No description available.

Few things occupy as central a place in our lives as money. Although the study of money has a long history in the behavioral sciences, others have only recently begun examining this important topic. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between basic human need levels and money attitudes in a university-age cohort utilizing a theory of hierarchical needs. Needs theory, introduced by Abraham Maslow, suggests that as we interact with the environment we accumulate specific needs that motivate us to respond to life experiences. Three hundred thirty-eight college students attending Utah State University satellite campuses responded to a measure designed to examine an individual's attitudes toward money and achievement of needs (Maslow). Pilot study results validated the selection of modified versions of both Lim and Teo's Attitudes Toward Money Scale and Lester's Need Satisfaction Inventory as reliable instruments in assessing money attitudes and need achievement. Results confirmed relationships between money attitudes and human needs. Specifically, all of Maslow's needs appear to be strongly related to the money attitudes of evaluation and anxiety. In addition, men's and women's needs are highly correlated with obsession, budget, anxiety, and particularly evaluation. Associations of money attitudes with demographic variables such as gender, age, and income were also supported. For example, gender was statistically related to money attitudes of obsession, power, budget, and achievement. Age shared a strong relationship with obsession, budget, anxiety, and retention. Finally, power and evaluation were the money attitudes explaining the bulk of the variance in income. The findings of the study support the literature and point to the importance of understanding a client's money attitudes and level of need satisfaction. particularly from a counseling standpoint. Implications of the results and possible areas for future research are discussed.

This thesis analyzes the connection of mobile phone technology to increased economic development in Kenya. Drawing on previous research, I first examine the state of development by analyzing social, political, and economic factors in Kenya in 2007/2008. I then examine the role of technology on these development factors in Kenya by focusing on the rapid rise of mobile money platform M-Pesa and the rise of decentralized banking. This thesis finds that M-Pesa’s success stems from the failure of public trust in traditional institutions, collaboration between the public, private, and nonprofit sector, initial lack of regulation to promote innovation, and heavy consumer testing to create the best product-market fit. Additionally, in comparison to other sub-Saharan countries, Kenya’s institutions have more willingly allowed for nontraditional methods of investment and aid. While none of these results are entirely conclusive, evidence suggests that the rise of mobile money and technological innovation has attributed heavily to economic development into 2018, but that social and political development factors are still restrained. Ultimately, technology is not the solution to all factors of cyclical poverty, but it can create new approaches to previously neglected development constraints.

In recent years, Bitcoin has gained global mass adoption as an asset class. However, due to its characteristics of peer-to-peer direct borderless payment, anonymity and limited supply, Bitcoin has a special application in regions experiencing political and economic turmoil. It serves two functions: store of value and secure channel of transferring assets abroad. In this paper, I will only investigate the correlation between Bitcoin adoption and fiat default in Venezuela due to a limitation on empirical data. Time series FGLS regressions are employed to examine such correlation. The two Bitcoin metrics, Real Bitcoin Price in Venezuelan Bolivar (VEF) and Real Bitcoin Trading Volume in VEF, are included as independent variables. The two economic indicators, the Black Market Exchange Rate (VEF/USD) and Monthly Moving Inflation Rate, are included as explanatory variables. I find a relatively weak correlation between Bitcoin adoption and the well-being of the Venezuelan Economy. The Black Market Exchange Rate has a stronger positive impact on Real Bitcoin Price and Real Bitcoin Trading Volume while Inflation Rate has little impact. In addition, Real Bitcoin Volume responses to the changes the Venezuelan Economy approximately one week slower than Real Bitcoin Price.

Unique and proprietary data of the illiquid, one-year non cancelable for three month Bermudan swaps (1Y NC 3M swaps) and one-year non callable for three months Bermudan CDs (1Y NC 3M CDs), provides evidence of market efficiency. The 1Y NC 3M swap and 1Y NC 3M CD markets efficiently reflected unexpected economic information. The 1Y NC 3M swaption premiums also followed the European one-year into three-month (1Y into 3M) swaption volatilities. Swaption premiums were computed by pricing non-optional instruments using the quoted 1Y NC 3M swap rates and the par value swap rates and taking the difference between them. Swaption premiums ranged from a slight negative premium to a 0.21 percent premium. The average swaption premium during the study period was 0.02 percent to 0.04 percent. The initial swaption premiums were over 0.20 percent while the final swaption premiums were 0.02 percent to 0.04 percent. Premiums peaked and waned throughout the study period depending on market uncertainty as reflected in major national economic announcements, Federal Reserve testimonies and foreign currency devaluations. Negative swaption premiums were not necessarily irrational or quoting errors. Frequently, traders obligated to provide market quotes to customers do not have an interest and relay that lack of interest to the customer through a nonaggressive quote. The short-dated 1Y NC 3M swaption premiums closely followed 3M into 1Y swaption volatilities, indicating the 3M into 1Y swaption market closely follows the 1Y NC 3M swaption market and that similar market factors affect both markets or both markets efficiently share information. Movements in 1Y NC 3M swaption premiums and in 3M into 1Y swaption volatilities reflected a rational response by market participants to unexpected economic information. As market uncertainty decreased in the market place, risk measured both by swaption premiums and swaption volatilities decreased; vice verse when economic factors showed increases in economic uncertainty.

