A Dynamic Programming Approach for Pricing Options Embedded in Bonds

The aim of this paper is to price options embedded in bonds in a Dynamic Programming (DP) framework, the focus being on call and put options with advance notice. The pricing of interest rate derivatives was usually done via trees or finite differences. Trees are not really very efficient as they deform crudely the dynamic of the underlying asset(s), here the short term risk-free interest rate. They can be interpreted as elementary DP procedures with fixed grid sizes. For a long time, finite differences presented poor accuracy because of the discontinuities of the bond's value that may arise at decision dates. Recently, remedies were given by d'Halluin et al (2001) via techniques related to flux limiters. DP does not suffer from discontinuities that may arise at decision dates and does not require a time discretization. It may also be implemented in discrete-time models. Results show efficiency and robustness. Suggestions to combine DP and finite differences are also formulatedDynamic Programming, Stochastic Processes, Options Embedded in Bonds, American Options

ICT contribution to growth; the case of tunisia

The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on the growth of developping countries and especially on the Tunisian economy. The first part of the article summerizes the relationship between growth, productivity and ICT. We show that under some necessary conditions ICT may boost the growth in the developping countries. In the second part of the article, we estimate the contribution of ICT to the growth of Tunisia due to ICT diffusion and adoption. We compare our econometric estimation to the results obtained in France and United States.croissance économique, TIC, productivité, développement économique, Tunisie.

Energy Consumption, Economic Growth and CO2 Emissions in Middle East and North African Countries

This article extends the recent findings of Liu (2005), Ang (2007), Apergis et al. (2009) and Payne (2010) by implementing recent bootstrap panel unit root tests and cointegration techniques to investigate the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, and real GDP for 12 Middle East and North African Countries (MENA) over the period 1981–2005. Our results show that in the long-run energy consumption has a positive significant impact on CO2 emissions. More interestingly, we show that real GDP exhibits a quadratic relationship with CO2 emissions for the region as a whole. However, although the estimated long-run coefficients of income and its square satisfy the EKC hypothesis in most studied countries, the turning points are very low in some cases and very high in other cases, hence providing poor evidence in support of the EKC hypothesis. Thus, our findings suggest that not all MENA countries need to sacrifice economic growth to decrease their emission levels as they may achieve CO2 emissions reduction via energy conservation without negative long-run effects on economic growth.Environmental Kuznets Curve, carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, growth

Testing the causality between electricity consumption, energy use and education in Africa

We investigate the existence of causal relationships between energy consumption and education (enrollment in primary secondary and higher education) for a sample of 16 African countries over the period 1971-2010 (according to availability of countries' data). We use the panel-data approach of Kónya (2006), which is based on SUR systems and Wald tests with country specific bootstrap critical values. Our results show that education and energy use are strongly linked in Africa. There is bidirectional causality between primary, secondary and higher education and energy use for several countries. Moreover, electricity consumption plays a crucial role in the energy-education links in Africa.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/132984/1/wp1084.pd

Dynamic Modelling by Bond Graph Approach of Convective Drying Phenomena

Drying operations play an important role in food industries. They are often the last operation of the process of manufacturing a product, with a strong influence on the final quality. The processes are numerous and depend on the type and amount of product to be dried and water to be evaporated, the desired final quality, or the desired functionality for the dried product. In this chapter, we present a modeling study of heat transfer during drying a moist agricultural product placed in a hot air flow in a tunnel dryer with partial solar heating. The bond graph approach has been used for system modeling, and it is an object-oriented graphical approach based on an energetic description between subsystems. Some drying tests have been carried out on tomatoes and the experimental results are compared with the theoretical results for the validation of the developed model

Résolution du problème de découpe unidimensionnelle par une méthode de génération de colonnes

Formulations classiques -- Formulation de Kantorovich (1960) -- Formulation de Gilmore et Gomory (1961) -- Décomposition de la formulation de Kantorovich -- Formulation de type réseau -- La formulation de Valéro de Carvalho (1996) -- Formulation multiflot -- Résultats expérimentaux : cas binaire -- Branchement -- Caractéristiques de l'implémentation -- Description des problèmes résolus -- Amélioration -- Branchement -- Relaxation linéaire -- Agrégation des items -- Branchement -- Autres techniques de branchement -- Autres techniques d'accélération

The missed link between adoption and usage of ICT in the south Mediterranean countries

The main assumption of the paper is that the differentials of competitiveness related to ICT are nowadays less dependant on the level of the investments than on the level of their use. ICT are generally studied within the framework of developed economies and less of their impact on developing and emerging economies. Our study based upon the observation of 408 firms over four Mediterranean countries shows that the main problem is linked to the management of these firms.capacité d’usage, Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication, innovation organisationnelle, technologies génériques, développement Economique.

Regional disparities and ICTs diffusion in Tunisia

The aim of this article consists in showing in what the emergence of new generation of information and communication technologies can be a worsening factor of imbalances between urban zones and rural zones and contribute to a thickening of the urban zones. Contrary to presupposed theoretical praising the capacity of these technologies to rebalance the development and to reverse the location of economic agents with their location. We will show in what these technologies could lead to a greater urban concentration in the less developed Countries (LDC’s). Indeed, four complementary explanatory factors are explained and illustrated in the case of Tunisia. The territorial dynamics engaged by the concentration of industries in the cities finds a second breath with the ICT.disparités spatiales, fracture numérique, Technologies de l’information et de la communication, Exode rural, localisation spatiale.