The aim of this dissertation is to provide a detailed analysis of the impact electronic-commerce (e-commerce) is having upon the tax base and revenue collection of Value-Added Tax (VAT) in South Africa. This dissertation commences with a chapter that sets out the model for the treatment of VAT in an e-commerce environment. Three chapters follow this, recording how South Africa legislates for VAT, how traditional (offline) and e-commerce (online) transactions are conducted. This is followed by a chapter that makes a comparison between online and offline commerce, identifying the differences and difficulties between the two forms. Leading from this comparison is a chapter that makes suggested recommendations to overcome the identified VAT administrative difficulties. The final chapter records how the three parties, namely, governments, commerce and consumers can work together, if the freedom afforded by e-commerce is allowed to continue. The analysis shows that if certain recommendations are implemented, then the negative impact of e-commerce on the tax base and revenue collection of VAT in South Africa can be reduced. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

This research was conducted to determine whether the intrinsic share values that are obtained using the EVA valuation model are an indicator of share prices as quoted on the JSE Securities Exchange. The research did not differentiated between companies that have implemented EVA in South Africa and those that have not. The research was conducted by performing EVA intrinsic share price calculations for 43 companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange. These EVA share prices were correlated to the actual share price as quoted on the JSE Securities Exchange, for the current and lagged periods of one and two years. The resultant correlation coefficients were tested for significance at the 5% level. The results show that there is no statistically significant correlation between the EVA intrinsic share values and the share price as quoted on the JSE in both the same and lagged periods. Hence we cannot conclude that EVA is an indicator of share price. / Thesis(MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

This study analyzed the perceptions of Kentucky Homebased Processors and Microprocessors of the benefits of and barriers to developing and selling value-added products. The final sample consisted of 141 participants, 60.5% (n=72) of which were from Central KY, 26.9% (n=32) were from Western KY, and 12.6% (n=15) were from Eastern KY. Overall, participants seemed to feel that their value-added products were successful in many different benefit categories. The primary barriers to developing value-added products were lack of time, lack of funding, and lack of legal knowledge. The primary barriers to utilizing program resources for farmers were not having enough time, being unaware of the services offered, and programs being too far away. The information found by this study can be used to determine the addressable needs in different regions of Kentucky and assist programs in making their services more available and applicable to Kentucky farm entrepreneurs.

Problem of the Study: Non-traditional, value-added coconut products, such as Virgin Coconut Oil, Coco Water and Coco Sugar, have increased tremendously the last few years and the end-consumer pay a high price in retail for these considered luxury products. However, there is no abundance or indulgence in the life of the farmers and small producers in the Philippines at the other end of this global billion-dollar industry. Purpose of the Thesis: The purpose of this study is to describe, analyse and define the export network, and the roles of the actors, of the value-added coconut products in the Philippines as well as locate the origin of the single or combined problems that have led to struggling industry suppliers, and through that identify possible solutions which can increase the economic viability of the suppliers. Methodology: This study has been conducted as a case study, where the empirical findings was collected during an 8 weeks long field trip to the Philippines. A qualitative approach was adapted in order to create a deeper understanding of the problem and abduction made this possible. Six semi-structured interviews and one in-depth interview were executed. The majority of the data was collected through these interviews, although participating observation was also an important source of information along with secondary data. The validity and reliability has been secured by carefully explaining the methodology of the study, interviewing several different actors, following a interview guide and by separately interpreting the the primary data before comparing them with each other. Conclusions: The study showed that the Philippine coconut industry network is far from centreless. The government and MNCs play the biggest roles in the network, meanwhile the farmers and small producers have a very small part in the export activities of value-added coconut products. In order for the existing inequalities within the network, in both influence and profit shares, to be resolved farmers and small producers need increased support to be able to engage in value-added production, reach collaborative advantage and get access to direct export channels.

It is generally well understood that venture capital (VC) is an important and significant source of financing for small firms. Questions revolving around the increased likelihood of a firm backed by Venture Capitalists (VCs) to be export oriented have yet to be fully explored. Responding to this research gap, a sample of Canadian VC backed firms is used to compare the performance of Canadian VC firms in terms of facilitating internationalization among their portfolio companies. The particular reference of this study is Export Development Canada (EDC), a crown corporation mandated to promote export among Canadian firms. This research finds that EDC as a VC investor and export-oriented consultant has no association with the increased probability of exporting. Also, stage of the investment does not show any relationship with internationalization. These results run contrary to previous speculation that syndication of VCs increases the probability of internationalization among portfolio firms.

