Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--York University, 2005. Graduate Programme in Education. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-110). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url%5Fver=Z39.88-2004&res%5Fdat=xri:pqdiss &rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR11921

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Duquesne University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p.165-186) and index.

This thesis reviews the evolution of interim reporting in New Zealand. The attempts to regulate interim reporting by the stock Exchange Association of New Zealand and the lobbying behaviour of affected parties are documented. The regulation of interim reporting is interpreted as a series of self-interest actions by the affected parties. In 1973 semiannual reports were mandated for all firms listed on the New Zealand stock Exchange. However, the content of these reports, was not specified until 1976. The extent of voluntary reporting practice prior to 1973 is recorded. The major empirical analysis of the thesis examines the association between corporate characteristics and the voluntary disclosure of semiannual earnings during the period 1973 to 1976. The analysis shows that firms with high semiannual earnings disclosures have more shares issued, have paid an interim dividend, carry relatively less inventory, are in a more seasonal industry and have a greater earnings forecast error. Assets in place, political costs of disclosure and competitive costs of disclosure are not found to be associated with the level of semiannual earnings disclosure. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the significance of the explanatory variables depends on firm size and upon the threshold level of disclosure.

This is a study of earnings quality, examining whether components of earnings based on New Zealand (N.Z.) accounting classification systems have different information parameters. The N.Z. environment provides a unique opportunity to examine a period with no legislative backing of accounting standards and a flexible accounting standard. Combined, this gave mangers the ability to clearly identify earnings components they considered to be differentially informative. Informativeness is assessed by the ability of current period earnings to predict next period earnings and the contemporaneous relation between returns and earnings. The results indicate that disaggregated reported earnings are more informative than aggregated earnings in a non-trivial way. In one of the sample periods disaggregated earnings explained 29% of the variance in returns, more than twice the explanatory power of aggregated earnings. N.Z. accounting standard setters replaced SSAP7 with FRS7 in 1994 contending that the discretion available to mangers reduced the informativeness of earnings. Not only do the results not support that contention but earnings informativeness has fallen since FRS7 came into effect, suggesting that standard setters should revisit that decision. The results also have implications for the content and form of the N.Z. Stock Exchange (NZSE) preliminary announcement. "Unusual earnings" reported to the NZSE by companies are shown to be differentially informative to investors yet the NZSE does not always identify these components when the preliminary announcement is summarised and disseminated to market participants. To summarise, the effective codification of earnings brought about by FRS7 has reduced the informativeness of earnings – locking differences between components into total earnings. The N.Z. results beg the question as to whether similar economic events are locked into the COMPUSTAT summary earnings variables for U.S. data.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Political Science and Public Administration. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation examines policy changes and incentive programs in kidney transplantation in the United States (U.S.) and their effects on adult obesity, on provision of care, and on patients’ overall welfare. This work uses rigorous identification strategies to quantify the impact, to investigate effectiveness, and to identify potential unintended consequences related to the institution environment in transplantation. Among others, findings are informative of a general understanding of weight loss behavior. Results also provide understanding of trade-offs—inherent in policy making—in this environment, which further affect access to transplantation. The first essay investigates effectiveness of weight loss incentives in transplantation. “How to incentivize weight loss?” is one of the central questions in health economics research. An example with high stakes is in the lifesaving treatment of organ transplantation, where transplantation centers use differential BMI requirement as eligibility for transplantation. This chapter investigates the effects of BMI requirements on probability of weight loss. Using a difference-in-difference framework correcting for sample selection bias for deceased donor transplant recipients, I find that having an explicit BMI requirement causes a 16.1 percentage point increase in the probability of weight loss. Weight loss is documented not only for overweight but also for severely and morbidly obese individuals. In addition, weight loss increases organ transplant survival for the severely and morbidly obese. The second essay evaluates the effects of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Final Rule on transplantation on patient welfare. Effective on June 28, 2007, the CMS established a new accountability policy for transplant centers to improve patient quality services and to reduce re-transplantation rates. Nonetheless, the regulation could exacerbate the current organ shortage problem. This study uses variations across centers between 2002 and 2009, and finds evidence that the regulation leads to undesirable effects on provision of care. The estimated decrease in graft failures for low-performing centers is negated by a decline in access to transplantation, creating a tradeoff between quality and access in the provision of care. Results suggest a sizeable reduction of about 5 to 6 less transplants per 6-month period at low-performing centers on both patient survival and graft survival outcomes after the regulation. The estimated declines in volume do not translate into comparable increases in volume at high-performing centers. The last essays emphasizes the effect of the CMS conditions of participations (CoPs) for transplant centers on patients’ selection of transplant centers. I am concerned that the report cards published by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) may impact the centers patients’ selection to be placed on the waiting list and the queuing of patients on a center’s waiting list. I construct a spatial data set of a patient’s (and referring physicians’) choice set between 2003 and 2010. Results from this less competitive model indicate that a center’s failure to meet the 1-year organ transplant survival outcomes decreases the probability that a patient will elect to be placed on a center’s waiting list versus those centers that are spatial proximate to that center. Distance traveled to a center is found to reduce probability of listing at a center, whereas the number of ECD transplants performed during any given year increase that propensity. The regulation effects are purged out in sorting equilibrium models which account for competitive interactions between centers. I find evidence for a strong congestion effect and demonstrate importance of center-level heterogeneity in predicting patient selection of centers. In summary, this dissertation shows importance of altering individual’s trade-offs in order to create behavior change, more specifically with policies trying to alt obesity. It further shows in the case of transplantation that the accountability policy established by the CMS mostly affects the supply side of the market with greater impacts on transplants volume and access to transplantation than it does on the demand for transplantation.

