The purpose of this research study is to assess the funding and governance models utilised in the operations of cooperatives, with specific reference to Magwa and Majola Tea Estates in the Eastern Cape. Luyt (2008) observes that poverty levels in South Africa remain high, and have not been greatly reduced since 1994. There is general agreement amongst Eastern Cape communities that more than two decades after apartheid has ended, nearly half of South Africa’s population continue to live in poverty. A common understanding, is that cooperatives are geared and established to address poverty, address both social and economic development, even though they also emphasise a social focus, they are expected to be operated on sound business principles.

The purpose of this study identifies state court cases involving public school finance specifically related to adequacy and equity in funding. Results address how state court cases have challenged the constitutionality of school finance in the United States, including Texas, over the last 50 years. The study further shows how the decisions from previous cases have influenced the Supreme Court of Texas decision in the Texas Taxpayer & Student Fairness litigation.

This paper examines the impact of reduced insider trading enforcement on the stock market using a unique and plausibly exogenous U.S. court ruling that undermines the SEC’s ability to prosecute insider trading defendants in court. Contrary to the conventional view, the study finds that the court ruling has positive effects on liquidity and stock price, consistent with the idea that stock prices become more informative when insider trading enforcement is reduced. The effects are less positive for firms with high ex-ante stock price informativeness, as the benefits of reduced insider trading enforcement are smaller for these firms. However, liquidity deteriorates in pre-earnings announcement periods after the court ruling, as investors anticipate forthcoming information and delay their trades until the announcement, due to heightened risks associated with trading against those with private information. In sum, this paper shows that the effect of reduced insider trading enforcement on liquidity and stock price could be positive overall. This study holds implications for the SEC, which aims to regulate insider trading for a fair market while also considering liquidity to maintain an efficient market.

published_or_final_version / Law / Master / Master of Philosophy

The purposes of this study were to: (a) determine the effects of Senate Bill 7 on expenditures in Texas school districts, (b) compare similarities and differences in expenditures among property-poor, medium-wealth, and wealthy-districts, (c) analyze spending patterns in light of equalization efforts, and (d) provide useful data to researchers in the area of equalization and adequacy.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 2016 / The Precious Metals Industry in South Africa is highly-regulated compared with other mining and trading countries in the western world which have either deregulated their precious metals industries, have only partial controls or have never seen the need to regulate gold and platinum-group metals specifically. South Africa has a specific Act of parliament, the Precious Metals Act, 2005 (a modification of Chapter 16 of the Mining Rights Act, 1967), that regulates possession, trading and manufacture of precious metals. Apart from the Russian Federation, no other country in the world regulates gold and platinum-group metals possession, trading and fabrication to the extent still done in South Africa. The requirement for such stringent controls was based on the country’s pre-eminence in the production of gold and platinum over the past fifty years, exchange controls (in the case of gold) and the contribution of gold and platinum-group metals to foreign exchange earnings and to the country’s economy as a whole. However, much has changed in South Africa, in the world and indeed in the precious metals industries domestically and globally and this work is the first attempt to discuss and analyse developments and proposals that are impacting on the regulation of the precious metals industries in South Africa. Of these, the World Gold Council’s Conflict-Free Gold Standard provides a case for industry self- regulation to complement, or substitute for government regulation in future. The hypothesis at the Proposal Stage of this study was that the precious metals industry in South Africa is over-regulated and should be deregulated. In this study, this hypothesis is explored and debated. The Resource Nationalism -motivated proposals, including Producer-Country Price for Platinum, OPEC-type trade bloc for platinum, precious metal exchange and single-channel marketing of platinum, were analysed in this study. It was concluded that these are wanting in terms of cost/benefit or problematic in terms of international agreements and trade and competition laws. iii The Precious Metals Act, 2005 itself was also critically analysed with a view to evaluating what could be regulated better or deregulated in the light of recent developments and proposals. It was found, ironically, that the old problem of illegal mining and trading needs to be brought under control before deregulation of the precious metals industry can begin. Nevertheless, in the run-up to deregulation (in an estimated 10 to 15 years), industry self-regulation, co-regulation (with industry) hallmarking, and a re-examination of how beneficiation is promoted should be considered.

