abstract: This dissertation consists of two essays. The first measures the degree to which schooling accounts for differences in industry value added per worker. Using a sample of 107 economies and seven industries, the paper considers the patterns in the education levels of various industries and their relative value added per worker. Agriculture has notably less schooling and is less productive than other sectors, while a group of services including financial services, education and health care has higher rates of schooling and higher value added per worker. The essay finds that in the case of these specific industries education is important in explaining sector differences, and the role of education all other industries are less defined. The second essay provides theory to investigate the relationship between agriculture and schooling. During structural transformation, workers shift from the agriculture sector with relatively low schooling to other sectors which have more schooling. This essay explores to what extent changes in the costs of acquiring schooling drive structural transformation using a multi-sector growth model which includes a schooling choice. The model is disciplined using cross country data on sector of employment and schooling constructed from the IPUM International census collection. Counterfactual exercises are used to determine how much structural transformation is accounted for by changes in the cost of acquiring schooling. These changes account for small shares of structural transformation in all economies with a median near zero. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Economics 2011

abstract: This dissertation integrates research on boards of directors with human and social capital perspectives to examine board appointments. A director's appointment to a board is in part due to the belief that the individual can contribute critical resources and monitoring to the organization. The ability of a director to provide these resources and monitoring depends on his or her level of human and social capital. This dissertation more fully integrates human and social capital perspectives into our understanding of board appointment events. From these theoretical underpinnings, a model is developed proposing that several human and social capital indicators, including educational level, expertise, director experience, and access to network structural holes, affect the likelihood of joining a new board, joining a prestigious board, and exiting a current board. I also consider a number of contextual- and individual-level variables that may potentially moderate the relationship between a director's human and social capital and director mobility. Through this dissertation, I make a number of contributions to the literatures on boards, board appointments, and human and social capital. First, I offer a more comprehensive perspective of the board appointment process by developing an individual-level perspective of board appointments. Second, I contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the market for corporate directors. Third, I focus on several salient dimensions of director mobility. Fourth, I contribute to the growing literature on human and social capital at the board and director levels. Finally, I add to the growing literature on director selection. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Business Administration 2011

This thesis consists of a short introduction and three self-contained chapters. Chapter 1 develops a model of intra-household specialization and human capital formation for couples, taking into account of assortative sorting on income potentials in the marriage market. I assume people are matching on potential wage growth rates which differ across individuals and are realized through actual work experiences. The model is estimated by a simulated minimum distance estimator with PSID data from 1968 to 2011. I find there is strong positive assortative matching on wage growth rates, which helps explain the correlated wage growth residuals of married couples. If matching is switched to random, there will be more variation in household specialization arrangements and higher observed wage growth rates. The estimated elasticity of substitution between market goods and home production is approximately 0.37. Husband's time and wife's time turn out to be complements in the home production function. Chapter 2 studies a marriage market with two-sided information asymmetry in which the gains from marriage are stochastic. Contracts specify divisions of ex-post realized marital surplus. I first study a game in which one side of the matching market offers contracts, and then study a social planner's problem, finding necessary and sufficient conditions for a truthful direct revelation mechanism to achieve matching efficiency. These conditions become more stringent as the number of agents in the matching market increases. Chapter 3 examines the relationship between women's preference towards marriage and her marital outcomes. I propose using the mother's marital status as a proxy for her daughter's ex-ante preference towards marriage. Using 1980 and 2008 U.S. Census data, I estimate the impact of women's preference towards marriage and their educational attainments on their probability of getting married, and with Heckman correction, the impact on their husbands' earnings conditional on being married.

