Occupational therapy (OT) and applied behavior analysis (ABA) practitioners often collaborate when working with children and young adults with disabilities (McGinnis, 2013). OT and ABA practitioners are primed to collaborate due to many areas of overlap among each respective scope of practice; however, there is limited research to guide best practice for this collaborative partnership (Welch & Polatajko, 2016). According to a review of OT and ABA literature, in addition to the literature of other community-based, social services, and health care professions, there are four major barriers to interprofessional collaboration (IPC): (1) biases, (2) differing cultures, values, and professional languages, (3) overlaps in scopes of practice, and (4) poor communication and relationship-building skills (Kim et al., 2016; Peck & Norman, 1999; Rice et al., 2010). Due to a limited amount of accessible OT and ABA training interventions on collaboration, there is a need for an online, interactive, educational training to present evidence-based and theoretically-sound solutions for the barriers to collaboration. The proposed program is called Supporting Interprofessional Partnerships: An Educational Training for Collaboration Between Occupational Therapy and Applied Behavior Analysis Practitioners. The program’s educational content targets: (1) the definition, benefits, and barriers to IPC, (2) context-based information on ABA’s culture, values, professional language, and scope of practice, and (3) strategies to improve collaboration with ABA providers. Supporting Interprofessional Partnerships explores the working relationship between OT and ABA to improve collaboration as well as client, family, provider, and organizational outcomes.

In many markets, efficiency depends on the quality of information that participants have. However, participants may face frictions in accessing information, which could result in significant welfare losses. My dissertation studies the causes and consequences of information frictions, focusing on the security analyst market and the public cloud market. The first two chapters investigate how information frictions are generated in the security analyst market. Security analysts observe signals and compete to make forecasts on securities’ earnings, which serve as public information to investors. Here I study how analysts’ incentives affect the quality of information they provide. In Chapter 1, I consider security analysts’ incentives as a whole and estimate them using revealed preference. Security analysts are rewarded for being more accurate than their peers. This reward for relative accuracy leads analysts to distort their forecasts to differentiate themselves, but also disciplines them from being overoptimistic. I structurally estimate a contest model with incomplete information to capture both effects, disentangling the payoffs for relative accuracy, optimism and absolute accuracy. Using the model, I conduct counterfactuals to evaluate policies that reduce analysts’ payoff for relative accuracy. I simulate the effect of these policies on the quality of information in terms of forecast errors and variances. The reward for relative accuracy reduces errors by 33 - 58%, but increases variances by 4%. It is optimal to have moderate competition between the covering analysts of each security. In Chapter 2, I ask where these incentives come from. Are analysts motivated by dynamic incentives of reputation, or by short-term compensation such as bonuses? I show with reduced form evidence that low-reputation analysts may face more incentive to outperform their rivals than high reputation analysts. Building on this, I develop and estimate a dynamic model where analysts compete to build reputation and earn compensation. I find that analysts face a strong reputation-building incentive because high reputation is associated with a much higher fixed wage. Meanwhile, their forecasts have an insignificant impact on their immediate compensation. Chapter 3 studies the consequences of information frictions in the public cloud market. Firms need information about available technologies to make good adoption decisions. Inattentiveness to such information may create stickiness to outdated technology. In a joint project with Sida Peng and Peichun Wang, we study the welfare benefits of firms’ public cloud adoption and the consequence of consumer inertia in this market. We develop a novel demand model that allows for both multiple product choices and continuous quantities on each product. We estimate the model using a proprietary dataset on individual firms’ cloud usage history from a major public cloud provider. The estimated average return on investment in cloud is 2.2 times the cost of investment, which is driven by smaller firms disproportionately benefiting from access to computing resources on the cloud. On the other hand, inertia on the cloud leads to sub-optimal product choices for all firms and reduces welfare from cloud usage by almost 62%. We show that introductory discounts incentivizing firms to try new products can improve both consumer welfare and provider revenue.

