Date of Award

1-1-2013

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Morgridge College of Education

First Advisor

Duan Zhang, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Kathy Green

Third Advisor

Chris Nelson

Fourth Advisor

Nicholas Cutforth

Fifth Advisor

Kathleen Ohman

Keywords

Education levels, Environment, Country-level studies, Literature review

Abstract

This dissertation presents a design to examine the effects of environmental factors in a country such as education systems levels, corruption, and social freedoms on investment outcomes. The literature review suggests that countries with poor education at the secondary level tend to have lower standards of living, lower levels of freedom, as well as high levels of corruption which appear to have negative effects on their market economies. This study was designed to examine existing data from multiple sources along multiple dimensions, and use a hierarchical linear model, as well as a portfolio optimization model, to assess the impact of these factors. This was accomplished by posing research questions, and collecting and analyzing data from Standard and Poors, Transparency International, and the World Values Organization, as well as the Programme for International Student Assessment. The outcomes of this study generally support the thesis that country-level factors do, in fact, have a bearing on investment outcomes, and that further research in this area is warranted.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Richard Matthew Ostberg

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

149 p.

Discipline

Education, Ethics, Finance

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