Magister Commercii - MCom / Small business faces challenges of surviving amidst competition from established businesses, due to lack of resources and quality management. Hence many of these businesses do not last for long. Small businesses do not only need capital resources to succeed, but need intangible assets as well. These intangible resources are also called Human Capital, and include elements such as education, experience and motivation. This study has limited its focus to only one element of human capital, the experience of the owner or managers of the Supa Quick franchise. This research is undertaken to examine the perceptions of owners and managers on the impact of their experience and the franchise standard operating procedures (SOP) on the success of their franchise business. Furthermore, the study looks at factors that impede business performance, as well as other measures used by owners and managers to measure their business success, besides the normal financial measures used every day. In order to collect data, the qualitative method was employed using a questionnaire which consisted of open- and closed-ended questions in the form of 4 - point Likert scales type questions. The questionnaire was administered to 12 Supa Quick franchise owners and managers in the Cape Town Metropolitan areas and Stellenbosch. The findings indicated that more than 90 % of the studied Supa Quick owners and managers perceive experience as an important factor in influencing their business performance. Furthermore, 100% of them say that franchise SOP play a part in the success of their franchises. However, they have many different ways in which they measure success in their businesses and the factors that impede their business performance. The results of this research add to the current existing literature on improving business performance and success. Also, it will assist in guidance of entrepreneurs who want to start or buy franchise businesses.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in Europe's economy. Since SMEs have distinct organisational practices and structures (e.g. owner-run, continuity over several generations, regional engagement), their intellectual capital (IC) differs from large enterprises. However, there is little research on IC in SMEs. Placing special attention on the craft industry, this research aims at closing this gap. It will present a cross-disciplinary review of research on craft to explore the role of knowledge and human capital in the craft industry. The findings point to overall characteristics which can guide future research and inform policy-making in the craft industry.

During a lifetime an individual is faced with the decision whether or not to pursue additional years of education, and one may ask if this will generate some sort of payoff, for example, if higher earnings is to be received later in life. The aim of this paper is to investigate how an individual’s earnings is affected by the amount of years one spends in school and also to see if gender and experience are contributing factors. We will investigate these relationships by first introducing the two theories “Human Capital” and “The Mincer Equation”. These build upon each other and are connected. Thereafter, modifications of the Standard Mincer equation will develop our four different regression equations. These regressions will be run on an American cross-sectional data set, by use of the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). Our chosen explanatory variables do affect earnings and the specific data set shows that additional years of schooling do increase earnings. We also found a distinct difference in hourly earnings between men and women.

This article analyses the roles played by the actors related to religious groups,the way that they rebuild their participation and representation in the publicspace from their involvement in the initiative of social protest about the reclaimand defense of certain civil rights. In this regard, the article addresses the relationship between religion and politics, and furthermore specifically, the way inwhich religious human capital contributes to the process of collective actionsand social mobilization. At the same time, it offers some ideas regarding theway in which religious speech and public practice is shaped by cultural mediatization. / Este artículo analiza los roles que juegan los actores vinculados a los gruposreligiosos y cómo reconstruyen su participación y representación en el espaciopúblico a partir de su involucramiento en iniciativas de protesta social por lareivindicación y defensa de determinados derechos. En este sentido, reflexionaen torno a la relación entre lo religioso y lo político, y más específicamente,el modo como el capital religioso aporta en estos procesos de acción colectivay movilización social, pero al mismo tiempo el modo como el discurso y lapráctica pública religiosa es moldeada por los procesos de mediatización dela cultura.

No description available.

