The constituent concepts of the gospel is not only vital for the correct understanding of the true meaning of Christ, but also for the appropriate meaning and practice of mission to enlarge the church of Christ in his service. The thesis researched the background of the Prosperity Gospel critically in addition to the use of it for missiological purposes to enlarge the church with the luring of poor people with the excessive promises of vast wealth after contributing to the Prosperity Churches generously and substantially from within their poverty. The heart of the research was the analysis of ten sermons by prosperity preachers according to the “open coding” of the “Grounded Theory”, drawing conclusions from the practical analysis of the sermons, instead of the usual research working with the material from a pre-conceived theory. This approach uncovered and displayed the distortion and falsification of the true gospel. The thesis constructed an appropriate benchmark of the authentic gospel against which to measure deviations from the traditional gospel and mission according to this gospel. The dissertation exposed courteously, but deliberately that the Prosperity Gospel was infiltrated with alienated concepts from unscriptural humanism, the “American materialistic dream” and the secular Rogerian psychology with its non-spiritual psychotherapeutic approach, as well as the “profane” preaching of Norman Vincent Peale, comprising “New Thought”, metaphysics, Christian Science, and medical and psychological practices. More serious was the specific “cultic” influences and teachings. Cultic here indicated a system of religious or spiritual beliefs, especially an informal and transient belief system regarded by the traditional churches as misguided, unorthodox, extremist, or even false, and directed by a charismatic, 2 authoritarian leader. Ultimately, the Prosperity Gospel was contaminated with Swedenborgianism, Mesmerism and Unitarianism. The thesis, however, is not negative about the overflowing blessings of God, also regarding temporal prosperity, but the research unearthed the true riches of the gospel of Christ in an exegetical scriptural manner and delineated it in an extensive way – money is indeed “raining from heaven”, but spiritually in a true gospel way, through prayer and in obedience to Christ, depending on faith in God. The norm was “abundance, but not accumulation of riches”. It is sad to have unmasked the fact that some prosperity preachers commanded the churches not to pray anymore, but to command the blessings of God “onto” the “true” believers towards accumulation of vast wealth (cf. “pastor” D O OYEDEPO). The 10 sermons were thoroughly scrutinised and the main problems with the “claiming” of vast wealth according to the gospel brought out in the open – the lack of Christ-centred preaching, the absence of the emphasis of the work of the Holy spirit, the misunderstanding of the “revelation” history, the deficiency of scriptural exegesis and the unscriptural obsession with vast material wealth as a “blessing”. Usually only the prosperity preacher and a few supporters became the “blessed” rich from all the compromised donations of the “masses”. This was followed by a development of the academic discipline of theology, indicating revelation as a historical process, where the gospel moved from survival to justice in the Old Testament, and finally to unconditional love and care according to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. This was situated vis-à-vis an evaluation of the theology of the Prosperity Gospel, portraying the false concept of “faith”. Towards the end of the thesis the perspective of the development of missiology was explained up to the contemporary point and an oversight of the concept of mission of the past century was outlined: It became clear that ecclesiology did not precede missiology, but rather, missiology precedes ecclesiology, because a community of Christians did not first create a church and then developed its mission; a community of Christians participated in God’s mission and thus constituted a church, according to the New Testament. This placed the preaching of the blessings of the gospel and the functioning of God’s mission in true perspective. As poverty is a vital concept regarding the preaching of the Prosperity Gospel the plight of the poor in all its shocking depths were exposed as a problem and a mission task for all the churches of Christ - approximately 15 million people in South Africa live in dire poverty without any hope of alleviation, and 1 billion people in the world live under the poverty datum line. This is a wake-up call for the church of Christ, existing for God’s mission, to face this challenge of mission to the poor. The research closed with a summary of the mission task to the poor. The dissertation concluded with a delineation of possible further topics in this field to be studied. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

