L’attractivité des pays est aujourd’hui une composante importante de la politique économique ; elle est au centre des politiques de promotion, d’aménagement et de développement. Avec la mondialisation de l’économie où la réduction des coûts de transport et de télécommunications a anéanti les distances, les firmes désireuses de s’implanter à l’étranger font monter les enchères quant à leur sélection et choix d’implantation ; les pays se retrouvent en situation de concurrence et mettent tout en œuvre, non seulement pour attirer les investissements mais aussi pour les retenir. Les Etats deviennent ainsi les promoteurs de leurs propres territoires afin de séduire les firmes multinationales dans un contexte de surenchère puisque les projets d’investissement sont en nombre limité et que la liste des territoires candidats à leur accueil ne cesse de s’allonger.De par la signature de l’Accord d’association avec l’Union Européenne et des négociations en vue de son adhésion à l’Organisation Mondiale du Commerce (OMC), l’Algérie vise la libéralisation de son économie et son ancrage dans l’économie internationale. Dans cette libéralisation interviennent les investissements directs étrangers (IDE). L’intérêt de l’Algérie est dans les retombées tant managériales, économiques que sociales sur son économie. Pour cela, l’Algérie a prévu un certain nombre de textes et de lois régissant les fondements de sa politique d’investissement qui donne des garanties et des avantages certains aux investisseurs. Dans son processus de transition d’une économie centralisée à une économie de marché déclenché des la fin de l’année 1988, le gouvernement algérien s’est imposé une politique de réformes structurelles qui a permis de rétablir les équilibres macro-économiques, la libéralisation de l'économie, sa dotation en infrastructures modernes et la diminution du risque-pays. Ces réformes ont permis l’accroissement des flux d’IDE vers l’Algérie. Cependant, ces résultats restent en deçà du potentiel d'investissement du pays : l’Algérie n’attire pas suffisamment de firmes étrangères comparativement aux pays voisins. Bien que l'Algérie ait enregistré des résultats positifs dans certains secteurs tels que les hydrocarbures, les télécommunications, la sidérurgie et la pharmacie ; les réformes introduites depuis les années 90 se sont révélées insuffisantes. Et la politique de promotion et d’attraction des IDE menée n’a pas réalisé les objectifs escomptés. De même, les recettes des exportations d’hydrocarbures n’ont pas permis de créer un tissu industriel compétitif et de permettre à l’investissement productif de jouer un rôle plus important dans l’économie du pays. L’essentiel de l’effort productif privé est orienté vers l’économie spéculative au détriment d’une économie productive. Les IDE que l’ouverture de l’économie algérienne et son important potentiel devaient attirer, demeurent faibles. Pourtant, le dispositif juridique mis en place en Algérie donne des avantages et des garanties certains aux investisseurs étrangers. / The attractiveness of the country is now an important component of economic policy; it is the center of political promotion, planning and development. With the globalization of the economy where cost reduction of transport and telecommunications annihilated distance, firms wishing to establish themselves abroad are upping the ante on their selection and choice of location , the country found in competition and make every effort not only to attract investment but also to retain them. And states become promoters of their own territories to attract multinational firms in the context of escalation as investment projects are limited and that the list of candidates to their home territories continues to grow. By the signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union and negotiations for its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO ), Algeria aims to liberalize its economy and its roots in the international economy. Involved in the liberalization of foreign direct investment (FDI). The interest of Algeria in both managerial benefits, economic and social impact on its economy. To do this, Algeria has provided a number of texts and laws governing foundations of its investment policy that guarantees and advantages to investors.It is around the elements of the problem mentioned above that will focus our research in attempting to answer the following key questions : What determines the choice of multinational firms in the location of their investment, in other words what are the ex ante determinants of FDI ? What are the main instruments of economic and financial policy or the means used by governments to encourage and attract foreign investment ? What are the effects of these policies on FDI flows ?What about Algeria and its policy of promoting investment ? What are the effects of this policy, including the legal framework set up on FDI in Algeria? This device is sufficient to attract foreign investors?In its transition from a centralized to a market economy triggered the end of the 1988 economy , the Algerian government has imposed a policy of structural reforms that helped restore macroeconomic balances , liberalization economy, its modern infrastructure and staffing reduction of country risk . These reforms have increased FDI flows to Algeria. However, these results remain below the investment potential of the country: Algeria does not attract enough foreign firms compared to neighboring countries. Although Algeria has recorded positive results in certain sectors such as hydrocarbons , telecommunications, steel and pharmacy reforms introduced since the 90s have proved insufficient . And policy promotion and attraction of FDI led has not achieved the desired objectives. Similarly, revenues from hydrocarbon exports have failed to create a competitive industrial structure and allow for productive investment to play a more important role in the economy. Most of the private productive effort is directed toward the speculative economy at the expense of a productive economy . FDI that the opening of the Algerian economy and its great potential would attract, remain weak. However, the legal framework set up in Algeria provides some benefits and guarantees to foreign investors.

