Com o aumento das taxas de obesidade, floresce o interesse sobre seus impactos no emprego. Diversas estratégias já foram empregadas na literatura de modo a quantificar estes efeitos, no entanto, há pouca evidência sobre os efeitos heterogêneos da obesidade, do salário e do tipo de ocupação (white e blue collar). Além disso, considerar a presença de endogeneidade da obesidade é prática cada vez mais demandada nas regressões de salário. Neste trabalho examinamos estas questões estimando o efeito do excesso de peso no salário com dados brasileiros provenientes da POF. A obesidade está associada à uma penalidade de 3,9% (VI) a 9,1% (MQO) no salário entre mulheres do grupo white collar. Mulheres do quantil inferior de salário são as mais penalizadas pela obesidade. Enquanto isso, estima-se que homens obesos white collar recebem em média de 7,2% (VI) a 14,4% (MQO) a mais que os não-obesos. O efeito positivo da obesidade é maior entre homens do quantil superior. A diversidade de resultados encontrados por grupos fortalece nossa estratégia de contemplar a heterogeneidade por tipo de ocupação / With the increasing rates of obesity, there is growing concern regarding its impact on employment. Several strategies have been employed in order to quantify these effects, however, there is little evidence of heterogeneous effects of obesity, wages and occupation (white and blue collar). Also, acknowledge the presence of endogeneity in obesity is increasingly demanded in wage regressions. We examine these issues estimating the effect of overweight on earnings by using Brazilian data from POF. Obesity is associated with a penalty of 3.9 % (VI) to 9.1 % (OLS) in earnings between white collar women. Women\'s lower quantile are the hardest hit by obesity. Meanwhile, it is estimated that overweight white collar men receive an average of 7.2 % (VI) to 14.4 % (OLS) higher than non-obese individuals. The positive effect of obesity is higher among the upper quantile men. The diversity of results found by groups strengthens our strategy to consider the heterogeneity by occupation

Submitted by Neusa Fagundes (neusa.fagundes@unioeste.br) on 2018-07-10T14:42:57Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Adhmir_Gomes2018.pdf: 2104907 bytes, checksum: febf92abdc41e4ae3a1127b3f7c982a7 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-10T14:42:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Adhmir_Gomes2018.pdf: 2104907 bytes, checksum: febf92abdc41e4ae3a1127b3f7c982a7 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-05-25 / The present study aimed to analyze the chances of economic and financial performance, the quality of accounting information, competitiveness, and risk to determine the Code of Best Practice of Corporate Governance for the coming fiscal year. For this purpose, the theoretical foundation approaches from the agency theory, which demonstrates the interests and the relations of the principal and the agent, to the corporate governance and its mechanisms, as well as the quality of the information and its metrics and the competitiveness. Other relevant points in this research are the non-systematic risk and the economic and financial performance of companies. The present study was performed according to the quantitative approach. To analyze the objectives of this research, logistic regression was used. In which the dependent variable refers to BM&FBOVESPA's set of more demanding corporate governance practices, the Novo Mercado. However, the temporal slice refers to the subsequent year of the companies characteristics; so the results obtained in 2016 are determinant for governance practices of 2017. The sample is composed of the companies that are listed in the Bovespa Index. The results showed statistically significant coefficients to determine the chances and the probabilities of occurring the code of practices studied. The theoretical implication evidenced refers to the prediction of practices because if it is possible to predict when companies can adopt a code of practices of corporate governance from their financial reports, one cannot ignore that governance practices are strategic decisions. The theoretical implications have also shown that it may be a mistake to not associate corporate governance practices with the internal and external characteristics of the company, that is, to use it as an independent variable to influence the others without recognizing these limitations. It can be said that corporate governance practices are as volatile as the quality