Submitted by Leonardo Cavalcante (leo.ocavalcante@gmail.com) on 2018-05-22T16:03:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Arquivototal.pdf: 1362353 bytes, checksum: 23fe85a6169d6871fd807c469a55ccc3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-22T16:03:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Arquivototal.pdf: 1362353 bytes, checksum: 23fe85a6169d6871fd807c469a55ccc3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-08-30 / This research aimed at analyzing the conceptions of autonomy, decentralization, quality and training, carried out in the programs of the Education Development Plan, highlighting the participation of the practice context of the Santa Rita-PB Municipal Teaching Network, in a process of experienced correlation of forces teachers in their struggle for public education and better working conditions. Considering that the policy needs to be understood from its context, Ball's Policy Cycle and collaborators were used. In this way, we analyzed the conjuncture in which the policies of decentralization were initiated and how the political discourses established the production of politics. We also analyzed the effects of decentralization policies in the context of practice, with schools as the field. The limits, expectations and perceptions about the programs that are at the center of the EDP in the school were observed through the teaching approach. The research in a qualitative approach, used like procedures the bibliographical analysis, documentary, semistructured interviews and questionnaires. As theoretical foundations it was reported to the studies of Hermida (2008); Saviani (2007, 2009); Camini (2013); Peroni (2003); Souza (2003); Adrião; Peroni (2007); Oliveira (2009); Gentili (1996); Oliveira (2013); Ball (2016); Freitas (2016); Dourado (2009), among others. Through this study, it was possible to perceive that the policies of decentralization and promotion of autonomy, expressed in the Plan of Development of Education, are configured as deconcentrative policies of action, in a managerialist, performative and stateresponsibility perspective, transferring to the school and its actors responsible for the failure of the institution, collaborating and deepening the neoliberal trend implemented in Brazil since the 1990s. Keywords: Decentralization. Autonomy. Accountability. Quality of education. / Esta pesquisa objetivou analisar as concepções de autonomia, descentralização, qualidade e formação, veiculadas nos programas do Plano de Desenvolvimento da Educação, ressaltando a participação do contexto da prática da Rede Municipal de Ensino de Santa Rita-PB, num processo de correlação de forças vivenciada pelos professores em sua luta pela educação pública e por melhores condições de trabalho. Considerando que a política precisa ser compreendida a partir de seu contexto, utilizou-se o Ciclo de Políticas de Ball e colaboradores. Dessa forma, analisou-se a conjuntura em que as políticas de descentralização foram iniciadas e como os discursos políticos estabeleceram a produção da política. Analisaram-se, também, os efeitos das políticas de descentralização no contexto da prática, tendo como campo as escolas. Observaram-se, através do olhar docente, os limites, as expectativas e as percepções acerca dos programas que estão na égide do PDE na escola. A pesquisa, numa abordagem qualitativa, utilizou como procedimentos a análise bibliográfica, documental, entrevistas semiestruturadas e questionários. Como fundamentos teóricos, reportou-se aos estudos de Hermida (2008); Saviani (2007, 2009); Camini (2013); Peroni (2003); Souza (2003); Adrião; Peroni (2007); Dourado; Oliveira (2009); Gentili (1996); Gentili; Oliveira (2013); Ball (2016); Freitas (2016), dentre outros. Por meio deste estudo, foi possível perceber que as políticas de descentralização e promoção da autonomia, expressas no Plano de Desenvolvimento da Educação, configuram-se como políticas de ação desconcentradora, numa perspectiva gerencialista, performática e de desresponsabilização do Estado, transferindo para a escola e seus atores a responsabilidade pelo insucesso da instituição, colaborando e aprofundando a tendência neoliberal implementada no Brasil desde a década de 1990.

This paper critically evaluates Transnational Corporations' (TNCs) claimed adherence to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)'s "labour" and "human rights" reporting guidelines and examines how successful the GRI has been in enhancing comparability and transparency. We found limited evidence of TNCs discharging their accountability to their workforce and, rather, we found evidence to suggest that disclosure was motivated more by enhancing their legitimacy. TNCs failed to adhere to the guidelines, which meant that material information items were often missing, rendering comparability of information meaningless. Instead, TNCs reported large volumes of generic/anecdotal information without acknowledging the impediments they faced in practice.

abstract: Lead is a neurotoxin that has been shown to have a long and lasting impact on the brains, bodies, and behaviors of those who are poisoned. It also has a greater presence in communities with high levels of poverty and minority populations. Compounded over time, the effects of lead poisoning, even at low levels of exposure, impact a child's readiness and ability to learn. To investigate the relationship between the risk of lead poisoning, school level academic achievement, and community demographics, three sets of data were combined. The Lead Poisoning Risk Index (LPRI), used to quantify the risk in each census tract of being poisoned by lead, standardized state assessment data for third grade reading and eighth grade math, and census 2000 demographic data were combined to provide information for all Arizona schools and census tracts. When achievement was analyzed at the school level using descriptive, bivariate correlation, and multivariate regression analyses, lead's impact practically disappeared, exposing the powerful effect of poverty and race on achievement. At a school in Arizona, the higher the percentage of students who are poor or Hispanic, African American or Native American, these analyses' predictive models suggest there will be a greater percentage of students who fail the third grade AIMS reading and eighth grade AIMS math tests. If better achievement results are to be realized, work must be done to mitigate the effects of poverty on the lives of students. In order to improve schools, there needs to be an accounting for the context within which schools operate and a focus on improving the neighborhoods and the quality of life for the families of students. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Administration and Supervision 2011