Recycling is one of the most significant action we can do to reduce the environmental impactof waste. More efficient use of natural resources and the reduced greenhouse gas emissions is two major environmental benefits. The people that live on this planet have a key role in increasing recycling by sorting their household waste. Therefore, residents must take a responsibility for their consumption and the use of the planets resources. People's attitudes tosort waste is therefore essential for understand recycling behaviour and intensions. This study aims to examine waste recycling behaviour, with a focus on attitudes and factors that affect the recycling behaviour among residents in Kiruna, the northern most municipalityof Sweden. 97 inhabitants in the central part of Kiruna participated in the survey. It was found that lack of recycling stations and curbside collection were factors that affected people to recycle. The study also showed that the residents had a positive attitude to recycle because ofthe level of knowledge about the benefits of recycling.

Real estate remains to be a major component of wealth for households as the market value of houses continues to rise noticeably again, as before the global recession 2007. Understanding households’ responses to changes of house prices and interest rates is important as fluctuations of these kind affect their preferences of saving. This thesis examines the impact of house price- and interest rate changes on household savings with the usage of secondary panel data from seven European countries. Providing a definite estimation of the interest elasticity of saving for households is not conceivable with any confidence considering the difficulties in estimating differential behavior. In accordance to previous studies the result of house prices is significant negative regarding household savings. However, the repo rate contradicts earlier results with a significant negative correlation toward household savings indicating an increased confidence due to a behavioral shift. In conclusion, this study shows that internal effects are of great importance as several factors suffer from high internal impact.

Die Analyse der Stabilität von Partnerschaften und insbesondere Ehen ist mittlerweile ein fester Bestandteil der Familiensoziologie. Die zunehmende Destabilisierung von Ehen bedeutet jedoch nicht, dass dies im Interesse der Akteure liegt. Im Rahmen dieses Beitrags werden insbesondere beruflich selbständige Personen und ihre Partner betrachtet, da hier durch die enge Verknüpfung von privatem Haushalt und dem eigenen Unternehmen die Auflösung der Partnerschaft unter Umständen fatale Konsequenzen für die Erwerbs- und Einkommenssituation beider Partner nach sich zieht. Es stellt sich nun die Frage, ob in solchen Fällen die Partnerschaftsstabilität gezielt durch die Akteure beeinflusst werden kann. Im folgenden soll für dieses Problem ein Lösungsvorschlag diskutiert werden, in dessen Rahmen die Stabilität privater Partnerschaft (auch) als Gegenstand individueller Entscheidung begriffen wird. Im Rahmen dieses Erklärungsmodells wägen die Akteure Nutzen und Risiken spezifischer Investitionen ab und entscheiden somit über das Ausmaß, in dem sie sich zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt an die Beziehung binden wollen.

This paper argues that the cumulative causation processes between wealth and power risk leading to an escalation of wealth inequality. We confirm with new survey data for the Eurozone Piketty's conclusions that wealth is highly concentrated and that this inequality is perpetuated through dynastic wealth. This leads to an ever-concentrating ability to shape economic and political institutions. While neoclassical economics has a blind spot where power is concerned, we discuss how heterodox approaches have attempted to conceptualize this structural power which influences the framework of economic activity. Finally, we discuss three concrete channels through which the unequal distribution of private assets may affect power relations and economic activity.

There are four parts to this thesis: the first chapter analyses the structure of leisure in couples with particular emphasis on joint leisure. We take a structural approach and model the household as a two-stage decision making unit. The findings suggest that couples see joint leisure as a distinct good from private leisure. Specifically when a household decides to have more leisure, almost 40 percent of this increase is allocated to joint leisure as opposed to only 8 to 15 percent allocated to male private leisure. Furthermore, couples prefer to spend leisure together (synchronisation) relative to spending time independently, giving joint leisure the largest weight in the utility function. The findings further suggest that demographics can play a large role in determining the patterns of spousal leisure, with ethnicity and job characteristics being important factors. Finally, when analysing weekend time use patterns, there is evidence to suggest that Saturdays should be distinguished from Sundays as approximately 41 percent more joint leisure is observed on Sundays. The second chapter of the thesis begins our examination of the UK income taxation reform in 1990. The UK went from a system of joint taxation to independent taxation of couples and this reform may have had important implications for households. Across countries, there is a large variation in the income tax treatment of couples. Over the last three decades, many countries have undergone reforms in their tax systems, some have moved from joint to independent taxation, some from independent to joint, while others have begun the practice of allowing couples to choose the system they prefer. This chapter aims to give an overview of the tax treatment of couples and outlines the differences across countries, with particular emphasis on the tax reform in the UK. The third chapter investigates the UK income taxation reform in 1990 and examines how the change from a system of joint to independent taxation of couples has shifted women's relative earning potentials in the household, and how this in turn has led to changes in intra-household assignable clothing expenditures. I apply my method to a sample of UK couples with children and the findings of this chapter show that an exogenous increase in women's income relative to their spouse significantly and substantially increases female clothing expenditure and decreases male clothing expenditure ceteris paribus. However an increase in relative female earnings does not necessarily mean that children will do better relatively. The final outcome may depend on the type of transfer in question. In addition, there is evidence that the final allocations of expenditures on each partner and children may depend significantly on distribution factors such as spousal relative incomes, age gap and educational gap, despite the fact that these variables do not impact on preferences nor on budgets directly. This provides further evidence against the unitary framework in favour of the collective approach and the sharing rule interpretation of how households make decisions in practice. The final chapter of this thesis examines the effects of the tax reform in 1990 with particular emphasis on female labour supply. A method of clarifying the concept of a spouse's individual net income under a joint tax regime is proposed and following the methodology of Blundell et al (2007), the labour supply elasticities for both male and female are estimated. The analysis is extended further to include children in the model and the results show that both the number of children and their age are highly significant for women's labour supply and to a smaller extent also for men. Testing the income pooling hypothesis, the unitary model is not rejected. However, the results strongly reject the hypothesis that distribution factors have no effect on labour supply. The results also suggest that for the group of women affected, the reform generated two opposing effects on their labour supply: a positive effect from an increase in net wage and a negative effect from an increase in bargaining power. On balance, we find that a typical female decreased her labour supply by approximately 2.6 hours per week, yet she still experienced a 22 percent increase in her net income.

