Thesis (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2017 / In 1994 the South African democratically elected government inherited one of the most inequitable access to basic service between rural and urban communities. Rural people used to live without access to basic services such as water, electricity, roads and sanitation facilities. South African government established the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Framework as the national Strategic Plan to outline the extent of basic infrastructure backlogs and to come up with strategies to improve basic service provision to the poor citizens. The Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) is a municipal infrastructure funding which combines all the existing capital grants for municipal infrastructure into a single consolidated grant. MIG is aimed at assisting the poor to gain access to infrastructure. MIG funding can only be used for infrastructure for basic services. Polokwane local municipality and Blouberg local municipality are the beneficiaries of MIG. The purpose of the study was to investigate the causes of unspent Municipal Infrastructure Grants in Polokwane and Blouberg local municipalities. An extensive literature review has been undertaken to gather information regarding unspent Municipal Infrastructure Grants in the two municipalities in the Capricorn District; Polokwane and Blouberg local municipalities. The study provides an investigation on how Polokwane and Blouberg local municipalities monitor the Municipal Infrastructure funding. The study further investigate the capacity of the municipalities to implement MIG, and whether these municipalities have the capacity to effectively utilise the MIG for efficient and effective service delivery. The researcher utilised a qualitative approach to collect data through interview schedule. A satisfactory response rate of 98% was obtained. The results indicated that Polokwane and Blouberg local municipalities are capacitated to implement and to monitor MIG. However, the municipalities often spend less than the budgeted MIG, as a result progress in the access to basic services is hindered. The failure to adequately spend the MIG by these municipalities is due to the fact that there is poor planning and a lot of political interference in the Supply Chain Management processes. The study recommended that managers should do proper planning beforehand, avoid late appointment of service providers and make references on the service providers they appoint to avoid disputes from members of the community. The study further recommended that Polokwane and Blouberg local municipalities should do proper consultation of the project, budget accordingly, and appoint companies that will produce positive end results with value for money. The study recommended that political office bearers should not interfere in the supply chain management processes

The purpose of this project is to examine how online physical education courses impact student learning and achievement of fitness and health standards now that budget cuts are leading to the curtailing or elimination of traditional physical education classes at the secondary level of K-12 education.

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’étudier si la dette des gouvernements locaux doit faire l’objet d’inquiétudes, en se focalisant sur les cas français et canadiens (Québec et Ontario principalement). Le premier chapitre réalise une analyse descriptive des territoires à l’étude, et montre également que la dette municipale est nettement plus faible en Ontario qu’en France ou au Québec. Le deuxième chapitre analyse la santé financière des 30 plus grandes villes françaises et canadiennes. Il ressort notamment que les municipalités ayant un fort endettement ne sont pas nécessairement caractérisées par une situation financière précaire. Le troisième chapitre explore l’hypothèse d’une capitalisation négative de la dette publique municipale dans les valeurs foncières résidentielles moyennes de 130 municipalités au Québec et en Ontario. Les différents tests menés conduisent à des résultats instables, ne nous permettant pas de confirmer hors de tout doute notre hypothèse initiale. Un constat demeure cependant : le fardeau des ménages québécois qui doivent absorber des dettes publiques plus importantes est compensé par des valeurs de logement et un endettement privé plus faibles par rapport aux ménages de l’Ontario. Enfin, le quatrième chapitre étudie l’hypothèse d’un lien entre le degré d’intégration au sein du bloc communal (EPCI à fiscalité propre et communes membres) et la dette consolidée de ce dernier. Les tests réalisés font ressortir un impact négatif de l’intégration sur la dette du secteur communal et sur la dette des communes membres, indiquant qu’une plus grande intégration constituerait un levier efficace pour contribuer, avec les limitations légales, à une bonne maitrise de l’endettement du bloc / The aim of this thesis is to study if the debt of local governments is a threat to their fiscal health, by focusing on French and Canadian cases (mainly Québec and Ontario). The first chapter provides a descriptive analysis of the studied territories, and reveals that the local debt is significantly lower in Ontario, in comparison with France and Québec. The second chapter focuses on the fiscal health of the 30 largest French and Canadian cities. It shows that municipalities with a large debt are not always in a precarious financial situation. The third chapter investigates the hypothesis of a negative capitalization of municipal public debt in the average residential property values in 130 municipalities of Québec and Ontario. Our estimations give mixed results, and do not allow us to confirm our initial hypothesis beyond any doubt. Nevertheless, the household’s burden in Québec which have to finance larger municipal debts is offset by lower property prices and lower private indebtedness compared to Ontario’s households. Finally, the fourth chapter examines a French issue: the potential link between the integration level within intermunicipal community (EPCI and member municipalities) and the consolidated debt. Results show a negative effect of integration on the consolidated debt and on the debt of member municipalities, suggesting that a larger integration could be a complementary method to the legal restrictions of local indebtedness.

