Thesis (M.H.A.)--University of Michigan, 1971.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

In this dissertation, I explore how economic decisions diverge for different age groups. Two essays address the location decisions of older households while the third examines why different age cohorts donate to charities. The first essay estimates how the age distribution of the population across cities will change as the number of older adults rises. I use a residential sorting model to estimate the location preference heterogeneity between younger and older households. I then simulate where the two household types will live in 2030. All MSAs end up with a higher proportion of older households in 2030, and only eight of 243 MSAs experience a decline in the number of older households. The results suggest that MSAs in upstate New York and on the west coast, particularly in California, will have the largest number of older households in 2030. Florida will remain a popular place for older households, but its relative importance may diminish in the future. The second essay explores whether the basic motivations for charitable giving differ by age cohort. Using the results from a randomized field experiment, I test whether benefits to self or benefits to others drives the charitable giving decision for each age cohort. I find limited heterogeneity for benefits to self. Individuals between the ages of 50 and 64 increase average donations more than any other age cohort in response to emphasizing warm glow, and this heterogeneity is exclusively driven by larger conditional gifts. The third essay is preliminary joint work with H. Spencer Banzhaf and Carlianne Patrick. We build a unique data set of local homestead exemptions, which vary by generosity and eligibility requirements, for tax jurisdictions in Georgia. Using school-district-level Census data since 1970 along with the history of such exemptions, we will explore the impact of these exemptions, particularly exemptions targeting older households, on the demographic makeup of each jurisdiction and consider the impact of these laws on the relative levels of housing capital consumed by older and younger households.

Exploring students' experiences navigating community college is important for understanding the relevance of community college procedures and personnel as students make decisions about their day-to-day actions and continued enrollment. Data exists about the multiple obligations many community college students have, which may complicate their college enrollment. Yet, little is known about how those outside obligations influence students as they interact within the community college environment to implement their college-going choices. Furthermore, little data exists about the continued educational choices students make during their enrollment and what role college procedures and personnel may play. Choices for students do not end after choosing a college to attend. Rather, decision-making is an on-going process. Ironically, the on-going educational choices of students are missing from college choice, integration, and persistence models. This study used a qualitative approach to examine how students experienced the institution through the lens of these micro-decisions. A combination of the model of student success, rational action theory, and cooling out provided the framework to understand how community college students made sense of their interactions with college personnel, and in what ways the community college might contribute to cooling out. Overall, findings demonstrate the community college's procedures constrain students' available choices. Rather than simplifying procedural requirements, community college personnel often contributed to students' confusion and difficulty in carrying out a micro-decision. Furthermore, findings suggest the community college continues to play a cooling out function in higher education.

