Neste trabalho estudou-se a existência de viés de gênero nas escolhas familiares em gastar recursos na educação dos filhos e filhas. Foi obtida uma amostra de 11386 famílias da Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares - POF 2002-2003 do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). As famílias tinham filhos e filhas entre 7 e 20 anos de idade, com pelo menos um deles matriculado e sem que outro membro da família, pais ou outros parentes, também estivesse matriculado. Curvas de Engel para as despesas com educação e para gastos com grupos de itens de despesas educacionais foram estimadas. Entre as variáveis explicativas estão o número de filhos e número de filhas matriculados e o número de filhos e o número de filhas não matriculados segundo faixas etárias. Outras variáveis socioeconômicas e demográficas controlaram as demais características familiares. Como 2066 famílias não apresentaram despesas com educação, as curvas de Engel foram estimadas com a utilização de modelos Tobit. As curvas de Engel também foram estimadas por Mínimos Quadrados e os resultados comparados com os obtidos pelos modelos Tobit. A igualdade entre os parâmetros estimados do número de filhos e filhas matriculados em cada faixa etária foi verificada com testes de Wald, isto para os dois procedimentos de estimação utilizados. Os resultados econométricos foram consistentes com a hipótese do trade-off quantidade qualidade existente nas decisões familiares de alocar recursos para a prole, pois o número total de filhos e filhas pressionou as despesas com educação a taxas decrescentes. As análises das despesas com educação, realizadas com os dois procedimentos de estimação, indicaram diferenças significativas no impacto causado por filhos e filhas matriculados nas faixas etárias de 7 a 10 anos e de 15 a 20 anos, com viés pró-feminino. A análise dos gastos com mensalidades escolares com modelos Tobit indicou diferenças significativas para duas faixas etárias, de 11 a 14 anos e de 15 a 20 anos, com viés pró-feminino na última faixa. Com Mínimos Quadrados houve viés pró-feminino na faixa de 15 a 20 anos, nas demais faixas não houve diferenças significativas. Quando foram analisados os gastos com cursos não regulares com um modelo Tobit, foram observadas diferenças significativas de 7 a 10 anos e de 11 a 14 anos, as duas pró-femininas. Ao analisar os gastos com cursos não regulares por Mínimos Quadrados, detectou-se viés pró-masculino na faixa etária de 11 a 14 anos e viés pró-feminino nas demais faixas. Entre as demais estimativas não houve diferenças significativas ou elas foram pró-femininas, independente do procedimento de estimação. Os resultados indicam que a formação das jovens não sofreu discriminação no que tange à disposição das famílias de gastarem com a formação de sua prole, salvo as duas exceções mencionadas. Estes resultados mostraram-se consistentes com o cenário favorável à escolarização feminina no Brasil já apontado em outros estudos. / This study investigated the gender bias presence within the family choices about spending resourses with their children\'s education. A sample of 11386 families was obtained from Household Budget Survey - POF 2002-2003, of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistic - IBGE. The families had children between 7 and 20 years old, with at least one of them enrolled, considering that no other member of the family, parents or relatives, was enrolled. Engel curves for the overall expenses and for expenditures with educational item groups were estimated. The number of sons and daughters enrolled and the number of sons and daughters not enrolled according to age level are among the explanatory variables. Other socioeconomics and demographic variables controlled the rest of the family characteristics. As 2066 families did not showed expenses with education, the Engel curves were estimated using Tobit models. The Engel curves were also estimated by the method of Least Squares and the results were compared to the ones obtained by Tobit model. The equity between the estimated