This dissertation contains three essays concerning two broad areas, namely, optimal capital structure and risky assets modeling. In the first paper, we study corporate debt values, capital structure, and the term structure of interest rates in a unified framework. We employ numerical techniques...

In the consumer products industry, retail chains and manufacturers run promotions to maintain consumer and brand loyalty. The two major issues in planning and executing promotions are to accurately forecast demand and to control Out-of-Stock at the shelf. This thesis addresses both these issues....

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate dual approaches to corner solutions that are both tractable and flexible in recreation demand. Two structural models are estimated using data from the Iowa wetlands survey in the incomplete demand system context. This dissertation expands...

In this dissertation, I discuss two important factors in individuals' decision-making processes: subjective expectation bias and time-inconsistent preferences. In Chapter I, I look at how individuals' own subjective expectations about certain future events are different from what actually...

Motivated by an empirical analysis of a data set collected in the field of ecology, we proposed nonlinear varying-coefficient models, a new class of varying-coefficient models. We further propose an estimation procedure for the nonlinear varying-coefficient models by using local linear...

The general theme of my dissertation research is channel management and the related pricing issues. My research aims to contribute to the extant marketing literature by providing both theories and empirical analyses regarding the emerging channels of distribution, namely, the various electronic...

Emerging Web service and business process technologies have provided technological support for business collaboration across organisation boundaries. However, security concerns have become one of the main barriers that prevent its widespread adoption. The aim of the research is to develop a...

A fundamental marketing problem faced by auctioneers is the promotion of their auction in order to recruit bidders. Merchants would like to attract as many bidders as possible to an auction, since the higher the number of bidders, the higher the expected winning price and profitability. This...

Recently fixed pricing and auctions have been brought together in a new pricing format that offers bidders the option of prematurely ending an auction at a fixed price. eBay calls this a “Buy-it- Now” auction, uBid calls this “UBuy it” and Yahoo auctions refer to this as a “Buy Now”....