Thesis. 1979. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alfred P. Sloan School of Management. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY. / Includes bibliographical references. / Ph.D.

This thesis examines the economic effects of both international and domestic remittances on Filipino households. The thesis investigates three main research questions: (1) “Which household characteristics affect the probability and the size of domestic and international remittances migrant households received?”; (2) “How do these two sources of remittances Filipino households received affect welfare inequality at the household level?”; (3) “How do the remittances affect the recipient household's expenditure patterns, especially educational expenditures?” The data mainly used for the thesis come from the nationally representative Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) in the Philippines during the period of 1985-2006. With regard to the first question, the thesis finds that the levels of receiving international and domestic remittances are mutually related and reveals that there is a displacement effect of remittances from abroad on those from within the country. Furthermore, the thesis also revealed that several explanatory factors such as the welfare level, the heads' characteristics, the job-related factors, and the regional disparities are significant to determine both the probability and the size of receiving the remittances. Regarding the second question, the thesis shows that the receipt of international remittances could significantly contribute to an improvement in Filipino households' livelihoods at any welfare level and that it would cause expenditure inequality between Filipino households to widen over time. In contrast, the receipt of remittances from within the Philippines did not exert a significant impact on improving the welfare. As for the last question, the thesis finds that the receipt of remittances from abroad would increase the budget share for education as well as its absolute value. This result supports the idea that international remittances could contribute to the future Philippine economic growth via increase in human capital investment if the country sort out the issues on brain drain of educated migrants' children.

El presente trabajo busca validar la relación existente entre la gestión del presupuesto por resultados con la calidad del gasto público The present work seeks to validate the relationship between budget management by results with the quality of public expenditure

Traditional economic theory suggests that consumers are likely to prepay for a product/ service that appears to be heavily discounted. However, in reality, many consumers do not think and act to achieve that goal. This is evident in consumer's psychological and behavioral responses toward a new type of price promotion, namely social coupons (SCs) (i.e., online coupons that offer consumers a substantial discount with a long redemption period when they prepay for a retailer's products/services). Such responses generate vital impacts not only on consumers themselves in terms of saving maximization but also on service retailers (e.g., sit-down dining restaurants) and SC providers (e.g., Groupon and LivingSocial) in terms of revenue maximization generated from offering SC campaigns. This dissertation aims to provide insights to the literature in price promotions, specifically SCs. Guided by mental accounting theory (i.e., consumers open a mental account when costs are incurred and close a mental account when benefits are received), this dissertation is structured in the form of two separate empirical essays. While Essay 1, "Prepaying Less is Preferable to Saving More: The Role of Pain of Prepayment Aversion in Social Coupon Purchasing Decision", focuses on opening a SC mental account (i.e., cost incurred), Essay 2, "Superfluous Spending: The Role of Neglected Mental Budget Depletion in Spending Decision when Redeeming Social Coupons", focuses on closing a SC mental account (i.e., benefit received). Essay 1 explored why consumers purchase SCs featuring a low-implausible face value (i.e., a face value that is lower than the normal price range expected by consumers for a particular type of service)? Findings across five experiments revealed that consumers' likelihood of purchasing SCs featuring a low-implausible (vs. plausible) face value was greater when a coupon price for SCs featuring a low-implausible face value was lower than willingness-to-prepay for a SC (WTPP-SC), while a coupon price for SCs featuring a plausible face value was higher than WTPP-SC. Furthermore, consumers' likelihood of purchasing SCs featuring a low-implausible face value was greater when a coupon price was lower (vs. higher) than WTPP-SC. Pain of prepayment (i.e., the disutility/imputed cost, painful feeling, generated from the thought of prepaying amount of money required for a SC) aversion was an underlying process. That is, consumers experienced greater pain of prepayment when a coupon price was higher (vs. lower) than WTPP-SC. Pain of prepayment, in turns, negatively influenced consumers' likelihood of purchasing SCs featuring a low-implausible face value. Moreover, consumers' likelihood of purchasing such SCs was greater when time pressure was present (vs. absent) and when semantic cues were abstract (vs. concrete). Finally, when being exposed to multiple SC deals for the same service, which vary in terms of face value plausibility (Option 1: low-implausible face value vs. Option 2: plausible face value), consumers were more likely to choose a SC deal featuring a low-implausible face value (Option 1) when a coupon price for a SC deal featuring a low-implausible face value was lower than WTPP-SC but a coupon price for a SC deal featuring a plausible face value (Option 2) was higher than WTPP-SC. In contrast, when coupon prices for both SC deal options were lower than WTPP-SC, consumers were more likely to choose a SC deal featuring a plausible face value (Option 2). Essay 2 explored why consumers spend a great additional amount of money beyond a SC face value? Findings across three experiments revealed that the amount of money spent beyond a SC face value was greater when consumers redeem SCs featuring a low-implausible (vs. plausible) face value. Neglected mental budget depletion (i.e., the instance in which consumers neglect the fact that the budget assigned to a particular SC mental account as a spending self-control is already depleted) was an underlying process. That is, consumers had a greater tendency to neglect mental budget depletion when redeeming SCs featuring a low-implausible (vs. plausible) face value. Neglected mental budget depletion, in turns, positively influenced the amount of money spent beyond a SC face value. Furthermore, concrete (vs. abstract) semantic cues and far (vs. near) distance between purchasing and redeeming a SC intensified neglected mental budget depletion effect, which in turns, increased the amount of money spent beyond a SC face value when redeeming SCs featuring a low-implausible face value. In conclusion, this dissertation provides theoretical insights on consumers' psychological responses, and their behavioral responses toward SCs during two SC stages, which results in sub-optimal SC decision-makings: (1) purchasing SCs featuring a low-implausible face value (Essay 1); and (2) spending additional money beyond a SC face value when redeeming SCs at a service retailer (Essay 2). The empirical findings across two essays add to the growing body of the literature in price promotions, specifically SCs. This dissertation also provides managerial insights regarding how managers can design and strategically implement SC campaigns that can maximize the number of SC being purchased and the great amount of money consumers spend beyond a SC face value when they redeem a SC at a service retailer.

