Thèses sur le sujet « Economics, Finance. Political Science, Public Administration »

The thesis takes as its point of departure the "long-run monetary union" between France and fifteen French-speaking African countries to provide insights into how the rules, mechanisms and practices underlying the monetary dependence of these African states operate. The main objective of the study is to contribute towards a better understanding of the institutions and principles governing the CFA franc zone with the intention of helping policy-makers to take optimal decisions.

A well-designed monetary policy could generate employment and pro-poor growth. But designing and administering a good policy will depend on the objective of policy designers. In principle, monetary authorities could choose between a fixed exchange regime and a flexible exchange regime. Of this, the above African countries adopted a managed regime with France since 1945. In this study, I examine the relationship between monetary autonomy and poverty reduction in the Franc Zone. The discussion focused on the impact of monetary independence on poverty incidence and poverty gap in the fifteen African nations.

I utilized two OLS model equations. The functions were estimated using data from a panel of 14 countries (the exception being Equatorial Guinea because insufficient data were available) in the CFA franc zone and covering the 1984-2011 period. Seven predictor variables were forced into the models. With regard to the findings, only four of them such as inflation and, more importantly, credit to private sector, centralization rate, exchange rate and gross national savings are important to headcount index and the depth of poverty reduction in the CFA franc zone.The results therefore suggest that monetary sovereignty measured by the specified variables is a driving force for poverty reduction in the CFA franc zone.

In this world of globalized business, corporate training programs are based on the common belief that better-trained employees will enhance business performance. Early research was focused on the impact of training on company performance in the business- to-business (B2B) environment. All of the early studies included employee opinions to measure what is called internal market orientation (IMO) as well as identification of the key constructs of trust, commitment, and relationship satisfaction, which affect performance. Later, survey-based research on external (customer) market orientation (EMO) in an international business also expanded the cultural complexity of the supplier- buyer relationships. Targeted coaching, rather than generic training programs, became appropriate. No empirical evidence in the literature provided quantitative measurement of the results of coaching programs on either EMO or company financial results. This research served to analyze the impact of an ongoing salesperson coaching program on both customer perceptions (EMO) and the financial results of the company. Two surveys of two different customer populations, with a 6-month time span between surveys, provided data to quantify any shifts in EMO. No significant shifts were found in either the domestic or the international customer populations. However, the company financial data confirmed a positive impact on profitability and a strong return on investment (ROI). Further research is needed which takes into consideration different parameters, including longer time spans between customer surveys, deeper interview-based analysis of customer perceptions and buying habits, and the different coaching strategies employed during the study.

Since 2010, 2,000 U. S. leaders spent $150 billion on return on investment (ROI) training, yet questions still exist on how to measure the benefits of organizational change. The purpose of this embedded single-case study was to explore how business leaders could use ROI to characterize the benefit of intervention strategies for organizational change. Stakeholder theory and Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory formed the conceptual framework for this study. A purposive sample of 20 civilian personnel managers located at a medical facility for veterans in central Texas participated in semistructured interviews. The 5 primary themes that emerged using thematic analysis were (a) training, (b) leadership, (c) communication, (d) recognition, and (e) consistency. Implications for positive social change include the possibility of organizational leaders applying these findings to develop better intervention strategies. Such interventions could improve processes for stakeholders and create an open dialogue with business leaders within the government sector.

Regional integration has gained keen drive since the 1980s throughout the world. Political and economic considerations complement each other in any kind of process; yet classical economic integration theory would advocate that regional integration is an economic process occurring largely as a result of greater interaction between neighboring states, functioning almost like a kind of invisible hand. This theory is based on the historical example of the development of the European Union, yet it completely discounts the fact that the European Union was first and foremost a political project. Such also has been the case with the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), the world’s oldest customs union, and with the Southern African Development Cooperation Conference (SADCC) and its successor, the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Using the new regionalisms approach, with focus on SADC as a representative regional economic community, the purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the extent to which politics rather than economic considerations, has determined the establishment and functioning of SADCC (1980-1992) and thereafter of SADC (from August 17, 1992) and to point out the impact, that these political-driven processes has had on the development of the southern African region integration. A qualitative content analysis is used for data collection while policy analysis is brought out using the Institutional Analysis and Development framework. The results of this study reveal divergence between policy formulation (political) and policy implementation (economic) when it comes to enhancing the developmental aspects in the unfolding regional integration process, yet both equally influential. Moreover, policy formulation at the collective-action level still lacks concrete strategies and plans for the harmonization and implementation of regional initiatives. Some of the strategies for deepening the regional integration process would include prioritizing regional commitments to external ones and improving policy formulation as well as establishing linkages between different regional policies and strategies.

