La pêche en mer se caractérise souvent par une exploitation non durable des ressources halieutiques dans la plupart des régions du monde.La forte demande en produits de la mer favorise la croissance de l’industrie de la pêche, qui repousse constamment ses propres limitesgéographiques et celles de ses capacités techniques, ce qui provoque des conflits avec l’exploitation massive de zones de pêche jusqu’alorsoccupées par des pêcheurs artisanaux. La région amazonienne transfrontalière du nord du Brésil illustre ce contexte : les pêcheursartisanaux de la municipalité d’Oiapoque (au nord de l'état d'Amapá) souffrent de l’invasion de leur espace par des pêcheurs de différentesrégions. La thèse aborde la dynamique de la pêche artisanale dans cette région, basée sur le concept de territoire, à travers les relationsqu’exercent les pêcheurs, la chaîne de production, les formes de conflit pour l'espace de pêche, les restrictions imposées par laréglementation générale avec la présence d’une aire protégée. La méthodologie est qualitative et quantitative: observation directe,questionnaires, entretiens et réalisation de cartes. La recherche met en évidence de nombreuses lacunes dans le système actuel (politiquespubliques, évaluation des ressources et des écosystèmes, etc.) pour comprendre et gérer durablement la ressource. Ces déficiencesencouragent l'exploitation désordonnée des ressources halieutiques ce qui menace l’avenir des pêcheurs artisanaux et la biodiversitémarine. Les pêcheurs artisanaux locaux comptent à présent sur une plus juste et plus ferme application de la réglementation dans l’aireprotégée afin de leur en réserver l’usage tout en empêchant la surpêche. / Sea fishing is often characterized by the unsustainable exploitation of fishing resources in most parts of the world. The strong demand forseafood causes the fishing industry to grow, which is steadily constraining its own geographical limits and its technical capacities,generating conflicts caused by the massive exploitation of fishing areas that, until recently, were only occupied by artisanal fishermen.The Amazonian border region in northern Brazil illustrates this context, while artisanal fishermen in Oiapoque (north of the state ofAmapá) are subject to the invasion of fishermen from different regions. The thesis addresses the artisanal fishing dynamics in Oiapoque,based on the concept of territory, through the relations engaged in by the fishermen, the productive chain, the forms of conflict for thefishing area, the restrictions imposed by the general regulations in a protected area. This work is qualitative and quantitative methodology:direct observation, questionnaires, interviews and maps. This research highlights many shortcomings in the current system (publicpolicies, resource and ecosystem assessment, etc.) in order to understand, monitor and sustainably manage the resource. Theseshortcomings encourage the disorderly exploitation of fishing resources, which threatens the future of artisanal fishermen and marinebiodiversity. Local artisanal fishermen are now under a fairer and more stringent enforcement of the regulations in the protected areaaimed at preserving its use, while avoiding overfishing. / A pesca marítima é frequentemente caracterizada pela exploração insustentável dos recursos pesqueiros na maior parte do mundo. A forte demanda por frutos do mar favorece o crescimento da indústria pesqueira, que está constantemente pressionando seus próprios limites geográficos e os de suas capacidades técnicas, o que está causando conflitos com a exploração maciça de áreas de pesca até então ocupada por pescadores artesanais. A região amazônica transfronteiriça do norte do Brasil ilustra esse contexto, onde os pescadores artesanais do município de Oiapoque sofrem com a invasão de sua área por pescadores de diferentes regiões. Esta pesquisa visa uma melhor compreensão da pesca na costa atlântica da Amazônia, suas questões econômicas, sociais e ambientais. A tese aborda a dinâmica da pesca artesanal em Oiapoque, norte do estado do Amapá. Baseia-se no conceito de território, através das relações exercidas pelos pescadores, a cadeia produtiva, as formas de conflito para a área de pesca, as restrições impostas pela regulamentação geral com a presença de uma área protegida. A metodologia é qualitativa e quantitativa, consiste em observação direta, questionários, entrevistas e elaboração de mapas. O processamento de dados geográficos, obtidos a partir de sistemas a bordo de embarcações de pesca e levantamentos de campo permitiu a identificação de áreas de pesca na área marinha e sua partilha com conflitos entre os diferentes usuários. Os atores do conflito vêm de diferentes níveis (local, nacional e internacional) e se manifestam em diferentes intensidades da área de pesca. A pesquisa destaca muitas deficiências no sistema atual (políticas públicas, conformidade regulatória, avaliação de recursos e ecossistemas, etc.) para entender, monitorar e gerenciar de forma sustentável o recurso pesqueiro. Estas deficiências encorajam a exploração desordenada dos recursos pesqueiros, o que ameaça o futuro dos pescadores artesanais e da biodiversidade marinha. Os pescadores artesanais locais contam agora com uma aplicação mais justa e mais rigorosa dos regulamentos na área protegida, a fim de reservar o seu uso, evitando ao mesmo tempo a sobrepesca.

