The paper explores theoretical shortcomings in the egalitarian theory by John Rawls and provides a complementary view on the problem of morally arbitrary contingencies. The conception of natural lottery, which Rawls presents to signify the starting range of morally arbitrary inequalities, falls short in philosophical grounding. According to critics, the notion of natural lottery appeals to the philosophical conception of moral luck which undermines ascription of moral responsibility. Since moral responsibility is a basic prerequisite for egalitarian justice, the appeal to morally arbitrary contingencies of the natural lottery may be self-defeating for the theory. Criticizing Rawls’s approach to morally arbitrary contingencies Susan Hurley investigates philosophical groundings for judgment of moral responsibility. Philosophical inquiries into moral luck differentiate four categories of luck and expose the difficulties of ascription of moral responsibility for it. The conception of moral luck implies epistemological shortcomings in the rational judgment of moral responsibility. Hurley claims that ascription of moral responsibility requires another logical strategy. The critical discussion by Norman Daniels refers to another egalitarian theory by Ronald Dworkin which suggests ascription of moral responsibility on a gradual scale. The theory divides the naturally contingent recourses into categories of brute luck and option luck. This strategy stratifies normative standards of responsibility by the criteria of individual choice and circumstances. Considering the strategy of gradual ascription of responsibility, I suggest to apply a moral developmental perspective as an additional outlook on the moral responsibility in egalitarian theory. The theory of moral development by Lawrence Kohlberg provides an explanation of a gradual development of moral responsibility through a natural order of developmental stages. It stratifies the moral responsibility into a hierarchical model of measurement and systematizes the order of normative standards.

Submitted by Erika Demachki (erikademachki@gmail.com) on 2014-11-13T19:09:39Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Mateus Almeida de Freitas - 2013.pdf: 3394699 bytes, checksum: 961ba2541fd6132e82af00735f2bdb98 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Erika Demachki (erikademachki@gmail.com) on 2014-11-13T19:12:45Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Mateus Almeida de Freitas - 2013.pdf: 3394699 bytes, checksum: 961ba2541fd6132e82af00735f2bdb98 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-11-13T19:12:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Mateus Almeida de Freitas - 2013.pdf: 3394699 bytes, checksum: 961ba2541fd6132e82af00735f2bdb98 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-10-01 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Historical Aspects of Theoretical and Lotteries begins with the historical context of gambling; shows examples of such games, such as launching a data or existing machines in casinos, brings Article 50 of Law 3688 of October 3, 1941 (which de nes what is considered gambling), shows curious facts involving games such as the construction of the GreatWall of China, starting around 221 BC, and was partly funded by lottery, said the beginning of the lotteries in Brasil, which occurs during the colonial period, more precisely in Minas Gerais. The paper also presents the evolution of the lotteries, 1784 until our present day and is two games o ered by lotteries Brazilian telling some stories. This work has a mathematical approach , with applications aimed at adds universe of lotteries, in particular two products o ered by the lotteries box: Mega-Sena and Quina. Two methods for generating random numbers present some applications to generate random sequences in simulation betting results. / Aspectos Históricos e Teóricos das Loterias inicia-se com o contexto histórico sobre jogos de azar; mostra exemplos de tais jogos, como o lançamento de um dado ou máquinas existentes em cassinos, traz o artigo 50 da lei 3.688 de 03 de outubro de 1941 (que de ne o que é considerado jogo de azar), mostra fatos curiosos envolvendo jogos, como a construção da Grande Muralha da China, iniciada por volta de 221 a.C., e que foi em parte nanciada por uma loteria; comenta o início das loterias no Brasil, que ocorre no período colonial, mais precisamente em Minas Gerais. O trabalho apresenta também a evolução das loterias, de 1784 até nossos dias atuais e trata de dois jogos oferecidos pelas loterias brasileiras contando um pouco de suas histórias. O presente trabalho tem um enfoque matemático, com aplicações de probabilidades voltadas ao universo das loterias federais, em especial de dois produtos ofertados pelas Loterias Caixa: a Mega-Sena e a Quina. Utilizando dois métodos de geração de números aleatórios apresentaremos algumas aplicações de geração de sequências aleatórias na simulação de resultados de apostas.

Goal and content of this thesis is market value determination of KIMEX GROUP corporation to the date of 1.1.2008 based on public available documentation and management consultation.