of information reported to stakeholders. Moreover, assets volatility is a reflection of the returns obtained through investor expectations, and thus, corporate governance practices can be one of the means of showing investor confidence, and consequently, stabilize this volatility. The risk also arises from the degree of market competitiveness. Through the Herfindahl index, it was observed an increase in the probability of occurrence of governance practices according to the degree of market concentration. Besides, it was evidenced that when companies increase their performance, the principals tend to demand the agents' governance practices with the intention of reducing the risks. They spend resources to make sure that the results obtained are reliable through governance practices. Since agents tend to adapt their management practices according to the results obtained, either underperformance or the risk associated with the high returns that require supervision of management practices. Therefore, the dissociation governance and results from the same period are important because governance practices are about the decision that can be made between the agent and the principal in advance. / O presente estudo objetivou analisar as chances do desempenho econômico e financeiro, da qualidade da informação contábil, competitividade e risco determinarem os conjuntos de práticas de governança corporativa do próximo exercício. Para isso, a fundamentação teórica aborda desde a teoria da agência, que demonstra os interesses e as relações do principal e o agente, até a governança corporativa e seus mecanismos, bem como a qualidade da informação e suas métricas e a competitividade. Outros pontos de relevância para esta pesquisa são também o risco não sistemático e o desempenho econômico e financeiro das empresas. O presente estudo foi realizado de acordo com a abordagem quantitativa. Para analisar os objetivos dessa pesquisa foi utilizada a regressão logística, na qual a variável dependente refere-se ao conjunto de práticas de governança corporativa mais exigente da BM&FBOVESPA, o Novo Mercado. Contudo, o recorte temporal refere-se ao ano posterior das características das empresas, logo, os resultados obtidos em 2016 atuam como determinantes das práticas de governança do ano de 2017. A amostra é composta pelas empresas que compõem o Índice Bovespa. Os resultados encontrados demonstraram coeficientes estatisticamente significantes para determinar as chances e as probabilidades de ocorrer o conjunto de práticas estudado. A implicação teórica evidenciada refere-se à predição das práticas, pois se é possível predizer quando as empresas podem adotar um conjunto de práticas de governança corporativa a partir de seus relatórios financeiros, não se pode ignorar que as práticas de governanças são decisões estratégicas. As implicações teóricas também demonstraram que pode ser um equívoco não associar as práticas de governança corporativa das empresas às características internas e externas da empresa, isto é, utilizá-la como variável independente para influenciar as demais sem reconhecer essas limitações. Pode-se afirmar que os conjuntos de práticas de governança corporativa são tão voláteis quanto à qualidade das informações relatadas aos stakeholders. E ainda, a volatilidade dos ativos são reflexos dos retornos obtidos por meio das expectativas dos investidores, e assim, os conjuntos de práticas de governança corporativas podem ser uma das formas de transparecer a confiança para os investidores; e por consequência, estabilizar esta volatilidade. O risco também advém do grau de competitividade de mercado, e por meio do índice Herfindahl foi constatado o aumento na probabilidade de ocorrer práticas de governança de acordo com o grau de concentração do mercado. E ainda, foi evidenciado que quando as empresas aumentam o seu desempenho, os principais tendem a exigir as práticas de governança dos agentes com a intenção de diminuir os riscos. E despendem recursos para certificar-se que os resultados obtidos são confiáveis, por meio de práticas governança. Visto que os agentes tendem a adaptar as suas práticas de gestão de acordo com os resultados obtidos, seja por baixo desempenho, ou então, pelo risco associado aos retornos altos que exigem fiscalização das práticas de gestão. Portanto, a dissociação da governança e dos resultados obtidos do mesmo recorte temporal, é importante, pois as práticas de governança estão sobre a decisão que pode ser tomada entre o agente e o principal com antecedência.

