abstract: This dissertation consists of two chapters. Chapter one studies distortionary effects of tax exemption of employer-sponsored health insurance (ESHI) premiums. First, I argue that, in the competitive labor market, tax deductibility of ESHI premiums generates an implicit labor cost subsidy to the employers sponsoring health insurance (HI) which distorts the allocation of labor across employers. Second, I quantify the extent of this misallocation measured as output loss in a general equilibrium model of firm dynamics extended to incorporate tax exemption of ESHI premiums and endogenous provision of HI by the employers. The calibrated model shows that elimination of tax exemption increases aggregate output by 1.73%. About two-thirds of this effect comes from removing the misallocation of labor across existing establishments, and the remaining one-third comes from the increase in the number of operating establishments. Third, I use the model to analyze how tax exemption interacts with the employer mandate of the Affordable Care Act imposing a tax on large employers not sponsoring HI. Quantitative results show that implementing the employer mandate when the tax exemption is present reduces output by 0.13%. Chapter two studies macroeconomic implications of a higher cost of health services faced by the unemployed which arise because 1) workers lose access to ESHI when they leave their jobs and 2) the uninsured face inflated health care prices. First, I provide evidence suggesting that the cost of health services for the privately insured is about 50% lower than for the uninsured. Second, I quantify the effects of higher cost of health services for the unemployed in the Lucas and Prescott (1974) island model extended to allow the workers to pay an extra cost of health services contingent on their employment status. Calibration procedure uses the differences between costs of health services for the privately insured and uninsured inferred from the data as a gap between costs of health services for the employed and unemployed. Quantitative results show that equalizing these costs across workers increases labor productivity by 1.2% and unemployment rate by 1.5 percentage points. The increased unemployment dominates quantitatively leading to a decrease in aggregate output by 0.26%. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Economics 2017

abstract: Affected by the macro environment factors, such as economic growth rate of decline, China's real estate market net profit growth rate decline gradually. With the central limit of limited loans and a series of sound policy introduced, the real estate market is gradually showing signs of stabilizing, the industry overall revenue increase, but the profit rate began to decline, how to improve the performance of enterprises to profit growth, has become a practical problem enterprises must face. Through theoretical research and case analysis, research management innovation impact on business performance. Effect of Zhong’an real estate marketing partner and business partner system on corporate performance, in order to validate the research theme. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Management innovation has significantly enhance enterprise performance. The effectiveness of the marketing partner and business partner has significantly enhance enterprise performance. Business partner has a great role in promoting the operation of the project management, is the overall level of a project management; marketing partners, is mainly in terms of sales and cost impact on enterprise performance. (2) Partner institution granting autonomous decision-making team, reduced decision-making mistakes to achieve an efficient management; at the same time encourage and cultivate internal talent, improve the staff's initiative and enthusiasm. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2017

abstract: This article can be divided into six parts. The first chapter analyzes the background, theatrical and particle reasons of this research. The author argues that the management of law firm needs a set of good system. The first one is operating the law firm in scale, and the other on is corporate management model, which shall be constructed in detail in the paper and will be put into practice by the law firm in which the author is worked. The second chapter will introduce modern management theory, combining the situation of management in our law firm to analyze, raising some reasonable suggestions and instructions to promote our law firm to achieve the corporate management. In the third chapter, the first chapter, starting with the review of the development process of foreign and our law firms, listing the organizational forms and the characteristics of our law firm, analyzing the situation and the drawbacks of the law firm management. The fourth and fifth chapter introduce he background, the connotation of the corporate management model, listing the development and successful experience of some typical cases in respect of corporate management. In the last chapter, the construction of corporate management model will be introduced in terms of organization form, human resource management and informationizing development. The corporate management model is not mature in china. Though it is not easy to reform the existing model, but it should be believed that the development benefiting the legal industry will be achieved. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2017

abstract: By matching a CEO's place of residence in his or her formative years with U.S. Census survey data, I obtain an estimate of the CEO's family wealth and study the link between the CEO's endowed social status and firm performance. I find that, on average, CEOs born into poor families outperform those born into wealthy families, as measured by a variety of proxies for firm performance. There is no evidence of higher risk-taking by the CEOs from low social status backgrounds. Further, CEOs from less privileged families perform better in firms with high R&D spending but they underperform CEOs from wealthy families when firms operate in a more uncertain environment. Taken together, my results show that endowed family wealth of a CEO is useful in identifying his or her managerial ability. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2018

