Jiangsu and Zhejiang are of two of China most prosperous and dynamic provinces. This paper first presents a factual account of two empirical phenomena: 1) FDI has played a more substantial role in the economic development of Jiangsu than in Zhejiang, and 2) ownership biases against domestic private firms in Jiangsu were more substantial than in Zhejiang. The paper hypothesizes that there is a connection between these two empirical phenomena. Specifically, ownership biases against domestic private firms increase preferences for FDI because FDI provides a measure of relative property rights security. Thus a biased domestic private firm has an incentive to move its assets and/or future growth opportunities to the foreign sector. The paper uses two private-sector surveys - one conducted in 1993 and the other in 2002 - to provide an empirical test of this hypothesis. Our analysis shows, controlling for a variety of firm-level attributes and industry and regional characteristics, those private firms which perceive ownership biases to be more severe are more likely to form joint ventures with foreign firms.

This dissertation is an extension of Leland and Pyle's (1977) signaling model. It introduces the length of the retention period to which the entrepreneur commits in the prospectus as a signal of firm value, in addition to the retention level. The analysis uses concepts of game theory to examine a two-period model where an entrepreneur seeks to issue shares on the market and invest in a productive project that generates outcomes which are publicly announced at the end of the next two periods. The entrepreneur can retain some of her firm's shares and trade them later on the secondary market, after information has been released about the outcomes. The length of the retention period is found to be a signaling mechanism that complements ownership retention. Depending on the information structure of the firm, a longer retention period may reduce or increase the retention level necessary for separation. The model also shows that there are realistic situations in which entrepreneurs prefer to retain a portion of their firm's shares for longer than the minimum retention period imposed by regulations, and others in which she prefers the shortest period possible. The optimal combination of under-diversification and commitment is shown to depend on the information structure and the probability distribution of outcomes of the firm. The empirical implications of the model are tested on the set of firms that made an initial public offering in 1981. Although the results of the tests are generally consistent with the predictions of the model, they are not strong enough to reject the null hypotheses. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

This paper attempts to determine whether changes have occurred in Canadians' preference for housing. To this end, it has been proposed to test the thesis that Canadians' taste for housing, as represented by the portion of income devoted to it, is in decline. Most of the literature on the subject deals with the housing expenditure-income relationship as it applies to the United States; much of this in turn describes the relationship in terms of elasticities. Although data with respect to the Canadian situation is largely restricted to one segment of the new housing .market, it has been deemed proper to begin to describe the Canadian housing-income relationship. Data concerning buyers of individually financed dwellings for owner occupancy under the National Housing Act were used to make intertemporal comparisons during the postwar period of several financial variables. The comparisons of variables were modified by means of a comparison of the incomes of families borrowing under the NHA and other non-farm Canadian families in similar circumstances in terms of size of family, age of head of family, tenure, and size of town of residence. The results of the analysis indicate that for NHA buyers, the ratio of house price to income has declined in value. A similar trend is evident from Statistics Canada data for all Canadian families. For NHA buyers the decline in the ratio of house price to income has been the result of a continuous decline in the percentage of income paid down on the dwelling and a recent decline in the ratio of mortgage amount to income. The decline in the ratio of mortgage amount to income is seen as an adjustment to higher interest rates, but the steady decline in the initial commitment is seen as evidence of a decline in preference for housing. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

This research sought to ascertain how newspaper ownership structures influence the quality of local political news coverage. More specifically, do independently owned newspapers tend to produce larger quantities of quality local political reporting than do corporately owned and publicly traded newspapers? In the thesis, I develop an understanding of "quality" news coverage as being coverage that is thematic, or providing interpretive analysis and supplying contextual information. Additionally, I tackle the question of quality news coverage from three angles: whether or not independently owned newspapers provide more quality local political news stories per edition than corporately owned papers; whether or not the percentage of quality local political news stories of total political news stories within an edition is higher for independently owned or corporately owned newspapers; and whether or not the percentage of total political news stories of total news stories is higher for independently owned or corporately owned newspapers.

