This dissertation examines how the structures of compensation for executives and directors are affected by the possibility that managers can influence the risk of a firm's cash flows. In chapter 1, I consider a moral hazard model which shows that a strong pay-for-performance sensitivity in managerial compensation may deteriorate shareholder value when shareholders cannot monitor managerial risk-seeking activities. Intuitively, while high-powered managerial compensation provides the manager with incentives to increase the firm's value by exerting effort, it also creates managerial incentive to engage in (unproductive) risk-seeking activities. To test this prediction, I consider a regulatory change that makes it more difficult for managers to conceal information about the (speculative) use of derivative instruments. Specifically, I examine how the structures of compensation for executives and managers are affected by the adoption of a new accounting standard, the Statement of Financial Accounting Standard No. 133 Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities (FAS 133) which mandates the fair value accounting for derivative holdings. Consistent with the model prediction, I find that relative to other firms, derivative users (firms that traded derivatives before adopting FAS 133) increase the pay-for-performance sensitivity of CEO/CFO compensation. In Chapter 2, I extend the model by incorporating the realistic features that shareholders delegate to the (self-interested) board the tasks of monitoring managers and of setting their compensation contracts. My analysis shows that while high-powered board compensation induces the board to monitor the firm and to properly design managerial compensation, it also provides the board with incentives to misreport managerial risk-seeking activities and to engage in collusive behavior with the manager at the expense of shareholders. From these trade-offs, I develop a number of testable hypotheses and take them to the data. Consistent with the model predictions, I find that firms in which (i) managerial risk-seeking activities are more likely to occur (e.g., high R&D firms or banks) and (ii) board monitoring costs are likely to be lower (e.g., firms that have non-officer blockholders on the board) show weaker pay-for-performance sensitivity of board compensation and stronger pay-for-performance sensitivity of CEO compensation. / text

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This dissertation critically examines the common law caveat subscriptor rule and argues against the strict application of the rule in the context of ‘contracts of necessity’ (which is defined in the research paper). I will begin by explaining what exactly the caveat subscriptor rule entails and how it functions within the realm of mistake in contract as a species of the reliance theory which the South African law of contract endorses. I will then proceed to outline the narrow grounds recognized by the courts to date upon which one may escape the working of the caveat subscriptor rule. In section II of the paper I will briefly discuss the rise of the consumer protection movement and consider the extent to which the Consumer Protection Act now provides added protection to the unwitting signatory against the strict application of the rule. In section III I will critically examine the underlying presumptions of the caveat subscriptor rule which purport to justify the existence and application of the rule itself. I will then proceed to illustrate that while the assumptions underlying the caveat subscriptor rule may have been accurate and relevant in the past, these assumptions are no longer in keeping with the modern era of mass marketing characterized by the widespread use of standard-form contracts and consumer non-readership, which is reflected in recent judgments dealing with unread contract terms. In section IV I will examine the modern reality of consumer non-readership caused by various innate psychological factors and behavioural biases, particularly in the context of contracts of necessity. In section V I show that a change in judicial attitude towards unread contract terms and increased fairness towards the signatory is warranted not only in light of modern consumer behavior, but also in light of the courts constitutional mandate to develop the common law in accordance with section 39 (2) of the Bill of Rights as well as its underlying values. In section VI will propose a new basis for escaping the strict application of the rule grounded in public policy and will conclude by suggesting some practical methods for reform under the common law. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

Background: In 1994, the Swedish parliament decided to realize an infrastructural project with PPP. The chosen project, Arlandabaneprojektet, is a four-track railway between Stockholm central station and Arlanda airport. The Swedish government established a PPPcontract with a private consortium which implied that the Swedish government was obligated to finance about one third of the total project cost. The contract also implied that the private consortium got all rights reserved for the operational service. This PPP-project has changed the prerequisites for the Swedish government to meet the transport political objectives. Aim: The aim of this study is to examine how the Swedish government fulfil the transport political objectives in a PPP-project. The purpose of this study is also to examine how the structure of the project contract affect the governmental performance management. Completion: This is a qualitative study. The interview study is based on six interviews. Three interviewees are representing the government’s responsible delegates. The other three interviews were conducted with experts and researchers with extensive knowledge in the project. The interview material is complemented with a document study of reports and investigations. We have also completed a theoretical study of governmental performance management in infrastructural PPP-projects. Furthermore, we have analyzed the empirical study based on the theoretical framework. Conclusions: The government’s possibilities to pursue performance management in line with transport political objectives has been and still is limited. The government has been tied up to a long term contract driven by commercial goals. The main factor behind this is that the government got into the project without having any specific and measureable objectives.

This thesis examines the history of the Mexican contract labor program from the World War II program in 1942 to the post-bracero era in 1964-66.

of thesis "Legal aspects of franchising" Author: Ondřej Anděl Faculty of Law, Charles University Keywords: franchising, fracnhise contract, franchisora, franchisanta This thesis is about legal apsects of franchise contract, because in czech legislation has no legal regulation of franchising. Franchise contract is a complicated and comprahansive relation between franchisor franchisant and missing legal regulation can cause a lots of problems in fracnhise relation. This thesis describes the most important costitution, which have to be in every franchise contract.

