Issues of educational inequality have been hotly debated in China ever since the higher educational reform in the late 1990s. High tuitions and the privileged access of advantaged groups are attracting more peoples concerns. This thesis examines the current status of Chinese student access to higher education in the post-reform era, and explores the urban-rural and strata differences among students with different social origins and family backgrounds. The expansion and tuition reform of Chinese higher education not only poses financing college as the biggest difficulty for those disadvantaged groups, but also perpetuates the established social hierarchy. This thesis finds that, despite the progress made in equalizing access by urban-rural and strata origins at the mass higher education era in China, disadvantaged groups remain their unfavorable status in accessing higher education, as compared to their counterparts who are economically, culturally, and socially superior. The initial quantitative access differences are gradually turning into qualitative disparities, the higher the demand for the university or/and major, the more urban and higher socioeconomic students enroll. The theories of financial, cultural, and social capital were employed in the thesis and provide a plausible explanation to the continuing disadvantaged status of poor groups. The methodology used is mainly a quantitative technique that resorts on a variety of secondary data, such as national and provincial yearbooks of educational statistics and census, large sample surveys, and case studies from previous research. The findings will have many policy implications concerning the expansion, financing, and affordability of higher education in China.

The importance of economic and social capital for health has been well-documented. However, their impact on age-related differences in health is less clear. To address this issue, this study examined the impact of several individual level indicators of economic and social capital on selected health outcomes in middle and later life. Data for the analysis were drawn from the 2008 General Social Survey (Cycle 22) conducted by Statistics Canada. Using a study sample of those aged 45 and over (n=12,135), multivariate regression analyses assessed main, mediating and moderating effects of economic and social capital measures on chronic conditions, health or activity limitations, and self-reported health. The findings indicated that individual level economic capital and structural social capital were positively associated with health status in middle and later life. In addition, the findings revealed the importance of both bonding and bridging forms of social capital in middle and later life. As well, the findings suggest that individual level structural social capital is a more upstream social determinant of health than economic capital in middle and later life as economic capital was found to mediate the social capital-health relationship, but not vice versa. Lastly, no evidence was found for an individual level interaction between economic capital and structural social capital in middle and later life. The theoretical, empirical, and policy implications of these findings are outlined. / Graduate / 2013-12-14

A atividade bancária envolve em suas operações diversas formas de riscos. Dentre esses riscos está o risco de crédito representado como sendo uma medida de incerteza relacionada ao recebimento de um valor compromissado concedido pela instituição financeira ao tomador de empréstimo. Nesse trabalho são apresentadas as principais metodologias de quantificação do risco de crédito como Credit Metrics, KMV, Credit Portfolio View e CreditRisk+. Esta última metodologia é aplicada a quatro portfólios de financiamentos à pessoa jurídica, evidenciando o Capital Econômico Alocado - CEA, a distribuição do risco de crédito em diferentes ramos e setores de atividade da economia e o spread necessário para cobrir as perdas esperadas e inesperadas. Após essa quantificação do risco de crédito, verifica-se, utilizando o conceito de Risk Adjusted Returno on Capital - RAROC, qual dos quatro portfólios de empréstimo bancário foi o mais rentável para a instituição financeira. / Banking operations involve several kinds of risk. Among those risks, there is one called the credit risk associated with a measure of uncertainty related to receiving pré-committed values from the financial institutions credit-takers. In this research, the main methodologies used for the quantification of credit risk are discussed: Credit Metrics, KMV, Credit Portfolio View e CreditRisk+. The later is then applied to four company-targeted lending portfolios, thus showing Allocated Economic Capital AEC, the distribution of credit risk in different sectors and industries in the economy, and the necessary spread for covering expected and unexpected losses. After this effort to quantify credit risk, proceed to check, using the concept of Risk Adjusted Return on Capital RAROC, which of the four lending portfolios proved to be more profitable for the financial institution.

