Thesis (DPhil (Philosophy))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / This thesis sets out to uncover why environmental concerns are not being effectively addressed in economic decision-making. It investigates this by analyzing the key values underpinning neo-classical economics and ecological economics, and concludes that both approaches remain trapped in a form of moral monism and are thus unable to express the full range of environmental values that exist. This results in a form of reductionism in economic thinking where all environmental value is expressed in the form of exchange value. In order to escape from this reductionism, it is asserted that ecological economics needs to adopt a moral pluralist philosophy that can accommodate both exchange values and subjective intrinsic value. Mindful of the quagmires of moral relativism, the thesis seeks out an approach to economic decision-making that is able to justify courses of action amid seemingly competing economic and environmental values. Environmental pragmatism, a form of moral pluralism, that focuses on the contextual nature of truth and value, is found fitting for the task. It uses experience to reduce uncertainty and moves decision-makers towards courses of action that can support a plurality of values within a given context. Environmental pragmatist Bryan Norton’s philosophy of adaptive management, with its guidelines of experimentalism, multi-scalar analysis and localism, is found to be particularly helpful in achieving this. The second half of the thesis concentrates on demonstrating the value of environmental pragmatism in economic decision-making by using it to analyse the South African National Budget of 2005. Norton’s guidelines are first used as critical tools of analysis to show up the gaps and inconsistencies in the budget process and then, secondly, as creative tools to reconstruct the budget process. To demonstrate what this would mean in concrete terms, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Agriculture budget votes are analysed using the sustainability indicators of The City of Cape Town’s Sustainability Report of 2005 and the 2020 goals of The City of Cape Town’s Integrated Development Plan of 2004/5.

The thesis deals with the determination and analysis of government support for building savings in the Czech republic between 2001 and 2009. The general section describes the legal framework of building savings system and the main products offered by building societies. The application section examines the progression of government support for building savings and delas with its forecasts.

This master thesis analyses the relationship between state budgetary revenues from indirect taxes, the number of existing indirect tax rates and the level of those taxes. In particular, this thesis strives to investigate whether an increase in the number of indirect tax rates and higher tax rates lead to a measurable increase in the net tax revenue of a given state. The analysis uses tax-related data from 39 European countries collected between 1993 and 2014 and includes a total number of 746 observations. In order to arrive at the estimated results, this thesis uses the general method of moments analysis (GMM) along with the Arellano-Bond estimator. Results obtained through the GMM analysis suggest that, ceteris paribus, the introduction of one additional indirect tax rate leads to a decrease of net tax revenue of the state vis-a-vis its gross domestic product by 1,03 percentage points. The relationship between the level of indirect tax rate and the state's net revenues appears to be non-linear. Specifically, the increase of indirect tax rate by one percentage point appears to be associated with an increase of state's net revenue vis-a-vis its gross domestic product by approximately one percentage point.

This diploma thesis concerned with the budget of the Czech Republic, which has been deficient since 1996. The aim of this thesis is to detect weak spots of budget process and confirm the hypothesis that budget deficits have the institutional nature. The theoretical part examines in detail the concepts of the state budget and the budget deficit, explains the causes of the budget deficit and explores the possibilities of its elimination. The thesis also conducts a survey about the process of the budget propose, approval and performance with the highlighting of process weaknesses and possibilities of its solution. The main contribution of this thesis is a detailed analysis of selected state budgets. This analysis reveals the common features of selected budgets and tries to describe the major changes of them. At the end of the thesis a concept of fiscal council and the possibilities of its establishment in Czech Republic is introduced.

