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No / The male breadwinner model, which dominated both policy assumptions and social ideals in the post-war welfare state, is increasingly being supplanted by an adult worker family model. In this new model, both men and women are assumed to be primarily workers in the labour market, who as fathers and mothers pool their earned income in supporting children. In this article we assess this assumption. First, we examine the gendered moral rationalities of particular social groups of partnered mothers, defined in terms of class, conventionality, ethnicity and sexuality, about how mothering is combined with paid work, and how time and labour is allocated with their partners. Second, in the light of this empirical research, we examine three leading approaches to understanding change and decision making in families - new household economics, individualization in late modernity, and `post-modern moral negotiation'. We conclude that both the empirical and theoretical assumptions of the adult worker model are severely limited.

In this thesis, we study if credit rating agencies (CRAs) are capable, through their rating process, of discover information that it is valued by the market. Additionally, we investigate if CRAs are able to propagate their findings to the market. if Specifically, we study the differences between issuer-paid and investor-paid credit rating agencies, and how those differences shape the characteristics of their credit ratings and ultimately, if investors can profit from credit rating announcements. For our research we use a large dataset of rating announcements from 1997 to 2012, which includes information of four credit rating agencies (CRAs), Egan-Jones Ratings Company (EJR), Fitch, Moody's and Standard and Poor's, which representing investor-paid and issuer-paid CRAs. This allows us to compare these two kind of agencies and its ratings. In the first essay we study what variables explain the rating coverage of an investor-paid credit rating agency. We show that probability of being covered by EJR is positively related with the size of the firm, the level of institutional ownership of the firm, stock analysts and issuer-paid CRAs level of coverage, while it is negatively related to the firm's corporate governance. We found that the likelihood of being covered by EJR augments after regulatory changes and most interestingly, since EJR received the NRSRO certification. In the second essay we compare the timeliness of rating changes produced by EJR and the issuer-paid CRAs representatives. We found that the lead effect of investor-paid over issuer-paid CRAs has weakened in recent years, while Granger causality is bidirectional and therefore a lead-lag relationship cannot be established. Finally, stock prices manifest statistically significant abnormal reactions to downgrades of all agencies; however, abnormal negative returns are significantly higher for EJR. Our results support the hypothesis that issuer-paid agencies improve the quality and timeliness of their ratings when they see their market power threatened by tighter regulations. Nevertheless, event studies illustrate that markets still price stocks under the assumption that investor-paid rating actions carry superior information. Finally, our third essay found that purchasing (selling short) stocks with positive (negative) rating announcements generates portfolios with positive annual abnormal returns when investors react immediately to rating announcements. Returns are higher for stronger announcements (i.e. rating changes over rating outlooks) and for an investor-paid agency rather than an issuer-paid agency. When we introduced transaction costs, only the investor-paid agencies' announcements lead to positive abnormal returns. Additionally, when we included a delay in the reaction of investors to rating announcements, all positive abnormal returns net of transaction costs disappeared. Finally, our results suggests that the differences between investor-paid and issuer-paid agencies are based on their dissimilar business models rather than their regulatory status.

Youth with emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD) have poorer outcomes compared to their peers with and without disabilities. As a result, the federal government has mandated transition services to improve supports and ultimately student outcomes. Using data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS-2), this secondary analysis looked at services provided to youth with EBD (n = 410). The purpose of the study was to show a relationship between utilization of multiple services and the attainment of paid employment, and/or attending post-secondary education. Results indicate relationships between receiving financial services, tutoring and educational services and vocational services with attending a post-secondary institution. Logistic regression indicated a relationship between time, age and amount or services with paid employment. These results indicate the need for continuous, systematic and linked services for youth with EBD well into their twenties.

Magister Commercii - MCom / Whilst paid employment has generally been considered as the predominant means of avoiding poor living standards, the past two decades has seen a rise in the complex phenomenon of employed poverty worldwide (Eardley, 1998; Nolan and Marx, 1999; Nolan et al., 2010; Cheung and Chou, 2015). Over time, low-wage employment has increased in both number and severity, resulting in or contributing significantly to household poverty (Nolan and Marx, 1999). While individuals are employed in paid work, salaries are too low for households to maintain “a reasonable standard of living” (Cheung and Chou, 2015 p. 318). Internationally, employed poverty has been a serious and well-researched problem in the United States of America (USA or US). More than 11% of the USA “population resided in poor households with at least one employed person” (Brady et al., 2010 p. 560). In Hong Kong, approximately 53.5% of the population living in poverty were working poor in 2012 (Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 2013). Closer to home, Sub- Saharan Africa’s working poor rate for 2016 was estimated at 33.1% for workers earning less than US $1.90 per day and 30% for those earning between US $1.90 and $3.10 per day (International Labour Organisation, 2016).

