Abstract The goals of this study are threefold: first of all, cross-country data for 1997 and 2000, extracted from¡§2002 World Development Indicator¡¨ the World Bank, are utilized to estimate transaction efficiency indicators (TEIs) for various countries. Second, this study further examines the influences of transaction efficiency on the various economic developments, including per capita real income, foreign capital inflow, and infant mortality rate. Finally, this study applies questionnaire survey approach to carry out comparison between Taiwan, China and Hong Kong in terms of transaction costs and the institutional performances. Utilizing ¡§factor analysis¡¨ to measure cross-country TEIs, this study argues that countries with better TEIs generally have higher per capita incomes and FDI net inflows, but lower infant mortality rates. And, we may suggest that Taiwan¡¦s transaction efficiency is superior to the average level of APEC memberships, East Asia and Pacific countries. China is inferior to APEC memberships East Asia, and Pacific countries in terms of degrees of transaction efficiency. The evidence from the study indicates that Hong Kong¡¦s the transaction efficiency is better and equal to developed countries¡¦ and G8 memberships¡¦ ones. In adddition, Taiwan is better than that of China but inferior to that of Hong Kong in terms of transaction efficiency. In comparison to the statistical outcomes, the empirical results of questionnaire survey also confirm that Taiwan is much better than China, but worse than Hong Kong in their stitutional performances.

Examensarbete.

<p>The study draws on secondary data from the Bureau of Statistics in Lesotho. Simple and multiple linear regression models techniques are used to analyze the relationship between the GDP of Lesotho and the GDP of manufacturing. The secondary data is analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Excel. The major finding is that there exists a strong positive linear relationship ( r = 0.986) between the GDP of Lesotho and the GDP of manufacturing. This means that every time the GDP of manufacturing increases the GDP of Lesotho does the same. Based on this finding, the study recommends that in order to improve, sustain and maintain the economic growth and to avoid further deterioration in the manufacturing industry, the manufacturing capacity must be strengthened for it to effectively deal with growing competition and rapid economic changes.</p>

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

In recent years, the growing importance of environmental and social issues has put pressure on companies to implement environmental and social systems. With the pressure on companies to improve environmental performance, environmental management accounting can provide a valuable tool that enables companies to respond to environmental challenges. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between environmental performance and economic performance in the South African mining industry and also to identify and evaluate the opportunities to improve both a company's environmental performance and economic performance. In this study, scatter plot diagrams were used to determine the relationship between environmental performance and economic performance in the South African mining industry. Ten South African mining companies were selected for the study and their financial information as well as environmental information for the period 2005 to 2009 was used. After the analysis of the scatter plot diagrams was done, it was found that it pays to be green for coal–mining companies, but not for gold– and platinum–mining companies. This study also identified that environmental management accounting is essential to identify and effectively manage environmental costs to improve environmental performance and that it is a very important tool to help companies to implement environmentally friendly programmes for ensuring a company's long–term strategic position. Despite all the risks and challenges facing the mining industry, opportunities to improve a company's environmental performance and economic performance, include emissions trading, development of new technologies, investing in projects in renewable energy and an increase in demand of mining products due to the effects of climate change. ii The value of the study is that it is the first study to investigate the relationship between environmental performance and economic performance in the South African mining industry. This study is also unique as it takes into account how investors see the company in terms of environmental performance. This study uses economic performance measures from an internal and external point of view and not merely from an internal point of view like the previous studies. Companies in the mining industry as well as investors can use the findings presented in this study to realise the importance of preserving the environment as well as the importance of triple bottom line accounting. / Thesis (M.Com. (Management Accounting))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

In recent years, the growing importance of environmental and social issues has put pressure on companies to implement environmental and social systems. With the pressure on companies to improve environmental performance, environmental management accounting can provide a valuable tool that enables companies to respond to environmental challenges. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between environmental performance and economic performance in the South African mining industry and also to identify and evaluate the opportunities to improve both a company's environmental performance and economic performance. In this study, scatter plot diagrams were used to determine the relationship between environmental performance and economic performance in the South African mining industry. Ten South African mining companies were selected for the study and their financial information as well as environmental information for the period 2005 to 2009 was used. After the analysis of the scatter plot diagrams was done, it was found that it pays to be green for coal–mining companies, but not for gold– and platinum–mining companies. This study also identified that environmental management accounting is essential to identify and effectively manage environmental costs to improve environmental performance and that it is a very important tool to help companies to implement environmentally friendly programmes for ensuring a company's long–term strategic position. Despite all the risks and challenges facing the mining industry, opportunities to improve a company's environmental performance and economic performance, include emissions trading, development of new technologies, investing in projects in renewable energy and an increase in demand of mining products due to the effects of climate change. ii The value of the study is that it is the first study to investigate the relationship between environmental performance and economic performance in the South African mining industry. This study is also unique as it takes into account how investors see the company in terms of environmental performance. This study uses economic performance measures from an internal and external point of view and not merely from an internal point of view like the previous studies. Companies in the mining industry as well as investors can use the findings presented in this study to realise the importance of preserving the environment as well as the importance of triple bottom line accounting. / Thesis (M.Com. (Management Accounting))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

