The dynamics around managing urban infrastructure are changing dramatically. Today’s infrastructure management challenges – in the wake of shrinking coffers and stricter stakeholders’ requirements – include finding better condition assessment tools and prediction models, and effective and intelligent use of hard-earn data to ensure the sustainability of urban infrastructure systems. Wastewater collection networks – an important and critical component of urban infrastructure – have been neglected, and as a result, municipalities in North America and other parts of the world have accrued significant liabilities and infrastructure deficits. To reduce cost of ownership, to cope with heighten accountability, and to provide reliable and sustainable service, these systems need to be managed in an effective and intelligent manner. The overall objective of this research is to present a new strategic management framework and related tools to support multi-perspective maintenance, rehabilitation and replacement (M, R&R) planning for wastewater collection networks. The principal objectives of this research include: (1) Developing a comprehensive wastewater collection network asset database consisting of high quality condition assessment data to support the work presented in this thesis, as well as, the future research in this area. (2) Proposing a framework and related system to aggregate heterogeneous data from municipal wastewater collection networks to develop better understanding of their historical and future performance. (3) Developing statistical models to understand the deterioration of wastewater pipelines. (4) To investigate how strategic management principles and theories can be applied to effectively manage wastewater collection networks, and propose a new management framework and related system. (5) Demonstrating the application of strategic management framework and economic principles along with the proposed deterioration model to develop long-term financial sustainability plans for wastewater collection networks. A relational database application, WatBAMS (Waterloo Buried Asset Management System), consisting of high quality data from the City of Niagara Falls wastewater collection system is developed. The wastewater pipelines’ inspections were completed using a relatively new Side Scanner and Evaluation Technology camera that has advantages over the traditional Closed Circuit Television cameras. Appropriate quality assurance and quality control procedures were developed and adopted to capture, store and analyze the condition assessment data. To aggregate heterogeneous data from municipal wastewater collection systems, a data integration framework based on data warehousing approach is proposed. A prototype application, BAMS (Buried Asset Management System), based on XML technologies and specifications shows implementation of the proposed framework. Using wastewater pipelines condition assessment data from the City of Niagara Falls wastewater collection network, the limitations of ordinary and binary logistic regression methodologies for deterioration modeling of wastewater pipelines are demonstrated. Two new empirical models based on ordinal regression modeling technique are proposed. A new multi-perspective – that is, operational/technical, social/political, regulatory, and finance – strategic management framework based on modified balanced-scorecard model is developed. The proposed framework is based on the findings of the first Canadian National Asset Management workshop held in Hamilton, Ontario in 2007. The application of balanced-scorecard model along with additional management tools, such as strategy maps, dashboard reports and business intelligence applications, is presented using data from the City of Niagara Falls. Using economic principles and example management scenarios, application of Monte Carlo simulation technique along with the proposed deterioration model is presented to forecast financial requirements for long-term M, R&R plans for wastewater collection networks. A myriad of asset management systems and frameworks were found for transportation infrastructure. However, to date few efforts have been concentrated on understanding the performance behaviour of wastewater collection systems, and developing effective and intelligent M, R&R strategies. Incomplete inventories, and scarcity and poor quality of existing datasets on wastewater collection systems were found to be critical and limiting issues in conducting research in this field. It was found that the existing deterioration models either violated model assumptions or assumptions could not be verified due to limited and questionable quality data. The degradation of Reinforced Concrete pipes was found to be affected by age, whereas, for Vitrified Clay pipes, the degradation was not age dependent. The results of financial simulation model show that the City of Niagara Falls can save millions of dollars, in the long-term, by following a pro-active M, R&R strategy. The work presented in this thesis provides an insight into how an effective and intelligent management system can be developed for wastewater collection networks. The proposed framework and related system will lead to the sustainability of wastewater collection networks and assist municipal public works departments to proactively manage their wastewater collection networks.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:54:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2002-09-16T00:00:00Z / The objective of this paper is to analyze the recent process of mergers and acquisitions in the brazilian economy, regarding their impacts on market concentration. Here, the correlations between the nature of the operation and some economic variables related to the firms are sought. From data of the judge reports of the Brazilian Competition Authority (CADE) about the concentration acts and the economic reports of the Economic Secretary on Competition of the Treasure Ministry (SEAE) about that cases, an econometric research is performed, using the logit model. The assumption is that operations with horizontal nature have greater impacts on market concentration than that with vertical and/or conglomeration nature. The outcome shows that the denationalization and operations in some sectors increase the concentration, whereas in global operations this effect is smaller. / O objetivo deste artigo é analisar o recente processo de fusões e a aquisições na economia brasileira, no tocante aos seus impactos sobre a concentração. Busca-se verificar correlações entre a natureza da operação e algumas variáveis econômicas referentes às empresas envolvidas. Através de dados dos relatórios de julgamento dos atos de concentração do Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica (CADE) e dos pareceres econômicos formulados pela Secretaria de Acompanhamento Econômico do Ministério da Fazenda (SEAE), realiza-se um estudo econométrico através do modelo logit. A suposição é de que operações de natureza horizontal possuem efeitos prejudiciais maiores sobre a concentração de mercado do que as de natureza vertical e/ou conglomerado. O resultado obtido mostra que a desnacionalização de empresas e as operações ocorridas em alguns setores aumentam a concentração, enquanto que nas operações de abrangência mundial este efeito é menor.

