The environment of Jordanian private hospitals has never been so complex and challenging as at present. There are huge influences on these hospitals in the current climate. Managers in these hospitals are finding themselves, more than ever before, confronted by increasing pressures and demands which they must seek to understand and respond to in their service marketing mix strategy in order to achieve effective strategic marketing in terms of their choice of service marketing mix strategy components (namely health service, pricing, distribution, promotion, physical evidence, process, and personal strategies). This research, therefore, investigates the influence competitive environment factors have on the service marketing mix strategy components made by Jordanian private hospital managers, and on the reality of the Jordanian private hospital marketing. The literature review reveals that there is an extensive body of research that addresses service marketing mix strategy in general but there is less emphasis on the health sector. Moreover, evidence of the impact of a competitive environment on service marketing mix strategy and hospital performance measurements' criteria in the hospital industry is limited. In order to explore this issue, a triangulation method was used to collect primary data through a questionnaire, which was administered in the private sector hospitals in the six Jordanian governorates and, via in-depth semi structured interviews with hospital managers and experts in the health services in Jordan. All Jordanian general private sector hospitals were targeted in this research rather than a representative sample of these hospitals. A purposive sampling strategy was used to choose the participants in this research. In total, - 143 senior managers (general manager, administrative manager, medical manager, public relation manager, marketing manager, and out patients clinic manager) participated in this study. The results confirm significant differences in the influence of competitive environment factors on service marketing mix strategy components. They also reveal that the components of the marketing mix strategy have varied significant and insignificant influence on the hospital performance, which demonstrates that the hospital performance phenomenon is complicated and multi-dimensional in nature. Furthermore, the results exhibit that hospital managers might benefit more by placing more emphasis on an integrated service marketing mix strategy and recognising the competitive environment influences on their hospitals. The results also highlight several implications for future research in health services marketing and fills in several gaps in the existing literature on health services marketing. This research contributes to the academic and practical knowledge as being one of the first attempts to investigate empirically the impact of the competitive environment on service marketing mix strategy. As such, the influences of service marketing mix strategy on hospitals' performance criteria, identifying the main concerns and problems which face the management and marketing in Jordanian private sector hospitals, are explored in addition to recognising the vital roles of marketing in improving the hospital performance. This research integrates, refines and extends the empirical work conducted in the field of health services marketing in developing countries. It raises many implications for managers in these hospitals, such as considering the importance of influences by competitive environment on marketing mix strategy and the vital role this strategy plays in the performance of Jordanian private sector hospitals. This research provides useful guidelines for further and future research possibilities such as exploring the influence of the competitive environment factors influence on hospital performance criteria.

This research provides evidence from three Czech Faculties of Economics and one English Business School on students‟ expectations regarding their investment in higher education. It examines the expected earnings from which rates of return are calculated using the short-cut method, and ex ante risk is estimated using the coefficient of variation. Micro-level data have been collected specifically for the purpose of this study using a repeated cross-sectional survey. In addition to personal and socio-economic characteristics, first year students were asked to estimate their earnings with and without a university degree at two points in time – at the point of labour market entry and ten years later, and at three levels of probability – minimum, most likely and maximum. This study aims to investigate the factors that influence the expectations and to determine whether students act rationally as investors and according to the theory of human capital. Earnings expectations have been found to increase with education and experience. Students expect their earnings to grow faster and further thanks to a university degree and expect their earnings at the point of graduation to be similar to the earnings they expected with ten years of post-secondary labour market experience. Students from high income families expect higher earnings than those from low income families. Women have been found to expect lower earnings than men and the gender-pay gap increases with education and experience. Students from England expect higher earnings than their Czech peers. The findings reveal that a very large majority of students act according to the theory of human capital by expecting at least zero rates of return, and that there is a positive relationship between returns and risk and thus that students act rationally as investors. The average rate of return expected by English students is around 23% while those expected by Czech students range from 14% to 18%. Gender differences in rates of return were identified in England with women expecting higher rates of return. Nevertheless, it is concluded that gender differences in rates of return should be reported on in the context of risk-free rates of return otherwise the results may be misleading. Average ex ante risk associated with university education is the coefficient of variation of 0.35, which is similar to a randomly selected financial portfolio of 30 stocks. The expected risk-return trade-off is large; for a 1.1pp increase in risk men expect to be compensated by a 1pp increase in the rate of return while women expect for every 2pp increase in risk a 1pp increase in the rate of return.

