Past theoretical research has explored whether bribes paid by firms to government officials are greater under a decentralized bureaucracy where the firm faces numerous government officials or under a monopolistic one. Presumably, bribes are bid down in the former as officials compete for bribes. However, a tragedy of the commons could occur where decentralized officials "overgraze" and charge higher bribes than a single bureaucrat would. Using the BEEPS I, a firm level survey covering 24 transition countries, the chapter 1 examines whether reported bribe payments by firms are higher when firms face numerous officials or only a single one. We find that bribe payments are higher under a more decentralized bureaucratic structure. In chapter 2 we investigate the link between private market competition and bribery. Greater competition could lower profits thereby limiting the amount corruption since rents are lower but greater competition could also provide more incentives for firms to pay bribes to obtain advantages over their rivals. We consider bribes to obtain government contracts. Using the BEEPS III dataset on 27 transition countries and the Censored Quantile Regression methodology we empirically found that as the number of competitors increases the amount bribes paid tend to increase as well. We also found that this relationship follows an inverted U. The marginal effect increases with the amount of bribes paid up to a maximum, then decreases, but remains positive. We believe that this relationship is driven by more competitors raising demand for these contracts. In chapter 3 we investigate the association between corruption and two types of investment. Past research focuses only on the total level of investment. Using the same dataset as used in chapter 2, we obtain mixed results. Using a tobit model, we find evidence that corruption "greases the wheels" of physical investment but has no significant effect on the level of R&D investment. However, results from a probit model suggest that corruption does negatively impact whether or not the firm undertakes R&D. These findings indicate corruption can affect not only the level but also the decision of whether to invest. They also show that these effects might differ across the type of investment so that the "grease wheels" and "sand wheels" perspectives are not incompatible as most the studies using the aggregate level of investment tend to imply.

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This thesis aims to identify the status of management accounting practices in the Jordanian financial sector in terms of both its usage and sophistication level and to examine the contingency factors that influence that status. The main objectives of the research are: to obtain a broad overview of management accounting practices in general, including the extent of usage of management accounting practices; examine the sophistication level of management accounting practices and at which phase, based on the IF AC model, the Jordanian financial sector is currently placed; investigate the effect of the contingent variables upon both the extent of usage and the sophistication level of management accounting practices. To attain these objectives, a combination of research methods has been conducted, namely, questionnaire and semi-structured interview; 64 valid questionnaires were returned, giving a 67.3% response rate, followed by 14 interviews. Several statistical analyses were used to analyse the responses, namely, descriptive analysis, bivariate correlation analysis (KendalFs tau test and Kruskal-Wallis test), and multivariate statistical tests. The results of the life cycle stages revealed that 67.2% of the respondent companies are located in the first two stages. In terms of the usage of management accounting practices, the research reported that traditional practices are still widespread and highly used, rarely using the more sophisticated or advanced practices, and that there is a diversity of practices used in the financial sector context. In general, the research revealed that budgeting practices and financial measures are heavily used, and there is a lack of usage of decision making practices and strategic analysis practices. Concerning the sophistication level of management accounting practices, the research revealed that almost all of the Jordanian financial sector companies are located in the first stage by 64.1% and 29.7% of companies in the second stage based on the IF AC model, thus indicating the simplicity of information that they require. This, in turn, reflects the simplicity of practices that are used in the Jordanian financial sector. In terms of the association between each contingency variables and the extent of usage of management accounting practices, the research reveals that the age of the company (number of years since establishment), net sale growth, number of employees, sophistication of operations, professional certificates, life cycle stages, and business type have a significant impact on the extent of usage of management accounting practices. In addition, it reveals that the age of the company, sophistication of operations, attendance of training courses, professional certificates, life cycle stages, and business type are the main contingency variables that influence the sophistication level of management accounting practices. The research's findings provide a broad overview of management accounting practices in the Jordanian financial sector. This overview is vital in improving the understanding of management accounting practices, particularly contemporary practices within the Jordanian financial sector in order to encourage practitioners to adopt contemporary practices of management accounting. In addition, the research informs practitioners of the main variables that influence the usage and sophistication level of management accounting practices and of those variables that need to be taken into account when planning the adoption or development of management accounting systems. Finally, the research's findings attempt to fill the gap between theory and practice in management accounting in Jordan.

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This study offers some empirical insight into the problems and possibilities of economic integration in West Africa with particular reference to Ghana and the Entente Council States (i.e. Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Niger, Dahomey and Togo). Recent developments in integration analysis have shown that the traditional theory of integration is largely inapplicable to the economies of LDCs. Economic integration in the case of LDCs should be treated as a strategy of economic development rather than a mere tariff issue. As a background to the study, the historical evolution of the current problems of intra-regional trade and development is discussed with special attention to the economic structures and geo-political configuration of divisions and fragmentations inherited from the colonial past. These have affected recent integration schemes in the region whose performances are appraised and their failures highlighted. Notwithstanding the structural problems of the economies of the area, the study sees a possibility of economic integration. It selects and applies a revised version of the Andics-Dosser model in evaluating the impact effects (gains) of market integration based on selected, existing regional industries (i.e. cement, chemical fertiliser, footwear and petroleum products) in central-west Africa, comprising Ghana and the Entente states. These are industries in which the economies of scale exist, which would justify an arrangement for gradual trade liberalization in the products of such industries within a regional context. Based on the aforementioned products the welfare benefits derivable from market integration in terms of four chosen variables, (domestic value added, national income, foreign exchange and capital cost) are quantified. The estimates, which utilise 1969 data, indicate that integration-induced improvement in the region's growth rate of GNP will be of the order of 0.796 in 1975, increasing to by 1980. Integration by itself does not ensure an automatic equitable distribution of the benefits it generates. The text discusses the possible polarization effects of integration as well as the revenue-loss aspects of tariff disarmament and goes on to make policy suggestions as to how these problems might be solved. The inherent political instability in the region is underlined as a major obstacle to integration but the limited scheme which the. study proposes, since it will entail a minimal loss of political sovereignty from the standpoint of prospective member states, is seen as likely to work if given the chance and policy guideposts are offered to this end.