parameters of the number of sons and daughters enrolled in each age level was verified with Wald test for both the estimation procedures used. The econometric results were consistent with the hypothesis of quantity-quality trade-off which exists within the family decisions when allocating resourses for their children because the total number of children pressed the educational expenditures at decreasing rates. The analysis of total expenses with education, accomplished by both the estimation procedures, indicated significant differences in the impact caused by sons and daughters enrolled at the age level from 7 to 10 and from 15 to 20 with pro-female bias. The analysis of the expenditures with school monthly fees with Tobit models indicated significant differences for both age levels, from 11 to 14 and from 15 to 20, with a pro-female bias in the latter level. With the Minimum Square method there was a pro-female bias in the level of age from 15 to 20 years old, in the other levels there were no significant differences. When the expenditures with non regular courses were analyzed with Tobit model, significant differences were observed from 7 to 10 and from 11 to 14 years old, both pro-female. When the expenditures with non regular courses were analyzed with the Minimum Square method a pro-male bias was detected in the age level from 11 to 14 and a pro-female bias in the other levels. Among the other estimations there were no significant differences or they were pro-female, despite the estimation procedure. The results show that the young girls\' education did not suffer any discrimination related to the family disposition of spending with their children\'s education, apart from the two exceptions mentioned. These results are consistent with the favorable scenario to the female education in Brazil already pointed out in other studies.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Agricultural Economics))--University of Limpopo, 2012 / Farmers in Polokwane Local Municipality produce many vegetables including beetroot, carrots, spinach, garlic, cabbage and butternut, which they mainly sell in informal local markets through speculating and hawking. Some sell to hawkers, who sell fresh produce from stalls in small markets and on the streets. Although there are a number of fresh produce markets operating successfully in Polokwane, such as Goseame Fresh Produce Market and Polokwane Fruit and Veg City, only a few smallholder farmers supply vegetables to these major markets. This research focused on providing information relevant to vegetable marketing in the province by identifying and analysing those farm and farmer characteristics influencing smallholder farmers’ decision to participate and utilise formal vegetable markets. The overall objective of the study was to examine farm and farmer characteristics of smallholder vegetable farmers that influence their decision to participate and utilise formal markets. The study was conducted in Polokwane Local Municipality and a sample size of 80 subsistence and emerging farmers was interviewed. STATA (2010) was used to analyse the data.Two approaches were used; the separated OLS and logit regression models and the Heckman selection model, although conclusions are based on the Heckman selection model regression results. We recommend the use of the Heckman selection model due to its limited bias compared to the other method. Results show that two variables; level of education and farmer occupation were positively and significantly associated with smallholder farmers’ decision to participate in the formal vegetable markets. Household size, tenure security and distance to the market had a significant negative influence on smallholder farmers’ decision to participate in the formal markets. Level of education, farm labour, hectares used and cost of transport were significantly and positively associated with the value of vegetables marketed in the formal markets. Gender of household head, member of a farmer group, farming experience, access to non-farm income and access to extension services had a significant negative impact on the value of vegetables marketed in the formal markets. In view of the research findings, several policy suggestions are made. These include capacitating farmers, provision of land for farming, establishment of depots and markets closer to the farmers, encouraging formation of farmer groups or organisations, increasing the number of extension visits to farmers, specialised services and encouraging commercialisation of smallholder agriculture in rural areas. / University of Limpopo Department of Agricultural Economics and Animal Production

