This paper investigates the determinants of mutual fund portfolio manager ownership and its association with fund performance. Using hand-collected data of 1,420 U.S. equity funds from 32 fund families, we find that variations in fund manager holdings are broadly consistent with optimal contracting theory instead of the result of managers' personal investment consideration. Portfolio manager ownership is positively and significantly correlated with variables that proxy for intensity of agency conflicts. Specifically, portfolio managers hold more mutual fund shares when the size of concurrently managed hedge fund increases and when the advisor is affiliated to the bank. In addition, fund managers invest more in funds with primary investment in growth stock, non-index funds, and solo-managed funds. Regarding to the alternative governance mechanism, higher threat of dismissal for outsourced funds, stronger monitoring from institutional investors, and long-term performance based bonus work as substitutes of fund manager ownership while director ownership works as a compliment. Finally, we find little evidence supporting the notion that funds with higher portfolio manager ownership perform better.

In early 2000s, a small village in the Southern part of India – Plachimada, gained global attention for its willingness to take on a global multinational – the Coca Cola. The Coca- Cola soft drink manufacturing plant extracted millions of gallons of water every day – depleting the groundwater resources of the entire village. This prolonged extraction left decade old wells dry and its water unsuitable for drinking. Faced with this challenge, the villagers launched a marathon struggle demanding that the company be shut down. After years of protests and the global attention that it gathered, the company was forced to finally shut down its plant. However, the damage was already done – the groundwater sources had depleted almost beyond any repair. In the background of this incident, this thesis looks at the legal framework concerning groundwater in India – which at present conceptualizes it to be purely private property. It needs to be remembered that Plachimada is no stand alone story: indeed it has the capacity to reproduce itself elsewhere and evidence is accumulating to show that smaller versions of the story are already in the making. Groundwater sources in India are fast depleting and projections indicate that it might exhaust within less than two decades in some parts of the country. In a country with large inequities of access, power, capacity and capability, such a phenomenon can leave the less empowered and the poor denied access to groundwater. At once we may fall for the rhetoric of state ownership and management of groundwater. However, past experience, particularly from surface water management has shown us that equity, access or decisions that serve the interests of the weak are not always made – the State has its agenda of creating, reinforcing and recreating its power and control over natural resources. This thesis, hence, argues that groundwater needs to be reconceptualised as belonging to the community and is to be managed by the community. The paper explores the legal options available before us at present to make such a formulation and further argues for a more constructive and engaging role for the Panchayat system, the constitutional envisagement for decentralization of governance, in the ownership and management of groundwater.

Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in the Department of Social Work at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2002. / This study investigated the strengths and weaknesses of the rural women's agricultural productivity and problems facing the farming women in the Nkonjeni area. It looked at the issues like deprivation of land ownership for the rural women, lack of appropriate education, not having access to working capital and an overload of household chores as the contributory factors to poor agricultural production of women in rural areas. The study considered the possibility of empowering rural women through capacity building as the method of improving their production of agricultural crops. The characteristics that were investigated were the socio-cultural factors, economic, educational and infrustructural factors mat would influence their empowerment process. The study engaged a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. Various sources of data like books and journals were used. Also a number of methods of collecting data were utilized to find the information from the selected sample of the farming population. The study was conducted among the farming women of Nkonjeni area in Mahlabathini district. The findings revealed that their illiterate position poses a threat in their empowerment and the overload is really crippling their efforts towards their development. It also revealed that the gender discrimination towards rural women is still a problem though the government has repealed laws that are depriving women of equal opportunities. It was also found that the lawlessness of the community members contributed enormously on their farming problems because unattended livestock that is owned by their neighbours destroys their produce. Recommendations that emanated from the study focussed on the empowerment of women through the change of attitude towards development. The people need to be supported as individuals to give the sense of pride towards the project they are concerned with. Women need to be helped in solving their education problems in their own neighbourhood to avoid exposing them to dangers of travelling long distances at night. Development programmes should focus on taking women on board as active participants in their own development not the silent recipients.

v anglickém jazyce Legal and Historical Background of Shortcomings and Problems of State Property Privatization after 1989 The Doctoral Thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of the legal - historical background of the shortcomings and problems of the process of privatization of state property after 1989 in the Czechoslovak (Czech) Republic in relation to each of the fundamental privatization methods - i.e. small privatization, large privatization (inl. coupon privatization) and restitution. The Doctoral Thesis introduces the historical context of the adoption of relevant legal norms, then provides a detailed legal analysis of their shortcomings and focuses on problems induced by their application. With regards to the identified shortcomings and problems, the Doctoral Thesis analyzes the forms of their mitigation; i.e. addresses the not only the amendments of the respective privatization legal acts, but also the decisions of the general courts as well as the Constitutional court which contributed to their righteous interpretation. Despite the fact that from the time perspective, the first half of 90- s is the decisive period for the Doctoral Thesis, one can identify several overlaps until the present time given by the inconclusive character of several privatization processes. The remarkable...

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Somatoparaphrenia (SP) is a disorder where patients deny ownership of their limb and display delusional ideas regarding it. In a review by Vallar and Ronchi (2009), they systematically reviewed the SP literature, and made several conclusions regarding the neural correlates of SP. The current review wanted to investigate whether the brain areas Vallar and Ronchi (2009) associated with SP were still supported today. This was done by systematically reviewing the literature containing lesion data on SP, and then comparing it (with the context of body ownership research) to the findings from Vallar and Ronchi (2009). The results showed extensive damage in the fronto-temporo-parietal regions (most notably the inferior parietal regions) and the underlying white matter. Considerable damage could also be seen at the subcortical level (especially in the insula and basal ganglia), together with extensive white matter damage, mostly in and around the internal capsule. Majority of the lesions were right hemisphere based. These results showed high correspondence with the findings from Vallar and Ronchi (2009). Same could be said when considering body ownership research, because the insula and the inferior parietal region are two areas that have been associated with our sense of body ownership. Although these results had some limitations, they overall contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms behind both SP and body ownership. Future reviews on SP could try to distinguish between the mechanisms behind the delusional aspect of SP.

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