The goal of the project was to use the data in the Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) of British Columbia's data warehouse to develop a statistical model that could predict on an ongoing basis those short-term disability (STD) claims that posed a potential high financial risk to the WCB. We were especially interested in identifying factors that could be used to model the transition process of claims from the STD stratum to the vocational rehabilitation (VR) and long term disability (LTD) strata, and forecast their financial impact on the WCB. The reason for this focus is that claims experiencing these transitions represent a much higher financial risk to the WCB than claims that only progress to the health care (HC) and/or the short term disability (STD) strata. The sample used to investigate the conversion processes of claims consists of all STD claims (323,098) that had injury dates between January 1, 1989 and December 31, 1992. Although high-risk claims represent only 4.2 % of all STD claims, they have received 64.3% ($1.2 billion) of the total payments and awards ($1.8 billion) made to July 1999. Low-risk claims make up 95.8% of all the claims but only receive 35.7% ($651 million) of the payments and awards. Moreover, the average cost of high-risk claims ($86,200) is 41 times higher than the average cost of low-risk claims ($2,100). The main objective of the project was to build a reliable statistical model to identify high-risk claims that can be readily implemented at the WCB and thereby improve business decisions. To identify high-risk claims early on, we used logistic regression modeling. Since ten of the most frequently observed injury types make up 95.72% of all the claims, separate logistic regression models were built for each of them. Besides injury type, we also identified STD days paid and age of claimant as statistically significant predictors. The logistic regression models can be used to identify high-risk claims prior to or at the First Final STD payment date provided we know the injury type, STD days paid and age of claimant. The investigation showed that the more STD days paid and the older the injured worker, the higher the probability of the claim being high-risk.

The Workers' Compensations Board of British Columbia (WCB) operates 4 call centers in the province devoted to compensation services. This thesis describes a review of operations at the call center in the head office, located in Richmond, B.C. We identified the need for a mathematical model to schedule telephone operators (called CSRs in WCB) in order to minimize the workforce required, while assuring minimal staffing levels to provide good customer service. We developed two integer programming models and built an interface that would enable the supervisors to use the model interactively. We compared the results from the model to one of their schedules and found that the model used 5 fewer CSRs than currently in their schedule. The potential savings derived from such a test convinced management that WCB needed to acquire and implement software to schedule staff.

This thesis was the result of a study conducted for the call-centre at the Workers' Compensation Board of British Columbia (WCB). The management at WCB wanted to understand the nature and pattern of calls at their newly opened call-centre. The purpose of this was to provide an efficient customer service while streamlining the flow of calls coming to the call-centre. An extensive data collection exercise was undertaken at the call-centre and two other units of WCB with which the call-centre interacts. The data analysis revealed that a high proportion of calls were related to transfers to these departments. There were also calls related to routine inquiries on claim payment cheques and forms that could potentially be handled by a well designed IVR system. Based on this understanding the development of an effective IVR system was proposed to address the problems that were discovered through documenting the nature and pattern of calls. An extensive review of literature was undertaken to design a new system according to the standard industry guidelines suggested by the best practices and customized to WCB's business needs. Two alternate scripts were developed after analysing the source and purpose of calls to WCB. One was 'person specific' and the other was 'task specific'. The two scripts were tested on students at WCB through a computer-based IVR simulation. The results of the student survey provided evidence that introducing additional options and use of simple and clear instructions in the new scripts could potentially in fact address the problems discovered in the study and they were preferred over the existing WCB script. The IVR simulation is reconfigurable and can be used in future studies to gather further evidence in support of the results obtained in this thesis as well as refine scripts before putting them in a production mode.

ABSTRACT MANAGERIAL INCENTIVES AND TAKEOVER WEALTH GAINS By EBRU REIS DECEMBER 5, 2006 Committee Chair: Dr. Jayant R. Kale Major Department: Finance This study examines the relationship between managerial equity incentives and takeover wealth gains both for target and acquirer firms. Although there is some research about the effect of acquirer managers’ incentives on acquirer wealth gains, this paper is one of the first to investigate the effect of target managers’ incentives on the wealth effects of target firms in corporate takeovers. In addition, prior research has focused on the alignment effect of equity incentives in takeovers. However, takeovers provide an opportunity to liquidate personal equity portfolio for managers who hold an undiversified portfolio of their firms’ stock. In this study, I identify two hypotheses that potentially explain the effect of target managers’ incentives on wealth gains. While incentive alignment hypothesis predicts a positive relationship, diversification driven-liquidity hypothesis predicts a negative relationship between target managerial incentives and target wealth gains. I use a sample of 656 successful and 104 failed acquisitions over the period 1994-2003 to test these competing hypotheses. I find that for targets that are less (more) diversified, equity incentives are negatively (positively) related to wealth effects. I also find that the target managerial incentives increase the success probability of a takeover bid and this positive effect is less pronounced for diversified target managers. Based on these results, I conclude that incentive alignment argument is dominated by liquidity argument in less diversified target firms, however, holds in diversified firms. For acquirer managers, I do not find any evidence that supports incentive alignment or diversification arguments.