由於都市發展與產業發展具有相互影響之關係，不同之都市型態會吸引不同的產業，且不同的產業結構也將影響都市的發展，因此在探討經濟發展時，需要同時考慮都市與產業條件，以符合相互影響之關係。 早期台灣的製造業，或可稱為「勞力密集傳統產業」的潛力來自於低廉的勞動力，一旦優勢不再，廠商關廠、外移，對於都市發展的產業需求將有所衝擊，依據當地的產業發展條件，可能因此而沒落，或是轉型成不同的產業發展。此外，當政府有鑑於勞力密集產業的競爭力不再，提倡產業升級，發展技術密集的高科技產業，雖然能夠創造國家整體的經濟成長，但是也因其所需的高技術，並無法吸收原傳統產業過剩的勞力。再者，因早期產業政策、地方資源與歷史因素等有不同的產業發展型態，使各都市的產業發展條件與產業優勢不一，因此，新竹科學園區的成功，並無法完全的移植到全部的地方發展，在生產條件無法配合的情況下，不僅產業發展困難，更會影響都市的整體發展。因此在台灣經濟轉型時期，各都市應如何尋找自己優勢之產業，為本研究的重點。因此本研究將從都市的產業條件與發展優勢來分析，以做為都市發展其有利產業之依據，進而提升其生產效率，並促進都市發展。 在考量都市與產業交互關係屬於多投入與多產出的特性，將利用「資料包絡分析法」（Data Envelopment Analysis, DEA），依據生產要素與產出，來評估都市內產業發展的效率，期望得出都市內發展相對有效率的產業。 本研究共分為四大部分：第一部份從都市產業發展理論與相關文獻，以及生產理論與相關文獻的探討，選取衡量生產效率的相關變數，以作為實證的依據；第二部份為研究方法之設計，包括資料包絡分析法（DEA）之基本理論與應用模式內容與模型之建立；第三部份則依據研究目的所選取之模型變數，評估各都市之產業生產效率，以及利用DEA分析法所估計出之效率值，為被解釋變數，利用迴歸模型衡量外生變數對其的邊際效果；最後針對本研究進行之實證分析，作一綜合性的概述，配合都市產業發展提出建議。 根據實證結果與分析，歸納出本研究之結論如下： 一、依據都市產業效率評估分析，製造業中的傳統產業類、基礎（重化）工業類與技術密集產業類均普遍在北部區域的生產效率表現較理想，這與製造業現況中，北部區域的製造業員工數與產值均為全區域最高之情況顯示，北部區域不僅是產業的集中地區，其生產情況也較理想。誰然依據比較利益原則，產業集中於北部區域，對於台灣整體的產業發展有利，但卻不利於區域的發展，只會更加促使人口往北部區域的集中，長期將影響區域均衡與國家成長。 二、由都市規模因素普遍對產業生產效率，反映出大都市對於傳統產業的負面影響，但卻有利於基礎（重化）工業與技術密集產業的生產效率的結果，符合聚集經濟的相關文獻中對於近來的都市產業發展，有傳統產業朝向小都市而高科技產業卻朝向大都市發展的趨勢。 三、根據都市產業結構的多樣化對於產業生產的技術效率是呈現負面影響，與早期學者出台灣製造業呈現地方化經濟的情況相符合。 四、從產業專業化（集中度）能夠提升產業生產效率。符合MAR與Porter對都市產業的專業化將加速都市產業成長的預測，顯示產業生產應該要朝向較大規模與專業化發展。 因為各產業與各都市的發展條件不同，應有不同的產業政策，因此本文在瞭解都市特性對於都市產業發展效率所造成之影響，俾以藉此提供相關決策者在進行都市產業發展政策時的參考依據。

我國股市的價格漲跌幅限制已逾三十年的歷史，主管機關維持此一機制的訴求是避免股價波動過於激烈、抑制投機行為。惟停板限制可能帶來的影響，除直覺上的其造成投資者持股風險指標扭曲等問題。經探究中亦歸結出（一）其被引為技術指標、（二）其引致財務風險指標扭曲等問題。 　　經探究GMM、Gibbs Sampler、與Two-Limit-Tobit Model模型的優劣。本研究發現一般使用的GMM估計量並非不偏，雖然可以藉修正增加其效率性，但仍無法藉以衡量各種的停板影響；Gibbs Sampler則過於依賴特定的先驗分佈，有可能因此而造成偏誤；而目前使用Tobit Model的文獻大都忽略停板限制對股價的影響力，據以產生的估計值亦附含偏誤。 　　本研究所採樣本期間為79年1月3日至84年10月9日，使用模型為Two-Limit-Tobit Model。為求嚴謹，在使用之前做資料的處理，並利用CAAR來驗證模型的正確性。實證顯示，漲跌停板的設立顯著改變投資人行為，在停板之前本研究發現存在技術指標與標準差統計量的向上偏誤，進而可能誤導實業界財務決策或學術研究結論。 / Thsi Study explores how price limits, which have remained in Taiwan Securities Exchange for over thirty years, affects both security price behavior and security risk indices. Its empirical results add to our understanding of the social costs and benefits of price limits. The SEC has been advocating the merits of price limits, emphasing that they help eliminating speculative trades and reducing security price volatility. In contrast, it remains a popular thought that price limits increase investors’holding costs and risks. To empirically examine the effects of price limits in Taiwan, this papers adopts Two-Limit-Tobit Model, together with CAAR as an indicator for specification validity. My test results lend support to the notion of (1).Technical Indicator Effect immediately before the price limits are hit; (2).Enhancement Effect the day after. Moreover, price limits contribute to bias in both systematic risk and total risk estimates (namely, β and σ) and thus distort investment decisions. 　　This Study also contributes to the contemporary literature by examining the merits and limitations of GMM, Gibbs Sampler, and Two-Limit-Tobit Model. GMM estimator is subject to statistical bias. One way may gain efficiency via adjustment. And yet GMM ahs pitfalls in directly measuring the price limit effects; The major limitation of the Gibbs Sampler is its reliance on specific prior information and it may lead to bias. And most of the papers adopting Tobit Model simply input the original data into the program, ignoring the fact that price limit may make the following day price data may be contaiminated.