Bakgrund: Internationell forskning pekar nästan samstämmigt på ett systematiskt problem med att aktieanalytiker regelbundet misslyckas med att publicera korrekta riktkurser. Aktieanalytikerna tenderar att övervärdera aktier, och deras prognoser stämmer sällan. I litteraturen har det funnits ett antal variabler som samvarierar med den bristande träffsäkerheten. Ett ökat intresse av att handla svenska aktier gör problemet mer påtagligt på den svenska aktiemarknaden. Brister i aktieanalytikernas träffsäkerhet är ett relativt outforskat område på svenska börsnoterade bolag, varför det blir relevant att undersöka. Kunskapsbidraget kan nyttjas av privata och institutionella investerare som har ett intresse av svenska aktier. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka och analysera träffsäkerheten hos aktieanalytiker när det gäller riktkurser för svenska börsnoterade bolag. Studien syftar också till att undersöka hur olika variabler så som storlek, tillväxt, betavärde, kapitalstruktur, branschtillhörighet och implicit avkastning relaterar till prognosfelet på riktkurserna. Metod: Genom en kvantitativ metod baserad på en deduktiv ansats testas samband mellan aktieanalytikers träffsäkerhet och ett antal variabler som tidigare har påvisats i litteraturen. Paneldata från en sekundärkälla bygger upp studiens empiriska material och potentiella samband mäts med regressionsanalyser för tre olika tidshorisonter. Den beroende variabeln är det absoluta prognosfelet på publicerade riktkurser, och de förklarande variablerna är storlek, tillväxt, betavärde, kapitalstruktur, branschtillhörighet och absolut implicit avkastning. Vidare analyseras eventuell överoptimism hos aktieanalytikerna med hjälp av det relativa prognosfelet och t-tester. Resultat: Studien finner att aktieanalytiker systematiskt misslyckas med att korrekt prognostisera riktkurser på svenska börsnoterade bolag, och det genomsnittliga prognosfelet är 28% efter tre månader, 31% efter sex månader och 36% efter tolv månader. Vidare finner studien att träffsäkerheten är bättre för stora bolag, bolag med låg tillväxt och vid låg absolut implicit avkastning. Resultaten pekar på en systematisk överoptimism då aktiekurserna övervärderas i en mycket hög utsträckning. / Background: International research almost unanimously points to a systematic issue with equity analysts regularly failing to publish accurate target prices. Stock analysts tend to overvalue stocks, and their forecasts are rarely correct. The literature has identified correlations between the lack of accuracy and several variables. Increased interest in Swedish stocks intensifies the problem on the Swedish stock market. The lack of accuracy is a relatively unexplored area on Swedish listed companies, which makes it relevant to study. The knowledge contribution can further benefit private and institutional investors with an interest in Swedish stocks. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to examine and analyze the accuracy of equity analysts in predicting target prices for Swedish listed companies. The study also aims to examine how different variables such as size, growth, beta value, capital structure, industry, and implied return correlates to forecast error of target prices. Methodology: By employing a quantitative method based on a deductive approach, relationships between equity analysts' accuracy and a set of variables previously identified in the literature are tested. Panel data from a secondary source constitute the empirical material of the study, and potential correlations are measured using regression analysis for three different time horizons. The dependent variable is the absolute forecast error of published target prices, and the explanatory variables are size, growth, beta value, capital structure, industry, and absolute implied return. Furthermore, potential over-optimism among equity analysts is analyzed using the relative forecast error and t-tests. Results: The study finds that equity analysts consistently fail to accurately forecast target prices for Swedish listed companies, with an average forecast error of 28% after three months, 31% after six months, and 36% after twelve months. Furthermore, the study finds that accuracy is higher for large companies, companies with low growth, and when the absolute implied return is low. The results indicate a systematic over-optimism, as stock prices are significantly overvalued.

