Thesis advisor: Hans de Wit / As higher education enters the 21st century, funding issues have evolved with continued massification and limited government funding (Johnstone & Marcucci, 2010). Increased reliance on students and their families to cover the cost of higher education have led to student demonstrations across the globe, their main demand being free tertiary education to improve equitable access (Bernasconi, 2012; Cloete, 2015; Taylor, 2014). This international comparative quantitative international study explores the relationship between tuition fees policies, and more specifically tuition-free policies, and equitable access in three Latin American countries. Participation, college choice, and attrition decisions are analyzed through the lens of the financial and cultural capitals of students, using 2011 and 2013 data from socio-economic surveys in Chile – a high tuition fees country, and Brazil and Argentina – two countries with free public higher education. The findings suggest that tuition fees policies do not carry the importance students think it does. Countries with tuition-free public higher education seem to have similar issues, if not worse, than tuition-charging countries in ensuring equitable access and success for students from low socio-economic backgrounds. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T19:35:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 26 / Nenhuma / O tema honorário na prática clínica é parte constituinte da relação psicoterapêutica e revela-se um importante aspecto para o andamento da psicoterapia. Entretanto, este tema é pouco mencionado na literatura nacional e internacional. Esta dissertação aborda a percepção dos honorários na prática clínica por psicoterapeutas e compreende quatro seções, sendo um relatório de pesquisa, um artigo teórico, um artigo empírico e a conclusão. A investigação visou o entendimento do tema honorários nas linhas teóricas da Abordagem Centrada na Pessoa, da Psicoterapia de Orientação Psicanalítica e da Terapia Cognitiva Comportamental. O método utilizado foi o do delineamento exploratório, de caráter qualitativo. Foram entrevistados 12 psicólogas e um psicólogo atuando em psicologia clínica e para a apreciação das entrevistas empregou-se a análise de conteúdo. Objetivou-se analisar a compreensão do processo da cobrança de honorários, o significado do pagamento pelo cliente na prática clínica de psicoterapeutas e averigua / The fees theme in the clinical practice is part of the psychotherapeutic relation and reveals itself an important aspect for the psychotherapy course. However, this theme is little investigated in national and international literature. This dissertation focuses on the fees perception in the clinical practice by psychotherapists and comprehends a research report, a theoretical article and an empiric article. The aim of this investigation was the understanding of the fee’ theme in the following theoretical lines: Approach Centered in the Person, Psychotherapy of Analytic Orientation and Behavioral Cognitive Therapy. The research method was exploratory and qualitative. Twelve female and one male clinical psychologists were interviewed. Data were analyzed by content analysis. The aims were to analyze the comprehension of fees’ charge process, the meaning of payment by the client in the clinical practice of psychotherapists and to investigate how the professionals apprehend, in their clinical formation, the lea

This paper examines the market adaptation of Swedish public libraries from a critical theory perspective, to see which forms of market-based funding and activities have been incorporated in the Göteborg, Malmö and Stockholm city libraries. The thesis uses an ideal type analysis, creating a theoretical construct of the archetypical marketized library against which the three libraries can be compared. The funding of a marketized library (1) is not public; and relies on (2) user fees; and (3) private grants and sponsorship. Regarding the activities of a marketized library, (4) the objectives are to maximize the quantity of output, regardless of its content (5) users are approached as “customers” and (6) collections are determined by market criteria and user demand. Library plans, annual programs and annual reports are the material for analysis. The results give a mixed picture. The libraries are all primarily publicly funded. Only the Stockholm library used private sponsorship as a source of funding. However, all three libraries relied rather heavily on user fees and service charges, and they all received private grants in 2006. In terms of the activities, none of the libraries expressed their goals purely in quantitative terms (although the Göteborg library vision was close). The goal assessments indicate libraries preoccupied primarily with numbers, however, trying to increase the quantity of visits and loans much like a book store. Users were in practice often approached as “customers,” but they were not expressly called that in the documents. There were also some market elements in the determination of collections. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The theme of the dissertation is the private rate of return to educational Investments in tertiary sector. The topic of the research is the impact of the tuition fees on this indicator, including considering the possibility to finance additional costs of the student by the new state loan product. There is introduced the current state of theory and done the SWOT analysis of needs of the education system in the Czech Republic. It is done calculation of private student rate of return to investment into tertiary education and made practical verification of the possibility of using new bank loan product as a source for funding of additional costs for financing of student fees.

The aim of this thesis is to find suitable mortgage, describe important criteria for comparison of mortgages and what types of mortgages the banks offer. The theoretical part of the thesis is divided into four parts. At first, I describe methods of determining the weights and methods of multi-criteria decision making. Then I focus on information about mortgage loan and about loan application process. In the third part I present variants and criteria and in the fourth I detect the best mortgage. I used WSA, TOPSIS, ELECTRE III and MAPPAC and add-on of Microsoft Excel - Sanna.

