economics

The lack of improved water and sanitary infrastructure still kills many people in developing countries each year. This book gives useful insights into how development projects have an impact in practice and why there is a possibility that projects fail to have positive outcomes. In this book, the national water and sanitation program in rural Benin is analyzed. A difference-in-difference analysis is combined with a phasing-in approach to a sample of 200 villages in the departments of Mono, Couffo and...

For families in poor countries, risk and shocks such as storms and floods, illness and accidents, unemployment and civil conflict are often part of everyday life. This book provides comprehensive empirical evidence of risk management strategies in developing countries and how they impact on the lives of the poor. Possible strategies include (i) reducing risk factors, (ii) mitigating the impact of risks through formal insurance and insurance substitutes, and (iii) seeking support to better cope with negative shocks. The chapters...

Central banks have an important position in national economies because they influence fundamental economic parameters such as price levels, interest rates and exchange rates with monetary policy decisions. Due to the outstanding position of the central banks and the developments in the course of the financial crisis since 2007, the question arises to what extent monetary policy interventions can create stability and reduce the extent of crises. The present work offers an answer based on a macroeconomic portfolio model, in...

The World Bank put the concept of vulnerability in the spotlight of poverty research by presenting it in the World Development Report 2000/01 as an important component of combating poverty. The reason for assigning such a prominent position to vulnerability is threefold: It decreases current well-being, it determines future levels of poverty and it may be at the root of long-term hardship. Building on panel data from rural households in Thailand and Vietnam this book contributes to our knowledge and...

Strong market segmentation and rapidly changing diverse technologies, combined with increased competitive intensity, are forcing global manufacturing companies to reconsider their product development strategy. Modularization in product development is essential for these companies to compete sustainably in such an international and dynamic environment. However, companies face major challenges in the modularization of product development. This dissertation empirically analyzes the modularization of product development in global manufacturing companies with special regard given to the interrelations between product architecture and product development...

The past decade has seen the emergence of a particular sales and distribution model in which companies that manufacture products and sell them directly through proprietary distribution channels open these channels to third parties and often even to competitor products. One of the industries to pioneer this model has been financial services, where the approach is referred to as an “open architecture” offering. The author's research investigates if and how customer reactions are affected when a company sells third-party products...

Time-continuous stochastic processes have been used in numerous financial market models for decades. In this work, important aspects of application - with regard to the estimation of parameters, evaluation of financial market contracts and recording the efficiency of capital markets - are primarily illustrated using selected examples and then possible solutions or explanations are presented. Details Title: Analysis of Financial Market Models Subtitle: Estimation, Pricing, and Efficiency Author: Dr. Balazs Cserna Edition: 1st edition Published: 1st edition 05.09.2011 Subject: Economics...

The demographic change forced Germany and other industrialized countries to bring their pension systems back on a sustainable track. This development has increased the responsibility of each individual regarding old-age income. The affected individuals are forced to intensify their savings to close the increasing gap between public pension income and the standard of living experienced during one's working life. This book investigates several empirical and methodological aspects of households' saving behavior including some in relation to the background of the...

This book contributes to the empirical literature on poverty, mortality and labor supply in developing countries. Each of the three essays included in this book make use of new household data sets that were collected to innovatively address a well-defined research problem. The first chapter investigates the relationship between undernutrition and child mortality in sub-Sahara Africa and explains why children around Lake Victoria have very low chances to survive up to age 5 despite being extremely wellnourished. The second chapter...

Company acquisitions are the order of the day in the business world. However, they often do not meet the expectations placed on them. This dissertation focuses on two opposing perspectives that serve to analyze acquisition success or acquisitionfailure: On the one hand, it could be that the management of the acquiring company has possible synergies in mind. On the other hand, there is a risk that management will overestimate its own ability to realize synergies. In this case, there is...

Since the formulation of the 30-ha target as part of the »National Sustainability Strategy« in 2002, the topics »land use« and »land saving« have gained in importance in Germany. This book presents the instrument of tradable land designation rights, with which a significantly reduced settlement development and the protection of open spaces could be achieved. Three papers, written in German and two in English, provide answers to a number of important environmental economic questions related to a successful commercial launch....

For the Southwest Saxony region, this thesis proves that for less land-consuming settlement development, the controlling actions at the regional level must also be adapted. Pilot projects and model projects in recent years have already set the course for this. In this respect, it is no longer just a question - whether - but - that - the regional area control is adjusted. Only in this way can the current challenges of settlement area development be controlled more effectively and...