This thesis presents two applications of the incompleteness and one application of the imperfection of the market economy. The first application, Chapter 2, studies the decision making problem of an individual seeking to accumulate an optimal amount of human capital realizing that the wage income derived from the accumulated human capital is subject to incompletely insured uncertainty. In other words, the financial market that insures against wage income risk is not fully functional. We find that the individual's inability to diversify wage income risk tends to increase the need to accumulate more human capital in order to elevate wage path and compensate for the burden of its associated risk. This is particularly true when (i) the wage income risk is positively correlated with the rate-of-return risk in the financial market, resulting in an even greater risk burden to the individual, and (ii) the individual is more risk averse. There are two possibilities that no human capital is needed. The first possibility occurs when it is optimal to work as an unskilled worker because both the burden from wage income risk and the rate of return from education are low. The second possibility is the case where the risk burden is so high that the optimal time spent in school to acquire sufficient human capital to cover the risk is so long that the discounted rate of return from education is negative. In this case, the best strategy is to invest in financial assets alone and forfeit the opportunity to earn wage income - either as an educated or as an unskilled worker - to avoid its associated risk. Chapter 3 applies equilibrium unemployment theory with a frictional labor market to study the impact of immigration on the local labor market. Markets are imperfect in the sense that job matching takes time and recruitment is costly. We find that labor market outcomes of both the natives and existing immigrants depend crucially on how the economic surplus from successful matching is divided between the firms and the workers or, in other words, on the bargaining power of the workers. An arrival of immigrants with low bargaining power tends to benefit both the natives and the existing immigrants. A disparity between the two worker types in the matching efficiency also plays a major role. An inferior matching technology among the immigrants, interpreted here as reflecting their less established social network, lowers their wage rate and increases their unemployment rate. The natives are more likely to benefit from additional immigration than the existing immigrants and, when they do, the overall benefit can be decomposed into "job creation spillover" effect resulting from the immigrants' low bargaining power, and "job stealing" effect resulting from the immigrants' less efficient matching. The implications on the pattern of international migration flows are also discussed. In Chapter 4, a simple macroeconomic model is constructed and applied quantitatively to OECD countries, to analyze the effect of incomplete insurance on saving, growth and welfare in a closed economy. In this economy, precautionary saving motivated by uninsured idiosyncratic shocks raises growth rates but lowers risk-free returns. Welfare is measured by the sum of growth rates and risk-free rates of return, not growth rates alone. This welfare measure takes the negative impact of precautionary saving into consideration. Applied to the OECD data, three major results emerge: (i) the heterogeneous performance of growth and saving across the countries reflects different degrees of insurance incompleteness, (ii) since the externality of growth on productivity was very strong in the 1960's, the heavily constrained insurance market itself improves productivity by promoting growth, thereby enhancing welfare, (iii) while the externality of growth became weaker in the 1980's, the development of insurance markets lowered growth, but still contributed to a raise in welfare. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

This study examines the value placed on learning and knowledge by innovative small and medium-sized computer service firms, using a framework for analysis adapted from intellectual capital (IC). Knowledge is conceived as a specialized and appreciable asset capable of being acquired, nurtured, developed, managed and commercially exploited. Emphasis is placed on evaluating the strategies and practices that drive company learning and knowledge transfer in smaller computer service companies with respect to developing and making use of the knowledge owned by employees, customers and the corporation. The study evaluates the extent to which short-term commercial objectives impose conceptual boundaries on particular forms of intellectual capital - skill development, experience and recurrent learning. Data is drawn from case studies and a broader, provincial sample of companies based in British Columbia with ten to one hundred employees. The study concludes that small and medium-sized computer service firms narrowly conceptualize and undervalue knowledge in the area of human resource development, where supporting learning processes and structures are often poorly developed. Companies place a premium value on new forms of knowledge with an obvious potential to improve the skills and experience necessary to support commercial products and services. In contrast, learning, knowledge and expertise related to professional development and more long-term organizational and/or career benefits are consistently and systematically marginalized. The study outlines limitations of the IC framework in terms of the intrinsic values attributed to sources and types of knowledge. Of particular concern is the importance attached to formalized, external relationships with customers and the undervaluing of knowledge with less obvious or potentially more long-term commercial value. Suggestions for using the framework in small and medium-sized computer firms include broadening the existing narrow focus of external knowledge sources to encompass the extensive network of business relationships companies exploit, while the undervaluing of knowledge found in professional development is countered by linking benefits to returns from specific, rather than generic commercial goals. Emphasis is placed on potential gains in efficiency and productivity offered by improvements to learning and organizational processes. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

This diploma thesis shows, that higher incomes of American Jewish people are related to specific factors. The question is if there is some kind of specific human capital which influences Jewish incomes and if there is, how it differs from the common human capital. To find out the answer, the earnings of Jewish men and women and earnings of common Americans without connection to religion will be analyzed. Besides proving the importance and influence of education, other factors, which may increase or decrease the incomes, are also mentioned in the text. This thesis adds to the topic by including analyses of the qualitative data gained by the author; it thus should add to completeness of the research.

