This thesis is dedicated to a very interesting topic - it is an investment activity. Investments are the basis of economic development and growth of living standards. Foreign investments are therefore a source for further economic growth. The author of this work focused on exploring investment in the country where she was born, it is Belarus. About the investment in that territory is not talked much, which could be caused by the local political situation. But Belarus is quite popular between Russian investors. The work is divided into several parts. The first part is theoretical and methodological, describes the general knowledge and concepts related to investment. In the practical part, the author describes the investment rules in Belarus and gives quite detailed information about the investment climate in the country. The thesis ends with an indication of practical recommendations for investment in Belarus.

This diploma thesis focuses on foreign direct investment (FDI) coming to different regions of the Czech Republic. This investment play a crucial role in socioeconomic development of the country and therefore it is an important part of regional development policies. Thesis concentrates on French and Belgian investors and its aim is to determine the key factors that influence the localization of FDI coming from France and Belgium to regional economies of the Czech Republic. In the first chapter theoretical data concerning this topic is introduced, followed by closer description of development of FDI in the Czech Republic in general. At this point the investment coming from France and Belgium that is supported by the agency CzechInvest is stressed. The final part is dedicated to different regions of the country. Based on analytic, cartographic and statistical methods, localization factors with a great influence on French and Belgian investors when choosing the area to invest in are determined.

Submitted by Jean Medeiros (jeanletras@uepb.edu.br) on 2016-03-10T18:08:33Z No. of bitstreams: 1 PDF - Saulo Medeiros da Costa Silva.pdf: 6523230 bytes, checksum: 8e5bf7ca87269a0cdaca1b4b203e0223 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Secta BC (secta.csu.bc@uepb.edu.br) on 2016-07-21T20:49:03Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 PDF - Saulo Medeiros da Costa Silva.pdf: 6523230 bytes, checksum: 8e5bf7ca87269a0cdaca1b4b203e0223 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Secta BC (secta.csu.bc@uepb.edu.br) on 2016-07-21T20:49:15Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 PDF - Saulo Medeiros da Costa Silva.pdf: 6523230 bytes, checksum: 8e5bf7ca87269a0cdaca1b4b203e0223 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-21T20:49:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PDF - Saulo Medeiros da Costa Silva.pdf: 6523230 bytes, checksum: 8e5bf7ca87269a0cdaca1b4b203e0223 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-04-29 / The present investigation examined the concessive standards ICMS tax subsidies, specifically the presumed credit, in Paraíba state, and the impact of such tax benefits and its binding or not, to regional development in the period 2001-2013. Goal general was to analyze the relationships between the concessive standards presumed credits of ICMS , Paraiba , and regional development. The specific objectives are : 1 ) discuss the right to development ; 2 ) describe federalism , in particular fiscal , Brazil ; 3 ) treating the main source of financing for Brazilian States, the ICMS tax; 4 ) analyze the period 2001-2013 , the economic evolution of the waiver of revenue typified presumed credit in the State of Paraíba, comparing it with the Paraiba socioeconomic development in the same period . We used the qualitative research model - functionalist, merely descriptive of reality. This research , then, fits the genre of theoretical research, despite making use of data not only bibliographic and documentary , but also quantitative. We found that the policy of tax breaks by granting deemed ICMS credit grew astronomically form without generating development to the state, on the contrary, what is observed is a slow economic growth, income concentration, low wages, and especially dark, illegality, incoherence, lack of planning and criteria for granting the ICMS tax benefits, with a clear violation of the constitutional principles of legality, equality, publicity, legal certainty and federalism. / A presente investigação analisou as normas concessivas de subsídios fiscais de ICMS, especificamente o crédito presumido no Estado da Paraíba e a repercussão de tais benefícios fiscais e a sua vinculação, ou não, com o desenvolvimento regional, no período compreendido entre os anos 2001 a 2013. O objetivo geral foi analisar as relações entre as normas concessivas de créditos presumidos do ICMS, na Paraíba, e o desenvolvimento regional. Os objetivos específicos foram: 1) discorrer sobre o direito ao desenvolvimento; 2) descrever o federalismo, em especial o fiscal brasileiro; 3) tratar da principal fonte de financiamento dos Estados-membros brasileiros, o imposto ICMS; 4) analisar, no período de 2001 a 2013, evolução econômica da renúncia de receita tipificada de crédito presumido na Paraíba; 5) confrontar a evolução das renúncias de receita de crédito presumido com o desenvolvimento sócioeconômico paraíbano nesse período; 6) Verificar a observância dos princípios constitucionais tributários na concessão do crédito presumido. Utilizamos o modelo de investigação qualitativofuncionalista, meramente descritivo da realidade. A presente pesquisa, então, enquadrase no gênero de pesquisa teórica, apesar de fazer uso de dados não só bibliográficos e documentais, mas também quantitativos. Verificamos que a política de renúncia fiscal mediante a concessão de crédito presumido de ICMS cresceu de forma astronômica sem gerar desenvolvimento ao Estado, pelo contrário, o que se observa é um crescimento econômico lento, com concentração de renda, baixos salários, taxa de pobreza ainda elevada, e, principalmente, obscuridade, incoerência, inexistência de planejamento e de critérios para outorga os benefícios fiscais de ICMS, com nítida violação aos princípios constitucionais da legalidade, isonomia, publicidade, segurança jurídica e ao federalismo.