L’échec de l’opération des Nations Unies Restore Hope conduite en Somali sous le leadership des États-Unis d’Amérique et le génocide rwandais de 1994 ont modifié les rapports du monde occidental aux conflits armés internes en Afrique. D’une volonté initiale affichée en faveur du renforcement des capacités des acteurs africains dans la gestion de la conflictualité à l’intérieur des États africains, le monde occidental a adopté une posture de désengagement de la conflictualité interne en Afrique. La directive présidentielle américaine Presidential Decision Directive 25 du 3 mai 1994 et la recommandation du Sénat belge du 28 janvier 1998 resteront certainement les plus significatifs en matière de modification de l’attitude occidentale en faveur de l’Afrique en conflit. Cependant, et « ramant à contre courant », le Royaume-Uni de Grande Bretagne et d’Irlande du Nord d’une part et la France d’autre part ont décidé d’assumer leur part de responsabilité historique dans la vie, parfois mouvementée de leurs anciennes colonies en Afrique. Pour ces deux anciennes puissances coloniales, les difficultés internes auxquelles les États africains post-guerre froide étaient confrontés constituaient de véritables défis pour lesquels, ces États avaient besoin d’une assistance contre vents et marrées. Cette profession de foi partagée sur les deux rives de la Manche a permis de stabiliser et ramener la paix dans deux États africains dans l’ère post génocide rwandais. Ce sont la Sierra Leone et la Côte d’Ivoire. Comment le Royaume-Uni et la France ont-ils réussi à stabiliser la Sierra Leone et la Côte d’Ivoire et les sortir de leurs conflits en apparence insolubles eu égard à la profondeur des divergences qui en opposaient les acteurs ? Quels ajustements stratégiques le Royaume-Uni et la France ont-ils opéré dans leur politique interventionniste dans le cadre de la résolution des conflits armés internes en Sierra Leone et en Côte d’Ivoire et quelles actions entreprises par elles ont permis d’aboutir aux succès enregistrés dans ces deux États ? A travers une recherche bibliographique, du reste, bien disponible, des entretiens conduits auprès du monde diplomatique, des personnalités politiques, d’anciens acteurs en conflit et d’autorités militaires, cette thèse révèle comment par une synergie d’actions bien coordonnées, le Royaume-Uni et la France ont permis de ramener la paix et la quiétude en Sierra Leone et en Côte d’Ivoire. Ayant agi ainsi, ces deux puissances moyennes, membres permanents du Conseil de sécurité des Nations Unies ont donné à l’Afrique et au monde des raisons de croire en l’intervention internationale. / He failure of the United Nations Restore Hope operation in Somalia under the leadership of the United States of America and the 1994 Rwandan genocide altered the Western world's relationship to internal armed conflict in Africa. From an initial desire to strengthen the capacity of African actors to manage conflicts within African states, the Western world adopted a position of disengagement from internal conflict in Africa. The United States’ Presidential Decision Directive 25 of May 3, 1994 and the recommendation of the Belgian Senate of January 28, 1998 are particularly significant in terms of changing the Western world’s attitude in favor of Africa in conflict. However, and "going against the current," the United Kingdom on the one hand and France on the other hand have decided to shoulder their share of historical responsibility in the fate of their former colonies in Africa. For these two former colonial powers, the internal difficulties facing the post-Cold War African states were real challenges which these states needed assistance in dealing with. This commitment on both sides of the Channel helped to stabilize and restore peace in two African states in the Rwandan post-genocide era, namely Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast. How did the United Kingdom and France manage to stabilize Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast and extricate them from seemingly intractable conflicts, given the depth of the differences between the actors? What strategic adjustments did the United Kingdom and France make in their interventionist policies in the context of the resolution of internal armed conflicts in Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, and what actions did they take to achieve success in both these countries? Through a review of the literature as well as through interviews of diplomats, politicians, military leaders and other actors, this thesis demonstrates how, through a synergy of well-coordinated actions, the United Kingdom and France brought peace and tranquility to Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast. Having done so, these two middle-ranking powers, permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, gave Africa and the world reason to believe in international interventions.

