This sandwich thesis contains 3 studies using three distinct methodologies: scoping review, quantitative study, and qualitative study. This program of research explores employment for people with disabilities who are in receipt of publicly funded disability income benefits. / Employment is a key determinant of socioeconomic inclusion and health. Yet, people with disabilities (PWD) have one of the lowest employment rates in advanced welfare states. This thesis consists of three manuscripts using three distinct methodologies to examine this phenomenon. This thesis advances knowledge in the field by examining the employment outcomes of PWD who are in receipt of public income benefits, often referred to as programs of last resort. This thesis is framed by the theory of wicked problems which serves to emphasis the stubborn problem of low employment participation rates. Despite the numerous enhancements made to social assistance programming over the last two decades to facilitate positive employment outcomes, people with mental illness remain one of the most marginalized worker populations. Manuscript one is a scoping review identifying what is known about active labour market policies within welfare to work programs for PWD. This research acts as the foundational piece upon which the other two papers build. The purpose of the review is to present the existing body of literature on this issue across all advanced welfare states and identify the gaps in the evidence base, summarize these findings and disseminate them to policy makers and other key stakeholders. Manuscript two is a quantitative study. It takes a narrower focus and examines a subpopulation of PWD. This study uses administrative data from Ontario’s Ministry of Community and Social Services to examine the system level factors associated with earnings-related exits from the Ontario Disability Support Program, Ontario’s public income system for PWD. The study draws on descriptive and inferential statistical procedures to provide an overview of income support recipients with mental illness who gain enough earnings to transition off social assistance. This study contributes data on the numbers behind system exits to inform program development within ODSP. While manuscript two answers who exits ODSP for employment, manuscript three provides insight into why and how individuals succeed in exiting the system. Through a series of semi-structured interviews with three participant groups, this study explores the process of transitioning off disability income support benefits among people with mental illness. This study adds to a small but emerging literature on the economic fate of former ODSP recipients, which will help inform policy development. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Employment is a key determinant of socioeconomic inclusion and health. Employment paid at a competitive wage equips a person with the social and economic resources they need to enjoy a decent quality of life. Yet, people with disabilities (PWD) are often underemployed or excluded from the mainstream labour market. This thesis sets out to explore the barriers and facilitators to meaningful employment for PWD, with a focus on people living with serious mental illness who are in receipt of income benefits from the Ontario Disability Support Program. This body of work begins with a global exploration of active labour market policies that are used to assist PWD enter or remain in employment. It then narrows its focus to explore the system level factors that prevent or facilitate people living with serious mental illness to transition from income benefits to mainstream employment. The study findings have implications for policy development in all advanced welfare states that could enhance successful transitions from welfare to work.

Interaction between a solid body and a liquid-air interface plays an important role in multiphase flows, which includes numerous engineering applications such as mineral flotation, dip coating operations, and air-to-sea and sea-to-air projectiles. It is also crucial in animal behaviors like the locomotion of water-walking animals, the plunge-diving of birds, and the jumping out of water of marine creatures. Depending on the moving direction of a solid, such diverse phenomena can be classified into two categories; liquid-entry and liquid-exit. Liquid-entry, or more widely called water-entry, is the behavior of a solid object entering liquid from air. The opposite case is referred to as liquid-exit. Liquid-entry has been extensively studied, especially focusing on cavity formation and the estimation on capillary and hydrodynamic forces on a solid object. However, as the behavior of a triple contact line has not been understood on a sinking object, previous studies were limited to the special case of hydrophobic object to fix the contact line. Moreover, a more recent study pointed out the important role of contact line behavior to characterize the performance of film flotation, which is one of the direct applications of liquid-entry. However, there are no existing previous studies on the dynamics of the contact line on a sinking object. This subject will be first discussed in Chapter 2. In Chapters 3 and 4, the topics related to liquid-exit will be discussed, where a solid sphere exits out of a liquid toward air with constant velocity, acceleration, or deceleration. Chapter 3 will focus on the penetration and bouncing behaviors of a solid sphere while impacting a liquid-air interface. The solid sphere experiences the resistance of surface tension and gravity while impacting the interface. Thus, liquid-exit spheres should have enough momentum to penetrate the interface to overcome these resistances, which indicates that the critical momentum exits. This understanding would give a mechanistic explanation as to why some aquatic species, especially plankton, are able to jump out of water while the others cannot despite their similar size. This study can help to understand the particle-bubble interaction for froth flotation applications, in which the particle tends to attach to the bubble. In the last Chapter, the formation of a liquid column during the liquid-exit will be discussed. It has been observed that the evolution of a liquid column strongly depends on experimental conditions, especially the acceleration of a solid sphere. The pinch-off dynamics of a liquid column is categorized as two branches: upper and lower pinch-off's. The pinch-off location affects the entrained liquid volume adhered to the solid object, which is directly related to the uniform quality of a dip-coating operation. In addition to the pinch-off location and time in relation to the aforementioned experimental conditions will be discussed. In summary, studies in the present dissertation are designed and performed to provide mechanistic insight to the problems in the liquid-entry and liquid-exit, which are all closely related to animal's daily life as well as engineering applications. / PHD

The aim of this study was to understand how masculinities are constructed in criminal contexts, and how men handle the changes in their identity during the exit process, to show how the Swedish Prison and Probation Service and other actors in social work can support men during their exit from criminal behavior. The study uses narrative analysis as a method, specifically the category-content method. Empirically the study is based on six autobiographies by six different authors who all identify as either criminals or ex-criminals. The results show that the authors’ masculinities are primarily constructed through the act of acquiring and exhibiting material and social resources, as well as displaying courage, capacity for violence, and recklessness, while simultaneously hiding emotions which they regard as weaknesses. The men handle their changing identities due to exit processes by receiving support from friends and family, and by not leaving the criminal context entirely. One identified strategy some of the authors use in order to manage identity conflicts that we have identified is the use of their life story, and knowledge regarding crime, as a means to change young potential offenders’ life trajectories.

