Risk aversion is a key element of utility maximizing hedge strategies; however, it hastypically been assigned an arbitrary value in the literature. This paper instead applies a GARCH-in-Mean (GARCH-M) model to estimate a time-varying measure of riskaversion that is based on the observed risk...

This dissertation studies strategies to mitigate the risks associated with operational and strategic decisions of a firm, particularly focusing on project management, product development and procurement decisions. In the first essay we develop two simulation-based methods to evaluate risky...

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) offers preservationists a unique tool with the potential to revolutionize hazard mitigation for historic resources. The program’s ability to link information to a specific geographical location and efficiently disperse this information can solve two of...

Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) require electricity providers to supply a minimum fixed percentage or total quantity of customer load from designated renewable energy resources by a given date. These policies have become increasingly prevalent in the past decade as state governments seek to...

Crop insurance and hedging are two risk management strategies used by farmers to manage risk. Using a discrete choice model and farm-level data, this study investigates the factors influencing farmers' use of hedging and crop insurance as risk management strategies. In the case of crop...

The Harvest Cost-Revenue Estimator, a financial model, was used to examine the cost sensitivity of forest biomass harvesting scenarios to targeted policies designed to stimulate wildfire hazardous fuel reduction projects. The policies selected represent actual policies enacted by federal and...

We estimate how much United States farms changed enterprise diversification in response to a marked increase in crop insurance coverage brought about by the 1994 Federal Crop Insurance Reform Act, which substantially increased insurance subsidies. The analysis exploits farm-level panel census...

We estimate a wildfire risk model with a new measure of wildfire output, intensity-weighted risk and use it in Monte Carlo simulations to estimate welfare changes from alternative prescribed burning policies. Using Volusia County, Florida as a case study, an annual prescribed burning rate of 13%...

Thesis (MComm (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011.

Since the advent of the Personal Computer in the 1980’s, the Information Technology (IT) industry has ballooned into one of the largest employers of people across the world. However, IT projects have constantly been plagued with low success rates. Analysis of these project failures has...