This paper studies the evasion of TV license fees in Austria. We exploit border differentials to identify the effect of fees on evasion. Comparing municipalities at the low- and high-fee side of state borders reveals that higher fees trigger significantly more evasion. Our preferred estimator indicates that a one percent increase in fees raises the evasion rate by 0.3 percentage points. The positive effect of fees on evasion is confirmed in different parametric and non-parametric approaches and survives several robustness checks.

Research examines audit fee trends for a decade. The research focuses on audit fees of companies in the East Tennessee Area and compares the audit fees of these companies to similar companies based in similar regions of the United States. Possible causes for the fluctuations of audit fees during the decade are also discussed.

This study investigates the effect of CFO gender on auditor turnover, audit fees, and financial reporting timeliness. Since investors value audit outcomes such as auditor turnover, audit fees, and reporting timeliness as important financial signals, differences in the probability of auditor turnovers, the amount of audit fees, and the speed of financial reporting between male CFO firms and female CFO firms can help investors make better informed financial decisions. Additionally, these audit outcome differences between male and female CFOs can also provide insights to executive hiring-decisions and audit budgeting. The results of this study suggest that firms with female CFOs take longer to report financial statements than their male counterparts. However, I do not find evidence for differences in the probability of auditor turnover between female CFO and male CFO firms. I also do not find significant differences in audit fees between firms with female and male CFOs. Overall, this study highlights how gender differences in risk-tolerance and confidence level can affect tangible audit outcomes.

Este estudo investigou se a qualidade de auditoria aumentou após as modificações implementadas pela ISA 700 revisada, que obrigou a inclusão de itens como os Principais Assuntos de Auditoria (PAAs), considerados mais informativos aos usuários das demonstrações contábeis. Além disso, investigou se os custos associados à auditoria tiveram algum impacto devido a essas novas exigências. A verificação dos possíveis impactos na qualidade de auditoria foi realizada com a utilização da proxy de qualidade das demonstrações contábeis obtida por estimação: (i) dos accruals absolutos anormais pelo Modelo de Kothari et al. (2005) derivado do Modelo de Jones (1991); (ii) dos accruals absolutos anormais pelo Modelo de Dechow e Dichev (2002) modificado; (iii) da qualidade dos accruals das receitas de Stubben (2010) e (iv) do percentual de magnitude dos accruals dos fluxos de caixa de Burgstahler et al. (2006). Os PAAs foram considerados, pois poderiam influenciar em maior qualidade de auditoria, sendo mais informativos aos usuários das demonstrações contábeis, podendo inclusive influenciar em uma gestão menos oportunista dos resultados por parte da administração (mensurado por menores accruals), com resultados ainda conflitantes na literatura contábil. A abordagem quantitativa das estimações foi realizada com dados contábeis e de mercado das companhias de capital aberto do Brasil, dos períodos de 2014 a 2017. A amostra consistiu em 1.554 observações para as quais foram coletadas, de forma manual, as informações sobre as firmas de auditoria responsáveis e as quantidades de PAAs divulgados que poderiam afetar a qualidade de auditoria. A maior parte das regressões, utilizando quatro métricas para os accruals não demonstrou evidências de melhoria na qualidade de auditoria após a adoção da ISA 700 revisada. Tais métricas foram analisadas considerando: (i) Painel A, que verificou a mudança na qualidade de auditoria na comparação do período pré e pós adoção da norma; (ii) Painel B, que incluiu o número de PAAs divulgados e (iii) Painel C, que incluiu as mudanças recorrentes de firmas de auditoria. Para a qualidade dos accruals das receitas foi obtido resultado positivo e significante no nível de 5%, indicando uma possível melhora na qualidade de auditoria. Em contrapartida, o poder explicativo diminuiu devido à alta correlação identificada entre a variável de interesse e a variável de controle que indica especificamente a quantidade de PAAs divulgados. Os honorários de auditoria também foram coletados manualmente, sendo que não apresentaram alterações estatisticamente significantes na comparação do período pré e pós adoção dos novos requerimentos. O presente estudo amplia as discussões acadêmicas para o mercado de capitais brasileiro acerca das implicações da inclusão dos PAAs nos relatórios de auditoria, bem como, na análise dos efeitos práticos da aplicação das normas expedidas pelos órgãos reguladores. Além disso, essa evidência pode auxiliar no aprimoramento das normas na busca por maior qualidade de auditoria e das demonstrações contábeis com foco no usuário que almeja redução de assimetria informacional sobre a realidade econômica das companhias. / This study investigated whether audit quality increased after the modifications implemented by the revised ISA 700, which required the inclusion of items such as Key Audit Matter (KAM), which are considered more informative to the users of the financial statements. Moreover, it investigated whether the costs associated with the audit had any impact due to these new requirements. The verification of possible impacts on audit quality was performed using the quality proxy of the financial statements obtained by estimating: (i) the abnormal absolute accruals by Kothari\'s Model (2005) adapted from the Jones\'s Model (1991); (ii) abnormal absolute accruals by Dechow and Dichev\'s Model (2002); (iii) the quality of accruals revenues of Stubben\'s Model (2010) and (iv) the percentage of magnitude of the accruals of cash flows of Burgstahler et al. (2006). The KAM could influence the quality of the audit, being more informative to the users of the financial statements and may even influence the less opportunistic management of the results by the administration measured by smaller accruals, although there are still conflicting results in the accounting literature. The quantitative approach in the estimates was made with accounting and market data for publicly traded companies in Brazil, from 2014 to 2017. The sample consisted of 1,554 observations for which the information about the responsible audit firms and the amounts of KAM disclosed that could affect audit quality were collected manually. Most of the regressions, using four accruals metrics, did not show evidence of improvement in audit quality after the adoption of ISA 700. These metrics were analyzed considering: (i) Panel A, which verified the change in audit quality in the comparison of the period before and after adoption of the standard; (ii) Panel B, which included the number of PAAs disclosed and (iii) Panel C, which included the recurring changes in audit firms. For the quality of revenue accruals, it was obtained a positive and significant result at the 5% level indicating a possible improvement in audit quality, but the explanatory power decreased due to the high correlation identified between the variable of interest and control variable that specifically indicates the amount of KAM disclosed. The audit fees were also manually collected and did not present statistically significant changes in the comparison of the period before and after the adoption of the new requirements. The present study uses the academic discussions for the Brazilian capital market on the implications of the inclusion of KAM in the audit reports, as well as on the practical effects of the application of the norms issued by the regulatory agencies. In addition, this evidence can help improve standards in the quest for higher audit quality and user-focused financial statements that aim to reduce informational asymmetry about the companies\' economic reality

