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Abstract¡G From previous studies we found that growth opportunity is an important factor help explaining the cross-sectional differences of firms¡¦ dividend and financing policies. However, growth opportunities are unobservable and not measurable, scholars used different proxies to catch the idea. Prior empirical studies used market-to book, earning-price ratio, Tobin¡¦s Q, R&D intensity, capital expenditure (deflated by book value of assets), PPE, previous sales growth as proxies for growth opportunities, but had inconsistent results. The purposes of this thesis are: first, to find out the relationship between growth opportunities and realized growth, and to determine which proxy is most suitable; second, to find the empirical evidences of the relation between growth opportunities and financing policies, growth opportunities and dividend policies support contract theories, tax-based theories or signaling theories; and finally, to find out if firm¡¦s growth opportunities are affected by its financing and dividend policies. We examine all nonfinancial firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange from 1991 to2000. We use the correlation and regression to determine the relation between growth opportunities and realized growth, then distinguish total debt ratio, short-term debt ratio, long-term debt ratio from financing policies, and dividend payout ratio, cash-dividend yield, stock dividend yield, and dividend yield from dividend policies. We use different growth opportunity proxy to separate whole sample into two subsamples, and growth as a dummy variable. We use regression to find the relation between growth and financing policies, dividend policies. Finally, we use simultaneous equation to determine the relationship among growth opportunities, financing policies and dividend policies to see if they are interdependent. Our empirical result shows that growth opportunities and realized growth have positive relations. But growth opportunities are not positively correlated with realized investment growth. Price-based proxies are often overestimate future equity market value growth. Growth firms have higher debt ratios and long-term debt ratios. The result supports contracting theory and progressive tax rate theory. Growth firms have higher short-term debt ratios, too. We can¡¦t find the significant relation between growth opportunities and dividend pay¡Vout ratios. Growth firms have lower cash dividend yield, and the result supports cash-flow constraint and contracting theories. There is no clear relation between stock dividend yield and growth opportunities. Through simultaneous equation, over financing and too much cash-dividend restrict firms¡¦ growth opportunities.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-200).

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1984.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1986.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1986. / Photocopy of typscript.

Induction and mentoring programs are often portrayed as commonsense policy solutions to lower teacher attrition, build beginning teacher capability and ultimately, raise student achievement. Mentoring standards however, have rarely been examined to see how their interpretation and implementation influence the relationship of mentor-mentee pairs in local contexts under a state voluntary induction and mentoring program. In this multi-cased qualitative study, I interviewed nine mentor-mentee pairs and conducted separate mentor and mentee focus groups as well as observing the mentor and mentee interact during an observational cycle in seven high poverty middle schools under Texas' Beginning Teacher Induction and Mentoring (BTIM) program. I also performed a content analysis of mentor training and support materials. Using Cohen and Moffitt's policy implementation framework I found that due to the lack of specificity and formalness of mentoring standards in BTIM-specific and non-specific documents, and the spottiness of mentor initial training, most mentors and mentees needed to rely on their capabilities and dispositions to define their roles. Consequently, it seemed that in the eyes of the mentors and mentees their relationship was informal; this was reflected in the roles that they assumed. Based on the study results, I recommend that mentoring standards for the mentor and mentee be more specific and formally defined. Indeed, there appears to be a need to formally conceptualize mentoring from its policy aims to its policy instruments within mentoring policy. / text

This thesis examines the suggestion that the Western economies are witnessing the globalisation of markets, production, finance and knowledge which has placed severe limits on the economic role of national governments, and that effective public policy is now restricted to the promotion of education and training which is the chief determinant of national competitiveness in the new global, knowledge-intensive economy. In practice, governments have become heavy supporters of knowledgeintensive industries through policies aimed mainly at upgrading human capital. This view of the role of economic policy amounts to a new academic and policy orthodoxy and is subject to critical examination in this thesis. This thesis contends that some convergence of economic systems has occurred with national economic development enmeshed in a global economy in which some positions are more rewarding than others. At the same time, the nation-state remains central to shaping industrial activity. Nowhere is this argument more true than in `high technology or `knowledgeintensive' sectors where increasing returns apply and where government policies continue to play a critical role in determining industrial development. These arguments are examined through a case study of skills and training issues in European biotechnology - purportedly a sector exposed to processes of globalisation. The study reveals the explanatory limits of the new orthodoxy. It reveals a picture of biotechnology in which economic development is far more complex than originally assumed at the beginning of the skill shortage study. The economic validity of the argument that investments in skills and training are a panacea to improving productivity in a knowledge-intensive industries and are thus the key to the economicprosperity of nations is criticised. It is shown how popular assumptions in relation to the scientific labour market are misplaced and inappropriate. The development of the sector is shown to have been heavily influenced by the operation of national structures and the ways in which these have structured the level and nature of demand for the industry's products and the availability of investment finance for new technologies. Significant changes in the dimensions of national biotechnology industries are acknowledged to have occurred through the globalisation of capital and markets, but the role of the national environment and of the strategic choices of governments in developing the sector are seen to have been highly influential in shaping the dynamics of the industry. Although the failure of the European biotechnology industry to develop at the pace originally envisaged has been attributed to skill shortages, it is argued that the pace of economic development in this sector has been influenced also by the power of national and transnational social groups, differential access to knowledge and finance - in short by the combination of the institutional characteristics of national societies and the emerging power of transnational movements

The U.S. has implemented a two-track nuclear policy since the Cold War. The first track is non-proliferation and the second track involves securing all nuclear materials. The two-track nuclear policy has been effective, but at times non-proliferation efforts are contradicted by the US supporting nuclear programs by securing nuclear materials. The current greatest threat to nuclear security is the acquisition of nuclear materials by an extremist or terrorist organization. Can the US combat the current growing threat of loose nukes with the two-track policy? / text