Native American Nations have perpetually had the highest rates of poverty and unemployment and the lowest per capita income of any ethnic population in the United States. Additionally, American Indian students have the highest high school dropout rates and lowest academic performance rates as well as the lowest college admission and retention rates in the nation. As Native Nations try to reverse these trends through sustainable economic development, they must do so with a limited number of educated, skilled workers in their own communities and with a complicated relationship with higher education that obstructs their ability to create a viable work force. This qualitative study proposed to research American Indian postsecondary access within the context of Native nations’ sovereignty and their social and economic development. Utilizing a theoretical framework of human capital and its role in rebuilding Native American economies, interviews were conducted with 19 education informants representing federally-recognized tribes in the Southern Plains Region. Major themes included financial issues related to college going in Native populations, familial and community influences, academic readiness, curricular development and delivery, the role of higher education in preparing students for tribal employment, and tribal economic development. Increasing Native American college student success and preparation for tribal employment requires collaboration between the sovereign nations and postsecondary entities that serve their populations. Ultimately, tribes will benefit from developing, or continuing to develop, a culture of college going in their communities, educational institution partnerships that create support services for their students, and curriculum to support the training of future tribal leaders. This study reinforces the importance of human capital in economic development for tribes and highlights the critical role that higher education can play in preparing American Indian students to serve their tribes.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Economics / William F. Blankenau / The first essay considers how the timing of government education spending influences the intergenerational persistence of income. We build a life-cycle model where human capital is accumulated in early and late childhood. Both families and the government can increase the human capital of young agents by investing in education at each stage of childhood. Ability in each dynasty follows a stochastic process. Different abilities and resultant spending histories generate a stochastic steady state distribution of income. We calibrate our model to match aggregate statistics in terms of education expenditures, income persistence and inequality. We show that increasing government spending in early childhood education is effective in lowering intergenerational earnings elasticity. An increase in government funding of early childhood education equivalent to 0.8 percent of GDP reduces income persistence by 8.4 percent. We find that this relatively large effect is due to the weakening relationship between family income and education investment. Since this link is already weak in late childhood, allocating more public resources to late childhood education does not improve the intergenerational mobility of economic status. Furthermore, focusing more on late childhood may raise intergenerational persistence by amplifying the gap in human capital developed in early childhood. The second essay considers parental time investment in early childhood as an education input and explores the impact of early education policies on labor supply and human capital. I develop a five-period overlapping generations model where human capital formation is a multi-stage process. An agent's human capital is accumulated through early and late childhood. Parents make income and time allocation decisions in response to government expenditures and parental leave policies. The model is calibrated to the U.S. economy so that the generated data matches the Gini index and parental participation in education expenditures. The general equilibrium environment shows that subsidizing private education spending and adopting paid parental leave are both effective at increasing human capital. These two policies give parents incentives to increase physical and time investment, respectively. Labor supply decreases due to the introduction of paid parental leave as intended. In addition, low-wage earners are most responsive to parental leave by working less and spending more time with children. The third essay is on the motherhood wage penalty. There is substantial evidence that women with children bear a wage penalty of 5 to 10 percent due to their motherhood status. This wage gap is usually estimated by comparing the wages of working mothers to childless women after controlling for human capital and individual characteristics. This method runs into the problem of selection bias by excluding non-working women. This paper addresses the issue in two ways. First, I develop a simple model of fertility and labor participation decisions to examine the relationships among fertility, employment, and wages. The model implies that mothers face different reservation wages due to variance in preference over child care, while non-mothers face the same reservation wage. Thus, a mother with a relatively high wage may choose not to work because of her strong preference for time with children. In contrast, a childless woman who is not working must face a relatively low wage. For this reason, empirical analysis that focuses only on employed women may result in a biased estimate of the motherhood wage penalty. Second, to test the predictions of the model, I use 2004-2009 data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) and include non-working women in the two-stage Heckman selection model. The empirical results from OLS and the fixed effects model are consistent with the findings in previous studies. However, the child penalty becomes smaller and insignificant after non-working women are included. It implies that the observed wage gap in the labor market appears to overstate the child wage penalty due to the sample selection bias.

The role of human capital in the overall economic development towards knowledge economy and innovations is fundamental. Without human resources, which make up the essence of human capital, we would have no innovative products or services, no new strategies and processes. The development and continuous increase of human capital is one of the prerequisites of an economic growth. The aim of this research was to test the effects of human capital investments on the economic results of enterprises. The research was based on an extensive questionnaire survey, which was further completed with expert interviews. The interviewees were HR professionals from selected companies. The main hypothesis was formed as an assumption about a positive dependence between human capital investments and economic successfulness of companies represented with value added per employee. The hypothesis was verified at a high significance level. Further this work tries to find answers to several key questions related to the main hypothesis: What are the key competences of a competitive human capital in the Czech companies? How can companies efficiently invest into the human capital in order to increase the company's competitiveness? What is the role of companies as the initiators of human capital development? How did the economic crisis change the companies' attitude towards human capital investments? The work further proposes how to diminish the main inefficiencies of companies' investments in human capital. Great attention is also paid to the comparison of various sources that measure and compare the volume of human capital in the Czech Republic.

