The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of water pollution control on financing municipal water pollution control facilities in selected cities in North Central Texas. This objective is accomplished by addressing the following topics: (1) the cost to municipalities of meeting federally mandated water pollution control, (2) the sources of funds for financing sewage treatment, and (3) the financial implications of employing these financing tools to satisfy water quality regulations. The study makes the following conclusions regarding the impact of water pollution control costs on municipalities in the North Central Texas Region: 1) The financing of the wastewater treatment requirements of the Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 will cause many municipalities to report operating deficits for their Water and Sewer Fund. 2) A federal grant program funded at the rate of 75 per cent of waste treatment needs will prevent operating deficits in the majority of cities in which 1990 waste treatment needs constitute 20 per cent or more of the expected Water and Sewer Fund capital structure. 3) A federal grant program funded at the average rate of 35 per cent of needs will benefit only a small number of cities. 4) The federal grant program does not improve the operating position of cities in which needs are less than 20 per cent of the total expected capital structure. 5) The state grant program shows the greatest incidence of producing municipal Water and Sewer Fund operating deficits. 6) In order to eliminate operating deficits, cities will need to increase Water and Sewer Fund income in amounts ranging from 0.3 per cent to 571.6 per cent.

This study examines Ludwig Zinzendorf’s political economy and the intellectual inspiration of his thinking. Zinzendorf, a protégé of Kaunitz, was a sophisticated economic thinker in the mid eighteenth-century Habsburg monarchy who was part of the wider intellectual movement in Europe dedicated to understanding political economy and presenting it as an independent and important activity. Self- educated, polyglot and hard-working, Zinzendorf was formidably well read and impressively numerate. His output was detailed and analytical. With an exceptionally wide knowledge, he offered a more original way to discuss the economy than the essentially didactic approach of cameralist writers. He was a reformer dedicated to propagating the most advanced European ideas and practices. This study is divided into five chapters: chapter one covers the relationship between Zinzendorf and Kaunitz and Zinzendorf’s formative years in France from 1750 to 1752. The influence of French economic thinkers on Zinzendorf’s intellectual development, Jean-François Melon and Vincent de Gournay in particular, is the subject of chapter two. Chapter three is devoted to Zinzendorf’s German translation of John Law’s Money and Trade. The development of Zinzendorf’s ideas on state credit, notably the creation of a new stock exchange and political bank in the monarchy, modelled on the Bank of England, is discussed in chapter four. The final chapter examines how Zinzendorf operated as a sophisticated financial expert in the monarchy. He sought to provide a different kind of economic advice and attempted to open-up government to new concepts on the economy. He was influenced by the important contribution in France made by Gournay and his circle of writers in disseminating foreign ideas by publishing in French a range of economic texts from rival nations. Zinzendorf, it is argued, attempted to apply a moderate format of Gournay’s initiative in the monarchy.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T18:40:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Andre Luiz Ramos.pdf: 981504 bytes, checksum: 372936390016c064dc09cae664a1821a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-03-26 / The theory and identification of stock market behavioral reactions should be perceived as a contribution to a better understanding of this financing instrument - the Stock Market. This piece of work aims to study, analyze, and perceive the financial market in order to contribute for a better understanding of reactions not clearly explained by the traditional financial theory. It is an attempt to incorporate some behavior theories in a way to add to the explanations about some market movements not only the economical, financial, or political variables, but also information on how human beings react as investors in several situations they are exposed to. After this theoretical work, it was carried out a study trying to prove the existence of financial market anomalies in Brazilian market. I was used some statistical approach of BOVESPA Index, based on a number of data accrued from BOVESPA price closure daily indexes. Such information was obtained at the Broadcast database and covers the period from March 1997 to July 2005. The statistical analysis of market inefficiency was not able to prove the existence of price barriers once prices didn t reflect the true value around the psychological levels of reference. Therefore, this study could not infer in the existence of irrationality according to its parameters. However, it didn t infer in the inexistence of this proposition either, because in current market globalization, indexes are not analyzed in the light of the same conversion unit, and this might be the reason why statistics research has not been successful / A teoria e a identificação de reações comportamentais no mercado de capitais devem ser entendidas como uma contribuição à melhor compreensão deste instrumento de capitalização que é a Bolsa de Valores. Neste trabalho tem-se o objetivo de estudar, analisar e compreender o mercado financeiro, contribuindo para melhor entender as reações não explicadas com clareza pela teoria