A Teoria do Capital Humano estabelece que o conjunto de conhecimentos, habilidades, aptidões e outras características adquiridas que contribuem para a produção e proporcionam impacto na economia são afetadas diretamente pelo nível de escolaridade do indivíduo. Em conseqüência, uma maior escolaridade leva a um aumento no nível de renda, melhor qualidade de vida e maiores oportunidades profissionais e sociais. A partir desta base conceitual, este trabalho pesquisou a relação entre os perfis demográficos e profissiográficos dos mestres em Ciências Contábeis e os indicadores de avaliação dos programas de pósgraduação destes egressos. A população de pesquisa envolveu 2.007 mestres titulados por 14 Programas de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Contábeis reconhecidos pela Capes. Para a coleta de dados foi utilizado um questionário por meio eletrônico hospedado no website Formsite.com. Foram obtidas 671 respostas válidas, representativas de todos os programas de pós-graduação. Para análise dos dados foram utilizadas técnicas de análise multivariada, incluindo a estatística descritiva, testes de hipóteses não paramétricas, análise fatorial, regressão logística e regressão linear múltipla, com o uso do SPSS, versão 13.0. A materialização desta pesquisa resultou em um significativo volume de dados sobre os Mestres em Ciências Contábeis do Brasil que permitiram o mapeamento e conhecimento dos perfis desses egressos. Dentre as análises destacam-se que, 50,1% possuiam o mercado como a principal atividade remunerada sendo que a docência faz parte de 55,6% dos mestres em Ciências Contábeis. Atualmente, 41,1% desenvolvem atividades como empregados do setor público e 36,5% como empregados do setor privado, 10,1% são autônomos e 8,8% são proprietários de empresas. As regiões Sul e Sudeste concentram 78,8% dos mestres, sendo 34,9% deles no Estado de São Paulo. A análise das faixas salariais antes e após o mestrado mostra uma migração de uma faixa salarial mais baixa para uma faixa salarial mais alta tanto para os que exercem atividades no mercado ou na academia. O mesmo ocorre entre homens e mulheres. A maior remuneração bruta mensal é verificada entre os mestres do sexo masculino que atuam no mercado e a menor remuneração bruta mensal é verificada entre os mestres do sexo feminino que atuam na academia. Com relação a avaliação dos programas não foram encontrados elementos que permitissem o aceite da hipótese inicial de que os mestres em Ciências Contábeis titulados por programas com melhor conceito avaliam mais positivamente o programa que lhe conferiu o título do que aqueles que se titularam em programas que apresentaram menores conceitos Capes. A análise fatorial reduziu a avaliação em quatro dimensões e a regressão linear múltipla, com os escores fatoriais, validou as seguintes variáveis que mais impactam na avaliação: Produção Científica, Conteúdo Programático e Docentes, Infraestrutura do programa e Avaliação discente. Na percepção dos egressos, todos os fatores identificados com a Teoria do Capital Humano foram significativamente alterados pelo fato de obterem o título de mestre, corroborando a tese estabelecida neste trabalho. O fator mais bem avaliado foi o espírito acadêmico e o fator com menor avaliação foi a remuneração. A percepção sobre a influência nos seus desenvolvimentos provocada pelo título de mestre difere entre os egressos de um programa para outro. Entre os fatores que podem explicar essa discriminação incluem os diferentes estágios de evolução e o processo de amadurecimento dos Programas de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Contábeis no Brasil. O conhecimento dos perfis poderá contribuir com os diferentes setores sociais na elaboração de políticas, planos e metas que visem o aprimoramento e desenvolvimento da profissão, permitindo a contribuição para o aumento do Capital Humano individual e sua contribuição para o desenvolvimento da sociedade. / The Human Capital theory states that the combination of knowledge, abilities, aptitudes and other acquired characteristics contribute to production, have an impact on the economy and are directly affected by the educational level of the individual. Consequently, a higher level of education leads to an increase in the level of income, a better quality of life, and greater professional and social opportunities. Using this theory as a conceptual basis, this study examines the relationship between the demographic and professional profiles of graduated Masters students of Accounting Sciences and evaluation indices of their post-graduate programs. The study was carried out with a population of 2,007 Masters from 14 postgraduate programs in Accounting Sciences recognized by Capes. An electronic questionnaire hosted on the website Formsite.com was used to collect data. A total of 671 valid responses were obtained, representing all of the post-graduate programs. Multivariate analysis techniques were used to analyze the data, including descriptive statistics, non-parametric hypothesis tests, factor analysis, logistic regression and multiple linear regression, using SPSS, version 13.0. The study produced a significant volume of data about Masters of Accounting Sciences in Brazil, which enabled the charting and understanding of the profile of these graduates. From the analyses, it was found that 50.1% of the Masters held the market as their main paid activity, with 55.6% of them working in the area of teaching accountancy. Currently, 41.1% are working as public sector employees, 36.5% are working in the private sector, 10.1% are self-employed and 8.8% are company owners. The south and southeast regions of the country account for 78.8% of the Masters, with 34.9% of them being in the state of São Paulo. An analysis of their salary ranges before and after the Masters course shows a migration from a lower to a higher salary range for both those that work in business and in academia. This occurs for both males and females. The highest gross monthly income was found among the male Masters working in business, and the lowest gross monthly income was found among the female Masters working in academia. With regard to evaluation of the programs, no data was found that permitted the acceptance of the initial hypothesis that Masters in Accounting Sciences from programs with better Capes reputations evaluated their courses more positively than those that graduated from programs with lesser reputations. Factor analysis reduced the evaluations down to four dimensions and multiple linear regression, with factorial scores, validated the following variables, which had the greatest impact on evaluation: Scientific Production, Program Contents and Professors, Program Infrastructure, and Student Evaluation. According to the perceptions of the Masters, all the factors identified with the Human Capital Theory were significantly altered by the act of obtaining the title of Master, corroborating the thesis established in this study. The most valued factor was academic spirit, and the least valued was remuneration. Perceptions about the influence of gaining the title of Master on their development differed among the graduates from one program to another. Among the factors that could explain these differences are the different stages of evolution of the individuals and the degrees of maturation of the different Post-Graduate Programs in Accounting Sciences in Brazil. Knowledge of the profiles could contribute to different social sectors through the proposal of policies, plans and goals which aim at the improvement and development of the profession, enabling an enhancement of individual Human Capital and its contribution to the development of society.