Orientador: Divino José da Silva / Resumo: Este trabalho é de natureza teórica e busca analisar, filiando-se a uma perspectiva foucaultiana, alguns desdobramentos do biopoder no “século” do cérebro. Com os avanços das neurociências, principalmente a partir de 1990, fortaleceu-se um discurso acadêmico e laboratorial apregoando a equivalência entre o cérebro e o indivíduo e, com o passar do tempo, em virtude das mídias, da preocupação com o sofrimento psíquico e a saúde mental, entre outros – e ultrapassando seu espaço originalmente especializado –, esse discurso acabou por popularizar-se. Hoje o cérebro tornou-se uma espécie de “ator social”, um ponto de referência para os processos de subjetivação e condução da vida, seu funcionamento é correlacionado a praticamente todos os aspectos humanos: moral, inteligência, humor, desempenho, eficiência, educação, entre outros. O objetivo deste trabalho foi mostrar a inserção desse órgão na moderna lógica do homo oeconomicus e, paralelamente, sinalizar para o fato de que o governo atual da vida está exigindo o seu mapeamento e manipulação. Ao se apropriar de noções das neurociências cognitivas, como plasticidade e neuroquímica, a biopolítica contemporânea e seu ideal de aperfeiçoamento do indivíduo-empresa, amplamente divulgado pela racionalidade neoliberal, encontra no cérebro um dispositivo de modelagem subjetiva e, fundamentando-se nele, desenvolve tecnologias de gestão do self. Entre essas tecnologias destacamos o neuroaprimoramento farmacológico, a neuroascese e a neuroeduc... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The present work consists of a theoretical nature and seeks to present, allying itself to a Foucalt’s perspective, some development of the biopower in the brain century. With the advance of the neuroscience, mainly since 1990, an academic and laboratorial speech strengthened to proclaim the equivalence between the brain and the individual and, as time passes, due to the media, the concern with the psychological suffering and mental health and so on – and exceeding its space originally specialized – this speech became popular. Today the brain became a sort of “social actor”, as a reference to subjectivation processes and life conduction, its performance is correlated to almost all humans’ aspects: moral, intelligence, humor, performance, efficiency, education, etc. The main goal of this work was to show the inception of this organ in the homo oeconomicus modern logic and, alongside, point out to the fact that the current management of life is demanding its mapping and handling. Overtaking the neuroscience cognitive notions, such as plasticity and neurochemistry, the contemporary biopolitics and its improvement ideal of the individual-enterprise, widely spread by the neoliberal rationality, it finds in the brain a subjective framing device and, bases itself in it, develops technologies of self-management. Among this technologies drugs neuroimprovement, neuroascesis and neuroeducation stand out, it supports the theses that the contemporary project of life’s neuromanagement got q... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

This paper applies New Growth Theory (NGT) to the economic development plan of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) for the Dan River region. New Growth Theory is summarized into five concepts: knowledge and human capital, technology, flexible production and innovation, and the institutional environment. The IALR program demonstrates this NGT framework. The IALR program seeks to promote growth by attracting exogenous demand for innovation and high tech. Endogenously, the program plans to create an institutional support environment and human capital infrastructure. The New Growth Theory supports the IALR in developing a knowledge based economy. However, the New Growth Theory has limitations in application for economic development. It assumes that the targeted economy has some physical and social infrastructure. The Dan River region lacks transportation infrastructure and a history of valuing higher education. The New Growth Theory assumes that using knowledge as a factor will insure against diminishing returns. However, growth from high tech is risky and uneven. The IALR program is an example of an under-educated region trying to transform its economy by using high tech. What may happen is an increased gap between the lower and higher income population, with skilled knowledge labor being recruited and the existing human capital not able to keep up with the new skill requirements. Finally, while the Dan River region has a need to work on quality of life aspects, such as living conditions, equity, the environment, health and civic infrastructure, New Growth Theory does not consider these aspects. / Master of Public and International Affairs