Keywords: Regional integration; regionalism, political economic development; regional and Southern African Development Community.

The so called price control policies have traditionally been understood in terms of concerns about (a) the role and size of the bureaucracy implied (Taussig, 1919, Grayson and Neeb, 1974; Clinard, 1969; Rockoff, 1984; Galbraith, 1941 and 1946); (b) the (potential) short term effectiveness and medium/long term ineffectiveness of controls (Rockoff, 1984, Grayson and Neeb, 1974; Bienen and Gersovitz, 1986, FIEL, 1990); (c) the tax evasion and creation of black markets (Clinard, 1969); (d) the eventual emerging violence following the dismantling of controls or subsidies on consumer goods (Bienen and Gersovitz, 1986; van Wijnberger, 1992); (e) the potential impact on the government coalition (Agéndor and Asilis, 1997); (f) the levels of delivery, fill rates or even any breaks in supply chains (Grayson and Neeb, 1974; Clinard, 1969); (g) the incentives/distortions in the distribution of resources, as a result of the alteration of the price system (Galbraith, 1941, 1946, 1951, 2001; Friedman, 1990; Colander, 1984; Dunn and Pressman, 2005); (h) the search for focused or selftargeted alternatives in order to optimize the use of limited resources and prevent freeriding (Adams, s / f; Alderman, 2002; Gutner, 2002); and (k) its historical development as a political response to rising prices (Schuettinger and Butler, 1978).

However, little has been studied its contribution to the development of state capacities as well as the role of entrepreneurship in the acceptance of price controls.

In this sense, this thesis analyzes the first year of the "Precios Cuidados" program in force in Argentina since January 2014, in order to address two interrelated questions: (a) To what extent the “Precios Cuidados” Program, as a particular and specific form of joint coordination between public and private sector, favored the development and expansion of state capacities? (b) If it is true, as it will be argued, that this new form of joint articulation between the public and private sector contributes to expand state capacities, why did the retail community agree to take part of a voluntary agreement to freeze prices and markups that in the end would help to increase the relative powers of the agencies by which they are controlled without effective guarantees of limits to its exercise? A public policy, in a word, that will give us the unique opportunity to analyze the link between state, market and society and its effect on market regulation and the improvement of state capacities.

This paper explores the relationship between a state's use of voter-approved debt and its credit ratings. The variation in credit ratings from 1973 - 2008 across the 50 US states is explained as a function of states' use of voter-approved debt while controlling for confounding variables. The analysis attempts to estimate the effect of issuing voter-approved debt on credit ratings relative to the effect of issuing legislature-approved debt using a panel dataset constructed from three data sources: the National Conference of State Legislature's Ballot Measure Database, the US Census Bureau's Survey of Government Finances and Standard & Poor's credit ratings. While prior literature has focused on the effect of voter approval requirements on measures of state credit health, this paper investigates the use of voter-approved debt by relying on a variable that measures the share of voter-approved debt issued by a state, in a given year and over time. Ordered probit models controlling for state and year fixed effects, as well as state demographics, finances, economic performance and financial institutions are used to explore the relationship between the use of voter-approved debt and a state's credit rating. The paper finds a statistically significant negative relationship between a state's use of voter-approved debt and its credit ratings. The results show that issuing 60% of state debt using voter-approval (the average for states that issue voter-approved debt in a given year) is related to a 0.71 lower state credit rating on a scale from 1-7 (BBB=1, AAA=7).

There is a limited knowledge on the meanings, experiences, and perceptions of organizational members regarding performance appraisal and how the various experiences and perceptions are perceived to bear on organizational outcomes. With this qualitative study, I explored the experiences and perceptions of organizational personnel regarding performance appraisal systems and how these are perceived to bear on work outcomes. Using case study as research design, a detailed analysis of semi-structured interview involving organizational personnel (leaders, managers, and frontline employees) who lived in northeastern New York, and working in various disciplines and professions was conducted and recorded. NVivo software was used in generating the major thematic links and invariant constituents of the study. Results of the study revealed five significant themes: (a) essential descriptions of performance appraisal, (b) perceived rewards of performance appraisal, (c) differences and similarities of performance appraisal systems across different organizations, (d) perceived association of performance appraisal systems and work outcomes, and (e) recommended changes in performance appraisal systems. Employees who have positive experiences with the system associate performance appraisal with something equally beneficial to employees’ improvement and the operational performance of the organization. These employees reported experiences of motivation, loyalty, commitment, and productivity as they received their feedback. The study identified human resource development activities that could further achieve the real and genuine objectives of performance appraisal system.