Nos últimos anos, o mercado segurador brasileiro tem apresentado forte expansão, a qual foi impulsionada pela estabilização econômica e o conseqüente aumento do consumo. No entanto, mediante um crescimento acelerado dos prêmios, eventuais desvios nas premissas adotadas na precificação podem expor as seguradoras a riscos pouco suportáveis no longo prazo. Este é um dos componentes do risco de subscrição, sendo o objeto do presente estudo. No âmbito regulatório, frente ao aumento das complexidades dos serviços financeiros e aos escândalos envolvendo grandes corporações, fez-se necessário o Novo Acordo da Basiléia, o qual introduziu metodologias de apuração da necessidade mínima de capital mais sensível a risco, beneficiando instituições melhor administradas na medida em que requer menor alocação de capital. Nessa mesma linha, no mercado segurador dos países membros da União Européia, segue o projeto Solvência II. Acompanhando a tendência mundial, no Brasil, foram promulgadas novas regras de solvência para o mercado segurador, sendo estabelecidas, num primeiro momento, regras de alocação de capital para cobertura do risco de subscrição, sendo os demais tipos de risco a serem tratados na seqüência. É importante esclarecer que, diferentemente do setor bancário, no mercado segurador brasileiro não é permitida a utilização do próprio modelo interno ou dos parâmetros deste para determinação do capital mínimo requerido regulatório, mas apenas a aplicação de fatores mais suavizados para tal fim. Assim, como este não observa o risco mensurado internamente, o capital regulatório passa a representar um potencial custo imposto às seguradoras, o qual pode impactar diretamente na rentabilidade das linhas de negócio. Nesse sentido, o presente estudo buscou investigar, sob a ótica e limitação de usuário externo das demonstrações contábeis, a existência de indícios que levam a supor que a nova regulamentação sobre o capital mínimo para cobertura do risco de subscrição penalizou as seguradoras de menor porte, tendo-se em vista o seu valor em risco para o nível de confiança de 99,5%. Para tanto, foi necessário: (a) apurar o capital mínimo regulatório, seja com ou sem modelo interno, (b) estimar o valor em risco de cada seguradora para o nível de confiança de 99,5% e (c) distinguir as seguradoras por porte, o qual foi determinado pela técnica de Análise de Conglomerados. O maior desafio foi determinar, para cada seguradora, o item (b), o qual consistiu na estimação das distribuições marginais das perdas por categoria de negócio e a agregação dessas pela aplicação da teoria de cópulas. Depois, calculou-se a razão entre (i) a somatória do grau de provisionamento com a alocação do capital regulatório (abordagens com e sem modelo interno) e (ii) o valor em risco ao nível de confiança de 99,5%. Em seguida, aplicou-se o teste de Mann-Whitney para comparar médias em função do porte. A partir da análise desenvolvida, observou-se que modelo regulatório se mostrou mais coerente quando aplicado às seguradoras médias e grandes, tendo-se em vista que apresentou menor dispersão no parâmetro calculado, cuja mediana estava em torno de 1. Ou seja, para essas, tal resultado sugere que o grau de provisionamento juntamente com o capital regulatório retrata, aproximadamente, o nível de confiança de 99,5%, em consonância com o Projeto Solvência II. A dispersão para as seguradoras pequenas é bem maior e a mediana está próximo a 1,5, o que indica que a abordagem regulatória requer em torno de 50% a mais de recursos que o nível de confiança de 99,5% exige. Esse resultado indica uma desvantagem competitiva se comparada às seguradoras de médio e grande porte. Portanto, os resultados dos testes sugerem que as novas regras de alocação de capital para o mercado segurador brasileiro penalizou as seguradoras de menor porte, impactando na rentabilidade, na precificação e na competitividade se comparada às