<p>По истраживању Туристичке организације Србије (ТОС) догађаји&nbsp; су први&nbsp; на листи туристичких мотива за долазак страних туриста у нашу земљу. Манифестациони туризам&nbsp; је због тога истакнут у &bdquo;Стратегији развоја туризма Србије&ldquo;&nbsp; као веома значајан сегмент развоја туризма у Србији, али и као компаративна предност домаћег туризма.&nbsp; Према подацима Туристичке организације Војводине, у Војводини се годишње одржи 1382 манифестације. Једна од најважнијих манифестација је&nbsp; EXIT фестивал који се већ 15 година одржава у Новом Саду.&nbsp; Овај фестивал је уврштен у 10 најбољих европских фестивала. Маркетинг стратегија Војводине предлаже да се у развоју туризма следи пример Мађарске. У Мађарској се у току године одржи&nbsp; више<br />од 3000 фестивала који привлаче 18-20 милиона посетилаца из Мађарске&nbsp; и<br />иностранства,&nbsp; што говори о значају који туризам догађаја има на туризам Мађарске. Будимпешта је главни град Републике Мађарске. Налази се на 300&nbsp; km&nbsp; од Новог Сада и изузетно је посећена туристичка дестинација. Један од значајнијих туристичких догађаја у&nbsp; Будимпешти је музички фестивал&nbsp; SZIGET,&nbsp; који окупља велики број извођача и посетиоце из преко 70 различитих земаља, чиме доприноси позитивном имиџу Будимпеште на туристичкој мапи Европе.</p><p>Локално становништво&nbsp; је битан стејкхолдер у развоју туристиче дестинације. У&nbsp; вези са одређеним подручјем и животном средином, има много бољи осећај за то шт а су реалне потребе тог подручја, као и јаснију визију будућег развоја, него централна управа.&nbsp; Због наведеног је потребно укључити визије, жеље и потребе, потенцијале и ентузијазам локалне заједнице у планове за будући развој</p><p>&nbsp; С обзиром да&nbsp; је врло мало&nbsp; истраживања о ефектима музичких фестивала на локалну заједницу&nbsp; наших простора, анкетирани су становници Новог Сада и Будимпеште, о ефектима које&nbsp; EXIT&nbsp; и&nbsp; SZIGET&nbsp; фестивали&nbsp; остварују, применом модификоване&nbsp; FSIAS скале.&nbsp; Сакупљено је укупно&nbsp; 505&nbsp; валидних&nbsp; упитника&nbsp; који&nbsp; су даље&nbsp; коришћени&nbsp; у статистичким анализама.&nbsp; Применом експлоративне факторске анализе утврђена је&nbsp; двофакторска структура модификоване&nbsp; FSIAS&nbsp; скале, а фактори су именовани на следећи начин: Ф1&nbsp; позитивни&nbsp; ефекти&nbsp; -&nbsp; друштвене користи&nbsp; и&nbsp; Ф2&nbsp; негативни ефекти&nbsp; -друштвени трошкови фестивала.<br />Истраживањем се дошло до сазнања да локално становништво&nbsp; Новог Сада и<br />Будимпеште више перципира позитивне него негативне ефекте фестивала на локалну заједницу, при чему испитаници из Новог Сада обе групе ефеката оцењују вишим просечним оценама у односу на испитанике из Будимпеште. Такође, истраживањем је потврђено да&nbsp; фестивали доприносе развоју туризма, промоцији и имиџу дестинације. Утврђено&nbsp; је које су&nbsp; и&nbsp; јаке тачке оба фестивала, а на које ставке би менаџмет требао више утицати како би се позитивни ефекти мултипликовали, као и који&nbsp; ефекти&nbsp; могу бити занемарени&nbsp; по мишљењу локалног становништва, а да фестивал не губи на квалитету.</p><p>Социјални утицаји на локалну заједницу нису универзални, оно што има важан утицај у једној заједници може имати занемарљив утицај у другој заједници.</p> / <p>Po istraživanju Turističke organizacije Srbije (TOS) događaji&nbsp; su prvi&nbsp; na listi turističkih motiva za dolazak stranih turista u našu zemlju. Manifestacioni turizam&nbsp; je zbog toga istaknut u &bdquo;Strategiji razvoja turizma Srbije&ldquo;&nbsp; kao veoma značajan segment razvoja turizma u Srbiji, ali i kao komparativna prednost domaćeg turizma.&nbsp; Prema podacima Turističke organizacije Vojvodine, u Vojvodini se godišnje održi 1382 manifestacije. Jedna od najvažnijih manifestacija je&nbsp; EXIT festival koji se već 15 godina održava u Novom Sadu.