Submitted by Thiago Curado (tlcurado@gmail.com) on 2015-04-27T20:26:44Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Curado.pdf: 578449 bytes, checksum: dfeb58219bdc5802a75cdc91152f024c (MD5) / Rejected by Suzinei Teles Garcia Garcia (suzinei.garcia@fgv.br), reason: Bom dia Thiago, Por favor, incluir a página de agradecimento e como o trabalho é em inglês é necessário o Abstract vir antes do Resumo. Att. Suzi 3799-7876 on 2015-04-28T11:54:19Z (GMT) / Submitted by Thiago Curado (tlcurado@gmail.com) on 2015-04-28T18:12:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Curado.pdf: 578450 bytes, checksum: 2f94ba41c57666b11eebe216d8941c44 (MD5) / Rejected by Suzinei Teles Garcia Garcia (suzinei.garcia@fgv.br), reason: Thiago, Falta a folha de agradecimentos, pelo menos seu orientador é necessário agradecer. É uma página antes do abstract. Aguardo Grata. Suzi on 2015-04-28T18:55:09Z (GMT) / Submitted by Thiago Curado (tlcurado@gmail.com) on 2015-04-28T20:04:17Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Curado.pdf: 579686 bytes, checksum: f41554f1122e5984524dcf04b028082b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzinei Teles Garcia Garcia (suzinei.garcia@fgv.br) on 2015-04-29T11:55:54Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Curado.pdf: 579686 bytes, checksum: f41554f1122e5984524dcf04b028082b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-29T13:29:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Curado.pdf: 579686 bytes, checksum: f41554f1122e5984524dcf04b028082b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-27 / There is substantial evidence that terms of trade behavior are relevant to understand both the macroeconomic dynamics and the default risk of emerging markets. Nevertheless, the literature of sovereign debt that follows Eaton and Gerzovitz (1981) and Arellano (2008) has not yet adequately explored the connections between terms of trade and default incentives. We advance in this field, introducing terms of trade volatility to the model proposed by Mendoza and Yue (2012), where the sovereign debt decisions are linked to a general equilibrium model for the domestic economy. We find that an economy that faces stochastic terms of trade innovations can produce a consumption variability that highly exceeds the output variability, which is a key stylized fact of emerging markets business cycles. Our exercises also show that default episodes are driven by sudden shifts in the terms of trade but are no necessary related with bad times. / A evidência empírica aponta que Termos de Troca é uma variável relevante tanto para dinâmica macroeconômica como para o risco de default em países emergentes. No entanto, a literatura de dívida soberana baseada nos trabalhos de Eaton e Gerzovitz (1981) e Arellano (2008) ainda não explorou de forma adequada as conecções entre a dinâmica de termos de troca e incentivos ao default. Nós contribuímos nessa área, introduzindo volatilidade de Termos de Troca no modelo proposto por Mendoza e Yue (2012), no qual as decisões de dívida soberana são vinculadas à um modelo de equilíbrio geral para a economia doméstica. Nós encontramos que uma economia exposta à volatilidade dos termos de troca consegue produzir uma variabilidade do consumo que supera significativamente a variabilidade do produto, característica que constitui um fato estilizado chave de business cycles de países emergentes. Nossos exercícios também mostram que decisões de default são geradas por mudanças bruscas nos termos de troca, mas não necessariamente estão vinculados à estados ruins da economia.

The purpose of this study was threefold; (1) to identify instructional technologies teacher educators use in teaching methods courses, (2) to identify the factors that influence their decisions for using such technologies in teaching methods courses, and (3) to investigate the extent to which teacher educators address the use of technology in inclusion in teaching methods courses. In this study, thirty teacher educators responded to fourteen Likert Scale questions, seven open-ended questions, listed technologies they use in the methods courses, and 5 of the teacher educators responded to another seven interview questions. The study used a concurrent mixed methods research design and used t-test, analysis of variances and Wilcoxon to analyze quantitative data. For qualitative data, collected through the Open-ended Questionnaire and Technology Inventory Checklist and the semi-structured interview responses were analyzed using open-coding. The results showed that teacher educators do use several technologies. However, the technologies they use are mostly instructional technologies and not inclusive technologies. In addition, the technologies used are more of content management like Desire to Learn and Black Board. Very few pedagogical and content delivery technologies are modeled to pre-service teachers. The study found that, regardless of teacher educators' experience, tenure and non-tenure, they all model technology similarly and not much variety of technology is used. They also minimally model inclusive technologies in the methods courses. The extent teacher educators model technology to pre-service teachers was low. While one third of the participants reported modeling technology for inclusion, the results also showed that two thirds of teacher educators modeled technology minimally. These results concurred with the results from the technology inventory list which showed that very few inclusive technologies are modeled to pre-service teachers in the methods courses. Study also found a non-significant effect on technology use and technologies used due gender, tenure, K-12 teaching experience or technology training. These results have an implication on how teacher educators integrate, use and model technology in the methods courses to pre-service teachers.