Taxpayers who hire tax professionals to assist with tax matters have a choice as to which type of tax professional to hire. This study looks at the choice between hiring a tax accountant or a tax attorney. Stephenson (2010) identifies four constructs that explain a taxpayer’s motivation to hire a tax professional—legal compliance, time savings, money savings, and a protection from/avoidance of the Internal Revenue Service. A taxpayer may be motivated by one or more of these demand constructs. Further, the context of the advice—whether given in a planning or compliance setting—may influence the choice of a specific type of practitioner. Taxpayers also perceive certain professional features of the practitioner as being associated with either an accountant or an attorney. In a 2 x 1 between subjects research design, I investigate these issues by exploring how the perceived characteristics of the accounting and legal professions and the tax context differentially influence the demand for one of these professionals. I hypothesize that taxpayers who demand a tax professional because of legal compliance or time savings are more likely to hire an accountant. Taxpayers who demand the services of a tax professional because of money savings or a protection from/avoidance of the Internal Revenue Service are more likely to hire an attorney. Additionally, I hypothesize that taxpayers in a planning context are more likely to hire an attorney while taxpayers in a compliance setting are more likely to hire an accountant. In a hierarchal regression, the variable for accuracy was significant in a simple regression of the four Stephenson constructs. In a second tier of the regression, accuracy was again significant as were certain covariates. In the final tier of the regression, no independent variable was significant but certain covariates were significant including client advocacy which was highly significant. The results do demonstrate that taxpayers perceive professional differences between a tax accountant and a tax attorney. Many of the results and the rationales underlying the hypotheses seem to be in the right direction as far as showing the expected demand for a specific tax professional. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Thesis (LLM. (Labour Law)) -- University of Limpopo, 2015 / Section 37C of the Pension Funds Act was introduced primarily to ensure that death benefits are paid in accordance with the object of the Act and government policy. Its purpose is to make sure that the dependants of the deceased member are not left destitute upon the death of the member. In order to achieve this, the death benefits are placed under the control of the trustees who are tasked with the duty to distribute the benefits equitably among the beneficiaries. According to this section, death benefits do not form part of the deceased’s estate and as a result a beneficiary under the last will and testament of the deceased is not necessarily a beneficiary under section 37C of the Act. The board of trustees will consider a person as a beneficiary if the deceased member has nominated such a person in a valid nomination form. This section therefore overrides the deceased’s freedom of testation because the board of trustees are not bound by the deceased’s wishes as completed in the nomination form. A nomination form is one of the factors which the trustees have to consider in the exercise of their discretion to make an equitable distribution.

Fiscal stress is an important and recurring problem that states face. Research to date on state fiscal stress involves, predominantly, cross-sectional and case study analyses and does not address the effectiveness of state responses. Many of these studies use different definitions and measures of fiscal stress compounding the difficulty of comparing fiscal stress findings. The present research effort adds to the fiscal stress literature by (1) clarifying the meaning of fiscal stress in the state context, (2) developing a measure of fiscal stress that operationalizes this meaning and is comparable across units, and 3) using this measure analyzes patterns in and the effectiveness of state responses. Fiscal stress is measured using four indexes: budget, cash, long-run, service-level. Eleven financial indicators, calculated using data from state Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFRs), are used to create these indexes for all fifty states for the years 2002-2009. Descriptive analysis compares state fiscal stress levels (grouped into low, moderate, and high fiscal stress by cluster analysis) to state economic growth rates, state responses, and institutional factors yielding several findings. First, states do not use an incremental or punctuated equilibrium strategy in responding to fiscal stress; nor do their responses follow the pattern predicted by Cutback Management theory. Second, institutional factors affect both the levels of fiscal stress and state responses to fiscal stress. Regression analysis supports and extends these findings. First, short-term responses of expenditure cuts, tax increases, and rainy day fund use do not affect state fiscal stress levels. Second, these responses have long-term effects on fiscal stress levels. A major implication of this research is that there is very little states can do in the short-term to reduce fiscal stress. However, by balancing expenditures and revenues states can set themselves up to weather the next economic downturn with lower levels of fiscal stress.