This thesis analyzes the economic performance of recent European immigrants to Canada. The data source for the analysis is the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada, which followed immigrants entering Canada during 2000-2001 for four years. The purpose of this research is to examine the general category of European immigrants by region and country of birth in order to better understand the experience of immigrants in the Canadian labour market during their first years of settlement. Several important differences are observed within the European immigrant population in terms of economic performance. While Southern and Eastern European immigrants appear to have a slow start, their labour market performance improves rapidly, rivalling Western European immigrants after four post-immigration years. Immigrant category, education, and home language have a significant effect on overall labour market performance of recent European immigrants to Canada.

A relação entre educação e economia, tanto do ponto de vista teórico quanto na formulação de políticas públicas foi, em grande medida, entendida pelas ideias vindas da teoria do Capital Humano, nas Ciências Econômicas, e da teoria da Modernização, na Sociologia, em termos de oferta. Uma economia, para possuir alto desempenho econômico, deveria superar as deficiências educacionais de sua força de trabalho no sentido de aumentar a escolarização dos indivíduos. Atualmente esta relação linear entre os sistemas educacionais e a estrutura produtiva vem sendo questionada por não levar em conta aspectos que atuam como mediadores do efeito da educação na economia. Este trabalho busca a caracterizar alguns desses aspectos, ao analisar como a estrutura produtiva das regiões metropolitanas de São Paulo e de Belo Horizonte, em termos de setores de atividade econômica, absorvem a escolaridade. Dessa forma, este trabalho busca explorar aspectos da demanda por escolaridade por parte das economias metropolitanas em análise. Para tanto, foram usados os dados da Relação Anual de Informações Sociais (RAIS), bem como três formas de metodologia: análise do coeficiente de variação dos salários, análise de correspondência e regressão logística multinomial. / The relationship between education and the economy, both from a theoretical viewpoint and in the formulation of public policy, was largely understood by ideas from the theory of Human Capital in economics, and Modernization Theory in sociology, in terms of supply: an economy to have high economic performance should overcome educational deficiencies of its workforce in order to increase the enrollment of individuals. Currently this linear relationship between education systems and the productive structure is being challenged for not taking into account aspects that act as mediators of the effect of education on the economy. This dissertation seeks to characterize some of these aspects in analyzing how the productive structure of the metropolitan regions of São Paulo and Belo Horizonte, in terms of sectors of economic activity, absorb schooling. Thus, this dissertation seeks to examine aspects of the demand for schooling by the metropolitan economies under study. For this, we used data from the Relação Anual de Informações Sociais (RAIS), as well as three types of methodology: analysis of the coefficient of variation of wages, correspondence analysis and multinomial logistic regression.

