The paper describes the exchange program in between the University of Wisconsin/ Milwaukee and the University of Potsdam in the field of economics. It discusses in detail the development of the program, including the problems and challenges. Additionally a brief description of the curriculum is presented. Then the future possibilities of the Transatlantic Degree Program (TDP) are discussed and the influences and problems of the Bologna process analysed.

Background: The devolopment in the exchange market has attract a large number of investors. The information flow is extensive and it might be hard to follow the dynamic market. Some investors therefore choose to place their capital in a stock portfolio which is manged by a professional firm with no influence from the capital owner, this management is called discretionary managing. Purpose: the purpose of the thesis is to examine the working methods and the rationality regarding the management of the discretionary portfolios. The purpose is also to try to examine whether there is a relation between the selected risk, return and fees. Realization: in this thesis our primary data comes from interviews with portfolio managers. By means of snowball sample we found portfolio managers in banks and in stock broker firms. Anonymity has been used to promote the right information from our interviews. Result: Discretionary portfolio management differ between banks and stock brokers. The managing in the banks has a passive investment strategy and the stock brokers has an active strategy. The chosen stategy characterize the selected risk, expected return and the required fees.

Syfte: Syftet med vårt examensarbete är att försöka identifiera och analysera hur revisorer definierar revisionskvalité och hur de förvissar sig om att de genomför revision med hög kvalité Metod: För att nå fram till ett resultat har en abduktiv ansats med en kvantitativ metod använts för denna explorativa studie Teoretiskt perspektiv: Studien utgår ifrån befintlig teori och vetenskapliga studier men även resultatet av våra pilotintervjuer som använts för att urskilja faktorer som kan förklara vårt syfte. Teorier som använts är professionsteori, institutionell teori och byråkulturell teori Empiri: Det empiriska materialet grundar sig på en enkätundersökning som vänder sig till Sveriges revisorer i FARs medlemsregister. Det empiriska materialet har analyserats av statistiska tester Resultat: Analysen påvisade att de faktorer som har den största positiva påverkan på revisionskvalité är expertis tillsammans med revisorns kompetens / Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to identify and analyze how auditors define audit quality and how they are ascertain that they perform audit with high quality Methodology: In order to reach a result, an abductive approach with a quantitative method have been used in this exploratory study Theoretical perspective: The study is based on existing theories and scientific studies, but also the results of our pilot interviews are used to identify factors that may explain our purpose. Theories that have been used are professional theory, institutional theory and agency cultural theory Empirical foundation: The empirical material is based on a questionnaire addressed to the Swedish auditors in FARs membership list. The empirical data have been analyzed by statistical tests Conclusion: The analysis showed that the factors that are having the greatest positive impact on audit quality are expertise together with the auditor's proficiency

Thesis (Ph.D.)--RAND Graduate School, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Background: Iraq is a higher middle-income country with a GDP of $223.5 billion (as of 2014). In the 1970s and 1980s, an extensive network of primary, secondary and tertiary health facilities was built, and the country recorded some of the best health indicators in the Middle East. However, two decades of conflict (both inter- and intra-state), sanctions and poor planning have reversed many of the previous gains. In the aftermath of the 2003 war, the government of Iraq introduced a Basic Health Services Package (BHSP) with a user fee component. International actors often advocate BHSPs as a means of rapidly scaling-up services in health systems that are devastated by conflict. User fees have also been promoted as a way of raising revenue to enhance the financial sustainability of healthcare systems in such contexts. While Iraq is a conflict-affected state, it has retained an extensive healthcare infrastructure and has a ministry of health with considerable financial and administrative capacity. In such a context, the introduction of a BHSP is a notable and distinctive feature of health policy in this setting, and the process through which this occurred have not yet been examined. Aim: To explore the processes through which the BHSP was conceived and designed in Iraq. It compares Iraq’s BHSP with similar policies in other post-conflict settings. It examines the roles of domestic and external actors and models in the policy’s conception and design. It explores the preferences of internal and external actors about the financing of service delivery through user fees. The study also examines the extent of policy transfer in the formulation of Iraq’s BHSP. Methodology: The thesis utilises a qualitative case study approach, incorporating analysis of semi-structured elite interviews and documents. Twenty Skype, phone, and face-to- face interviews were conducted between January 2013 and August 2014. Interviewees included former ministers of health, directors of departments of health, academics and officials at donor