Economics Commons^™

Feasibility Of Jp-8 To Jet A Fuel Conversion At U. S. Military Facilities, Lance A. Vann

Theses and Dissertations

In FY06, The Department of Defense (DoD) military grade jet fuel expenditures eclipsed $6.6 billion dollars. In a search for more cost effective options, the Office of the Secretary of Defense Comptroller recently expressed interest in the quantity of commercial Jet A fuel that the United States Transportation Command uses in lieu of military grade JP-8. In accordance with AFSO 21 and LEAN concepts, this research examines the technical feasibility and opportunity for cost avoidance of a conversion from JP-8 to Jet A at six Northwestern United States military installations. The technical feasibility analysis examines the chemical likeness of JP-8 …

An Alternative Strategy For Building Sales Of Computers: Generic Advertising, Min Lu, Steven M. Thompson, Yanbin Tu

Management Faculty Publications

Frequent upgrading and aggressive price-cutting have become standard practice in the computer sector. While necessitated in part by declining production costs and a highly competitive market, these strategies have also served to make computers more affordable, growing the size of the overall market. Recently downturns in the sales of computers motivate us to examine the impact of these strategies on overall sales growth. We find evidence to suggest that excessive upgrading and overly aggressive price-cutting can be detrimental to overall sales growth. We also find that the computer sector exhibits characteristics that suggest that generic advertising would be an effective …

Managing Through Strategic Agendas, Christine G. Springer

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

The author discusses the development of the Balanced Scorecard and strategic agendas on solving social and economic problems by the government. She stated reasons why organizations or countries choose to establish strategic agendas, such as it helps develop a vision, serves as a framework for monitoring government and nonprofit performance, and develops political platform. She concluded that its establishment is vital to success in developing countries and in the federal system of government.

An Assessment Of Factors Affecting Fleet Fuel Performance, Carlo D. Smith, John L. Kent, Cory J. Roberts

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Business

Improving fuel performance in all modes of transportation is becoming more important as fuel prices increase and concerns over environmental issues rise. This is particularly relevant in the class 8 motor carrier sector which accounts for the majority of fuel consumption among all classes of motor freight movement. The present study evaluated the extent that existing technologies, systems and policies designed to improve fuel efficiency have been and are expected to be adopted by current class 8 fleets. Results suggest that while many of the efforts of suppliers to the industry are focused on new technologies, there remains an opportunity …

Some Perspectives On The Actuarial Adequacy Of The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, Andrew Frank Thompson

UNIversitas: Journal of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

This paper analyzes the actuarial adequacy of PBGC in providing insurance coverage to employees participating in single employer, defined benefit pension plans. The first part of this investigation examines the micro and macro economic factors that impact the financial stability and actuarial viability of PBGC. A second section discusses externalities that may contribute to suboptimal premiums and adverse selection for PBGC. A linear control model is introduced to analyze the most effective way PBGC might use its $100 million credit line with the Department of the Treasury. In addition, a model based on the economic theory of clubs develops relationships …

The Analysis Of Regional Logistics Capacity And Enterprise Performance-Bengbu And Bbca Group Analysis, Liang Liu

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Shipping Economic Analysis Of Enlargement For Containership To Maersk Ae10, Xiaodi Chen

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Omanization Of Oman's Private Sector: Implementation, Challenges, And Solutions, Mazid Al-Rawas

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to determine the status of the implementation of the Omanization policy, challenges associated with the Omani government in implementing the Omanization policy, and the solutions appropriate to overcome these challenges in the implementation of Omanization. Data for this study was collected through a survey that included 13 Likert-type statements developed by the researcher. The population of this study consisted of 50 human resource managers in private companies; these companies were randomly selected from the list of all companies registered in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for the Sultanate of Oman. The researcher received a total …

Pay And Performance: Among 100 Best U.S. Companies To Work For, Omair Mahmood Faisal

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

In the 21st century, world is becoming a global village and with increased competition businesses are always looking for regions with the lowest possible production costs. Appropriate compensation of U.S. employees working for major U.S. corporations is a hotly debated topic in political circles. This research focuses on the top 100 companies designated as “the best companies to work for” by Fortune Magazine for the year 2006. Performance of these companies, as measured by their return on equity, return on assets, revenue growth and earnings growth along with their profit margin is used to determine the impact on them as …