My research asks how and why some developing countries have adopted ambitious climate policies, while others have not. As developing countries have no international obligations and little domestic public support for undertaking climate change action, it is puzzling to see them taking substantial steps to counteract global warming. I argue that such policies are due to a strong pro-climate policy group, which arises because of the interaction of international institutions and a shift in domestic politics. Specifically, international institutions helped to cultivate a pro-climate policy group through international socialization and economic incentives between the late 1990s and early 2000s. The changes in domestic politics after the mid-2000s, particularly policy decision makers’ rising energy and environmental concerns, strengthened the power of the pro-climate policy group. Due to the interplay of international institutions and the development of domestic actors, the pro-climate policy group was able to advance their interests in climate policymaking process and advocated for a proactive climate policy.

The development of any country is regarded as the function of the availability, organisation and utilization of its resources. Information has come to be widely recognised as a resource as valuable as other resources of matter, energy and human skill. This recognition is evident through the attention given by the countries in the developed areas of the world to the collection, organisation and utilization of information. The result, as one can witness now, is the establishment and maintenance in these countries of advanced library and information services, where sophisticated technology (e.g. computers and other electronic devices) is being applied. Since developing countries like Iraq, with which we are especially concerned, are undergoing a development process and almost all of them have been adopting a planning procedure as an instrument of policy in their own development, the availability, organisation and utilization of information is essential for them. The only way to meet this is by ensuring the availability of efficient infrastructures that perform the functions of collecting, organising and retrieving information on a nationwide basis. Therefore developing countries need to: recognise information as an essential component in the individuals, and society1development, question the deficient and fragmented state of their library and information services, recognise the deficiencies of these services and take the measures necessary for their development. This study demonstrates the value of information in development, reviews the activities concerned with collecting, organising and retrieving information, questions the present state of library and information services in developing countries with special reference to Iraq, highlights their deficiencies and the, factors contributingýto these deficiencies, and provides guidelines for solution. This study was based on an extensive literature survey, personal interviews, visits and on-site observations.

The HIV and AIDS pandemic has resulted in 14 million children being orphaned worldwide. In Lesotho alone, where this study was carried out, there are about 180 000 of these children (UNAIDS, 2007). Teachers, especially in Lesotho‘s primary schools need to be equipped to better deal with the challenges that result from having these children in their classrooms. At the Lesotho College of Education, where I have worked for 12 years as a teacher educator, pre-service and in-service student teachers are not trained to offer care and support to orphans and vulnerable children. They experience problems in the classroom emanating from the needs of these children. This study followed an action research design to find ways to support teachers to better deal with the issues they face as a result of having orphans and vulnerable children in their classes. Using a qualitative approach, educators perceptions, feelings, attitudes and experiences in dealing with orphans and vulnerable children in their schools were identified, and it became apparent that educators were negatively affected on a personal and professional level. It was concluded that the development of resilience in educators would help them to better cope with orphans and vulnerable children in their classes. The chosen intervention Resilient Educators Programme (REds) was implemented and evaluated and findings revealed that it was beneficial in increasing educator resilience. Recommendations, based on the findings of the study, were made for future teacher education in this area.

The objective of this study is to find out whether the leadership theories that are being widely practised by Western countries are being universally accepted in Asian countries, which have different local cultures and values. Both local and multinational companies, situated in Klang Valley, Malaysia, were approached and asked to participate in the quantitative and qualitative surveys. Employers and employees from numerous sectors ranging from banking, plantation, highway and manufacturing sectors participated in this research. Two well established researched sets of developed questionnaires established by renowned management practices, that are the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Bass and Avolio (1990)) and a slight modification of Leadership Behaviour Questionnaire Form XII (Stodgill, 1963) cited in Cook et. al. (1981) were used as a survey instrument. Descriptive and factor analysis, multiple regression and other statistical analysis were used to make the data more viable to the readers. The study will focus on Malaysia to determine what leadership styles are practised by managers and to determine whether there are any constraints that might hinder the Malaysians from accepting existing leadership theories. The survey will also seek to determine what factors or aspects will motivate both employees and employers to work together effectively to attain a company's vision. It is hoped that the answers derived from the analysis will be of importance to the multinational and local managers enabling them to determine appropriate leadership styles. This could help to boost employees productivity and thus contribute significantly to the overall country productivity, as the international and local companies venture into globalisation and into fragmented local markets.

Development of Nuptiality in European countries since 1960 Abstract The aim of this thesis is to assess the development of marriage since 1960 and determine whether there has been convergence of nuptial behavior in European Union countries along with Switzerland and Norway. Convergence of nuptial behavior was evaluated, primarily on the basis of intensity indicator and the timing of marriage. The results show that the extension of the second demographic transition in all countries brings similar trends like reducing the intensity of marriage and postponement of marriage to a later age. Four countries were selected, the Czech Republic, Finland, France and Hungary. In these countries, convergence of nuptial behavior since 1990 were more analyzed. Development of attitudes towards marriage was studied in order to find out how the value changes contributed to changes in marriage behavior as suggested by the second demographic transition. In the Czech Republic and Hungary opinions have changed the most when it comes to marriage. The most liberal state was France and on the other hand, marriage in Finland was still attractive. These results correspond well with the development of marriage in individual states. Finally, using binary logistic regression we identified characteristics of people that increase the...