tradicional de finanças. Procurou-se incorporar teorias de comportamento de forma a acrescentar às justificativas de alguns movimentos de mercado, não somente as variáveis econômicas, financeiras ou políticas, mas também informações sobre como o ser humano, na qualidade de investidor, reage frente às diversas situações às quais se expõe. Feita a revisão teórica, elaborou-se um estudo que procura demonstrar anomalias no mercado de ações brasileiro. Utilizou-se uma abordagem estatística em torno do Índice Bovespa, baseada em uma série de dados resultantes do índice diário do seu preço de fechamento. Essas informações foram obtidas junto ao banco de dados da empresa BroadCast e abrange o período de março de 1997 até julho de 2005. A análise estatística sobre a ineficiência de mercado não comprovou a existência de barreiras de preço, uma vez que os preços não refletiriam o verdadeiro valor em torno dos níveis de referência psicológicos. Assim, os resultados do estudo não permitem concluir que exista irracionalidade, de acordo com os parâmetros utilizados neste trabalho. Entretanto, não se pode excluir tal hipótese, pois devido à atual globalização dos mercados, os índices não são analisados à luz da mesma unidade de conversão, e esta poderia ser uma das causas do insucesso da pesquisa estatística

Cette thèse a pour but de contribuer à la connaissance des facteurs et processus politiques agissant sur les finances des collectivités locales. Cette problématique est étudiée à partir d'une analyse empirique des comptes des communes françaises. Les deux premiers chapitres de cette thèse visent à étudier les liens entre décideurs politiques de différents échelons de pouvoir public et leur impact sur l'allocation territoriale de fonds publics d'investissement. L'analyse se concentre sur les subventions d'investissement reçues par les municipalités, et montre un impact important du cumul des mandats ainsi que de la carrière d'élu local des responsables politiques nationaux sur l'allocation de ces transferts. Le troisième chapitre de cette thèse vise à évaluer l'impact des inégalités de revenu au niveau municipal sur les décisions de finance publique locale. Cette analyse s'inscrit dans une abondante littérature en Économie Politique visant à déterminer l'impact de la distribution des revenus sur les processus de décision publique. Les résultats montrent un rôle significatif des inégalités de revenu sur les niveaux d'infrastructure publique municipale et de taxation locale. / This thesis aims at bringing new knowledge on political factors and processes affecting local governments. This investigation is made through an empirical analysis of French municipalities’ accounts. The first two chapters of this thesis investigate the impact of links between politicians of different tiers of government on the territorial allocation of public investment funds. The analysis focuses on discretionary investment grants received by municipalities. Evidence shows an important impact of multiple office-holding, and a significant influence of top national politicians’ career in local councils on the allocation of these transfers. The third chapter of this thesis aims at studying the impact of local income inequality on local public decisions. This work contributes to an important literature in Political Economy on the impact of income distribution on political processes. Evidence suggests a significant role of income inequality on local public investment and local taxation.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Essa pesquisa objetiva verificar a garantia de prioridade absoluta de crianças e adolescentes nas políticas públicas do governo federal. Para tanto, resgata o processo de criação dos novos direitos de crianças e adolescentes, que se origina na Assembléia Nacional Constituinte (ANC) 1987-1988, perpassa a discussão da comunidade internacional para a criação da Convenção sobre os Direitos da Criança (CDC) e resulta em uma legislação nacional, o Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente (ECA), sob a égide da Doutrina da Proteção Integral. Essa legislação reflete os novos direitos de crianças e adolescentes brasileiros como cidadãos e cidadãs, titulares de direitos especiais por sua condição peculiar de desenvolvimento e compõe os critérios de garantia, defesa e promoção de seus direitos humanos. Esse estudo também traz informações sobre a desigualdade social brasileira para inferir que o investimento em políticas públicas para infância e adolescência é um dos mecanismos para promover desenvolvimento sustentável, construir bases para uma sociedade mais justa e igualitária e que, quando aliadas a políticas de transferências de renda, oportunizam condições sólidas para reduzir o grau de desigualdade social, com efetiva melhora da qualidade de vida da população. A prioridade absoluta foi estimada a partir de um método de apuração do Orçamento Criança e Adolescente (OCA) que filtra as políticas orçamentárias voltadas ao público infanto-adolescente, nos termos do ECA, por critérios de exclusividade e direcionamento. Os resultados indicam que, apesar das melhoras recentes em indicadores socioeconômicos e na qualidade de vida da população brasileira, ainda falta um longo caminho para o respeito ao princípio da prioridade absoluta de crianças e adolescentes nas políticas públicas do governo federal, pois os recursos públicos da União estão à mercê do pagamento dos juros, encargos e amortizações da dívida pública. Com isso, as políticas sociais ficam mantidas em segundo plano, e sua arrecadação tem caráter regressivo, baseada em tributos indiretos, no que o financiamento das políticas públicas é feito pela população mais pobre, majoritariamente, justamente a que mais demanda as políticas públicas sociais. / This research aims to estimate if the