This thesis consists of five papers, four of them basically concerning environmental issues, while the fifth paper addresses the issue of measuring output from the educational sector. The first paper starts from the fact that industrial activity causes environmental damage. Therefore, public authorities are called upon to regulate the behavior of producers by, e.g., legislating maximally allowed emission levels, which give rise to abatement costs. In this paper, marginal abatement costs (MACs) are estimated and a procedure to empirically analyze why MACs may vary between producers is suggested. The main focus is on whether the MACs in the Swedish pulp industry reveal that differences between counties in, e.g., economical characteristics, were influential when the authority, during 1983-1990, restricted 12 geographically scattered plants regarding emissions. The result indicates that county differences were influential. The second paper analyses and suggests a procedure for testing the Porter hypothesis. Part of this hypothesis is based on the argument that increased environmental stringency not only brings a cleaner environment, but also makes the polluting producers aware of the opportunity of using resources more efficiently. The particular test suggested considers whether there is a positive correlation between producers’ technical output efficiency and environmental stringency, approximated by a regulatory intensity index. It is empirically applied on 12 Swedish pulp plants during 1983-1990. No support for the Porter hypothesis is found in this particular case. The third paper deals with the climate policy issue. Under the Kyoto Protocol, the European Union agreed to reduce its emission of greenhouse gases by 8 percent in comparison with the level in 1990. The Burden-Sharing Agreement (BSA) further redistributes the 8 percent reduction target among the member states. This paper evaluates the BSA both from an economical and a political perspective, i.e., whether cost-efficiency and equity, respectively, were considered when the BSA was settled. The empirical result indicates that both efficiency and equity were considered as important to the BSA. The fourth paper evaluates the Swedish Producer Responsibility Ordinance (PRO), fully implemented in 1994, which states that sorted out, domestically collected waste paper, must be recycled by the paper industry and, therefore, cannot be incinerated by the heating industry in purpose of recovering energy. The result indicates that this policy has contributed to inefficient waste paper allocation among some of the paper producers. The result further indicates that the priority made by the PRO, i.e., that waste paper recycling is preferable to incineration, should be reconsidered. The fifth paper relates the empirical attempts of measuring output from the educational sector to theoretical results about the welfare significance of a comprehensive Net National Product (NNP) measure. It is shown that economic theory provides a more focused way of interpreting such output estimates. The paper also contains estimates of the output from the Swedish educational sector. Among the results, it is shown that the private gross output value produced by higher education is approximately 2 percent of GDP. Furthermore, the private rate of return on investments in higher education in Sweden is calculated to 8.6 percent.

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This thesis examines the difficulties encountered in the process of establishing the CommonEuropean Asylum System, taken from a discursive perspective. The focus of the study isthreefold; why are specific issues highlighted by the European Union Member States, how isthe discursive conflict expressed within the discourse on CEAS, and what definitions ofsolidarity are promoted by the Member States. In purpose of addressing these focuses,discourse theory, issue salience and solidarity through burden sharing are used as theoreticalframework. By applying critical method and discourse analysis, this study has managed toestablish that the security issues are among the most highlighted, whereas the geographicallocation of a Member State seems to be an explanatory factor to a Member State’s specificemphasis. Regarding the discursive conflict, the definitions of the concepts mutual trust, fairdistribution and cooperation are especially contested. Furthermore, the external dimension ofsolidarity is proven to be the precedent definition of solidarity.

The realm of trust has of late become the subject of a new agenda of research. Withal, as this paper demonstrates, trust has always implicitly been at the core of international relations theory. The object of the research is the transatlantic relationship and the role that trust plays on the field of security, using NATO as the platform. In this connection, at first, the author considers the category of trust in international relations as a whole. A detailed analysis of the phenomenon of trust, its principles and distinctive signs will be conducted. For the further application of the theoretical findings to the case of transatlantic relations, special methodology as exploratory research is elaborated. It develops a multiframework strategy for recognizing signals of trust in a relationship, emphasizing the role of the security dilemma, hedging strategies and reassurance in this manner. The selected research methods are determined by the theoretical basis and the available data for the research. Taking stock of the history of transatlantic relations on the basis of researching literature and using the research findings of the case study, the author estimates the level of trust between the United States and European NATO members during periods of turmoil. The aim is to reveal the causes of such state of...