Market-heavy pension systems, in which low or moderate state benefits are topped up by private welfare arrangements, have long been expected not only to create dualisms, but also to fuel patterns of politics that perpetuate and even increase such dualisms over time. The starting point of this research is the observation that while some market-heavy pension systems indeed remain dualised in the post-industrial context, others have become more universal, either through changes to the structure of the state pension or through regulation to extend the coverage of private pensions. My research objective is to explain the universalising changes that have occurred. I show that the very institutional features that are usually expected to lead to further dualisation, namely a reliance on market-based arrangements, the prevalence of targeting and limited earnings replacement, contribute to bringing about universalising reforms. In particular, I show how under certain conditions these institutional features help structure the policy preferences of key political actors such that those actors usually associated with the extension of state provision embrace market means, while those associated with private provision push for the expansion of the state pension. I use fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) of nine market-heavy pension systems over the three decades since 1980 to map the combinations of causal conditions under which universalising reforms have occurred. In addition, I present case outlines linking the institutional conditions to the reform outcomes via the policy preferences of key political actors. In doing so I provide a causal logic that reinforces the results of the fsQCA and offers a substantial explanation for the introduction of universalising reform in some market-heavy systems, as well as for the absence of such reform in others.

Since the mid-1980s, Algeria has embarked on a programme of comprehensive financial liberalisation to establish a market-oriented financial system, and to develop the role of the Algiers Stock Exchange in the mobilisation of financial resources. The transition from a centrally planned to a market-oriented economy meant fewer regulatory barriers towards local and foreign banks. This study demonstrates that financial liberalisation is the main force that drives the globalisation of financial services, followed by financial innovations and the Internet. Globalisation has affected the performance of the two prevalent banking models in Algeria: interest based (conventional) and non- interest-based (Islamic). The benchmarks used to assess banking performance are: competition, profitability and efficiency. Quantitative and qualitative analyses show a direct link between banking efficiency and the globalisation of financial services. The study concludes that globalisation has more advantages than disadvantages to the Algerian banking sector and the Algiers Stock Exchange. The elimination of regulatory barriers has enabled state-owned banks to improve the quality of their services and to use more advanced information technologies. Private and foreign banks are also involved in the modernisation of the Algerian banking industry by launching innovative financial products and attracting local and foreign capital. However, this project emphasises that the removal of remaining regulatory obstacles would enable banks to benefit fully from the process of financial liberalisation, and to be active institutions in the financial market. Moreover, opening the Algiers Stock Exchange to large domestic and foreign companies would attract capital investments and boost equity trading in Algeria.

By making use of various social science research methods, in particular semi-structured interviews, this thesis reveals the main features of the Serbia’s 15-year long transition experience, which took place against a background of frequent constitutional changes over the period 1989 to 2004. Serbia’s transition began in December 1989 with the Markovic programme, while the Republic was a constitutive part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). The study confirms that the SRFY was the first country to start transition from a socialist to a market economy, but that this advanced position was lost due to a lack of political consensus, and the dissolution of the country in 1991. As part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) which was formed in 1992, Serbia during the 1990s went through the most devastating period in its modern (economic) history, experiencing the second highest and the second longest hyperinflation ever registered (1992-94). The battle against (hyper) inflation and economic recovery took the form of the Avramovic programme of January 1994, but failed to delivery any prolonged stabilisation and growth. Additionally, during the period of FRY, when Slobodan Miloševic was in power, an extensive regime of economic and non-economic sanctions were imposed on Serbia by the international community (1991-2000). Moreover, in 1999, the country was faced with the seriousness of the Kosovo conflict and NATO bombing, and the concomitant impact of these events on economic life. As a result of all this, Serbia’s transition process was stillborn throughout much of the 1990s and public confidence in the state institutions, including the National Bank of Serbia (NBS), was entirely lost. Transition resumed in 2001, following the ‘bulldozer revolution’ of 5 October 200, and has since followed the main postulates of the transition blueprint which was based on the so-called “Washington Consensus”. The exchange-rate based stabilisation programme brought positive results as early as 2002 and 2003, notably in bringing down inflation. The combination of a de facto fixed exchange rate regime (formally announced as a managed float) and gloomy prospects of an ever-raising current account deficit and public debt, however, gave rise to a wide-ranging debate on the role of exchange rate and monetary policy in the overall profess of economic recovery. Our analysis reveals that there is a space, although limited due to the high “euroisation” of the Serbian economy, for a more active monetary policy. This would allow a substantial depreciation of the real dinar exchange rate, of importance given the demands of WTO and EU membership, namely full capital account liberalisation. Since February 2003, Serbia again changed its constitutional robe by becoming a member state of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. Following this constitutional change in June 2003, after a decade-long delay, Serbia's central bank reform was eventually initiated and the new NBS Law was enacted. The evidence contained in this work suggests that the NBS's legal independence perfectly matches the transitional average, but that the actual NBS's independence is a cause for concern. So as to prevent the inclusion of the 'systemic error' into the new Serbian constitution - by which a single person (i.e. the governor) is the sole source of monetary policymaking - the study proposes several principles which may guide the drafting process. Additionally, the thesis points to provisions of the current NBS Law which need to be adapted in line with the EMU acquis. The study concludes by rising the question of how the NBS's credibility can be restored, proposing a new NBS's approach to transparency as a possible solution.