Understanding The Pension Reform Act(Pra) 2004, Adesina Balogun

Bullion

Pension schemes exit to provide post-retirement I benefits to employees. Pension scheme was introduced into Nigeria during the Colonial era to provide old age income and security to British citizens working in the country upon retirement. This paper discussed the conceptual framework of Pension Reform Act 2004, the dynamics of Pension Reform Act of 2004, the implications and challenges of Pension Act of 2004 as well as feasible options for future developments. The study concluded that, The roles and functions of PFAs and PFCs are Pivotal to the success of the new defined contributory scheme. It behoves on them therefore, …

Conceptual Issues On Savings In Nigeria., A. J. Adam, A. V. Agba

Bullion

It is often held that capital accumulation is necessary and sufficient condition for growth and capital accumulation is almost synonymous with saving, hence the route to growth is then one of raising savings and smoothing consumption (Deaton, 1991). Savings is one of the key relevant macroeconomic variables in any economy. Its impact on the rate of capital accumulation, productivity and the degree of dependency of a nation on foreign capital and foreign ownership of domestic assets cannot be overemphasised. This paper reviews conceptual issues on savings behaviour in Nigeria. It also provided an analysis of the factors that may have …

Investments And Risk Management Under The New Pension Scheme., Luka A. Dalang

Bullion

Pension today, has become a topical issue. one that has engaged the commitment of government, attention of employers and workers not only in Nigeria but also in many developing and emerging economies of Africa, Asia and Latin America This paper discuss the trend of investments and pension schemes with its risks and challenges in Nigeria. The study however confirmed the non applicability of the financial reform theory hypothesized by McKinnon and Shaw in Nigeria.' . The National pension Commission guidelines as mentioned earlier, are designed to ensure transparency, integrity and objectivity in the vestment process. and to ensure that the …

Desulfovibrio Desulfuricans G20 Tetraheme Cytochrome Structure At 1.5 A˚ And Cytochrome Interaction With Metal Complexes, Mrunalini Pattarkine, J J. Tanner, C A. Bottoms, Y H. Lee, Judy D. Wall

Faculty Works

The structure of the type I tetraheme cytochrome c3 from Desulfovibrio desulfuricans G20 was determined to 1.5 A˚ by X-ray crystallography. In addition to the oxidized form, the structure of the molybdate-bound form of the protein was determined from oxidized crystals soaked in sodium molybdate. Only small structural shifts were obtained with metal binding, consistent with the remarkable structural stability of this protein. In vitro experiments with pure cytochrome showed that molybdate could oxidize the reduced cytochrome, although not as rapidly as U(VI) present as uranyl acetate. Alterations in the overall conformation and thermostability of the metal-oxidized protein were investigated …

Is The Nigerian Curricula In Economics Relevant For The Nigerian Economy Of The 21st Century., J. A. Achilike

Bullion

The loopholes in Nigeria's educational system have created a death of capacity in the Nigerian economy. No nation can develop without qualitative education. The paper examines the relevance of the economics curricula in Nigeria's tertiary institutions in meeting the challenges of the 21st century. It highlights its problems and examines the efforts of National University Commission and Ministry of Education in meeting the challenges of economics education in Nigeria. Finally the study concludes that, the Nigerian Economics curricular is critically under developed and does not follow government economic policies, but if all the recommendations are adopted the Nigerian economics curricula …

Dynamical Volatilities For Yen-Dollar Exchange Rates, Kyungsik Kim, Seong-Min Yoon, C. Christopher Lee, Myung-Kul Yum

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

We study the continuous time random walk theory from financial tick data of the yen-dollar exchange rate transacted at the Japanese financial market. The dynamical behavior of returns and volatilities in this case is particularly treated at the long-time limit. We find that the volatility for prices shows a power-law with anomalous scaling exponent κ = 0.96 (one minute) and 0.86 (ten minutes), and that our behavior occurs in the subdiffusive process. Our result presented will be compared with that of recent numerical calculations.