This thesis deals with the issue of solidarity and burden-sharing (responsibility-sharing respectively) in the EU Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. Its primary aim is to apply the theory of burden-sharing to the case of the EU asylum policy and in particular, to verify or falsify Olson's free-riding hypothesis on the exploitation of the great by the small (meaning of the rich by the poor). This hypothesis will be tested using a mixed research method which combines qualitative and quantitative elements. The qualitative part will focus on the analysis of the so-called Dublin Regulation (Dublin II and III) and its criteria and mechanisms of determining the responsible Member State for examining an asylum application. Applying Moravcsik's liberal intergovernmentalism, a special emphasis will be placed on the proces of negotiating the Regulation (Dublin II) in an attempt to identify and clarify dominant Member States' positions and their influence on the final wording. Consequently, the level of burden- sharing will be illustrated on the example of interstate transfers of asylum seekers (so-called physical burden-sharing). This type of burden-sharing will be also demonstrated qualitatively by means of statistical data available for the period of 2008-2013 which will be interpreted in relation to...

When managing the reception and relocation of refugees within the EU, it is unsurprising that negotiating common policy and burden-sharing schemes are complex, contentious tasks (Thielemann 2003; Naurin 2015). Indeed, the individual geographic, political and economic positioning of member states are reflected in larger power dynamics within the EU, further complicating resolution on solidarity initiatives in asylum policy (Duarte and Pascariu 2017, Basile and Olmastroni 2020, Bauböck 2018). Within this thesis, I argue that these power dynamics are evidenced along EU core and periphery lines (i.e., states with external borders and those with primarily internal borders) and within negotiation discourses (Jäntti and Klasche 2021; Zaun 2018). By conducting a critical discourse analysis (CDA) with statements from the French and Greek national parliaments, as well the EU Commission statement, this project is able to pursue a comparative analysis of discursive approaches and highlight differences in discourses and power positionings. This, in turn, can also help us to examine why standstills in asylum policy negotiation proceedings persist. The structure of this thesis is in line with previous research which has examined how power and agency of member states is constructed through linguistic framing (Mainwaring 2014), and literature investigating complications that emerge with common immigration policy within the EU and the supranationally (Omelaniuk 2012, Hampshire 2013, Bauböck 2018).

This article aims to provide both efficient and just ways of sharing mitigative and adaptive climate burden costs. Time is an important factor when constructing policies which are set out to turn negative temperature trends around. Justice is another crucial value to consider when deciding who ought to carry out these climate burdens. Moreover, how we consider efficient and just sharing of burden costs, relies on practicality in relation to moral responsibility. Moral responsibility can be applied to those who have polluted and those who have benefitted from pollution. However, there are practical issues that hide between the lines. Justice grounded only on moral responsibility, such as ‘the polluter pays principle’ and ‘the beneficiary pays principle’, can only account for a limited portion of climate burdens. Because there are leftover burdens that need to be shared, and a climate window of opportunity to regard, we need to allocate the burdens both fairly as well as efficiently, such as ‘the ability to pay principle. In this paper, I will present a case that takes all of these dimensions into account and I will illustrate that it indeed can be effective to be just when sharing all climate burdens. / Denna artikel strävar efter att visa både effektiva och rättvisa sätt att fördela klimatbördan på. Denna börda innebär kostnaderna av att reducera utsläpp och anpassa samhället efter klimatförändringarna. Tid är en viktig faktor när vi konstruerar lagar och regler som syftar till att ändra riktning på den negativa temperaturutveckling forskare varnar oss för. Rättvisa är också en viktig komponent vi behöver ta hänsyn till när vi överväger vilka som bör axla klimatbördan. Hur vi överväger effektiva och rättvisa klimatfördelningar, beror på praktikalitet i relation till moraliskt ansvar. Moraliskt ansvar kan bland annat tillskrivas de som förorenar och de som gynnas av att förorena. Däremot finns det praktiska svårigheter som gömmer sig mellan raderna. Rättvisa som endast grundas på moraliskt ansvar, såsom ’förorenaren betalar’, ’den som gynnas av att förorena betalar’, kan enbart stå för en begränsad del av klimatbördan. Eftersom resterande börda också behöver fördelas blir vi tvungna att distribuera återstående börda både rättvist och effektivt, såsom ’de som2kan betala också ska’. I denna uppsats överväger jag dessa delar och kommer illustrera att det sannerligen är effektivt att vara rättvis när vi fördelar all klimatbörda.

