Pricing Virtual Paths with Quality-of-Service Guarantees as Bundle Derivatives

We describe a model of a communication network that allows us to price complex network services as financial derivative contracts based on the spot price of the capacity in individual routers. We prove a theorem of a Girsanov transform that is useful for pricing linear derivatives on underlying assets, which can be used to price many complex network services, and it is used to price an option that gives access to one of several virtual channels between two network nodes, during a specified future time interval. We give the continuous time hedging strategy, for which the option price is independent of the service providers attitude towards risk. The option price contains the density function of a sum of lognormal variables, which has to be evaluated numerically.Comment: 22 pages (15 in main tex and 7 appendix), 5 postscript figure

E-COMMERCE IN AGRICULTURE: DEVELOPMENT, STRATEGY, AND MARKET IMPLICATIONS

Marketing,

All solution graphs in multidimensional screening

We study general discrete-types multidimensional screening without any noticeable restrictions on valuations, using instead epsilon-relaxation of the incentive-compatibility constraints. Any active (becoming equality) constraint can be perceived as "envy" arc from one type to another, so the set of active constraints is a digraph. We find that: (1) any solution has an in-rooted acyclic graph ("river"); (2) for any logically feasible river there exists a screening problem resulting in such river. Using these results, any solution is characterized both through its spanning-tree and through its Lagrange multipliers, that can help in finding solutions and their efficiency/distortion properties.incentive compatibility; multidimensional screening; second-degree price discrimination; non-linear pricing; graphs

Coordination in Service Value Networks - A Mechanism Design Approach

The fundamental paradigm shift from traditional value chains to agile service value networks (SVN) implies new economic and organizational challenges. This work provides an auction-based coordination mechanism that enables the allocation and pricing of service compositions in SVNs. The mechanism is multidimensional incentive compatible and implements an ex-post service level enforcement. Further extensions of the mechanism are evaluated following analytical and numerical research methods

All solution graphs in multidimensional screening

We study general discrete-types multidimensional screening without any noticeable restrictions on valuations, using instead epsilon-relaxation of the incentive-compatibility constraints. Any active (becoming equality) constraint can be perceived as "envy" arc from one type to another, so the set of active constraints is a digraph. We find that: (1) any solution has an in-rooted acyclic graph ("river"); (2) for any logically feasible river there exists a screening problem resulting in such river. Using these results, any solution is characterized both through its spanning-tree and through its Lagrange multipliers, that can help in finding solutions and their efficiency/distortion properties

Finance for Growth: Policy Choices in a Volatile World

Understanding just how finance contributes to development—and how good policy can help guarantee its contribution—has been the focus of a major research effort in recent years. This research has included systematic case-study analyses of the experiences of specific countries, as well as more recent econometric analyses of extensive cross-country data sets. Finance for Growth draws on this research and uses it to develop an integrated view of how financial sector policy can be used to foster growth, maintain stability and bring about poverty reduction.Financial sector development; financial regulation; globalization of finance; finance in developing countries

Creation of value with open source software in the telecommunications field

Tese de doutoramento. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 200