I studien undersöks vilka faktorer som påverkar företags anpassning till m-payment. Mobiltelefonen är tätt sammanlänkad med människan i dagens samhälle. I Sydostasien sker en stor del av betalningar redan med mobiltelefonen. Mobile payment (m-payment) förväntas kunna öka integreringen av fler fenomen än bara betalningstjänster – kundrabatter och kundlojalitet är exempel på det som har nämnts i tidigare forskning. Tidigare forskning är emellertid mestadels inriktad på konsumenter, och därför riktar denna studie in sig på företag. Med hjälp av en enkät med utgångspunkt i Technology Acceptance model samt Diffusion of Innovations model undersöks ett urval om 134 företag med 32 svarande. Svaren kodades sedan i en logistisk regressionsmodell samt en kompletterande faktoranalys. Ingen av variablerna i modellen uppvisar statistisk signifikans vilket gör att resultaten från studien inte förklarar vad som påverkar företagens anpassning till m-payment. Storleken på urvalet kan nämnas som en av huvudförklaringarna till avsaknaden av signifikans. En liknande studie med ett större urval föreslås därför i framtida forskning.

Thesis advisor: Julie Mortimer / Essays on the effects of health policy payment systems in long-term care and end-of-life care institutions are studied. In the arena of long-term care, state Medicaid agencies have recently implemented pay-for-performance (P4P) programs to address poor quality of care in nursing homes. Using facility-quarter level data from 2003 to 2010, we evaluate the effects of Medicaid nursing home P4P programs on clinical quality measures, relying on variation in the timing of P4P implementation across states. Further, we exploit variation in the structure of states' programs to investigate whether programs that reward certain dimensions of quality are associated with larger improvements. We find P4P decreases the incidence of adverse clinical outcomes by as much as 8%, and the improvements are concentrated among the measures that experienced an increase in their relative returns and share strong commonalities in production. In the Hospice industry, changes to the current reimbursement system are mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The motivation stems from noticeable hospice utilization changes since the Medicare Hospice Benefit (MHB) introduced a per-diem reimbursement in 1983. This research analyzes the abilities of a multi-tiered payment system, and a simpler two-part pricing system, to accurately match Medicare payments with hospice patient costs. Both systems improve on the current payment mechanism, while two-part pricing is the only system to maintain access to care for all MHB eligible patients. In addition, consumer disutility incurred by driving to airports is estimated and used to define air travel markets. Though an accurate definition of an economic market is important for any study of industry, there is no rule governing what exactly constitutes a market. To define a market we must ask the question ``between which products do consumers substitute,'' knowing that the answer to this question will depend on how ``close'' products are to one another in product space, as well as how close they are to one another, and to consumers, in geographic space. We estimate a discrete choice model of air travel demand that uses known information about the locations of products and consumers, which allows us to study substitution patterns among air travel products at different airports. We evaluate the commonly used city-pair and airport-pair definitions of a market for air travel, and conclude that a city-pair is the appropriate definition. We also employ the Hypothetical Monopolist test for antitrust market definition, as defined by the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, and conclude that the relevant geographic market for antitrust analysis is frequently more narrowly defined as an airport-pair. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

O presente trabalho pretende contribuir com o debate sobre a remuneração por desempenho para professores da educação básica, buscando apreender, a partir da análise da bibliografia sobre o tema, se estas propostas podem ser consideradas uma boa estratégia para que os sistemas educacionais brasileiros alcancem uma educação de melhor qualidade. O trabalho parte de uma caracterização dos profissionais da educação no Brasil, por meio de um breve histórico da profissão docente e da análise da atratividade, retenção e formação dos professores. A seguir, são descritas as origens e características comuns dos programas de remuneração por desempenho, bem como as peculiaridades de seus principais modelos. Algumas propostas de remuneração por desempenho em discussão ou em vigência no Brasil (em nível federal e estadual) foram selecionadas para ilustrar dois destes modelos, com destaque às políticas adotadas pela Secretaria Estadual de Educação de São Paulo. / The following study aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on performance pay for teachers. Through an analysis of the bibliography focused on the field, an effort is made in trying to grasp whether the various proposals of performance pay systems should be considered a good strategy to enhancing the quality of education in Brazil. Starting with a description of Brazilian teachers by means of a brief account of the profession and an analysis of the attractiveness, retention and development of teachers, the study then addresses the origins and common characteristics of performance-based payment programs, as well as their peculiarities. Some performance pay proposals (currently been discussed or already implemented in Brazil, both in the federal or state level) were selected in order to better illustrate two given models, focusing on the policies carried out by the São Paulo State Secretary of Education.