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After Shleifer and Vishny (1997) introduce agency conflicts between controlling insiders and outside investors, a new research trend has emerged, which focuses on controlling insiders' incentives for opportunistic behavior and assumes that controlling insiders may want more opaque corporate information environment to mask their pursuance of private control benefits. However, there are still open issues on the topic of how different controlling shareholder types, such as business group owners, institutional owners and family owners, each affect corporate information environment. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the different roles of controlling ownership types on corporate informational environment. Chapter 1 examines earnings management behaviors of firms affiliated with business groups, using a unique dataset for South Korean business groups (chaebols) between 1993 and 2007. Contrary to predictions of agency theory, we find that group firms are actually less engaged in earnings management than non-group firms, and we offer controlling family's concern for group reputation as an explanation. Group firms are also shown to use more real cash flow-based earnings management than discretionary accruals management. The results are robust with respect to the method of control sample construction, alternative models and group definitions, and endogeneity. There is also evidence that corporate reforms undertaken in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, including regulations on auditing and combined group-wide financial reports, appear to have mitigated the use of earnings management by group firms. These results are consistent with the notion that concerns for group reputation may mitigate agency-based opportunistic earnings management behaviors. Chapter 2 examines whether domestic and foreign institutional investors improve corporate transparency in the presence of controlling benefits. We construct the transparency index, as well as its sub-indices based on firm- and market-level information, using group and non-group firm-level data for South Korea between 2001 and 2007. The results show that foreign institutional ownership improves overall corporate transparency, while the effects of domestic institutional ownership are insignificant. This is traceable to sub-index findings that foreign investors are associated with improvement in both firm-level and market-level transparency, while domestic institutional investors are associated with a decrease in firm-level transparency, but with an increase in market-level transparency, which may offset each other. The effects are non-linear for domestic institutional ownership, while those of foreign institutional ownership remain monotonic. These findings are consistent with the notion that domestic institutional investors are conflicted by their role as monitors to boost transparency and by their desire to pursue control benefits by exploiting insider information and promoting selective transparency. Foreign investors, lacking such controlling benefit opportunities, tend to promote general transparency. Chapter 3 examines how the dynamics between family owners and market participants, such as analysts, market makers and investors determine a firm's overall transparency, using South Korean data between 2001 and 2007. Our results show that family ownership has a positive relation with earning-based transparency, while it has a negative relation with market-based transparency. As a result, family ownership seems to have no impact on overall transparency. However, an analysis based on sorting of family ownership shows that firms with less than 30% family ownership show a positive significant relation to overall transparency, but firms with family ownership of 30% or higher have an insignificant relation with overall transparency. This discrepancy may exist because family owners may want to promote corporate transparency through better earning-based information dissemination, but market participants discount such efforts and this discount increases as family ownership increases. / Business Administration/Finance

Transitions occur at many points in a child's educational journey. For children with disabilities, these changes in routine, service providers, and setting may be especially difficult and result in problem behavior. Special education teachers are expected to facilitate a smooth transition from one setting to another, teaching appropriate skills and addressing problem behavior as it arises. Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs), who have an expertise in problem behavior and skill generalization, are currently under-utilized in schools and could work collaboratively with special education teachers and other stakeholders to make it easier for students with disabilities experiencing a school transition. As only 12.16% of actively licensed BCBAs work in education, the literature on effective collaboration practices between BCBAs and special education teachers, particularly in transition, is scarce. We organized seven Multi Perspectival IPA focus groups, including a pilot study group, made up of 25 special education teachers and administrators who have worked with BCBAs. Results show that a duality exists among special educators in this work- special educators expressed both a genuine desire to work with BCBAs, as well as a desire to be acknowledged and respected for their own work and expertise with students, indicating a complexity in this collaborative relationship. Implications for practice, implications for research, and limitations are discussed.