Many organizations have a great need for people conversant in foreign languages and cultures. The U.S. Department of Defense operates globally and is always in need of people who can communicate across cultural and linguistic divides, and the gap between what is needed and the personnel who can meet those needs is often considerable. To address this deficit the DOD implemented an incentive pay in the mid 1980s to reward those servicemembers who could prove proficiency in a foreign language. The Foreign Language Proficiency Bonus (FLPB) has gone through numerous changes over the years and this study sought to answer the basic questions, what has been the effect and is it working? How much of an effect does the bonus have on members' actual behavior regarding FL acquisition? This mixed-methods approach analyzed the evolution of policy, conducted a statistical analysis of member testing data, and conducted interviews with 22 current and former recipients of FLPB to see what impact FLPB has had or could have in meeting the DOD goal of increasing FL proficiency within the force. This study focused on the Air Force implementation of the FLPB program, though findings are likely applicable across the military services. Key findings include the rapidly changing nature of FLPB policy, which has caused frustration for many AF members. Further, with numerous stakeholders involved, some points of policy and programs could potentially be working at cross-purposes with overall goals. Statistical analysis found several significant trends; however, many findings do not support FLPB as an effective program in its current form. Many AF members indicated a high desire to use their language skills but are frustrated at the infrequent ability to do so in any official capacity. Several suggestions are offered for how the AF could modify existing policy to achieve its goals for FL proficiency, as well as to maximize scarce financial resources to maximum effect.

This dissertation examines the role of the Federal Reserve System in the formation and conduct of American foreign relations between the Second World War and the Korean War. Specifically, it seeks to understand why Fed officials willingly subordinated monetary policy to the priorities of war finance during the former conflict, but actively fought for greater policy autonomy during the latter. Using a constructivist bureaucratic politics approach it examines how American central bankers understood the economic and political implications of both domestic and international policy developments. Drawing upon the perceived lessons of the interwar years, Fed officials believed that economic prosperity was a critical feature of a stable and peaceful international system. At the same time, however, they believed the situation was more complicated than a simplistic causal relationship whereby greater domestic growth resulted in greater international peace and prosperity. Instead, central bankers recognized that events in either the domestic or international political or economic arenas, if improperly handled, threatened to upset the delicate balance between prosperity and peace. The belief in these fundamental interconnections, while often not explicitly expressed, provided a coherent and logical guide to Fed policy, during the era, informing many of its internal debates and positions. This dissertation, therefore, represents the first attempt to understand the role of the American This dissertation examines the role of the Federal Reserve System in the formation and conduct of American foreign relations between the Second World War and the Korean War. Specifically, it seeks to understand why Fed officials willingly subordinated monetary policy to the priorities of war finance during the former conflict, but actively fought for greater policy autonomy during the latter. Using a constructivist bureaucratic politics approach to foreign policy analysis it examines how American central bankers understood the economic and political implications of both domestic and international policy developments. Drawing upon the perceived lessons of the interwar years, Fed officials believed that economic prosperity was a critical feature of a stable and peaceful international system. At the same time, however, they believed the situation was more complicated than a simplistic causal relationship whereby greater domestic growth resulted in greater international peace and prosperity. Instead, central bankers recognized that events in either the domestic or international political or economic arenas, if improperly handled, threatened to upset the delicate balance between prosperity and peace. The belief in these fundamental interconnections, while often not explicitly expressed, provided a coherent and logical guide to Fed policy, during the era, informing many of its internal debates and positions. This dissertation, therefore, represents the first attempt to understand the role of the American Federal Reserve System as an active participant in foreign policy-making, including its involvement in the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, as well as discussions over the 1946 British Loan, and the Marshall Plan. Additionally, this study bridges the gap between domestic and foreign affairs, demonstrating the critical interrelationships between those two areas.