In Tanzania, fiscal adjustment policies emphasized an increase in tax revenue and cuts in public spending to correct the fiscal deficit. However, adjustment policies restricted the impact of fiscal policies in correcting fiscal deficit because they led to a low GDP growth and narrowed the tax base. The government overlooked the need to have an alternative tax base that could compensate for the fall in GDP growth. In that respect, the main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of fiscal adjustment policies in correcting the fiscal deficit in Tanzania in different adjustment periods in the 1973-2000 period. The thesis adopts a country study approach to analyse the effect of changes in the tax structure on the fiscal position using the primary balance as a proxy. The study also uses time series econometric methods to examine the impact of economic policy regime changes on public spending and GDP growth and the implications for fiscal policy in Tanzania. The study finds that changes in macroeconomic conditions either temporarily expanded or narrowed the tax bases and influenced the correction of the fiscal deficit in different years. Fiscal adjustment policies were pro-cyclical, thus leading to low GDP growth. This limited the effect of changes in the tax structure in reducing the fiscal deficit. Lastly, policy regime changes led to public spending instability and a structural break in the GDP data series. This signified that economic policy reforms caused fundamental changes in the economy, with implications for macroeconomic and fiscal policies in Tanzania. In sum, the results suggest that pro-cyclical policies are harmful for countries pursuing fiscal adjustment policies to correct a fiscal deficit.

Due to the fast progress of the internet technologies, electronic commerce becomes more and more popular. Many people and businesses deal with their transactions via the internet. The technologies of credit cards, electronic tickets, e-cash, and other advanced services have realized the vision of electronic commerce. In this thesis, we propose an off-line e-cash scheme with anonymity, untraceability, double-spending checking, and traceability. Anonymity and untraceability must be possessed in any e-cash scheme. In an off-line e-cash scheme, the bank or the third party (TTP) must be able to revoke the anonymity of a user who doubly spent her/his e-cash(s). In our proposed e-cash scheme, the bank can fast derive the identity of the user who doubly spent her/his e-cash(s) without the participation of TTP. If some illegal transactions are reported, TTP can also directly revoke the anonymity of the user who spent her/his e-cash(s) in the illegal transactions. In addition, the police needs to trace a specific user in some situation, and we propose a process to satisfy this requirement,called traceability.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 36-37). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 36-37). Also available on the Internet.

The objective of this dissertation is to provide insights on key actors who affect the link between marketing and firm value. The first essay examines financial analysts who provide earnings estimates about firms, thereby connecting firm and the stock market. The author uncovers whether and how financial analysts link market-based assets (e.g., brand equity) to a firm's cash flows, drivers of firm value. The author predicts market-based assets affect a firm's cash flow level, volatility, and acceleration through two marketing strategies, the ability to charge price premiums and penetrate new product markets. Hypotheses are tested using data from surveys of 220 North America based financial analysts. Based on analysts' feedback, brand and channel equity affect a firm's ability to penetrate new product markets, and brand equity also affects a firm's ability to charge price premiums. The ability to charge price premiums increases cash flows level while the ability to penetrate new product markets enhances cash flow level and acceleration of cash flows. Finally, channel equity directly lowers cash flow volatility and market intelligence enhances cash flow level. The findings offer evidence that analysts connect a firm's market-based assets to the generation of its cash flows. This has important implications for managers who maintain communications with the financial analyst community. In the second essay, the author examines the impact of a firm's shareholders and board of directors on the marketing-firm value link. The author hypothesizes that a firm's shareholders and board of directors affect how its advertising and R&D dollars are spent and also affect stock market participants' perceptions of this spending, thereby affecting its firm value. Hypotheses are tested using data on 575 publicly listed firms in the United States. The findings indicate that higher shareholder governance and higher marketing spending (both advertising and R&D spending) increase firm value. However, somewhat interestingly, higher board governance and higher advertising spending decrease firm value. These results highlight the importance of considering corporate governance when analyzing the marketing-shareholder value link and offer yet another important reason for the marketing function to have a voice in the firm's boardroom. / text

The importance of education creates a need to better frame education issues for the public and policymakers. This thesis builds on framing theory to examine whether framing educational issues domestically or internationally affects support for increased educational spending. It tests straightforward hypotheses about one-sided frame exposure in a survey experiment conducted via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. The findings have implications for approaches that may be effective for generating support for education funding in the U.S.. By determining the best frame to use to motivate educational support, policymakers can better tailor their strategies and platforms in the media and communication with the public.