&nbsp; Ovaj festival je uvršten u 10 najboljih evropskih festivala. Marketing strategija Vojvodine predlaže da se u razvoju turizma sledi primer Mađarske. U Mađarskoj se u toku godine održi&nbsp; više<br />od 3000 festivala koji privlače 18-20 miliona posetilaca iz Mađarske&nbsp; i<br />inostranstva,&nbsp; što govori o značaju koji turizam događaja ima na turizam Mađarske. Budimpešta je glavni grad Republike Mađarske. Nalazi se na 300&nbsp; km&nbsp; od Novog Sada i izuzetno je posećena turistička destinacija. Jedan od značajnijih turističkih događaja u&nbsp; Budimpešti je muzički festival&nbsp; SZIGET,&nbsp; koji okuplja veliki broj izvođača i posetioce iz preko 70 različitih zemalja, čime doprinosi pozitivnom imidžu Budimpešte na turističkoj mapi Evrope.</p><p>Lokalno stanovništvo&nbsp; je bitan stejkholder u razvoju turističe destinacije. U&nbsp; vezi sa određenim područjem i životnom sredinom, ima mnogo bolji osećaj za to št a su realne potrebe tog područja, kao i jasniju viziju budućeg razvoja, nego centralna uprava.&nbsp; Zbog navedenog je potrebno uključiti vizije, želje i potrebe, potencijale i entuzijazam lokalne zajednice u planove za budući razvoj</p><p>&nbsp; S obzirom da&nbsp; je vrlo malo&nbsp; istraživanja o efektima muzičkih festivala na lokalnu zajednicu&nbsp; naših prostora, anketirani su stanovnici Novog Sada i Budimpešte, o efektima koje&nbsp; EXIT&nbsp; i&nbsp; SZIGET&nbsp; festivali&nbsp; ostvaruju, primenom modifikovane&nbsp; FSIAS skale.&nbsp; Sakupljeno je ukupno&nbsp; 505&nbsp; validnih&nbsp; upitnika&nbsp; koji&nbsp; su dalje&nbsp; korišćeni&nbsp; u statističkim analizama.&nbsp; Primenom eksplorativne faktorske analize utvrđena je&nbsp; dvofaktorska struktura modifikovane&nbsp; FSIAS&nbsp; skale, a faktori su imenovani na sledeći način: F1&nbsp; pozitivni&nbsp; efekti&nbsp; -&nbsp; društvene koristi&nbsp; i&nbsp; F2&nbsp; negativni efekti&nbsp; -društveni troškovi festivala.<br />Istraživanjem se došlo do saznanja da lokalno stanovništvo&nbsp; Novog Sada i<br />Budimpešte više percipira pozitivne nego negativne efekte festivala na lokalnu zajednicu, pri čemu ispitanici iz Novog Sada obe grupe efekata ocenjuju višim prosečnim ocenama u odnosu na ispitanike iz Budimpešte. Takođe, istraživanjem je potvrđeno da&nbsp; festivali doprinose razvoju turizma, promociji i imidžu destinacije. Utvrđeno&nbsp; je koje su&nbsp; i&nbsp; jake tačke oba festivala, a na koje stavke bi menadžmet trebao više uticati kako bi se pozitivni efekti multiplikovali, kao i koji&nbsp; efekti&nbsp; mogu biti zanemareni&nbsp; po mišljenju lokalnog stanovništva, a da festival ne gubi na kvalitetu.</p><p>Socijalni uticaji na lokalnu zajednicu nisu univerzalni, ono što ima važan uticaj u jednoj zajednici može imati zanemarljiv uticaj u drugoj zajednici.</p> / <p>According to Tourist Organization of Serbia (TOS) research events are the first motive for<br />arrival of foreign tourists in our country. Event&nbsp; tourism is therefore one of the pillars in<br />&bdquo;Tourism Development Strategy of Serbia&quot; as a very important segment, as a comparative<br />advantage of domestic tourism. According to Tourist Organization of Vojvodina, 1382&nbsp;<br />events are annually held in Vojvodina. One&nbsp; of the most important manifestations is the<br />EXIT festival, held in Novi Sad for 15 years. This festival has been listed as one of the top<br />10 European festivals. In development of tourism Marketing Strategy of Vojvodina suggests<br />following the example of Hungary. In period of one year more than 3000 festivals are held<br />in Hungary which are attracting 18-20 million of visitors from Hungary and abroad, that fact<br />indicates importance of events in Hungarian tourism. Budapest is the capital of Republic of<br />Hungary.&nbsp; It is 300 km away from Novi Sad and it is highly visited tourist destination. One<br />of the most important tourism events in Budapest is Sziget music festival, which gathers a<br />large number of performers and visitors from more than 70 different countries. Therefore<br />Sziget festival is contributing to the positive image of Budapest on European tourist map.