published_or_final_version / Economics and Finance / Master / Master of Philosophy

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between Expected Family Contribution as determined by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process and college student persistence to graduation at Ball State University.The population for this study was defined as 3,772 Ball State University full-time students who matriculated in the fall of 1995. The sample equaled the population. In response to the research question, the sample was divided into five subgroups (Full-Pell, Partial-Pell, No Pell-Need, No Pell-No Need, and No-FAFSA).It was determined that students at Ball State University with greater financial need (Full-Pell and Partial-Pell) persist and graduate at smaller rates than students in the other financial subgroups. In addition, students with high financial need are more likely to academically disqualify than other students. Statistically significant differences existed between the average rates for graduation and academic disqualification, and the graduation and academic disqualification rates for the Full-Pell and Partial-Pell groups. Institutions may need to determine if they are meeting the financial and academic needs of students from low-income families. / Department of Educational Leadership

The purpose of the study was to determine how former Indiana public school board of education members perceived the effects of school board service on their families, friendships and finances. The primary research problem was that there were no systematically acquired descriptions of the prevalence of consequences of service on an Indiana public school board of education. Twelve research questions were presented.The study was descriptive in nature and used descriptive survey methodology. A survey containing 40 closed-ended and four open-ended questions was mailed to 433 former Indiana public school board members who served in 1995 and whose terms of service expired on or before June 30, 1996. Of the 390 deliverable surveys, 207 (53.1 %) were completed and returned. The statistical analyses of the aggregate data included the establishment of frequency counts, corresponding percentages, analysis of variances (ANOVA), and Tukey's HSD post hoc analyses. Responses from the open-ended questions were reviewed by the researcher to determine common categories based upon the content of the responses. The categories were ranked and reported based upon the frequency and corresponding percentage of the responses.Data from the study indicated that most former members of Indiana public school boards perceived that their membership on Indiana public school board had no effect on both their familial and non-familial relationships. If there was a perceived effect, it was more likely to be positive in nature than negative. In addition, most former Indiana public school board members perceived that membership on Indiana public school boards of education had no effect on the friendships/non-family relationships of their children, spouses, or significant others. If there was an effect, it was more likely positive than negative.Former Indiana school board members generally perceived that service on Indiana public school boards of education had no effect on their businesses and/or economic status. If there was an effect, it was more often negative than positive.There were essentially no differences in the perceived effects of service on a local Indiana public school board of education based upon board members' method of assuming office (election, appointment, etc.), method of leaving office (defeated in election, choosing not to seek re-election, etc.) length of school board service, gender, political experience or service as board president.A difference in the perceived effects of service on local Indiana public school boards of education was found based up the former members' occupations and the urbanization of the former members' districts.More than half of the respondents indicated that because of school board membership they occasionally or often experienced increased periods of stress, received cold or unresponsive reactions from acquaintances, and experienced interactions that they would describe as harassment. However, more than 85% of the respondents indicated feeling pride in their leadership and accomplishments, as well as the development of greater personal growth because of their service on public school boards. In addition, approximately 95% of the respondents indicated they were thanked or shown appreciation for their service on a school board. / Department of Secondary, Higher, and Foundations of Education

