Title: How an external collection actor enables Lindex’s closed loop supply chain. Context: Customers demand of sustainable products has motivated companies to develop more sustainable business models. The implementation of closed loop supply chain is an effort to keep the value of resources for as long as possible, by reusing and recycling consumer waste. This study identifies what a reverse logistics flow of textile material looks like in a closed loop supply chain, and how companies can gain economies of scale in their reverse logistics. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate how a collection actor handles collected textiles and thereby contributes to the enabling of Lindex’s closed loop supply chain. The identification of the process provides an example of how other organizations can approach the circular economy. The study will also explore various alternatives to achieve economies of scale in the reverse logistics. Questions at issue: 1. “How does an external collection actor, Myrorna, manage Lindex´s reverse logistics of textiles in a closed loop supply chain?” 2. “With what strategies can the external collection actor, Myrorna, achieve economies of scale?” Method: The study practices a qualitative hermeneutic orientation, with an inductive reasoning. It is a one case study where the empirical information was collected by qualitative semi-structured interviews. The sampling technique used to provide the data was purposive sampling. Process mapping through process flow chart was used to analyze the empirical information. The study reaches a certain amount of validity through the use of triangulation of facts. Other ways used to ensure the quality of the study was for example that the respondent reviewed the results to authenticate it. An aspect of criticism is that the study is a one case study and therefor has a lower grade of transferability. The authors have also taken research ethics into consideration. Results: The external collection actor, Myrorna, enables Lindex closed loop supply chain through the physical handling of the collected textiles. According to the head of collection at Myrorna (2020-05-12) the reverse logistics is currently well managed. The study finds supporting evidence for the case, however alternative means of achieving economies of scale are proposed. One proposition is to outsource the domestic transportation through a third party logistics company. Another is to include pickup of goods at Lindex stores to Myrornas iv current pickup routes or to use a third party logistics company. Myrorna already handles a lot of textiles in their sorting operation, and the authors therefore suggests that they will keep insourcing this part of the reverse logistics. As a final suggestion Myrorna should continue outsourcing the export of leftover textiles in order to achieve economies of scale. Keywords: Supply chain management, Sustainable fashion industry, Closed loop supply chain, Process flowchart, Reverse logistics, Textile collection, Economies of scale.

Pays en développement avec une demande d’électricité croissante, le Vietnam a instauré la tarification progressive de l’électricité résidentielle. La fixation du tarif de l’énergie est toujours une question délicate, entre gestion de la demande, lutte contre la pauvreté, effets sur l’inflation, besoins d’investissement pour assurer la sécurité énergétique et le développement des technologies vertes. Cette action nécessite une maîtrise très profonde du comportement des consommateurs ainsi que la demande des ménages. La thèse a pour but d’explorer les facteurs qui impactent la demande d’électricité Vietnamienne au niveau résidentielle en se basant sur : les prix, les revenus, la démographie (comprenant la taille et la composition des foyers) et les vagues de chaleur. Les données de « pool et panel » sont collectées à partir des trois micro enquêtes sur le niveau de vie des foyers vietnamiens en 2012, 2014, 2016.Cette thèse estime économétriquement la demande d’électricité des ménages. Elle innove sur deux points de méthode.Premièrement, elle utilise les données individuelles issues des enquêtes nationales, avec le détail de la structure des tarifs et des factures d’électricité des ménages répondants. Cela dépasse donc les limites de beaucoup de recherches passées qui étaient basées soit sur données nationales agrégées, soit sur données individuelles mais avec une quantité et un prix imputés, soit sur données individuelles avec le détail de la structure des tarifs et des factures d’électricité mais au niveau régional seulement. Cette innovation est possible car le marché de l’électricité au Vietnamien est monopolistique, avec un seul vendeur – Electricité de Vietnam (EVN), à qui le gouvernement commande d’utiliser une grille tarifaire homogène pour tout le pays.Deuxièmement, la thèse propose une nouvelle façon d’explorer l’impact des hautes températures sur la demande d’électricité. La méthode propose d’ajouter une variable muette qui représente l’occurrence d’une vague de chaleur. Cette variable est complémentaire de la notion « Degrés-jours de refroidissement » qui représente la température dans la plupart des études précédentes.Les conclusions principales sont que: (i) Les ménages réagissent aux prix marginaux, la demande est élastique par rapport au prix. (ii) Il existe un seuil de revenu à partir duquel la consommation d'électricité des foyers augmente quand le revenu augmente : la consommation d'électricité des foyers ayant ce revenu peut être considérée comme le niveau de besoin fondamental, un seuil de pauvreté pour l’électricité. (iii) La progressivité de la tarification ne pénalise pas les familles nombreuses : le tarif progresse moins vite que les d’économies d'échelle des dépenses d'électricité. (iv) Nous n’observons pas d’effet de la composition du foyer en termes enfants / adultes / personnes âgés sur la dépense d'électricité. (v) Les vagues de chaleur - un phénomène lié au changement climatique - impactent la demande d’électricité et devraient être mieux prises en compte dans l’estimation de la demande. / As a developing country with surging demand in electricity, Vietnam has implemented demand-side management in the residential electricity market, such as increasing block tariffs to balance the tension between energy security and the development of clean technology. The implementation of demand-side management requires a deep understanding of customer behaviors and household demand. The thesis aims to explore the factors impacting on Vietnamese residential electricity demand in the period of 2012–16. The exploration focuses on four main factors: prices, income, demographics (including household size and composition), and heatwaves. The data are a pool data set and a panel data set which have been constructed from the three rounds of the micro survey Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey (VHLSS) in 2012, 2014 and 2016.The thesis has two novel points in estimating household electricity demand function.First, it uses micro survey data at national level, with detailed tariff structures and private electricity billing. In the past, researches have often used national aggregate data or national micro survey data with imputed quantity or price. Researches that use micro survey data with detail tariff schedules and electricity bills are often at a regional level rather than at a national level due to the absence of national data on tariff structures. The residential electricity market in Vietnam is a monopoly with a single seller, Vietnam Electricity (EVN). Electricity tariff schedules are proposed by EVN and set by the Government and are thus uniform in national scale. This provides a chance to estimate demand function from national micro survey data, with full detail of electricity prices and billings.Second, the thesis proposes a new way to capture the impact of high temperature on electricity demand. That is, to include an additional dummy variable to represent the extreme distribution of temperature. The additional dummy variable is a complement to the concept of cooling degree days which is a popular representation of temperature in previous researches.The estimate results lead to five main conclusions. (i) Households do respond to marginal prices and demand is elastic to price. (ii) There exists an income threshold from which household electricity consumption increases as income increases. The electricity consumption of households in the income group is the reference level of electricity poverty threshold. (iii) The increasing block tariff does not cancel out economies of scale in electricity expenditure of households. (iv) There is no difference in electricity expenditure across children, adults and elders. (v) Heatwaves – a climate change related phenomenon – do have impacts on electricity demand and need to be addressed carefully in estimating electricity demand in the future.

This thesis explores the bilateral shipping and trade between Finland and Sweden during the post-war period. It comprises five articles and one introductory chapter for which the common point of departure is the growth and transformation of bilateral trade and shipping. The first two articles analyse the structural change of bilateral trade from a national and regional perspective. The three following articles provide an overview and analysis of the ferry shipping. By integrating the perspective in these articles in the introductory chapter and by providing a long historical record, the change of economic relations between Finland and Sweden in the post-war period is discerned. This thesis applies an economic historical approach and is founded on various fields of social science. The issue of trade is analysed within the framework of conventional and new trade theory, and the analysis of ferry shipping is governed by economic and geographic theories. The studies on trade shows that the transformation of production seen in Finland and Sweden meant that the trade increasingly became dependent on an exchange of products arising from matching industries. In turn the foreign trade arising from the Northern part of Finland and Sweden was still dominated by so called inter-industry trade. In addition to these results, the studies of ferry services shows that the growth of vehicles and passengers conveyance, together with the expanded onboard services, also intensified the commercial exchange. Due of the multi-output structure, the ferry service efficiently met the growing demand of travel and trade. The main conclusion of this thesis is that the convergence of incomes and economic structure had a significant impact on bilateral trade and ferry shipping. In addition the process of economic integration, technological advances together with specific policies issued on shipping also contributed to strengthen the economic ties between Finland and Sweden.

