M.Com. (Economics) / The purpose of this study was to analyze the nature and extent of capital taxes as a component of the total tax structure and to investigate the applicability and effectiveness of this kind of tax in South Africa. The different capital taxes were discussed individually. Standard norms and criteria used to evaluate taxes have been identified. These criteria were applied in an analysis of the different capital taxes. Tables, figures and international comparisons were also employed. The definition of capital is problematic. Historically capital has been compared with a tree while income has been likened with the fruit of the tree. For purposes of this study capital is defined, for an individual, as the current value of the individual's expected future income. Capital as an asset is defined as all assets that are not intended for immediate use. Arguments in favour of capital tax centre around moral issues like equality. It may be argued in favour of capital tax that the implicit income of capital should be taxed in order to maintain economic neutrality of the tax system. Arguments against capital tax concentrate on the negative implications thereof on certain economic entities. Certain practical considerations are highlighted. It may be argued that capital tax is immoral since the abstention of consumption (saving) is taxed...

Magíster en Gestión y Políticas Públicas / La presente Tesis evalúa la existencia de relación entre capital social y violencia, expresada a través de delitos, en 101 comunas urbanas de Chile, durante el año 2009. La hipótesis sostiene que el capital social explica los diferentes niveles de violencia en la ciudad, una vez que se controlan variables como la densidad poblacional, la movilidad de las personas y el hacinamiento crítico, entre otras. Se asume que la violencia tiene un origen multicausal, siendo el capital social uno de los elementos estructurales del entorno que, vinculados a otros factores de orden personal, pueden propiciarla. El estudio se basa teóricamente en los trabajos sobre capital social de Robert Putman (1993, 2000, 2001), así como desarrollos posteriores de otros autores en Europa y América Latina (Lederman, Loayza & Menéndez, 2002; Ak Comak & Ter Weel, 2008; Buonanno, Montolio & Vanin, 2009; Ruiz, 2009). Respecto del concepto de violencia, se parte de la definición de la OMS/OPS y luego se recurre al trabajo de autores nacionales e internacionales para precisar la forma en la cual determinadas formas de violencia pueden ser asociadas a ciertos delitos para ser medidas. Para la contrastación de la hipótesis se usa el análisis de regresión mediante el método estimación de mínimos cuadrados en dos etapas (2SLS), con el objeto de controlar la existencia de endogeneidad entre los niveles de violencia y los de capital social. Los resultados indican una relación negativa entre capital social y delitos violentos en general; así como que diversas formas de violencia pueden ser explicadas por un conjunto diferente de variables. De este modo, el delito de robo con violencia e intimidación, donde la violencia tiene carácter instrumental, se explica por variables asociadas a la oportunidad de cometer delitos. En cambio, los homicidios se explican por variables estructurales del entorno, tales como la exclusión de recursos económicos y sociales.

M.A. / The competitive landscape in the retail sector in South Africa is changing, and new models of competitiveness are needed to deal with the challenges ahead. The responses that usually occur in relation to the above statement reveal a new competitive reality, demanding that the organisation’s capabilities will enable the retail company in South Africa to better serve their customers and to differentiate them from competitors. This dissertation is about determining the status of the measurement and interpretation of intangible assets within a retail company in South Africa, and more specifically the JD Group as a furniture retailer. There are focused on the importance of the different aspects of intellectual capital i.e. human capital, structural capital and customer capital and the value that could be derived to aid the company in the retail industry. It is also intended to establish whether value can be added to investors, customers, line management, employees and the community, if the appropriate intellectual capital management tool is identified and implemented. It is viewed, both globally and in South Africa, as a core contributory factor in achieving business strategy. It was established that knowledge processes and tools could be implemented and utilized to discover intellectual capital management as a valuable resource for the retail company. The spectrum of intellectual capital management tools is investigated and four methods of measuring intellectual capital are identified in the current literature: The Market capitalization method, the return on assets method, the direct intellectual capital method and the scorecard method. The scorecard models are identified as the most appropriate method to use in a retail company in South Africa based on the following characteristics: Monitoring of performance, reporting to stakeholders and uncovering of hidden value. The retail industry in South Africa is very volatile and organizations should be geared to adapt to changes at a rapid pace. In order to achieve world-class status, it is important to understand that management and employees, together, need to champion the competitive organisation of the future. The future organisation will no longer be in business just for the sake of business, but with a clear intent to protect its most valuable asset, the future. 21st Century businesses will be in the business of the creation of future, sustainable businesses. This dissertation explores the views as to the extent to which intangible assets contribute value, how this contribution can be measured through the use of intellectual capital management tools and what the status is of such measurement in the current retail company trading in South Africa. Once the need for intellectual capital management in the retail company in South Africa is established, focus is also given to the resultant changes required in respect of specific practices and the introduction of an array of strategy focused interventions, all within the intangible assets arena. The selection of these interventions is very JD Group specific and focuses on those areas that will contribute to the strategic alignment of leadership, culture and technology within the Group’s strategy, which is quite simply but also articulately captured in the Group’s vision statement, i.e. “To become global leaders in our fields of expertise.”