<br />Local population is an important stakeholder in development of tourist destinations. In<br />relation to specific area and environment local population can have better sense of what are<br />real needs, what is more sustainable and can gain more benefit in future development, than<br />the central government. As result it is necessary to include vision, desires and needs,<br />potentials and enthusiasm of local community in plans for future development.<br />As there are no studies on effects of music festivals on local community in our area, this<br />scientific research investigated local population perception on effects of music festivals. The<br />survey about effects of Exit and Sziget festival sampled residents from Novi Sad and<br />Budapest. Appropriate sampling collected total of 505 valid surveys that are used in<br />statistical analysis. Modified FSIAS scale showed positive and negative effects of festival<br />and what significance these effects have on local community.<br />The&nbsp; results of the&nbsp; study&nbsp; show&nbsp; that local population from Novi Sad and Budapest&nbsp; perceives<br />more positive effects from festivals than negative effects. Respondents from Novi Sad&nbsp; gave<br />higher average grades for both groups of effects. Also, the results confirmed that festivals<br />contibute to tourism development, promotion and image of destination.<br />Strong points&nbsp; or strengths&nbsp; of both festivals were determined as well as areas that should be<br />more influenced by management so positive effects could be multiplied. Also low priority<br />or possible overkill&nbsp; points&nbsp; are defined&nbsp; and&nbsp; can be ignored, as they are not&nbsp; influencing<br />quality of festival.<br />Social impacts on local community are not universal, those that have important impact on<br />one community may have a negligible effect on the other.</p>

The aim of this study was to examine if the leaving of an abuse could be understood as a process, that incorporates both psychological and sociological parts. We collected our data through a qualitative method of reading autobiographies. The selection of materials was based on the autobiographies that dealt with substance abuse issues, where the selection was delimited to the autobiographies where the individuals had had an alcohol, drug or gambling abuse. The chosen material was written in Swedish, by the addict and after the individual had come out of their abuse. The reading of the material was based on a number of reading questions based on the study’s questions. Following the patterns we found from the reading, we formed a division of our results where eight themes were identified that seemed to play an important role when leaving an abuse: questioning, unsuccessful attempts, insight, turning point, a struggle, important help, new self and awareness. Our result was then analyzed against both psychological and sociological research to give different explanatory models of what we saw in the material. The psychologically oriented research talked about how an individual leaves addiction and how, for example, cognitive changes and turning points are central parts. The sociologically oriented research consisted of a theoretical explanation model about how an individual makes a role exit when, for example, he leaves an abuse where social factors such as environmental impact plays an important role. One of the study’s conclusions was that leaving an abuse could be understood as a process. Another conclusion was that the eight different steps of the process could include both sociological and psychological parts. Thus, through our study, we distinguished that leaving an abuse was not only influenced by one or the other approach, but that studies that illuminate and merge both psychological and sociological perspectives are needed. The study also shows the importance of bringing these two directions together in order to reach a full understanding of what the individual undergoes during his or her journey from an abuse.

Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2019-03-25T14:07:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tadeu Grando_.pdf: 1065557 bytes, checksum: 9fd0e9a6e7d4aa9ada0cddccf3dfbc38 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2019-03-25T14:07:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tadeu Grando_.pdf: 1065557 bytes, checksum: 9fd0e9a6e7d4aa9ada0cddccf3dfbc38 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2019-01-03 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Estudos teóricos e empíricos recentes sugerem que os blockholders, acionistas com participação maior ou igual a 5%, exercem poder como mecanismo de governança corporativa nas empresas. O poder de governança dos blockholders pode ser exercido através de dois mecanismos: intervenção (“voz”), que se refere à disposição dos acionistas de incorrer em atividades dispendiosas para aumentar o valor da empresa; e pela ameaça da saída (“exit”), que se refere à ameaça da venda de ações da empresa no mercado. Pesquisas acadêmicas recentes tem sido realizadas nesta área, relacionando a presença de blockholders com a eficiência gerencial, sobretudo no contexto americano. Estes estudos fornecem evidências consistentes que a ação dos blockhloders nas empresas pode afetar o comportamento gerencial. Entretanto, poucos estudos abordam diretamente a relação dos blockholders com o valor das empresas. Ademais, estudos que avaliam se a presença de blockholders realmente disciplina a gestão são escassos nos países emergentes. De um modo geral, os blockholders são acionistas com participação relevante no quadro acionário e, em decorrencia deste fato, em tese, possuem fortes incentivos para monitorar, coletar informações privadas e intervir junto aos controladores e à gestão, reduzindo custos de agência, e consequentemente, aumentanto o valor das empresas. Neste sentido, a fundamentação das hipóteses desta tese defende que a presença de blockholders na estrutura de propriedade das empresas brasileiras relaciona-se positivamente com a criação de valor, e que a força desta relação depende das variáveis participação acionária, número de blockholders, sensibilidade dos gestores ao preço das ações, liquidez das ações da empresa, dos tipos de blockholders, da diversidade dos tipos de blockholders, do nível de ativismo e das inter-relações entre os blockholders nas empresas. Para resolução das hipóteses desta tese, a amostra foi constituída por empresas brasileiras abertas, não financeiras, cujos dados estão disponíveis na Economática®, totalizando 334 empresas, com 1.899 observações. Os dados se referem ao período de 2010 a 2016. Metodologicamente, para atendimento dos propósitos desta tese, formularam-se seis hipóteses, sendo que para cada hipótese configuraram-se duas regressões por mínimos quadrados ordinários, com dados em painel, conforme as métricas de criação de valor consideradas nesta pesquisa, Q de Tobin (Q) e retorno (R). Salienta-se que, para os modelos onde utilizou-se o Q aplicou-se dados em painel com efeitos fixos, e nos modelos onde utilizou-se o R aplicou-se dados em painel com pooled, conforme orientação dos testes econométricos preliminares. Os resultados gerais desta pesquisa indicam que a simples presença de blockholders, nas companhias brasileiras, não produz os resultados encontrados na literatura teórica e empírica, que fundamentaram a base desta tese. Pelo contrário, os resultados indicam uma relação negativa entre a presença dos blockholders e o valor das empresas brasileiras para ambas as métricas de valor utilizadas. Os diferentes resultados em relação aos apresentados pelos modelos teóricos e empíricos encontrados nos EUA são explicados pelas características peculiares do mercado brasileiro, especialmente no que tange às diferenças em relação à estrutura de propriedade. Num mercado como o dos EUA, um blockholder com 5% de participação na empresa é um grande acionista, é uma ameaça aos controladores e à gestão, já que lá o controle é exercido, na maioria das vezes, com menos do que 50% do capital total. No Brasil, na maioria das vezes, as empresas possuem controle acionário definido, com isso o blockholder não tem a mesma força. Desta forma, como observado nesta pesquisa, os blockholders brasileiros, em maioria, são passivos. Essa passividade faz com que os controladores e ou gestores da empresa utilizem os blockholders para diluição do capital acionário e dos direitos sobre o fluxo de caixa da empresa, o que aumenta os incentivos de expropriação por parte dos controladores e gestores, elevando os custos de agência e reduzindo o valor das empresas. No mesmo sentido, percebe-se que as métricas relacionadas com a força dos blockholders como mecanismo de governança não possuem efeito positivo na relação dos blockholders com a criação de valor das empresas. Pelo contrário, as métricas vinculadas à participação acionária e ao número de blockholders relacionam-se negativamente com a criação de valor nas empresas, reforçando o argumento teórico de que a diluição do capital acionário e do fluxo de caixa do controlador aumenta os incentivos deste em expropriar. Os diferentes tipos de blockholders ou a heterogeneidade destes, na maioria dos casos, não apresentou relação com a criação de valor nas empresas. Em relação à diversidade dos blockholders presentes na estrutura de propriedade das empresas, conclui-se que esta afeta negativamente o valor das empresas, ou seja, quanto mais tipos diferentes de blockholders presentes na estrutura de propriedade das empresas, pior são os resultados em relação às métricas de criação de valor. Entretanto, quando se identifica a presença nas empresas brasileiras de blockholders ativos e suas inter-relações, percebe-se que, nesta situação, os blockholders potencializam o efeito de criação e o valor na empresa, convergindo com as premissas teóricas apresentadas por estudos americanos que fundamentaram esta tese. Essa aproximação dos resultados pode ser atribuída ao perfil dos investidores ativos brasileiros que realmente agem como mecanismo de governança, o que acontece na maioria dos casos com os blockholders no mercado americano. Os resultados desta tese permitem o avanço da literatura nacional e internacional sobre o tema, demonstrando que, sob uma estrutura de propriedade concentrada, sobretudo com a presença da figura de um “dono” e/ou acionista majoritário nas empresas, como é o caso brasileiro, a interferência dos blockholders, de forma geral, no monitoramento da gestão, se torna mais difícil. No ambiente brasileiro a maioria dos blockholders não consegue utilizar o seu poder de voz, em decorrência da alta concentração de propriedade e das