A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, November 2015. / Globally, people are connected to multiple homes. This connection develops through ownership and place attachment. Second home tourism research explores the ownership and place attachment to multiple homes for the purpose of leisure. Whilst second home tourism research has been conducted extensively in the Global North, focusing mainly on leisure, the same cannot be said for the Global South. In South Africa, there is little research conducted on the local wealthy black population and the connection to ownership and place attachment to additional/second homes. The history of racial, socio-economic and spatial segregation in South Africa has facilitated the unique development of the connection to multiple homes for the black populations. Using the current second home tourism literature, together with the legislative history of South Africa, this research hopes to develop open and inclusive explanations of the second home phenomenon for the case of the influential black elite residents in South Africa. This dissertation explores the link that sixty-nine black elite residents of greater Johannesburg suburbs have with their additional homes that are located in Soweto and other regions in sub-Saharan Africa. To achieve this, a largely qualitative methodology set was implemented through the use of in-depth semi-structured interviews and thematic content analysis was utilised for the analysis. To conclude, the results of this dissertation dispute certain aspects of concepts used in current second home literature. It is also emphasized that it is important to rethink and re-conceptualize the international ideas of circulation, mobility and pluri-residentiality, when attempting to appropriately adapt these concepts South Africa.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 50% fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Management (in the field of Public Policy). February 2017 / The government of Zimbabwe embarked on a land redistribution programme at the turn of the twentieth century. The programme has been mired in controversy which has culminated in polarisation. The major objective of the land redistribution was to redress historical imbalances and to increase food security by increasing access to fertile and arable land to indigenous people. Due to lack of policy clarity and consensus, the programme has so far been a huge failure. This study sought to interrogate the policy implementation and how this had impacted on productivity on the A1 model of farming in Zimbabwe. Results showed that the programme was adversely affected by lack of political will and lack of policy clarity while it was clogged with political interference. The government had failed to provide sustainable funding to enhance productivity. This had led to despondency among civil servants and beneficiaries of the land reform programme. There is ineffective implementation of policy due to factors such as lack of experienced personnel and unavailability of funding. Polarisation has seen other key stakeholders shunning this programme. Under the prevailing socio-political environment, this programme is set to be an outright failure to enhance food security sustainability. The study unpacked valuable impediments which inevitably, were drivers of poor attainment of the objectives of model A1 farming in Zimbabwe. / MT 2017

The subject of dissertation thesis is description of selected issues of apartment ownership. The thesis analyses in detail the historical development of the institute in the world from antiquity to the modern legal regulations of the 21st century. Particular attention is paid to the historical development of apartment ownership in the territory of today's Czech Republic. In the next part, the author describes the legislative and theoretical concepts of apartment ownership used in various legal systems of Europe. In the light of these foreign legal regulations, author also evaluates the legal construction of apartment ownership introduced by the new Czech Civil Code. After defining apartment ownership and describing its basic features, the author focuses on a detailed analysis of one of the basic elements of this institute - its subject. In this part, the thesis deals mainly with the question how the new Civil Code has defined the unit, the flat and the common parts of the land and building. The author deals in detail with new possibilities in determining the size of co-ownership shares of unit owners on common parts of the land and building. As part of the analysis of the subject of apartment ownership, the author does not just describe existing legislation, but also compares it with the previous...

In the Czech Republic, the same way as it is in other democratic countries, the ownership right is recognized to be one of the fundamental human rights, and it is protected by legislation of a supreme legal force. Along with modern society development and for this reason it becomes more and more restricted. It is a long time ago, when the unlimited legal domain like theory of ownership rights in rem was forsaken. The restrictions are more numerous and intensive in case of land being subject to ownership rights. This results from many differences between land and other subjects of ownership. Limited and definitive land area, the fact that land is not relocatable as well as soil, being one of environmental elements, represent the most important ones. In one line with increasing amount of people on Earth and their increasing requirements on its usage, the land must fill constantly increasing needs for the welfare of increasing amount of people at the same time. The necessity of protection of environmental aspect of land and soil respectively, is still growing. For all those reasons, the restrictions and regulations on land ownership rights are to be put in place. When justified by public interest, the restrictions arise from public law legislation. Key words: land ownership, restriction, public interest