South Africa is trailing behind its BRICS counterparts in terms of Gross national Savings rates. South Africa stands at around 16% of gross domestic product, fellow BRICS members China and Russia are standing at approximately 52% and 22% respectively. South Africa saw a decline from approximately 30% GDP to savings ratio before 1994 to the current level of approximately 16%. The trend has been very similar in comparison with India. The other similarity between these BRICS countries is that they all have seen very rapid growth. All economic indicators have indicated that the economies of the BRICS nations are very strong and have been performing at a superior level to South Africa. South Africa compares even worse with regards to household savings versus its BRICS counterparts. Various arguments and explanations as to why this is so come up on a number of social, government and corporate platforms. The “aspirational” culture is widely blamed for the poor showing of South African households when it comes to savings. The South African financial sector is very sophisticated and is widely blamed for the encouraging consumption and even worse credit consumption. An analysis done by Ecnometrics found that amongst the significant determinants of household saving rates are: uncertainty (inflation), income level, public sector savings, development’s in the global economy and government economic policy. The study revealed that the above factors were very influential in the rapid economic growth and increased per capita net worth seen of the most BRICS countries. The correlation between saving/investment and consumption/irresponsible consumer behavior is indicated to be a very strong one and takes a very longtime to evolve. This requires outrooting certain societal norms, attitudes and culture and replacing it with a brand new behavior, beliefs and aspirations. Role players that emerge as strong drivers in this phenomena is the societal culture however the other role player who prove to be prominent are the policy makers. In most cases the economic and gross national saving rates coincided with major economic policy reforms in the countries that have performed well.

Low domestic saving rates make South Africa highly dependent on foreign capital inflows to fund higher investment levels. These inflows are highly volatile and may prove to be unsustainable in the long-run. This study analyses the determinants of private saving in South Africa, with specific reference to the decline in private saving rates that occurred at a time of higher economic growth prior to the 2008 global financial crisis. The Johansen cointegration method is used to estimate separate vector error correction models (VECM) in order to assess the effect of specific variables on both corporate and household saving. The results obtained that are common to both corporate and household savmg show that the govemment budget balance negatively impacts private saving rates though the offset is less than one. The real prime overdraft rate positively impacts private saving, although the result is small . The impact of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is positive. In recent years, however, private saving rates fell alongside higher economic growth, which may reflect a structural change in corporate saving behaviour. The results distinct to the corporate saving model show that commodity prices have a negative impact on corporate saving. This does not conform to a priori expectations, but is supported by the behaviour of these two variables in recent years. Foreign savings were found to impact negatively on corporate saving. This result is important, since the dependence of the South African economy on foreign capital inflows to fund higher investment levels is reflected by high current account deficits during recent periods of economic growth. Evidence of financial liberalization negatively impacting on private saving in South Africa due to the removal of borrowing constraints was found. A negative relationship was found between corporate saving and investment demonstrating that corporations have reduced levels of retained eamings for funding investment expenditures. The results distinct to the household saving model provide evidence of a negative wealth effect in South Africa, with rising housing wealth found to increase consumption. Evidence of households "piercing the corporate veil" in South Africa was found. Therefore, households view corporate saving behaviour as essentially being conducted on their behalf. This finding and the finding that the offset between the budget deficit and private saving is less than one suggest that counter-cyclical fiscal policy will be an important policy response for achieving higher domestic saving rates in South Africa.

Pension funds are the principal sources of retirement income for millions of people in the world. Pension funds are also important contributors to the gross domestic product (GDP) of countries. This study focuses on pension funds in Kenya. Retirement income accounts for 68 percent of the total income of retirees in Kenya, while pension assets account for 30 percent of Kenya’s GDP. It is therefore important that pension funds be managed effectively, not only in Kenya, but also in other countries. The primary objective of the study is to investigate ways of enhancing pension fund efficiency by establishing the determinants of such efficiency. More specifically, the study explores the effect that the organisational culture, regulations, investment strategy, ethics, risk management, design, size and the age profile of members of pension funds exert on the efficiency of these funds. A sample of 749 pension funds was drawn from the Kenyan Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) register. The sample selection was based on the criterion that these pension funds should have been in existence within the period 2001 to 2008. Seven hundred and forty-nine (749) questionnaires were mailed to the trustees of these pension funds. Three hundred and sixty-two (362) usable questionnaires were returned, which translated into a response rate of 48.3 per cent. Except for financial efficiency, self-constructed instruments based on secondary literature reviews were used to measure the variables in the hypothesised model to improve pension fund efficiency. Appropriate steps were taken to ensure the validity and reliability of these measuring instruments. The empirical results revealed that leadership, governance, regulations, design, membership age and size of funds had no significant influence on operational efficiency of these funds. The results further showed that the membership age, design, regulations and operational efficiency of pension funds exerted no significant influence on their financial efficiency. The results also revealed that the membership age, size and design of pension funds did not influence how these funds were led by their leadership. iv The empirical results however showed that smaller pension funds were perceived to exhibit better financial efficiency, while pension funds with membership aged 31 - 40 were perceived to be better governed compared to other age groups. Finally, in rigorous structural equation analyses, no significant relationships were found between fund regulations (independent variable), on the one hand, and fund governance and leadership (dependent variables), on the other hand. Use of simple linear regression however disclosed a significant positive relationship between the afore-mentioned independent variable and dependent variables.

