
maximization and sales maximization. Uniform load models
are the first to be considered and the effects of a rate-of-return
constraint are analyzed. Next peak load models are
introduced with the traditional welfare objective. Finally,
the effects of the imposition of a rate-of-return constraint
on various peak load models are analyzed.

Tho basis of this study is a macroeconometric model
of Greece that consists of fifteen equations estimated by
ordinary least squares methods from annual data and five
definitional aggregates. The model is designed primarily
to explain the behavior of the Greek economy from 1953, but
it also has value for short run forecasting. A unique
feature is the emphasis given to the interplay of imports,
investment and exports. The stability test indicates a
stable model with a damped oscillation of a twenty-five
period cycle. The predictive ability tests were very
favorable and the Durbin-Watson tests indicated low auto-correlation.
Future forecasts were made with the use of
trend estimated values for the exogenous variables. Finally,
the analysis of multipliers was used to evaluate the policy
implications of the model.

The objective of this thesis is to determine the extent to which
the growth patterns of South Florida can be described in terms
of the stages-of-growth and center- periphery growth hypotheses.
To this end a survey of the relevant economic literature is
provided , along with a demographic and economic history of South
Florida and Florida. Also a brief economic history of the
United States, Italy and South Italy is given as an example of
the growth hypothesis.

This study was prepared to analyze the use of the first-period
certainty equivalence procedure in location decisions. Certainty
equivalence is a mathematical technique which explicitly incorporates
probablistic uncertainty in the decision making process.
The feasible location of an international jetport which would service
the South Florida region is used to illustrate this decision making
technique.