dificuldades de exercer influência efetiva junto ao controlador ou à gestão. No mesmo sentido, também se observa uma dificuldade em relação ao mecanismo de exit, pois a maioria das empresas listadas não fornece liquidez suficiente nos papéis para que o poder de ameaça de saída faça sentido. / Recent theoretical and empirical studies have suggested that blockholders, who hold the shares of 5% or more in companies, exercise their power as a mechanism of corporate governance. The governance power of blockholders can be exercised through two intervention mechanisms, one is "voice", which refers to the willingness of shareholders to incur costly activities to increase the value of the company, and another is the threat of exit, which refers to the threat of the sale of company shares in the market. Newly academic research have been carried out in this area, relating the presence of blockholders with managerial efficiency, especially in the American context. These studies provide consistent evidences that the action of blockhloders in companies can affect managerial behavior. However, few studies directly aproach the relationship between blockholders and companies' value. In addition, studies that assess whether the presence of blockholders actually discipline management are scarce in emerging countries. In general, the blockholders are shareholders with relevant participation in the ownership structure, as a result of this fact, in thesis, they have strong incentives to monitor, to collect private information and to intervene together with controllers or management, reducing agency costs and, consequently, increasing the companies value. In this sense, the hypotheses of this thesis argue that the presences of blockholders in the ownership structure of Brazilian companies are positively related to the creation of value, and that the strength of these relationship depends on the variables equity interest of blockholder, the number of blockholders, the managers' sensitivity to share price, liquidity of company shares, the types of blockholders, the diversity of the types of blockholders, the level of activism, and the interrelations among the blockholders in the companies. To resolve the hypotheses of this thesis, the sample was made up of Brazilian non-financial companies, whose data are available in Economática®, totaling 334 companies, with 1,899 observations. The data refer to the period from 2010 to 2016. Methodologically, to answer the purposes of this thesis, six hypotheses were formulated, and for each hypothesis, two ordinary least squares regressions were configured, with panel data, according to the metrics of value creation considered in this research, Q of Tobin (Q) and return (R). For the models where the Q was used, panel data with fixed effects were applied, and in the models where the R was used, panel data with pooled were applied, according to the orientation of the preliminary econometric tests. The general results of this thesis indicate that the mere presence of blockholders in Brazilian companies does not produce the kind of results which were found in the theoretical and empirical literature, which provided the basis for this thesis. On the contrary, the results indicate a negative relation between the presence of blockholders and the value of Brazilian companies for both metrics of value of this research. The different results in relation to those presented by the theoretical and empirical models found in USA are explained by the peculiar characteristics of the Brazilian market, especially with respect to the differences in ownership structure. In a market like the US, a blockholder with a 5% stake in the company is a large shareholder, is a threat to controllers and managements, since control there is exercised, for the most part, with less then 50% of the total capital. In Brazil most of the time companies have a defined shareholder control, so the blockholders does not have the same strengh. Thus, as seen in this research, Brazilian blockholders, in the majority, are passive. This passivity causes company controllers and managers to use blockholders to dilute equity capital and cash flow rights of the company, which increases expropriation incentives by controllers and managers, raising agency costs and reducing the value of companies. In the same way, it can be observed that the metrics related to the strength of the blockholders as mechanisms of governance do not have a positive effect on the relationship of the blockholders with the creation of value of the companies. On the contrary, the metrics related to the shareholding and the number of blockholders are related negatively to the creation of value in the companies, reinforcing the theoretical argument that the dilution of stock capital and the cash flow of the controller increases the incentives of controller’s expropriation. The different types of blockholders or the heterogeneity of these, in most cases, were not related to the creation of value in companies. In relation to the diversity of the blockholders present in the corporate ownership structure, it is concluded that this affects negatively the value of the companies, that means, the more types of different blockholders present in the ownership structure of the companies, the worse the results in relation to the metrics for creating value. However , when the presence of active blockholders and their interrlationsships is in identified in brazilian companies, it can be seen that, in this situation, blockholders potentiate the creation effect and value in the company, converging with the theoretical premises presented by American studies that supported this thesis. This approximation of the results can be attributed to the profile of the Brazilian active investors that really act as mechanisms of governance, which happens in most cases with the blockholders in the American market. The results of this thesis allow the advanced of the national and international literature about theme, demonstrating that under a concentrated property structure, especially with the presence of the figure of a "owner" and / or majority shareholder in companies, as in the case of Brazil, , in general, the monitoring of management becomes more difficult. In the Brazilian environment, the majority of blockholders cannot use their voice power, due to the high concentration of ownership and the difficulties of exercising effective influence with the controller or the management. In the same way, there is also a difficulty with the exit mechanism, since most listed companies do not provide sufficient liquidity in the roles for the threat of exit power to make sense.