Orientador: Leandro Silva Medrano / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-23T09:55:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Assumpcao_MarinadeCamargo_D.pdf: 17990548 bytes, checksum: 842281fec37ee83b2ff2f09e30b41387 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: A primeira década do século XXI presenciou grandes avanços em relação à reforma urbana no Brasil, tais como a formulação de programas abrangentes direcionados à habitação de interesse social; a criação de novos instrumentos jurídicos e institucionais de suporte às cidades; a ampliação das políticas públicas direcionadas a minimizar as desigualdades sociais e territoriais; o incentivo à participação da sociedade junto aos interlocutores das políticas urbanas, e inéditos investimentos destinados à moradia popular e à infraestrutura. Entretanto, poucos foram os benefícios à qualidade urbana das cidades brasileiras, principalmente nas áreas destinadas às habitações populares. Um dos principais instrumentos de estímulo à inovação e à evolução qualitativa no campo da arquitetura e do urbanismo são os concursos de projeto. O concurso é uma oportunidade para os profissionais realizarem seus trabalhos sem restrições ou interferências do setor público ou do mercado, o que deveria possibilitar avanços significativos à disciplina, tanto em seus procedimentos práticos quanto teóricos. Destarte, o objetivo desta tese de doutorado é verificar, em exemplos nacionais recentes, a relação entre concursos de arquitetura e a evolução das habitações de interesse social construídas. Para tanto, o Concurso "Prêmio Caixa IAB", dos anos de 2004, 2006 e 2008/2009, foi investigado como estudo de caso. A hipótese levantada é que os resultados dos projetos vencedores dos concursos apresentam soluções inovadoras em relação à produção do campo habitacional brasileiro, entretanto, sem lugar no atual sistema nacional de produção. As discussões provenientes das análises realizadas e o confronto com a hipótese central enunciada fundamentam as conclusões finais deste trabalho e devem constituir, à prática projetiva ou à teoria, fundamentos que contribuam com a qualidade da produção contemporânea / Abstract: The first decade of the 21st century witnessed great developments in urban reform in Brazil, such as the formulation of a wide range of programs focused on social housing; the creation of new legal and institutional tools to support cities; the expansion of public policies to minimize social and territorial disparities; the incentives to society's participation together with the interlocutors of urban policies, and unheard of investments destined to popular housing and infrastructure. However, there were few benefits to the urban quality of Brazilian cities, mainly to the areas assigned to popular housing. One of the main tools to foster innovation and qualitative development in the field of architecture and urbanism is the project contest. The contest is an opportunity for professionals to develop their work with no restriction or interference from the public sector or market, which would enable significant advances to the discipline, in its practical procedures as well as theoretical. Thus, the objective of this doctorate thesis is to verify, with recent domestic examples, the relation between architecture contests and the development of already built social housing. For that, the contests "Caixa IAB Award" from 2004, 2006, and 2008/2009, were investigated as case studies. The hypothesis arisen is that the results of winning projects show innovative solutions to the production of the Brazilian housing field despite having no place in the present domestic production system. The discussions originated from analyses performed and the comparison with the central hypothesis enacted base the final conclusions of this work and should establish, to the projective practice as well as the theory, principles that contribute to the quality of contemporary production / Doutorado / Arquitetura, Tecnologia e Cidade / Doutora em Arquitetura, Tecnologia e Cidade