Submitted by Fernando Salazar (fernando.salazar@votorantimcorretora.com.br) on 2013-08-22T19:23:02Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_FernandoSalazar_final.pdf: 716420 bytes, checksum: 1581ff723525f8a036c7a630a8650453 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzinei Teles Garcia Garcia (suzinei.garcia@fgv.br) on 2013-08-23T12:25:24Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_FernandoSalazar_final.pdf: 716420 bytes, checksum: 1581ff723525f8a036c7a630a8650453 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-08-23T12:36:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_FernandoSalazar_final.pdf: 716420 bytes, checksum: 1581ff723525f8a036c7a630a8650453 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-05 / This paper aims to investigate the competition aspects of banking multiproduct operation. Based on an extension of Panzar and Rosse (1987)’s test to the case of a multiproduct banking firm, we take advantage of a new dataset constructed to Brazilian banking conglomerates to infer the impact of conglomeration on market power. We find that banks offering classic (i.e., loans and credit cards) and other bank products (i.e., brokerage services, insurance and capitalization bonds) have substantially higher market power than the ones which offer only classic products. Results suggest a positive bias on the traditional estimates of competition in which the multioutput actions are not taken into account.

M.Comm. / Although "work" is one of the most familiar words in the vocabulary it can be used in many different ways. For the purpose of this dissertation the definition of "work" is taken from the Oxford dictionary as "action involving effort or exertion directed to a definite end; what a person does to earn a living" (Oxford, 1994: 926). Earning one's living does not necessarily mean working for money. Housewives receive no salary for the job they do. Housework does, however, fall within the definition, since it involves considerable effort directed towards family living and creating and maintaining a home. The most obvious feature of work is the vast range of activities by which people can earn their living. Equally vast are the personality and temperament differences between workers that determine their needs and expectations. This radically influences people's perceptions. To an intellectual, the task of working on a production line, the monotony, noise and other discomforts would be almost an unbearable penance. To the person doing the job it is a way of earning a living and it is acceptable as such. The person may not enjoy the task, but at least it is something that he/she knows they can do. When Adam had eaten from the forbidden tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden, the Lord said to him: Gen. 3:17-19 "...all the days of your life; ... by the sweat of your brow you will eat bread" (Bible, 1998: 4). Work is a life sentence; it absorbs the major portion of each day; for most of one's life. 1 Workers are not alike; they are not cast from the same mould. They come in assorted shapes, sizes, colours, education and experience, attitudes and ambitions. Some work for a living; for others working is a living. Some think of work as their central purpose in life; others think of work as a way of providing the necessities and look at time away from work as the real joy of living. Thus, there are many different reasons why people work. Since the beginning of this century, employers and social scientists have started looking at the role that work fulfils in satisfying man's needs and in the utilisation and development of his abilities. Emphasis has been placed primarily on the psychological and sociological aspects of work. Management have been interested in these developments primarily for increasing productivity. From this research into man's needs, a number of theories have evolved relating to work motivation. In today's competitive world and market it is essential that a company have positively motivated employees to improve productivity and efficiency. Motivation is one of the factors that influence performance. The purpose of this study is to do a study on motivation of employees within a technical division of Telkom SA. The aim is to establish the causes for the level of motivation and to present to management a proposal on improving the level of motivation.