The main subject of this thesis is the evaluation of corporate volunteering in terms of its possible use as an instrument for staff development and improving corporate culture. The first chapters deal with theoretical solutions and the introduction of the concept of corporate social responsibility, corporate volunteering, working with human resources and corporate culture. The work charts the general knowledge of the concept of corporate volunteering among potential employees (students). Determine their interest or lack of interest in engaging in corporate volunteering in the future. The work investigates from managers and employees of companies that are involved in corporate volunteering, its main benefits and disadvantages. The aim is to determine whether corporate volunteering to help employees develop their enterprise or to improve the corporate culture. The work also focuses on finding interest in corporate volunteerism among employees of companies that do not engage the concept.

This thesis deals with strategic cost management of human capital. The theoretical part describes the essence of human capital. Subsequently, attention was focused on the possibility of using human capital in an enterprise and the ways of its measurement. In the practical part of the thesis were analysed payroll costs in a particular company. In the first part of the empirical research were described company, its structure and history, organizational and economic characteristics and selected financial indicators. In the next section were analysed costs incurred on human resources in this company. An important part of this chapter is a description of the deficiencies of the existing management of personnel costs. In conclusion of the practical part were presented some variants for optimizing the payroll cost system of the company.

In a world that is increasingly united in time and distance, I examine why the world is increasingly divided socially, economically, and digitally. Using data for 35 variables from 93 countries, I separate the countries into groups of 31 each by gross domestic product per capita. These groups of developed, lesser developed and least developed countries are used in comparative analysis. Through a review of relevant literature and tests of bivariate correlation, I select eight key variables that are significantly related to information communication technology development and to human development. For this research, adoption of the Internet in the developing world is the innovation of particular interest. Thus, for comparative purposes, I chose Internet Users per 1000 persons per country and the Human Development Index as the dependent variables upon which the independent variables are regressed. Although small in numbers among the least developed countries, I find Internet Users as the most powerful influence on human development for the poorest countries. The research focuses on key obstacles as well as variables of opportunity for Internet usage in developing countries. The greatest obstacles are in fact related to Internet availability and the cost/need ratio for infrastructure expansion. However, innovations for expanded Internet usage in developing countries are expected to show positive results for increased Internet usage, as well as for greater human development and human capital. In addition to the diffusion of innovations in terms of the Internet, the diffusion of cultures through migration is also discussed in terms of the effect on social capital and the drain on human capital from developing countries.

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo fazer uma reflexão conjunta sobre a educação na ótica do desenvolvimento humano e as políticas de avaliação da educação vigentes no Brasil. Para tal, está divido em cinco seções: uma introdução com a contextualização da discussão teórica; a segunda, resumindo o modelo e as evidências dadas dentro do arcabouço analítico de Heckman, (que foca na importância das habilidades não cognitivas para o desempenho escolar e sua interação com as habilidades cognitivas). A terceira seção é dedicada à visão de educação no trabalho de Nussbaum, que trabalha com uma visão mais ampla de educação, focada no conceito de habilidades não cognitivas. Na quarta parte, examina-se a evolução das políticas educacionais brasileiras, com o foco na questão avaliativa e introduz-se alguns elementos críticos à luz do marco de desenvolvimento humano estabelecido. Por fim concluiu-se. / The objective of this dissertation is to jointly examine the meaning of education from a human development perspective in association with the evolution of the Brazilian educational assessment policies. Within this context, it is divided into five parts. After the introduction it examines Heckman’s model and its empirical evidences (where the importance of non cognitive skills for schooling and its relation with cognitive skills is highlighted). The third part delves into Nussbaum work and her arguments for non cognitive dimensions of education. The forth part critically analyses the evolution of educational assessment in Brazil. Then, it concludes.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-18T17:54:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAO_EDUCACAO_CLEUSA.pdf: 1375571 bytes, checksum: 55d89463a34ffd52f32e14aea9c315e6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-10-31 / The continued education and the learning capacity turn into vital features for people and organizations due to a more and more dynamic context. Learning about how to learn is necessary to guarantee sustainable development of organizations, and to promote people s employment. The objective of the present research was to identify how is the process of the continued education and what are the benefits that the continued education brings to an enterprise and its co-workers. The theoretical base that supported this essay dealt with the triad relationship labour, education and human capital. This study analyses a continued education program and the changes that happen in organizations and their co-workers resulting from learning. In order to carry out the investigation, the qualitative method was adopted and developed in a case study. The organization under study was Companhia de Bebidas Ipiranga located in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo State. The data were collected by means of structured interview, direct observation and document analysis. The findings show clearly the organization s explicit policy with the education, linking the business results with the continuous learning. This study originates the necessity to recognise the continued education clearly as an important factor of facilitation to the continuous learning. Besides contributing to an effective promotion of the human condition, the continued education brings the organization to a more competitive position in the market . / A educação continuada e a capacidade de aprendizagem se tornam características vitais para as pessoas e para as organizações, face ao contexto cada vez mais dinâmico. O aprender sobre como aprender é necessário a fim de que se garanta a sustentabilidade do desenvolvimento das organizações e que as pessoas possam promover sua empregabilidade. O objetivo da presente pesquisa foi identificar como se processa e os benefícios que traz a educação continuada, para uma organização empresarial e para seus colaboradores. A base teórica que deu suporte a esta dissertação abordou a relação triádica trabalho, educação e capital humano . Este estudo analisa um programa de educação continuada e as mudanças que se processam na organização e nos colaboradores, decorrentes do aprendizado. De modo a realizar a investigação, adotou-se o método qualitativo, desenvolvido em um estudo de caso, no qual a organização pesquisada foi a Companhia de Bebidas Ipiranga, situada em Ribeirão Preto, Estado de São Paulo. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevista estruturada, observação direta e análise de documentos. Os resultados encontrados evidenciam a explícita política da organização com respeito à educação, vinculando os resultados de negócio. O estudo desperta a necessidade de se reconhecer de forma clara a educação continuada como um importante fator facilitador da aprendizagem contínua, além de contribuir para uma efetiva promoção da condição humana, que torna a organização mais competitiva no mercado em que atua.

