This paper presents an empirical analysis of top executive compensation from intellectual capital perspective using data from US listed companies and aims to examine whether executives get appropriate compensation. I propose a pay-contribution compensation scheme and extend previous research on agency theory, by exploring how executive compensation contract design may be based on the firm’s intellectual capital (IC). Such features would serve the core purpose of compensation design, which is to create long-term firm value. But inappropriate compensation scheme cannot motivate individual ICs to contribute fully and deteriorate firm value eventually. I view CEO, CFO, COO, CMO, CSO, CTO, CHOs as individual intellectual capital of firms, and through examining key indicators from financial contribution, organizational contribution, relational contribution and growth contribution, I find that their total compensations, total incentive compensations and total cash compensations are not significant on their functions for all executives, implying that free rider problem may exist. I conduct two steps regression models: the first step is to reveal free-rider problem based on the significant relationship between executive compensation and his/her role contribution, and the second step is to examine whether executive compensations rewarded by his/her role contribution have significant influence on firm valuation. The outcome of model 1 shows that CEO and CSO have no free-rider problem, while CTO and CHO may have potential free-rider problem, CFO and CMO may have the risk of free-rider problem, and COO may have moderate free-rider problem. The outcome of model 2 shows that CEO and CFO compensation rewarded by role contribution have significant influence on firm valuation; COO, CMO and CHO compensation rewarded by role contribution have moderate influence on firm valuation; while CTO compensation rewarded by role contribution have little influence on firm valuation and CTO compensation rewarded by role contribution have no influence on firm valuation. My result is consistent with agency theory since free rider may cause executive inertia, reduce individual IC productivity, and impair firm value. The findings suggest that pay-contribution compensation contracts and remuneration schemes focus on different executive positions and strategic roles of individual intellectual capital to avoid free rider problem.

Performance pay has been identified as a key element of modem human resource strategy but published field research has been limited. This thesis investigated the objectives, methods of operation and outcomes of several performance pay schemes through the creation and testing of several hypotheses. Evidence was gathered through a longitudinal study in one organisation augmented by case studies in two further organisations. The findings showed that organisations demonstrated a mix ofoperational and cultural objectives for introducing performance pay while the desired outcomes were to promote cultural change, internal equity and increased motivation. However, the findings from the longitudinal survey showed that the desired outcomes were not met, as viewed by the employees. Motivation was not increased, nor did the scheme help to change culture while pay satisfaction remained at a low level, although the employee response to the scheme showed a limited improvement after operating for one year. Positive employee viewpoints were highly correlated to the level of communication and satisfaction with pay. In terms of the influence of employee characteristics, women and non-union members were significantly more positive than men and union members. A cluster analysis showed that negative views were more strongly held than positive views which statistically influenced the outcomes and employees with such negative views had a 'bundle' of characteristics, namely middle grade males with long service and union membership. This research has made a number of contributions. It has added to the limited number of UK field studies and its longitudinal nature provides unique fmdings. It has provided data on the launch and initial period of operation ofa perfonnance pay scheme, as perceived by the employees. It has shown further evidence of strategic use of performance pay schemes with a newly constructed model. The findings have important implications for management, especially in relation to the identification of key supporter groups and opponents to the scheme and the issues that employees regard as key to the success of the scheme.

Wetland loss is a concern in Canada, with significant loss in urban and agricultural areas. Due to their provision of ecological goods and services - water quality improvement, carbon sequestration, flood and erosion control and biodiversity - wetlands are an important natural resource to conserve. A stated preference CVM survey was designed to estimate the non-market values of wetland in the prairie pothole region of Manitoba. This included information on benefits and costs associated with wetland restoration, a referendum portion and a debriefing section. A rigorous design procedure was followed that included several public focus groups and pre-tests. Results from 1,980 individuals indicate that respondents are willing to pay to retain and restore wetlands. Conservative willingness to pay estimates placed between $290 (retention) and $360 (full restoration) per household per year. Aggregated to the entire province over a five year period, this increases to approximately $600 and $730 million, respectively. / Agricultural and Resource Economics