Portos são elos que ligam o transporte terrestre ao transporte marítimo e são fundamentais para o comércio internacional. Por sua importância para o desenvolvimento dos países, portos vêm demandando técnicas mais aprimoradas para sua gestão e também para a avaliação de seu desempenho. Nesse contexto, surgem questões importantes, tais como a definição, métricas utilizáveis e também dimensões de desempenho a serem avaliadas. Uma questão que surge é a da avaliação de desempenho ambiental do porto, já que por serem interfaces entre a terra e o mar, portos impactam nos ecossistemas marinhos e terrestres. Porém, a avaliação ambiental geralmente envolve critérios técnicos, e o impacto econômico e financeiro acaba em segundo plano. Sendo assim, esta dissertação propõe compreender as questões envolvidas na avaliação de desempenho de portos, e especificamente na avaliação de desempenho ambiental nos mesmos. Para isso, foi realizada uma pesquisa exploratória que busca compreender o tema de avaliação de desempenho ambiental levando em consideração aspectos econômicos e financeiros. Ao longo desta pesquisa, os resultados apontam que ainda havia uma lacuna na literatura, onde não havia um modelo que levasse em consideração critérios econômicos e financeiros ao avaliar o desempenho ambiental. Para solucionar este problema, foi proposto um modelo de indicadores de referência. Entretanto, para avaliar a viabilidade de implantação do modelo proposto, foram realizadas entrevistas com stakeholders do setor portuário. Os entrevistados foram a Gerência de Meio Ambiente da ANTAQ (Agência Nacional de Transporte Aquaviário), a SEP/PR (Secretaria Especial de Portos da Presidência da República) e duas Superintendências do Rio Grande do Sul, que são responsáveis pelos portos públicos do estado: a SPH (Superintendência de Portos e Hidrovias) e a SUPRG (Superintendência do Porto do Rio Grande). Os resultados das entrevistas apontam que o modelo proposto não seria aplicável neste momento. Então, a proposta foi adaptada e criou-se um modelo simplificado e outro que poderá ser implantado quando já houver base de dados suficiente para tal. Portanto, a contribuição acadêmica deste trabalho está relacionada à criação de indicadores para a medição de desempenho ambiental e econômico em portos e a discussão do tema para portos brasileiros. / Ports are links that connect the inland transport to maritime transport and are essential for international trade. Because of its importance to the development of countries, ports are demanding improved techniques for their management and for evaluating their performance. In this context, there are important issues such as the definition, usable metrics and also dimensions of performance to be evaluated. One important question is the environmental performance of the port. Ports impact both on maritime and inland ecosystems, and it is necessary to minimize these impacts. However, the environmental assessment usually involves technical variables, and economic and financial impact are not taken into account. Thus, this dissertation proposes to understand the issues involved in assessing the performance of ports, and specifically in environmental performance evaluation on them. For this, an exploratory research was carried out aiming to understand the environmental performance evaluation issue taking into account economic and financial aspects. Throughout this study, the results showed that there was still a gap in the literature, where there was not a model to take into account economic and financial criteria to evaluate environmental performance. To solve this problem, a model with indicators to evaluate the performance was proposed. However, to assess the implementation feasibility of the proposed model, interviews were held with stakeholders in the port sector. Respondents were Environmental Management Sector of ANTAQ (National Agency of Waterway Transportation), SEP/PR (Special Secretariat of Ports of Precidency of Republic) and two Superintendents of Rio Grande do Sul, which are responsible for public ports in the state: SPH (Superintendence of Ports and Waterways) and SUPRG (Superintendence of Port of Rio Grande). The results of the interviews show that the proposed model would not apply at this time. So the proposal was adapted and created a simplified model and one that can be deployed when there is already sufficient database. Therefore, the academic contribution of this study is related to the establishment of indicators for measuring the environmental and economic performance in ports and the subject of discussion for Brazilian ports.

Esta pesquisa teve o objetivo de investigar a relação entre os investimentos realizados em capacidade tecnológica e o desempenho de firmas brasileiras. Partiu-se do pressuposto que a relação é positiva, com base em teorias como a do desenvolvimento econômico, e do histórico de evolução de países desenvolvidos. Analisou-se 133 firmas brasileiras de capital aberto, a partir dos principais indicadores definidos para cada construto. Dado o cenário de um país de economia emergente, cuja base empresarial é formada por setores primordialmente de baixa e média-baixa intensidade tecnológica, os resultados demonstram que não existe a esperada relação. Existem outros fatores que levam as empresas a atingirem desempenho positivo. O tamanho das firmas tem impacto nestas relações, pois as empresas de maior porte são as que mais investem em P&D e as que mais registram patentes. Além do porte, existe também influência setorial nos resultados. Na média, as firmas dos setores de baixa e média-baixa tecnologia apresentaram resultados superiores à média da amostra em três dos quatro principais indicadores de desempenho econômico. Complementarmente, observa-se que estes setores investiram em capacidade tecnológica abaixo da média da amostra. De um modo ou de outro, dado o desempenho positivo das firmas brasileiras, estas empresas mantêm algum tipo de atividade tecnológica que as permite atingir tal resultado. / This research aims to investigate the relationship between investments in technological capability and economic performance in Brazilian firms. Based on the theory of economic development and on the historical evolution of developed countries, it is assumed that this relationship is positive. Through key indicators of each construct, 133 firms listed on the Brazilian stock exchange have been analyzed. Given the economic circumstances of a developing country, which the majority of businesses are primarily based on low and medium-low technology industries; it is not possible to affirm the existence of such positive relationship. There are other elements that allow firms to achieve such results. The firms’ size impacts on these relationships as larger companies are major investors in R&D and also the ones which registered most of the patents. Besides the firms’ size, the results are also influenced by their industry. On average, firms of low and medium-low technology industries have shown results above average in three out of the four economic performance indicators. In addition, these industries have made investments below average in technological capability. In one way or another, given the firms’ positive performance, they execute some sort of technological activity which allows them for such results.