Esta pesquisa analisa a tributação das operações com valores mobiliários, sob a perspectiva de uma teoria da norma de competência tributária e do processo de positivação do direito. O estudo limita-se à investigação das hipóteses de ausência de competência tributária na tributação de uma suposta renda gerada nas operações com valores mobiliários, ocorridas no mercado financeiro e de capitais, bem como nos conflitos interpretativos relativos à tributação dos impostos incidentes sobre as diversas operações financeiras existentes no sistema financeiro nacional. Com base nas premissas adotadas à luz de uma teoria da competência tributária e do processo de positivação do direito, o trabalho conclui que significativa parte das normas gerais e abstratas relativas à tributação do imposto sobre a renda, no mercado financeiro e de capitais, são inválidas, em função de uma sanção, causada pela ausência de diálogo entre a norma geral e abstrata e a respectiva norma de competência. Sobre os conflitos interpretativos de incidências normativas, o trabalho conclui que algumas normas individuais e concretas relativas à tributação das distintas operações do sistema financeiro nacional deverão ser sancionadas com a pena de nulidade, em razão da ocorrência de erro de fato no processo de positivação. O mecanismo para identificar a invalidade da norma, no caso da tributação do imposto sobre a renda, e do erro de fato, na tributação das diversas operações do sistema financeiro, é a busca pela natureza jurídica da operação, mediante a utilização dos critérios trazidos pela lei. / The securities transactions taxation, under the perspective of the taxing power rule as well as under the rules incidence process is the main aim of this research. The study is limited to the investigation of the hypotheses of absence of taxing power in the income taxation, triggered by such transactions, occurred in the financial and capital markets. In addition, it investigates potential interpretive conflicts related to the levy of the existing different taxes concerning operations occurred in national financial system. Based on the assumptions with respect to the theory of the taxing power rule and the rules incidence process, the paper concludes that most general and abstract rules related to the taxation of the income tax in the financial and capital markets are invalid due to a legal system penalty, caused by the absence of dialogue between the general and abstract rule and its taxing power rule. On interpretive-normative conflicts issues, the paper concludes that some individual and specific rules concerning the taxation of the different transactions of the financial system should be punished with the penalty of nullity, due to the occurrence of a mistake in the facts interpretation. The suggested mechanism to identify the invalidity of the rule in the income taxation as well as to identify the mistake in the facts review in the diverse hypotheses of the financial system taxation is the search for the legal nature of the transaction, using exclusively the criteria posed by law.