The thesis considers the scope of trade mark protection against the context of paid search marketing. The hypothesis is that ‘fair and efficient competition’ is at the heart of the balance between interested parties and between trade mark protection and between free speech. This introduces the concept of a 'virtuous cycle' in the application of trade mark law. this thesis suggests that fair and efficient competition should be the ultimate purpose of trade mark law. The concept can be furthered by protecting pro-competitive trade mark functions: the intra trade mark information function and the inter-trademark differentiation function. Thus, only where third party use third party use is likely to harm the information and differentiation functions of owners' trade marks user could be liable. In a democratic society, there is anadditional consideration:thebalance between trade mark protection and free speech. Where third parties use trade marks in non-commercial contexts, likelihood of confusion or dilution should be the result ofactual malice or calculated falsehood. These two considerations are tested against the real world context of paid search marketing. Based on the protection of pro-competitive trade mark functions and speech restriction standards, and the relevance of actual and direct context and circumstances of paid search marketing, advertisers can be liable for their use of trade marks even when they do not include trade marks in their advertisements. Search engines, however,are not responsible for their use ‘under current practices,’ whether or not trade marks are included in advertisements. The thesis supports that trade mark law and jurisprudence should transform the cycle that starts with the balance of interests and end with fair and efficient competition into a virtuous spiralwhere one feeds the other; the two are inextricably linked.

Spending time at work, with family/whanau, and communities takes up a large proportion of Maori women's lives. Finding a balance can often be complex and challenging, due to surrounding environmental influences that are continually changing. This thesis explores those challenges, and considers whether 'being Maori' affects the way they manage their lives around the dimensions of work family/whanau and community.The study interviewed Maori women over 20 years of age, in paid work, and who were active members in two urban Maori communities of Auckland, namely Te Whanau o Waipareira Trust and Manukau Urban Maori Authority.It was anticipated that information gleaned could be used to consider positive strategies to facilitate the better management of their time given the constraints imposed on them by modern existence without compromising their cultural obligations as Maori actively involved in their communities.Overall, it was found that being Maori does have an affect on how the women manage their lives around work, family/whanau, and community. A number of factors are identified that help balance work and everyday life including whanau and community support as well as individual strategies and personal assistance. For example, flexible employers that valued Maori beliefs and culture helped reinforce and facilitate the achievement of this balance. Similarly, quality childcare was invaluable. Further research is suggested as to how Maori women balance competing priorities from community and whanau demands.

The employment experiences of Tongan women migrants have received little attention in the literature. This study therefore, sought to shed light on the dynamics of their social and economic experiences at paid work in New Zealand. It was guided by the theories of population geographies, feminist geography and postcolonialism. The inter-relationships of these theories provided insights into the influence of migration on these women's identities, ethnicity and gender relations and also how these influence these women's experiences at paid work in New Zealand. The data were drawn from two major sources: i) the New Zealand 2006 population census and ii) in-depth interviews held in Tonga and New Zealand, with greater focus on the interviews. This study revealed that the Tongan women's decisions for migrating to New Zealand were influenced by social rather than economic incentives. Migration has challenged these women's traditional roles and reconstructed their gender relations. Many are breadwinners yet Tongan born men in New Zealand still predominantly engage in the labour force and have higher personal income. Their experiences at paid work also differ from the New Zealand born Tongan women in New Zealand. These differences reflect the availability of their social networks and their familiarity with the socio-economic systems in New Zealand. They experienced successes and failures at paid work on their way to improving their lives in New Zealand.

Environmental enrichment (EE) is used to improve the life of captive animals by giving them more opportunities to express species-specific behaviours. Zoo elephants are one of the species that is in great need of EE because their environment is often barren. Before making EE permanent, however, it is wise to test first if it works as intended, to save time and money. Maximum price paid is one measure that can be used to assess if an animal has any interest in a resource at all. Food is often used as a comparator against EEs in these kinds of studies. The aim was to investigate if the maximum price paid concept could be used to measure the value of EEs for the two female Asian elephants at Kolmården and to find an operant test suitable for them for the experimental trials. Three series of food trials were done with each elephant, where they had to lift weights by pulling a rope with their mouth to get access to 5kg hay. The elephants paid a maximum price of 372 and 227kg, respectively. However, the maximum price the elephants paid for access to the hay was not stable across the three series of trials. Hence it is recommended that the comparator trials are repeated close in time to the EEs to be tested. The readiness by which these elephants performed the task makes it worthwhile to further pursue this approach as one of the means to improve the well-being of zoo elephants.

Environmental enrichment (EE) is used to improve the wellbeing of animals in human care. One way of testing what resources an animal prefers to have access to, is to make it pay a price. The price is in the form of time or energy spent to get access to the resource. When measuring the motivation of animals it is useful to compare the resource which is to be evaluated to a resource with a known value. Food is often the comparator. The maximum price paid approach measures the highest price an animal is willing to pay for access to a resource. In this study the motivation of a grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) for getting access to artificial kelp and live fish was measured. Food was used as the comparator. A large net cage with a weighted entrance and a nonweighted exit gate was used as the test arena. The seal had to enter it by opening the entrance gate which had increasing weights every day, in 10 steps up to 65 kg. The seal was not willing to pay any price for the live fish. The maximum price paid for the food was 60kg, and for the artificial kelp 10kg, i.e. 17% of the maximum price paid for food. The results suggest that neither live fish nor artificial kelp was an attractive EE for this seal. However, the study also shows that spring (reproductive period) is not a good time to test motivation in grey seals.