Stormwater Utility Fees: Considerations & Options For Interlocal Stormwater Working Group (Iswg), New England Environmental Finance Center

Water

Stormwater utilities are a concept whose time seems to have arrived. Established by relatively few communities in the 1970s as a method of funding flood control measures, stormwater utilities now exist in over 400 municipalities and counties throughout the United States. During the next 10 years, their numbers are expected to swell dramatically – by one estimate to over 2,000 by the year 2014.

The reasons for this growth are multifold. Federal stormwater regulations passed in the 1980s (Phase I of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Program, or NPDES), motivated many larger communities to seek alternative funding sources and …

A Fuzzy Programming Approach For Portfolio Management In Banks, Noha El Sayed Ahmed Ibrahim

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Agglomeration Effects And Strategic Orientations: Evidence From The U.S. Lodging Industry, Linda Canina, Cathy A. Enz, Jeffrey S. Harrison

Management Faculty Publications

This study provides evidence regarding the strategic dynamics of competitive clusters. Firms that agglomerate (co-locate) may benefit from the differentiation of competitors without making similar differentiating investments themselves. Alternatively, co-locating with a high percentage of firms with low-cost strategic orientations reduces performance for firms pursuing high levels of differentiation. Further, the lowest-cost providers with the greatest strategic distance from the norm of the competitive cluster reap the greatest benefit from co-location with differentiated firms. We find empirical support for these ideas using a sample of 14,995 U.S. lodging establishments, and controlling for a number of key demand-shaping factors.

Review And Appraisal Of 2003 Budget And Economic Performance., Ige S. Cyril

Bullion

The first set of problems in realizing the benefits of a national budget in Nigeria, the 2003 Federal Government Budget in particular, is the delay in formulation and presentation to the National Assembly. This paper examines various definitions of the national budget as understood by some of the important stakeholder. It discusses budget implementation and management, budget 2003 and the people, strengthening programming as a basis of budgeting for development, and co-ordination of economic management in 2003. Finally, the study concludes that NEEDS is a welcome idea but its goals will prove difficult to achieve because of the flaw in …

A Comparative Study Of Selected Measures Of Performance Of Organizations Before And After Obtaining Iso 9000 Certification As Compared To The S&P 500 Index, Gregory K. Arbuckle

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

"One of the most significant changes in international business is the recent movement toward quality awareness. Although still embryonic, acceptance of the importance of quality and reliability is being recognized as a critical factor for the sale of many products and services in business operations and in performance worldwide" (Joubert, 1998, ,i 1 ). Over time, there have been many management systems developed to improve quality such as TQM, Malcolm Baldrige and Six Sigma; two of the largest and/or newest being ISO 9000 and QS 9000. The literature is unclear as to which systems actually work and which do not. …

Understanding And Interpreting Financial Statements, Awoyungbo B. O.

Bullion

As the owners of a company the shareholders, through its Board, are responsible for the hiring and firing of the management of their company. The principles of company finance are therefore based upon the assumption that the objective of management is to maximise the wealth of its ordinary shareholders. This paper discusses some of the general principles which are applied in the preparation of financial statements. It lists and explains the following components of a financial statement; Statement of Accounting Policies, Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss Account, Notes to the Accounts, Cash flow statements ,Value added statements, Five year financial …

The Impact Of The Operations Of The Non-Bank Financial Institutions On Financial Sector Stability, Bamisile A. Sesan

Bullion

The Banks and Other Financial institutions Act (BOFIA) defines an NBFI to mean "any individual, body, association or group of persons; whether corporate or unincorporated, other than the banks licenced under the Act which carries on the business of a discount house, finance company and money brokerage and whose principal object include factoring, project financing, equipment leasing, debt administration, fund management, private ledger services, investment management, local purchase order financing, export finance, project consultancy financial consultancy, pension fund management and such other business as the Bank may, from time to time, designate". This paper affords the opportunity to explain and …

Class Distinctions For The Global Economy, Aaron W. Hughey

Counseling & Student Affairs Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Recognizing Macroeconomic Fluctuations In Value Based Management, Lars Oxelheim, Clas Wihlborg

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Value Based Management (VBM) has become a common tool for evaluating corporate strategies and projects from the perspective of shareholder value maximization, and can be an important input for corporate compensation systems. But traditional VBM frameworks make no systematic effort to distinguish between changes in performance attributable to macroeconomic fluctuations beyond management's control and changes in performance that reflect the intrinsic competitive position of the firm.