I examine the relation between a firm's dividend policy and its strategic tax decisions. I posit that the capital market pressure associated with paying a dividend leads dividend-paying firms to seek predictable cash flows. I specifically focus on the volatility of a firm's cash effective tax rate (ETR) due to the observability, large size, variability, and periodicity of cash tax payments. Consistent with dividend payments altering a firm's strategic tax preferences, I find that firms that pay a higher dividend exhibit more predictable cash ETRs. Further, I find that the predictability of a dividend-initiating (eliminating) firm's cash ETR subsequently increases (decreases). Additionally, I find that, consistent with prior research suggesting that financially constrained firms "borrow" cash from their tax account, financial constraint moderates the positive relation between the predictability of a firm's cash ETR and its dividend payments. Importantly, my results hold for firms initiating a dividend in response to the exogenous shock of the Bush tax cuts. Finally, I also examine specific tax strategies dividend-paying firms use to help increase the predictability of their cash tax payments. My results contribute to the academic literature by examining whether, and how, dividend-paying firms alter their strategic tax decisions. Additionally, I contribute to ongoing public policy debates over the value of dividend payments by demonstrating a positive relation between dividend payments and the predictability of a firm's cash tax payments.

Memoria para optar al título de Ingeniera Civil Industrial / 07/01/2024

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2013. / This study seeks to establish determinants of capital structure for the projects funded by international financial institutions using IFAD projects as case studies. Specifically, we seek to find out the determinants of capital structure for projects funded by IFAD; the correlation between the life span of the project and its total budget; the correlation between the total capital and the number of households directly benefiting from the project; and the correlation between the country’s capacity of mobilizing loans and grants with its level of political stability, level of accountability, government effectiveness and the control of corruption. Data from 81 projects funded by IFAD between 1999 and 2011 in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), Middle-East and North Africa (MENA) region, Asia and South America was collected. The determinants were then examined from the distinctions of firm specific and country specific groupings and analyzed using a least-square dummy variable (LSDV) approach to reveal the regional-effects. The correlation analysis revealed that the association between total capital and the duration of the project is insignificant ( ) whereas between the total capital and the number of beneficiary households is highly and positively correlated with and . In addition, correlation between total capital and the level of Political Stability, the Voice and Accountability, and the level of Corruption is insignificant. Moreover, the results of LSDV showed that the number of benefiting household is a highly significant determinant of the NPOs capital structure ( ) together with Voice and Accountability ( ) as well as Corruption ( ). In contrast, project duration and the level of political stability were not important determinants of capital structure. The results of this analysis provide confirmatory evidence that the size of the project has a highly positive effect on the size of the capital, but significantly negative on the ability to borrow whereas only voice and accountability together with control of corruption have a significant relationship with the ability to mobilize capital for the project. Therefore, we conclude that the corporate capital structure theory, that is mostly applied in the business firms, is still applicable in iv project finance but with exceptions. Therefore, we implore that more studies should be done focusing on different types of NPOs to firmly understand the determinants of debt in NPOs.

