Thesis advisor: Philip E. Strahan / This dissertation consists of two essays which explore the interface between retail banks and organized criminality. In the first of these, “Dark Banking? Banks and Illicit Financial Flows from the Mexican Drug Trade,” I explore why banks provide financial services to organized-crime syndicates. I also ask whether there is a role for regulation in insulating finance from criminal activity. I address these questions using evidence from the drug trade in Mexico, finding that local drug cartel activity causes an increase in bank deposits, and branch networks grow in affected areas. After the election of a “law-and-order” government, these effects dissipate, with liquidity flowing into branches of U.S. banks along the border. In the second essay, “Bank Branch Networks, Banking Relationships, and Organized Crime,” I explore if banks develop relationships with criminal organizations, exploiting spatial variation in cartel activity, again using Mexico as an empirical laboratory. I test whether banks with prior exposure to criminal activity are more likely to enter areas where cartels operate, as well as whether previous exposure to specific cartels predicts entry into banking markets where said cartels have entered. Results suggest that certain banks do establish these relationships. Bank characteristics that have significant effects on differential behavior regarding collusion with organized criminal organizations are domestic majority equity ownership and bank size. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Finance.

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Collection rates and recycling rates of plastic packaging are considerably lower than for other packaging materials in Sweden. In the context of a circular economy, higher plastic packaging recycling rates could contribute to increased resource efficiency and lowered greenhouse gas emissions. A deposit-returnsystem (DRS) for plastic packaging could be an appropriate economic policy instrument to increase recycling rates. This thesis investigates if and how the scope of the DRS in Sweden could be extended to post-consumer plastic packaging. Potential challenges for an extended DRS are identified through semi-structured qualitative research interviews and a literature review. Solutions to overcome the challenges are identified with lessons from earlier DRSs and are complemented with other possible solutions. The results show that the DRS scope could potentially be extended to small hollow bodies. This product group could be implemented gradually in existing infrastructure, is easy to grasp for consumers and its share of the plastic packaging waste is sufficiently high. The focus should be on non-food packaging to avoid hygienic issues. Higher consumer awareness concerning plastic issuesand policies, which incentivize plastic packaging recycling, were identified as important drivers for an extended DRS. / Insamlings- och återvinningsgraden av plastförpackningar är betydligt lägre i Sverige än för andra förpackningsmaterial. Genom att öka återvinningen av plastförpackningar kan högre resurseffektivitet och lägre utsläpp av växthusgaser uppnås. Ett pant-system för plastförpackningar kan således vara ett lämpligt styrmedel för att öka mängden återvunnet material. Detta examensarbete undersöker möjligheterna för ett utökat pantsystem i Sverige där plastförpackningar är inkluderade. Potentiella utmaningar för ett utökat system identifierades genom semi-strukturerade kvalitativa forskningsintervjuer och tillhörande litteraturstudie. Inspiration och lärdomar av liknande fall användes för att minska effekten av dessa i synergi med andra alternativa lösningar. Resultaten visar att användningen av ett pantsystem kan potentiellt utökas för att inkludera små ihåliga produkter. Denna produktgrupp kan implementeras med relativt små medel, inkorporeras i den befintliga infrastrukturen, förstås av konsumenter och står för en tillräckligt hög andel av avfallet för en mätbar effekt. Fokus bör vara på icke-livsmedelsförpackningar för att undvika risk för kontaminering. Ökad medvetenhet hos konsumenter rörande plastfrågor i kombination med tydligare riktlinjer och styrmedel för att motivera återvinning av plastförpackningar identifierades som viktiga drivkrafter för ett utökat pantsystem.

Banded iron formations (BIFs) are iron oxide- and silica-rich chemical sedimentary rocks and the principal source of high-grade (HG) iron ore. Magnetic survey methods are commonly applied in the exploration for BIF-hosted iron ore deposits but the interpretation of total magnetic intensity (TMI) data is often complicated by the presence of strong remanent magnetization and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS). This study evaluated a tri-axial fluxgate vector magnetometer system for ground-based high-resolution mapping of BIF-hosted HG iron ore deposits at a 16 ha site near Mary River, Baffin Island. Magnetometer orientation was measured using a MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical System) accelerometer and dual D-GPS receivers. 12-oriented block samples were collected for analysis of rock magnetic properties and supplemented with outcrop measurements using a hand-held susceptibility probe. The large (3 Gauss) dynamic range of the tri-axial vector magnetometer permitted mapping of HG magnetite ore zones, with TMI in excess of 400,000 nT. A 20 m-wide W-E trending HG zone and a narrow (<10 m) BIF zone were identified in RMV maps with distinctive dipole signatures. Within the HG zone a northwest-southeast oriented magnetic fabric was defined by linear magnetic lows that offset the strike of the HG ore zone and were interpreted as brittle faults or shear zones. The RMV orientation indicated the presence of strong bedding parallel magnetization, while its signal amplitude showed a wide variation between ore types and provided basis for ore grade differentiation. Paleomagnetic measurements revealed high Q ratios for hematite ores and strong AMS for BIF. The results from Mary River demonstrate that remanence and AMS effects are important in BIF-hosted iron ores and cannot be neglected in magnetic interpretation and inversion modelling of magnetic source bodies. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

<p> The Rotoiti Breccia Formation is a pyroclastic flow deposit located at the northern end of the Taupo volcanic zone, North Island New Zealand. It was formed by a fairly low energy subaerial eruption and subsequent flowage, which restricted it to the topographic low between two older ignimbrites.</p> <p> Samples from proximal, medial and distal areas of the flow were examined to determine changes in grain size and particle type distribution as the flow progressed. It was found that on the whole, the flow was very homogenous. However, some initial turbulence at the very beginning of the flow has produced a bimodal grain size distribution presumably due to increased mechanical breakage. A much more prominant crystal population was found in the distal areas of the flow due to rounding of pumice grains and the elutriation of the resultant fines.</p> / Thesis / Bachelor of Science (BSc)

<p> Sulphur isotope data from coexisting sulphides and sulphates from the 120m level of the Shangtancen ore body of the Taolin Pb-Zn ore deposit have been used to estimate the temperatures of sulphur mineral precipitation. The data indicate that sulphide was the dominant species in solution at both high and low temperatures. The data also show that the 𝛿34S value of total sulphur in solution was close to zero at high temperatures, but had low negative values (about -6.7‰) at low temperatures. This is interpreted in terms of the effects of mineral precipitation on the isotopic 34 composition of the solution. The decrease of the 𝛿34S value of the total sulphur with decreasing temperature was brought about because the removal from the system, by precipitation, of isotopically heavy sulphate exceeded the removal from the system, by precipitation, of isotopically light sulphide.</p> / Thesis / Bachelor of Science (BSc)

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