Much of our current understanding of how consumers shop for goods and services is based on cross-sectional analyses of end-of-trip variables (e.g., basket composition, total spending) that has largely assumed purchase behavior is constant over the course of a shopping trip, however research has begun to demonstrate how an initial purchase can influence a subsequent purchase decision. This suggests shopping behavior may not only vary throughout a shopping trip, but rather is specifically influenced by when a purchase decision occurs within a shopping trip. I build on this foundation through two essays that show how and why a consumer’s in-store purchasing behavior is influenced by both the decisions they have made and the decisions they anticipate to make later. The first essay demonstrates that a consumer’s relative spending— the price of an item, relative to the prices of the other items in the same product category—evolves nonlinearly over a single shopping trip, and this pattern is distinct for budget and nonbudget shoppers. The second essay examines whether and how encountering promotions in-store, but temporally in advance of the promoted product influences a consumer’s redemption decision. These findings suggest that shoppers’ decisions evolve of a single shopping trip as a function of the decisions and evaluations the have made earlier in the shopping trip, as well the decisions they still have left to make. In each essay, implications for researchers and practitioners are presented and opportunities for future research are discussed.

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a governing mechanism whereby citizens decide how to allocate part of a local budget. It promises greater accountability, efficiency, and citizen participation in the budgetary process with minimal cost and effort. The process is in place in hundreds of cities in Latin America, but what is unclear in the scholarship is what factors and pre-conditions determine its success. This case study of Córdoba, Argentina is useful for analyzing whether a consideration of pre-conditions is useful in predicting success. This study isolates the primary influential factors to determine why only 10% of projects have been completed and participation rates are declining by: examining the structure, funding, history, and political and social context of participatory budgeting; comparing Córdoba to other similar countries that have adopted participatory budgeting; conducting key informant interviews; and participating in PB workshops. Of the pre-conditions identified in the study, waning political will and political distractions most influenced the evolution of PB in Córdoba. Despite these setbacks, key individuals both inside the government, such as Director of Participatory Budgeting Jorge Guevara, and outside, such as the members of the Grupo Promotor de Participación Ciudadana (GPPC), operated as a web to generate social capital where institutional knowledge and political will were lacking. The presence of such a web suggests that given the opportunity, PB in Córdoba may yet improve and thrive. I conclude by recommending a strategic planning methodology as a means for cities to independently evaluate their participatory budgeting performance. / text