Les opérations de fusions et acquisitions constituent un élément central de l’économie de marché et parallèlement forment l’un des principaux vecteurs de la dynamique de nos structures industrielles. Notre thèse vise à apprécier de façon objective et scientifique l’impact des opérations de fusions et d’acquisitions sur la qualité de l’information comptable produite par les entreprises. Compte tenu de son importance pour les acteurs économiques, la qualité de l’information comptable est d’abord comprise comme la qualité des résultats publiés par l’entreprise. Trois principaux axes sont dégagés au sein de cette problématique, qui constitue les trois principaux chapitres de notre thèse. Notre travail s’appuie sur une base de données regroupant les opérations des fusions et acquisitions entre les entreprises cotées sur le marché américain de l’année 1986 à l’année 2013. Les principes de ces chapitres sont les suivantes. Nous montrons tout d’abord que les entreprises impliquées dans les opérations payées par une combinaison de titres et de liquidités, opération ayant connues un fort développement, ont un comportement en manière de gestion de résultat proche des entreprises payant uniquement en titres, et à ce jour seules documentées. Nous établissons ensuite que la gestion de résultat de ces entreprises ne se réduit pas à la seule gestion des compte d’”accruals ". Nous montrons que les entreprises mobilisent également d’autre techniques, soit des méthodes purement comptables au travers par rendre de choix de classification des items, soit des méthodes ayant un impact sur les conditions réelles d’exploitation, au travers par exemple de l’ajustement des dépenses de R&D. Des liens de substitution / complémentarité entre ces différentes formes de gestion des résultats sont mise à jour, et mise en perspective des choix de méthodes de paiement des opérations. L’impact de la gestion des résultats sur la performance des acquéreurs est également analysé. Nous établissons en particuliers que si un degré modéré de gestion des résultats pourrait avoir des conséquences positives en manière de la performance, un comportement agressif en matière de gestion des résultats conduisant à reconnaitre un impact négatif sur la performance. Cela étant, il semble que la richesse des actionnaires ne soit affectée que très marginalement par ces choix de gestion des résultats, ceci autant à court terme que à long terme. / The Merger and Acquisition (M&A) operations constitute a key element of market economy and meanwhile form one of the main vectors of the dynamics of the industrial structures. This thesis aims at analyzing the impact of M&A operations on acquiring firm’s accounting information quality. The accounting information quality shall be interpreted first of all, as the quality of earnings. Three main axes are emerged in this problematic and constitute three main chapters of this thesis. By observing all public M&A transactions on the U.S. market from the year 1986 to 2013, these three chapters provide following main contributions. First we find the acquiring firms that involved in the mixed payment acquisition have undergone notable development, have earnings management (EM) behaviors around acquisition years. However, prior study only documented a certain kind of behaviors of the 100% stock exchange acquirers. Plus, we indicate that the EM behavior of acquiring firm is not constraint to the accruals management (AM). We show that they are also likely to use many other ways, either accounting treatment through classification shifting, or real earnings management (REM) methods, for example through the budgetary adjustment of the R&D expenditures. A close link is found between the choice of EM methods and acquisition payment method. Moreover, a substitution / complementary effect is also noted between different forms of EM methods. The impact of these EM strategies on acquiring firm’s performance is also analyzed. A moderate way of EM has positive impact on future operating performance while a high degree of these EM behaviors bring a negative impact. Nonetheless, it seems that the shareholders' wealth is only marginally affected by the choice of EM methods, in the short term as well as the long term.

