For outsiders to higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Korea, predicting the outcomes of the International Education Quality Assurance System (IEQAS)--a Korean institutional accreditation system for HEIs--is challenging. The annual IEQAS accreditation has been conducted behind closed doors; the assessment process is confidential, and there…

While school enrollment at the primary level has been rising in developing countries rapidly, international measures of education quality do not exhibit a parallel improvement. Since parents' expenditure is an important determinant of children's school performance, we investigate parents' investments on quality measured by their spending on books…

This paper examines the prevalence and the costs of pre-entry coaching programs before and after the introduction of the Unified State Examination in Russia. The efficiency of private tutoring under the new standardized university admission procedures is estimated. It is argued that the main types of pre-entry coaching are still in demand, however…

This article examines the relationship between pre-entry coaching (both in terms of money and effort) and the achievement of Russian high school graduates as measured by the results of the Unified State Examination (USE). Using a data set of students from the 16 biggest Russian cities, which includes information on USE results, family background,…

This paper uses a rich longitudinal dataset to measure the evolution of the gender differences in numeracy among school-age children in Indonesia. Girls outperformed boys by 0.08 standard deviations when the sample was around 11 years old. Seven years later, the gap has widened to 0.19 standard deviations, equivalent to around 18 months of…

In 1979, less than 30% of full-time university students in Canada worked for pay during the academic year. By the mid-2000s, this had risen to 45%. This trend to increasing work among full-time students is also evident in other countries, and may be a concern if it reduces students' investment in human capital during their studies. I find that,…

Effective investment strategies help companies form dynamic core organizational capabilities allowing them to adapt and survive in today's rapidly changing knowledge-based economy. This dissertation investigates three valuation issues that challenge managers with respect to developing business-critical investment strategies that can have…

This paper examines the importance of trade openness for attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows, using a sample of 36 developing economies for the period 1990-2008. It provides a direct test of causality between FDI inflows, trade openness and other key variables in developing regions of the world: Latin America, Asia, Africa, CIS…

This dissertation consists of three studies on the development of information technology (IT) industry in Korea and Taiwan. Using industry-level data from those countries, I would like to investigate why similar economies would take different paths toward developing their industries. The first chapter, "Span of Control and Production…

This study investigates how workers' gender, work experience, designated division, and appointment affect (i) their perception of information technology (IT) within the organisation, (ii) their self-perceived capacity in knowledge management (KM), and (iii) their perception of organisational performance (OP). Furthermore, the study also examines…

This paper examines relationships between the resources available to immigrant families and the amount parents are willing and able to save for their children's post-secondary education (PSE). We use data from Statistics Canada's 2002 Survey of Approaches to Educational Planning to compare immigrant and native-born PSE saving. The results indicate…

This is a study on various aspects of market microstructure, behavioral finance and asset management. In the first chapter we put the PIN variable (Probability of Information-based trading) to test. The PIN variable has been used extensively in the microstructure literature despite the fact that its construction is based on rather strong…

In the UK, education is the third largest area of government spending (of which school spending has the largest share). Since 2000, school expenditure has increased by about 40 per cent in real terms for both primary and secondary schools (see Figure 1). The question as to whether such investment is worthwhile is of central importance. The…

The individual results to vocational education and training qualifications (VET) and the implications thereof for lifelong learning were examined by analyzing data from Australia's 1997 Survey of Education and Training. Private rates of return to various VET qualifications for individuals were calculated by using the internal rate of return, which…