agencies, bilateral and multi-lateral bodies and consultancies. Documents included 47 official government publications, evaluations, reports, policy briefs and assessments. Literature review: A search of the literature on health policy making in post-conflict and fragile settings identified three key gaps in existing evidence; first, there is a dearth of published work examining health policy in post-conflict Iraq. Second, the literature focuses mainly on the impact of policy action in post-conflict contexts, largely neglecting the processes through which those policies are introduced. Third, while the literature concentrates on the roles of external actors, it pays limited attention to the role of domestic actors and politics. Results: Iraq’s BHSP shares commonalities with the other selected countries (Uganda, Afghanistan, and Liberia) in its primary aims, influential actors, interventions included or excluded, and financing principles. However, Iraq’s BHSP also aims at broader, and longer-term, structural reform, while the BHSP in other countries is often motivated by short-term objectives. The MoH in Iraq also appears to assume a prominent role in this case relative to others. Also, Iraq’s BHSP includes a greater number of interventions compared to the other countries. The Iraq war of 2003 offered the opportunity for wide-ranging structural change in the healthcare system. External actors, especially the WHO, were influential in advocating for a BHSP drawing on the recent experience of a similar initiative in what was in some ways the similar context of Afghanistan. However, the removal of former politicians and the emergence of internal policy actors with considerable technical and financial capacity allowed the domestic authorities to debate, dispute and challenge the recommendations of external actors. Relatedly, some of the internationally distinctive features of the BHSP in Iraq, including user fees, are similar to those that exist elsewhere in the health system. Most interviewees agreed that the BHSP was a means of enhancing financial sustainability and that it would help to enhance efficiency by targeting resources at population health need. The BHSP, according to some, represented the categories of healthcare that the government should finance, while allowing the private sector to meet demand for other services. However, many domestic actors supported the introduction of user fees as part of the BHSP. Several external actors either distanced themselves from this decision or declared no position, claiming that this was properly a matter for the government of Iraq. Discussion: While the BHSP’s ‘label’ is new in the context of Iraq, its substantive content is not. The BHSP can be seen as the outcome of the combination of old (existing) technologies and instruments presented in new (and introduced) ways. The existing health system offered ideas, techniques and processes that were maintained and reproduced even if these were packaged in new ways, to create a policy framework which is genuinely novel. External experts highlighted the idea of the BHSP and provided models (such as Afghanistan) on which the policy could be based. Internal decision-makers, however, were active players in policy formulation, not passive recipients who did not question or modify the policy during the process of transfer. On the contrary, it seems that the latter exerted considerable influence. User fees represent one aspect of that continuity. Ownership of policies by ministries of health in post-conflict is often advocated. However, such involvement introduces the potential for replicating old structures and policies, and may result in a degree of policy incoherence. Policy ideas are likely to change significantly where there is considerable local engagement in policy design and implementation.

The determinants of audit fees and report lag: A comparative study of Egypt and the UK Despite the occurrence of recent economic and political events such as the global financial crisis and Arab spring in the Middle East, researchers have not addressed the effects of such events on the auditing profession. That is has given a motive to this study to explore this point of research. This study has three main objectives. The first objective is to investigate the determinants of audit fees and audit report timeliness in the Egyptian and UK contexts. The second objective is to point out how the economic and political events could affect these determinants. The third objective is to make a comparison between the response of auditors towards economic and political instability in both countries. These objectives are set to solve the research problem of this study which is to investigate how the price behaviour of audit fees and report timeliness can vary in two different contexts: Egypt and the UK, and to highlight how auditors respond to such economic (Global Financial Crisis) and political events (Egyptian Revolution). A special attention has been addressed to tourism industry while investigating audit pricing and timeliness decisions throughout this study for two reasons. First, tourism industry play a critical role for the economy of many developing and developed countries. Second, tourism industry is highly affected by any economic and political events. For these reasons, tourism industry is surrounded by high risk during the economic or political instability, and thus this might result in special procedures and decisions taken by the auditors regarding tourism industry clients during instable periods. To take into account the most recent economic and political events, the study sample covers the period of six financial