Problem Investigated. This dissertation is a study of the political effects of low-intensity warfare in Indonesia since 1945. In particular, it examines the interaction between general principles and contextual variables in guerrilla conflict, to determine whether such conflict causes the diffusion of political power. Analysis of insurgent movements indicates that power structures within a guerrilla group tend to be regionalised, diffuse and based on multiple centres of roughly equal authority. Conversely, studies of counter-insurgency (COIN) techniques indicate that successful COIN depends on effective political control over the local population. This tends to be exercised by regional or local military commanders rather than by central authority. Based on this, the author???s initial analysis indicated that one should expect to see a diffusion of political authority from central leaders (whether civilian or military) to regional military leaders, when a society is engaged in the conduct of either COIN or guerrilla warfare. The problem investigated in this dissertation can therefore be stated thus: To what extent, at which levels of analysis and subject to what influencing factors does low-intensity warfare in Indonesia between 1945 and 1999 demonstrate a political power-diffusion effect? Procedures Followed. The procedure followed was a diachronic, qualitative, fieldwork-based analysis of two principle case studies: the Darul Islam insurgency in West Java 1948-1962 and the campaign in East Timor 1974-1999. Principle research tools were: ??? Semi-structured, formal, informal and group interviews. ??? Analysis of official and private archives in Australia, Indonesia, the Netherlands and the UK. ??? Participant observation using anthropological fieldwork techniques. ??? Geographical analysis using transects, basemapping and overhead imagery. ??? Demographic analysis using historical data, cartographic records and surveys. Research was conducted in Australia, Indonesia (Jakarta and Bandung), the Netherlands (The Hague and Amsterdam) and the United Kingdom (London, Winchester, Salisbury and Warminster). Fieldwork was conducted over three periods in West Java (1994, 1995 and 1996) and one period in East Timor (1999-2000). General Results Obtained. The two principal case studies were the Darul Islam insurgency in West Java 1948-62 and the campaign in East Timor since 1974. The fieldwork data showed that low-intensity warfare in Indonesia between 1945 and 1999 did indeed demonstrate the political power-diffusion effect posited by the author. This effect was triggered by the outbreak of guerrilla warfare, which itself flowed from crises generated by processes of modernisation and change within Indonesian society from traditional hierarchies to modern forms of social organisation. These crises were also affected by events at the systemic and regional levels of analysis ??? the invasion of the Netherlands East Indies by Japan, the Cold War, the Asian financial crisis and increasing economic and media globalisation. They resulted in a breakdown or weakening of formal power structures, allowing informal power structures to dominate. This in turn allowed local elites with economic, social or religious influence and with coercive power over the population, to develop political and military power at the local level while being subject to little control from higher levels. This process, then, represented a power diffusion from central and civilian leadership levels to local leaders with coercive means ??? most often military or insurgent leaders. Having been triggered by guerrilla operations, however, the direction and process by which such power diffusion operated was heavily influenced by contextual variables, of which the most important were geographical factors, political culture, traditional authority structures and the interaction of external variables at different levels of analysis. Topographical isolation, poor infrastructure, severe terrain, scattered population groupings and strong influence by traditional hierarchies tend to accelerate and exacerbate the loss of central control. Conversely good infrastructure, large population centres, good communications and a high degree of influence by nation-state and systemic levels of analysis ??? particularly through economic and governmental institutionalisation ??? tend to slow such diffusion. Moreover, while power may be diffusing at one level of analysis (e.g. nation-state) it may be centralising at another (e.g. into the hands of military leaders at local level). Analysis of the Malayan Emergency indicates that, in a comparable non-Indonesian historical example, the same general tendency to political power diffusion was evident and that the same broad contextual variables mediated it. However, it would be premature to conclude that the process observed in Indonesia is generally applicable. The nature and relative importance of contextual factors is likely to vary between examples and hence additional research on non-Indonesian examples would be necessary before such a conclusion could be drawn. Further research on a current instance of guerrilla operations in Indonesia is also essential before the broader contemporary applicability of these findings can be reliably demonstrated. Major Conclusions Reached. Based on the above, the theses developed to answer the initial problem can be stated thus: The command and control (C2) structures inherent in traditional, dispersed rural guerrilla movements that lack access to mass media or electronic communications tend to lessen the degree of control by central (military or political) leaders over regional leaders. If COIN or Internal Security Operations are conducted, two factors will operate. First, there will be an increase in the degree of control over the civil population by local military leaders, at the expense of local or central political leaders. Second, where military command structures are pyramidal or segmentary, there will be an increase in control by local commanders at the expense of central military leaders. Where the central government is civilian or has interests divergent from the military???s, the first of these factors will dominate. Where the government is military or has interests largely identical to those of the military, the second factor will be dominant. The process of power diffusion can thus be summarised as follows: A crisis driven by processes of societal change or by external causes, leads to the outbreak of violence, one facet of which may include guerrilla operations. If guerrilla operations do occur, the C2 structures inherent in such operations give a high degree of autonomy and independence to local military leaders. The same (or a contemporaneous) crisis produces a breakdown of formal power structures, causing organisations to fall back upon informal power structures. The nature of these informal power structures is determined by geography, political culture, patterns of traditional authority within the society and the degree of interaction of systemic/regional factors with local events. Thus the guerrilla operations and the concomitant breakdown in formal power structures form the trigger for political power diffusion. The precise nature and progress of this diffusion is then determined by contextual variables.

