M.Comm. / Limited tax implications of capital gains tax in South Africa is addressed in this study with reference to the Eighth Schedule of the Income Tax Act (hereafter the Act). Various publications by the South African Revenue Service (hereafter SARS) and leading tax specialist's publications available on the website www.cgtsa.co.za were also consulted. Employee Share Ownership Schemes (hereafter ESOP's) are defined and the most commonly used schemes in South Africa are explained with reference to various internal publications by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The Income Tax implications as well as the capital gains tax implications on selected schemes will be discussed. The implications of capital gains tax on all transactions in South Africa falls outside the scope of this study, as this study focuses on the basic explanation of the core capital gains tax provisions in South Africa, with specific application to certain employee share ownership programmes (hereafter ESOP's) used in South Africa.

Este estudo teve como objetivo obter evidências sobre a relação entre a política de dividendos adotada pelas empresas listadas na BM&FBOVESPA e as suas respectivas estruturas de propriedade e de controle. Adicionalmente, buscou-se identificar possíveis alterações ocorridas no tempo no que se refere às estruturas de propriedade e de controle e aos níveis de dividendos pagos pelas companhias. Para tanto, foram analisadas 297 companhias abertas no período de 2005 a 2012, cujos dados estavam disponíveis no banco de dados Economática, através da aplicação do modelo Tobit. Os resultados apontam que empresas com estruturas de controle e de propriedade concentradas tendem a distribuir menos dividendos. Também foi constatado que houve redução nos níveis de alavancagem de controle (diferença entre concentração de controle e de propriedade) nos últimos anos, mas isso não resultou em níveis mais altos de distribuição de dividendos. De modo geral, os resultados confirmam a existência de conflitos entre controladores e minoritários no Brasil. / This study aimed to obtain evidence on the relationship between the dividend policy adopted by companies listed on BM&FBOVESPA and their respective ownership and control. In addition, the study sought to identify possible changes in time with respect to the ownership and control and the levels of dividends paid by the companies. For this, 297 public companies were analyzed in the period from 2005 to 2012, using data available in Economática and applying the Tobit model. The findings point that firms with concentrated ownership and control tend to distribute less dividends. It was also found that there was a reduction in leverage levels of control (difference between concentration of ownership and control) in recent years, but this has not resulted in higher levels of dividend payments. Overall, the results confirm the existence of conflicts between controlling and minority shareholders in Brazil.

Orientadora: Mirian Claudia Lourenção Simonetti / Banca: José Geraldo Alberto Bertoncini Poker / Banca: Gabriel Cunha Salum / Resumo: A compreensão das decisões judiciais sobre a impenhorabilidade da pequena propriedade rural requer o conhecimento da Questão Agrária brasileira. É nesse contexto histórico, e de correlação de forças, que se verificam as "raízes" que impedem a concretização dessa proteção legal. Por meio do Poder Judiciário se mantem a estrutura fundiária concentrada no Brasil, e a garantia do cumprimento dos contratos em litígios envolvendo Bancos e pequenos proprietários rurais. Verificou-se, no entanto, decisões minoritárias que não seguem determinada jurisprudência. / Abstract: The understanding of Judicial decisions about unseizability of the small rural property requires knowledge of the rural brazilian Agrarian Question. It is within this historical context, and correlation of forces, which are found the "roots" that prevent the realization of this legal protection. Through the Judiciary keeps the concentrated land ownership in Brazil, and ensuring compliance with contracts in disputes involving banks and small landowners. However, minority decisions which do not follow the jurisprudence have been seen. / Mestre

No description available.

In this paper, I discuss the area of issue-ownership as it applies to the 2016 presidential primaries. The central discussion of the paper features a tradeoff between viability and issues in primary contests. Viability, which is presented through The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform by Marty Cohen et al. as party elites deciding who should be the nominee, and issues that are salient to primary voters, and thus candidates, which I present as the more likely reason for how nominees are selected. Using a combination of national polls and analysis of candidates’ Twitter feeds, I hope to compare data on who primary and caucus voters support and which issues are important to them. The hypothesis is simple: if candidates stake claims on issues that voters care about and frequently remind voters of that via Twitter, they will receive a bump in the polls.