Cities play a crucial role in sustainable energy system transformation. Urban energy systems account for 75% of global primary energy use, and 70% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (IEA, 2021). There is currently a large, untapped potential for reducing both energy demand and emissions by focusing measures on one of the largest consumers of energy: buildings. In North Macedonia, there is an estimated energy savings potential of 57% in the residential sector, and 29% in the public service sector (Apostolska et al., 2020). In the midst of the country’s ambitious targets of decreasing energy demand and GHG reductions, the city of Bitola is in the process of developing an action plan for a sustainable transition of the city. For this purpose, there is a need to investigate the current challenges in the energy system of the city and to evaluate potential future pathways to address these challenges, with a focus on the built environment. In this thesis, a city-scale urban building energy model (UBEM) of the city of Bitola was developed using the software City Energy Analyst (CEA). This involved modeling a total of 14 024 buildings in the city ranging from residential buildings to commercial and industrial facilities. Out of these 14 024 buildings, 10 792 were included in the analysis after excluding abandoned buildings which account for an estimated 25% of the total residential building stock. One Baseline scenario based on the current energy use in the built environment in the city, and four scenarios investigating building retrofit measures and alternative heating solutions were developed for the time period 2023-2040 which were then assessed based on three key performance indicators (KPIs). A 2% implementation rate was used for the measures included in the scenarios, resulting in a total of 34% of the buildings being included in the scenario assessment. The scenarios included in the analysis are Business-as-Usual (BAU), decentralized natural gas boilers (NGB), district heating (DH) and decentralized heat pumps (HP). The KPIs include the total primary energy demand, the total operational CO2 emissions, and the economic performance of the system, measured as a net present value (NPV). All scenarios were also evaluated with and without solar photovoltaic (PV). The results showed the BAU scenario to be the lowest performing scenario for all three KPIs, while the HP scenario showed to be the best-performing scenario regarding the reduction of energy demand and CO2 emissions, with a 99% reduction of CO2 emissions and a 65% lower energy demand than in the baseline year. However, this comes at a relatively high cost compared to the other scenarios. The DH and NGB scenarios performed moderately regarding demand and CO2 emission savings while performing better from an economic standpoint. All scenarios showed a low share of buildings on an individual level having a positive NPV, thus failing to reach a positive total NPV for the entire system. On the other hand, the sensitivity analysis demonstrated how a reduction of the capital expenditure (CAPEX) led to a positive NPV for all scenarios with PV, and for all scenarios except BAU without PV. This indicates that subsidies provided by local or national stakeholders could result in a profitable investment. Two important conclusions can be drawn from the results: firstly, taking any action and implementing either of the HP, NGB and DH scenarios will be more beneficial than taking no action, and secondly, the sustainable development of the city needs to be led by the local municipality, as well as national stakeholders to enable a long-lasting transition. / Städer spelar en avgörande roll för omställningen till hållbara energisystem. Energisystem i städer står för 75% av den globala primära energianvändningen och 70% av de globala växthusgasutsläppen (IEA, 2021). För närvarande finns det en stor, outnyttjad potential för minskning av både energibehov och utsläpp genom att fokusera på åtgärder för en av de största energikonsumenterna: byggnader. I Nordmakedonien uppskattas det finnas potential för energibesparingar på 57% i bostadssektorn och 29% i offentlig sektor (Apostolska et al., 2020). I samband med landets ambitiösa mål om att minska energianvändning och växthusgasutsläpp genomgår staden Bitola för närvarande en process för att utveckla en handlingsplan för en hållbar omställning av staden. För detta ändamål krävs en undersökning av de aktuella utmaningarna i stadens energisystem och utvärdering av potentiella framtida riktningar för att möta dessa utmaningar, med fokus på den bebyggda miljön. I detta examensarbete utvecklades en modell i stadsskala av energianvändningen i byggnader för staden Bitola i Nordmakedonien med hjälp av programvaran City Energy Analyst (CEA). Modellen omfattade totalt 14 024 byggnader, från bostadshus till kommersiella och industriella fastigheter. Då 25% av stadens bostadsbyggnader uppskattas vara övergivna ingick totalt 10 792 byggnader i den slutgiltiga analysen. Ett basscenario som beskriver dagens energianvändning i byggnaderna, och fyra framtida scenarier, som omfattar energieffektiviseringsåtgärder och alternativa värmesystem, utvecklades för tidsperioden 2023-2040. En implementeringstakt om 2% av byggnadsbeståndet, vilket resulterade i att totalt 34% av byggnadsbeståndet inkluderades i scenarioanalysen. De fyra framtida scenarierna som ingick i analysen är Business-as-Usual (BAU), decentraliserade gasvärmepannor (NGB), fjärrvärme (DH) och decentraliserade värmepumpar (HP). Scenarierna bedömdes med hjälp av tre nyckeltal (KPI:er): den totala primärenergianvändningen, de totala operativa CO2 utsläppen och den ekonomiska prestandan, mätt som investeringens nu värde (NPV). Samtliga scenarier utvärderades med och utan implementering av solceller. Resultaten visade att scenariot BAU presterade sämst för alla tre KPI:er, medanHP-scenariot visade sig vara det bäst presterande scenariot för minskning avenergibehovet och CO2-utsläppen, med 99% minskning av CO2-utsläpp och 65%lägre energianvändning jämfört med basscenariot. Dock är detta förknippat medrelativt höga kostnader jämfört med de andra scenarierna. DH- och NGB-scenariotpresterade måttligt gällande besparing av energibehov och CO2-utsläpp, samtidigt somde presterade bättre ur ett ekonomiskt perspektiv. Alla scenarier resulterade i en lågandel av byggnader på individuell nivå med ett positivt NPV, vilket innebär att demisslyckas med att nå ett positivt totalt NPV för hela systemet. Å andra sidan visadekänslighetsanalysen att en minskning av investerings kostnaderna (CAPEX) ledde tillett positivt NPV för alla scenarier med solceller, och för alla scenarier utom BAU utan solceller. Detta indikerar att subventioner från lokala och nationella aktörer kan leda till en lönsam investering. Två viktiga slutsatser kan dras från dessa resultat: för det första, att vidta åtgärder och implementera något av HP-, NGB- eller DH-scenariot är mer fördelaktigt än att inte vidta några åtgärder, och för det andra, behöver den hållbara utvecklingen av staden ledas av den lokala kommunen samt nationella aktörer för att möjliggöra en långvarig omställning.