Consumer expenditure on food away from home in the United States has grown substantially in recent decades. Changes in the food service system, increased complexity of family structure, and the food policies made by government agencies have continued to influence the marketing, distribution, retailing, and demand for food products and the food industry. This study explores consumption behavior on food away from home (FAFH) and determines the differentiated impacts of economic and demographic variables on FAFH by type of meal and by type of facility among different household types. Each of the two systems of expenditures is estimated with two alternative econometric procedures to accommodate censoring in the dependent variables: the trivariate Tobit estimator and the multivariate sample selection estimator. Data for this study come from the 2008 and 2009 Consumer Expenditure Surveys, the most recent U.S. national household expenditure surveys conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Joint statistical significance of error correlations among equations justifies estimation of the sample selection systems. The opposite marginal effects on probabilities and expenditure levels of some variables highlight the advantage of the sample selection system over the Tobit system. Segmentation of the sample by household types is also justified with formal statistical tests. The empirical results indicate that the effects of demographic and socioeconomic factors on FAFH consumption vary by type of meal and by type of facility. Income, work hours, race, education, geographical region, and household composition are important factors. Food stamps have no impact on FAFH for married couples without children and single parenthood has conflicting effects on probabilities and conditional levels of expenditures.

Due to the social environment transition and the health care reform, hospital¡¦s transformation has made the high cost nurse resource of the medical organization issue. While facing salary pressure and nursing shortages, nursing leadership has taken an important role in stabilizing/establishing a positive work environment and maintaining good health care quality and job performance. In the past, personality and leadership have been proved to relate to job performance, but few studies show the relationship between these three variables. This study investigates which dimensions of the Five-Factor Model of personality of the head nurse (HN) are related to job performance. This study also analyzes the HN and investigates whether leadership style moderates personality-job performance relations. This study carried out a survey research and secondary date analysis in three regional hospitals of Kaohsiung-Pingtung area. The sample included 35 HN and 174 nurses who worked with their HN for over 6 months. t-test was used to examine the difference of personalities and leadership style in different demographic variables. In addition, the Tobit regression model explained significant portions of variance in these criterions. Results support the hypothesis that openness and extraversion are positively related to job performance. Results also support the hypothesis that consideration is appeared to moderate relationships between openness and job performance. This study show that personality influences job performance. Moreover, it shows that the leadership style could be the moderator between personality and job performance. This study suggested that personality might be a crucial factor in selection and recruiting of head nurses. In addition, providing training in leadership will facilitate the job performance. This study suggests that future studies should increase the sample size in terms of decision making units as well as random selection from different hospital levels.