Criticism of the public school system tends to be aimed squarely at teachers in the classroom (Karpinski, 2012). As school principals lead in this current educational climate, it is incumbent upon them to provide their teachers an environment that is conducive to job satisfaction, emphasizing teacher retention, and mitigating the deleterious effects of teacher turnover on students’ academic achievement. To understand the practices of the principal, this study investigated teachers’ perceptions of their principals’ practice, asking the following questions: What is the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of their principal’s practice of building professional capital and teachers’ job satisfaction? What are the experiences of teachers in relation to their perception of their principal’s practice of building professional capital and job satisfaction? Research was conducted employing an explanatory sequential mixed-methods correlational study; utilizing a researcher-created on-line survey and semistructured interviews. The results of this study indicate that teachers’ job satisfaction is independent of principals’ practice of building professional capital. The quantitative findings found no correlation between teachers’ perceptions of their principal’s practice of building professional capital and teacher job satisfaction. The qualitative data indicate that teachers attributed their job satisfaction to factors that are independent of their relationship with their principal; commitment to their students and colleagues and sense of purpose were cited as sources of job satisfaction.

I denna kvalitativa fallstudie undersöks den svenska konsert- och eventbranschen utifrån perspektivetekonomistyrning och management control. Genom intervjuer av yrkesverksamma personer relevantasett till studiens syfte undersöks vilken budgetering som förefaller sig lämpligast, om det riskeraskompetenstapp internt och externt för att slutligen bygga emot frågeställningen om vilka faktorer somprimärt hindrar en uppstart och återgång för verksamheten till normal kapacitet. Vi finner att det ihänseende till den osäkra miljön ställs krav på verksamheten att omstrukturera och vara agil, detta dåbegränsningarna för verksamheten kommer från politiskt håll och att det saknats en långsiktig plan attförhålla sig till vad gäller uppöppning. Genom studerande av teorier kring motivation anser vi att detföreligger risk för att personal ska vara mer ambivalenta än tidigare till följd av att de inte harbetydelsefulla arbetsuppgifter, dock observeras det avskedningar och omstruktureringar som gör attpersonal som annars skulle varit överflödiga redan har fått gå eller fått nya arbetsuppgifter. Slutligenanser vi att de faktorer som primärt kan försvåra en uppstart är förlust av humankapital ochnyckelkompetens till följd av omstrukturering. Vi anser även att avsaknaden, eller felhantering avplanering kan leda företag på villovägar, det anknyter till den första frågeställningen om budgetering.Ett sätt att hantera de mesta av de möjliga problem vi förutser, är att hålla organisationstyrningen organisk. / This case study examines the swedish concert- and events industry from the perspective of financialmanagement and management control. Through interviews with professionals relevant to the purposeof the report, it examines what budgeting seems most appropriate, whether there is a risk of a loss ofcompetence internally and externally, and finally what factors primarily prevent the start-up and returnof the business to normal capacity. We find that the uncertain environment places demands on thebusiness to restructure and be agile, as the constraints on the business come from the political level andthere has been no long-term plan to relate to in terms of start-up. By studying theories of motivation, webelieve that there is a risk that staff will be more ambivalent than before as a result of not havingmeaningful work tasks, however, redundancies and restructuring are observed which means that staffwho would otherwise be redundant have already been laid off, or given new work tasks. Finally, we findthat the primary factors that may impede continuation of the business are the loss of human capital andkey skills due to restructuring. We also believe that the absence, or mismanagement of planning canlead firms astray, which links to the first issue of budgeting. One way to deal with most of the possibleproblems we foresee is to keep organisational management organic.