Approved for public release; distribution in unlimited. / Since the end of the Cold War the Alliance's transformation has erased doubts about its survival. NATO continues to adapt to new threat environments by expanding its mission scope to out-of-area operations and by assuming new security missions. For the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States and subsequent 11 March 2004 Madrid bombings in Spain complicated an already robust Greek security plan. Greece's extensive security planning, in addition to coordinating NATO support, highlighted the challenges and readiness requirements for the Alliance in the 21st century. Terrorist concerns, burden-sharing, recognition of Greek sovereignty, political limitations in deploying NATO's CBR Defense team and NRF utilization were all elements of the challenges faced in security preparation for the Games. In assessing the dynamics behind NATO's history and its security participation in the 2004 Summer Olympics, this thesis serves as a case study in the continuing transformational role and adaptability of NATO. Overall, the Alliance's willingness to assume security support to a major international sporting event represented its long-time relationship with Greece, its ability to perform significant security missions and its commitment to and solidarity with its allied members. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

Thesis Abstract: Chapter I: Regional burden sharing of GHG mitigation policies – A Canadian perspective. The distribution of the burden of cost arising from the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a contentious issue in policy discussions; more so among regional jurisdictions in the federalist countries with decentralized authorities over environmental regulations. In this setting, often the policy discussions are focused on the distribution of regional emission reduction targets that, in turn, entails negotiations over the distribution of the scarcity rents and the regional transfers of wealth. The allocation of regional emission entitlements is thus a key factor that could hinder the political feasibility of a national GHG mitigation policy. In this paper, we build a multi-region computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Canadian economy to assess the implications of different burden sharing rules governing the national GHG abatement policy with a cap-and-trade system of emission permits. In addition to assessing the impacts of traditional regional emissions allocation rules that involve intra-regional transfers of wealth, we consider a particular emission allocation that avoids such transfers, which may be a more palatable option given the context of likely fierce negotiations over the issue. Our results indicate to differing outcomes depending on the allocation policy in use. The CGE framework is also able to shed light on the transmission mechanisms that drive the results underlying the policy options. Chapter II: Endogenous technological change and emission allowances. Given the imminent threat of global warming due to GHG emissions, a number of emission mitigation policies have been proposed in the literature. However, they generally suffer from the classical equity-efficiency trade-off. High costs from equity concerns often render environmental policies politically unattractive and thus hard to implement. Recent advancement in the climate policy modeling literature that incorporates endogenous technological change (ETC) into the framework can potentially bring new insights into this debate. Using an inter-temporal, multi-sector CGE approach with ETC incorporated into the framework, this paper builds a model that focuses on the equity-efficiency debate for the policymakers. Canada is chosen as the country of investigation for this purpose. The paper provides a new welfare ranking of four permit allocation policies that address the equity-efficiency trade-off. In a second-best setting with pre-existing distortions, output-based allocation (OBA) of emission permits is compared to three other policy options: (i) an emissions trading system with grandfathered allocation (GFA), (ii) an auction permit trading system where permit revenue is recycled to lower payroll taxes (RPT), and (iii) a hybrid of OBA and R&D subsidy (O-R&D). We find that adapting OBA, as well as O-R&D, is welfare improving over GFA. The implicit output subsidy, entailed in the OBA policy, mitigates against the rising cost effect in the GFA policy. This is reinforced through added investment incentive in R&D when ETC in incorporated into the framework. With O-R&D, since the R&D subsidy corrects for market imperfections in the knowledge accumulation process, the effect is further bolstered, culminating into mitigation of uneven distributional outcome for energy-intensive industries as a whole. Contrary to previous results, we also find that, in terms of the welfare metric, OBA unequivocally improves the distributional outcome across sectors as compared to the RPT policy. Inclusion of ETC also unequivocally generates a higher welfare ranking for all permit policy schemes. Chapter III: Emission permit banking and induced technological change. This paper attempts to undertake an exploratory research by integrating two themes in the emission mitigation policy literature, which include: the inter-temporal emission permit banking and borrowing and the role of induced technological change in emission mitigation. Using a simple optimal control approach, we construct a unified framework that evaluates the optimal path of emissions and the optimal trajectory of permit price when both inter-temporal banking and borrowing of permits and the effects of induced technological change (ITC) are present. We find that ITC leads to a declining emission trajectory over time. The effect of ITC on the optimal permit price path, however, is ambiguous and critically depends on the extent of marginal cost saving that emanates from emission-saving technological innovation.