The environmental horticulture industry, also known as the “Green Industry”, is the second most important sector in the United States’ agricultural economy in terms of economic output and one of the fastest growing segments of agriculture; however, it has experienced a steady slowdown in growth in the past years. Floriculture and nursery crops average annual growth rate decreased from 13.64% in the 1970s to approximately 2.87% in the 2000s, and the industry is currently considered to be facing a mature market. The Texas A&M Agricultural Program, in an attempt to help Texas’ green industry producers compete effectively in an evolving marketplace, developed the Texas Superstar TM and Earth-Kind TM programs. Both of these programs intend to raise awareness among consumers of Texas-grown plant material while promoting environmental responsibility, and to increase producers’ profitability by providing them with products that can be sold at a price premium. In spite of the considerable investments on research and marketing that have been done in order to assure the release of every new plant, no research has investigated the effectiveness of these branding efforts in terms of consumer’s behavior. This research seeks to evaluate brand awareness and willingness-to-pay on the part of lawn and garden consumers. The discrete choice models used were the logit and probit model on brand awareness and the tobit model on the conditional willingness-to-pay. Results from this study conclude that consumers’ awareness of Texas Superstar TM and Earth-Kind TM in the Texas area is low, but the satisfaction level among aware consumers is high. The presence of awareness was found to increase willingness-to-pay for Texas Superstar TM and Earth-Kind TM by about 10%. Furthermore, profiles of the consumers’ behavioral and demographic characteristics that are more likely to influence brand awareness and willingness-to-pay were identified.

To the best of my knowledge, there has not been any academic study about capital structure of Turkish REITs so far. This study attempts to fulfill this gap in the literature by analyzing the capital structure choices of Turkish REITs which are listed in Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) over the period of 1998 - 2007. The key contribution of this study is to understand whether the firm specific, institutional and country specific factors that affect the capital structures of all institutional firms including REITs in developed and developing countries are also applicable to the Turkish REITs sector. The data analysis demonstrates that Turkish REITs employ little long term debt in their capital structure and there exists strong short term debt dominance in the sector. Employing Tobit regression and panel data models, it is concluded that capital structure determinants that are significant in developed and developing countries are also significant in Turkish REITs&amp / #8217 / debt financing choices. However, we observe inconsistency in the sign and significance of some factors which give a way to understand the different institutional and country specific factors of Turkish real estate market and Turkish REITs.

The development of effective personnel assignment methodologies has been the focus of research to academicians and practitioners for many years. The common theory among researchers is that improvements to the effectiveness of personnel assignment decisions are directly associated with favorable outcomes to organizations. Today, companies continue to struggle to develop high quality products in a timely fashion. This elevates the necessity to further explore and improve the decision-making science of personnel assignments. The central goal of this research is to develop a novel framework for human resource assignments in skill-based environments. An extensive literature review resulted in the identification of the following three areas of the general personnel assignment problem as potential improvement opportunities: determining assignment criteria, properly evaluating personnel capabilities, and effectively assigning resources to tasks. Thus, developing new approaches to improve each of these areas constitute the objectives of this dissertation work. The main contributions of this research are threefold. First, this research presents an effective two-stage methodology to determine assignment criteria based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) and Tobit regression. Second, this research develops a novel fuzzy expert system for resource capability assessments in skill-based scenarios. The expert system properly evaluates the capabilities of resources in particular skills as a function of imprecise relationships that may exist between different skills. Third, this research develops an assignment model based on the fuzzy goal programming (FGP) technique. The model defines capabilities of resources, tasks requirements, and other important parameters as imprecise/fuzzy variables. The novelty of the research presented in this dissertation stems from the fact that it advances the science of personnel assignments by combining concepts from the fields of statistics, economics, artificial intelligence, and mathematical programming to develop a solution approach with an expected high practical value.

Social learning theory continues to be one of the most enduring theories of crime. Psychological criminology, on the other hand, tends to explain crime in terms of behavioral propensities. This research is specifically focused on the generality of social learning theory as it varies across a measure of criminal propensity- in this case, psychopathy. Prior studies have tested various theories with the use of measures of propensity, but the theory is rarely social learning, and the measure of propensity has never been psychopathy. The current study examines three components of social learning theory (definitions, differential association, and differential reinforcement) to determine whether or not its influence is dependent on an individual's level of psychopathy. Data used in this research is from the Pathways to Desistance Project, a serious juvenile delinquent sample. Standard ordinary least-squares and Tobit regressions (a method of analyses designed to correct for linear relationships between variables when there is censoring in the dependent variable) are modeled. Results indicate that definitions, differential association, differential reinforcement, and both measures of psychopathy exerted significant main effects on antisocial behavior. In addition, the social learning variables interacted differently across varying levels of psychopathy. Conclusions and policy implications for future social science research are discussed within.