[pt] Pesquisas anteriores abordaram de forma satisfatória duas decisões relacionadas ao modo de entrada no mercado externo: a escolha do nível de propriedade (subsidiária de controle integral ou joint-venture) e a escolha da forma de estabelecimento (aquisição ou investimento greenfield). Entretanto, uma terceira importante decisão, que se refere à escolha da atividade principal da subsidiária, tem sido praticamente ignorada pela literatura acadêmica. Com base em extensa revisão bibliográfica, este estudo incorpora a escolha do tipo de atividade (produção ou distribuição) entre as decisões específicas a serem tomadas pelas empresas quando o modo de entrada envolve a utilização de capital próprio e propõe um modelo conceitual eclético, original na sua formulação, no seu escopo e na organização de suas variáveis, para produzir uma visão inédita e abrangente sobre a escolha do modo de entrada no mercado externo e seu impacto no desempenho das subsidiárias das empresas multinacionais brasileiras. A partir de uma amostra com 280 subsidiárias operacionais sediadas em 39 países, os resultados obtidos indicam a existência de uma relação positiva e significante entre o desempenho das subsidiárias e o alinhamento do modo de entrada (nível de propriedade, forma de estabelecimento e tipo de atividade) ao modelo eclético, sugerindo que as subsidiárias cujos modos de entrada estão alinhados ao modelo tendem a apresentar, na média, desempenho superior ao daquelas cujos modos de entrada não estão alinhados ao modelo. Resultados adicionais dos testes empíricos também contribuem para um melhor entendimento sobre a atuação das empresas multinacionais brasileiras na arena internacional. / [en] Previous research has satisfactorily addressed two decisions regarding the entry mode in foreign markets: the choice of ownership level (wholly-owned subsidiary or joint-venture) and the choice of establishment mode (acquisition or greenfield investment). However, a third important decision, which refers to the choice of the subsidiary’s main activity, has been virtually ignored by academic literature. Based on extensive literature review, this study incorporates the choice of activity type (production or distribution) into the specific decisions to be made by companies when the entry mode involves the use of equity and proposes an eclectic conceptual model, unique in its formulation, in its scope and in the organization of its variables, to produce a new and comprehensive view about the choice of entry mode in foreign markets and its impact on the performance of subsidiaries of Brazilian multinational enterprises. From a sample of 280 operating subsidiaries located in 39 countries, empirical results indicate the existence of a positive and significant relationship between subsidiaries performance and the alignment of the entry mode (ownership level, establishment mode and activity type) to the eclectic model, suggesting that subsidiaries whose entry modes are aligned with the model tend to outperform, on average, those whose entry modes are not aligned with the model. Additional results of the empirical tests also contribute to a better understanding of the operation of Brazilian multinational enterprises in the international arena.

The banking sector is central to the economy, but has recurrent dysfunctions. Following the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2009, regulators have attempted to reform governance in banks. However, previous empirical studies on the effects of governance structures have important gaps. Using an econometric framework with novel simultaneous equations models and new dependent variables, I investigate whether corporate governance and ownership have significant effects on bank risk and performance. I employ a novel data set combining financial data from the Bankscope database with governance and ownership data collected painstakingly by hand from annual reports and Basel Pillar 3 disclosures of UK banks over the period 2003-2012. My findings are supported by interpretation of relevant literature and are summarised as follows (stated along with policy implications in parentheses for which features of banking should be encouraged, based on normative assumptions stated in section 9.3). My work shows that the effects of a particular ownership or governance structure can be attributed to the ways in which categories of decision-maker within the bank are empowered by that structure, and that factors relating to information processing capability have important effects. Mutual and foreign ownership each have negative effects on risk and return because of managerial incentives and information asymmetries, respectively, without either affecting provision of investment to the wider economy. A foreign parent also increases the probability of bank failure (implying mutuality is socially beneficial while foreign ownership is not). A higher NED ratio reduces the probability of bank failure, as does having a remuneration committee, because of greater accounting for risk in decisions (implying they are desirable). The presence of an independent Chairman increases risk because it weakens CEO accountability and confuses decision-making (implying it is undesirable). An independent CRO (as a full Board member) may have similar effects. A higher proportion of Directors with no previous financial services experience increases both returns and the probability of failure because of weaker use of information (implying it is undesirable). Permission to use IRB models lowers risk and return because it provides information to empower risk-averse agents, again without affecting credit provision to the wider economy (implying it is desirable). I report other novel findings on effects of ownership, governance, remuneration and size. These results can guide bank reform.