La contribution de cette thèse est d’examiner l’évolution de la qualité de l’emploi du point de vue de l’établissement. Elle s’appuie sur des données couplées employeurs - salariés issues des enquêtes comparables Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS 2004 et 2011) pour le cas de la Grande-Bretagne et Relations Professionnelles et Négociations d’Entreprise (REPONSE 2005 et 2011) pour la France. Cette thèse contient trois chapitres et enrichit trois grands axes de la littérature existante. Le premier chapitre explore l’impact des pratiques d’ajustement au niveau de l’établissement sur la qualité de l’emploi en France pendant la crise. Le deuxième chapitre analyse le rôle du régime institutionnel en France et en Grande-Bretagne afin d’expliquer la variation de la qualité de l’emploi entre les deux pays. Finalement, le troisième chapitre examine les stratégies adoptées par les salariés pour composer avec leur salaire et leurs conditions de travail. / The contribution of this thesis is to examine the evolution of job quality from the perspective of the workplace using the British Workplace Employment Relations Surveys (WERS 2004 and 2011) and the French Enquête Relations Professionnelles et Négociations d’Entreprises (REPONSE 2005 and 2011). The thesis consists of three chapters and complements three main strands of the existing literature. The first chapter explores the impact of workplace adjustment practices on job quality in France during the recession. The second chapter examines the role of institutional regimes in Great Britain and France in explaining the cross-national variation in job quality. Finally, the third chapter investigates the strategies employees adopt in order to cope with their pay and working conditions.

L’estimation de canal joue un rôle important dans les communications mobiles sans fil et en particulier dans les systèmes multi-antennes MIMO. Contrairement aux techniques classiques d’estimation de canal basées sur des séquences d’apprentissage ou des symboles pilotes, les techniques aveugles ne nécessitent aucune insertion de symboles d'apprentissage et permettent d'augmenter le débit utile. Les principales difficultés des techniques aveugles résident dans l’ambiguïté présente sur les estimées. Les techniques d’estimation semi-aveugles, basées sur les mêmes méthodes que l’estimation aveugle, sont plus robustes. Elles exploitent l’information aveugle ainsi que l’information provenant d’un nombre réduit de symboles d’apprentissage. Cette estimation du canal de communication est très utile dans les systèmes MIMO et permet de précoder le signal MIMO-OFDM en lui appliquant un pré-mélange permettant d'améliorer les performances. De nombreux types de précodeurs existent et leurs performances varient en fonction des critères d'optimisation retenus (Water-Filling, MMSE, Equal Error, max-SNR, max-d min …), mais aussi avec la qualité de l'estimation du canal de communication. Nous étudions dans cette thèse l’impact de l’utilisation de l’information du canal (CSI) provenant des méthodes d’estimation aveugle et semi-aveugle, dans l’application des précodeurs linéaires MIMO. Nous présentons également une étude statistique de l’erreur d’estimation provenant de ces méthodes. L’optimisation de ces précodeurs nous mène par la suite à exploiter un autre procédé permettant l’amélioration des performances : les codes correcteurs d’erreur. Nous nous intéressons particulièrement aux codes LDPC non-binaires et leur association avec les précodeurs linéaires MIMO. Nous montrons qu’une adaptation est possible et s’avère bénéfique dans certains cas. L’optimisation de cette association nous a permis de proposer un nouveau précodeur basé sur la maximisation de l’information mutuelle, robuste et plus performant. / Channel estimation plays an important role in wireless mobile communications, especially in MIMO systems. Unlike conventional channel estimation techniques based on training sequences or pilot symbols, blind techniques does not require the insertion of training symbols and allow higher throughput. The main problems of the blind lies in the ambiguity over the estimated channel. Based on the same methods as the blind estimation, the semi-blind estimation techniques are more robust. They exploit the blind information along with information provided by a small number of training symbols. The channel estimation is useful in MIMO systems and allows the precoding of the MIMO-OFDM signal by applying a pre-mixture in order to improve performance. Many types of precoders exist and their performance varies depending not only on the optimization criteria (Water-Filling, MMSE, Equal Error, max-SNR, max-d min ...), but also on the estimated channel. In this thesis we study the impact of using the channel information (CSI) from the blind and semi-blind estimation techniques to apply MIMO linear precoders. We also present a statistical study of the estimation error of these methods. The optimization of these precoders leads eventually to use another process allowing more performance improvement: the error correcting codes. We are particularly interested in non-binary LDPC codes and their association with linear MIMO precoders. We show that a matching is possible, and is beneficial in some cases. The optimization of this combination has allowed us to propose a new robust and more efficient precoder based on the maximization of mutual information.