Land is a major factor in agricultural production, so agricultural land allocated to smallholder farmers through Land Reform Program or by traditional leader need to be actively utilised for enhancement of agricultural business. The study assessed land utilisation by small and emerging farmers in the Greater Tzaneen Municipality. Data was collected from 86 farms and analysed using SPSS Version 23. The results indicate that 74% of the farmers fully utilised their farm lands. Results of Logit model revealed that, the amount received from leasing, value adding to products, annual farm income and savings had positive significant impact on the area of cultivation, while skills pertaining to farming activities and the proportion of farm inputs purchased with the farmer’s own money had negative impact. The significant variables should be considered to influence full farmland utilisation by small and emerging farmers in the study area; farmers need production inputs, affordable loans and other forms of funding to improve farmland utilisation / Agriculture, Animal Health and Human Ecology / M. Sc. (Agriculture)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:06:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2049.pdf: 560086 bytes, checksum: 32b955d6a93e81457f49b0418b1e9514 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-06-06 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / A summary of the state of the art relative to regression models for binary response variable and panel data is presented in this work. Those models may include efects from several sources: specific variables of interest, heterogeneity between individuals and lagged values of the response variable. The original contributions of the author are simulation studies to compare two diferent approaches to maximum likelihood estimation of parameters of dynamic models with all three kinds of efects, and also a study of properties of such estimators in group sequential analysis, using the bootstrap methodology. Original codes were developed in R for implementation of simulation studies. The relevance of the subject and the non availability of appropriate codes in commercial software for fitting dynamic models for binary response justify the choice of the theme. / Neste trabalho é apresentado inicialmente um levantamento da literatura referente a modelos de regressão não lineares quando a variável resposta é binária e as observações são um painel de dados. Tais modelos podem incluir efeitos de várias fontes: variáveis específicas de interesse, heterogeneidade não observável dos indivíduos e valores defasados da variável resposta. A parte original do trabalho consiste nos estudos por simulação usando programação criada para esse fim no software R, visando comparar duas propostas recentes da literatura para ajustar, por máxima verossimilhança condicional, modelos dinâmicos que incluem os três tipos de efeitos mencionados. Também é original o estudo empírico, usando a metodologia de reamostragem \bootstrap", de características da distribuição conjunta dos estimadores dos parâmetros em análises intermediárias dos dados. A justificativa do trabalho é a atualidade do tema e a inexistência de programas de ajuste de modelos dinâmicos de resposta binária na maioria dos softwares comerciais.

nÃo hà / Este estudo buscou demonstrar o comportamento do nÃvel de acidente de trabalho na construÃÃo civil, para o ano de 2011, para os Estados da RegiÃo Nordeste. Depois de rÃpida exposiÃÃo acerca dos aspectos histÃricos e legislaÃÃo brasileira sobre o acidente de trabalho, foi estimado um modelo a partir dos dados da RAIS, divulgados pelo MinistÃrio do Trabalho e Emprego. Estudando o acidente de trabalho, em nÃmeros, verificou-se que as variÃveis sexo, idade, salÃrio, experiÃncia, escolaridade, raÃa e setor de atividade possuem relaÃÃo direta com o acidente de trabalho, sendo o tema de muita importÃncia, em decorrÃncia dos infortÃnios e, tambÃm, do curto despendido pelo Estado. / This study sought to demonstrate the behavior of the level of work-related accident in civil construction, for the year 2011, for the States of the Northeast Region. After a quick exposure about the historical aspects and Brazilian legislation on the work accident, was estimated a model from the RAIS data, published by the Ministry of Labor and Employment. Studying the work accident, in numbers, it was found that the variables sex, age, salary, experience, educational level, race and sector of activity have direct relation with the work accident, being the subject of so much importance, as a result of mishaps and, also, the short spent by State.