A indústria de cartões de pagamento é definida pela literatura acadêmica como um mercado de dois lados. Um dos lados é o mercado de emissão, que realiza a comercialização de cartões para os portadores. O outro lado é o mercado de credenciamento, que efetua a afiliação de estabelecimentos comerciais para que estes aceitem pagamentos com cartões. O foco deste trabalho é o mercado de credenciamento no Brasil. O objetivo do estudo foi analisar a concentração do mercado brasileiro de credenciamento no período entre 2010, quando houve o início da intervenção governamental na indústria de cartões, e 2016. Com a imposição do fim do monopólio no credenciamento das principais marcas mundiais, Visa e Mastercard, os órgãos reguladores buscavam estimular a entrada de novos concorrentes, a fim de obter uma melhor eficiência econômica e maior bem-estar social. Os resultados deste trabalho evidenciaram redução na concentração do mercado com a entrada de novos concorrentes, embora os índices permaneçam elevados. O trabalho buscou analisar, também, a variação das taxas cobradas dos estabelecimentos comerciais neste período. Neste aspecto, os resultados mostram que as taxas médias anunciadas pelas credenciadoras, cobradas normalmente de pequenos estabelecimentos, aumentaram para as transações de débito, ao contrário do que se esperava para um mercado com mais concorrentes, e se mantiveram estáveis para transações de crédito. As elevadas taxas de intercâmbio, a falta de interoperabilidade dos sistemas de captura das transações e a continuidade de contratos de exclusividade para aceitação de cartões entre emissores e credenciadores representaram dificuldades para que os objetivos dos órgãos reguladores fossem plenamente alcançados no período analisado. / The payment cards industry is a two-sided market, as defined by the academic literature. In one side there is the card issuing market that accomplishes the commercialization of cards for the cardholders. The other side is the acquiring market that makes the affiliation of merchants to accept payments with cards. The focus of this work is the acquiring market in Brazil. The objective of the study is to analyze the concentration of the Brazilian acquiring market in the period between 2010, when there was the beginning of the government intervention in the card industry, to 2016. With the mandate to end the acquiring monopoly of the main world brands, Visa and Mastercard, the regulatory agencies sought to stimulate the entrance of new competitors, in order to obtain a better economic efficiency and greater social welfare. The study results showed a reduction in market concentration with the entry of new competitors, although the concentration remains high. The work also aimed to analyze the variation of prices charged to merchants in this period. In this respect, the results show that the average rates announced by the acquirers, applied normally to small businesses, increased for debit transactions, contrary to what was expected for a market with more competitors and remained stable for credit transactions. The high interchange rates, the lack of interoperability of transaction capture systems and the continuation of exclusivity agreements for the acceptance of cards between issuers and acquirers represented difficul,ties for the objectives of the regulatory bodies to be fully achieved in the period under review.

Den elektroniska handeln har varit på framfart i många år, den erbjuder stora potentiella affärsmöjligheter för företag. Med hjälp av internet kan företag idag erbjuda produkter och tjänster till kunder över hela världen. Elektronisk handel kan också erbjudas via mobiltelefoner, även kallat mobilhandel. Den handeln har i Sverige haft en trög tillväxt jämfört med den elektroniska, en förklaring till detta kan vara säkerhetsaspekten. Flera forskare uttrycker att det råder en osäkert hos konsumenten i transaktionsutförandet. Även fast tillväxten börjat ta fart sedan det explosionsartade användandet av smartphone kan vi fortfarande se att företag är försiktiga med att investera i den mobila försäljningskanalen. Eftersom den mobilahandeln fortfarande är relativ ny i Sverige är den också oprövad, det finns inte tillräckligt med teorier som säger hur företagen bör arbeta för att skapa en lönsam mobilkanal. Statistik visar att de flesta använder sin smartphone för att söka information, det krävs således att företag kan konvertera sina besökare till kunder. En annan problematik som vi valt att fokusera på är målgruppsanalysen, vilka är det som kan tänka sig använda sig av m-handel och vad för faktorer är viktiga för konsumenten om de handlar via mobilen. Med den utgångspunkten är vårt syfte att studera de personliga, tekniska och finansiella faktorerna som ligger till grund för en djupare förståelse av vad som påverkar konsumenters acceptans att handla/betala via mobilen. Vi vill även undersöka om det finns andra faktorer som kan dyka upp i resultatet, som kan ha en viktig betydelse relaterat till vår forskningsfråga. Studien skrivs ur ett konsumentbeteende perspektiv. Vidare bygger studien på en kvantitativ metod som vi valt att utföra med hjälp av enkäter. Det var 144st smartphone-användare som besvarade enkäten och som ligger till grund till resultatet. Våra slutsatser besvarar vår problemformulering utifrån de tre faktorer som vi valt att fokusera på. Resultatet visade att de tekniska faktorerna spelade en större roll än de två andra.

The aim of the diploma thesis The Use of payment cards at the czech retail market is the analysis of benefits for card holders and the retailers. The theoretical part describes the history of payment cards, their types, variability of their use and supporting services and defines the relationship among holders of payment cards, banks and retailers. The practical part is focused on the research motives for using payment cards by their holders and the retailers.