This paper compared the South African concepts of pay equity and equal pay for work of equal value with those of industrialised countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. The study considered how South Africa recognized the right to promote equal pay, in the absence of a proper legal framework which expressly includes such a right. The paper also focused on the impact of statutes and case law on the developments of equal pay in the aforementioned industrialized countries. It also considered the impact of the decisions of the European Court of Justice on such developments as well as it impact on the interpretation of equal pay in these industrialised countries. The purpose of such comparison was not to transplant the legal system of these industrialised countries but to assist South Africa in remedying its weaknesses by creating legal rules for the promotion of equal pay for work of equal value.

Public utility services have been plagued with problems of low tariff and low willingness-to-pay by consumers. In many countries, tariff setting has been a political decision with governments reluctant to antagonise the electorate. Low pricing leads to inadequate revenue streams and further deterioration in service levels which in turn aggravates the revenue collection problem. Even with the already low tariffs, many consumers are not willing to pay the charges. / Maintaining tariffs at a low level sets a low reference price in the minds of consumers further dampening their willingness-to-pay. Low tariffs also create a perception that public service provision is not a serious problem which can be solved rather easily and relatively cheaply. This perception has a negative effect on consumers when tariffs are raised resulting in them resisting upward tariff revisions. This research project seeks to model consumer willingness-to-pay behavioural intentions by identifying the factors that affect their perception of price and service. The objective of this model is to enable service providers to recognise these factors and plan their strategies to focus on positively influencing them. By such strategic planning and action, service providers and governments could attempt to change the perception of consumers and increase their willingness-to pay a fair price for public goods. / Setting prices for public goods using contingent valuation and willingness-to-pay surveys have little practical use as they inevitably result in low prices due to strategic manipulation and bias by respondents. There has been very little research focussed on modelling such behavioural intentions for public goods. Due to this, a literature review on the psychological aspects of the pricing and willingness-to-purchase of private goods is thus conducted to develop the conceptual model for public goods. / The literature review indicated that the key factors affecting consumers' price perception were reference price, information and justification of pricing practices, and information on service provision and service performance. It is proposed that these key factors could also be applicable in price and service perception formation and in moderating reactions to current and future price increases of public goods. / Several existing conceptual models for private and public goods were reviewed in developing the research model. Although none of them could be used fully, they formed the basis for formulating a new conceptual model and item development for the survey instrument. This conceptual model was built by defining the relationships of the key factors underpinning price and service perception and willingness-to-pay for public goods. / A field survey using a personally administered questionnaire on sewerage services was conducted. The data collected was used to validate the conceptual model using structural equation modelling (SEM). / The results indicate that reference price plays an important role in consumers' price perception of the public good. The consumer's reference price can be shifted by providing adequate justification of the price and disseminating information on service provision and performance. Greater emphasis is thus needed by service providers on communication strategies to justify prices and present service performance information in a manner readily understood by consumers. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2006.

Thesis (MEd)--University of South Australia, 1997

This is an interdisciplinary thesis in women's and gender studies combining legal analysis with archival research. It traverses Australian women's struggle for equal pay and pay equity from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginnings of the twenty-first. It recounts and analyses women's activism through campaigns targeting state and federal politicians, prime ministers, premiers and state and federal ministers for labour and industrial relations; engagement in the industrial arena; and through women's organisations and work with the trade union movement. The thesis analyses achievements and setbacks through the federal industrial arena, and references, too, major state industrial cases and legislation. It analyses women's intervention and impact in the Equal Pay, Minimum Wage, Basic Wage and National Wage Cases. Through archives, original letters, articles, pamphlets, books, interviews and other sources, the thesis recounts women's agreements and disagreements on how the struggle would be won, and the solid campaigning in which women engaged from the late years of the nineteenth century, through every decade of the twentieth, and in the first years of the first decade of the twenty-first century. It covers a span of over one hundred years, during which the claim was characterised as one for equal pay, the rate for the job and, more recently, pay equity. Looking at the past and the present, the thesis concludes that women's direct engagement with the industrial system and parallel working within women's organisations and trade unions has been central to gains in equal pay and pay equity. Apart from women's and men's earnings in Scandinavia, relativities between women's and men's wages and salaries in Australia have been -- despite the disparity - the most approximate of all OECD countries. The thesis posits that it is only with a return to centralised wage fixing, with women's organisations intervening and bringing their own experts to educate industrial commissions, employers and unions, that the value of women's work will be recognised as equal to the value of men's work, and equal pay, the rate for the job, or pay equity will be achieved.