Magister Artium - MA / This study sought to investigate the alleged problem of ‘academic dependency’, on the part of South African sociologists, on western scholarship. The stated problem is said to undermine South African sociologists’ ability to set their own intellectual and epistemological agenda. Sociology in South Africa is characterised by two issues: ‘negations’ and theoretical ‘extraversion’. In the light of the foregoing claim, the study sought to investigate the underlying epistemological features of sociology curriculum in one of the South African universities. In investigating these issues, the thesis relies on the notion of ‘authentic interlocutors’ put forward by Archie Mafeje. Literature on transformation of the social sciences in (South) Africa was reviewed. Methodologically, the study assumes a qualitative approach. In order comprehensively to understand the problem under investigation, in-depth interviews were conducted along with a review of course outlines of the selected department of sociology; these, in turn, were subjected to content analysis. Interviewees included, respectively, academic members of staff and postgraduate students. The study concludes by highlighting the ‘ontological disconnect’, on the part of South African sociologists, not only with their immediate environment but the rest of the African continent. In maintaining this view, it argues that their ontological and epistemological standpoints only succeed in highlighting their cultural affinity with Euro-American perspectives. The said ontological disconnect and cultural affinity, it is argued, lead to extraverted curricula

Comme le montrent Hambrick et Mason (1984) dans leur théorie des échelons supérieurs (ou « Upper Echelons Theory) », ce sont les décisions, les stratégies et les actions du dirigeant fondées sur leurs valeurs, leur expérience et leur personnalité qui vont avoir un impact sur la performance de leur entreprise et donc sur la croissance de celle-ci. Dès lors, ce seraient leur personnalité, leurs valeurs et leur expérience qui fonderaient leurs décisions et conditionneraient la performance de leur entreprise. Hambrick et Mason (1984) reconnaissent toutefois que la relation « expérience du dirigeant-croissance de l’entreprise » peut être inversée : la croissance de l’entreprise peut elle-même influencer les caractéristiques de l'équipe de direction ou du dirigeant.Mintzberg et al. (1999, p.160) diront d’ailleurs au sujet des dirigeants : « l’expérience forme leurs connaissances, qui, à leur tour, formeront leurs expériences futures ». Notre recherche se situe en management stratégique et vise à éclairer les débats sur la prise de décision du dirigeants. Elle s’inscrit dans le courant des sciences cognitives et s’intéresse plus précisément aux questions inhérentes à la cognition managériale. Afin de répondre à nos objectifs de recherche, une enquête a été réalisée auprès de dirigeants de PME. Dans cette enquête, l’influence des expériences de croissance sur les décisions est appréhendée grâce à la méthode de cartographie cognitive. Nos données sont issues de 25 dirigeants, ce qui représente 41 expériences, un dirigeant pouvant relater plusieurs expériences. La collecte des données nécessaire à l’établissement des cartes cognitives s’est réalisée par le biais de mémoires rédigés pour répondre à la question de recherche posée, par des dirigeants participant à une formation interentreprise proposée. Nous avons choisi dans notre recherche d’utiliser une démarche abductive de recherche articulant approches théoriques et approches empiriques. Nous avons souhaité, dans un premier temps, dans une approche déductive reposant sur une logique de réfutation, confronter les propositions issues de la revue de la littérature et du modèle conceptuel initial, aux données collectées auprès des dirigeants grâce à la construction de leur carte cognitive ; puis, dans un second temps, l’analyse des cartes cognitives ayant révélé d’autres éléments non pris en compte par les propositions issues de la littérature, nous avons exploré plus avant ces cartes cognitives. Nous avons ainsi obtenu un modèle d’analyse des effets de l’expérience de croissance sur le processus de prise de décision. Les résultats de cette thèse proposent que l’expérience de croissance, qu’elle soit positive ou négative, provoque un apprentissage en matière de décision ou « apprentissage décisionnel », qui fonde une nouvelle capacité dynamique de direction dans le développement de l’entreprise. Nos résultats suggèrent que