médias e grandes, o que, por sua vez, tende a favorecer a concentração do setor. / In recent years, the Brazilian insurance market has shown strong growth, which was driven by economic stabilization and the consequent increase in consumption. However, on an environment accelerated growth of premiums, any deviations in the pricing assumptions may expose insurers to unbearable risks in the long term. This is one of the components of the underwriting risk which is the object of this study. In a regulatory side, increased complexities of the financial services and scandals involving large corporations resulted in the creation of the New Basel Accord, which introduced new methodologies to analyze the minimum capital required, considering the risk based capital approach, benefiting the better managed institutions as they require less capital allocation. In a similar vein, countries of the European Union follow the Solvency II project for their insurance market. Following the global trend, new solvency rules for the insurance market were approved in Brazil, being established in the first instance, rules of capital allocation to cover the underwriting risk. Other risk types will be addressed later by the government. It is important to clarify that, unlike the banking sector, the Brazilian insurance market is not allowed to use its own internal model or the parameters of this model to determine the minimum regulatory capital required, but only the application softened factors for this purpose. Thus, as it does not observe the risk internally measured, the regulatory capital becomes a potential cost imposed on the insurers, which can impact directly the profitability of the business lines. Therefore, from the point of view and limitation of external user of financial statements, the present study investigated the existence of signs that could lead to suppose that the new regulations on minimum capital to cover the underwriting risk have penalized the smaller insurance companies, when keeping in view their value at risk for the confidence level of 99,5%. To this end, it was necessary: (a) to determine the minimum regulatory capital, either approaches with or without internal model; (b) to estimate the value at risk of each insurer for the confidence level of 99,5%; and (c) to distinguish insurers by size, according to the cluster analysis technique. The biggest challenge was to determine, for each insurer, the item (b), which consisted in the estimation of marginal distributions of losses and aggregation of these by applying the theory of copulas. Then we calculated the ratio of (i) the sum of the degree of provisioning with the allocation of regulatory capital (approaches with and without internal model) and (ii) the value at risk at the level of confidence 99,5%. Next, we applied the Mann-Whitney Test to compare means of the insurers by size. From the developed analysis, it was observed that the regulatory model was more consistent on medium and large insures as they have shown a lower dispersion in the parameter of interest, presenting a median around 1. That is, for them, the result suggests that the level of provisioning along with the regulatory capital has approximately reflected the confidence level of 99,5%, which is in line with the Solvency II project. Small insurers have shown much higher dispersion and their median is close to 1,5. This indicates that the regulatory approach requires around 50% more resources than the confidence level of 99,5% requires. This represents a disadvantaged competition, if compared with large and medium sized companies. Therefore, the test results suggest that the new rules of capital allocation for the Brazilian insurance market has penalized the smaller insurers, impacting their profitability and competitive pricing when compared with the medium and large ones, which, in turn, tend to favor an industry concentration.