This work introduces an alternative paradigm that claims that the primary industry of imperial Ethiopia has been (and still is) one that has evolved around the Abyssinian national mission vis-a-vis the populations it rules from a point of conquest. Abyssinia, like Catholic Spain in the Americas, carried out a series of 'civilising' missions (Christianising), that has spanned centuries to modern times. Around a theocratic mission evolved a service type industry, the author calls theo-industry. On that basis, the work demonstrates how well-known categories of 'land-tenure', namely, the gult/goolt, the gultenya/gooltenya, the rist, the ristenya, the gabbar and related others are categories of a fiscal system of theo-industry, not of an agrarian system or agrarian industry. It is argued how these rather complex categories belong in the realm of wages and pensions of a service-type industry, not in those of agriculture. By failing to establish the functional link between agriculture and the national mission of the rulers, the scholars of Ethiopian studies have so far been unable to identify this 'elusive' but all-pervasive primary industry of Ethiopia. That in turn, the author argues, has had a rub-off effect in hindering a clear and comprehensive understanding of issues such as poverty and famine. The central topic of this work is the 'identification' of this 'elusive' industry. The study of its evolution, set in historical grounds, of its dynamics and the intricate maze of multi-natured relations is attempted. On this basis, the option of creating an independent (from theo-industry), and more importantly, renewable agricultural industry is proposed as the key to tackling chronic levels of poverty and famine in Ethiopia / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

研究起點在於觀察到八○年代二現象之相近發生。其一，台灣學界漸興對中產階級之討論；其二，台灣雜誌工業較以往殊異發展。西方理論中對中產階級定義及其諸多問題莫衷一是，本文以如下方式討論階級：由生產關係的二元位置，至Wright加入三項資財，再至Bourdieu在實踐的經濟將社會空間中類似或接近位置的行動者視為相同階級的行為；相對地，中產階級的定義從據生產方式中的矛盾位置，而在多維度空間下場域、習癖、資本之不同位於不同位置。以此而觀八○年代雜誌工業之發展則具意義。此時已非教育之普及使印刷媒體有突破性的發展，而是特定消費型態及社會趨勢使印刷媒體受益，如八○年代財經、政論、女性雜誌的興起，九○年代國際中文版雜誌紛紛搶灘。其中，作者選定1981年創刊之《天下》雜誌為研究對象，其正為中產階級文化善意彰顯之例。在台灣，《天下》在象徵意義上常被標舉如社會良知，此卻易使人忽略其作為一份商品的存在；但《天下》不只是商品而已。在資本主義商業機制中，必須維持並擴充其自身的再生產；促使讀者消費《天下》，藉由對讀者的召喚以獲回應，對象為：以專技知識換取生產位置的中產階級為主，在其自薦廣告中，以時間壓力升遷壓力頻頻催促、完全繫於文化資本之有無，而《天下》正提供八○年代的管理與經濟學知識，對於企圖將文化資本轉化為組織科層升遷或經濟資本者，《天下》即為所需；就此而言，《天下》所傳散的正是生產力再生產的知識。