Submitted by Rosangela Silva (rosangela.silva3@unioeste.br) on 2018-05-21T12:45:52Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Samuel Lyncon Leandro de Lima.pdf: 1808970 bytes, checksum: b2b1050659f01e1b4764283ecaec7480 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-21T12:45:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Samuel Lyncon Leandro de Lima.pdf: 1808970 bytes, checksum: b2b1050659f01e1b4764283ecaec7480 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-04-06 / Voluntary disclosure of financial information consists of a theme with a fundamental role in Accounting, and in this sense, many authors have discussed for some decades, mainly with the studies of Verrecchia (1983) and Dye (1985). Among the aspects worked on the issue of voluntary disclosure is the reduction of informational asymmetry. From this perspective, considering the importance of maximizing transparency, arising from the practice of voluntary disclosure, sought to perform analyzes with eight logit regression models, based on Brazilians non-financial companies listed on the Brazil Bolsa Balcão S.A., in 2016. The research differential was to distinguish the respective dependent variables with the aid of a quality metric for the comparison amongst published information of the companies in question. We have Murcia’s study (2009) as a reference to establish which variables, in principle, more explain the willingness of companies to publish voluntarily information. Therefore, we tried to answer the following research question: "What is the probability of the explanatory variables selected influence the practices of voluntary disclosure in Brazilian non-financial companies listed on the Brazil Bolsa Balcão S.A, in 2016?”. Thereby, we have carried out the analysis of the data in two stages. The first one consisted of an in-depth survey on the content of the publications carried out by the sample companies, aiming to qualify, comparatively, the information evidenced by the companies, under the parameter of a metric constructed contemplating the quality of the information. This first stage of the analysis was performed in addition to identifying the level of voluntary disclosure of companies, by segment of activity and economic sector for the construction of dependent variables. Therefore, in the second stage of the data analysis, we worked with the logit regression models proposed in the research, with the objective of estimating the probability of practicing the voluntary disclosure of financial information. As the main results, when verified the data presented by the estimated regression models, it was found that the coefficients associated with corporate governance and audit have a positive influence expressive on a probability of disclosure of information, so coefficients of the first variable were statistically significant in the integral of the estimated models. In addition, regarding the results presented by the coefficients associated with the explanatory variables related to the economic and financial performance of the companies, none presented statistical significance. Finally, although the theme of voluntary disclosure has been, extensively, discussed in the literature, it still has gaps to be explored that would contribute to the advancement of these discussions. / A divulgação voluntária de informações financeiras consiste em uma temática com papel fundamental na Contabilidade, e nesse sentido, vem sendo discutida há algumas décadas, principalmente com os estudos dos autores Verrecchia (1983) e Dye (1985). Dentre os aspectos trabalhados na questão da divulgação voluntária de informações financeiras está a redução da assimetria informacional. Nessa perspectiva, considerando-se a importância pela maximização da transparência, decorrente da prática de evidenciação de informações financeiras voluntária, buscou-se empreender análises com oito modelos de regressão logit, com base nas companhias brasileiras não financeiras de capital aberto, listadas na Brasil Bolsa Balcão, no exercício de 2016. O diferencial de pesquisa, aqui proposto, foi distinguir as respectivas variáveis dependentes, com o auxílio de uma métrica de qualidade para a comparação entre a publicação de informações das companhias em questão. O estudo de Murcia (2009) foi utilizado como referência para se estabelecer quais as variáveis, que em princípio, mais explicam a disposição das empresas a publicarem informações voluntárias. Diante disso, buscou-se responder à seguinte questão de pesquisa: “Qual a probabilidade das variáveis explicativas selecionadas influenciarem as práticas de disclosure voluntário de informações financeiras das companhias brasileiras não financeiras de capital aberto listadas na Brasil Bolsa Balcão no ano de 2016?”. Assim sendo, a análise dos dados foi realizada em duas etapas, de modo que a primeira consistiu no levantamento em profundidade sobre o conteúdo das publicações realizadas pelas companhias da amostra, objetivando qualificar, comparativamente, as informações evidenciadas pelas empresas, sob o parâmetro de uma métrica construída contemplando a qualidade da informação. Essa primeira etapa da análise prestou-se para além de identificar o nível de divulgação voluntária das empresas, por segmento de atuação e setor econômico, também para construção das variáveis dependentes. Por conseguinte, na segunda etapa da análise dos dados, trabalhou-se com os modelos de regressão logit propostos na pesquisa, com o objetivo de estimar a probabilidade da prática do disclosure voluntário de informações financeiras. Como principais achados da pesquisa, quando verificado os resultados apresentados pelos modelos de regressão estimados, constatou-se que os coeficientes associados à governança corporativa e auditoria apresentaram uma significativa influência positiva sobre a probabilidade de divulgação das informações, sendo que os coeficientes da primeira variável foram estatisticamente significantes na integralidade dos modelos estimados. Ademais, quanto aos resultados apresentados pelos coeficientes associados às variáveis explicativas relacionadas ao desempenho econômico e financeiro das companhias, nenhum apresentou significância estatística. Por fim, embora a temática da divulgação voluntária seja extensivamente discutida na literatura, ainda possui lacunas a serem exploradas, que contribuiriam com o avanço dessas discussões.