<p>The thesis explores the attitudes towards large carnivores as a resource for tourism in northern Värmland. The purpose is to study the carnivore issue and the problems of carnivore tourism from a geographical perspective in order to illustrate the differences and connections between different approaches to a controversial and a potential rural resource.</p><p>The empirical material is made up mainly of surveys and newspaper articles. Three actor groups were studied: the local community, tourism entrepreneurs, and visitors to carnivore information centers. The studies were underpinned by a two-pronged theoretical frame of reference, the first based on the concepts of place and landscape, the second on tourism as a concept and social phenomenon.</p><p>Carnivore tourism constituted only a small part of that published in the media about carnivores, which showed that the tourism-oriented perspective on carnivores has been accorded only minor status in the media.</p><p>The attitudes of the three actor groups towards carnivores and carnivore tourism differ. Attitudes among the local community were generally less favorable than among tourism entrepreneurs and visitors. The community perspective on carnivores and carnivore tourism may be regarded as a insider perspective strongly dominated by the “life place” perspective, one in which forest-oriented culture and practices enjoy strong status, particularly in the more peripheral parts of the geographical study area. Tourism entrepreneurs, who are an important link between the locals and visitors, generally had more positive attitudes, but the group as such was divided depending on the strength of local connections. Entrepreneurs with strong roots in the community had considerably more negative attitudes and usually saw no potential in carnivores as a resource for tourism. These entrepreneurs can be presumed to represent the life place perspective, while other entrepreneurs may be regarded as representing the “destination place” perspective. Visitors were the group with the most positive attitudes, even as they stood for a distinct outsider perspective. They had a keen interest in nature in general and carnivores in particular. Several factors had significant impact on the attitude towards carnivores and carnivore tourism, in particular the view on the naturalness of the wolf, that is, whether it had been reintroduced or had returned on its own, age, education, whether or not the person was a hunter, experience, and knowledge about large carnivores.</p>

<p>The strong increase in number of Great cormorants <i>Phalacrocorax carbo</i> in Sweden in recent years has led to conflicts - particularly with fishery. This thesis focuses on the possible effects of cormorant predation on fish populations. In total, data from 15 lakes in South Sweden were included in this study while most studies were carried out in Lake Ymsen. The results suggest that the impact of cormorant predation on natural fish populations was small, and I observed no decline in fish mass after cormorants established. Cormorant predation on eel was difficult to evaluate because of several confounding factors.</p><p>Ruffe, roach and perch were the most important prey species to the cormorants and most fish taken were small. Cormorants do not seem to catch species and sizes in proportion to their occurrence in the fish community.</p><p>Total fish removal by cormorants varied considerably among lakes (0.2-15.0 kg/ha) and cormorant population sizes at the different lakes were significantly positively correlated with fishery catches, which in turn was significantly positively correlated with total phosphorous levels. Thus, cormorant densities in lakes, and perhaps elsewhere, seem to be governed chiefly by fish densities. The fact that cormorant predation appears not to reduce fish densities suggest cormorants to be regulated by other means than prey depletion. The mechanism behind population regulation could be a behavioural response of fish, making fish more difficult to catch for the cormorants.</p><p>In recent years, cormorant populations have been subjected to intensive legal and illegal actions with the aim to reduce cormorant numbers. However, the actions currently carried are well below the efforts needed to limit population sizes. To conclude, cormorants appear to compete little with fishery, with regards to free-living fish. The main problem is that cormorants sometimes damage and take away fish in fishing gears.</p>

Financial intermediaries are recognized to promote the efficiency of resource allocation by mitigating problems of incentives, asymmetric information and contract incompleteness. The role played by financial intermediaries is perceived so crucial that these institutions have received all over the world the greatest attention of regulators. Differences in regulatory regimes as well as in the real economies have produced a large variety in the characteristics of financial sectors and of individual intermediaries. In particular, in different places and times it is possible to observe banking sectors more or less competitive, populated by credit intermediaries of different sizes and with different levels of specialization. This variety of institutions raises interesting questions about the features of a well functioning financial intermediation sector. These questions have inspired an important body of economic literature which, however, is still inconclusive in many aspects. This dissertation includes three studies all intending to contribute in this direction. Chapter 2 Recent empirical works have found evidence consistent with larger banks having lower incentives to collect soft information