SMMEs play an integral role in economic growth and development in both industrialised and developing countries by creating new jobs. It is therefore necessary to help them set up and expand their operations, develop new products, and invest in new staff or production facilities through allowing them access to finance. Access to funding remains a key aspect in SMME development and growth and in South Africa this still remain a problem. Small businesses, but particularly micro businesses, often do not fulfil the criteria to obtain the required amount of debt finance for longer-term growth. Typical problems are the lack of appropriate collateral, excessive outstanding debt and lack of proven business skills. For business people to obtain an unsecured loan solely on the strength of their character requires a major leap of faith on the part of the creditor. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report of 2009 states that many entrepreneurs complain that there is lack of access to funding in South Africa. However, the country is no worse off with this issue than other developing countries. The report also mentions that often the entrepreneurs applying for funding are under prepared and do not provide sufficient relevant information. South Africa has a number of funding institutions and they include micro–financiers, banks, venture capitalists (VCs) and government–supported institutions which include Khula, the National Empowerment Fund (NEF) and the Industrial Development Council (IDC). ii This study looked at the perceived impact of the human capital of the SMME’s founder in accessing funding and if access to funding is perceived to have a positive impact on SMMEs’ growth. The perceived impact of the human capital of knowledge, formal education and expertise in attracting external funding and enhancing the growth of SMMEs was explored using the human capital theory framework. This exploration was done by testing the attitudes of 68 entrepreneurs. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data and to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that accessing funding is positively related to the SMME’s growth. In terms of human capital factors, the results indicated that knowledge, education and expertise are all perceived to be very important in accessing funding. Knowledge rated the highest in terms of the factors important in accessing funding. The study did not establish any relationship between the demographics of the SMME and the perceived importance of human capital factors in accessing funding. The study discusses the implications of the finding for funders and policy–makers. This study was simplistic in that it focused only on the perceived impact of human capital factors in accessing funding rather than all other factors as discussed in entrepreneurship theory.

Research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management with specialisation in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, March, 2017 / This paper explores how the provision and access to financial and human capitals creates a conducive environment and enhances entry into entrepreneurship by individuals earmarked as potential beneficiaries of the Uwezo Enterprise Development Fund in North Horr Constituency in Kenya. Financial capital is discussed from the point of how improved accessibility influences entrepreneurial inclinations and motivation. The study also explores whether boosting human capitals resources through training (skill development), market linkage (improve networking), and mentorship (improve self–efficacy) among the Uwezo Enterprise Development recipients encouraged them towards considering entrepreneurship as a career option. The purpose of the study was to assess whether provision of financial resources and enhancement of human capabilities through Uwezo Enterprise Development has influenced the individuals to consider entrepreneurship as an alternative form of employment. The study employed a quantitative design, where a survey questionnaire was used to gather the data and the data collected analysed using the Statistical Package for Statistical Analysis System (SAS) / MT2017

Investing in education is considered one of the most powerful factors in the work of reaching sustainable development, yet over 265 million children do not attend school (United Nations, 2018). Reduced agricultural productivity due to changes in climate may be one factor affecting schooling negatively. This thesis discusses the relationship between variations in annual precipitation and female schooling in Namibia between the years 2000 and 2013. The study performs fixed effect OLS regressions on cross-section data from the Demographic Health Survey. As Namibia has been, and is currently suffering drought conditions, we aim to discover whether precipitation affects schooling for girls, and if so, in what way. Two theoretical were created to analyse the results, where either the substitution effect or the income effect is visible. The thesis’ results indicate that when annual precipitation increases with one millimetre, female schooling decreases on average with 0,0281 years, which equals to approximately 1,5 weeks. The reason for this is argued to be the opportunity cost connected to schooling, which is sufficiently too high for households to let their female children attend school. Due to the increased agricultural productivity leading to higher salaries and lower prices, the cost of schooling increases and will lead to decreased female schooling.

Failure is something which most people probably try to avoid. However, even though entrepreneurial failure can put the entrepreneur through emotional, social and financial stress, it can also be viewed as a learning experience (Ucbasaran et al., 2013) and as an opportunity for the entrepreneur to gain human capital like knowledge and skills (Quan & Huy, 2014).The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what impact business failure and human capital have on the entrepreneurial learning of habitual entrepreneurs. Drawing on theory from the field of entrepreneurial failure, human capital and learning, this multiple case study has investigated eight habitual entrepreneurs qualitatively through semi-structured interviews.  The findings suggest that entrepreneurial failure is strongly connected to learning regardless of whether the failure is a bankruptcy or a smaller failure, and on the other hand that financial cost after failure can act as a barrier to learning. In addition, the findings suggest that human capital is is both an outcome of learning, in the sense that knowledge and skills increase with learning, but also that human capital is an enhancer of further learning as well. This implies that entrepreneurs on one hand should be aware of the risks of suffering financially after a failure, but on the other hand that failure can potentially be beneficial and positive as well due to the learning, knowledge and skills it generates.

Corporate governance research suggests that boards of directors play key roles in governing company strategy. Although qualitative research has examined board-management relationships to describe board involvement in strategy, we lack detailed insights into how directors engage with organizational members for governing a complex and long-term issue such as product innovation. Our multiple-case study of four listed pharmaceutical firms reveals a sequential process of board involvement: Directors with deep expertise govern scientific innovation, followed by the full board's involvement in its strategic aspects. The nature of director involvement varies across board levels in terms of the direction (proactive or reactive), timing (regular or spontaneous), and the extent of formality of exchanges between directors and organizational members. Our study contributes to corporate governance research by introducing the concept of board behavioral diversity and by theorizing about the multilevel, structural, and temporal dimensions of board behavior and its relational characteristics.