L'objet de cette thèse est d'étudier les liens qui existent entre les déséquilibres macroéconomiques et les crises, et de voir dans quelles mesures leur prise en compte peut aider une meilleure gestion des crises dans les pays de la zone euro. Les différents chapitres de cette thèse tentent d'apporter des réponses à trois questions importantes : Quels sont les indicateurs macro-financiers qui pourraient aider à mieux anticiper les épisodes de stress budgétaire dans les pays de la zone euro ? Quelles seraient les conséquences de la mise en place d'un système de garantie des dépôts bancaires sur les variables macroéconomiques et sur le comportement des investisseurs, investisseurs qui tiendraient compte du risque de défaut souverain ? Dans quelle mesure une meilleure qualité des institutions, de la gouvernance pourrait-elle aider à améliorer la croissance de long terme d'une économie contrainte sur le marché international des capitaux ? En retenant une approche de court terme, les deux premiers chapitres montrent l'importance de la confiance des marchés dans l'analyse du lien entre déséquilibres macroéconomiques et crises. Dans le troisième chapitre, nous adoptons une perspective de plus long terme pour analyser les effets de cette confiance des marchés sur la dynamique de la croissance. Notre approche est à la fois théorique et empirique. L'approche théorique se base sur les modèles DSGE (modèles d'équilibre général stochastiques dynamiques et la modélisation d'une crise dans une petite économie ouverte. L'approche empirique se focalise sur les modèles Probit/Logit sur données de panel et sur un modèle d'alerte fondé sur des signaux avancés (early warning indicators). / This dissertation consists of three essays on how macro-financial imbalances precede crises and to what extent their consideration can help better management of crises in the Eurozone countries. The different chapters of this thesis, try to answer three important questions : What are the macro-financial imbalances that exposed the Euro area countries to fiscal stress before the outbreak of the debt crises in Europe? What are the impacts of sovereign default and deposit guarantee on macroeconomic variables and on the behavior of investors ? To what extent could better institutions/governance help to improve the long-term growth in a constrained economy on the international capital market ? Using a short-term approach, the first two chapters show the importance of market confidence in analysis of the link between macroeconomic imbalances and crises. In the third chapter, we adopt a long-term perspective to analyze the effects of this market confidence on the dynamics of growth. Our approach is both theoretical and empirical. The theoretical approach is based on the DSGE models (dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models) and the modeling of a crisis in a small open economy (SOE). The empirical approach focuses on Probit/Logit models for panel data and on Signal model based on early warning indicators.