Thesis Abstract: Chapter I: Regional burden sharing of GHG mitigation policies – A Canadian perspective. The distribution of the burden of cost arising from the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a contentious issue in policy discussions; more so among regional jurisdictions in the federalist countries with decentralized authorities over environmental regulations. In this setting, often the policy discussions are focused on the distribution of regional emission reduction targets that, in turn, entails negotiations over the distribution of the scarcity rents and the regional transfers of wealth. The allocation of regional emission entitlements is thus a key factor that could hinder the political feasibility of a national GHG mitigation policy. In this paper, we build a multi-region computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Canadian economy to assess the implications of different burden sharing rules governing the national GHG abatement policy with a cap-and-trade system of emission permits. In addition to assessing the impacts of traditional regional emissions allocation rules that involve intra-regional transfers of wealth, we consider a particular emission allocation that avoids such transfers, which may be a more palatable option given the context of likely fierce negotiations over the issue. Our results indicate to differing outcomes depending on the allocation policy in use. The CGE framework is also able to shed light on the transmission mechanisms that drive the results underlying the policy options. Chapter II: Endogenous technological change and emission allowances. Given the imminent threat of global warming due to GHG emissions, a number of emission mitigation policies have been proposed in the literature. However, they generally suffer from the classical equity-efficiency trade-off. High costs from equity concerns often render environmental policies politically unattractive and thus hard to implement. Recent advancement in the climate policy modeling literature that incorporates endogenous technological change (ETC) into the framework can potentially bring new insights into this debate. Using an inter-temporal, multi-sector CGE approach with ETC incorporated into the framework, this paper builds a model that focuses on the equity-efficiency debate for the policymakers. Canada is chosen as the country of investigation for this purpose. The paper provides a new welfare ranking of four permit allocation policies that address the equity-efficiency trade-off. In a second-best setting with pre-existing distortions, output-based allocation (OBA) of emission permits is compared to three other policy options: (i) an emissions trading system with grandfathered allocation (GFA), (ii) an auction permit trading system where permit revenue is recycled to lower payroll taxes (RPT), and (iii) a hybrid of OBA and R&D subsidy (O-R&D). We find that adapting OBA, as well as O-R&D, is welfare improving over GFA. The implicit output subsidy, entailed in the OBA policy, mitigates against the rising cost effect in the GFA policy. This is reinforced through added investment incentive in R&D when ETC in incorporated into the framework. With O-R&D, since the R&D subsidy corrects for market imperfections in the knowledge accumulation process, the effect is further bolstered, culminating into mitigation of uneven distributional outcome for energy-intensive industries as a whole. Contrary to previous results, we also find that, in terms of the welfare metric, OBA unequivocally improves the distributional outcome across sectors as compared to the RPT policy. Inclusion of ETC also unequivocally generates a higher welfare ranking for all permit policy schemes. Chapter III: Emission permit banking and induced technological change. This paper attempts to undertake an exploratory research by integrating two themes in the emission mitigation policy literature, which include: the inter-temporal emission permit banking and borrowing and the role of induced technological change in emission mitigation. Using a simple optimal control approach, we construct a unified framework that evaluates the optimal path of emissions and the optimal trajectory of permit price when both inter-temporal banking and borrowing of permits and the effects of induced technological change (ITC) are present. We find that ITC leads to a declining emission trajectory over time. The effect of ITC on the optimal permit price path, however, is ambiguous and critically depends on the extent of marginal cost saving that emanates from emission-saving technological innovation.