Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 1998. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 96 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006. / Wedad Elmaghraby, Committee Chair ; Paul Griffin, Committee Member ; Pinar Keskinocak, Committee Member ; D. J. Wu, Committee Member ; Cheryl Gaimon, Committee Member. Includes bibliographical references.

Master-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2004.

abstract: ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of E Bucks, a simulated classroom economy (a token economy system), in business classes on students' grades, absences, and tardiness. The study compared these variables in classes using E Bucks to those in similar classes before E Bucks was initiated. The following research questions were addressed: (a) How did the mean term grades in business classes that included E Bucks compare to those in similar classes prior to the E Bucks implementation? (b) How did the mean number of student absences in business classes that included E Bucks compare to those in similar classes prior to the E Bucks implementation? (c) How did the mean number of student tardies in business classes that included E Bucks compare to those in similar classes prior to the E Bucks implementation? Four teachers in 3 high schools in Phoenix, Arizona, participated in the study that included 22 sections of business classes with a total of 568 students. All participating teachers implemented the token economy voluntarily, although some implemented the program more consistently than others. All of the teachers administered district-aligned assessments with the same terms/occasions throughout the district. Archival data (term grades, attendance, and tardies) from 3 years of business, technology, and marketing courses were collected and analyzed. The results of 4 analyses of variance examining the dependent variables of grades, absences, and tardies were mixed. The results demonstrated significance for some but not all of the teachers' classes on all 3 dependent variables. In 1 of the 4 analyses 2 teachers had approached significant increases in grades when students were "paid" for grades. The same two teachers had nonsignificant decreases in the mean number of student absences during the grading period students were "paid" for grades. Recommendations included studying a larger number of students and measuring the impact of gender and socioeconomic status on the effects of the E Bucks simulation. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2010

Para las organizaciones la innovación se ha posicionado como una estrategia movilizadora de valor y que permite generar competencias distintivas en sus actividades, diferentes perspectivas se han desarrollado en torno a su vinculación con el modelo de decisiones de la organización, por ello el propósito de este documento se orienta a establecer una reflexión de los referentes de modelos gerenciales y el papel de la innovación en estos, que permita la identificación de las bases de conocimiento para su aplicación e implementación en la administración de negocios, determinándose que la actividad innovadora vinculada a los modelos gerenciales, se contempla desde el recurso intelectual, con el fin de mejorar la forma por la cual se crean bienes y servicios, siendo la reflexión principal la relevancia que adquiere para los modelos modernos de gerencia de las organizaciones la mentalidad de cambio y la filosofía innovadora para la sostenibilidad en el tiempo. / Revisión por pares

No description available.

This dissertation examines the impact of academic information on the capital markets. A test of market learning from academic information is performed by examining the impact of published research about the size anomaly on the underlying asset pricing process. A theoretical framework to examine the effect of events that affect the equilibrium pricing process is first developed in a simple economy with one single risky asset. A learning model based on Bayesian updating is proposed and its empirical implications are derived. The model predicts a change in the asset prices in the case of market learning. The predictions about the learning path depend on the assumed information structure. The key hypotheses are motivated through an illustrative case in a multi-asset economy where there is more information available concerning large firms than about small firms. The econometric model of switching regimes is used to analyze the hypothesized structural change in the mean returns associated with the size variable. We postulate two regimes, one prior to and another after the incorporation of research information on the size anomaly. We find evidence of a switch in regimes with estimated mean switch located in 1983. The estimated average size premium has declined from approximately 13.6% per annum in the first regime to about -2.8% per annum in the second regime. More importantly, the switch in 1983 is not explained by any of the hypothesized economic factors that explain a large part of the stochastic variation in the size effect in the periods prior to 1983. We also find evidence of a switch in regimes when the seasonal January size effect is excluded. The evidence also suggests an increase in the trading volume associated with the information arrival. Our evidence strongly suggests that the market has undergone a change in its underlying equilibrium pricing process after the discovery of the size anomaly. The evidence supports the hypothesis that academic research relating to the size anomaly has provided useful information to the investors and the market has learnt from this information. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

This study examined the impact of in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in developing economies. ‘Institutional Advancement ‘is defined as the degree to which a host country's institutional environment matches the standards well-established in developed market economies. The World Governance Indicators developed by the World Bank were used as a measure to determine Institutional Advancement. The developing and developed economies were compared to determine whether Institutional Advancement had the same effect in attracting FDI in different economies. An additional variable, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was introduced to investigate whether the state of the economy in each of the economy types also impacted on inward FDI. Data was collected from 2000 to 2009, however the analysis was done from 2002 due to the absence of a report on the World Governance Indicators in 2001. The results show that the World Governance Indicators did not present significant evidence that they impacted in attracting FDI in developing economies. GDP appeared to be a better predictor of FDI inflows than the World Governance Indicators in developing economies. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The purpose of this study was to analyze the economies of size in farming in the Roosevelt- Myton area of the Uintah Basin and to assess their impact on the financial viability of different size farms . This information will be useful in recommending changes to reclamation law. Farmer interviews were used to obtain cos t s of production for 160 , 320, 640 , and 1280 acre farms . The field data were entered into the Oklahoma State Budget Generator to provide the necessary cost breakdown . This in formation was used to derive a curve approximat ing the long run average cost curve and to determine the viability of different farm sizes. Cash flow problems of beginning farmers are discussed. Conclusions are drawn and implications for existing reclamation law are discussed.

Efficiency in public education is a significant issue in the United States. Nationwide, real expenditure per student increased 8% per year between 1960 and 1993, but output as measured by standardized test scores has not increased and in some cases (i.e., the verbal SAT [Scholastic Achievement Test] score) has declined. One explanation is that resources are not being utilized efficiently either in the technical or allocative sense. Also, the issue is important because substantial savings are possible by consolidation of schools and/or districts. This dissertation explores efficiency by measuring technical efficiency at the school district level from four perspectives. The first essay (Chapter 2) explores whether the cost efficient production units are the bigger schools or the bigger districts, using the concept of a standard education cost function (the dual of neoclassical production function). The empirical analysis uses panel data from Utah school districts and estimates the cost and expenditure functions using the covariance and error component models after making corrections for heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation. The evidence indicates scale economies associated with school size but not district size. In the second essay (chapter 3), technical efficiency of individual school districts is measured using an educational production function and stochastic frontier methodology. The empirical analysis shows substantial variation in efficiency among school districts. An extension of the second essay (Appendix B) estimates technical efficiency and total factor productivity using school districts as multi-output producing units. A deterministic nonparametric approach, known as data envelopment analysis (DEA), is applied to a panel data. The empirical results provide provide pure technical efficiency disaggregating the components of scale, congestion, and technical innovation. Most studies of technical efficiency using a stochastic production function are estimated using cross-section data. Technical inefficiency effects are assumed (1) to be a function of the district-specific variables (i.e., dropout rate, socioeconomic status of the students, etc.) and time, and (2) to be independently distributed as truncated normal with constant variance and with means dependent on the firm-specific variables and time. The empirical results suggest that technical inefficiency increased over time for Utah school districts, and that inefficiency effects are stochastic.