The primary purpose of this thesis was to investigate if the modern Phillips Curve is valid for ASEAN five (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Philippines) countries using a time-varying approach in the form of an ARMA-GARCH model. The method enables us to investigate how the inflation volatility reacts to economic shocks and if its history can predict the conditional variance of inflation. This study also aimed to investigate whether financial liberalisation affects the conditional variance of inflation. Moreover, we introduce a new parameter into the Phillips Curve. We propose the inclusion of a globally decomposed financial spillover index to see how it affects the inflation dynamics. Examining the period between 1996-2020, using monthly data. We find weak results, and the Phillips Curve was only valid for Singapore. Our findings also suggest that the inflation volatility is highly time-varying, indicating the suitability of the ARMA-GARCH framework. Significant coefficients in the model allow forecasting the conditional variance of inflation. The results support the idea that financial liberalisation to be volatility augmenting in some countries, suggesting a negative relationship between the degree of financial integration and received spillover effects. The globally decomposed spillover indices demonstrated weak results. For further investigations, we, therefore, propose the usage of regionally decomposed spillover indices.

No description available.

Problem definition: Along with a rapid growth of Internet usage new forms of communication and marketing have occurred. Influencer marketing have become a popular marketing form, but are brand’s aware of the risk it involves when collaborating with an influencer? This thesis examines how a brand’s trustworthiness can be affected by an influencer’s wrongdoing, in the perception of the critical generation - Generation Z. Purpose: Since Generation Z are a digital and critical generation who rely on influencers recommendations, but also value trustworthiness and transparency from a brand, we want to explore how Generation Z’s perceived trustworthiness of a brand change when an influencer connected to a brand makes a wrongdoing. Research question: This thesis consist of two research questions.  RQ1: Can there be a relationship between an influencers trustworthiness and a brand’s trustworthiness in Generation Z’s perception?    RQ2: How does an Influencers wrongdoing spill over on Generation Z’s perception of a brand’s trustworthiness depending on the brands reaction?  Methodology: The study is based on a quantitative method with a deductive approach. The empirical data was collected through a online survey that was answered by 148 respondents. The data were then analyzed through SPSS. Hypotheses developed from the research questions were then accepted or rejected.  Conclusion: The study resulted in that there is a weak relationship between Generation Z’s perception of an influencer’s trustworthiness and a brand’s trustworthiness. Furthermore, the findings from the survey resulted in that there is a negative spillover effect on brand’s trustworthiness regardless on how they act on an influencer’s wrongdoing.

MSc (Physics) / Department of Physics / Since the discovery of water photolysis on a TiO2 electrode by Fujishima and Honda in 1972, TiO2 has attracted extensive attention as an ideal photocatalytic material because of its excellent properties such as high activity, good stability, nontoxicity and low cost. Hence, it has been widely used in the fields of renewable energy and ecological environmental protection. However, as a wide band gap oxide semiconductor (Eg = 3.14 eV), brookite TiO2 can only show photocatalytic activity under UV light irradiation (λ < 387.5 nm) that accounts for only a small portion of solar energy (approximately 5 %), in contrast to visible light for a major part of solar energy (approximately 45 %). Therefore, effectively utilizing sunlight is the most challenging subject for the extensive application of TiO2 as a photocatalyst. Due to the unique d electronic configuration and spectral characteristics of transition metals, transition metal doping is one of the most effective approaches to extend the absorption edge of TiO2 to the visible light region. This method of doping either inserts a new band into the original band gap or modifies either the conduction band or valence band, improving the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 to some degree. In this work, the structural, electronic and optical properties of doped and undoped TiO2 (100), (110) and (210) surfaces were performed using first principle calculations based on DFT using a plane-wave pseudopotential method. The generalized gradient approximation was used in the scheme of Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof to describe the exchangecorrelation functional as implemented in the Cambridge Sequential Total Energy Package code in the Materials Studio of BIOVIA. The metal dopants shift the absorption to longer wavelengths and improves optical absorbance in visible and near- IR region. The un-doped (210) surface showed some activity in the visible and near IR region. / NRF