and, in particular, to lend to small firms which are typically regarded as relatively opaque borrowers. Another market segment affected by relatively high levels of opaqueness is that of long-term loans and the reason is that, as emphasized in the corporate finance literature, short-term maturities are useful for the purpose of screening and monitoring investment projects. It is therefore interesting to assess whether large and small banks differ in their propensity to issue long-term loans, a type of investigation which has not been conducted yet. The reason why small and large banks might be expected to have a different propensity to issue long-term loans has to do with two notions. First, the effectiveness of a short-term maturity as a screening and monitoring device is preserved only if parties anticipate that, when payments are due, the lender will not be willing to extend the maturity, otherwise the initial short-term loan is de facto a long-term one. The problem may rise if the liquidation of insolvent firms produces lower payoffs than their refinancing: under these circumstances, as suggested by theories on renegotiation, liquidation is not implemented no matter what is written on the contract (parties can easily avoid the inefficiency that would result from liquidation, for example by simply granting a new loan). Second, at a more specific level theories on renegotiation suggest that the ability to commit to not extend thematurity decreases with bank size.1 Small banks are therefore predicted to issue shorter-term loans and to make a better selection of projects. The results are consistent with this prediction. Controlling for other characteristics of both the demand- and the supply-side as well as for the type of guarantee supplied, small banks have lower proportions of long-term loans to total loans and lower proportions of non performing loans to total loans. It should be pointed out that this does not imply that small banks are necessarily more efficient since short-term maturities also have costs; in particular, short-term maturities can interfere with the incentives of good types by inducing short-termism (the inflation of shortterm results at the expenses of total profitability). Moreover, beyond the ability to commit other supply-side features are shown to be relevant in the determination of the maturity, at least with specific classes borrowers. In particular, the findings are also consistent with the presence of economies of scale in lending at long maturities to firms in more technical and innovative industries. Since providing the right incentives to high quality entrepreneurs and to firms in innovative sectors is more likely to be a priority in more advanced countries, a policy implication is that these economies need more the presence of large credit institutions and the more so if venture capital and stock market are of limited size. Chapter 3 As already emphasized, theories on renegotiation suggest that the ability of banks to commit to a given course of action is an important factor for efficiency and that such ability depends on observable characteristics, like bank size. An important aspect which has not been analyzed in the theoretical literature is the effect that competition among banks exert on their ability to commit. The theoretical model presented in chapter 3 tries to provide an answer to this question. More specifically, the model studies the effects of competition among banks when these are subject to dynamic commitment problems which may result in excess refinancing of insolvent borrowers (soft budget constraint) as well as in excess termination of profitable ones (ratchet effect and short-termism). The building assumption is that, because of priority schemes and relationship lending, competition is harsher for new lending than for lending to ongoing projects. The main conclusion is that there exists a trade-off between the benefits that competition brings by disciplining low quality borrowers and the costs implied by worsening the incentives of good ones. The model also allows to look at the effects of competition on stability. This is done in two ways by looking at the extent to which competition interferes with the procyclicality of the banking sector and by studying if competition may eliminate or add inefficient equilibria. The main policy implication is that the optimal level of competition of a banking system is positively related to the quality of the underlying economy. If taken together, the results of chapters 2 and 3 also provide a theory about local or regional banks which is not based on any aprioristic assumption about the technology of these type of intermediaries. As long as these institutions can be seen as banks with a relatively high market power and a relatively small size (they are often important players at a local level although of limited size), both chapters 2 and 3 suggest that these intermediaries can more easily commit to a tough stance at the refinancing stage, with positive effects on their ability to screen out bad projects but with negative effects on their ability to incentivize good types and to fund more technical and innovative firms. In other words, these institutions might promote growth at earlier stages of development, although they are not sufficient to address the incentive issues of more advanced economies. Interestingly, this interpretation of the role of local banks is totally distinct from the traditional one which is based on the aprioristic assumption that these banks are good in doing relationship lending. Chapter 4 Conflicts of interest of economic institutions carrying out a variety of functions are considered a widespread phenomenon