Many authors have argued that social capital is positively related to economic prosperity, regional development, collective action, and democratic governance. But it alone can not explain all of these phenomena in societies. The concept of trust can not be neglected in the social capital literature. Considerable confusion exists concerning the relationship between social capital and trust, namely whether trust is a precondition of social capital or a product of it. This paper begins to explore their relationships by tracing the origins and development of the concept of social capital. It then discusses the relationship between social capital and trust by comparing their origins or sources. Finally, these two ideas are placed in organizational context to develop an analytical distinction between trust and social capital while clarifying and exploring the implications of these two primary perspectives on organizational effectiveness. The paper concludes that trust and social capital are mutually reinforcing -- social capital generates trusting relationships that in turn produce social capital. / Master of Public and International Affairs

This paper uses a two-stage, dynamic partial adjustment model which accounts for potential mean-reversion, with the Arellano-Bover GMM estimation technique, to observe the effect of various macroeconomic variables on the speed at which South African listed firms adjust toward their target capital structures. Employing two definitions of financial constraints, these effects were also compared for financially constrained and unconstrained subsamples. Using a sample of listed firms spanning from 2000 to 2010, the findings of the study show some indication that firms adjust faster in unfavourable macroeconomic states relative to favourable states. There is also evidence to suggest that the adjustment dynamics of unconstrained firms differ from that of constrained firms. In addition, higher adjustment speeds are generally observed when using short-term debt relative to other debt definitions. However, the evidence is largely inconclusive as adjustment speed estimates are highly sensitive to the definition of financial constraints used, and to the inclusion of extreme leverage observations.

The thesis examines the influence of institutional, macroeconomic, industry and firm characteristics on financing decisions of firms in nine select countries in Africa. It develops a battery of econometric models and examines 10 year (1999-2008) data pertaining to 986 non-financial firms and sample countries using various estimation procedures. The results suggest that financing decisions of firms in Africa is not only determined by firm characteristics (such as firm size and profitability, growth opportunities, asset tangibility and/or maturity, earnings volatility, dividend payout and non-debt-related tax-shield) but also by industry, macroeconomic (income group of the country, size of the overall economy and its growth, inflation and taxation) and institutional (legal origin, investor rights protection and law enforcement) factors. The research also demonstrates that firms in Africa face adjustment costs and/or benefits in rebalancing their capital and debt maturity structures to the optimal and such costs depend on select firm, industry, macroeconomic and institutional factors. Our findings signify that firms in Africa are concerned about transaction, agency and bankruptcy costs; information asymmetry and adverse selection problems; financial flexibility and access to finance issues; tax regimes, investor rights protection and law enforceability, among others in making their financing decisions. It is strongly recommended that governments, policy makers, and other stakeholders should pull their efforts together to come up with legislations, policies and directives that enhance investor rights protection and law enforcement which will in turn boost the confidence of market participants. The study also recommends that governments should use interest rate restraints and reserve and liquidity requirements to enhance financial deepening which will in turn enhance investors’ confidence.

Esta dissertação avalia os impactos das peculiaridades da tributação brasileira sobre as proposições de Modigliani e Miller. Verificou-se que a tributação diferenciada sobre os Juros sobre o Capital Próprio aumenta o valor e o retorno ao acionista de uma empresa financiada por meio de recursos próprios. Esse fator também determina um crescimento mais lento do benefício fiscal em função do endividamento da empresa. Também foi estudada a política de dividendos das empresas, chegando-se à conclusão que tributação sobre os dividendos não deve influir na determinação do percentual de lucros retidos. Verificou-se também que uma maior distribuição de dividendos pode reduzir a valorização das ações e, conseqüentemente, a tributação sobre o ganho de capital. Como o retorno recebido pelo acionista é dado pelos dividendos recebidos somados à valorização da ação, deduzidos os impostos, as empresas poderiam aumentar a riqueza de seus acionistas, distribuindo Proventos em Dinheiro. Desta forma, o ganho tributado causado pelo ganho de capital poderia ser substituído, com vantagem, por proventos em dinheiro. Neste caso, as necessidades de capitais adicionais da empresa deveriam ser supridas pela emissão de novas ações. Verificou-se que uma empresa que adota essa política gera uma economia tributária para seus acionistas. Esta economia tributária é responsável pela existência de uma correlação positiva entre o Yield e valorização líquida das ações. Essa correlação é mais significativa quanto maior o período de aplicação.