The study investigated the informal savings approach as an income-generating and poverty alleviation tool for women. The focus of the study is specifically in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. The purpose of the study was to explore the reasons behind the involvement of women, in particular, to the use of informal savings as a tool for income generation and poverty alleviation. South Africa is characterised by inequitable growth and development, a high degree of poverty, increasing demands and limited resources. It is because of this backdrop that many women in poor communities, both rural and urban, devised brilliant plans to overcome this setback. Women, particularly African women, have for a long time been side-lined in economic decision making activities, both in their homes and elsewhere. For the purposes of this study, a mixed method research approach was employed, meaning that the study will follow both the qualitative and quantitative approaches. The respondents are a mixture of both literate and illiterate persons, and because of that, the researcher had to use both English and the home language of the respondents to explain the contents of the questionnaires and obtain the relevant information. The study identified the reasons that stokvels, which were believed to be popular in the past, and still are, because Black people in South Africa did not have access to formal financial institutions, remain popular long after the demise of apartheid. It is in the interest of the citizens of Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality to archive the financial activities of its inhabitants as this valuable information will be needed by future generations. This can be done by creating a website or adding a link to the existing ones where the information is readily available for the users. For future research purposes, stokvels in various parts of the Municipality and South Africa as a whole need to be studied in order to identify and compare to the available literature the general success factors.

We are living in the era of financial uncertainty and high volatility on financial markets. According to some experts, these circumstances will have a significant impact on the investment conventions of Czech investors in the future. Economists are afraid of even stronger conservatism and skepticism on the field of investment tools. The gab between the yield of Czech and American or Australian family portfolio will be most probably deepen thanks to this. My master thesis has the goal to briefly define financial products which are available for Czech investors. Furthermore I also explain reasons of significant differences between the average portfolio of assets and credits of Czech, eastern and western European family.

A review of financial literacy education programs in the United States revealed that the voices of youngsters, particularly urban adolescents enrolled in high school, are lacking in the discussion about financial literacy education. By neglecting the experiences with which these adolescents come to learn financial literacy, educational researchers, teachers, and policymakers are unwittingly limiting their educational outcomes. In this qualitative inquiry, the researcher prepared in-depth interviews and surveys conducted by the researcher to determine how 19 urban students at one high school perceived that financial literacy education could build on their personal literacies and expand their educational outcomes. In addition, the researcher prepared interview questions and provided them to a third-party company which included them in a survey it conducted of adolescents throughout the United States to determine how they perceived financial literacy education could build on their personal literacies and expand their educational outcomes. The overarching finding of this study was that the adolescents’ financial literacy education should focus on their self-identified goals rather than on financial literacy topics prescribed by a financial literacy program. Furthermore, financial literacy education should integrate adolescents’ everyday experiences from outside the classroom into their in-class educational experiences. Recommendations offered for teachers and policymakers, adolescents, and future researchers. Given multiple factors that affect culturally and socially responsive and engaging financial literacy experiences for adolescents, consideration of the appropriateness of recommendations should take place on an individual basis.

The purpose of the present study is to determine whether or not the metropolitan Negro girl's concerns and attitudes are factors in her interest in curriculum items of money management. The concerns and attitudes include authoritarian discipline, family tensions, resentment to family life style, financial troubles, family problems, self inadequacy, personal adjustment, and resentment to dependency.