While research has shown that persistence is an important predictor of entrepreneurial success, evidence also indicates that entrepreneurial persistence can lead to disastrous consequences. Therefore, it is crucial to manage entrepreneurial persistence to limit an entrepreneur’s exposure to failure and improve their likelihood of success. However, our current understanding of why entrepreneurs persist is fragmented, as the determinants of persistence have yet to be integrated in a meaningful way. As a result, our current understanding of entrepreneurial persistence lacks the clarity required to manage entrepreneurial persistence effectively. I propose that psychological ownership is a key variable that facilitates the integration of the four (psychological, project, social and structural) determinants of entrepreneurial persistence. I assert that psychological ownership can provide a psychological explanation for entrepreneurial persistence by positing that entrepreneurs persist in order to address the impairment of their self-concept that results from their venture’s failure. I then establish that psychological ownership can provide a link to project determinants by noting that psychological ownership enhances the expected utility of the course of action, which increases the likelihood of entrepreneurial persistence. Following, I articulate that collective psychological ownership can provide a social explanation for entrepreneurial persistence by arguing that a team of entrepreneurs persist to address the collective impairment of their identity that stems from receiving negative feedback. Finally, I demonstrate that psychological ownership can provide a link to structural determinants by noting that psychological ownership motivates entrepreneurs to increase their commitment to their venture following negative feedback in order to prevent investors from gaining control of their ventures. In order to test my hypotheses, I modified and extended Staw’s (1976) seminal research design on escalation of commitment to fit the entrepreneurial context and conducted mediated moderation tests on data collected from 229 entrepreneurs. The results of this study show that psychological ownership is positively related to commitment when controlling for the performance of the venture. Thus, the results indicate that psychological ownership predicts entrepreneurial persistence. In addition, the results suggest that there is tentative support for the notion that psychological ownership can link the four determinants of entrepreneurial persistence and provide a holistic explanation for why entrepreneurs persist. I conclude by highlighting the importance of psychological ownership in managing entrepreneurial persistence. I note that psychological ownership can be a useful criterion for investors to identify which entrepreneurs are likely to persist and go the extra mile to advance their entrepreneurial projects. In addition, I note that an effective measure to mitigate entrepreneurial persistence, when it is time to pull the plug on an entrepreneurial project, is to reduce an entrepreneur’s psychological ownership for their ideas or ventures. / Graduate

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published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Flat ownership The theme of this thesis is flat ownership. The author has chosen this theme because it is very current and from the legal point of view also very interesting issue, which affects the major part of the population of the Czech Republic. The main objective of this work is to analyze the Institute's flat ownership in terms of the Flat Ownership Act. Furthermore, to highlight some problematic points in the regulation of housing ownership, to comment and suggest possible solutions with regard to case law and opinions of authors specializing in issues of housing ownership. This work consists of eight chapters. The first chapter deals with basic theoretical concepts of flat property, important for understanding the specific nature of the Institute's flat property. Such basics also may serve as a guide for policymakers in the design of legislation on housing. Then continues the second chapter, which talks about the concept of law based on flat ownership, its applicability and relationship to the Civil Code and other regulations. The third chapter focuses on the definition of specific terms related to the issue of flat property, such as: building, section, house, unit, flat, flat under construction, floor area of a flat, common space in building and land. The following fourth chapter is...

Presented diploma thesis discusses private law treatment of transfer and property ownership. The thesis is divided into several chapters corresponding to the legal issues of property ownership and transfer with a special focus on apartments and commercial space. Legal standards related to real estate are very numerous and extensive. Therefore I chose only legal aspects that are relevant to the theme of the thesis. In the introduction I characterize the most important legal concepts of real estate law, using the case law of The Supreme Court in the Czech Republic such as ownership rights, real estate, land, building, residential and commercial space, law accessories, and other things. The second part of my diploma thesis is composed of topics concerning the institute of property ownership, creation and content of the ownership rights with a special focus on residential and commercial premises including the issue of flats in housing co-operatives. The third part of this thesis is dedicated to the transfer of the real estates based on purchase and donation contract. The following chapter I deal with the ownership transfer of residential and commercial premises as units in the house. I focus particularly on the attributes of transfer contracts at the consequences of these transfers to the property...

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