The LapDance Scholarship was conceived in November of 2009, opened for applications in December 2010, and awarded its final scholarship in October 2012. The Scholarship has been awarded to ten recipients for the funding of their art projects. The total monies awarded totals $2,886. The Scholarship was created by Hailey Jude Minder and administered by Emily Moran Barwick. Part of its inspiration was the idea of funding something as decidedly "high brow" as fine art with something as decidedly "low brow" as lap dancing (to borrow from the chosen vernacular of the high court justices of New York in their recent ruling). The LapDance Scholarship was open to any Iowa City resident, and was awarded on a monthly basis. All applications were submitted through the blog lapdancescholarship.blogspot.com. The Scholarship is a multi-faceted project that has spanned three years, involved thousands of hours of labor, and funded ten artistic endeavors with both local and international applications. While the Scholarship itself is simple in its premise (artist applies, artist is chosen, Hailey performs lap dances, Hailey gets money, money is given to artist), the history, development, and inherent implications and issues of the Scholarship are anything but. In the following pages, I attempt to offer some of the layers of this project. I will delve into the history and development of the Scholarship as well some of the foundational thought processes underlying its conception and issues sparked by its existence. I do not claim to have produced an exhaustive analysis on all of the various elements arising from and inherent within the Scholarship, but rather an intimate view of certain aspects, moments, and thoughts. I have intentionally left out any hard and fast conclusions. I find that approach neither productive nor realistically possible. Nothing here is black and white, including my own identity and position. I am so personally entwined with this project, as it has come, literally, from my body and mind, that I cannot successfully separate myself as an objective viewer and analyst. Nor can I fully separate Emily and Hailey. So I offer you instances, layers, windows in. I offer you select parts, allow you to look, touch, consider. I offer you some of what I have to give. I offer you some, but not all.

This dissertation studies the relationship between the existence of multiple means of payment and the effects of monetary policy. Chapter 1 studies the choice of endogenous means of payment when holding money is risky. In steady state equilibrium, the marginal rate of substitution of cash goods for credit goods depends on the crime rate as well as the nominal interest rate. Credit may be used when the return on money is not positive. A positive money injection reduces the crime rate and transactions costs. When the crime rate is positive, welfare increase with inflation, and the Friedman rule is not necessarily optimal. Chapter 2 discusses the risk-sharing role of monetary policy when the asset market is segmented. A fraction of households exchange money for interest-bearing government nominal bonds in the asset market. The government injects money through open market operations with only participating households. In equilibrium, money is nonneutral and there are distributional effects of monetary policy. With idiosyncratic endowment risk, monetary policy cannot perfectly insure households. The optimal money growth rate can be positive and the Friedman rule is not optimal in general. Chapter 3 is built on the work of Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 in exploring distributional effects of monetary policy when individuals can choose means of payment among alternatives. In equilibrium, monetary policy has distributional effects. With a positive money injection, some households purchase a greater variety of goods with cash while others purchase a greater variety of goods with credit. Consumption may increase or decrease because household can choose alternative means of payment. Credit is used to dampen fluctuations in consumption arising from monetary policy. The liquidity effect arises under a certain condition.