<p>Titel: Fonders förvaltningsavgifter vs avkastning – Lönar det sig att betala lite mer eller är det bara dumdristigt?</p><p>Seminariedatum: 2008-06-04</p><p>Ämne/kurs: Magisteruppsats/ D-nivå</p><p>Författare: Anna Asplund och Malin Elfving</p><p>Handledare: Stig Westerdahl</p><p>Nyckelord: Fonder, Förvaltningsavgifter, TKA, Avkastning</p><p>Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka om det föreligger ett samband mellan fonders förvaltningsavgifter och dess avkastning samt om avkastningen och förvaltningsavgifterna skiljer sig mellan olika fondtyper.</p><p>Metod: Studien bygger på en deduktiv forskningsansats eftersom vi utgår från befintliga begrepp och teorier. Då vi ville undersöka en stor population har vi använt oss av en kvantitativ forskningsstrategi. Studien grundar sig på åren 2004-2007. För att bestämma ett samband mellan de två variablerna förvaltningsavgift och avkastning har vi använt oss av regressionsanalyser. För att undersöka om avkastningen och förvaltningsavgifterna skiljer sig åt mellan de olika fondtyperna har vi använt oss av medelvärdesanalyser.</p><p>Empiri: Vi har hämtat data gällande förvaltningsavgifter och avkastning på de fonder som ingår i urvalet från Morningstar som är en oberoende utgivare av fondinformation.</p><p>Slutsatser: Studiens resultat visar att ett samband mellan fondernas avkastning och dess förvaltningsavgift (TKA) endast kan fastställas år 2005, då ett negativt samband föreligger. Detta år visar indikationer på att det finns skillnader i resultaten och att det inte beror på slumpen. De resterande åren kan resultaten dels bero på slumpen samt har de en dålig förklaringsgrad vilket innebär att resultaten i studien ej kan skildra verkligheten. Räntefonderna är den fondtyp som har den lägsta genomsnittliga avkastningen under den undersökta perioden, aktiefonderna har den högsta. Räntefonderna har även den lägsta genomsnittliga TKA medan den fondtyp som i denna studie har den högsta genomsnittliga TKA är fond-i-fonder.</p> / <p>Title: Mutual funds; administration fees vs. proceeds – Is it profitable to pay a bit more or is it just foolish?</p><p>Seminar date: 2008-06-04</p><p>Course: Master Thesis/D-level</p><p>Authors: Anna Asplund and Malin Elfving</p><p>Advisor: Stig Westerdahl</p><p>Keywords: Mutual funds, Administration fees, TKA, Proceed</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate if there is a connection between the administration fees of mutual funds and their proceeds. The study aims to examine different kinds of funds which invests in different kinds of markets and if there are differences between these funds.</p><p>Methodology: The study is founded on a deductive research effort since we take our starting-point in existing terminology and theories. Since we wanted to examine a large population we used a quantitative research strategy. In order to determine a connection between the two variables; administration fee and proceed we have used regression-analysis.</p><p>Empirical foundation: We have collected data concerning administration fees and proceed on the funds in the selection from Morningstar, which is an independent publisher of mutual fund information</p><p>Conclusion: It is only for the year of 2005 the study shows a possible negative connection between the administration fees of mutual funds and their proceeds. For the unit trusts a possible connection cannot be established for any of the examined years.</p>