POPULATION AGEING IN SCOTLAND - IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTHCARE EXPENDITURE Population ageing is a major concern for developed countries in terms of public expenditure required to pay for health care (HC). The broad aim of this thesis is to contribute to and expand the debate on the independent effects that population ageing and the time immediately before death (TTD) have on HC expenditure in Scotland. This study analyses, for the first time in Scotland, how HC expenditure projections are influenced through the application of two approaches; the first only accounting for an increasing proportion of the elderly population, and the second also implementing a TTD component. Several issues that are under-researched or have not been addressed in TTD studies previously, are explored and alternative approaches are presented. Utilising two large linked datasets this thesis addresses important methodological issues. Alternative methods to cost inpatient hospital stays are examined as this has pivotal implications for any analysis undertaken to estimate the independent effect of TTD and age on HC expenditure. Explanatory variables that have previously not been considered, such as health risk and health status measures at baseline, are included in these analyses. The issue of sample selection, arising through the inclusion/exclusion of survivors in a TTD study is investigated and the impact of individuals’ socio-economic status on costs is examined. The analysis of alternative costing methods clearly showed that any inference that can be made from econometric modelling of costs, where the marginal effect of explanatory variables is assessed, is substantially influenced by the chosen costing method. The application of a Healthcare Resource Group (HRG) costing method was recommended. This study found that TTD, age and the interactions between these two factors were significant predictors for HC expenditure. The analysis further identified some of the health status and health risk measures to be important predictors of future HC expenditure. An examination of how sample selection impacts on estimated costs at the end of life showed that if survivors were excluded from the analysis, costs might be overestimated. Drawing on a representative sample of the Scottish population, the investigation of the association that the socio-economic status had with HC costs suggested that less is spent on individuals from more deprived areas. This might partly be explained through the decreased probability of accessing hospital services for individuals from more deprived areas. Furthermore, results showed that projected HC expenditure for acute inpatient care for the year 2028 was overestimated by ~7% when an approach that only accounts for the higher proportion of elderly people in a population in the future is being used as compared to an approach that also accounts for the effect that remaining TTD has on costs.

This thesis seeks to explore everyday aspects of time. Traditionally, the psychological study of time has been defined as the processes by which a person adapts to and represents temporal properties in order to synchronise external events. On the other hand, a good understanding of time is also vital when it comes to occupational and social organisation. How should time be considered across psychology remains an open question. While time perception is an established field in cognitive psychology, previous research has often focussed on either the perception of very short time intervals (milliseconds), or psychobiological effects of celestial time cycles (e.g. sleep/wake cycle or seasonal affective disorder). However, there remain several other aspects of time that while categorically different are no less important for example, 'mental time travel' or chronesthesia is the ability to mentally project into the future or past. While these phenomena are well acknowledged, it is only in the last few decades that research has started to document other 'higher level' cognitive processes that exist beyond traditional psychophysical constructs. By combining a range of experimental and secondary data analysis methodologies, this thesis examines the relationship between everyday units of time and systematic changes in behaviour across socially derived time cycles (i.e. the calendar week and the working day). It also considers the effects of individual differences on aspects of interpersonal organisation (e.g. punctuality and watch wearing). The main findings indicate that research into psychological time can and should go beyond minutes and seconds as present-day cognitive models are inadequate when it comes to accounting for everyday time processing errors. In addition, understanding the mechanisms behind higher-level timing processes may only become apparent if the topic makes a concentrated effort to become integrated with day-to-day cognition and behaviour. The results also have several applied implications including practical recommendations for optimising appointment systems in the National Health Service. Finally, these findings are discussed in relation to the ongoing debate regarding where psychological time research should focus future efforts if it is to maintain its current momentum from a theoretical and applied perspective.