severely limiting the efficiency that can be achieved. These worries are often taken as justification for regulations imposing transparency requirements or tougher measures like separation of functions. At the same time, contract theory suggests that the effects of opportunistic behavior can be limited by adopting appropriate incentive schemes. The third study, chapter 4, tries to understand from a theoretical point of view to what extent the use of incentive schemes can address the distortions posed by the presence of conflicts of interest. The universal bank is regarded as a (common) agent serving different clients with potentially conflicting interests: for example, it may buy assets on behalf of investors and sell assets on behalf of issuing firms. The clients offer incentive schemes to the bank and they behave non-cooperatively. The bank decides a level of effort and, when firewalls are absent, a level of collusion, modelled as a costly and unproductive redistribution of wealth among the clients (for example, the banks can at no cost sell the securities it is underwriting to the funds it manages and can do so at the price it likes). Firewalls are defined as all legal or economic devices imposing a real separation of functions and therefore preventing the bank from colluding as specified above. The main conclusion is that in the absence of firewalls the equilibrium incentive schemes are steeper. This means that the equilibrium level of effort is higher and may compensate the (ex post) inefficiency of collusion. In other words, not only appropriate incentive schemes can eliminate the distortions posed by conflicts of interest but, at least in principle, their presence may even be necessary for efficiency (this happens if effort is a public good for the two principals so that the allocation without firewalls is characterized by under-provision of effort). At the same time, the allocation without firewalls is shown to be the least efficient in the presence of one naive player who does not recognize the existence of the conflict of interest. As long as transparency requirements can be considered tools to improve market participants’ sophistication, these results suggest why and how this type of regulation can work. Moreover, the model allows to draw conclusions about the desirability of tougher regulation prescribing a more or less neat separation of functions. With sophisticated economic agents, who can address the distortions posed by conflicts of interest by choosing appropriate incentive schemes, separation of functions is unnecessary or even detrimental for efficiency. On the other hand, more or less powerful firewalls are desirable if market participants are not considered sufficiently sophisticated to be able to react to the presence of conflicts of interest and if transparency requirements cannot increase their sophistication. In few words, the optimal regulation of conflicts of interest is softer in situations involving professionals who are more likely to realize and to react by choosing an appropriate incentive scheme or, more generally, for institutions operating in advanced economies where the average level of market participants sophistication is higher.

The classical corporation, as described by Berle and Means (1932), was characterized by ownership that is dispersed between many small shareholders, yet control was concentrated in the hands of managers. This ownership structure created the conflict of interest between managers and dispersed shareholders. More recent empirical work (see, e.g., La Porta et al. (1999) and Barca and Becht (2001)) has shown that ownership in many countries around the world is typically concentrated in the hands of a small number of large shareholders. As a result, an equally important agency conflict arises between large controlling shareholders and minority shareholders. On the one hand, large shareholders can benefit minority shareholders by monitoring managers (Shleifer and Vishny, 1986, 1997). On the other hand, large shareholders can be harmful if they pursue private goals that differ from profit maximization or if they reduce valuable managerial incentives (Shleifer and Vishny, 1997; and Burkart et al., 1997). In the presence of several large shareholders, a conflict of interest may arise between these controlling shareholders (see, e.g., Zwiebel (1995), Pagano and Röell (1998), and Bennedsen and Wolfenzon (2000)). They can compete for control, monitor each other, or form controlling coalitions to share private benefits. The question arises as to what determines the role of controlling shareholders in various firm policies and performance. Previous literature has noted that the incentives to expropriate minority shareholders are often exacerbated by the fact that the capital invested by the controlling shareholders is relatively lower than the voting control they achieve through the use of dual class shares (i.e., shares with differential voting rights) or stock pyramids (e.g., Claessens et al., 2002). Moreover, the identity of the shareholder (e.g., family vs. financial institution) is important for understanding the role of controlling shareholders (see, e.g., Holderness and Sheehan (1988), Volpin (2002), Claessens et al. (2002), and Burkart et al. (2003)). Using Swedish data, Cronqvist and Nilsson (2003) show that the agency costs of family owners are larger than the agency costs of other controlling owners. The role of controlling shareholders in transition countries is exacerbated by the fact that the legal and general institutional environment remains underdeveloped. In such an environment, strong owners may be the second best option to weak legal protection