The growth of population and business during the rapid urbanization process in the twentieth century has generated significant demand for transportation. As the demands have grown, road and air transportation are suffering from significant congestion and delays. Continuing expansion of highways and airports has become both expensive and difficult, along with not being able to provide adequate solutions to the growing congestion. One alternative, which is being pursued by many countries, is to invest in efficient high-speed rail networks to meet the pressing demand for mass passenger transportation. This alternative is also one that may have beneficial impacts by reducing energy consumption and alleviating some of the environmental concerns. But to make these infrastructure investments, governments need to make difficult decisions due to the complexity of the industry and technologies involved. This thesis examines decision making by government for such investments. In order to carefully study the industry, we use a two part approach. First, we examine the HSR industry supply-chain. We create a detailed taxonomy of the industry supply-chain and highlight various aspects of the advanced technologies being used, the sophisticated multiproduct nature of the firms, and the diverse international location of the companies. Second, we gather information on all the international HSR contracts between 2001-2011. These contracts enable us to examine business strategies pursued by the major HSR trainset suppliers and component manufacturers, insights into the size of the orders and type of trainsets being delivered, and the formation of partnerships and collaborations to meet the complex demands imposed by Governments when they invite bids for these expensive projects. A detailed examination of the supply-chain shows that the core technologies and competencies are highly concentrated in those countries which historically have had high demand for high-speed rail. Germany, Japan, France, for example, have the highest number of trainset and component suppliers. In more recent years, South Korea and China have emerged as the new frontiers of trainset and components suppliers. This implies that countries who are outside of this group are highly dependent on either importing these technologies and investments or make a concerted effort to develop them via partnerships and technology transfer agreements. Our examination of contracts shows that the size of HSR investment order is important for both business and government strategy. The order size determines the extent of domestic content and production. While many components will inevitably be imported, a larger order size may allow for various components to be manufactured domestically. Order size also appears to influence the nature of partnerships among the firms in the industry. We observe a growing number of HSR investment partnerships among trainset suppliers over time, possibly due to the need to pool risk in these highly complex and uncertain investments, as well as the changing competitive dynamic of HSR markets.

Despite the increased interest among local governments in collecting data on performance measurement, empirical evidence is still limited regarding the extent to which these data are utilized to assess the impact on efficiency of economies of scale and uncontrollable factors. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a linear programming method designed to estimate the relative efficiency of decision-making units. In addition to assessing relative efficiency, DEA can estimate scale efficiency and incorporate the impact of uncontrollable factors. Using data from the International City/County Association (ICMA), this study utilized DEA to evaluate the impact of economies of scale and uncontrollable factors on the relative efficiency of municipal service delivery in the United States. The findings from this doctoral dissertation show that uncontrollable variables such as population density, unemployment, and household income suppress the relative efficiency of local governments. Moreover, the findings imply that the prevalence of economies of scale in city governments depends on the types of services these governments provide.