absolute priority of children and teenagers on the public policy of the federal government has been assured. To do that, it ransoms the process of creation of the new rights of children and teenagers, which origins at the Constituent National Assembly during 1987-1988, pass over the international community discussions for the assents of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and results in a legislation called Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente (ECA). It establishes the Integral Protection Doctrine in Brazil, the new condition of children and teenagers as citizens, with special rights for their growth condition, and the conditions to guaranty, to defense and to promote their human rights. This research also brings information about the brazilian social inequality to deduce the public policy for children and teenagers investments are able to promote sustainable development, to build sustainers of a society more equality based on human rights, and when associated with income distribution policies create solid conditions to reduce the social inequality degree and effective improve on life quality of the people. The absolute priority has been estimated from a method to compute the budget for children and teenagers, called Orçamento Criança e Adolescente (OCA) based on exclusiveness and directionament criterions. The results indicates that, despite the recent betters on socioeconomic indicators and life quality improve of Brazilian people, there still a long way until the respect to the principle of the absolute priority of children and teenagers in public policies of the federal government, since the federal public resources are being used to the public debt, the social policies are being set in second plan, and their gathering has regressive impact, notability indirect tributes, so the poorer ones financing the public policies, just those who more need the social public policies.

O mundo corporativo desenvolveu mecanismos para atenuar os conflitos de agência, decorrentes das divergências entre os interesses dos acionistas e dos gestores profissionais. A adoção de práticas de governança corporativa nas sociedades empresariais, em que o capital está pulverizado entre milhares de acionistas que não participam da gestão do negócio, impõe aos gestores um comportamento ético, pautado pela boa-fé, pela transparência, pela prestação de contas, pela eficiência e pela responsabilidade pelos atos de gestão. De outro lado, permite que os acionistas acompanhem e participem do estabelecimento das diretrizes da administração do empreendimento, sempre sob o pressuposto de que o gestor age em nome dos interesses dos proprietários da empresa. No regime republicano estabelecido pela Constituição Federal de 1988 os cidadãos são os titulares da res publica, cabendo ao gestor público a administração da coisa pública em prol dos interesses da sociedade. A gestão dos recursos públicos, regulada pelo Direito Financeiro, deve seguir rigorosamente a lógica republicana, mas neste ponto é possível identificar potenciais conflitos de agência entre os gestores públicos e os cidadãos. Com o objetivo de garantir a melhor aplicação dos escassos recursos financeiros arrecadados junto à sociedade, a Constituição Federal institucionalizou um complexo sistema de preservação do interesse público na gestão financeira estatal, sistema esse descrito neste trabalho, aqui denominado de governança republicana. Esse complexo, constituído de normas e princípios constitucionais, normas infraconstitucionais, mecanismos de controle e planejamento, além de formas de participação social, formam um sistema institucional de proteção à boa aplicação dos recursos financeiros do Estado e devem servir aos aplicadores do direito como vetor para a interpretação das normas de Direito Financeiro. / The corporate world developed mechanisms to lessen agency conflicts due to divergences between shareholders and professional managers interests. The adoption of corporate governing practices in corporate businesses (where the capital is spread out among thousands of shareholders, who do not participate in the administration of the business) requires an ethical behavior from the managers; this ethical behavior should be guided by good-faith, transparency, accountability, efficiency and responsibility for the administrative actions. On the other hand, it allows the shareholders to accompany and to participate in the establishment of guidelines for the administration of the enterprise, always under the presupposition that the manager acts on behalf of the interests of the company owner. Under the republican regime, established by the 1988 Federal Constitution, the citizens are the holders of the republic; thus, it is the responsibility of the public administrator to manage the public thing on behalf of the interests of society. The administration of the public resources, which is regulated by the Financial Law, must strictly follow the republican logic, but in this sense it is possible to identify potentials agency conflicts between public administrators and citizens. With the objective of ensuring the best application of the scarce financial resources collected from society, the Federal Constitution institutionalized a complex system of preservation of the public interest in the state financial administration, and this system is described in this work and is here denominated of Republican governance. This complex (which is constituted of norms and constitutional principles, infra-constitutional norms, planning and control mechanisms, besides forms of social participation) forms an institutional protection system for the good application of the State financial resources and it should also be useful to those who apply the law as a vector for the interpretation of Financial Law norms.