M.B.A. / One of the most basic motivations for acquisitions is growth. Acquisitions provide means whereby a firm can grow quickly. Firms acquire other firms with the hope of experiencing economic gains. These economic gains may come as a result of economies of scale or scope. Economies of scale are the reductions in per — unit costs that come as the size of the firm's operations, in terms of revenues or units of production, increases. Economies of scope occur when a firm can offer a broad range of services to its customer base. The growth of Voltex involved horizontal acquisition of ELCENTRE, and other Electrical wholesalers throughout South Africa. The pursuit of "Market Power" was the main motive in the formation of Voltex in 1990. The buyout of ELGRO, the parent company of ELCENTRE was the vertical integration in pursuit of financial synergy. The financial synergy lowered the volatility of cash flows, by gaining the confidence of the suppliers of capital, and investors viewed Voltex less risky. The takeover of ELGRO was caused by the failure of Bennet & Fountain (B&F), a UK subsidiary of Voltex. Successful acquisitions can be a source of value creation and growth. Unsuccessful acquisitions can destroy value rapidly, as could seen in this dissertation, B & F did destroy value, which led to operating problems. Top executives could also lose their jobs when acquisitions fail.

M.Comm. (Business Management) / The statement at the core of the thesis is that the success of the call centre depends on a strategic benefits model. The search for the proof will be conducted within the systems theory framework. The call centre is depicted as a micro system of the bigger organisation. This micro system is influenced by external factors. Factors that are external to the organisation and factors that are external to the call centre but forms part of the rest of the organisation. Systems have internal processes that deliver specific outputs, therefore the saying that the system is perfectly engineered for the results it achieves. The call centre has internal processes to deliver certain outputs. This study tries to identify what internal processes will have an impact on a strategic benefits model for the success of the call centre. 3 Systems theory is known to have feedback loops. The call centre operation should have similar feedback loops. Call centre feedback is received from three different perspectives, that of the customer, the employees and management. The study concludes by indicating how the benefits model ensures the success of the call centre. The primary objective of the study is to determine if the success of the call centre depends on a strategic benefits model. The secondary objectives of the study are to: • Develop a model that can be used for the design, assessment and running of the call centre, • Determine which factors influence the functioning of a call centre operation, • Determine the impact of the call centre on meeting customer expectations, • Develop a measure for call centre benefits. The elements of such a strategic benefits model had to be described for the analysis.

M.Ing. (Engineering Management) / Electricity is a crucial key component in every day life influencing the economy, safety; health, productivity and comfort just to name a few. The benefits and importance of electricity can be easily taken for granted by the consumer. Towards the end of 2007, South Africa suffered numerous power outages and that lead to the implementation of load shedding by Eskom, the electricity utility in South Africa, in order to manage the shortage of electricity. Electricity utilities constantly make decisions that affect the cost, reliability and quality of their services. Therefore engineering designs and maintenance strategies should be updated frequently. The benefits of these updates to the system would have a significant performance improvement in regards to reliability and the quality of the electricity. The outline of asset management is therefore to focus on the business assets so that the organisation could serve the customers effectively. As a result, the focus for the research is to develop a life cycle management plan for one of the main assets utilised in the distribution network namely power transformers. The research would include a study of power transformers and customs that could be used to improve the reliability, logistics, safety and the capital investments of the network. Power transformers are static equipment, and failure rate is very low compared to other assets found in substations. As a result of their sizes, transformers requires more time and special arrangements should a failure occur. A risk and condition analysis was conducted on transformers and the results and conclusions were discussed.

This research investigated technology change management at Bridgestone/Firestone in the Port Elizabeth metropole. From a manufacturing organisation’s point of view it is clear that technology change is a constant force that determines competitiveness. The thesis outlines the specific requirements needed for utilising the concept of technology change management at Bridgestone/Firestone. The literature survey was aimed at placing the concept of technology change management and the correct organisational structure and organisational focus points in perspective to ensure successful technology change and its implementation at Bridgestone/Firestone. The purpose of the empirical study was to test managements perseptions of technology change management at Bridgestone/Firestone and to contribute useful information to the organisation. From the findings improvements and recommendations were suggested as guidelines for any tyre manufacturer to follow to improve technology change management. The empirical study results show that there is room for improvement. The responses to statements outlined areas that need improvement and those that do not according to the views of Bridgestone/Firestone’s management.