I uppsatsen utreds de svenska personaloptionsreglernas förenlighet med EG-rätten. I 10 kap. 11 § 2 st. 2 p. IL framgår att då en i Sverige obegränsat skattskyldig person upphör att vara bosatt eller att stadigvarande vistas i Sverige likställs flytten med att personaloptionen utnyttjas och skall därför beskattas. Beskattning sker av ännu inte realiserade tillgångar med anledning av utflyttningen. Den typen av beskattning som följer av personaloptionsreglerna är ett exempel på en så kallad exit-skatt. Första steget i utredningen består i att bestämma huruvida personaloptionsreglerna kan utgöra ett otillåtet hinder för den fria rörligheten för arbetstagare och kapital inom unionen. Då hindret uppställs av hemvistlandet är det enligt vår terminologi att ses som ett hemstatshinder då det kan avskräcka landets medborgare eller bosatta från att utnyttja rätten till fri rörlighet. Vi har kommit till slutsatsen att de svenska personaloptionsreglerna utgör ett otillåtet hemstatshinder för den fria rörligheten för arbetstagare och kapital. Andra steget utgörs av att utreda huruvida de svenska personaloptionsreglerna kan rättfärdigas genom fördraget eller rule of reason-testet. Vad det gäller fördragets bestämmelser om avsteg från principen om fri rörlighet i artiklarna 39 och 58 EG anser vi inte att dessa kan berättiga exit-skatt-bestämmelsen i personaloptionsreglerna. Under rule of reason-testet prövas rättfärdigandegrunderna skattesystemets inre sammanhang, effektiv skattekontroll och behovet av att förhindra skatteflykt i förhållande till personaloptionsreglerna. Med hänsyn till praxis från EGD och analysen i uppsatsen synes personaloptionsreglerna inte kunna rättfärdigas genom dessa. Då vi anser att bestämmelsen i 10 kap. 11 § 2 st. 2 p. IL inte kan berättigas vare sig genom fördraget eller rule of reason-testet utgör regeln således ett otillåtet hemstatshinder för den fria rörligheten för arbetstagare och kapital. Konsekvensen av att ett hinder anses otillåtet är att regeln inte får tillämpas av medlemsstaten. / The aim of the thesis is to analyse the Swedish employee stock option legislation’s compliance with EC law. Chapter 10 section 11 subsection 2 of the Swedish income tax act states that when a person subject to unlimited tax liability ceases to be domiciled or permanently resident in Sweden, the change of residence is deemed equal to the redemption of the employee stock options and shall therefore be taxed. Due to the emigration, not yet realized assets are taxed. The kind of taxation present in the Swedish employee stock option legislation is an example of an exit tax. The first part of our analysis consists of determining whether the Swedish employee stock option legislation may constitute an unlawful obstacle for the free movement of workers and capital within the internal market. According to our terminology, an obstacle put up by the home state, capable of deterring citizens or residents of that country from exercising their right to free movement is considered a home state obstacle. We have reached the conclusion that the Swedish employee stock option legislation constitutes an unlawful home state obstacle for the free movement of workers and capital. The second part of this study consists of investigating whether the Swedish employee stock option legislation can be justified under the EC treaty or under the rule of reason test. Concerning the possibilities stated in articles 39 and 58 EC to depart from the principle of free movement, we would like to suggest that the exit taxation provision found in the Swedish employee stock option legislation cannot be justified through neither of them. The rule of reason justification grounds coherence of the tax system, effectiveness of fiscal supervision and the need to prevent tax avoidance are tried in relation to the Swedish employee stock option legislation. By reference to case law from the ECJ and the analysis in the thesis, none of the three seems to be able to justify the Swedish employee stock option legislation. The Swedish employee stock option legislation cannot, according to our analysis, be justified neither through the treaty nor the rule of reason test. In our opinion, it therefore constitutes an unlawful home state obstacle for the free movement of workers and capital. The consequence of an unlawful obstacle is that the member state may not apply that rule.

Research on gender equality in Swedish higher education shows an unequal gender balance. Women are consistently underrepresented at the highest levels of the academic hierarchy. The lack of gender equality in academia has been illustrated by metaphors such as a narrowing pyramid, a leaky pipeline and a black hole. Unlike other problems in the academic context, gender inequality in higher education is seldom considered from a system perspective. The system of higher education has undergone major changes during the 1990s in terms of scope (more students, more faculty, more institutions, etc.), differentiation (inclusion of new disciplines) and geographical distribution (establishing institutions in previously unserviced areas). In this thesis, theoretical expectations concerning the effect of these changes on gender equality are developed. The thesis investigates gender equality in higher education by developing an analytical framework to analyze the system level and its impact on gender equality. The empirical data consists of two sets. The first set contains cross-sectional data on registered students, doctoral entrants, doctors, post-doctoral fellows, lecturers and professors in Swedish higher education. The second set is derived from the longitudinal integration database for health insurance and labor market studies (LISA), which consists of anonymized data on all individuals in the Swedish labor market that hold doctoral degrees. The main finding of the thesis is that the system of higher education does have an impact on the gender equality in higher education. The vertical gender balance has increased during the expansion of Swedish higher education during the 1990s. The horizontal gender balance has also increased, but the increase is limited to the student category. On the other hand, the system of higher education has not had an impact on the gender equality measured in terms of exits from academia. Instead, the analysis shows that the rate of men that leave academia is higher than the rate of women, and that commonly used metaphors portraying academia as a narrowing pyramid, a leaky pipeline or a black hole serve poorly as illustrations of the gender equality in academia.