There is a high prevalence of nonuse and imperfect use of oral contraceptives (OCs) that can result in multiple consequences, one of which is unintended pregnancy. Deposit contracting may be promising for increasing OC adherence, however, there is little research testing deposit contracting on oral contraceptive adherence. In addition, studies have concluded that young women with elevated stress symptoms are at risk of contraceptive nonuse. Purposes of this thesis were to evaluate effects of deposit contracting on OC use for women, and the relation of stress to timely pill consumption. In addition, reliability was measured between the different measurements used to determine OC usage in the study. We recruited 10 college-aged female participants who were distributed into three cohorts. During baseline phase, participant’s deposit returns were based on submitting daily “selfies” (optional), weekly OC blister packs photos, weekly completed PSS-4 forms, and weekly completed pill diaries on time. During the deposit contracting phase, participants were to continue submitting all the weekly reports, but the deposit returns were contingent also upon submitting daily “selfies” on time. Results of latency of pill consumption and percentage of imperfect use showed that deposit contracting was effective in decreasing percentages of OC imperfect use, decreasing the latency in pill consumption, and increasing OC adherence for participants with stress. Results of the study also indicated that reliability was mixed between the different form of data collections on OC adherence.

<p>Problem: What type of messages can be used to make ‘saving the environment’ more appealing to individuals, in order to encourage them to act environmentally friendly?</p><p>Purpose: Our focus is the challenge of convincing consumers to save electricity in the Netherlands. Using two different types of messages, environmental and financial, our aim is to identify which characteristics of marketing messages are more effective when trying to encourage individuals to act environmentally friendly.</p><p>Method: Interviews with relevant organizations are held in order to see what professionals say about the environment and marketing. Questionnaires are distributed to see what the general opinion is and finally a case study is conducted to investigate the effectiveness of several messages on people’s electricity consumption.</p><p>Conceptual Framework: The theory of social marketing is being used, derived from nonprofit marketing. A communication model is applied to the findings, just as the concept of mental accounting.</p><p>Conclusion: Our research showed a clear preference for rational based messages that provide benefit claims, that are one sided messages, which are positively framed, focusing on the personal benefits resulting from the change in behavior and finally people should be able to draw conclusions on their own, but they should be given enough directions in the message to draw their conclusion.</p>

<p><p>Uppsatsens syfte är att ta reda på enskilda revisorers uppfattning om penningtvättslagens eventuella påverkan på revisorns arbete och kundrelation. Dessutom undersöker uppsatsen enskilda revisorers syn på om de anser att de har förutsättningarna som krävs för att följa penningtvättslagen. Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod. Fem revisorer med lång erfarenhet inom revisionsbranschen har blivit intervjuade och därmed bistått med sina åsikter.</p><p><p>Enligt lag (2009:62) om åtgärder mot penningtvätt och finansiering av terrorism är revisorer skyldiga att granska och anmäla transaktioner som kan misstänkas vara penningtvätt eller finansiering av terrorism. Revisorerna är även skyldiga att ha god kundkännedom, vilket bland annat innebär att de skall göra noggranna identitetskontroller. Från en del håll har det dock framkommit åsikter om att det inte är problemfritt att involvera revisorer i lagstiftningen mot penningtvätt.</p><p>Den genomförda undersökningen visar att majoriteten av de intervjuade revisorerna inte ser några direkta problem med att vara involverade i penningtvättslagen. Åsikterna är dock delade och några är kritiska till lagstiftningen. Slutsatserna av studien är att majoriteten av respondenterna inte ser att lagen påverkar relationen till klienten. De anser vidare att lagen innebär mer arbete, men detta ser revisorerna inte som särskilt påfrestande. Revisorerna som har deltagit i studien anser själva att de har goda förutsättningar att följa lagen.</p></p></p> / <p><p>The purpose with this thesis is to study the opinions that individual auditors have about the law against money laundering. The study will examine the opinions from auditors about how the law affects their work and their relations to the clients. Individual auditors view of the conditions to follow the law against money laundering, will also be studied in this thesis. The study was conducted with a qualitative research method. Five auditors with long experience from the accounting profession have been interviewed and had thereby assisted the thesis with their views.</p><p><p>According to the law (2009:62) against money laundering and terrorist financing, auditors are obligated to examine and report transactions that could be suspected money laundering or terrorist financing. Auditors are also responsible to have a good knowledge about their clients, which for instance means that they must do accurate identity checks of the clients. However some people have pointed out that it’s not without any problems to involve auditors in the law against money laundering.</p><p>The study shows that a majority of the interviewed auditors don’t see any problems with being involved in the regulation against money laundering. However the opinions are divided and some of the auditors are critical to the regulation. The conclusion from the study is that most of the interviewed auditors don’t think that the relation to the client is affected by the law against money laundering. Further on they think that the law means more work, but the auditors don’t see this as particularly problematical. The auditors that have participated in the study believe that they have good terms to follow the law against money laundering.</p></p></p>