Broad swaths of humanity have become richer, healthier, and better educated. More of the world’s poorest have access to affordable credit, enabling them to invest in a better future. But what are the consequences? Does greater wealth or greater access to credit make people happier or more fulfilled? This dissertation presents essays on the relationship between wealth and well-being, the welfare effects of both debt and debt relief, and the kinds of normative analysis that help to inform good public policy. The first essay, The Methodology of Normative Policy Analysis (joint with Richard Zeckhauser), concerns disagreements in policy analysis and discourse. It provides a simple taxonomy of disagreement, identifying distinct categories within both the positive and values domains of normative policy analysis. Using disagreements in climate policy to illustrate, it demonstrates how illuminating the structure of disagreement helps to clarify the way forward. It concludes by suggesting a structure for policy analysis that can facilitate assessment, comparison, and debate by laying bare the most likely sources of disagreement. The second essay, Wealth and Well-being, tests a fundamental prediction of economic theory: that greater wealth causes greater well-being. It uses a natural experiment to estimate the causal effect of income on subjective well-being. Among a population of indebted farmers in rural India, the marginal effect of income on life satisfaction is found to be positive. However, the source of income appears to exert an important and independent effect. In this study the source is agricultural debt relief, which features a positive marginal effect but also a countervailing negative effect (perhaps due to stigma). The third essay, Moral Hindrance, argues that the total cost of default borne by low-income borrowers, including social, psychological, and other sanctions, is likely to be excessive, giving rise to sub-optimal borrower risk-taking and excessive borrower effort. I call this the moral hindrance problem, to distinguish it from the moral hazard problem often presumed by economists. The essay argues that policy should promote competition among lenders, encourage broader use of collateral, and allow interest rates to rise as necessary to meet borrower demand for varying loan conditions.

Thesis (PhD(Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 301-310).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard University, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (p. leaves [209]-217).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pittsburgh, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 190-194).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, 1990. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 185-196).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 209-222).

Thesis--Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universitat, Frankfurt, 2007. / "Max-Planck-Institut für Auslandisches Offentliches Recht und Volkerrecht"--Cover. In Springer Link (Monographies électroniques). Versement en lot.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 209-222). Also available on the Internet.

The thesis consists of a brief introduction to this topic and of a theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part discusses general terms (part 2), i.e. subject-matter, failure, subject-matter and territorial jurisdiction, procedural entities, failure hearing and ruling, a debtor's insolvency petition as well as the individual ways of handling a debtor's failure. The part concerning the ways of handling failure through bankruptcy (part 3) discusses the effects of a bankruptcy declaration on in-progress proceedings, the monetarisation of assets, bankruptcy cancelation and the effects of a bankruptcy declaration on the community property of spouses. Part 4 discusses other ways of handling failure, i.e. reorganisation. This part includes court jurisprudence of problematic cases, which concerns the current legal regulations. Part 5 discusses the latest and currently most used way of handling a debtor's failure, i.e. debt relief. The practical part shows a debtor's accounting of a specific accounting case that concerns a debtor's failure through bankruptcy and contains an individual's debt relief petition and a debtor's (business company's) insolvency petition for bankruptcy declaration. The end of the thesis summarises this issue and points out the importance of having basic knowledge of this issue for individuals and legal entities.

In the current economic situation is decline frequently very well-known term. For many corporate and individual person is a condition that frightening them very often (on every single step). Nowadays more and more people consider this term is almost an insult. And for a while i decided to analyze this problem and possibilities of solution and described it in detail. Author devoted to different options of resolve decline. This unflattering situation affects first of all debtor. He must accept these unpleasant action in his life. In considerable percentage of decline debtor is losing his movable and immovable property. From the other side, there is affected considerably by the creditors.