This study examines the corporate environmental disclosures of South African mining organisations from 2009 to 2011 to establish the level and type of these environmental disclosures. An examination is made of mining organisations’ media articles to establish whether their environmental disclosures can be explained by the concept of an implicit social contract. Legitimacy theory posits that an organisation needs to be aware of all their stakeholders’ needs and needs to portray themselves as acting in line with stakeholder values and norms to ensure their continued success. Although environmental reporting has been on the strategic agenda of several organisations disclosures in South Africa, only a minority of research papers have explored how an environmental crisis may impact upon the provision of such disclosures. This paper will help fill this void by performing an examination of management communication strategies, organisational actions and the change in the level of environmental disclosures contained in the mining organisations’ annual report as a result of the acid mine drainage incident that occurred in late 2009. Media articles during and after the mining organisations’ legitimacy had been challenged were examined using Suchman’s (1995) three types of legitimacy: pragmatic, cognitive and moral to identify the type of legitimacy used in the context of a developing country. Regarding the annual report disclosures and media articles’ communication strategies, results were found to be consistent with the legitimacy theory. They indicate that South African mining organisations use mostly the repair strategy in attempting to change the perceptions of the public after an environmental crisis. The strategies utilised by the mining industry in the media disclosures are expected of an organisation in crisis. The mining industry used, primarily, repair strategies in interacting with its relevant stakeholders. The study’s finding that maintenance strategies were the least of the three types of legitimacies is consistent with an industry in crisis. Even though the mining industry primarily used the repair legitimisation tactic, the range of legitimacy techniques has proved to be a finding worth discussing. The mining industry did not completely avoid the event i.e. use disclaimer strategies. Overall, the mining organisations reacted to the heighted institutional pressures by increasing their environmental disclosures and disclosed environmental information that conformed to stakeholders’ values and persuaded society to view acid mine drainage as less problematic than it was reported to be.

En dehors de la loi lato sensu, la volonté des parties n'est pas la seule source normative qui pèse sur le contrat de travail. Le juge, habilité par l'article 1135 du Code civil y accessoirise des obligations qu'il créé a pari de règles existantes. Le processus ne relève ni de l'interprétation, ni du mécanisme présomptif mais d'un cheminement complétif qui aboutit à combler les lacunes du contrat ou de la loi. L'origine est à rechercher dans la nature du contrat travailliste, articulée entre un donné économique et un construit juridique. Le mécanisme complétif remontant au-delà du Code civil se projette aussi vers un droit en devenir lorsqu'il interpelle la raison, norme irrigant la Common Law, et qui profile une jurisprudence du raisonnable dans une matière où la bonne foi régnait en maître. Assis sur une exigence forte de proportionnalité entre les droits de l'employeur et les obligations du salarié, il nait par analogie en éparpillant dans la relation de travail des obligations circonstancielles dans l'intérêt d'une meilleure justice contractuelle. / Outside the broadest meaning of law, the desires of the parties are not the only normative source that has an effect on work contracts. Judges authorized by Article 1135 of the Civil Code, adorn it with obligations they create in comparison with similar existing rules. The process is derived from neither interpretations nor presumptive mechanism, but from a completive progression that ends up filling in whatever is missing from the contract or from the law. Relying on a strong requirement of proportionality between the rights of the employer and the obligations of the employee, by analogy, it is born by being dissipated in the working relationship of circumstantial obligations in the interest of better contractual justice.

Thesis advisor: Christopher J. Kelly / This dissertation is an attempt to elucidate Jean-Jacques Rousseau's answer to the question "why keep a promise?" with the aim of answering the more particular political question of why one should keep the social contract. I begin by explicating Rousseau's arguments against natural law in order to demonstrate why the theme of promises is so important for his political thought. Rousseau rejects the position that natural moral inequalities among people dictate who should rule and who should be ruled. Like other modern political thinkers, he maintains that political right derives from each citizen's signing of the social contract. But unlike some other modern thinkers, Rousseau denies that the self-interest of each individual is sufficient motivation for keeping that contract. Moreover, he argues that one who is merely self-interested and who makes promises "only for profit" will "set himself in contradiction with himself." I show the nature and causes of this contradiction in the soul. But although self-interested, deceitful promises cause one to come into contradiction with oneself, Rousseau does not believe that even awareness of this fact can sufficiently motivate people to give up the desire for what can be gained by deception. I therefore turn to the question of what can provide this motivation. I first examine Rousseau's understanding of moral freedom, virtue, and the conscience. I find that virtue is constituted by the commands of reason and the conscience, and that the conscience is formed out of well-ordered sentiments. Having these sentiments and the strength of soul necessary for virtue can make a person keep his promises and avoid coming into contradiction with himself. But most people lack this strength of soul, and therefore belief in a providential God is needed in order for them to be just. I then show how the faith of Rousseau's Savoyard Vicar is capable of providing sanctity to the social contract by allowing for the civic-minded appropriation of what Rousseau calls "the language of sign." / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

Este trabalho concentra-se no estudo de um dos instrumentos específicos utilizados pelas organizações para administrar suas relações com seus empregados o contrato psicológico. Por meio de uma pesquisa exploratória e descritiva, buscou-se responder se e como a violação dos contratos psicológicos exerce influência sobre os níveis de rotatividade voluntária em empresas de consultoria em atividade no Brasil. Para tanto, foi realizada uma pesquisa de campo, utilizando-se os métodos qualitativo e quantitativo, em duas empresas multinacionais do ramo de consultoria. A amostra, representada por sete consultores seniores que pediram demissão voluntária, permite concluir que a violação dos contratos psicológicos ocorre em empresas de serviços de consultoria em atividade no referido país, e que a rotatividade voluntária está associada a ela. / This research concentrates in a study about one of the specific instruments used by organizations to manage relationships with its employees the psychological contracts. Through an exploratory and descriptive research, the study addresses the question if and how psychological violation influences the level of voluntary turnover in consultant firms in operation in Brazil. To do so, and using a qualitative and quantitative method, the research was applied in two multinational consulting firms in the referred country. The sample, represented by seven senior consultants who left the organization voluntarily, tells that the psychological violation occurs in these firms, and the voluntary turnover is associated to it.