Fractional crystallization, magma mixing, assimilation of continental crust, and how those processes modify volatile budgets, control the evolution of magma. As a consequence, the understanding of these processes, their magnitudes, and timescales is critical for interpreting ancient magma systems, their eruptions, and the potential future volcanic activity. In this dissertation I present the results of three projects. The first explores how magmatic processes affect magma reservoirs and eruption dynamics. The second explores where in the storage system and how often these processes occur. The third explores how volatile budgets are modified by processes such as crystallization, mixing, and assimilation. Volcán Popocatépetl (central México) erupted ~14100 14C yr BP producing the Tutti Frutti Plinian Eruption (TFPE). The eruption tapped two different silicic magmas that mixed just prior and during the eruption. The influx of mass and volatiles generated during the mixing of both magmas overpressured the reservoir, which was weakened at the top. The weakened reservoir relaxed while magma was tapped and collapsed to form a caldera at the surface. Although it is known that fractional crystallization, mixing, and assimilation can greatly modify magmas, the frequency and intensity of these events is not known. I investigated the magmatic processes responsible for the evolution of magmas erupted during five Plinian events of Popocatépetl volcano. Results show that during the last 23 ky magma was stored in two different zones, and was variably modified by replenishments of mafic magma. Interestingly, little evidence for large mafic inputs triggering explosive eruptions was found. Each of these processes alters the abundances of volatiles and introduces different types of volatiles to the system. Hence, the volatile budget of magma can have a rich and complex history. To investigate how volatile budgets evolve in active magma systems, I analyzed the abundances of volatiles (H2O, CO2, F, Cl, and S) in numerous glass inclusions trapped in phenocrysts. Results show that the magmas that produced the last five Plinian eruptions at Popocatépetl volcano evolved by crystallization and magma mixing, assimilation of the local carbonate basement is not chemically appreciable. Mixing with mafic magmas added substantial CO2 and S to the system, dewatered the magma, yet produced little change in the F contents of the magmas. / text

Ce mémoire d'habilitation à diriger des recherches a pour objectif de souligner et de caractériser, au travers de nos travaux empiriques, l'adaptabilité des systèmes budgétaires, leur capacité à traduire l'identité de l'organisation, et par là de fournir des éléments d'explication à leur étonnante pérennité. En particulier, l'observation puis l'interprétation de ces rôles nous a conduite à identifier l'existence d'une dualité quant aux fonctions de l'outil, dualité qui s'exprime au travers de différentes rationalités traduites par l'outil. Le budget, s'il semble s'imposer dans la plupart des organisations comme l'un des instruments principaux de contrôle joue en effet un rôle important en matière sociale et politique. Sa mission organisationnelle serait double, d'une part destinée au contrôle des réalisations et des performances, et s'exprimant par la recherche d'une cohérence et d'une rationalité instrumentale, d'autre part orientée vers la recherche d'une cohérence sociale et politique. Celle-ci traduit le rôle joué par les systèmes budgétaires dans les processus de cohésion organisationnelle et d'intégration d'une part, dans les processus politiques et à visée externe d'autre part. Ce double aspect n'a cependant pas été observé comme le résultat de phénomènes de découplages stricts, fondés sur des décalages ou des contradictions entre l'utilisation pour le pilotage interne et celle pour les utilisateurs externes, mais comme un jeu de complémentarité entre modes d'utilisation et rationalités internes et externes. De façon générale, ce mémoire montre que loin d'être dépassé, le budget est non seulement très présent au travers des études de terrain réalisées, mais qu'il est aussi largement légitime dans les organisations, ne serait-ce que parce qu'il est le reflet de leur identité, mais aussi parce qu'il leur apporte la légitimité nécessaire à leur fonctionnement, leur pérennité et leur survie.

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The aim of this study is to investigate how companies within different industries that use budgets perceive the critique that has been raised against it. As such, this study explores whether the companies find the critique valid and if so, whether and how they have managed to cope with the problems that the budget has been argued to entail. Additionally, this study explores the potential impact that the external and internal context of the budget may have on these perceptions. Utilizing on a qualitative case study research design, our findings indicate that the relevance of the critique is contextually contingent with regards to both the external and the internal environment of a company. Consequently, the likelihood for the alleged problems of the budget to appear is greater when the alignment between a company’s external and internal environment and the employed budget purpose is poor, and/or when the budget’s cohesiveness with other management control systems within a certain management control system-package is deficient. Thus, in contrast to the critics, we argue that budgets should not be seen as a static and stand-alone practice as it evidently constitute a multifaceted and contingent practice.

The purpose of this study was to examine district level financial data to assess equity across districts, to compare equity benchmarks established in the literature using selected functions from the state's financial database, and to determine the predictive value of those functions to the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) tests of 1997.