Ho Wing-Kee. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-66). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.iii / Table of Content --- p.v / List of Table --- p.vi / List of Appendices --- p.vii / Chapter Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2. --- Literature Review --- p.5 / Chapter Chapter 3. --- Theoretical Framework --- p.8 / Chapter 3.1 --- Regime 1 ( Social Planner Model) --- p.10 / Chapter 3.2 --- Regime 2 ( Provision of Indivisible Public Capital by the Government Model ) --- p.14 / Chapter 3.3 --- Regime 3 ( Provision of Indivisible Public Capital by the Public Monopoly Model) --- p.19 / Chapter Chapter 4. --- Quantitative Comparison --- p.27 / Chapter 4.1 --- Calibration --- p.27 / Chapter 4.2 --- Numerical Results --- p.29 / Chapter Chapter 5. --- Conclusion --- p.31 / Appendices --- p.42 / References --- p.60

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Existing research demonstrates that corporate financing decisions influence the cash-flow rights and control rights of the securities issued by companies differently and that the same corporate capital structures and/or ownership patterns have diverse effects and aims across countries, especially when emerging countries are analysed. The 1research purpose of this investigation is to understand how corporate financing decisions are affected by ownership structure in emerging countries. For this purpose, two game-theoretic models are developed and an empirical test is carried out. The first theoretical model analyses a number of key factors inducing a separation of ownership and control in emerging countries. This model argues that large private benefits of control, extreme risk, low investor protection, inefficient capital markets, and governments sympathetic to incumbent management at the expense of outside investors are factors contributing to create a separation of ownership and control in emerging markets. The second model examines the positive side of network creation through the analysis of the interaction of empathy and economic gains. This model identifies important factors promoting the formation of business groups in emerging countries. The empirical study is a two-fold analysis. Firstly, it tests the effects of well-known determinants of capital structure on debt; secondly, the effects of ownership and control in the financial policies of emerging countries are analysed. To do so, corporate financial data and firm-level data of Mexican publicly traded companies for was gathered. As expected, asset tangibility, company size, profitability and market to book ratio proved to be important firm-specific capital structure determinants, similar to the case of developed countries. Business risk and effective tax rate are key firm-specific capital structure determinants, as emerging markets research has identified. The two factors proposed by this researcher, viz. consolidation and liquidity are significant in the determination of capital structure of the Mexican publicly traded companies. Further, almost two thirds of Mexican publicly traded companies are family controlled. When families are large shareholders, they favour debt financing; whereas when families are the majority controlling shareholder they prefer issue shares, the latter supports the risk management argument proposed by Hagelin et al. (2006) and Céspedes et al. (2010).

Noncompete agreements are elements of workers' contracts that limit the worker's job mobility in the event of a job separation. In this dissertation, I address two major questions: first, why are noncompete agreements used, especially among workers earning low wages? Second, what are the ramifications of use of noncompete agreements, both for the firms using them and for the markets in which those firms exist? In the first chapter, co-authored with Matthew Johnson, I show that low wage workers sign noncompete agreements when their wages are constrained. I use a novel sample of owners of hair salons to empirically demonstrate that, when wage constraints are more binding due to a greater minimum wage or a greater labor supply, noncompete agreements are used more frequently. I show that use in this context may not maximize the firm's joint surplus, suggesting that policy interventions may be welfare-enhancing. In the second chapter, I generalize the theory of the first chapter, allowing for intertemporal changes in labor markets. I posit the existence of noncompete agreement cycles, which may explain recent trends in use among low wage employees. In a noncompete agreement cycle, workers who separate must exit the labor market. Low labor supply decreases use of noncompete agreements, allowing labor supply to increase and leading to use of noncompete agreements once again. I examine the costs and benefits of a policy prohibiting NCAs, analyzing such a policy's sensitivity to various parameters. In the final chapter, I consider the effects of noncompete agreements on the effort exertion of workers. If a worker is able to exert effort in order to increase the value of an asset, that worker may wish to spin off a new firm to leverage its value. The worker's current employer faces a tradeoff: a noncompete agreement induces the employee to stay but decreases the employee's incentive to exert effort. I show that, when the value of a spinoff is unknown ex ante, noncompete agreements may cause large ex post efficiency losses by limiting creation of highly profitable spinoffs.