Variation in health care, whether it be in terms of the utilisation of resources, observed health outcomes, costs, quality or access to health care is a well recognised and ever present feature of the modern day health care system. Health care variations challenge basic assumptions about the nature of the health care economy and raise questions about efficiency, equity and where best to direct policy instruments in health care markets. Despite the vast literature documenting variation, and the many discussions around ways to reduce variations in health care markets, the field of dental care has received little interest, in comparison to that of general medical care. This thesis will address this gap and will analyse the variation observed in a specific dental care treatment (dental radiographs) within NHS Scotland, with particular emphasis on the contribution of both dentist and patient unobserved heterogeneity. The thesis takes its focus from two strands of the literature; the underlying theoretical aspect draws on the literature concerning the theory of incentives and physician agency, whilst the empirical component makes use of recent advances in micro-econometric methods, documented in the labour economics literature. Although the thesis is predominantly an empirical analysis, the estimation strategy combines ideas from both the theoretical and empirical literature. A matched patient provider dataset from NHS Scotland is used to conduct an analysis of the variation in dental radiographs, in the presence of, and controlling for unobserved dentist and patient heterogeneity. The results indicate that the remuneration structure alone has little or no impact on the treatment decision to provide a radiograph. When a dentist changes from being on a fixed salary contract to being paid on a fee-for-service basis, they are in fact less likely to provide a radiograph. This result changes in the presence of insurance (identified as being when patients are exempt from the patient charge) and indicates that when the self employed dentist can identify the patient as being exempt, they are more likely to provide a radiograph. This result provides some support for the theory that in the presence of insurance, financial incentives do influence the treatment decision. A final result of the study highlights the importance of accounting for unobserved patient and provider heterogeneity, a factor that has had little attention in the healthcare literature. The results suggest that patient variation, as opposed to the variation across dentists, is much more important in explaining total variation. This is a similar result to that found in both the labour and education literatures.

In recent decades, the concept of ecosystem services has deepened our appreciation of the myriad benefits provided by ecosystems, and the risks to human societies posed by ecosystem degradation. There is a growing realisation that problems traditionally considered to be outside the environmental policy arena are in truth strongly connected to the environment: ecosystems underlie issues spanning climate, energy, food, water, urban planning, human health, economic development, social justice, and national security. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) create positive financial incentives for the protection and restoration of ecosystems, and represent one way to better represent the value of ecosystem services across a range of sectors. PES schemes are gaining traction in climate mitigation and biodiversity protection strategies, and most of all in the water sector. PES is complementing traditional approaches to water management and helping to address deteriorating water quality, declining water flows, and flooding. This thesis takes a legal perspective, examining the role of legal frameworks in the design and administration of PES. It focuses on PES aimed at protecting freshwater ecosystem services, and considers how legal frameworks can incorporate PES into strategies for drinking water provision. It examines an emerging body of law relating directly to PES, and provides an opportunity to consider some of the leading examples of the ES concept being reflected in law. It distinguishes three broad categories of legal frameworks that establish, regulate or enable PES. A comparative methodology is applied to an analysis of case studies of legal frameworks for PES from: Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, New York, England and Ontario. This analysis draws out conclusions about how the law relates to key policy issues around ES and PES, and different approaches to developing legal frameworks to guide PES, depending on different contexts and policy objectives.