Previous literature have documented that the independent directors play a crucial goal in corporate governance but the research on the firm value and board independence remains inconclusive. In my dissertation, I examine the impact of independent directors' geographic proximity to corporate headquarters on the effectiveness of corporate boards and the motivations of board directors. Using a large sample of directors trading, I show that independent directors who live close to headquarters ("local director") earn higher abnormal returns on their trades than other directors, and that this advantage is stronger in small firms. Further, I find an inverse relationship between the number of local independent directors on the board and firm value. Companies with fewer local independent directors also have higher ROA ratios, lower abnormal CEO compensations, and higher CEO incentive compensations. Collectively, the findings suggest that local independent directors are more informed but less effective monitors. I also provided evidence that firms with a higher proportion of directors' incentive compensation are more likely to manage earnings. Directors are more likely to exercise options in the year following the firms' earnings management being in the top tercile of the sample. The results are robust after controlling for self-selection bias. Taken together, the evidence suggests that director incentive pay is more likely to align directors' interest with the CEO's, rather than to induce the directors to act in the best interest of the shareholders.

In the nonprofit industry, lapses in internal controls and low levels of accountability have resulted in many organizations becoming insolvent. Grounded in the agency theory, the purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between federal compliance requirement, executive compensation, nonprofit size, nonprofit type, and internal control infraction. Archival data were collected from 144 nonprofit organizations in the southeast United States. The results of the multiple regression analyses indicated the model was able to predict the relationship between federal compliance requirement, executive compensation, nonprofit size, nonprofit type, and internal control infraction, F(7, 136) = 6.559, p < .001, R2 = .252, with non-profit type (hospitals), (β = -9.392, t = 7.191, p <0.050), accounting for a higher contribution to the model than executive compensation, (β = -0.049, t = 1.96, p <0.050). Federal compliance requirement and nonprofit size did not explain any significant variation in internal control infraction. The implications for positive social change included the potential for a better understanding by nonprofit managers of the importance of internal controls, leading to the effective and efficient provision of goods and services needed by members of society.

Rhetorical agency is an ideologically contentious facet within communication and rhetorical research. While its importance in scholarship can be traced back to early works by Kenneth Burke and Pierre Bourdieu, debate continues regarding the source of agency, how it is enacted in rhetorical application and communication, and who/what can claim responsibility for the communication practices one may utilize in enacting their respective levels of agency. Thus, the ways in which the rhetoric of popular, influential individuals/antecedents affects the rhetorical agency and invention practices of those without significant levels of influence must be examined. American Christianity, in particular the culture created through heavy use of televised and web-media (televangelism), provides an excellent context to examine this subject. The present thesis discusses relevant literature to the topics of rhetorical agency, invention, and antecedents, as well as American Christianity, televangelism, and the changes that have occurred in religious rhetoric within the culture. Additionally, results indicate a high propensity towards rhetorical agency influenced through the themes of identity, adaptation, and audience sensitivity, and encourage pastors to focus on the identity and context through which their agency is manifested.

This paper explores the extent to which the female characters in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales exercise any degree of narrative agency. Using both literary and historical approaches, this paper specifically discusses the cases of three of Chaucer’s women: Virginia, Griselda, and the Wife of Bath.

