This paper examines the effect of aid on domestic savings in Sub-Saharan Africa. It departs from the previous literature on aid and savings in developing countries by abandoning the pervasive, but untenable, assumption that all aid is used to expand the trade deficit and thus applied wholly to consumption or investment. In fact, for the period 1965-2006, the evidence suggests that 35% of any in...

This paper analyzes whether individuals who have been well trained to apply exponential discounting and compound interest calculations in simple savings scenarios are also successful in dealing with exponential effects in more complicated debt scenarios. In an experimental study, involving 251 German undergraduate business students, we find strong evidence of an “amortization bias”, a tendency ...

This paper presents sensitivity and resilience analyses for a trigeneration system designed for a hospital. The following information is utilized to formulate an integer linear programming model: (1) energy service demands of the hospital, (2) technical and economical characteristics of the potential technologies for installation, (3) prices of the available utilities interchanged, and (4) fina...

Large corporations fund their capital and operational expenses by issuing bonds with a variety of indexations, denominations, maturities and amortization schedules. We propose a multistage linear stochastic programming model that optimizes the bond issuance policy to fund a predetermined project portfolio. Cash flows are uncertain, affected by financial, macroeconomic and business specific risk...

The rectilinear polygon cover problem is one in which a certain class of features of a rectilinear polygon of n vertices has to be covered with the minimum number of rectangles included in the polygon. In particular, one can consider covering the entire interior, the boundary and the set of corners of the polygon. These problems have important applications in, for example, storing images and in...

The examples given in the introduction to this monograph provide persuasive arguments that the combination of inflation and the traditional mortgage instrument imposes burdens on households and thrift stitutions, burdens which are likely to have impacts in the housing market and ultimately on the construction sector. We are interested in whether or not the existing literature, summarizing empir...

Recursive partitioning algorithms separate a feature space into a set of disjoint rectangles. Then, usually, a constant in every partition is fitted. While this is a simple and intuitive approach, it may still lack interpretability as to how a specific relationship between dependent and independent variables may look. Or it may be that a certain model is assumed or of interest and there is a nu...

In order to better understand the role of nutrient supplies in determining the prevalence of plant defense types, we investigated the theoretical relationships between ecosystem N supply and the net C gain of shoots that were undefended or defended in one of three ways: (1) by N-free chemical compounds, (2) by N-containing chemical compounds, or (3) by structural defenses. By extending economic...

This document develops the study of an implementation project of a home automation system in a housing placed in the town of Galapagar, Madrid. This house, which is going to be occupied by a four-member family, consists of 67 constructed square meters distributed in lounge, kitchen, three bedrooms, bath, bathroom and terrace, this being a common arrangement in Spain. Thus, this study will allow...