Aujourd'hui, tout le monde est d'accord que, pour qu'il y'ait une démocratie locale effective, il faut qu'il y ait une implication des habitants dans le processus décisionnel. Cette idée ne date pas d'hier et les autorités nationales et locales ont compris que celle-ci ne peut pas se réaliser sans passer par une décentralisation de l'administration française pour « émanciper » les collectivités territoriales et leurs populations. C'est ainsi que dans les années 1970, alors que la volonté de décentralisation se précise, elle est portée, à gauche, par des rêves autogestionnaires et, à droite, par la moderne fraction giscardienne. Cependant, les difficultés de mise en place de la démocratie locale participative tiennent à son lien avec la démocratie locale représentative. La seconde dominant la première, il en a résulté nécessairement des mesures de mise en place de la démocratie locale participative limitées et des défaillances critiquables quant à son fonctionnement. Malgré les évolutions normatives récentes relatives à l'élection des conseillers des établissements publics de coopération intercommunale, l'instauration de conseillers territoriaux et leur mode d'élection qui témoignent d'une certaine amélioration, des paradoxes subsistent encore tels que la confusion des pouvoirs locaux au bénéfice de l'exécutif. C'est pourquoi il est temps de renouveler et de réactualiser le procédé de prise de décisions locales par des réformes : -une refonte de l'organisation actuelle des collectivités territoriales pour permettre une mise en place d'un pouvoir local clair et identifié au sein d'un Etat recentré dans ses pouvoirs régaliens. -une prise en compte pratique des théories de la philosophie politique contemporaine afin d'approfondir la notion démocratie participative. / Today, everybody agrees that, for effective local democracy, there must be a residents' involvement in decision making. This idea is not new, and national and local authorities have realized that it can not be done without going through a decentralization of the French government to "empower" local governments and their populations. Thus in the 1970s, while the desire for decentralization is accurate, it is worn on the left by dreams and self-management, right through the modern giscardienne fraction. However, the difficulties of implementing local participatory democracy held its relationship with local representative democracy. The second dominating the first, it resulted necessarily measures of implementation of local participatory democracy and failures in its operation. Despite recent changes in standards relating to the election of members of public inter-municipal cooperation, the establishment of territorial advisors and their mode of election which show some improvement, paradoxes still exist such as the confusion of local authorities the benefit of the Executive. This is why it is time to renew and refresh the process of local decision-making by the reforms: -an overhaul of the current organization of local authorities to allow placement of a clear and identified local authority within a State refocused its sovereign powers. -taking into account practical theories of contemporary political philosophy to deepen the concept of participatory democracy.

O desenvolvimento do complexo agroindustrial da soja no Brasil deu-se, em parte, como decorrência do surgimento de formas alternativas de crédito, tal como a venda antecipada de soja por meio de contratos. O problema que motivou este estudo foi decorrente das quebras contratuais por parte dos produtores rurais em um momento de expressiva alta do preço e suas conseqüentes disputas judiciais. Foram realizadas análises descritivas e econométricas (PROBIT) sobre 161 decisões judiciais do Tribunal de Justiça de Goiás e uma pesquisa quantitativa com 70 produtores rurais. O estudo tem como hipótese central que o ambiente institucional deficiente eleva custos de transação e reduz o desenvolvimento econômico. Os testes realizados entre decisões judiciais de primeira e segunda instância (Apelação) indicaram larga dispersão, bem como entre decisões no mesmo nível: em comarcas do interior alguns resultados foram 100% favorecendo a manutenção dos contratos e outros exatamente o contrário. Da mesma forma, a análise das decisões de Apelação revelou a diversidade de entendimento das turmas julgadoras entre as Câmaras Cíveis. No entanto, a probabilidade de o contrato ser mantido aumentou ano após ano e uma das variáveis significantes foi a primeira decisão do STJ sobre esse conflito, favorável à manutenção dos contratos. Os impactos das decisões jurídicas no ambiente econômico podem ser percebidos, como a maior exigência de garantias e a redução do número de contratos. Os produtores que não quebraram seus contratos também foram negativamente afetados com as novas estratégias adotadas pelas empresas compradoras de soja. As empresas ficaram receosas de negociar, uma vez que não puderam contar com a segurança jurídica de que o contrato seria cumprido. O uso do conceito de função social dos contratos gera neles um alto grau de instabilidade, portanto, os custos de transação aumentaram para todos os agentes, bem como a importância de sanções econômicas. / The development of the soybean agribusiness complex in Brazil took place, in part, as a consequence of credit alternative forms, such as the soybean anticipated sale by contracts. The problems which have motivated this study were the contractual breaches during an expressive increase of price and their judicial decisions. Descriptive and econometric analysis (PROBIT) have been carried out on 161 appeal judicial decisions of Goiás Court of Justice (Brazil) and a quantitative survey was done with 70 farmers. The study has supported the hypothesis that a weak judiciary increases transaction costs and decreases the economic development rate. A large dispersion of court decisions was found between the first and appeal decision, as well inside the same level. However, the probability of the contract maintenance in the second level decision increased year by year, one significant variable was the influence of High court decisions favoring the contract maintenance. The effects of court decisions could be realized such as more requirements of warranties and the reduction in the number of contracts. Those soybean producers who did not breach their contracts also have been negatively affected by the strategic reactions of trading and industries. The use of the concept of \"social role of contract\" inserted a high degree of instability in contracts. Therefore, the transaction costs have been increased for all the agents and the importance of economic sanctions has increased as well.

