The Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico maintains a tribal scholarship program to assist students in their pursuit of higher education. This research was initiated to assess from the graduates' perspective how effectively the tribe utilized its subsidized academic capital. The purpose of the study was to identify obstacles, incentives, distractions, or alternative opportunities that Laguna college graduates encountered on their academic paths that influenced their perceptions about working for the tribe. Several challenges were identified that if addressed could profoundly benefit the tribe by increasing the retention of tribal graduates for the professional roles for which they were academically trained. A mixed methods research design was employed to examine why graduates educated with considerable assistance from their tribe were not working for their tribe in the capacity for which they earned degrees. Within this study, both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to gather, report, and interpret the data. The combined use of a survey as the quantitative method and interviews as the qualitative method provided a balanced view of the perceptions of the Laguna graduates. An analysis of both sets of data indicated that several significant rifts existed between the arenas of tribal professional employment opportunities, college level academic attainment, and the existing secondary school system. Conversely, notions of tribal student loyalty and an intense desire to contribute to community were confirmed. Based on the findings, it was recommended that several critical decisions regarding the future of the Pueblo's higher education priorities be made. Further, it was recommended that the tribe increase their efforts to capitalize on the intrinsic community connectedness demonstrated by the Laguna graduates.

隨著知識經濟的崛起以及許多社會現象與研究文獻的證實，人力資本對一國的經濟成長而言，已是不可或缺的動力；因此，本文沿用Barro (1990)模型，將人力資本要素引進生產函數，並設定政府部門對私部門的人力資本投資有特定比例的補貼，據此探討加入人力資本要素後，Barro (1990)模型是否有不同的結果？而人力資本與其補貼對於經濟成長的影響又為何？ 本文分析的結果發現，租稅政策對經濟體系的影響大致與Barro (1990)模型的結論相同，分別為：一、所得稅率的變動，為經濟成長率帶來的影響仍是不確定的；二、在給定特定的人力資本補貼率，如果政府所課徵的所得稅率能夠達成經濟成長率的極大，就能夠使社會福利水準達到極大。但與Barro (1990)不同的是，因為本模型的體系中存在著人力資本的補貼，因此在極大化經濟成長率的水準下，所得稅率會較Barro (1990)模型下的所得稅率大。 此外，由於人力資本與補貼的加入，使得本文有所突破之處：一、和一般認知不同的是，政府對於人力資本投資的補貼增加，在其他條件不變下，使得對於經濟成長率的影響並非正向，而是不確定的。二、給定特定的所得稅率，當政府決定的人力資本補貼率能使經濟成長達極大時，亦會使社會福利水準達到極大。

Performance management is a process through which employees‟ performance is evaluated in order to reward such performance that meets the required standards, and to develop employees who fail to attain the required expectations. The overall organisational performance hinges on the effectiveness with which a performance management system is developed and implemented. The current study focuses on the extent to which performance management is effectively developed and implemented at the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality and the correlation that this has with service delivery. To achieve this objective a number of research questions and objectives were posed and formulated in chapter one. The hypotheses for the study are: a well-designed performance management system with well thought out practices and procedures can improve the delivery of services in the City of Johannesburg; and a well-designed performance management system with well thought out practices and procedures cannot improve the delivery of services in the City of Johannesburg. In order to validate the hypotheses, the structured questionnaires on the performance management system and service delivery were compiled. A questionnaire for employees consisted of close-ended questionnaire statements and open-ended questions. Another questionnaire with only close-ended questionnaire statements was issued to residents to elicit responses on service delivery by the City of Johannesburg. Frequency analysis, which lends itself to correlation analysis, of employees‟ responses and residents‟ feedback was conducted. The correlation analysis between employees‟ responses to performance management system and residents‟ responses to service delivery was conducted using the Pearson Correlation. The findings of the study are: Growth and Development Strategy and the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) are not adhered to in the daily operations in the municipality. Managers and subordinates set objectives jointly but are, however, not participants in the evaluation of the municipality’s performance. The employees of the municipality are aware of the existence of the performance management system but it is applied only to more senior officials. Employees and managers are not involved in the evaluation of the municipality‟s performance. Training does not capacitate employees to work effectively with the Balanced Scorecard. The information technology architecture is not supportive of the implementation of the performance management system. Key performance areas were found to lack uniformity in the municipality and therefore created „silos‟ in the municipality. The key performance indicators are developed without the involvement of the communities, including employees, especially at the lower level of management. The critical success factors are understood by employees and are linked to major tasks and job responsibilities. Tax and rates accounts are issued in time. Tax and rates accounts are inaccurate. The municipality does not maintain street lights regularly. The municipality does not maintain sewage systems regularly. There is no relationship between the performance management system and service delivery. The recommendations for improving the performance management system were made and the researcher developed an appropriate model of performance that is oriented to effective service delivery. / Thesis (PhD (Public Management and Governance))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013