過去電信事業強調無論任何一端用戶透過電話機、傳輸線路、交換機等網路連接至另一端用戶，進行點對點(end to end)語音或數據之通信時，基於網路不可分割之特性，進行整體固定網路設備投資相當龐大，且因具規模經濟特性而形成自然獨占；加以其多屬民生攸關之公用事業，又須具備一定之服務品質及可負擔之合理價格，始能提供不論居住何處之全國民眾使用，故大多由政府主導經營。 　　然隨著電信自由化來臨，民國八十五年七月一日電信解制，分為監理電信業務之電信總局及國營事業之中華電信公司，確立監管架構及電信業務開放以引進競爭市場。惟為避免新進業者會對更多需求及更可獲利的城市地區首先提供服務，而忽略了鄉村偏遠地區，形成吸脂作用(Cream skimming)。故顯然電信自由化後，儘管商業利益的考量是競爭市場存續的重要因素之一，然而為避免關切公共服務的精神隨之而消失，那麼政府如何適度藉入以求得其間的平衡性，這應屬必要的。 　　基本上，應以國民基本通信之概念考量普及服務之範圍，同時應基於公平及合理的原則下，以負擔得起且日常生活中有必要的電信服務；然由於在公平的、合理的、負擔得起、有必要性等充分條件下，仍須加上一定的「服務品質」為必要條件，才能使普及服務的精神顯露，特別在隨著電信科技發展、社會環境變遷及民眾需求，仍須作階段性不同之定義，才能符合普及服務的真正目的。 　　因此，本論文採用文獻探討、政策德菲法(Delphi method)及實例探討，從管制理論的基礎，說明管制因環境之所需，尤其當電信自由化之初，引入市場競爭之同時，適時的管制對於公平的競爭是有需要的；另再參酌美國、英國、澳洲、香港及法國等先進國家之電信普及服務機制，透過美國、英國、澳洲及香港等國家之電信監理機構之網站，及相關電信自由化之文獻，蒐集到各國對普及服務相關之管理方式與法規規定，歸納出各國對普及服務目標之界定，普及服務之提供者，成本計算方式，分攤普及服務之義務者及分攤方式等，再進行整理、分析與比較，嚐試提出一個適合國情的普及服務制度，並對實務執行所面對的問題提出建議，以供主管機關參考。 　　本論文結論重點為，除建立一套含理論及實務運作的電信普及服務機制外，為發現整理出相關問題如：(1)「電信事業普及服務基金」非為政府基金之管理，是否須要編列年度業務計畫及預算書，值得商榷。(2)就商業利益考量，固網業者收取申裝市內電話之「界外工料費」應無不可，然是否能適用普及服務補助的問題。(3)易將普及服務基金視為另一個社會安全或防災救助的課題，扭曲其設立之精神。(4)提供普及服務所產生之無形利益是否應納入棄置營收之計算。(5)海岸電台船舶遇險及安全通信服務是否納入普及服務之考量。 　　其政策建議重點則為：(1)為消彌外界之疑慮，並兼顧效率運作之原則，除必要之管理費用應撙節使用外，相關之收支帳目宜經由會計師簽證予以公開透明化。(2)為維護消費者之權利，裝置材料費用應有下降趨勢，應重新檢討並提出合理成本，訂定合理之收費方式。(3)社會安全或急難救助所經費，應由社會福利安全政策編列預算支應，以免增加電信業者之成本負擔，並轉價至最終消費者。(4)無形利益應可加以計算納入棄置營收項目內，可利用每一家或前五大業者平均的廣告效果估算；或利用消費者行為之抽樣問卷調查，求出潛在消費者及平均消費之貢獻，做為無形利益的推估。(5)可成立專案小組，針對海岸電台設備及維運費用等訂定效率化之衡量標準；或以公開招標方式，徵求自願投入之電信業者；或協調海巡暑整編至該單位。(6)必須建立一套成本資料管理及稽核制度，以增加核算資料的明確性。(7)考慮修法開放可以行動電話做為普及服務之提供，公開徵詢有興趣之行動電話業者，並於北、中、南區各找一處以行動電話提供普及服務之實驗。(8)第一類電信事業部分，可由普及服務管理委員會就經營效率性、虧損之持續性等相關因素，予以審核後得免予繳交；第二類電信事業部分，以經營語音單純轉售及網路電話兩項從事語音電話服務為主，衡酌經營差異程度，排除一定營業額以下者可免予繳交。 / In the past, in order to provide seamless end-to-end communications services for the end users, telecom enterprises that required cost-sunk expenditure, economies of scale and operated an indivisible network had been regarded as a naturally monopolistic business. Moreover, telecommunications as one of public services relevant to the people’s livelihood has to be provided for all nationals at an affordable price and a reasonable level of service quality. As a result, most telecom enterprises worldwide were operated and conducted by the Government. 　　Nevertheless, along with the global trend of telecom liberalization, on July 1 1996 our government reorganized the DGT into a sole telecom regulator and established the state-own holding company, CHT, to provide telecom services, with a view to build up a regulatory regime and to open the telecom market further. To avoid newcomers in a competitive environment tending to focus on high revenue growth telecommunication markets, such as metropolitan areas, resulting in the phenomenon of ‘cream skimming’ and in the impediment to the spirit of public services, there is a need for government intervention in the provision of telecom services. 　　Basically, the concept of universal telecommunications service shall be confined to the basic telecommunication services which are indispensable to every citizens and should be provided on reasonable request at an affordable price and a reasonable level of quality. However, universal telecommunications service might has different definitions over time so as to fulfill its policy objectives in each phase given the development of technologies and the changes in social environment. 　　Accordingly, by conducting Documentary-type method, Delphi method and Case Studies, this dissertation has illustrated with regulatory theory why regulation shall be based on the requirement of the environment. Particularly, during the early stages of telecom liberalization, regulatory involvement at right moment is required for creating a level-playing field when introducing competition. From the websites of several telecom regulators in advanced countries, e.g. US, UK, Australia, HK, etc., and some literatures on telecom liberalization, this dissertation has collected those countries’ management criteria and legal framework for universal service and summed up their universal service objectives, providers, cost calculation methods and obligation sharing mechanisms. Then through a further analysis and comparison, it has tried to propose a universal service mechanism that might better fit our national conditions and offer the authority concerned some practical recommendations for the implementation issues. 　　