Utilizando informações financeiras de 226 firmas brasileiras nos anos de 2000 até 2015, este estudo buscou investigar se a mispricing (avaliação equivocada do preço das ações) presente no mercado financeiro possui influência nas decisões de investimento dessas firmas. A restrição financeira também foi incorporada ao modelo ao se utilizar os índices KZ, WW e SA na classificação das firmas: financeiramente restrito e financeiramente não restrito. Buscou-se evidenciar como firmas financeiramente restritas e irrestritas ajustam suas fontes de recursos financeiros em resposta à avaliação equivocado dos preços das ações. Estimou-se através do GMM-System um modelo de investimento dinâmico considerando as variáveis de investimento defasado e quadrático, fluxo de caixa, alavancagem, crescimentos das vendas, q de Tobin, e como proxy da mispricing, Accruals discricionárias e Composite Share Issuance. Os principais resultados apontaram que a mispricing atua de maneira positiva no nível de investimento das empresas brasileiras. Elevadas accruals e CSI contribuem para o que o investimento seja impulsionado em virtude da sobrevalorização dos preços das ações e consequente valoração de mercado das firmas. Essa sobrevalorização torna possível a captação de recursos via mercado e a implantação de novos projetos. Os efeitos da mispricing podem inclusive auxiliar na superação de questões de sub-investimentos e propiciar o aumento dos investimentos na economia, atuando como \"relaxador\" das restrições financeiras e incentivando a execução de projetos eficientes. / Through financial information from 226 Brazilian firms between 2000 and 2015, this study investigated whether mispricing in the financial market influences the firm\'s investment decisions. The financial constraint was also incorporated in the study using the KZ, WW and SA indices to classify the firms into two groups: financially and non-financially constraint. It was expected to evidence how financially and non-financially constraint firms adjust their sources of resources in response to stock prices misjudgment. A dynamic investment model was estimated using the GMM-System, considering the lagged and quadratic investment variables, cash flow, leverage, sales growth, Tobin\'s q, and as a proxy for mispricing, discretionary accruals and Composite Share Issuance. The main results pointed out that mispricing acts positively on the level of investments of Brazilian companies. High accruals and CSI would contribute to the investment being boosted by the overvaluation of stock prices and the consequent market value of the firms. This overvaluation would allow the capture of resources via the market and the implementation of new projects. The mispricing effects could also indicate the issues of underinvestment and allow the increase of investments in the economy, presenting a \"relaxing\" effect of financial constraints and encouraging the execution of efficient projects.

This paper is the result of an empirical research project analysing the decision behaviour of Austrian managers in ethical dilemma situations. While neoclassical economic theory would suggest a pure economic rational basis for management decisions, the empirical study conducted by the authors put other concepts to a test, thereby analysing their importance for managerial decision making: specific notions of fairness, reciprocal altruism, and commitment. After reviewing some of the theoretical literature dealing with such notions, the paper shows the results of an online survey working with scenarios depicting ethical dilemma situations. By judging such scenarios the respondents showed their preference for the named concepts, though with different degrees of confirmation. The results (with all limitations of an online survey in mind) support the theoretical work on the named concepts: Fairness elements (including Rawlsian principles of justice and an understanding of fairness as conceived by a reference transaction) play a major part in management decisions in ethical dilemma situations. Also, commitment as a behaviour that sticks to rules even if personal welfare is negatively touched, and reciprocal altruism as a cooperative behaviour that expects a reciprocal beneficial action from other persons have been concepts used by Austrian managers when analysing ethical dilemmas. The article also tries to put the results into a comparative perspective by taking into account other studies on ethical decision factors conducted with e.g. medical doctors or journalists, and by discussing intercultural implications of business ethics.