L’évolution perpétuelle que connait la comptabilité publique en France notamment, avec l’intégration des règles comptables inspirées du droit privé, ne pourrait guère constituer un acte isolé. Elle est inscrite bien au contraire dans une démarche universelle menée par une volonté commune de rendre les états financiers des états et nations un vrai moyen d’aide à la prise de décision. Les normes comptables de l’état, qui sont inspirées du modèle privé, ont intégré le paysage comptable français et prennent de plus en plus de place en faisant reculer un modèle de comptabilité qui n’a pas subi de changements majeurs depuis son institution. Le droit public financier se trouve ainsi enrichi en matière comptable par de nouvelles dispositions depuis l’avènement de la LOLF en 2001. Désormais, il est prévu expressément que les comptes de l'état doivent être réguliers, sincères et donner une image fidèle de son patrimoine et de sa situation financière. Une disposition consacrée par la révision constitutionnelle du 23 juillet 2008. Par conséquent, cela n’est pas sans conséquences sur le droit et les pratiques budgétaire dans leur sens le plus large / The perpetual evolution of public accounts in France, particularly with the integration of accounting rules inspired by private law, could hardly be an isolated act. On the contrary, it is part of a universal approach driven by a common desire to make the financial statements of states and nations a real means of helping decision-making. State accounting standards, which are inspired by the private model, have become part of the French accounting landscape and are gaining more and more place by pushing back an accounting model that has not undergone major changes since its establishment. Public financial law is thus enriched in accounting matters by new provisions since the advent of the LOLF in 2001. From now on, it is expressly stipulated that the accounts of the state must be regular, sincere and give a faithful image of its heritage and its financial situation. A provision enshrined in the constitutional review of July 23, 2008. Therefore, this is not without consequences on the law and budgetary practices in their broadest sense

Thesis (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2014 / The South African Schools Act (SASA), 1996 (Act No. 84 of 1996) mandates the establishment of School Governing Bodies (SGBs), whose important roles include the management of school funds. This role includes planning, reviewing, controlling and approving the school budget in accordance with the school's needs. The SGB is ultimately required to account to the Department of Education (DoE), parents and the community for the public funds they manage. However, schools fail to execute this legal mandate effectively and efficiently. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were employed to complement each other in an attempt to investigate the problems experienced by school governing bodies in executing their financial management functions. Questionnaires, focus group interviews and document reviews were used to gather data. It emerged from the findings of the study that school governors in Mogoshi Circuit are also facing serious financial management problems. Financial management and financial accountability - the sine qua none of effective and efficient management of school finances, pose a challenge. The study found, for example, that the majority of governors in rural areas are elderly people, who are mostly either illiterate or semi-illiterate and lack the capacity to execute their governance roles efficiently and effectively. A once-off or hit and run unaccredited training, which is often provided to the elected SGB members, is relatively not helpful. This inhibits financial accountability. To this end, the study proposed substantial recommendations, which, if implemented, could bring a resolve to the problems and challenges posed.

