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This dissertation study examined the predictive validity of alphabetic knowledge and phonemic awareness assessments on word reading fluency. The participants were approximately 900 kindergarten students from a suburban school district in Oregon. The study used extant curriculum-based measure (CBM) reading assessment data collected during the 2013-2014 school year to examine the predictive validity of measures of letter naming fluency (LN), letter sound fluency (LS), and phoneme segmentation fluency (PS) on word reading fluency (WRF). Linear regression was employed to examine the amount of variance that early reading skills (LN, LS, and PS), measured during the fall and winter, explained in WRF measured in the spring of kindergarten. The relation of non-performance demographic data to student spring WRF was also examined. Results of this research are intended to inform practitioners implementing early reading instruction and interventions through an equity lens.

In modern scholarship, the concept of equity is often assimilated with that of Aristotelian epieikeia, a process which serves to correct rules when, though their wording undoubtedly applies to a case, yet the outcome would be unjust, or the legislator would have never wanted the rule to be applied to such a case. My thesis deals with the early-modern origins of the association of equity and epieikeia in legal scholarship, and of its consequences for the doctrinal development of equity in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. I begin by showing that medieval legal writings on equity were almost completely unconcerned with epieikeia, and that the latter was only developed by philosophers and theologians. Legists and canonists developed a concept of equity that was unrelated - indeed mostly incompatible - with judicial discretion or the emendation of written rules. Thus, throughout the Middle Ages, there was almost no interaction between the writings of civil and canon lawyers on equity, and those of theologians on epieikeia. In the second chapter of my thesis, I show that the introduction of epieikeia in legal scholarship was the result of the influence of humanistic philology over the writings of humanist jurists, and argue that it caused the majority of early-modern authors to depart from medieval scholarship on equity, re-modelling instead equity as a doctrine of interpretation of the law beyond its letter in accordance with the intentions of the legislator. The final part of my thesis argues that the development of equity as epieikeia in legal scholarship broke down the barrier that had hitherto divided theological and legal writings on equity. Indeed, from the late sixteenth century onwards, legal and theological writings on equity were connected to such an extent that many later authors treated these two branches of scholarship as belonging to one, equally authoritative body of learning on the same topic.

This dissertation is an ethnographic description of the process by which private equity investors buy, manage, and sell companies for profit, all while private equity, as an industry, manages around $3.5 trillion of capital. Drawing from data gathered from the summer of 2012 through fall of 2014, this dissertation offers an account of investing that diverges from other ethnographic cases in that it relies on ongoing conversations about value and time that investors have, which seek to justify the decisions investors make. Once I explain how investors find and create value as well as the opportune time to invest, I explain how this negotiation fits into a stereotyped, formalized deal process, which acts like a total social fact in rearranging people and wealth in social life. I ultimately suggest that this approach to explaining the action of private equity investors has a broader use in rendering other financial capitalists ethnographically comparable to private equity investors, as well as in rendering other societal distributions of wealth and poverty comparable to that which exists in the contemporary United States.

Research in this thesis investigates the following issue; dynamics of international financial integration; international portfolio equity investment patterns; Australian investors’ equity investment position in the global economy; and finally geographical and home bias related to equity investment. Research in this thesis employs a new International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey (CPIS) dataset to examine bilateral equity investment in the international and Australian context. This dataset is being employed for the first time in the Australian context. Research in this thesis provides insights into the broad trends on cross country holdings and indicates that the growth in goods trade and stock market capitalisation are the main determinants of the growth in the scale of international balance sheets. This thesis develops a model that links bilateral equity holdings to bilateral trade in goods and services. This thesis finds that the bilateral equity investment is strongly correlated with the underlying patterns of trade in goods and services. Research in this thesis states that the bilateral equity investments take place between countries with similar characteristics, including coordinated business cycles and correlated stock market returns, against the predictions of standard diversification Research in this thesis provides answers to some of the following questions; why does the pattern of Australia’s capital flows not match that of its trade flows; which bilateral factors are responsible for explaining Australia’s portfolio equity investment holdings; are cultural, informational factors important in explaining Australia’s portfolio allocations; How do regulatory and legal variables affect equity portfolio holdings. Research in this thesis investigates geographical bias by developing an empirical model from a consumption based asset pricing model that includes both, information and transaction costs. Research in this thesis documents that investors exhibit a preference for geographically close, same language and same culture countries. This thesis states that Australian investors’ are willing to hold equity portfolios in countries where the judicial system is recognised as efficient and appears to uphold enforcement of the rule of law, and countries which have well developed accounting standards. Research in this thesis also investigate home bias puzzle in the international and Australian context. This thesis indicates that the share of destination countries’ stock market that is invested in the host country, capital controls, trade links, risk adjusted returns and transaction costs have impact on the home bias puzzle. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Until recent years the proportion contributed to total government revenue by the petroleum industry has continued to increase. However, Australia's oil reserves are now diminishing as known fields are consumed, and exploration efforts have failed to locate new sources of petroleum. The oil industry has called for the relaxation of the government take in order to encourage exploration activity for the replacement of reserves. In an environment of low world prices and continuing high levels of taxation it has been submitted that the balance between taxation and exploration incentives has tipped against exploration activity. The broader economic consequences of lower self sufficiency are significant, particularly in terms of the current account deficit and economic security. The most contentious form of government revenue is secondary taxation. These taxes are levied in addition to company income tax. The present Federal Government has introduced a Petroleum Resource Rent Tax to ensure the community, as a whole, gains an equitable share from the diminution of the country's scarce natural resources. Government discussion on tax reform has concentrated on the most appropriate form of secondary taxation without first examining whether there is, in fact, a case for the imposition of any secondary taxes. This paper addresses the impact of the range of taxes which apply to the petroleum industry. Particular attention is given to the alternate forms of secondary taxation and their effect on the industry in terms of the commonly used criteria for evaluating taxes. These criteria are : equity; efficiency and simplicity. Using this framework the various taxes are analysed individually. Beyond the oil industry the thesis will examine the broader economic effects of petroleum taxation policy, and review the political environment that gives rise to Government policy. From a business perspective, it is in the interests of the oil industry to minimise taxation because of its inverse relationship with profitability. In the light of this objective analysis, the thesis aims to determine the most appropriate form and level of taxation for the petroleum industry in Australia. / Master of Business (Taxation)