The authors have developed an approach for “filtering out” the impact of macroeconomic fluctuations on cash flows for purposes of performance evaluation. Such fluctuations are captured by changes in exchange rates, interest rates, and …

University Technology Transfer And Economic Development: Proposed Cooperative Economic Development Agreements Under The Bayh Dole Act, Clovia Hamilton

Winthrop Faculty and Staff Publications

Technology transfer enables private industry and academia to make practical use of advanced research, development, and technical expertise. Indeed, universities are a rich source of science and technology that can support local government and business development as well as economic growth. Thus, it is essential for research universities to transfer their wisdom to the public for its use and benefit. Today, universities operate in an economic climate that requires both capital and knowledge; takes advantage of government technology initiatives (namely the Bayh- Dole Act);' and serves as a catalyst for the creation of a large number of new, incubated companies. …

High-Tech Transportation Corridors Are In Vogue: Proposed Federal Transportation Policy Amendments, Clovia Hamilton

Winthrop Faculty and Staff Publications

When there is an economic downturn, cities are forced to develop a strategy to revitalize. Increasing the transfer of high technology into the marketplace stimulates the economy. High tech industries are industries that include relatively high percentages of scientific and technical workers, or industries that make relatively large expenditures in research and development. "[I]n difficult economic times, political stakeholders in the technology transfer process usually view success in economic impact terms, and often from short-term and parochial perspectives-how many jobs in my state next year?" Examples include the expansion of the suburban space economy in the 1980s that produced new …

A Comparison Of Auctions And Multilateral Negotiations, Charles J. Thomas, Bart J. Wilson

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

We compare first-price auctions to an exchange process that we term 'multilateral negotiations.' In multilateral negotiations, a buyer solicits price offers for a homogeneous product from sellers with privately known costs, and then plays the sellers off one another to obtain additional price concessions. Using the experimental method, we find that with four sellers, transaction prices are statistically indistinguishable in the two institutions, but with two sellers, prices are higher in multilateral negotiations than in first-price auctions. The institutions are equally efficient with two sellers, but multilateral negotiations are slightly more efficient with four sellers.

Evaluation Of Past Policy Measures For Solving Unemployment Problems., Nicholas A. Damachi

Bullion

The issue of persistent unemployment and overall manpower planning and utilization poses a great challenge to policy planners, human resources experts, and persons dealing with employment programmed planning and implementation. This paper undertakes a review and evaluation of the past policy measures that have been adopted to solve unemployment problems in the county. There is strong need for institutional collaboration and improved coordination of policy measures for dealing with unemployment. This paper has examined Past policy measures for solving unemployment problems. There is strong need for institutional collaboration and improved coordination of policy measures for dealing with unemployment. While there …

Off-Shore Borrowing And Guarantees By Banks: Implication For Portfolio Management., C. C. Edordu

Bullion

The subject I have been asked to reflect on is important and somewhat provocative given the potential significance of foreign capital in the development process and the implied doubt the topic raises about the capacity of banks to manage their portfolios on accessing external finance. With regard to financing tenors, it is pertinent to point out that the tenor of liabilities of most banks in Nigeria and Africa is short. The paper has focused on the various discussions about the conditions for good governance, which raises questions about the structure and functioning of the state, its relationship to society and …

The Role Of Governance In National Development., Nathaniel C. Ozigbo

Bullion

One of the principal issues in the analysis of development is the extent to which the state and corporate organizations influence it. Prevailing ideas about the links among democracy, good governance and economic growth have come almost full circle over the past three decades. Governance is defined as the good government of society. Good government guides the country along a course leading to the desired goals, in this case development. The paper has focused on the various discussions about the conditions for good governance, which raises questions about the structure and functioning of the state, its relationship to society and …