years from 2008 to 2013. This sample period has been chosen to capture the global financial crisis that has taken place during 2008-2009 and also to investigate the effects of the Egyptian revolution that has taken place on January 25, 2011, and subsequent political events. The study sample includes 212 Egyptian companies listed in the Egyptian stock market and the top 350 companies (FTSE 350) listed in the London Stock Exchange. For guaranteeing the preciseness of the findings, advanced panel data Prais-Winsten statistical analysis technique has been used throughout this study. Results of this study reveal consistency between Egypt and UK in most signs of coefficients of audit fees determinants. However, a lot of differences exist between the audit report lag determinants in the Egyptian and UK context that suggest that a one-size-fits-all approach cannot be generalized in audit report lag determinants for various countries. Despite that tourism is a very risky industry that is easily affected by economic and political instability, results reported in Egypt and UK reveal that audit fees charged and audit delay reported for tourism did not differ from other industries in both contexts. Results also reveal that Big N auditing firms in the UK have competitive advantages of not charging an audit fee premium and offering a more timely audit report than non-big N. These advantages increase the demand of Big N in the UK and increase their dominance. On the other side, in Egypt, Big N auditing firms do not offer such advantage of timely audit reports than non-big N, besides, they charge their clients with audit fee premium. That enabled medium sized and small auditing firms to penetrate the Egyptian auditing market and increase their market share, and thus, Big N dominance is not high in the Egyptian audit market as that in the UK. Different auditor responses to global financial crisis (GFC) have been documented in both countries. As auditors in Egypt decreased their audit fees and offered more timely audit report to face the economic recession and the anxiety of investors accompanied with the GFC. However, neither the pricing of auditing services nor the audit report lag have been affected during the GFC in the UK audit market. According to the results of this study, during the Egyptian Revolution, auditors tended to charge audit fees premium without increasing/decreasing audit delay. This implies that the increase in audit fees during revolution was a risk premium due to the instability in economic and political conditions and was not accompanied by any increase in audit effort and delay.

A large part of the work has been devoted to regulation fees as one of the health care systems regulating mechanisms. An essential place in the work is taken by elaboration of the topic of increase of costs for the health care systems functioning in the current world and the possibilities of their solution. The work also deals with an extensive and frequently discussed topic of justice in the physician-patient relationship. This topic has been processed in connection with historical circumstances and a philosophical dimension of perception of justice in health care. Further to this, ideas and ideological foundations of justice, which project into political ideologies, have been dealt with. Health care systems, the system of health insurance in the Czech Republic and its legal regulation have been briefly characterized. The aim of the work was to map an opinion of some ordinary citizens regarding perception of justice in the Czech health care and introduction of the regulation fees. Partial goals were to find out in what way political orientation reflects in the opinion on justice of the collected regulation fees and furthermore to map, in what way an amount of income of respondents influences an opinion that regulation fees represent an income for a health care facility. Two hypotheses were determined. Hypothesis no. 1: University graduates understand better the system of regulation fees. Hypothesis no. 2: More than 80% or respondents consider it unjust that regulation fees represent an income of a physician, health care facility, or pharmacy. A method of questioning was used for the processing, data collection was carried out by using a questionnaire technique. Statistical methods suitable for an analysis of categorical data were used for evaluation of information. 300 questionnaires were handed out, the return rate being 74%, the final research population consisted in 182 respondents from the city of Votice. Another employed processing method was the secondary data analysis. Results of the questionnaire research brought a number of intriguing facts relating to attitudes of the respondents as to the issue of justice and state of the Czech health care. Further to this, it has been confirmed that university educated respondents understand better the system of regulation fees. In more than 65%, respondents consider it unjust that the proceeds from the regulation fees collection represent income of a health care facility. One of the hypothesis was confirmed and the other was disproved. The acquired information can be used as a guideline for public discussion.

The aim of this diploma thesis is an analysis of financial products for students in the Czech Republic and the chosen country of the European Union. The theoretical part describes the basic concepts related to banking, financial mathematics and decision-making models. In the practical part individual student accounts are analyzed and then two model examples for the monthly costs account and for multi-criteria decision-making methods are processed.