Gifted adolescents who experienced a randomized lottery process to continue attending their school are the focus of this study. For more than 10 years, sixth-grade students at a Northern California school for gifted students have participated in a lottery process to continue attending their school for seventh and eighth grades. This study describes the reflections of nine lottery participants, and the social and emotional effects that a school lottery has on adolescents. The student perspectives were gained through in-person interviews and participants’ written impressions. Stress and anxiety were commonly endured by all participants. The study explores other effects such as reliance on support networks consisting of friends, families and teachers for social and emotional well-being.

In this paper we examine the Swedish Social Democratic Party within the context of representation. Party membership, voter engagement and citizen influence over politics are all trending downwards in Sweden. At the same time, the interest in politics among citizens is peaking and voter turnout remains strong. This sparks a question regarding how the Social Democratic Party may have changed itself because of this development. The one specific question that we’ve decided to focus on in this paper is if the party manages to sustain sufficient inter-party democracy towards its own members. By applying opinion-based representation as understood in Hanna Pitkin’s book “The Concept of Representation” we will examine this by the usage of three critical case studies that have brought this idea into question. The first case deals with the financing of the party and focuses on the role of lotteries as a means of party finance. The second case deals with the party's process and subsequent decision to join NATO. The third case deals with a party election in a Stockholm suburb (Botkyrka) and the exclusion of party members. The cases were chosen because of their differences and their ability to encase different aspects of opinion-based representation. The analysis was done from a question-based instrument taken from the ideas of Pitkin and then applied to the actions of the party and its representatives. What we found was that the party systematically fails to fulfill Pitkin’s idea of representation in all three cases. We find this to be significant due to its implications for the development of democracy. A representational democracy without representation is not a fully functioning democracy.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between and among various demographic and test score data with American College Testing (ACT) scores in 281 Tennessee high schools. This study also addressed which high school characteristics were related to the number of students meeting the ACT requirement for Tennessee lottery scholarships. In addition, this study examined Tennessee Value Added Assessment System's (TVAAS) assessment of ACT scores and its distribution of grades to Tennessee's high schools based upon its Value-Added analysis. The researcher performed correlations and multivariable linear regressions using socioeconomic status, ethnicity, dropout rate, graduation rate, attendance, average daily membership, per-pupil expenditure, teacher salary, Gateway exams, English I scores, and math foundations scores as independent variables and ACT scores as the dependent variable. The strengths of the correlations were examined and the best combination of independent variables was used to predict future ACT scores. Schools were divided into quartiles, based upon average daily membership and attendance rates, in order to analyze the differences in r2 values among the quartiles when running regressions to predict ACT scores. Quartiles, based upon the percentage of students qualifying for free/reduced meals, ethnicity, and average daily membership were used to study the difference in TVAAS' grade distribution based upon its assessment of ACT scores. The findings indicated that English I and II scores are most strongly associated with ACT composite scores including the four ACT subtests: math, English, reading, and science. English scores were found to be more strongly associated with ACT math scores than Algebra I scores and more strongly associated with ACT science scores than biology scores. It was found that the 21 composite ACT score requirements of Tennessee's lottery scholarships predominantly favored Caucasian students who did not qualify for free/reduced-priced meals. It was also discovered that TVAAS' ACT grades were unevenly distributed when schools were divided into quartiles based upon the percentage of students qualifying for free/reduced-priced meals, ethnicity, and average daily membership. Only one school in the quartile containing the schools with the highest percentage of students qualifying for free/reduced-priced meals scored above the state's average gain in the reading section of the ACT test.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a significant relationship exists between particular home, student, and school characteristics and ACT scores and the relationship these characteristics subsequently have with the TVAAS grades assigned to each high school's ACT scores. These home, student, and school variables were socioeconomic status, percentage of minority, graduation rate, per-pupil expenditure, Gateway English II scores, and Gateway Algebra I scores. By looking at these variables and the influence they hold on the education of students, I sought to ascertain the fairness that is present when schools and districts are given grades through the TVAAS assessment. The population in this study was students in the Tennessee high schools that had given the Gateway English II test, Gateway Algebra I test, and had TVAAS ACT composite grades. I also examined the influence that variables such as socioeconomic status, percentage of minority students, graduation rate, and per-pupil expenditure have on achievement. Before doing the first phase of this project, I set about to see if assumptions of normality were met. I then analyzed data to establish that certain home, student, and school variables affect achievement. After doing that, I was able to show a strong relationship between these 6 home, student, and school variables and achievement. After establishing predictor variables, I examined the predictor variables and their relationship with the TVAAS ACT composite scores of Above, No Detectable Difference, and Below. These designations from the Tennessee Department of Education are "grades" for the schools and districts. The analyses indicated that, indeed, some of these home, student, and school variables such as socioeconomic status and percentage of minority students still have a relationship with the grades, despite the claim that TVAAS measures teacher effectiveness almost exclusively. This study concluded with recommendations that further modifications need to be done with the TVAAS grades on ACT composite scores. The conclusions in this dissertation merit consideration from Dr. William Sanders as well as the assessment division of the Tennessee Department of Education.