l’apprentissage à travers l’expérience de croissance confère au dirigeant une perception plus nette de son rôle de dirigeant dans les situations de croissance ; qu’il est nécessaire pour le dirigeant de prévoir des phases de réflexion sans tomber dans le piège des actions immédiates souvent exigées par le contexte de croissance. Le dirigeant doit accepter par ailleurs de revoir son mode de management et sa vision stratégique. L’expérience de croissance donne au dirigeant un jugement plus affiné qui lui permet de saisir les opportunités nouvelles, grâce notamment à une plus grande complexité cognitive qui lui permet aussi d’analyser les situations ambiguës ou incertaines. Enfin, notre recherche propose que l’expérience de croissance donne au dirigeant un jugement éclairé qui lui permet de mieux intégrer l’avis des collaborateurs et les effets de l’expérience positive et pas uniquement ceux issus des échecs ou des expériences jugées négatives. / As demonstrated by Hambrick and Mason (1984) in their Upper Echelons Theory, decisions, strategies and actions of the manager based on their experience and their personality have an impact on the performances of their business and hence on the growth of the latter.The theory of the higher levels (Hambrick and Mason, 1984) demonstrates that leaders act according to i) their interpretations of the strategic situation they are exposed to ; ii) experience and personality, as interpretations are based on those. The leaders therefore interpret the stimuli and take action through filters that are their cognitive patterns. Therefore, their personality, values and experience would be the base of their decisions and would condition the performances of their business.Hambrick and Mason (1984), however, report that the relationship "experience of the manager-company growth" can be reversed: the growth of the company itself can influence the characteristics of the management team or officer.Mintzberg et al. (1999, p.160) also say about the leaders : « experience build their knowledge, which in turn build their future experiences. » Our research is in strategic management and aims to inform debates over decision making of managers. It is enrolled in the course of cognitive science and specifically addresses issues inherent in the managerial cognition. In order to meet our research objectives, a survey was conducted among managers in France. In this investigation, the influence of the growth experiments on decisions is apprehended through cognitive mapping method. Our data are based on 25 leaders, representing 41 experiments, a manager can count several experiments. The collection of data necessary for establishing cognitive maps was achieved through written submissions to answer the research question posed by the managers participating in inter-company training offer.We choose to use in our research an abductive approach articulating theoretical and empirical approaches. We wanted, at first, in a deductive approach based on a logical rebuttal, to compare proposals from the literature review and initial conceptual model to data collected from the leaders through the construction of their cognitive map. Then, in a second step, the analysis of cognitive maps have revealed other ignored by the proposals from the literature items, to define new proposals which usefully complement our model. We obtained an effects analysis model of the growth experience of the process of decision making. The results of this thesis suggest that the growth experience, whether positive or negative, causes learning in decision making or "decision-learning", which establishes a new dynamic capacity management in the development of the company. Our results suggest that learning through experience growth gives the leader a clearer perception of his leadership role in growth situations; it is necessary for the leader to provide reflection phases without falling into the trap often required immediate action by the growth environment. The leader must also agree to review its management style and strategic vision. The growth experience gives the leader a more refined judgment allowing it to seize new opportunities, including through greater cognitive complexity that also allows him to analyze ambiguous or uncertain situations. Finally, our research suggests that the growth experience gives the leader a reasoned judgment that allows them to better integrate the views of employees and the effects of the positive experience, not just those from failures or deemed negative experiences.