Objective of this diploma thesis is to process analysis of development of revenues, expenditures and deficit of the state budget in the Czech Republic and to characterize the main economic trends, state of public funds and the economy at large. There are identified shares of exogenous influences, accepted reforms and measures in the economic development during the period from 1993 up to 2010. Theoretic -- methodological part is divided into three parts, the first one describes fiscal policy in general. The second part deals with the state budget, its revenue and expenditure side and very current field of debt financing. In the last part there is processed tax theory and conception of the flat tax from theoretical point of view. Practical part is introduced by description of the economic starting state of the Czech Republic. This is followed by the list of economic events and political measures that formed the final shape of public funds. Furthermore there is carried out the analysis of state budget development. Subject of the analysis is the extent and structure of both revenue and expenditure side of the state budget, budget balance and the government debt. Part of this thesis is also the analysis of development of macroeconomic indicators, specifically it is the GDP growth, unemployment rate and inflow of foreign funds. In the conclusion of the diploma thesis there is the successfulness of examined budget and fiscal policy evaluated and there are drawn some suggestions for the field of public funds in the coming years.

Magistrinio darbo tema pasirinkta dėl jos aktualumo. Šio darbo autorė yra akademinės bendruomenės narė, todėl minėtoje srityje kylančios problemos ir nesklandumai yra aktualūs ne tik valstybiniame ar tarptautiniame, bet ir asmeniniame lygmenyje. Šiuo metu viena iš labiausiai aptarinėjamų sričių Lietuvoje - švietimo ir mokslo sistema, jos struktūra, o ypatingai finansavimas. Prie temos aktualumo nemenkai prisidėjo ir 2005 m. spalio 13 d. visuotinis studentų streikas, Lietuvos įstojimas į ES, kur mokslas ir žinios seniai tapę vienais iš esminių prioritetų, todėl itin svarbu užtikrinti tinkamą švietimo srities finansavimą ir lėšų paskirstymą taip, kad tai maksimaliai atitiktų visų suinteresuotų socialinių grupių interesus ir esamas galimybes. Šiuo metu švietimo sistemos finansavimas Lietuvoje yra nepakankamas, lėšos skirstomos neefektyviai. Lietuvos švietimo sistemą sudaro keli etapai – tai pagrindinis ugdymas, aukštasis ir profesinis mokslas, suaugusiųjų mokymas, perkvalifikavimas arba kvalifikacijos kėlimas. Jos finansavimui skiriami asignavimai iš valstybės biudžeto, savivaldybių biudžetų bei ES paramos (struktūrinių fondų). Nagrinėjant baigiamojo darbo temą, remtasi Lietuvos Respublikos ir ES įstatymais, poįstatyminiais teisės aktais, lietuvių ir užsienio autorių darbais, periodiniais LR Švietimo ir mokslo ministerijos leidiniais ir kita literatūra. Darbe pateikiamos švietimo, švietimo sistemos, biudžetinio finansavimo ir su tuo susijusios sąvokos, jų išaiškinimai... [to full text] / This theme of the science work was chosen taking it into account its urgency. The authoress of this work belongs to the academic society, so the problems, which arise in this field, are important and urgent at the State or international level as well as at the personal level. Nowadays one of the most discussed spheres in Lithuania is the system of the education and science, its’ structure, especially its’ funding. The theme of this work is topical as well for the universal strike of students on the 13th of October 2005, Lithuania’s joining EU, where the education is one of the most important priorities for long time, that’s why it is so important to ensure the proper funding of the educational system and assure that funds would be distributed in the way, which would maximally accord interests and current possibilities of all interested social groups. The system of the education in Lithuania consists of few stages – it is the main education, high and professional education, adults’ education, re-qualification or constitution of qualification. Assignations from the State budget, budgets of local administrations and EU financial support (structural funds) are addressed for its’ funding. In the analysing of this work’s topic where used laws of the Republic of Lithuania and EU, under-legal acts works of Lithuanian and abroad authors, periodical publications of the Lithuania’s ministry of education and science and other literature. In the science work are presented notions of... [to full text]

The aim of this thesis is the specification of the term "financial crisis" and the analysis of its impacts on the national budget and the public finance of the Czech Republic in 2010. The first chapter deals with the definition of the finance crisis and of other basic terms necessary for the subsequent analysis. Further, the outbreak of the finance crisis and its causes are described in detail. The end of the first chapter lists several experts' recommendations regarding what they find necessary in order to avoid similar global crises occurring in the future. These are especially aimed at changes in regulation. The second, practical part of the thesis deals with the impact of the worldwide financial crisis on the national budget of the Czech Republic in 2010, on the national debt, and the government debt. This is an analysis of changes in individual incomes and expenses within the national budget, and a determination whether these changes were caused by the financial crisis or by legislation and other measures carried out by the government. At the conclusion, an evaluation of the analysis and recommendations implied by the same are stated.