of investors (La Porta et al., 1997, 1998). The transition countries of central and eastern Europe are experiencing increasingly concentrated control structures, typically with the controlling owner actively involved in the management of the firm (Berglöf and Pajuste, 2003). Moreover, experience from transition countries suggests that foreign direct investment, where investors take controlling positions, have been critical to the successful restructuring of privatized firms. This thesis consists of four self-contained chapters that empirically examine various corporate governance issues. The common theme throughout the thesis is the focus on large shareholders, their identity, as well as to whether they deviate from the principle of one share-one vote. In particular, I examine the effect of large shareholders on firm value (in the first and third chapters), dividend policies (in the second chapter), and stock returns (in the final chapter). The first two chapters employ the data from Finland, the third looks at companies in seven European countries where deviations from one share-one vote are common, and the final one explores the evidence from transition countries. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2004

The strong increase in number of Great cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo in Sweden in recent years has led to conflicts - particularly with fishery. This thesis focuses on the possible effects of cormorant predation on fish populations. In total, data from 15 lakes in South Sweden were included in this study while most studies were carried out in Lake Ymsen. The results suggest that the impact of cormorant predation on natural fish populations was small, and I observed no decline in fish mass after cormorants established. Cormorant predation on eel was difficult to evaluate because of several confounding factors. Ruffe, roach and perch were the most important prey species to the cormorants and most fish taken were small. Cormorants do not seem to catch species and sizes in proportion to their occurrence in the fish community. Total fish removal by cormorants varied considerably among lakes (0.2-15.0 kg/ha) and cormorant population sizes at the different lakes were significantly positively correlated with fishery catches, which in turn was significantly positively correlated with total phosphorous levels. Thus, cormorant densities in lakes, and perhaps elsewhere, seem to be governed chiefly by fish densities. The fact that cormorant predation appears not to reduce fish densities suggest cormorants to be regulated by other means than prey depletion. The mechanism behind population regulation could be a behavioural response of fish, making fish more difficult to catch for the cormorants. In recent years, cormorant populations have been subjected to intensive legal and illegal actions with the aim to reduce cormorant numbers. However, the actions currently carried are well below the efforts needed to limit population sizes. To conclude, cormorants appear to compete little with fishery, with regards to free-living fish. The main problem is that cormorants sometimes damage and take away fish in fishing gears.

The thesis explores the attitudes towards large carnivores as a resource for tourism in northern Värmland. The purpose is to study the carnivore issue and the problems of carnivore tourism from a geographical perspective in order to illustrate the differences and connections between different approaches to a controversial and a potential rural resource. The empirical material is made up mainly of surveys and newspaper articles. Three actor groups were studied: the local community, tourism entrepreneurs, and visitors to carnivore information centers. The studies were underpinned by a two-pronged theoretical frame of reference, the first based on the concepts of place and landscape, the second on tourism as a concept and social phenomenon. Carnivore tourism constituted only a small part of that published in the media about carnivores, which showed that the tourism-oriented perspective on carnivores has been accorded only minor status in the media. The attitudes of the three actor groups towards carnivores and carnivore tourism differ. Attitudes among the local community were generally less favorable than among tourism entrepreneurs and visitors. The community perspective on carnivores and carnivore tourism may be regarded as a insider perspective strongly dominated by the “life place” perspective, one in which forest-oriented culture and practices enjoy strong status, particularly in the more peripheral parts of the geographical study area. Tourism entrepreneurs, who are an important link between the locals and visitors, generally had more positive attitudes, but the group as such was divided depending on the strength of local connections. Entrepreneurs with strong roots in the community had considerably more negative attitudes and usually saw no potential in carnivores as a resource for tourism. These entrepreneurs can be presumed to represent the life place perspective, while other entrepreneurs may be regarded as representing the “destination place” perspective. Visitors were the group with the most positive attitudes, even as they stood for a distinct outsider perspective. They had a keen interest in nature in general and carnivores in particular. Several factors had significant impact on the attitude towards carnivores and carnivore tourism, in particular the view on the naturalness of the wolf, that is, whether it had been reintroduced or had returned on its own, age, education, whether or not the person was a hunter, experience, and knowledge about large carnivores.