This dissertation work provides a kaleidoscope of alternative empirical estimation techniques while illuminating and challenging conventional approaches and established findings in the Corporate Finance literature. In particular, the observed „conglomerate discount“ and the effect of diversication and concentrated ownership on firm value are revisited in the course of my cumulated doctoral thesis. In doing so, the main emphasis lies on the inference of causation in the presence of endogeneity concerns, namely by considering potential distortions caused by unobserved heterogeneity, reverse causality or non-random self-selection.:1 A Corporate Finance Application of the Oaxaca-Blinder De-composition: Causes of the Diversification Discount 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Corporate diversi_cation and its agency-related costs 1.3 The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition as an approach to explaining the excess value gap 1.3.1 Pooled sample OLS decomposition 1.3.2 The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition 1.4 Sample selection and description 1.4.1 Sample selection and variables 1.4.2 Sample description 1.5 Empirical analysis and discussion 1.5.1 Basic results 1.5.2 Robustness tests 1.6 Conclusion 1.7 Tables 1.8 References 1.9 Appendix 2 A Paradoxon of Policy Intervention: The Case of the German Tax Reduction Act 2.1 Introduction 2.2 The Tax Reduction Act of 2000 2.3 Theoretical Framework 2.3.1 Investor View 2.3.2 Investee View 2.4 Data and Descriptives 2.4.1 Sample 2.4.2 Summary Statistics 2.4.3 Identification Strategy 2.5 Estimation Framework 2.5.1 The Effect of the Tax Reform on Ownership Concentration and Firm Value 2.5.2 The Effect of Ownership Concentration on Firm Value 2.6 Conclusion and Discussion 2.7 Tables 2.8 Appendix 2.9 References 3 Good Matches Last Longer { Unobserved Heterogeneity across Firm-Owner Matches 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Estimation Framework 3.2.1 Empirical Model 3.2.2 Error Decomposition 3.2.3 The OLS Estimator 3.2.4 The Instrumental Variable (IV)-Approach 3.2.5 Prediction of Bias Direction and Relevance 3.3 Data and Sample Description 3.3.1 Sample 3.3.2 Summary Statistics 3.4 Results 3.4.1 Cumulative Effect of Ownership Concentration 3.4.2 Cumulative Effect of Ownership Concentration by Owner Types 3.5 Discussion and Conclusion 3.6 Tables 3.7 Appendix 3.8 References 4 About estimating gains from diversification and why firms self-select 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Modelling gains from diversification 4.2.1 Potential outcomes and switching regressions 4.2.2 Expected firm values and selection bias 4.2.3 Diversification gains and selection bias 4.3 Modelling selection into diversification 4.3.1 Selection according to highest expected outcome 4.3.2 Selection on expected gains 4.4 Sample selection and descriptives 4.4.1 Sample selection and excess value measure 4.4.2 Distribution of firm characteristics 4.5 Results 4.5.1 OLS and IV estimation 4.5.2 Endogenous switching regression 4.6 Conclusion 4.7 Tables 4.8 References

This doctoral dissertation proposal is comprised of three separate chapters, all of which uses the nationally representative uniform survey Health and Retirement Survey (HRS) to examine the relationship between health, insurance, health care and health outcomes. Below, the brief introduction for each section is provided:  Chapter I: Medicare Part D and Patients' Well-being  Chapter II: Parent's Health Insurance and Informal Care  Chapter III: Job Insecurity and Health (with Dr. Ayyagari) In chapter I, I explore how Medicare Part D (MD) affects the well-being of the severely sick patients both in the short- and in the long- term. I employ difference-in-difference (DD) alongside the instrumental variable (IV) model. The estimated results imply MD significantly improves mental health and increases regular drug utilization for the elderly. However, it neither systematically improves out-of-pocket payment (OOP) nor improves mortality across all waves. This suggests that MD provides an efficient mechanism to improve mental health and drug utilization, but might not necessarily enhance survival rate and financial burden for vulnerable patients. Chapter II investigates the relationship between informal care provided by the children and the take-up of health insurance by the near-elderly and elderly parents, and how the correlation is influenced by parent’s Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) and Instrumental Activities of vii Daily Living (IADLs). The results indicate that when the endogeneity is controlled for, in-formal care systematically crowds out the take-up of private long-term care (LTC) insurance whereas “crowds in” the take-up of the total plan including supplement insurance plans (TSP). Nevertheless, the degree of both crowding-out and “crowding-in” effect is reduced when the severity of ADLs/IADLs disability level grows. Our study reflects (a) the strong demand for TSP and more additional health coverage within household budget line (b) and the potential gap between healthcare demands by the parents and the informal care provided by the children and the potential gap between the healthcare demands by the parents and the formal care covered by the insurance. Our estimates are robust to alternative measures of informal care. The final chapter III examines the causal effect of subjective job insecurity on health, using pooled ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed-effects (FE) and instrumental variable (IV) specifications. The estimate implies that the negative impact of job insecurity is more pronounced for certain outcomes such as mental health and the emergence of new health conditions. Job insecurity provides a powerful prediction on subsequent job displacement and real income loss. Sub-population such as low-employability/better-educated individuals or males responds more to job insecurity than their counterparts.