Sweden is one of the more equal countries in the world where woman and men have the similar conditions to shape their lives. It is because opportunities for education and career have resulted in that woman can choose when they want to have children. We can also see a trend where childbearing has declined and woman´s life expectancy has increased. Research shows that education, financial security, work and partner are key factors that are important to have been achieved before women choose to have children. The purpose of this study is to contribute to a deeper understanding of women´s choices to delay childbirth. The data is collected through semi-structured interviews. The theoretical framework used in the study is based on Pierre Bourdieu´s capital forms and the concept of field. The various forms of capital is understood in the form of resources and the concept of field is explained as the labor market in the study. Three themes were identified which contributed to women´s delay of childbirth and they were: financial security, education and work besides relationships and social networks. The study shows that the accumulation of economic, cultural and social capital contributes to a protracted process that keeps women in the labor market which delays childbirth.

Bourdieu, the French sociologist, proposed some significant concepts (e.g., habitus, capital and field) to help to explain how social agents play roles in social occurrences. Among his theories, Bourdieu’s trilogy of economic capital, social capital and cultural capital has now been used as a powerful theoretical framework to explain class reproduction and education equity. Over the past decades, his theories have begun to be introduced and recognized in Chinese academic world. And this research attempts to see whether this western theory works in the Chinese educational context. Shanghai, one of the biggest cities in China, has a huge migrant population. Limited by the unique Chinese hukou system, the migrant population in Chinese big cities mostly faces a challenging situation to ensure their children’s local educational opportunities, especially during the compulsory education levels. However, the past research only focused on its disadvantaged subgroup, i. e. the migrant worker population while ignoring the vast diversity in their economic, social and cultural capitals among this general population. Therefore, this research, by means of a comparative multiple case study, aims to see how parents’ economic, social and cultural capitals help to win their children’s educational opportunities at elementary education level. Studying three typical migrant families with distinguishable strong, medium and weak capitals, the research finds the specific paths how the parents respectively use their economic, social and cultural capitals to obtain more educational opportunities for their children, and eventually produce the divide in educational outcomes, school segregation and social stratification. The research extends its discussion with characteristics of parent capitals, redefinitions of educational opportunities, and an unexpected minor theme about full-time mother. At the end of the dissertation, it can be concluded that Bourdieu’s trilogy of economic, social and cultural capital does work in Chinese educational context. And it indeed helps us to see more clearly what is happening in present China at a transitional age and calls for service and help to the disadvantaged migrant families in Chinese cities.

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The aim of this thesis is to study political opinions and party voting in relation to class. The range of opinions studied consists of a socioeconomic dimension, dealing with issues of economic equality, and a socio-cultural dimension, dealing with questions of culture and morality. Following Pierre Bourdieu, the object of the study is conceptualised as a field of consumption of political opinions consisting of a space of political opinions or stances, a space of political party preferences, and a space of social positions or opinion holders defined by (among other things) their cultural and economic capital. The field of consumption is examined through multiple correspondence analysis and Euclidean classification. Overall, the field of consumption of political opinions is found to be relatively homologous to the social space. The field of consumption is found to be a two-dimensional space, with one dimension separating left-wing from rightwing opinions and the second distinguishing between socio economic and socio- cultural opinions. The tendency to vote left wing and to have left-leaning socio-economic opinions corresponds to a low total volume of capital and possessions dominated by cultural capital, whereas the tendency to vote right wing and to have right-leaning socio-economic opinions corresponds to a high total volume of capital. Liberal socio-cultural opinions correspond to a high level of possession cultural capital (and its relative weight in the structure of the total possession of capital), whereas the opposite is true for conservative opinions. Furthermore, the socio-cultural dimension is found to harbour two different aspects: liberalism or conservatism with regard to traditional morality and liberalism or conservatism with regard to the idea of a national culture. This thesis also studies how individuals tend to combine opinions from the two dimensions into tangible constellations of opinions.

This research paper focuses on whether Taiwan's 13 financial holding companies (excluding Waterland Financial Holdings) belongs to the bank's capital management efficiency, using a narrow definition of capital. First, do a preliminary analysis of the capital of the banks first, second, and three types of capital. Secondly, the use of supplementary items in the balance sheet, profit and loss account and balance-sheet and some of the information into the banking book assets and liabilities of the banking book and trading book assets, trading book liabilities, risk assets and market value-added and other programs in order to do all kinds of bank trend analysis of assets and liabilities and capital management. Finally, I would investigate whether the high capital adequacy ratio that their performance is better? The provisions of the Basel ¢º want to improve the bank's risk management capability, however, and set out the statutory capital requirements of the Bank help to keep the emphasis on risk management?

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to illustrate and analyze the approach and parental involvement of a group of mothers in their children's schooling. Also their reflections on parental involvement will be highlighted and what the parents experience as obstacles in their involvement. Method: I conducted six semi structured interviews for my research. I chose to interview six mothers who have a child in the sixth grade. I chose specifically the sixth grade because the mothers will have had quite a few contacts with the school at this point. I also chose not to reveal their ethnicity because they cannot represent a whole ethnic group anyway. Result: The result of my interviews show that the parents have different approaches when it comes to parental involvement. The approaches are different between the mothers but one thing they have in common is that they care about their children.  Conclusion: One of the conclusions of this study is that the parents who do not participate in meetings and activities at school, are either because of language barrier or lack of information concerning what the school expects of them. Furthermore the study shows that their lack of participation in school activities does not mean that they are not involved as parents. Instead they express their involvement in different ways, mainly in their homes.