Oportunidades is a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) that uses a proxy means-test targeting model to select eligible households for the programme. According to the Income and Expenditure Household Survey of 2008, approximately two in every three eligible rural households participate in Oportunidades, whereas only one in every three eligible urban households receives the Oportunidades cash transfer. This research explores the factors behind this lack of take-up, the costs of participation and the implications of targeting inefficiency on the programme’s impact on income poverty. It argues that a sample selection model is a pertinent tool of analysis as it informs on the distribution of cash transfers conditional on household eligibility. This conditional distribution is also used to understand the costs of participation as a latent variable. Eligible households are less likely to invest in human capital and neither the cash transfer nor the income forgone by children and teenagers are sufficient to overcome these costs of participation. By identifying a method to quantify behavioural change of households, I associate the costs of participation to the difficulties of inducing health-related behavioural change among recipients and eligible non-recipients. At an aggregate state level, targeting inefficiency is not fully explained by only looking at the budget constraints of the programme. In fact, targeting efficiency is positively associated to aggregate behavioural change and negatively associated to aggregate costs for participation at state level. Yet, targeting efficiency does not guarantee impact on income poverty and Oportunidades’ highest impact on income poverty also associated with the inclusion of non-eligible households in the programme. This research reconsiders the importance of the context in which CCTs are implemented and informs on the conflicting aims of CCTs: providing income poverty relief via cash transfers and incentivizing behavioural change by conditioning the cash transfer in health and education investment.

In a developing oil-based economy like Libya the availability of finance is largely affected by the availability of oil revenues which are subjected to disturbances and shocks. Therefore, the decision to save and invest a certain ratio of the country's aggregate output is, to large extent, determined (and affected) by the shocks in the oil markets rather than the requirements of economic development. In this study an attempt is made to determine the optimal rate of saving and investment, both defined as a ratio of the aggregate output, according to the requirements of economic development. For this purpose, a neo-classical Ramsey-type model for Libya is constructed and applied to obtain theoretically and empirically the optimal saving and investment rate during the period (1965-1991). The results reveal that Libya was investing over the optimal level during the oil boom of 1970s and less than the optimal level during the oil crisis of 1980s. In addition, an econometric investigation of the determinants of actual investment by sector (agriculture, non-oil industry, and services) is carried out in order to shed lights on how possible it is for Libya to adjust actual investment towards its optimal level. It is found that, as expected, the most important factor which can be used in this respect is the oil revenues or, generally, the availability of finance. In addition, the study reveals that investment in agriculture is associated, during the period of study, with a very low marginal productivity of capital whereas marginal productivity was higher in both non-oil industry and services. Finally, the study investigates also the future potential saving and investment rates and concludes that the economy, which has already reached its steady state, can be pushed out towards further growth if the economy can be able to increase the level of per worker human capital, proxied by the secondary school enrolment as a percentage of population.

Japan står inför en stor utmaning; en snabbt växande åldrande befolkning i kombination med en minskad arbetsför befolkning. Denna uppsats syftar till att försöka förklara vilka effekter landets åldrande befolkning får för landets ekonomiska tillväxt, samt vilka faktorer som kan dämpa dessa effekter. Analysen görs med hjälp av en modifierad version av Solows tillväxtmodell som teoretisk bas. Detta görs för att skapa en förståelse för vilka faktorer som påverkar ett lands ekonomiska tillväxt. Med hjälp av denna modell tas befolkningens åldersstruktur med som en parameter. Den utvecklade modellen ligger sedan till grund för en empirisk analys av hur Japans ekonomiska tillväxt kan komma att påverkas som ett resultat av landets åldrande befolkning. Resultaten visar att Japan kommer att drabbas av sjunkande tillväxt på grund av den åldrande befolkningen. Likväl finns det möjliga lösningar till hands för att dämpa de negativa effekterna, exempelvis en ökad sysselsättningsgrad hos kvinnor, ökat humankapital, ökad invandring samt en kostnadseffektiv teknologisk utveckling. / Japan will face a major challenge with regard to its rapidly growing aging population combined with a reduction in its working population. This paper aims to explain the impact of Japan's aging population and the country's economic growth, and the factors that may mitigate these effects. The analysis is done using a modified Solow growth model as a theoretical base. This is done to get a more in-depth understanding of the factors that affect a country's economic growth. By using this model, that includes population age structure as a parameter, we have the basis for the empirical analysis of how Japan's growth may be affected as a result of the aging population. The results show that Japan will suffer from declining growth due to its aging population. However, there are possible solutions to mitigate the negative effects, such as increasing employment rates among women, increased human capital, increased immigration and a cost effective technology development.

