Price Uncertainty and the Heckscher-Ohlin Model

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The Stock Market and the Theory of the Firm Under Price Uncertainty

The purpose of this paper is to reexamine the criterion of value maximization when price uncertainty is present. Whereas we wish to work within a perfectly competitive framework, we will make one alteration to the usual set of competitive assumptions. Since we wish to focus on behavior in an economy where risks may only be shared incompletely, we will restrict certain forms of entry into the capital market. Indeed, if we would allow unrestricted entry, we would expect to find that the market would soon possess the equivalent of a complete set of contingent claim markets. Individuals could easily accomplish this by trading in the separate contingent claim components of any existing stream of returns. To prevent this unpackaging, we will allow only a specific type of entry. Namely, we will allow entering firms to offer return functions from a predetermined set of functions. This set will include only those return functions which are initially present in the economy. This assumption precludes purely financial entry, but makes all existing technologies for the production of returns freely accessible

Collective Choice Mechanisms for Achieving Efficient Stock Market Allocations

This paper examines two collective choice mechanisms for achieving efficient stock market allocations. The first, proposed by Helpman and Razin, is shown to have the property that an equilibrium rarely exists. An alternative mechanism, due to Hurwicz, is examined and it is shown that the resulting equilibria under this mechanism do exist and are efficient

The Development of New Methods for Coal Sulfer Forms & Sulfur in Ash Determination

The development of new procedures to determine the amount and/or types of sulfur in coal and coal products is an ongoing process for coal scientists This development is driven by the problems and inconveniences of the current ASTM methods In this thesis, the work done at Western Kentucky University in the development of two new sulfur determination procedures will be described. The first procedure can be used as an alternative method for coal sulfur forms analysis with results comparable to the ASTM method. This procedure involves heating the coal samples at 365°C and 440°C for thirty minutes to selectively remove sulfur forms from the coal. The difference in the amount of sulfur remaining in the residues is the amount of pyritic sulfur in the coal This value, along with the ASTM D 2492 sulfate sulfur value can be used to calculate the amount of organic sulfur present in the coal. The second procedure described is an alternative method for measuring the amount of sulfur in coal ash. This method involves standardizing a Leco SC-432 sulfur analyzer using iron(II) ammonium sulfate and a modified weight method. The ash sample is then mixed with a carbon promoter and the total sulfur present in the ash determined. The problems encountered in the development of these two procedures and the advantages of these methods compared to the current ASTM procedures will be discussed

God in trinity, love in creation

This thesis attempts to display vital connections between themes not generally connected. On the one hand, it considers the notion of love and relation in connection with God and the idea of Trinity. On the other, it endeavours to show how the notion of a Triune God of Love may be used to safeguard an idea of human beings in which their dependence upon love and relationship is stressed. Fundamental to this is the demand of freedom in terms of choice. This is shown to be a direct consequence of the nature of love, and to necessitate considerable revision of conventional doctrines of grace and providence. Throughout the thesis, great stress is laid on an eclectic use of sources to demonstrate the argument. The thesis comprises two chapters of ontology, and three chapters of human concern. In the first two, the nature of Trinity and Creation are examined from a standpoint of the philosophy of loving relation. Three negative forces are identified in the shape of Cartesian Solipsism, the Platonic philosophy of Love, with its lack of relation and its abstract view of the Good, and thirdly Nygren's theology of agape, which it is held destroys man’s integrity. Coupled with his non-use of the Trinity, it also reduces God to an abstract monad. Positive thought is taken from Vanstone's Love's Endeavour Love’s' Expense which develops a doctrine of God from a theology of Love, and this is taken into the third chapter which considers the consequences for grace and providence. A revised portrait of providence coupled to a God who is neither impassible nor omniscient is provided. The remaining two chapters examine the consequences of such theology for man's own expectations concerning self-fulfillment and his obligations to others

The Transfer Problem under Uncertainty: The Existence of Pareto-Improving Transfers

This paper examines the effect of a unilateral transfer on the welfare of two countries under uncertainty. The traditional welfare effects are summarized and extended for a pure exchange economy with complete contingent claims markets. It is demonstrated that the effects of a transfer in such an economy is isomorphic to the effects in the traditional certainty case where a unilateral transfer always decreases the welfare of the transferor and increases that of the transferee. Further, in the absence of a complete set of markets, examples are exhibited in which a unilateral transfer increases the welfare of both countries

Uncertainty and the Theory of Tax Incidence in a Stock Market Economy

[Introduction] Commencing with Harberger's (1962) classic paper, a number of studies have analyzed the incidence of taxation in the context of a deterministic, two-sector, two-factor general equilibrium model. Recently, R. N. Batra (1975) and R. A. Ratti and P. Shame (1977a, 1977b) have reexamined the robustness of these deterministic results for the case in which production uncertainty is incorporated into the model. By using "entrepreneurial" models in which the firm is assumed to maximize the expected utility of profits, they find that the incidence of taxes depends on the preferences and probability assessments of the entrepreneur, and in general, the deterministic results no longer obtain

Models of the firm and international trade under uncertainty

One of the significant advances in economic theory has been the incorporation of uncertainty into the models used to investigate economic behavior. The explicit treatment of uncertainty has permitted economists to predict the behavior of economic agents operating in an uncertain environment and to explain, for example, the existence of insurance, stock markets, and forward exchange markets that have no necessary role in a deterministic world. One natural application of the economics of uncertainty has been to the study of international trade and exchange in which uncertainty regarding exchange rates and relative prices is a prominent feature of the environment of economic agents. The purpose of this paper is to frame the international trade results developed in the recent works of Wolfgang Mayer and Raveendra Batra in light of the current state of the theory of the firm under uncertainty. Before analyzing the effect of uncertainty on international trade, a perspective on the application of the economics of uncertainty to neoclassical theory will be presented with an emphasis on the theory of the firm

Efficiency, equality and labelling: an experimental investigation of focal points in explicit bargaining

Efficiency, equality and labelling: an experimental investigation of focal points in explicit bargainin