This thesis uses an innovative approach to explore the much-analyzed U.S. Healthcare system. To be sure, we are fully aware of the challenges involved in making robust system level policy recommendations and how local inefficiencies and hidden uncertainties undermine attempts proposing sweeping...

Sales of services are becoming a major source of revenues across industries. The shift towards services has been exacerbated as human capital has gained in importance in the "knowledge economy." And yet, products businesses have historically attracted, and are still attracting, most of the...

Since the late 1970s, the US electric power industry has been undergoing major changes. The electric utility industry had mainly consisted of highly regulated, vertically integrated, local monopolies, providing customers with all electric services at rates determined by the state regulatory...

The demand for spectrum resources has increased in the past decade due to the flourishing wireless industry worldwide. This change requires Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) to establish a transparent, fair and efficient spectrum allocation process that will enable it...

In the traditional approach, spacecraft are tailored to each mission and are associated with high risks and costs and long cycles. Moreover, once launched, their flexibility remains limited. The concept of spacecraft fractionation could enable manufacturers and users to decrease these risks and...

This thesis studies the application of project finance as the most efficient financing method for the construction and operation of infrastructure projects such as motorways, airports, power plants, pipelines, wastewater/sewage plants, dams, landline or cellular networks, and natural resources...

"Intellectual capital" has been heralded in business journals as an important component for successful business development in today's economy. Intellectual capital consists of knowledge-based assets -- including people, relationships, tools, and processes - that create value for a firm and its...

"What Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is going to do is start to weaken the foundation of the way we've done things for 100 years...Congress already should be discussing the next telecom bill," said Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Michael Powell in February 2004, before the...

During the last decades, distributed energy (DE) resources received considerable attention and support because of the confluence of technology development - particularly gas turbines - and deregulation - which would allow access to the distribution systems. DE was seen as addressing numerous...

Entrepreneurship stimulates economic growth, creates jobs, and provides opportunities for independence and self-realization. Over the last 10 years, policy makers around the globe have been actively pursuing the elusive goal of an entrepreneurial economy. Often building on existing Small and...