Theoretical models suggest that ownership structure may be an important determinant of securities' market characteristics. For example, the presence of informed traders leads to greater bid-ask spreads (Copeland and Galai (1983), and Glosten and Milgrom (1985)), and strategic trading of informed and discretionary liquidity traders leads to intertemporal variation in both trading volume and trading costs (Admati and Pfleiderer (1988), and Foster and Viswanathan (1990)). However, the empirical studies on the effect of ownership structure on market characteristics are limited. Prior studies focus on either one type of market characteristics or one type of owners, and usually do not address the potential endogeneity problem between market characteristics and ownership structure. This dissertation extends existing literature with two essays on ownership and market characteristics. The first essay broadly examines the effect of ownership structure (inside ownership, institutional ownership, and individual ownership) on market characteristics such as order flow, price impact of trade, quoted spread and quoted depth. For each market characteristic examined, I establish an empirical model based on existing theories and empirical evidence. My results indicate that stocks with greater inside ownership have lower order flow, greater price impact of trade, greater quoted spread and lower quoted depth, while stocks with greater active institutional ownership and greater individual shareholders have greater order flow, smaller price impact of trade, lower spread and greater depth. These results may have implications for corporate governance. For example, while agency theory suggests managerial ownership may align interests of managers and shareholders, this essay finds that this comes with a liquidity cost. Further, my results suggest there are liquidity benefits of individual and institutional ownership. If as suggested by Amihud and Mendelson (1989), investors require a higher rate of return for illiquid stocks, firms can target their shares to specific types of investors (for example, active institutions and individuals) to improve liquidity, and reduce their cost of capital. The second essay is a specific application of the first essay and examines the effect of institutional ownership on price discovery around earnings announcements. I select earnings announcements as the event for my analysis because there are three well-documented regularities about earnings announcements. First, market participants anticipate the forthcoming earnings announcements. Second, the announcements of earnings news are usually accompanied by abnormal price changes and abnormal volume. Third, there is evidence that stock price continues to move in the direction of earnings surprise after the announcements of earnings news. Since results from the first essay suggest that institutional investors affect market characteristics such as price impact of trade and quoted spread, I expect that institutional participation would also affect the price discovery process around earnings announcements. My results indicate that institutional ownership is associated with greater anticipation of earnings news. Further, stocks with greater institutional ownership have a greater price response to announcements of earnings news. Finally, institutional investors have no significant effect on post-announcement drift. The results of the second essay suggest that institutional investors contribute to the price discovery process. / Ph. D.

No description available.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The devolution of health programmes from external to local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is a relatively new phenomenon in sub-Saharan Africa. The special characteristics of the devolution of complex programmes pose both managerial and employee challenges, which previous change management research has not adequately addressed. Furthermore, earlier research has mainly viewed organisations as isolated and independent entities, whereas programmes that aim at large-scale interventions, such as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) projects, are embedded in their organisational context. Ineffective implementation of the PEPFAR antiretroviral therapy (ART) devolution process is a potential threat to programme sustainability in Nigeria.

In the rubber hand illusion (RHI), a rubber hand is placed in front of the participant with the participant's hand out of sight. If both hands are touched simultaneously, the illusion typically occurs. Between RHI studies, differences can be seen in the setup, and results of the illusion strength are inconsistent. One of these differences can be the moving RHI, where the real and rubber hand make the same movements to induce the illusion. The differences led to uncertainty regarding the influence of spatial configuration (i.e., an arrangement of the setup within three-dimensional space) on the illusion of body ownership. With this meta-analysis, I quantify the illusion strength in the moving RHI to be able to conclude if spatial configuration influences the results. A total of nine studies were included that had a total of 391 participants. The results show that the synchronous condition has a stronger illusory effect than the asynchronous condition. However, due to heterogeneity, the sample size may not represent the general population. Sub-group analysis showed no major difference in the illusion strength between a vertical and horizontal setup. These observations do not correspond with classical RHI studies in which vertical and horizontal setups were compared. However, in this meta-analysis, only moving RHI studies were included. In the moving RHI, the experimenter does not enter the visual receptive field of the participant, which may explain why no differences between the setups were found. The results of this meta-analysis cannot be seen as definitive; more research is necessary.

archives@tulane.edu / 1 / Ruizhong Zhang