In an attempt to transition from its oil-based economy, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is taking further steps towards building a knowledge-based economy. Saudi universities play a pivotal role toward the country’s attempts to achieve the desired sustainable economic growth. And because knowledge production is dependent on the human capital embedded in faculty members working at theses universities, the recommendations of the Saudi National Science and Technology Policy stressed the importance of enhancing research skills of faculty members and researchers at public universities using different means and initiatives. However, a little is known about the impact of the implemented initiatives to promote research on the actual research outcomes of faculty members working at these universities. This study examined the impact of research promoting practices, and faculty personal characteristics (i.e., age, gender, marital status, academic rank, citizenship, and origin of PhD degree) on the levels of faculty research productivity at four Saudi Arabian public universities: King Saud University (KSU), King Abdulaziz University (KAU), King Khalid University (KKU), and King Faisal University (KFU). All PhD holder faculty members working at these universities were included in the sample of the study. A self-administrate web-based survey questionnaire was used to collect data for this study. Out of 7072 distributed questionnaires, 389 answered questionnaires were used for the data analysis. Multiple regression results revealed that the following research-promoting practices have positive and significant relationships with faculty research productivity: supportive collegial environment, the high perception of the academic editing and translating services, the positive perception of the research funding process, the rate of participation in collaboration programs, and conference attendance. Faculty’s perception of the role of research centers and research financial incentives revealed reverse relationships with certain types of faculty research productivity. Among the personal characteristics of faculty members, full professors were found to have the highest levels of research productivity. Citizenship (tenure status), and origin of PhD degree were found to have positive relationships with certain types of faculty research productivity. Male faculty were found to have more publications in refereed journals compared to female faculty. Also, older faculty were found to have more publications in refereed journals compared to junior faculty.

This thesis consists of a short introduction and three self-contained analytical chapters. Chapter 1 focuses on the question of learning gaps and divergence in achievement across countries. I use unique child-level panel data from Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam to ask at what ages do gaps between different populations emerge, how they increase or decline over time, and what the proximate determinants of this divergence are. I document that learning gaps between the four countries are already evident at the age of 5 years and grow throughout the age trajectory of children, preserving country ranks from 5 to 15 years of age. At primary school age, the divergence between Vietnam and the other countries is largely accounted for by substantially greater learning gains per year of schooling. Chapter 2 focuses on learning differences between private and government school students in India. I present the first value-added models of learning production in private and government schools in this context, using panel data from Andhra Pradesh. I examine the heterogeneity in private school value-added across different subjects, urban and rural areas, medium of instruction, and across age groups. Further, I also estimate private school effects on children's self-efficacy and agency. I find modest or insignificant causal effects of attending private schools in most test domains other than English and on children's academic self-concept and agency. Results on comparable test domains and age groups correspond closely with, and further extend, estimates from a parallel experimental evaluation. Chapter 3 uses panel data from the state of Andhra Pradesh in India to estimate the impact of the introduction of a national midday meal program on anthropometric z-scores of primary school students, and investigates whether the program ameliorated the deterioration of health in young children caused by a severe drought. Correcting for self-selection into the program using a non-linearity in how age affects the probability of enrollment, we find that the program acted as a safety net for children, providing large and significant health gains for children whose families suffered from drought.

Dans le présent travail de recherche, nous proposons, à travers quelques essais empiriques, un nouveau regard sur les enjeux économiques de la migration internationale et le développement des pays d’origine. Tout d’abord, nous commençons par étudier le lien entre la migration internationale et le commerce extérieur en nous appuyant sur des données bilatérales d’un groupe de 27 pays, choisis selon des critères bien particuliers. Les résultats mettent en exergue un lien de complémentarité entre le commerce et la migration. Par la suite, nous étudions l’impact de la migration à travers d’autres canaux de transmissions tels que le capital humain et l’investissement. Il s’agit de retracer l’impact des transferts de fonds des migrants sur la croissance économique des pays d’origine de court et long terme. L’impact est ambigu dans l’espace et le temps. Enfin nous avons choisi de mener une étude complémentaire, à caractère micro-économique, et qui se focalise sur la migration de retour au pays du Maghreb et en particulier en Tunisie. Elle explique comment le migrant de retour contribue au développement de son pays d’origine à travers le canal investissement. Les résultats attestent un biais régional en défaveur de la région du Sud tunisien. / The present research proposes an attempt at explicitly analyzing the interrelationship between the economic effects of international migration and development in origin countries. By relying on bilateral data of a group of 27 countries selected according to very specific criteria, we start by studying the link between international migration and foreign trade, and show a complementary relationship between trade and migration. Then, we investigate the impact of migration through other transmission channels, such as human capital and investment, in order to trace the impact of migrants' remittances on economic growth of origin countries in the medium and long term. The impact is found ambiguous in space and time. Finally, we perform an additional study, at micro-economic level, which focuses on return migration to the Maghreb countries, with a particular attention to Tunisia. It aims at explaining how return migrants might contribute to the development of origin countries through the investment channel. The results show a regional bias to the detriment of the region of southern of Tunisia.

The present thesis deals with the influence of human resources for the development potential of selected villages situated in the area of inner periphery of the Vysocina Region. Within the scope of polarized geographical space areas with varying degrees of stability and potential for development can be identified, where endogenous development opportunities can be considered as crucial factors- in particular the level of human resources. The present thesis monitors the quality of human and social capital on the example of three villages, using the combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods. The capitalization rate and utilization of human resources is evaluated mainly in terms of involvement of local partakers/participants, their levels of cooperation and participation of the population in public life. The aim is to find out how human resources in the surveyed municipalities affect their development in the future.