On affirme souvent que les performances environnementales récentes des pays en transition sont moins liées à la réforme de leur politique environnementale qu'aux effets de la récession économique des années 1990. Par conséquent, avec la reprise économique et l'intégration dans l'économie mondiale, l'augmentation des émissions polluantes deviendrait inévitable, faisant craindre que ces pays atteignent, voire dépassent, les niveaux de pollution de la fin des années 1980. Cette thèse donne un nouvel éclairage sur les conséquences environnementales dans la région des interactions, nées avec le processus de transition vers l'économie de marché, entre la réforme des politiques commerciales et celles d'investissement et les efforts engagés pour la protection de l'environnement. A l'aide de techniques économétriques rigoureuses appliquées à une base de données riche et originale sur les pays en transition, nous montrons que la transition vers l'économie de marché associée à une intégration rapide dans l'économie mondiale, a été relativement salutaire pour l'environnement de ces pays. Le progrès environnemental observé dans les pays en transition pendant la dernière décennie du 20ème siècle a pu être réalisé grâce à une restructuration industrielle majeure et plus encore, grâce à un effet technique induit par une amélioration de la politique environnementale et aux externalités technologiques positives de l'ouverture économique. Nous montrons que des progrès environnementaux sont encore réalisables à travers la politique environnementale, à condition que la qualité institutionnelle des pays en transition converge vers celle des pays européens, par exemple. Nous montrons que le lien entre ouverture économique et environnement est trop complexe pour être résumé dans un simple jugement - soit « bon » ou « mauvais ». Malgré l'impact négatif global de l'ouverture commerciale sur l'environnement, trouvé dans cette étude pour le cas des pays en transition, nous montrons que le commerce de biens environnementaux (BE) peut réduire la pollution de l'air. Cependant, des effets divergents sont trouvés pour différentes sous-catégories de BE et à travers les polluants (CO2, SO2). Par conséquent, nous mettons en évidence l'importance de faire distinction entre les produits en bout de chaîne et les technologies et produits propres. Notre étude souligne la nécessité de considérer les effets indirects du commerce de BE, en particulier ceux passant par le revenu, dans toute décision de libéralisation des échanges de ces biens. Une attention particulière doit être prêtée au statut d'importateur net et au rôle du revenu lié aux taxes à l'importation. Nos résultats empiriques indiquent également que pour commercialiser plus de BE, une première alternative à la réduction des taxes à l'importation peut être l'harmonisation de la politique environnementale à travers les partenaires commerciaux. Enfin, bien que l'hypothèse de havre de pollution soit validée dans certains pays en transition, sa crainte n'est globalement pas justifiée. En effet, d'après nos résultats, les IDE amélioreraient, à travers un effet de halo de pollution, la qualité environnementale de ces pays. Nous montrons aussi que les pays avec une réglementation trop laxiste auraient plutôt intérêt à améliorer leur politique environnementale afin d'attirer les IDE.

Cette thèse s'attache à redéfinir des modèles financiers traditionnels en considérant un cadre d'analyse moins restrictif, s'accordant mieux avec les caractéristiques empiriques des fonds alternatifs. Ce cadre élargi, certes plus réaliste, a néanmoins pour principal effet de complexifier les modèles étudiés ; nous choisissons alors d'employer des procédés de calcul naturel pour les simplifier. Dans le premier chapitre de la thèse, nous répondons à une problématique générale qui concerne l'étape essentielle du traitement des données. Nous proposons ainsi une nouvelle approche de la complétion des valeurs manquantes, autorisant une meilleure prise en compte des dépendances inter-actifs. Nous montrons dans le deuxième chapitre comment intégrer des moments d'ordre supérieur dans les modèles d'allocation. Une technique d'optimisation définie à partir des fonctions dites de pénurie nous permet de résoudre les problèmes d'optimisation dans l'espace non-convexe des quatre premiers moments de la distribution de rendements des portefeuilles optimisés. Le troisième chapitre s'attache à évaluer l'impact des données aberrantes sur les modèles d'allocation d'actifs intégrant les moments d'ordre supérieur. Un réseau de neurones modélisant la volatilité nous permet d'étendre les travaux de Chen et Liu (1993). Nous terminons cette thèse avec le quatrième chapitre en proposant un modèle d'analyse de style défini à partir de cartes de Kohonen. Le lien entre les facteurs de style traditionnels et les neurones de la carte est effectué au moyen d'une analyse conditionnelle. Une projection dynamique des fonds autorise ainsi l'étude de la stabilité des styles des gérants d'actifs.