天然資源價格高漲，及全球貿易失衡，造成新興國家累積大量美元資產，資本市場自由化、投資商品多元化，促使主權基金備受矚目。擁有高額外匯存底的台灣，是否需成立主權基金，成為國內學者專家關注議題。贊成者認為可以降低持有外匯存底機會成本，增加財政收入；扶植國內產業、提升國際競爭力，反對者認為主權基金並非穩賺不賠；容易特權干預、政商勾結，不符合企業報酬最大化原則。各種研究報告顯示主權基金有可能變成金融巨獸，但是，歷經金融海嘯的洗禮，面對投資績效與保護主義雙重壓力，會不會逐漸萎縮泡沫化，值得進一步觀察與研究。 本篇論文希望透過有關文獻的整理與回顧，對主權基金相關概念做一彙整與分析，歸納主要主權基金之經驗，包括政治環境、資產規模與追求目標等共同屬性，與台灣財政、經濟現況做相關性研究，佐以其他國家成立主權基金與否原因之比較結果，傾向現階段台灣以尚不需成立主權基金為宜。 關鍵詞：主權基金、外匯存底 / The prices of natural resources have increased, while global trade has became unbanced; as a result, the developing countries have accumulated lots of reserves assets, which are invested in diversified financial products. The above situation has caused Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) to attract a lot of attention. This study investigates whether Taiwan, should establish its own Sovereign Wealth Fund. Supporters of the SWF believe that it will reduce the opportunity costs of holding foreign exchange reserves while increasing revenues, supporting domestic industries, and enhancing international competitiveness. In contrast, opponents of the SWF argue that it is too risky, easy prey to government and business collusion as well as corruption. Various studies indicate that SWFs may become financial giants, but after the latest financial crisis, investment performance is limited by conservative hedging. The new development of SWFs are worthy of further observations and research. This paper aims to review the literature on SWFs. It goes through the world’s major SWFs, asset scales and objectives. The study concludes that due to Taiwan’s specific financial and economic status, it is not appropriate for Taiwan to set up a Sovereign Wealth Fund at this moment. Key words：Sovereign Wealth Funds、foreign exchange reserves

<p>In this paper I study how the repeal of the Swedish wealth tax (1 of January 2007) has affected people´s labour supply behaviour. This particular issue is relevant because it may help us understand some of the effects of the earnings tax changes that have taken place in Sweden. Accoring to standard economic theory a repealed wealth tax is similar to an income effect for the persons who previously paid the tax. That means that they theoretically will want to consume more leisure, that is decrease their labour supply. The method I am using to test this hypothesis is a difference-in-difference approach where the treatment group consists of persons who previously paid the tax and the control group of comparable persons who did not pay the tax. The data I am using is taken from a Swedish database called LINDA, compiled by the Swedish Central Agency for Statistics (SCB). My main result in this paper is that the repealed wealth tax does not seem to have had any influnece on the labour supply behavior of the persons who previously paid the tax.</p>

<p>Essay 1: Hurst and Lusardi (2004) use higher-order polynomials in wealth in estimating the relationship with entrepreneurship. They find evidence conflicting with the existence of extensive liquidity constraints in the United States. In this paper, their approach is replicated on Swedish data. A positive relationship between wealth and entrepreneurship is found, which supports the liquidity constraints hypothesis. Alternative methods attempting to handle the endogeneity problem and distinguish between absolute decreasing risk aversion and liquidity constraints give further support to the hypothesis. The paper suggests that there exist liquidity constraints in Sweden, which are possibly more extensive than in the United States.</p><p>Essay 2: Displacement is expected to decrease the reservation wage of self-employment by decreasing earnings in paid employment and increasing the probability of unemployment. This paper examines whether displacement increases the probability of self-employment using propensity score matching on Swedish register-based data. The data include all individuals displaced due to plant closures in 1987 and 1988, and a random sample of 200,000 employed individuals. The results suggest that displacement almost doubles the probability of entering self-employment the year after displacement. A sub-sample analysis indicates that individuals with a potentially worse position on the labor market react more strongly to displacement in terms of entering self-employment.</p><p>Essay 3: A large literature has studied the effect of displacement on labor market outcomes in general, but no one has evaluated how the displaced succeed as self-employed. This paper studies how the survival of the business is affected by displacement in connection to entry, using a discrete-time proportional hazard model on a matched sample of displaced and non-displaced individuals. The main result of the paper is that, as a consequence of previous displacement, the probability of switching from self-employment to paid employment decreases and the probability of switching to unemployment is unaffected.</p>