In conclusion, this dissertation has built up a universal telecommunications service mechanism based on both theoretical analyses and practical considerations. Besides, it has included some key findings as follows: (1) Given the fact that the universal service fund is not one kind of government funds, shall it still be managed through annual official planning and budgeting? (2) From a viewpoint of profitable undertaking, a fixed network operator might want to charge a remote subscriber outside its service area for some extra facilities fees for service installation. This might be reasonable under commercial terms. But shall we allow such extra fees to be subsidized by the universal service fund? (3) Some people might regard the purpose of the universal service fund as an issue on social security or emergency rescue, and hence distort the spirit of universal service fund. (4) It is questionable whether intangible benefits, resulting form the provision of universal service, could be grouped into revenue forgone. (5) Is it appropriate for an operator to recover its costs of providing coastal radio maritime emergency and safety communication services from the universal service fund? 　　Furthermore, it has given several key policy recommendations as follows: (1) For the sake of dispelling people’s doubts and managing the efficiency in universal service fund, all of the accounts of expenditures shall be open and transparent except that the administrative costs must be kept at minimum. (2) In order to protect consumers’ rights, the equipment installation fee should follow a downward trend and must be cost based. (3) To avoid increasing the burden of telecom operators whose costs are ultimately entailed by consumers, budgets for social security or emergency rescue should be supported by national social welfare policies. (4) Intangible revenue that might be calculable by evaluating average effect of advertisement of each operator or top five operators should be grouped into revenue foregone. Or it may be possible to make a sampling survey of consumers’ behavior, finding the average contribution of each potential customer so as to estimate intangible revenue. (5) Grouping a task force to revise measuring criteria for the facilities and maintenance costs in coastal radio services efficiently. Besides, bids for these services may be opened for volunteers, or be coordinated with and incorporated into the function of Coast Guard Administration, Executive Yuan. (6) It is necessary to build up a mechanism of data management and auditing so as to increase the accountability of re-calculating data. (7) To think over the feasibility that mobile phone can be used for the provision of universal service as well by revising the relevant laws, and then in North, Middle, and South Taiwan, try to conduct a field trial in each area for providing universal service by using mobile phone. (8) For Type I telecommunications businesses, universal service committee can exempt them from universal service obligations with the concerns about their operation efficiency and the duration of losing money, and so on. For Type II telecommunications businesses, only those operating voice communications services, including simple resale and internet phone services, should bear the obligations, but whether they need to make contributions to the universal service fund or not can be decided through the evaluation of their business performance.