This integrating essay presents and discusses the findings of the research studies that Veronica Volkoff completed within the context of the shifts in the Australian vocational education and training landscape and resultant trends in vocational education and training policy, in particular equity policy, during the period of researching and writing the nominated works, 1995 to 2004. The research included analysis of vocational education and training in relation to: equity policy; provider inclusiveness strategies; and access, participation, completion and outcomes in relation to learners, in particular members of designated and emerging equity target groups. A range of methodologies was implemented in these studies, usually utilising a mix of both quantitative and qualitative methods. The first study, the Longitudinal study of student experiences in vocational education and training, explored the experiences of access, participation and outcomes of students in vocational education and training from a range of equity target groups. It was undertaken in six Australian locations across three states and territories. It revealed that intentions, experiences and outcomes varied across students and equity target groups and that membership of multiple equity target groups compounded disadvantage and had an adverse effect upon outcomes. The second study, a Review of equity literature, was commissioned to inform national policy and broad strategy development and analysed the situation for five designated equity target groups in vocational education and training, nationally. Two other studies focussed on Vocational education and training for people from non-English speaking backgrounds, undertaken five years apart, reviewed the literature and analysed participation and outcomes for people from non-English speaking backgrounds. A further study analysed the Delivery of vocational education and training programs by adult and community education providers, particularly its provision for people belonging to disadvantaged groups.

This paper investigates the performance of private equity partnerships using a data set of individual fund returns collected by Venture Economics. Over the sample period, average fund returns net of fees approximately equal the S&P 500 although there is a large degree of heterogeneity among fund returns. Returns persist strongly across funds raised by individual private equity partnerships. The returns also improve with partnership experience. Better performing funds are more likely to raise follow-on funds and raise larger funds than funds that perform poorly. This relationship is concave so that top performing funds do not grow proportionally as much as the average fund in the market. At the industry level, we show that market entry in the private equity industry is cyclical. Funds (and partnerships) started in boom times are less likely to raise follow-on funds, suggesting that these funds subsequently perform worse. Aggregate industry returns are lower following a boom, but most of this effect is driven by the poor performance of new entrants, while the returns of established funds are much less affected by these industry cycles. Several of these results differ markedly from those for mutual funds.

Equity risk premium is a financial variable that is surrounded by mystery. Starting from the almost 30 year old equity premium puzzle caused by considerations that equity premium values which are observable in past data imply an implausibly high risk aversion to more recent statements that equity premium does not exist anymore. The purpose of this paper is to find out more about the traits and characteristics of equity risk premium, its current status and interactions of its values across international markets by conducting data analysis on mature equity markets using optimal methods as suggested in academic literature. This paper attempts to clear some of the confusion regarding equity premiums by analyzing equity excess returns in the mature equity markets of France, Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom and USA from 1970 to 2012. It is concluded that equity premium follows a mean reverting process however in short-term and mid-term its values can be volatile and in March 2000 there might have been a structural break. The obtained current equity premium values are significantly higher than zero. At the same time they are lower than popularly used values that are based on longer periods of past data. The paper also finds out that equity premiums in different countries are highly correlated not only due to shared global influence but also due to some direct causality relationships between them, most of which are positive. A panel data analysis is conducted as well to test the explanatory power of some macroeconomic and financial variables on the equity risk premium values and it is concluded that risk-free rate and unemployment rate have some explanatory power for equity risk premium values. This paper manages to clear a part of the mystery that surrounds the equity risk premium.