The European Union, and especially the Eurozone, has experienced a period of political and economic difficulties after the Financial Crisis of 2008, and Debt Crisis of 2010. Austerity measures have been presented by the EMU’s elite as the only possible way to end the actual crisis, however many of the policies produced non-desirable side effects. However, the negative economic outcome in countries like Greece or Ireland questioned the vision of the status quo in the EU. These complications produced a questioning of the ideological assumptions behind the creation of the Euro due to the social and economic problematics that the crisis provoked. Moreover, some of the outcome of the subsequent policies of austerity produced political and social unrest, with a deep economic consequence for some Euro members. Besides, the rise of “Eurosceptic” parties all over Europe shows a deep mistrust from the population on the actual management to the crisis, some of the issues rise to critique present the opposition to the actual policies claiming against the lack of democracy on the decision making process.

Molti studi hanno evidenziato come le riforme legate al NPM abbiano favorito l’adozione di logiche di mercato nelle amministrazioni pubbliche, basate sul rafforzamento dell’efficienza e dell’efficacia, e l’introduzione di innovazioni manageriali nell’erogazione dei servizi pubblici. In ciò, i meccanismi contabili pubblici hanno giocato un ruolo importante. Alcuni hanno enfatizzato che sono poche le evidenze sulla relazione tra logiche di NPM e maggiore performance, sottolineando che l’efficienza e l’orientamento ai risultati non sono sufficienti a evitare le conseguenze di shock. Altri affermano che le recenti misure di austerity hanno portato ad un rinnovato interesse sia in approcci di tipo privatistico, che a logiche neo-weberiane, ma sono anche emersi nuovi paradigmi. Date queste considerazioni, la mia ricerca mira a contribuire (i) alla letteratura di pubblica amministrazione e a quella di financial management investigando come le risposte organizzative a eventi negativi sono legate alle precedenti strategie finanziarie e condizioni e capacità organizzative, e come la resilienza organizzativa sia influenzata da condizioni interne ed esterne; (ii) alla letteratura di public sector accounting, esplorando come l’accounting inficia sulle relazioni tra stato ed enti locali nell’ambito delle politiche di austerity, e le relative conseguenze su come i servizi pubblici sono organizzati, erogati e a chi. / Many studies have emphasized how NPM reforms have led to the adoption of market logics within public sector organizations, based on enhancing efficiency and effectiveness, and to the introduction of managerial innovations to public service delivery. In this, public accounting mechanisms have played a relevant role. Some have emphasized that there are scant evidences of the relation between NPM logics and increased performance, with “efficiency” and “result-orientation” being not sufficient to avoid the consequences of shocks. Others claim that the recent austerity measures has led to a renewed interest on both private-like approaches and neo-weberian logics, but also to the emergence of post-NPM paradigms. Based on these considerations, my research aims (i) to contribute to public administration and public sector financial management literature by investigating how organizational responses to negative events are rooted in past financial strategies and organizational conditions and capacities, and how organizational resilience is affected both by internal and external conditions; (ii) to contribute to public sector accounting literature by exploring how accounting is implicated in the (re)shaping of the relationship between central and local governments under the emergence of austerity policies, and how this affects how public services are organized, provided, and to whom.

While several populist parties with ties to the left side of the ideological scale have become more prominent in the electoral arenas across Western Europe, the literature on populism still has a disproportionate focus on the right. To enhance the existing research on explanatory factors to the electoral fortunes of left-wing populist parties, this study tests two competing theories using multivariate regression analysis. The first theory concerns the effect of mainstream party convergence, and the second, the increased tension between governing parties’ responsive role towards the electorate and their responsible role as national leaders, here operationalized as the implementation of fiscal consolidation. The results show that austerity is conducive to left-wing populist success, and correspondingly supports the theory of the tension between governing parties’ responsibility and responsiveness. However, the effect is weaker when controlling for economic factors, which might be an indication of a partly spurious relationship or the included variables being endogenous. Despite a flexible operationalization, the convergence theory receives marginal to no support and the direction is opposite to what is expected in two of the models, rendering the results even more ambiguous and difficult to analyze. Whereas a lack of variation in the data denotes that the findings should be interpreted with caution, there is hence an indication that existing theories concerning the success of the populist left should not be taken for granted as long as empirical research is limited.

This master’s thesis deals with the energy assessment of an administrative building. The theoretical part is devoted to legislation for energy assessment – law, regulations and technical standards. The application of this legislation is provided in the calculation part as energy audit and energy performance certificate of the administrative building. The last part of this thesis is dedicated to application of computational softwares for analysing results of heat consumption in comparison with reality.

Over the last decade, a new trend of Global Remittances has emerged within the international development community, especially a growing interest in women’s migration and remittances, and their potential for poverty reduction and economic growth. Due to the staggering amount of transnational money transfers, migrant remittances have become a central component in multilateral discussions on alternative development financing, and has been included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The present study thus explores the multiple ways in which this gendered migration-remittance-development nexus has come to play out the recent years, seeking to understand how the “banking the unbanked” logic along with microfinance profit-making agendas serves neoliberal governmental and infrastructural discursive formations of transnational migration and its development impact. By using a decolonial approach, the study uses critical discourse analysis to scrutinize selected multilateral actors’ policy documents to explore in what ways migrant women’s “financial inclusion, independence and economic empowerment” have been included in the goals and targets within the 2030 Agenda. The main finding is that the rights-based approach towards migrants in the sustainability discourse rather tends to dismantle migrant agency into monetary practices which have come to be an important means for the financialization of migrant and non-migrant communities as well as for the transmittance of western knowledge doctrines, and in turn, are to prolong regimes of “modern slavery.”