Esta dissertação trata dos conflitos entre a Fazenda Pública e os contribuintes relativos ao ICMS em São Paulo. O trabalho busca compreender e verificar se o processo administrativo tributário paulista foi suficiente, efetivo e útil para o controle de legalidade dos atos administrativos emanados a partir do surgimento de conflitos de ICMS no período de 2010 a 2014. A processualização no Direito Administrativo representa uma das formas do particular intervir na ação estatal, sobretudo naquelas em que o Estado interfere em sua esfera jurídica. Instalado o processo no âmbito administrativo, o Poder Público e o cidadão apresentarão seus argumentos, provas, razões e fundamentos para a decisão administrativa final. Em matéria tributária, tal instrumento de participação e de defesa de direitos tem ainda maior relevância, eis que o Estado, no uso de seu poder de império, e exercendo competência para instituir tributos conforme previsão constitucional, invade a esfera jurídica do particular na busca do que entende ser o montante devido de tributo, aplicando, eventualmente, uma penalidade pelo descumprimento de obrigações tributárias. O processo administrativo tributário cumpre, então, dois objetivos cruciais, quais sejam: i) o de propiciar a participação do particular na defesa de seus direitos face a um ato administrativo invasivo de sua esfera jurídica, e ii) permite que a Administração Pública exerça a autotutela sobre seus atos, pelo controle de legalidade a que se submete a edição do ato administrativo de lançamento tributário. No Estado de São Paulo, o ICMS é o tributo de maior relevância em termos de arrecadação para o Tesouro estadual; por conseguinte, os conflitos surgidos entre Fisco e contribuinte relativos a esse imposto têm impacto econômico relevante nas finanças públicas estaduais e no ambiente econômico onde as empresas paulistas desenvolvem suas atividades. O trabalho aborda os conflitos de ICMS no período de 2010 a 2014, período em que ocorreram mudanças estruturais com a passagem do processo convencional para o processo eletrônico. Com isso, o estudo visa avaliar a eficiência do novo desenho institucional do processo administrativo tributário paulista nesse período. A Administração Tributária do Estado de São Paulo tem em sua estrutura organizacional um complexo de órgãos de julgamento de lides tributárias. Dessa forma, o estudo descreve a estrutura e a composição dos órgãos de julgamento e sua forma de atuação nos processos administrativos tributários. O escopo do estudo abrange, inicialmente, o entendimento sobre princípios de direito que governam o tema, e, sucessivamente, a análise das consequências advindas do conflito entre Fisco e contribuinte, o estudo dos ritos procedimentais na fase litigiosa, a compreensão da organização dos órgãos de julgamento administrativos e a avaliação, eficiência e o desempenho desses órgãos no período em relevo. O trabalho se encerra com uma avaliação do sobreprincípio da segurança jurídica, à luz do processo administrativo tributário, com análise crítica sobre a efetividade e transparência na solução de conflitos tributários no Estado de São Paulo, ilustrada pela descrição de alguns casos concretos de julgados administrativos onde se confirma ou se infirma o atendimento aos princípios fundamentais que orientam a matéria. / This dissertation deals with the conflict between the Treasury and taxpayers for the ICMS in São Paulo. The work seeks to understand and verify that the São Paulo tax administrative process was sufficient, effective and useful for the control of legality of administrative acts emanating from the emergence of ICMS conflicts in the 2010-2014 period. The process of Administrative Law is one of the particular forms of intervening in state action, especially those in which the state interferes in his legal sphere. Installed the process at the administrative level, the Government and the citizens present their arguments, evidences, reasons and grounds for the final administrative decision. In tax matters, an instrument of participation and advocacy is even more relevant, the state, the use of its power of empire, and exercising the power to impose taxes as constitutional provision, invades the individual\'s legal sphere in search of it perceives as the amount due to tax and, where necessary, a penalty for noncompliance with tax obligations. The tax administrative process follows, then, two key objectives, namely: i) to encourage the participation of particular in defense of their rights against an invasive administrative act of their legal sphere, and ii) allows the Public Administration pursues control of legality about his acts, the legality control that submits the issue of the administrative act of tax assessment. In São Paulo, the ICMS is the most relevant in terms of tax revenues to the state treasury; therefore, conflicts arising between tax authorities and taxpayers for this tax have significant economic impact on the state\'s public finances and the economic environment in which the São Paulo companies develop their activities. The work deals with conflicts of ICMS in the period 2010 to 2014, during which structural changes had occurred with the passage of conventional process for the electronic process. Thus, the study aims to evaluate the efficiency of the new institutional design of the São Paulo tax administrative process that period. The Tax Administration of the State of São Paulo has in its organizational structure a complex of judgment tax litigations organs. Thus, the study describes the structure and composition of the trial bodies and the way it operates in the tax administrative proceedings. The study scope covers initially the understanding of principles of law governing the subject, and successively, the analysis of the consequences arising from the conflict between tax authorities and taxpayers, the study of procedural rites in litigious phase, understanding the organization of the bodies administrative judgment and evaluation, efficiency and performance of these agencies in the relief period. The work concludes with an assessment of principle of legal certainty, in the light of the tax administrative process, with critical analysis of the effectiveness and transparency in the tax dispute resolution in the State of São Paulo, illustrated by the description of some specific cases of administrative trial where it is confirmed or invalidate up the service to the fundamental principles that govern the matter.