I investigate the relation between firm risk and firm transparency over the period 1992-2006 and find that the level of firm transparency and the level of firm risk are negatively related. I also find that higher CEO pay-performance sensitivity (delta) works to mitigate this inverse relationship. This result is consistent with Hermalin and Weisbach (2007) who suggest that managers reduce risk to protect their pay and performance evaluations under higher levels of firm transparency. I further find that firms in high technology industries are more likely to increase risk relative to firms in other industries when transparency is high. Finally, I develop an additional proxy for transparency based on the Standard and Poor’s Transparency and Disclosure Score. Results using this proxy are generally consistent with my findings that there is an inverse relationship between risk and transparency and that CEO pay-performance sensitivity lessens this relationship.

Pirminis dėmesys neteisėtų nuteisimų problemai buvo išskirtinai susijęs su atskiromis bylomis ir pavieniais išteisinimų atvejais, tačiau vėliau šis reiškinys susilaukė didesnio mokslinio susidomėjimo. Pripažįstant, jog neteisėtai nuteisti asmenys ir visuomenė patiria didelę žalą, plačiau imtasi analizuoti ir valstybės civilinės deliktinės atsakomybės tokiais atvejais klausimas. Galiojantys nacionaliniai įstatymai, Tarptautinis Pilietinių ir Politinių Teisių Paktas, Europos Žmogaus Teisių Konvencija įtvirtina asmens teisę siekti kompensacijos neteisėtų nuteisimų, suėmimų ir sulaikymų atvejais, tačiau atlikti tyrimai visgi rodo, jog nevisada užtikrinamos išteisintųjų ar asmenų, kurių atžvilgiu procesas nutraukiamas reabilituojančiais pagrindais, teisės į deramą kompensaciją. Pasigendant tyrimų susijusiu klausimu Lietuvoje, šiuo darbu mėginama išsiaiškinti, ar asmuo turi teisę reikalauti iš valstybės atlyginti su bylos tyrimu susijusias išlaidas, patirtą turtinę ir neturtinę žalą, nuostolius, ir ar valstybė turi pareigą šią žalą atlyginti, kuomet asmenys visiškai išteisinami arba procesas jų atžvilgiu nutraukiamas reabilituojančiais pagrindais. Darbe apžvelgiami įvairūs susiję probleminiai aspektai, atliekama Europos Žmogaus Teisių Teismo bei Lietuvos teismų praktikos analizė. Pateikiama apžvalga, kaip šie klausimai reglamentuojami ir kokios kompensavimo sistemos taikomos įvairiose valstybėse, bei kokia yra šios teisės įtvirtinimo reikšmė visuomenei, valstybei ir konkrečiam... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The initial focus on the issue of wrongful convictions (miscarriages of justice, judicial errors or errors of justice) was exclusively related to the research into individual cases of acquitted persons, but this subject has also been recently analysed by the scholars of criminal and civil law. Unfortunately, in Lithuania no significant reasearches on this matter have been produced so far, and this master thesis is an attempt to analyse the aspects relating to the compensation probabilities for the wrongfully convicted, arrested and detained people in Lithuania as well as in other jurisdictions. While generally accepting the extremely severe negative consequences for the unjustified restrictions or deprivations over the basic human right – the right to freedom – the indemnification aspects are usually left aside. This question is also problematic due to its interdisciplinary nature: the unlawful actions of the investigators, prosecutors or the court have to be proven and the person has to be convicted under the criminal acts or criminal procedure acts; yet, the compensation for those actions is awarded following civil law procedures provided it fulfills the prerequisites set by civil laws. The institution of the civil tort liability of the state is analysed in regard of this specific matter. The applicable Lithuanian legislation, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms refer... [to full text]

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Abstract not available. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2011.