During the last decade there has been an increase in renewable energy companies. At the same time, propositions have been put forward worldwide in order to restrict the possibilities for expansion for energy companies with their focus on oil and gas. This study aims to analyse the potential spillover effects between oil and renewable energy stocks on the Nordic Stock markets in order to explain how these events might affect investors abilities to predict potential gains in the markets. Spillover effects are characterized by seemingly unrelated events in one market having an impact on another. Similar studies have been conducted in countries that have a large dependency on oil as their means of energy. However, with the Nordic region being on the forefront when it comes to renewable energy globally, the aim was to see if there would be similar effects between the different sectors between different countries. The study utilized Market Capitalization based indexes for both types of stocks and examined the correlations between them during different time periods. This in order to find trends related to different time periods that could open up for different investment opportunities depending on the user. As the study showed, there were significantly negative correlations between the indexes in favour of the renewable market. However, these correlations were not true for all time periods within the study and could therefore not be confirmed as a definite result.

In this thesis, I study the effect of the downsizing of military bases after theCold War on both local house prices and neighboring municipalities’ houseprices. To establish causality, I use a Difference-in-Difference approach withTwo-Way Fixed Effects. Then an Event Study is performed to examinepossible dynamic effects. I studied both the general effect and heterogeneitytreatment effect. I found that there, in general, is no effect on local houseprices. Only from the 1999s defense bill, which increased local house priceswhen air force bases closed and decreased when army bases closed. However,there is evidence of spillover effects on neighboring municipalities’ houseprices in general, regardless of the base type, from the downsizing of themilitary.

<p>Coworker friendships refer to interpersonal relationships between peers and overlap across work and personal domains of life. Prior research suggests that these relationships are beneficial in some ways and detrimental in others, and that they are characterized by divergent forms of social bonds (i.e., friendly or affective bond and work-related or instrumental bond), relational expectations, and norms. Yet, the processes through which coworker friendships influence employees’ work outcomes and well-being remains poorly understood. To illuminate the features of coworker friendships and the mechanisms through which they affect employees, I develop the Coworker Friendship-Resource (CFR) Model. Specifically, building from interaction ritual theory, I explore how features of friendship—nonwork socializing and self-disclosure with coworker along with the personal growth function (i.e., benefit or purpose) of the coworker relationship—simultaneously drain and replenish employees resources or energy by shaping work-nonwork (enrichment and conflict), affective (vitality), cognitive (psychological detachment from work), and relational (intrusion) mechanisms, and subsequent employee work behaviors, well-being, and relationship conflict. I also consider the contingencies affecting these pathways, including contextual work features and individual differences. Overall, the CFR model highlights the simultaneous benefits and burdens of coworker friendships for employees and organizations. To test the CFR model, I conducted a pilot study to validate new measures, a vignette experiment, and a two-wave field study. As a set, the results of the vignette and field studies revealed countervailing effects of the friendship features on resource gain and drain.</p>

Premise of The Study: Studies on the effects of heterospecific pollen (HP) transfer have been focused mainly on insect-pollinated species, despite evidence of insect visitation to wind-pollinated species and transfer of their pollen onto stigmas of insect-pollinated plants. Thus, the potential consequences of HP transfer from wind-pollinated species remain largely unknown. Furthermore, accumulation of pesticide residues in pollen of wind-pollinated crops has been documented, but its potential effects on wild plant species via HP transfer have not been tested. Methods: We evaluated the effect of wind-dispersed Zea mays pollen on pollen tube growth of the insect-pollinated Mimulus nudatus via hand pollinations. We further evaluated whether pesticide-contaminated Z. mays pollen has larger effects on M. nudatus pollen success than non-contaminated Z. mays pollen. Key Results: We found a significant negative effect of Z. mays pollen on M. nudatus pollen tube growth even when deposited in small amounts. However, we did not observe any difference in the magnitude of this effect between pesticide-laden Z. mays pollen and non-contaminated Z. mays pollen. Conclusions: Our results suggest that wind-pollinated species can have negative effects as HP donors on insect-pollinated recipients. Thus, their role in shaping co-flowering interactions for wind- and insect-pollinated species deserves more attention. Although we did not find evidence that pesticide contamination increased HP effects, we cannot fully rule out the existence of such an effect, because pollen load and thus the pesticide dose applied to stigmas was low. This result should be confirmed using other HP donors and across a range of HP loads, pesticide types, and concentrations.

No description available.

No description available.