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The general potential outcomes framework (GPOF) is an essential structure that facilitates clear and coherent specification, identification, and estimation of causal effects. This dissertation utilizes and extends the GPOF, to specify, identify, and estimate causally interpretable (CI) effect parameter (EP) for an outcome of interest that manifests as either a value in a specified subset of the real line or a qualitative event -- a partially qualitative outcome (PQO). The limitations of the conventional GPOF for casting a regression model for a PQO is discussed. The GPOF is only capable of delivering an EP that is subject to a bias due to bad control. The dissertation proposes an outcome measure that maintains all of the essential features of a PQO that is entirely real-valued and is not subject to the bad control critique; the P-weighted outcome – the outcome weighted by the probability that it manifests as a quantitative (real) value. I detail a regression-based estimation method for such EP and, using simulated data, demonstrate its implementation and validate its consistency for the targeted EP. The practicality of the proposed approach is demonstrated by estimating the causal effect of a fully effective policy that bans pregnant women from smoking during pregnancy on a new measure of birth weight. The dissertation also proposes a Generalized Control Function (GCF) approach for modeling and estimating a CI parameter in the context of a fully parametric two-part model (2PM) for a continuous outcome in which the causal variable of interest is continuous and endogenous. The proposed approach is cast within the GPOF. Given a fully parametric specification for the causal variable and under regular Instrumental Variables (IV) assumptions, the approach is shown to satisfy the conditional independence assumption that is often difficult to hold under alternative approaches. Using simulated data, a full information maximum likelihood (FIML) estimator is derived for estimating the “deep” parameters of the model. The Average Incremental Effect (AIE) estimator based on these deep parameter estimates is shown to outperform other conventional estimators. I apply the method for estimating the medical care cost of obesity in youth in the US.

This thesis presents an analysis of subjective risk information and participation in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Data are taken from a survey of residents in flood-prone coastal regions in the southeastern U.S. Regression models are constructed to better understand factors affecting individuals’ perceived risk ambiguity related to flood risk and the role of risk preferences, risk perceptions, and especially risk ambiguity, on the decision to purchase flood insurance. This is the first study not only of the influence of risk ambiguity on NFIP participation, but also of the impact of using different risk perception measures. Results indicate that NFIP participation is significantly affected by mean perceived risk, but the influence of range/variance of perceived risk, which presents one’s perceived ambiguity, is mixed.

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Obesity is a growing public health concern that is being confronted by both developed and developing countries. South Africa is no exception, facing the highest burden of obesity amongst African countries. Using two waves of data from the National Income Dynamics Study, this study aims to investigate the relationship between obesity and employment status for working age individuals in the context of the South African labour market. This study contributes to existing literature on this subject by explicitly accounting for potential simultaneity and endogeneity between obesity and employment. Given the hypothesised two-way causal relationship between obesity and unemployment, two different models are used to assess whether this issue exists for the dataset; a bivariate probit model to assess if there is a bivariate relationship between obesity and employment, and a recursive bivariate probit model to assess if obesity is an endogenous regressor of employment. A change in state univariate probit model is then implemented across the two waves to better understand if fluctuations in weight status are a result of labour market state transitions. The results of the study show that obesity and employment are independent in the bivariate probit models and obesity is an exogenous regressor of employment status in the recursive bivariate probit models. Changes in labour market state do not have a significant impact on the probability of transitioning to obese compared to no changes in labour market state, bar transitioning from not economically active to employed, which increases the probability of becoming obese. The findings suggest that, in the South African labour market context, obesity and employment are not related, indicating that there are other underlying factors, such as nutritional intake and genetic composition, that may contribute to fluctuations in weight status. The results suggest that obesity is prolific in South Africa, and impacts individuals across the entire distribution for labour market status and income.