Au-delà de la capacité des systèmes à faire face aux crises sanitaires, investir en prévention devrait se lire « investir pour la santé » dans la perspective plus large d’une amélioration du bien-être des populations. Plusieurs études démontrent que les programmes de santé publique contribuent à prévenir la mortalité, améliorent la qualité de vie et réduisent les coûts des soins de santé sur le court et long terme (Dyakova et al. 2017 ; Masters et al. 2017). Pourtant, le portrait des dépenses de santé dans la plupart des pays suggère un sous-financement inquiétant des dépenses préventives en santé. Ce mémoire propose un cadre formel pour démystifier les dynamiques politiques et financières sous-jacentes à la prise de décision des gouvernements en place en matière d’investissement en santé préventive. Plus précisément, il est question d’analyser les variations des dépenses en santé publique dans les provinces canadiennes de 1975 à 2018. En s’intéressant à l’organisation du système de santé dans son ensemble et au gré des réformes politiques et structurelles des provinces, les résultats de l’analyse qualitative montrent que l’émergence du nouveau management public (NMP) dans les années 1990 a globalement contribué à la diminution accordée à la prévention. L’analyse quantitative quant à elle, énonce les éléments conjoncturels et structurels financiers qui participent à la variation des dépenses en santé publique. En considérant le financement en santé publique comme un investissement à long terme, il a été démontré que les dépenses préventives ne sont pas aussi largement soutenues et constituent des investissements à long terme discrets avec peu d’appuis dans la société. Cela implique, du point de vue financier, que ce type de dépenses est plus propice aux coupures budgétaires, surtout en période de récession et de crise économique. / Beyond the capacity of systems to deal with health crises, investing in prevention should read “investing for health” in the broader perspective of improving the well-being of populations. Several studies demonstrate that public health programs help prevent mortality, improve quality of life and reduce health care costs in the short and long term (Dyakova et al. 2017; Masters et al. 2017). However, the portrait of health expenditure in most countries suggests a worrying underfunding of preventive health expenditure. This thesis proposes a formal framework to demystify the political and financial dynamics underlying the decision-making of governments in place in terms of investment in public health. More specifically, we analyze the variations in public health expenditure in the Canadian provinces from 1975 to 2018. By focusing on the organization of the health system as a whole, according to political and structural reforms over time, the results of the qualitative analysis show that the emergence of new public management (NPM) in the early 1990 contributed overall to the reduction granted to prevention. The quantitative analysis, for its part, sets out the economic and structural financial elements that contribute to the variation in public health expenditure. Viewing public health funding as a long-term investment, it has been shown that preventive spending is not as widely supported and is a discrete long-term investment with little support in society. This implies, from a financial point of view, that this type of spending is more prone to budget cuts, especially in times of recession and economic crisis.

In the UK, the unprecedented cuts to local budgets, implemented by the national governments from 2010 to the present day, have pushed local authorities to reconsider their scope, their role and their action. The ever decreasing budgets have de facto transformed local councils from service providers to territorial entrepreneurs, as the pressing pursuit of revenues has placed the economic profit at the core of the local policy-making. Urban planning plays a central role in this shift in mindset. The British planning system has been remodelled so to facilitate the implementation of development processes, as these grant revenues from planning obligations, uplifts in land values and higher income from taxes. The reform of the planning system has however conceded free rein to developers, especially through the introduction of the Development Viability Appraisal, a document which they use to reduce the provision of affordable housing, in favour of luxury housing tenures. Therefore, in London the mechanisms that rule the territorial transformations exacerbate the existing housing crisis and force local communities to face displacement. Austerity has thus initiated a cascade-effect whose negative externalities are tangible at the very local level. The emerged topics find their concretization in the description of the Heygate Estate regeneration.

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The main aim of this presented diploma thesis is to help build a systematic understanding of the political and social foundations of global financial markets, their operations and impacts on the global power affairs. The thesis highlights the dynamic complexity of the post financial crisis state of the World with its itra- and inter-social features. It instrumentaly uses critique of a free market agenda and neo-classical economy which contrasts the Efficient Markets Hypothesis with Hyman Minsky's Financial Instability Hypothesis (FIH), taking into account the dynamic complexity of financial markets. This approach offers analytical tools that can account for crisis through processes endogenous to contemporary financial capitalism. I shall argue that a financially complex system is, according to the FIH, inherently flawed and unstable. After a theoretical and historical review, the thesis discusses various aspects of the process of austerity regime and its social consequences. This provides an opportunity for analyses of the ongoing existence of interstate competition, of militarised foreign policy, and of other international, at times violent conflicts. In an effort to make sense of some of these phenomena, I instrumentaly use the study of geoeconomics that builds on some fundamental assumptions...