在保險市場中，保險商品主要透過保險經紀人、保險代理人以及保險人所掌握的直接通路予以販售，特別是在大型商業財產及責任保險的行銷通路上，保險經紀人扮演了舉足輕重的角色。本論文主要是以商業財產及責任保險市場為研究重心，並由經濟觀點探討保險經紀人的仲介角色、市場競爭態勢、報酬結構以及業務安排方式等，同時以保險監理的角度檢討保險經紀行業存在的誠信自律、利益衝突以及客戶公平對待等問題。 不同於保險代理人，保險經紀人係基於保單持有人之利益為其安排保險。因此，保險經紀人必須透過多家保險人提供報價的方式，從中選擇價格及條件最佳者做為保險業務安排之對象；換言之，誠實的報價程序，方足以保障客戶之利益並維繫保險市場的健全。然而國外近年發生的大型保險經紀人與部分保險人共謀提供不實之報價事件，不僅嚴重影響到保單持有人的權益，更引發了對於保險經紀人不當市場力量運用以及或有佣金（contingent commissions）制度存廢的廣泛討論。2004年10月14日紐約州總檢察官Eliot Spitzer向紐約州最高法院針對全球最大保險經紀商Marsh & McLennan及部分保險人所涉及的投標詐欺、操縱價格、收受保險公司或有佣金等三大罪狀提出了民事訴訟。此案例不僅使得涉案公司付出鉅額賠償，更暴露出大型保險經紀人公司存在已久的市場壟斷、價格操控、利益衝突等問題。 對照於英、美等國在保險經紀人制度方面的成熟與發達，我國在此方面尚屬新興發展階段，所謂他山之石可以攻錯，借重先行者的經驗，不僅可以避免重蹈覆轍，更可加快成長的腳步；在全球化的浪潮衝擊之下，保險經紀市場唯有與國際充分接軌，並健全相關制度，才能為國內保險市場的業務成長，帶來蓬勃生機，並立下永續發展的堅固磐石。 / In the insurance market, policies are sold through direct channels controlled by insurance companies or intermediaries, such as brokers and agents. Brokers play a vital role in the property & casualty insurance market and serving commercial clients with complex and large exposures. This report focusing on the commercial property & casualty insurance market, we look at the economic performance by brokers, the competitive structure of the marketplace, the compensation arrangements for brokers, and the placement with insurers. Furthermore, we also from regulators’ point of view to study and review a variety of issues, such as the ethics and conduct , conflict of interest, treating customers fairly, which are raised from insurance brokers industry. In contrast to captive agents, brokers act on behalf of the insured, for this circumstance, the role of the brokers is to increase price and coverage competitiveness, by providing the customers access to a wider range of possible insurers. Clearly the integrity of the bidding process is very important to protect the interest of customers and to the health of the insurance brokers market. Unfortunately, the integrity of the placement process by brokers has been questioned due to the allegations of bid rigging in which one or more global brokers and a few insurers appear to have conspired to submit non-competitive bids. This anti-competitive practice is not only detrimental to the customers but also cause public concerned that too much market power lead to abuses by brokers and that contingent commissions should be abolished. On October 14, 2004, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed suit against Marsh & McLennan alleging that the insurance brokers engaged in bid rigging and received widespread kickbacks from insurance companies. On January 31, 2005, Marsh agreed to pay $850 million in restitution to buyers as part of an agreement to settle the suit, but lawsuits still in progress. The above-mentioned case has revealed conflict of interest, anti-competitive and market manipulation for meg-brokers, in fact, these problems existed for a long time. Comparing with US and UK insurance brokers market, Taiwan is belong to emerging market, to gain knowledge of pioneer’s developing experience, we could shorten the time to get more progress. When we deal with the globalization challenge, local insurance broker market should be complied with international practices, improve relative rules and regulations is also necessary, once above situations are available, it could help domestic insurance market rapid and healthy growth.