The ultimate financial responsibility for improving educational access, participation, and quality lies with national governments. However, for many countries, particularly the poorest, educational progress depends, to a significant extent, on economic assistance coming from bilateral and multilateral donors. This study tries to understand how donors mobilize and allocate their resources to promote the education sector in the developing world, and to what extent they are successful in doing so. Our primary interest lies in the analysis of donor agencies and their behaviours, rather than the situations of education aid recipient countries. In addition to a chapter for the introduction and another for the conclusion, we assess education aid with the help of three interlinked studies. First, we look at how donors resource transfers have affected education sector achievements in education aid recipient countries. Second, we examine how donors commit their education aid resources for education in developing countries. Third, we present the determinants of the donors efforts (the total volume of education aid that a donor country makes available to the all recipients) in providing foreign aid for the education sector.

The empirical motivation of this dissertation is the increasing importance of financial market’s regulation pursuant of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). There is currently incomplete knowledge on the relationship between insider trading and earnings management on the one hand and earnings management and firm performance on the other in light of the recent regulatory intervention (SOX). Moreover, the relevance of political regulation of financial markets has not yet been thoroughly investigated. The research aims of the dissertation are: 1) To evaluate the effectiveness of financial market regulation (SOX) on Insider trading and Earnings management 2) To empirically examine how the different techniques used to manage earnings influence firm performance in light of the recent regulatory intervention (SOX). Both tests suggest ways in which investors can examine and unravel a comprehensive set of earnings management signals and their impact on either insider trading or future firm performance. The thesis is divided into two main empirical chapters: The first main empirical chapter (chapter 4) discusses insider trading and earnings management in light of the recent regulatory intervention mandated by the SOX. The second main empirical chapter (Chapter 5) discuss changes in earnings management and firm performance relationship in light of the recent regulatory intervention as prescribed by SOX. In an attempt to obtain a comprehensive understanding of several conceptual issues, the different techniques used to manage earnings are employed including, discretionary accruals techniques, real earnings management and the probability of financial statements distortion as measured by the Beneish M-Score. Overall, the focus is on managers of S&P 500 companies, holders of private information about the firm’s prospects, preparers and senders of financial reports and investors and analysts as receivers and users of these financial statements. Findings on the relationship between insider trading and earnings management in light of the recent regulatory intervention suggest that after the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002, managers are less likely to time their trade and boast earnings to benefit at the expense of outside investors. Furthermore, under stricter regulations, market participants detect and react to insider trading and earnings management practices. Findings on the relationship between a comprehensive set of earnings management signals and firm performance suggest that there have been greater monitoring of financial III statements in the Post SOX era. When firms attempt to manage earnings during periods of intense market regulation, investors discount this through disappointing stock returns. Overall, the results suggest that there should be broad based approach in analysing financial statements.

Kuwait does not only depend on oil as a sole source of revenue, but has also nullified all taxes since the discovery of oil in 1938. Under the request of foreign oil companies extracting and exporting Kuwaiti oil, the Kuwaiti government founded a primitive tax law which imposes a tax instead of a royalty on foreign oil companies in order to enable them to credit taxes paid to the Kuwaiti government against taxes they owe to their home states. This poorly drafted piece of legislation which is criticised for being ambiguous and lacking the adequate provisions to regulate crucial tax related issues is Income Tax Decree 3/1955, the Decree continued to govern taxation in Kuwait even after the full nationalization of the oil company in 1979, imposing income tax upon the profits of foreign enterprises carrying out trade and business in Kuwait. Depending on a sole source of wealth and a highly unstable one such as oil means that the Kuwaiti economy fluctuates considerably; from the oil boom in the 1970s to the sharp economic stagnation in the 1980s this economic instability coupled with the fast depletion of oil reserves, the government’s over spending, the poor social responsibility due to the absence of individual tax and finally the extravagant welfare system, have all contributed to the current deficit in the Kuwaiti budget and have stimulated the government to rethink the possibility of introducing taxes back into the state. With taxation being an infinite source of revenue, this thesis argues that there is an imminent need for Kuwait to advance its fiscal system in an attempt to possibly turn taxation into a secondary source of revenue in the state. Kuwait has the potential to attract foreign direct investment which in turn can yield more tax revenues to the state; however, much improvement needs to be made to Kuwait’s fiscal law. The government’s attempt to reform the Income Tax Decree of 3/1955 through the 2008 Amendments did not eliminate much of the Decree’s shortfalls. This thesis studies the Kuwaiti tax system closely from a legal economic point of view and provides realistic recommendations on how to reform the current system in order to make Kuwait a more attractive jurisdiction for foreign investment.