The thesis is concerned to explore whether and how ‘value added’ data analyses can contribute to school improvement, and to identify some of the conditions under which this might be so. In the course of conducting the study, the author experienced a tension between the ‘research’ and the ‘development’ dimensions of her work, and this is used to inform the outcomes of the thesis. The thesis is underpinned by three related aims: first, to provide a historical and evaluative overview of how the idea of ‘value added’ came to enter and influence the debate on educational quality in England. The study of the literature demonstrates that the main principles of ‘value added’ were already well developed before the term was in common use; it also reveals that the ambiguities in the term are not merely reflective of disagreements about how best to calculate value added but actually central to how the idea has been made to function within a particular political agenda for education having to do with ‘raising standards’. Because of the relentlessness of that agenda, ‘value added’ measures of attainment have undergone considerable methodological development over the past ten years, to the point where sophisticated statistical data on pupils’ and schools’ performance is being generated and used by government agencies, LEAs and schools themselves to an extent virtually unknown elsewhere. However, this thesis indicates that the technical and conceptual issues involved in putting such data to practical use in schools are likely to test the interpretative and organisational skills of users. The literature search confirms that not much investigation has been done into how data is actually used, but that what there is suggests some important lines of inquiry. The second aim of the thesis is accordingly to explore, through a small-scale empirical study, the use by secondary school staff of value-added data as exemplified by the NFER’s value added service QUASE. The study was conducted in nine schools, with staff at senior and middle management levels, and focused on mathematics, English and science departments. The third aim of the thesis is to assess how far the case-study findings might shed further light on the issues entailed in using such data for school improvement. The evidence suggested that value added data are seen as complex and often ‘high stakes’ and that – at the time of this study – the uses of value added data were rather more limited than expected; furthermore, the meanings of value added would seem to be socially constructed by the political and institutional environment, and to be closely related to individual teachers’ values and attitudes. This in turn suggests that better insights into, and management of, ‘the psychology and sociology’ of how value added data are perceived and used are necessary. Nonetheless, the study concludes that there is potential for value added analyses to contribute to school improvement under certain conditions; crucially, the study indicated that these included a culture which emphasised self-evaluation – rather than external accountability – within the school or subject department, combined with input from a ‘champion’ or facilitator who understood the technicalities and significance of the data. Value added analyses seemed to be used most actively by,staff who were able to use them ‘heuristically’, that is, to pose informed questions about teaching and learning (rather than as literal truths or statistical fictions). The study argues that ‘value added’ measures of performance are accordingly better understood as a technology than a science – that is, a practical application of knowledge which interacts dynamically with its social and cultural environment.

Thesis (PhD.(Assessment and Quality Assurance))-University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 301-333) Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--California State University, Dominguez Hills, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-81).

Zugleich: Diss. Wirtschaftswiss. Zürich. / Im Buchh.: Bern ; Stuttgart ; Wien : P. Haupt. Literaturverz.

The three essays of this dissertation inform tax policy design. It is a compilation of empirical and experimental research work. The first and the second essays explore the performance of a recent tax policy reform at the sub-national level in India in terms of revenue efficiency as well as economic efficiency. India is among the only three countries in the world to have adopted a sub-national VAT. Therefore, empirically examining its performance not only improves the understanding of this important tax policy reform but also informs tax policy decision-making at the sub-national level in other developing countries. India transitioned to the state-level VAT between the years 2003 and 2008. Among other things, it was expected to achieve revenue growth and decrease tax cascading on commodities by improving economic efficiency of the indirect tax system. In the first essay, I model the impact of the VAT on revenue by adding revenue dependent administrative and compliance costs associated with taxation to an existing model developed by Keen and Lockwood (2010). The theoretical results show that replacing one type of indirect tax with another improves long-run revenue efficiency only if there is a net decrease in the administrative, compliance and distortionary costs of taxation at the margin. I then compile a unique state-level dataset for the years 1990 to 2010 to determine changes in the long-run revenue efficiency from the use of the VAT. This essay contributes to the literature by extending an existing revenue efficiency model and testing it in the unique situation of India’s sub-national VAT. The results reveal a significant improvement in the long-run revenue efficiency of the sales tax instrument used by state governments. The model implies this improvement is driven by a net fall in the marginal taxation costs from the use of the state-level VAT. This finding has important implications on the role of a sub-national VAT in the future as an effective tax instrument in the developing countries. The second essay appeals to the general theory of tax incidence which suggests that a VAT will have less impact on prices than a traditional turnover tax because the VAT does not “get stuck” in the production process as a turnover tax does. The impact should be larger for goods that have more components to the production process as the tax then “touches” more of the final product. In this essay I measure the change in the level of tax cascading with VAT by using multiple waves of the state- and household-level expenditure surveys. Specifically I test the impact of the VAT on the real consumption of households on a variety of consumption goods. I find the biggest significant decrease in the tax cascading burden of the long-term durable goods which essentially involve the maximum production components. This result is found in the 18 more developed states of India which are the focus of the empirical analysis due to data constraints. The third essay is an experimental research which looks at the influence of institutions on the economic burden of an excise tax. The traditional long-run tax incidence theory establishes that the economic incidence of an excise tax is independent of the assignment of the liability to pay tax. However, the theory is silent on the possible effects of the market institutions on tax incidence. Since all markets need an institution to function and every market institution has its own unique price and quantity determination property, it is important to understand its bearings on the incidence of taxes. Existing experimental research has tested economic incidence under many different market institutions but no previous research systematically analyzes and compares the incidence of a unit tax under two important market institutions we deal with in everyday life. One of these institutions is posted offer which dominates the consumer goods markets in developed countries and the other is double auction which is frequently observed in developing countries. I report a significant impact of these market institutions on tax incidence. In particular, I find that consumers bear a much higher burden of a unit tax in the posted offer markets as compared to the double auction markets and their burden further increases when the liability to pay the tax is on the seller.