This work is focused on business process modeling and subsequent use in, how it works selling electronic magazines online. In the theoretical section describes possible options for modeling languages, then selected BPM notation and described in detail. The second section describes the technologies used to support sales of electronic magazines. In this work an example is Skimagazin magazine. In the final phase of work are given individual detailed models of how the sale works in practice. The models are mainly focused on describing how to communicate with each individual system elements and users or administrators. Due to the large degree of detail models are listed here only the main models for the functioning of online sales. At the end structure of data objects is described.

Le contrat est un outil destiné à servir les intérêts des parties par la mise en oeuvre d'un projet dont le résultat est désiré. Exécuté conformément aux stipulations convenues, le contrat est censé procurer au créancier la satisfaction qu'il escompte, tout en libérant le débiteur de son obligation.Toutefois, dans certaines hypothèses, et sans que le contrat fasse l'objet d'une exécution reflétant ce qui a été convenu à l'origine, le créancier est satisfait tandis que le débiteur est libéré du poids de sa dette. En effet, en dépit de sa nature prévisionnelle, le contrat ne s'achève pas nécessairement par un paiement, ce dernier ne constituant pas l'unique forme de dénouement satisfactoire et libératoire. La satisfaction substitutive fait appel à différents mécanismes issus du droit des contrats et du régime général des obligations. L'étude de cette notion offre une grille de lecture apportant une lumière nouvelle sur des concepts classiques mais qu'il semble a priori impossible de relier, tant leurs natures juridiques et fonctions respectives semblent inconciliables. Par un examen de leur structure et de la logique qui les inspire, il apparaît toutefois possible de mettre en évidence des problématiques convergentes et des conséquences pratiques susceptibles d'impacter la technique contractuelle. Face à l'imprévu, la meilleure stratégie consiste à recentrer le contrat sur son véritable objectif, à savoir la réalisation d'un dénouement optimal, quitte à ce que celui-ci s'écarte du projet initialement convenu. La satisfaction substitutive illustre la recherche permanente de la solution la plus économiquement avantageuse, que ce soit par les parties, le juge ou la loi. / The contract is a commitment aimed to serve the interests of the contracting parties through the execution of a project carrying a desired outcome. Executed accordingly to what has been agreed originally, the contract is supposed to provide to the creditor the satisfaction he is expecting, while the debtor is being released from the obligation. However, in some hypotheses, and while the contract is not performed the way it should beaccording to what was agreed, the creditor benefits from a satisfaction where as the debtor isnot anymore under the burden of his debt. Indeed, despite its forward-looking nature, the contract does not always end by a payment, as this form of termination does not constitute the single way to provide satisfaction to the creditor and discharge to the debtor. The substitute satisfaction, as an atypical form of termination, relies on different mecanismscoming from contract law and general rules of obligations. Studying this notion gives keys forunderstanding that bring a new light on some classical concepts which seem difficult to linktogether, since their structure and logics appear irreconcilable. By examining their structureand their logic, it appears possible to highlight convergent problematics and practicalconsequences that can have impact on contractual technique. To face the unforeseen, the best strategy is to refocus the contract on its true objective, which is to bring an optimal termination, even if there is a discrepancy between what was agreed andwhat is done. Substitute satisfaction illustrates the permanent search for the most worthwhile solution on an economic point of view by the contracting parties, the judge or the law.

With the passage of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), Congress made changes to several important federal health programs. First, MACRA reformed the Sustainable Growth Rate, a mechanism created under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Second, MACRA instituted the framework for the QPP which solidifies efforts to shift payments to value-based arrangements and streamline several existing programs under a single policy. This thesis aims to better understand how providers are responding to this new policy in four parts. First, I explain how MACRA passed in Congress with nearly unanimous bipartisan support. Second, I review the QPP and the two tracks offered under the program. Third, I review the literature on value-based payment arrangements, including the response of providers and health systems to these arrangements. Finally, I present original research on how major health systems and provider groups in the state of Iowa are preparing for MACRA implementation. I find several characteristics among health systems and provider groups that are associated with efforts to align payments to value-based measures. Across the tracks laid out under the QPP, there is consistency in the types of investments and operational changes being made. Work on these changes has been occurring for several years, and continued investment and reforms are likely.