Chapter 1: I analyze economies of scale for fire and police services by considering how per-household costs are affected by a municipality’s size. Using 2005-2008 municipal data for the Province of Ontario, I employ a partial-linear model to non-parametrically estimate per-household cost curves for each service. The results show that cost per household is a U-shaped function of municipal size for each service. For fire services, these costs are minimized at a population of about 20,000 residents, while for police services they are minimized at about 50,000 residents. Based on these results, implications are drawn for municipal amalgamation policy. Chapter 2: I review how the literature has continued to exclude the business property tax (BPT) from the marginal effective tax rate (METR) on capital investment for over 25 years. I recast the METR theory as it relates to the BPT and compute 2013 estimates of the METR for all 10 provinces in Canada with provincial BPTs included. Building on these estimates, I compute the METR inclusive of municipal BPTs for the largest municipality in each province. I find the BPT to be substantially damaging to municipal, provincial and international competitiveness. With the business property tax representing over 60% of the Canadian METR, among the various capital taxes it is by far the largest contributor to Canada’s investment barrier. Chapter 3: I estimate the responsiveness of structure investment and the tax base to commercial property taxes, taking a new step toward resolving the “benefit view” vs. “capital tax view” debate within the literature. Using a first-difference structural model to analyze 2006-2013 municipal data for the Province of Ontario, I improve upon past studies and build onto the literature in a number of ways. I find that commercial structure investment and tax base are highly sensitive to the property tax with Ontario’s assessment-weighted average tax elasticity (and tax-base elasticity) ranging from -0.80 to -0.90 at 2011 taxation levels. The results support the capital tax view of the business property tax, building onto the growing consensus that business property taxes substantially impact investment in structures and the value of the tax base.

Widespread cross-border securities trading have led to the internationalization of securities markets. No one seriously disputes that such securities dealings require regulation, but there is no academic consensus on the best normative approach to such regulation. The academic debate initially focused on whether regulatory competition or cooperation constitutes the better model. However, the debate seems to have evolved to adopt a hybrid model combining the virtues of these two approaches. ‘Harmonization’ constitutes the dominant hybrid model. Nevertheless, the implementation of the harmonization model has barely received any attention in the literature. The aim of this thesis is hence two-fold: first, justify why harmonization should be the preferred model for the regulation of international securities markets; and second, develop, applying an international trade regulation perspective, a regulatory framework to implement the harmonization model using the World Trade Organization and General Agreement on Trade in Services (WTO/GATS) framework.

Widespread cross-border securities trading have led to the internationalization of securities markets. No one seriously disputes that such securities dealings require regulation, but there is no academic consensus on the best normative approach to such regulation. The academic debate initially focused on whether regulatory competition or cooperation constitutes the better model. However, the debate seems to have evolved to adopt a hybrid model combining the virtues of these two approaches. ‘Harmonization’ constitutes the dominant hybrid model. Nevertheless, the implementation of the harmonization model has barely received any attention in the literature. The aim of this thesis is hence two-fold: first, justify why harmonization should be the preferred model for the regulation of international securities markets; and second, develop, applying an international trade regulation perspective, a regulatory framework to implement the harmonization model using the World Trade Organization and General Agreement on Trade in Services (WTO/GATS) framework.