Alcohol is a complex good which is ingrained within the social fabric of Australian culture. This is even more apparent within rural communities which are considered to have higher levels of risky alcohol consumption. While alcohol provides pleasure to many, it has devastating effects for others. Not only are individuals themselves affected, but also their families and the community at large. This thesis considers a number of the economic aspects associated with alcohol consumption in rural Australia. This thesis was completed in conjunction with a larger ongoing project: Alcohol Action in Rural Communities (AARC), which is a cost-benefit analysis of community-wide interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm in rural Australia. Given the study involves 20 rural communities in New South Wales, Australia; much of the analysis is centred around data collected from these communities. This thesis examines the amount and patterns of alcohol consumption, some of the associated harms, the value of reducing these harms, plus professionals’ and the public’s opinions on interventions, viewed as an optimal solution to reduce alcohol-related harm for the communities within this study. First, those factors which affect individuals’ decisions regarding how much alcohol to consume are examined through econometric modelling of the demand for alcohol. Moreover, a theoretical model is derived whereby individuals choose both the intensity and frequency of alcohol consumption in order to maximise their utility. This is then used to examine those factors that affect the relationship between intensity and frequency of alcohol consumption for individuals within the 20 communities of the study. Secondly, the impact that this alcohol consumption has in terms of the effect on morbidity, crime and traffic accidents within these 20 communities is analysed. The relationship between selfreported quality of life using the EQ5D (a quality of life instrument) and self-reported risky alcohol use are examined using ordered Probit and Tobit models. Also, the relationship between community levels of risky drinking and crime and traffic accidents that occur in alcohol-related times is analysed, controlling for the underlying level of crime in the community by using the rate of incidents that occur in non-alcohol-related times. It is found that rural communities in Australia are experiencing a sizeable amount of potentially avoidable harm due to risky alcohol use. Thirdly, the value of reducing alcohol-related harm in these communities, in terms of the amount households are willing to pay for these reductions, is estimated using contingent valuation methods. Individuals’ willingness to pay for a percentage reduction in alcohol-related harm is estimated using both a postal questionnaire for the 20 communities, plus a face-to-face questionnaire conducted in two of these communities. The face-to-face questionnaire is also used to conduct a double-bounded dichotomous choice experiment, to investigate the willingness of households to pay for a reduction in a number of different types of alcohol-related harm. Finally, the views on the optimal policy options to reduce alcohol-related harm for rural communities in Australia are examined for both professionals and the general public. A sample of drug and alcohol (D&A) professionals were asked to allocate a budget of $100,000 to a number of interventions in order to reduce alcohol-related harm in a hypothetical rural community. The D&A professionals most commonly selected interventions include training general practitioners (GPs), targeting high-risk groups, developing a harm-reduction code of practice, expanding social work services and the training of emergency department staff. Additionally, individuals from the general public were asked via a postal questionnaire to allocate a percentage of total funds to eight intervention areas in order to reduce alcohol-related harm in their communities. The top three intervention areas given the most funding, on average, by the public were school-based interventions, educational messages in the media, and greater police enforcement. There is no doubt that alcohol consumption causes a substantial amount of harm for rural communities within Australia. This thesis has provided information to inform the development of interventions tailored to specific communities and has derived estimates which can be used to help evaluate the cost-benefit of these interventions. There is still additional research to be done in order to obtain more accurate estimates of the exact effect alcohol has on rural communities and thus comprehensively evaluate which interventions are likely to be the most cost-effective in reducing this harm.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2007. / "May, 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-87). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 180 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 154-169).