The primary goal of a publicly traded company is to maximise the wealth of its shareholders. This implies that the management of the firm, as agents of the owners, has to manage the firm in such a manner as to create value from every decision taken. Value-based management (VBM) is a management strategy aimed at achieving shareholder wealth creation and is based on the effective management of a set of internal value drivers to maximise wealth creation. The primary objective of the current study is to investigate the quantification of the relationship between internal value drivers and shareholder wealth creation in the Mining sector of JSE listed companies in South Africa. In order to achieve this, the internal value drivers were identified from literature, the necessary financial data was collected and the value drivers as well as actual shareholder wealth were quantified. Revenue growth, operating profitability, capital requirements and weighted average cost of capital (WACC) were identified as the value drivers while total shareholder return (TSR) was identified as the actual shareholder wealth creator. For the purpose of the current study, WACC was excluded from the analysis. By application of linear regression, it was found that revenue growth and operating profitability have a positive, statistically significant effect of TSR. After analysing the effect size, it is however concluded that the effect is not practically significant. These findings concur with similar research in the field of VBM. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

<p>This thesis investigates the economic and moral viability of the capitalist economic system, in order to compare it with the Islamic economic system in terms of justice and fairness. Earlier Marxist/Socialist critique of Capitalism focused on issues within Capitalism such as greed, corruption, cheating, bribery, pirating, abuse, and other market problems e.g. practices and regulations which lead to poverty, hunger, economic crises, collapse, inflation, stagnation and steep price increases. Instead of sloganeering from a distance, contemporary research on the problems of the world economy is replete with frank criticism &ldquo / from the inside&rdquo / , i.e. by capitalist economists themselves. In this study, written from a Muslim perspective, the problem within the capitalist system will be assessed in conversation with critique from &ldquo / outside&rdquo / and &ldquo / inside&rdquo / capitalist discourse.</p>

Essay 1: Hurst and Lusardi (2004) use higher-order polynomials in wealth in estimating the relationship with entrepreneurship. They find evidence conflicting with the existence of extensive liquidity constraints in the United States. In this paper, their approach is replicated on Swedish data. A positive relationship between wealth and entrepreneurship is found, which supports the liquidity constraints hypothesis. Alternative methods attempting to handle the endogeneity problem and distinguish between absolute decreasing risk aversion and liquidity constraints give further support to the hypothesis. The paper suggests that there exist liquidity constraints in Sweden, which are possibly more extensive than in the United States. Essay 2: Displacement is expected to decrease the reservation wage of self-employment by decreasing earnings in paid employment and increasing the probability of unemployment. This paper examines whether displacement increases the probability of self-employment using propensity score matching on Swedish register-based data. The data include all individuals displaced due to plant closures in 1987 and 1988, and a random sample of 200,000 employed individuals. The results suggest that displacement almost doubles the probability of entering self-employment the year after displacement. A sub-sample analysis indicates that individuals with a potentially worse position on the labor market react more strongly to displacement in terms of entering self-employment. Essay 3: A large literature has studied the effect of displacement on labor market outcomes in general, but no one has evaluated how the displaced succeed as self-employed. This paper studies how the survival of the business is affected by displacement in connection to entry, using a discrete-time proportional hazard model on a matched sample of displaced and non-displaced individuals. The main result of the paper is that, as a consequence of previous displacement, the probability of switching from self-employment to paid employment decreases and the probability of switching to unemployment is unaffected.

In this paper I study how the repeal of the Swedish wealth tax (1 of January 2007) has affected people´s labour supply behaviour. This particular issue is relevant because it may help us understand some of the effects of the earnings tax changes that have taken place in Sweden. Accoring to standard economic theory a repealed wealth tax is similar to an income effect for the persons who previously paid the tax. That means that they theoretically will want to consume more leisure, that is decrease their labour supply. The method I am using to test this hypothesis is a difference-in-difference approach where the treatment group consists of persons who previously paid the tax and the control group of comparable persons who did not pay the tax. The data I am using is taken from a Swedish database called LINDA, compiled by the Swedish Central Agency for Statistics (SCB). My main result in this paper is that the repealed wealth tax does not seem to have had any influnece on the labour supply behavior of the persons who previously paid the tax.