M.A. (Psychology) / The evaluation of the 6M Simulation Training Programme is conducted against the background of the manpower needs of the Republic of South Africa, the increase in training programmes as a result of this need and the importance of evaluation of training to ensure the optimal utilization of human and economic resources. The environment in which the worker finds himself in the Western industrial situation has an influence on his job efficiency. As maintenance of economic growth in South Africa will in large measure be dependent on the optimal utilization of the Black workers corps· understanding of the particular problems which the Black worker has to contend with is an important factor in the training situation. The 6M Simulation Training Programme was developed to counteract an identified lack of knowledge with regard to basic business principles relevant to modern industry, and the relevance of these concepts to the job situation, on the part of uninitiated Black workers. Factual information with regard to sources of capital of the specific organisation, use of this capital, reasons for starting the organisation, competition in business, restrictions on the organisation resulting from market factors, sources of income, distribution of income, causes and implications of loss and profit, distribution of profit, influence of the worker on the success or failure of an organisation, the role of management and the reasons for relevant rules and regulations are conveyed to the course attendant during the 6M Simulation Programme in a unique manner. Comparison of pre and post-test results show a significant increase in knowledge of concepts discussed during the course. Variables which influenced the increase in knowledge were the instructor, age, educational qualifications, home language and job category. A positive change in job behaviour and attitudes related to the job situation was observed by the majority of representatives of line management interviewed. A factor analysis indicated positive change in respect of four overall factors, i.e. attitude towards management, efficient use of machines, human sources of inefficiency and identification with the organisation. Evaluation of the influence of the course on organisational efficiency wat not possible because of practical problems. An analysis of comments of respondents indicated that course attendants experienced the course as relevant and applicable to the work situation. Experience during this study indicates that there is SUsplclon on the part of the Black worker with regard to the motives of management with reference to training. The positive effects which training may have on the job performance of course attendants ;s adversely affected by the lack of reinforcement in the job situation. Lack of knowledge and understanding with regard to attitudes, needs, aspirations and problems of co~workers adversely affect the relationships between cultural groups. The development of a relationship based on trust between the different cultural groups seems to be a prerequisite for the successful utilization of the South African manpower potential.