Os objetivos deste trabalho foram analisar as informações contidas nas apólices de dano à pessoa em processos de sinistros de seguradoras, e propor melhorias para o atendimento de traumatizados portadores desse tipo de produto. Foram descritas as informações sobre o perfil do segurado - sexo, faixa etária e ocupação -; características do trauma - como local e etiologia do dano -; características da lesão e dos tratamentos reabilitadores; adequação dos tratamentos propostos, dos honorários e da documentação. Foram elencadas as falhas detectadas nas apólices cuja documentação apresentava-se insuficiente. O estudo abrangeu 151 processos, dos quais 132 constituiam-se em Avisos de Acidente (iniciais) e 19 em Avisos de Continuidade. Quanto aos tipos de seguros, 124 eram de Seguro Escolar, 07 de Afastamento Profissional e 01 de DPVAT. Nos processos, 84 (63,64%) segurados eram do sexo masculino e 48 (36,36%) do sexo feminino; a faixa etária predominante foi a compreendida entre 6 e 10 anos, com 42 (31,82%) casos; o local de maior ocorrência foi a área escolar (57 = 43,18%). Na etiologia do dano constatou-se que 59 (44,70%) acidentes aconteceram durante locomoções, 34 (25,76%) em atividades lúdicas, 18 (13,64%) em práticas esportivas e 16 (12,12%) em ambiente doméstico, nos três últimos dos quais as quedas ocorreram com maior freqüência. Os dados de lesões referem-se tão somente aos Avisos de Acidentes, nos quais predominaram as fraturas coronárias simples, com 94 ocorrências, e 21 acidentes geraram lesões associadas de tecidos duros e tecidos moles. Da mesma forma, os tratamentos reabilitadores só contemplam os Avisos de Acidentes, nos quais prevaleceu a dentística (112). Na análise da adequação de tratamentos propostos, dos 151 processos, 133 estavam adequados e 18 inadequados. Quanto aos honorários profissionais, 89 apresentaram valores satisfatórios e 55, valores acima dos usuais. Os 7 processos restantes eram de Afastamento Profissional, nos quais não são avaliados os custos de tratamento e sim o tempo de restabelecimento. Em relação à adequação da documentação, 74 estavam adequados e 77 não completaram a documentação requisitada. Dentre os inadequados, a principal falha foi a ausência de radiografias iniciais e/ou finais. / This dissertation aims at analyzing the data on accident claims in personal injury policies from insurance companies and at proposing improvements on the treatment of injured people who hold this kind of product. The study describes information related to the insured profile (gender, age and occupation), to the trauma (such as the place and etiology of damage), the lesion and rehabilitation treatment characteristics, as well as whether proposed treatments were adequate for the fees charged and for the documentary evidence submitted. Errors identified in policies with insufficient documentation were also listed. The study encompassed 151 claims, 132 of which were Notification of Accidents (Initial Claims) and 19 were Notification about the Eligibility for Continuity of Care. As for the kinds of insurance, 124 related to School Accident Insurances, while 07, to Professional Leave, and only 01 related to Motor Vehicle Personal Injury Insurance. In those claims, 84 (63,64%) insured were male, whereas 48 (36,36%) were female; the main age group ranged from 6 to 10 years old, totalizing 42 cases (or 31,82%). Schools were the place where the greatest number of accidents (57 = 44,53%) occurred. In the etiology of damage, it was observed that 59 accidents (44,70%) occurred during locomotion movement, 34 cases (25,76%) in playing, 18 (13,64%) during the practice of sports and 16 (12,12%) at home. In the last three types, fall accidents occurred more frequently. As for the kind of lesion, the simple fracture crown prevailed in 94 cases, whereas in 21 accidents, it were hard and soft associated lesions. In the rehabilitation treatments, dentistry prevailed in 112 proceedings. As for the suitability of proposed treatments, out of 151 claims, 133 were adequate whereas 18 were not. As far as fees for professional services were concerned, 89 were considered satisfactory, while 55 were considered overcharged. The last 7 claims were related to Professional Leave, and so what is assessed is the time to recovery and not the treatment costs. In relation to documentary evidence, 74 claims submitted proper documents, while 77 did not. The latter main error was that initial and /or final radiographic documentation was not sent to the insurance companies.