This thesis is analyzing revenue dynamics of Lithuanian Republic budget of 2000 – 2006 years with direct aspect of taxes and the reasons which influed changes. In the beginning of thesis there was hypothesis, that incomes to national budget of population revenue taxes is the biggest part of budget revenue. The experiment was based on needs to value results of population revenue taxes decrease for budget. Objective conclusions about budget revenue, influed by 2006 years reform, can be done only by the end of this year. In despite of, this thesis is analyzing changes of budget already first months after reform. Also is analyzing other direct taxes structural parts in Lithuanian Republic national budget, taxes specification in countries of EU and the principles of processes of EU taxes harmonization, which are important for Lithuania in EU economic area.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-08T14:44:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 7649365 bytes, checksum: ee27bd58facf83365ed85471f6231dbf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-11-06 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Although infrastructure investment has a central role in economic development, it declined considerably in Brazil during the 1980 and 1990 decades. At the beginning of the 2000s it amounted to 2.2 \% of GDP, while in China and Chile it amounted to 7.3 \% and 6.5 \% of GDP, respectively. The private investment in infrastructure was not enough to offset the decline in public investment, which occurred because of the government's effort to achieve primary surpluses. Thus, the government faces a dilemma between balancing the budget and increasing the investment. In order to achieve the two goals, the investment must be financed. The aim of this work is to evaluate the impact of an increase in the infrastructure investment and its financing in the Brazilian economy. To do it, a dynamic computable general equilibrium model is used. It is simulated an increase in the investment for two years, equal to 1 \% of the GDP. The results show that, in the first three years, the increase in the GDP growth rate is higher when the investment is financed by reducing the government consumption (0.73 \%), it is moderate when the financing is done through the tax on production (0.33 \%) or foreign savings (0.34 \%), and it is lower when the financing is done by increasing the income tax (0.28 \%). Construction was the fastest growing sector (2.39 \% on average in the first 3 years). The contribution of this work was to obtain clear and useful results for policy making, enhance the understanding of the effects of infrastructure investment financing in the Brazilian economy, and analyze the sectorial impacts of this investment. / Embora o investimento em infraestrutura tenha um papel central no desenvolvimento econômico, ele reduziu-se muito no Brasil nas décadas 1980 e 1990. No início da década de 2000 equivalia a 2,2%do PIB, enquanto que na China e no Chile correspondia a 7,3% e 6,5%do PIB, respectivamente. O investimento privado em infraestrutura, não foi suficiente para compensar a redução do investimento público, que ocorreu por causa do esforço do governo para obter superávits primários. Assim, o governo enfrenta um dilema entre obter o equilíbrio orçamentário ou aumentar o investimento público. Para que os dois objetivos sejam alcançados é preciso que o investimento seja financiado. O objetivo desse trabalho é avaliar o impacto do aumento do investimento em infraestrutura e de seu financiamento na economia brasileira. Para isso, utiliza-se um modelo de equilíbrio geral computável dinâmico. E simulado o aumento do investimento durante 2 anos, equivalente a 1 % do PIB. Os resultados mostram que, nos três primeiros anos, o aumento da taxa de crescimento do PIB é maior quando o investimento é financiado pela redução do consumo do governo (0,73 %), é moderada quando o financiamento é feito através do imposto sobre a produção (0,33 %) ou da poupança externa (0,34 %) e é menor quando o financiamento é feito através do aumento do imposto de renda (0,28 %). O setor que mais cresceu foi o de construção (2,39% em média nos 3 primeiros anos). A contribuição desse trabalho foi obter resultados claros e úteis para a tomada de decisões políticas, ampliar a compreensão dos efeitos do financiamento do investimento em infraestrutura na economia brasileira e analisar os impactos setoriais de tal investimento.