L‟objectif de toute analyse économique sur l‟offre de travail, est en général, de mieux cerner les problématiques liées à l‟emploi permettant de décliner des politiques en direction du marché du travail. Cette thèse n‟échappe pas à cet objectif bien qu‟elle soit orientée vers les femmes. A partir des analyses développées dans cette thèse, nous avons apporté un nouvel éclairage sur les facteurs déterminants qui poussent ou empêchent la femme sénégalaise à intégrer le marché du travail. Les approches théoriques développées, nous ont conduit à considérer la nature des relations conjugales, les différentes perceptions du travail et des obligations familiales correspondants à différents types de comportements féminins d‟offre de travail. Le comportement d‟offre de travail de la femme sénégalaise est ainsi influencé par des caractéristiques individuelles telles que l‟âge, le niveau d‟éducation, et des caractéristiques familiales courantes telles que la présence d‟enfant(s) de moins de 5ans dans le ménage, la présence d‟un conjoint (statut matrimonial), le revenu du conjoint, la taille du ménage, le statut monétaire matérialisé par la pauvreté, le versement de transferts à des descendants ou ascendants.Par le biais de la modélisation logistique dichotomique et multinomiale, nous avons montré que le niveau d‟éducation est positivement corrélé à la participation des femmes sur le marché du travail et constitue de surcroît, un ticket d‟entrée dans le secteur public. Contrairement au statut matrimonial (être mariée), la présence d‟enfants de moins de 5 ans et le revenu du conjoint ne semblent pas être un obstacle à l‟intégration des femmes sur le marché du travail, mais cette présence d‟enfant semble orienter les sénégalaises vers le secteur informel au détriment des autres secteurs (public et privé formel). Ce qui est souvent motivé par les conditions de travail plus flexibles dans ce secteur permettant aux femmes de concilier activités économiques et obligations familiales. Par ailleurs, les femmes appartenant aux ménages pauvres semblent être plus disposer à offrir du travail que celles appartenant aux ménages non pauvres, mais elles ont moins de chances d‟être dans le secteur public, le secteur privé formel et dans une moindre mesure dans les ambassades et ONG que dans l‟informel par rapport à celles qui ne sont pas pauvres. / The objective of any economic analysis of the elabor supply is generally to better understand issues related to employment allowing formulating policies towards the labor market. This thesis is not an exception to this objective although it focuses exclusively on women. From the analysis of the present thesis, we have shed new light on the main factors driving or inhibiting the senegalese woman to enter the labor market. The theoretical approaches developed have led us to consider the nature of marital relationships, the different perceptions of work and family obligations corresponding to different types of female behavior of labor supply. Through a dicotomous and multinomial logit model, we have shown that the behavior of labor supply of senegalese women is influenced by individual characteristics such as the age and education level, and standard family characteristics such as the presence of under 5 years old child/children in the household, the presence of a spouce (marital status), the income of the spouse, the householf size, the monetary status indicated by the poverty, the remittances to descendants or ascendants.

The CEO and CFO are the two key executives of a firm. They work cohesively to ensure the growth of the firm. After the adoption of the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) in 2002, the importance of CFOs has increased due to their personal legal obligation in certifying the accuracy of financial statements. Only a few papers such as Mian (2001), Fee and Hadlock (2004), and Geiger and North (2006) focus on CFOs in the pre-SOX era. However, a vacuum exists in research focusing exclusively on CFOs in the post-SOX era. The purpose of this dissertation is to delve into a comprehensive investigation of the CFOs. More specifically, I answer three questions: a) does the CEO change lead to the CFO change? b) does the CFO appointment type affect the firm’s debt-equity choice? and c) does the CFO appointment affect the firm’s information environment? I use Shumway’s (2001) dynamic hazard model in answering question ‘a’. For question ‘b’, I use instrumental variable (IV) regression under various estimation techniques to control for endogeneity. For part ‘c’, I use the cross sectional difference-in-difference (DND) methodology by pairing treatment firms with control firms chosen by the propensity scores matching (PSM). I find there is about a 70% probability of CFO replacement after the CEO replacement. Both of their replacements are affected by prior year’s poor performance. In addition, as a custodian of the firm’s financial reporting, the CFO is replaced proactively due to a probability of restatement of earnings. I find firms with internal CFO hires issue more equity in the year of appointment than firms with external hires. The promoted CFO significantly improves the firm’s overall governance which helps the firm obtain external financing from equity issue. However, I find that CFO turnover does not significantly affect the firm’s information environment. To ensure that my finding is not due to mixing up of samples of good and distressed firms together, I separated distressed firms and re-ran my models and my finding still holds. This dissertation fills the gap in the literature with regards to CFOs and their post SOX relationship with the firm.

The goal of this study was to develop Multinomial Logit models for the mode choice behavior of immigrants, with key focuses on neighborhood effects and behavioral assimilation. The first aspect shows the relationship between social network ties and immigrants’ chosen mode of transportation, while the second aspect explores the gradual changes toward alternative mode usage with regard to immigrants’ migrating period in the United States (US). Mode choice models were developed for work, shopping, social, recreational, and other trip purposes to evaluate the impacts of various land use patterns, neighborhood typology, socioeconomic-demographic and immigrant related attributes on individuals’ travel behavior. Estimated coefficients of mode choice determinants were compared between each alternative mode (i.e., high-occupancy vehicle, public transit, and non-motorized transport) with single-occupant vehicles. The model results revealed the significant influence of neighborhood and land use variables on the usage of alternative modes among immigrants. Incorporating these indicators into the demand forecasting process will provide a better understanding of the diverse travel patterns for the unique composition of population groups in Florida.