In a 2004 study, Harvey, Lin and Roper argue that debt makers with a commitment to monitoring can create value for outside shareholders whenever information asymmetry and agency costs are pronounced. I investigate Harvey, Lin and Roper's claim for bank loans by empirically testing the effect of information asymmetry and direct agency costs on the abnormal returns of the borrowers' stock around the announcement of bank loans. I divide my study into two main sections. The first section tests whether three proxies of the direct agency costs of equity are equally significant in measuring the direct costs associated with outside equity agency problems. I find that the asset utilization ratio proxy is the most statistically significant proxy of the direct agency costs of equity using a Chow F-test statistic. The second main section of my dissertation includes and event study and a cross-sectional analysis. The event study results document significant and positive average abnormal returns of 1.01% for the borrowers' stock on the announcement day of bank loans. In the cross sectional analysis of the borrowers' average abnormal stock returns, I find that higher quality and more reputable banks/lenders provide a reliable certification to the capital market about the low level of the borrowers' direct agency costs of equity and information asymmetry. This certification hypothesis holds only for renewed bank loans. In other words, in renewing the borrowers' line of credit, the bank/lender is actually confirming that the borrower has a low level of information asymmetry and direct costs of equity. Given such a certificate from the banks/lenders, shareholders reward the company/borrower by bidding the share price up in the capital market.

This study is an empirical examination of a new theory that links dividends to institutional ownership in a framework of both information signaling and agency costs. Under this theory put forth by Allen, Bernardo and Welch in 2000, dividends are paid out to attract tax-favored institutional investors, thereby signaling good firm quality and/or more efficient monitoring. This is based on the premise that institutions are considered sophisticated investors with superior ability and stronger incentive to be informed about the firm quality compared to retail investors. On the agency level, institutional investors display monitoring capabilities, and can detect and correct managerial pitfalls, thus their presence serves as an assurance that the firm will remain well run. The study provides a comprehensive analysis of the implications of the theory by testing various aspects of the relationship between dividends and institutional holdings. Unlike the prevalent literature on this topic, I give specific attention to the different types of institutional investors and their incentives to invest in dividend paying stocks. Moreover, I analyze the signaling and the agency effects on the market reaction to dividend initiations within the framework proposed by the theory. Finally, I test the smoothing effect institutions have on dividends by examining the firm's propensity to increase dividends given the level of institutional ownership. I find institutional holders to respond positively to dividend initiation announcements as they adjust their portfolios by buying or increasing their holdings of the dividend paying stock following the announcement. I also find that this response is displayed more strongly among tax-favored institutions. My test results also reveal that positive abnormal returns to dividend initiation announcements are a decreasing function of institutional holdings in the dividend initiating firm, and that this mitigating effect of institutional ownership on the market reaction to dividend initiations is stronger for firms with higher information asymmetry and more potential for agency problems. This evidence lends some degree of support to the tested theory. Additional support to lies in the test results of its smoothing hypothesis which reveal that as institutional ownership increases, the propensity of firms to increase dividends decreases.

My work approaches the multitude of personal experience within the landscape, considering its cultural representation, aiming to give the environment agency within these tumultuous times. The following text is a personal narrative, realizing the many lenses through which a landscape can be experienced, including analyses of artists, writers, and musicians who have represented landscape through their own individuality.

This dissertation examines African American students’ perspectives of African American agency during the Civil War. It also seeks to understand where their knowledge of African Americans during the Civil War comes from. The topic fits within the Critical Race Theory framework and utilized a mixed methods approach to understand the study findings. The methodology included an online survey completed by forty-two participants at a Historically Black university and 3 semi-structured interviews using the interview protocol. Descriptive statistical demographic data, open-ended responses and interview transcripts were analyzed using the agency rubric developed by the researcher. The themes that emerged from the study included the limited agency of African Americans during the Civil War, silenced voices of African American women, students’ limited knowledge of ancestors’ emancipation and emancipation narratives, and little specific knowledge of African Americans involvement in the Civil War

Working toward a personal definition of womanhood while progressing with my research in feminist discourse, I frame biographical events alongside the intricate use of language surrounding feminist theory. Experimenting with material specificities that speak to my personal narratives and cultural significance, my work seeks to address the interlacing operations of subjectivity expanding on the intersection of class, gender and race.