This dissertation consists of three chapters on the topic of differential games and resource economics. The first chapter extends the envelope theorem to the class of discounted infinite horizon differential games that posses locally differentiable Nash equilibria. The theorems cover both the open-loop and feedback information structures, and are applied to a simple analytically solvable linear-quadratic game. The results show that the conventional interpretation of the costate variable as the shadow value of the state variable along the equilibrium path is only valid for feedback Nash equilibria, but not for open-loop Nash equilibria. The specific linear-quadratic structure provides some extra insights on the theorem. For example, the costate variable is shown to uniformly overestimate the shadow value of the state variable in the open-loop case, but the growth rate of the costate variable are the same as the shadow value under open-loop and feedback information structures. Chapter two investigates the qualitative properties of symmetric open-loop Nash equilibria for a ubiquitous class of discounted infinite horizon differential games. The results show that the specific functional forms and the value of parameters used in the game are crucial in determining the local asymptotic stability of steady state, the steady state comparative statics, and the local comparative dynamics. Several sufficient conditions are provided to identify a local saddle point type of steady state. An important steady state policy implication from the model is that functional forms and parameter values are not only quantitatively important to differentiate policy tools, but they are also qualitatively important. Chapter three shifts the interests to the lottery mechanism for rationing public resources. It characterizes the optimal pricing strategies of lotteries for a welfare-maximization agency. The optimal prices are shown to be positive for a wide range of individual private value distributions, suggesting that the sub-optimal pricing may result in a significant efficiency loss and that the earlier studies under zero-pricing may need to be re-examined. In addition, I identify the revenue and welfare equivalency propositions across lottery institutions. Finally, the numerical simulations strongly support the findings.

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本文主要研究臺灣購買公益彩券長期之變化以及購買公益彩券家庭的特性，並探討各縣市購買公益彩券的概況。運用行政院主計總處2002年至2010年「臺灣地區家庭收支調查報告」的家庭所得及支出等資料，將購買公益彩券與所得之間做連結。首先，將全體家庭依可支配所得高低排序分組，發現購買公益彩券支出與可支配所得呈現正相關，然而從長期的角度觀察，各組購買公益彩券支出有逐年下降的趨勢；其次，以每戶家庭每一成年人平均購買公益彩券支出為排序分組，發現購買公益彩券支出愈多的家庭，其戶長以男性為主、年紀較輕、教育程度較高，且以從事第三級產業的比率較高；綜觀長期資料，戶長年齡及教育程度呈現逐年增加的趨勢，而戶長為女性的比率有逐漸攀升的情形。 觀察各組購買公益彩券家庭成員特性，以男性所占比率較高，但長期來看，各組女性比率有逐年上升的趨勢；就年齡而言，在2002年至2007年呈現的情況是購買公益彩券支出與年齡呈現反向關係，而在2008年至2010年則是呈現U字型關係。此外，在觀察各縣市購買公益彩券之概況時，發現可支配所得是影響購買公益彩券的重要因素之一。 / This study uses “Report on the Survey of Family Income and Expenditure in Taiwan Area of Republic of China” to explore the changes of lottery-buying in Taiwan for long run, and the characteristics of lottery-buying households in Taiwan. The results show as following： First of all, the expenditure of the lottery correlates positively with the income of the whole family, and the lottery-buying expenditure have the decayed trend. Secondly, the lottery-buying families which have higher lottery-buying expenditure show the characteristics of lower average age, higher education level, and male householder. In long term, it shows the features of higher average age, higher education level, and higher percentage of female householder. Thirdly, this study observes the features of lottery-buying family members, the results show a higher percentage of men, but in the long run, the ratio of women is an increasing trend. In terms of age, the expenditures of purchasing lottery go higher, but the average age go down in 2002-2007, while in 2008-2010 it’s a U-shaped relationship. In addition, exploring the lottery-buying Cities and Counties in Taiwan, this study finds that income is one of the important factors to affect purchasing lottery.