Magister Commercii - MCom / Absenteeism can be a major problem for organisations. As pressures increase on the budgets and competitiveness of companies, more attention is being given to reduce workplace absenteeism and its cost. Job satisfaction has been noted as one of the factors influencing an employee's motivation to attend. Studies on the relationship between absenteeism and job satisfaction seem to be inconsistent. Some research has found no correlation between these two variables whereas other studies indicate a weak to moderate relationship between these two variables. The aim of this study was to determine whether there is a relationship between job satisfaction and absenteeism in a selected department within and Electricity Unit in the Western Cape. / South Africa

This article highlights some instances where the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) increased taxes for single parents at the moment their children are pursuing a college education. The article further recaps education credits that were saved (but not increased) by the TCJA and a deduction that was lost. The authors also discuss an implication of the TCJA that could cause the burden on families sending children to college to increase further. Finally, the article captures items that legislators could enact to relieve the additional burden on families with students pursuing a college education.

Introduction: Financial incentives increase smoking abstinence among pregnant and postpartum women. They have also been reported to reduce psychological symptoms using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) in women at risk for perinatal depression. This prospective study aims to replicate and extend these findings using the BDI and Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS). Methods: Participants were 169 pregnant cigarette smokers who were assigned to one of two treatment conditions: Best Practices only (n=88), which entails brief counseling and a referral to a pregnancy-specific quit-line, or Best Practices + Incentives (n=81). Participants were categorized as at increased risk (Dep+; n= 91) or lower risk (Dep-; n= 76) for depression based on history of depressive symptoms and baseline symptom scores. Treatment effects on smoking status and BDI/EPDS scores were examined across nine perinatal assessments using repeated measures analyses of covariance. Results: Financial incentives increased rates of biochemically-verified abstinence through 12-weeks postpartum independent of depression risk (ps ≤ .01) but did not differentially decrease BDI or EPDS scores (ps > .05). Scores decreased with both interventions for the Dep+ women (p = .001). Conclusions: These results replicate earlier evidence that financial incentives increase perinatal smoking abstinence in Dep+ women but not their efficacy in differentially reducing depressive symptoms at levels greater than Best Practices. The failure to replicate effects on depressive symptoms may be due to use of different control conditions in the current and prior study or increased screening and intervention for perinatal mental health during routine obstetrical care.

The motivating effects of positive and negative verbal reinforcement and researcher attitude on the performance of preschool children were studied in relation to socioeconomic level. Forty children from the Utah State University Child Development Laboratory and forty from Head Start classrooms in northern Utah served as subjects. Each child performed the simple task of placing pegs in a pegboard during a 60- second time interval; once under conditions of positive verbal reinforcement and positive attitude, and again, under one of four experimental conditions: control; positive reinforcement/positive attitude; negative reinforcement/positive attitude; or negative reinforcement/ negative attitude. The findings seemed to indicate that the effectiveness of verbal reinforcement and researcher attitude on the motivation of preschool children varies with socioeconomic level. The variance tends to be one of greater response to either of the four experimental reinforcement conditions by children from the lower socioeconomic class than by those from the middle class. Differences in the effectiveness of various reinforcement conditions were not significant.

This study aims to see if there is a difference between employers and employees job motivation, as well as what sort of incentives that may affect their motivation and what these eventual differences can be explained by. The research questions were examined by using data from European working condition survey year 2015. In order to investigate both employers and employees job motivation, an index concerning motivation were created. The result of this study is presented by using multilevel models and show that there is a correlation between an individual's working position and their motivation to work, as employers tend to have a higher motivation in general than employees. The correlation between working position and motivation to work can be seen in previous research as well, but this study emphasizes the difference in their general motivation as well as what kinds of incentives that affect them the most. Furthermore, the results show in contrast to previous research, that monetary incentives do not have a major impact on individuals’ motivation to work and it is rather the non-monetary incentives that have the greatest impact on both employers and employees job motivation.