The problem of this study was to determine if the sex role identification, age, education, and income of employed married couples were related to their perception of who should and does perform household tasks. The forty-five couples were volunteers from organizations for working women. Each spouse completed a Bem Sex Role Inventory and a Household Task Inventory. Using Chi-square and t-tests no significant differences were found between sex role identification, education level, income level, and the sharing of household tasks. When a Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was used, age and sharing of household tasks were found to have an inverse relationship with the young sharing more tasks. The study concluded that couples expect household tasks to be shared but females tend to perform the traditional feminine tasks and males the traditional masculine tasks.

Heat and electricity production along with waste management are two modern day challenges for society. One of the possible solution to both of them is the incineration of household waste to produce heat and electricity. Incineration is a waste-to-energy treatment process, which can reduce the need for landfills and save the use of more valuable fuels, thereby conserving natural resources. This report/paper investigates the performance and emissions of a municipal solid waste (MSW) fueled industrial boiler by performing a system identification analysis using Principle Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Squares Regression (PLS-R) modeling. The boiler is located in Västerås, Sweden and has a maximum capacity of 167MW. It produces heat and electricity for the city of Västerås and is operated by Mälarenergi AB. A dataset containing 148 different boilers variables, measured with a one hour interval over 2 years, was used for the system identification analysis. The dataset was visually inspected to remove obvious outliers before beginning the analysis using a multivariate data analysis software called The Unscrambler X (Version 10.3, CAMO Software, Norway). Correlations found using PCA was taken in account during the PLSR modelling where models were created for one response each. Some variables had an unexpected impact on the models while others were fully logical regarding combustion theory. Results found during the system analysis process are regarded as reliable. Any errors may be due to outlier data points and model inadequacies.

Réalisé à l'aide de données harmonisées par le Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS). / Ce mémoire de maîtrise propose une réévaluation de la question désormais centenaire de la « fission » ou « nucléarisation » du ménage joint hindou (MJH). En utilisant la perspective dite « atomiste » développée par Michel Verdon (1998), nous jetons les bases d’une nouvelle modélisation de la formation et de la composition des ménages au Maharashtra postcolonial. Le mémoire sera divisé en quatre sections. La première introduit les principaux éléments de la perspective « atomiste », qu’elle opposera, dans la seconde section, aux axiomes « collectivistes » et aux explications « culturalistes » généralement rencontrés dans l’analyse ethnographique des ménages en Inde occidentale. La troisième section fournit une application qualitative de la perspective atomiste, et ce, en dressant un bref portrait ethnographique du ménage au Maharashtra pour les trois décennies suivant l’indépendance de l’Inde. La quatrième section offre une application statistique de la perspective atomiste en utilisant des données socioéconomiques et sociodémographiques rassemblées dans cinq rondes des National Sample Surveys (NSS) indiens; combinant nos hypothèses atomistes avec les « taux d’autonomie résidentielle » développés par Ermisch et Overton (1985), nous quantifions les tendances et divers déterminants de la composition des ménages au Maharashtra durant les années 1983 à 2004. Nos résultats ne montrent aucun signe d’une nucléarisation du MJH durant les années couvertes par les NSS, et indiquent qu’il s’est même produit une intensification de la subordination résidentielle et domestique des jeunes couples basés au Maharashtra entre 1993 et 2004. / This M.Sc. thesis offers a reappraisal of the century-old issue of the ‘fission’ or ‘nuclearization’ of the hindu joint household (HJH). Using Michel Verdon’s ‘atomistic perspective’ (1998), we provide a new modelling of household formation and composition in postcolonial Maharashtra. The thesis is divided into four major sections. In the first section, we introduce the main lineaments of the ‘atomistic’ perspective and we oppose it, in the second section, to the ‘collectivistic’ set of axioms and the ‘culturalist’ explanations generally used in ethnographic analyses of household formation and composition in Western India. In the third section, we apply Verdon’s atomistic framework by presenting a brief qualitative portrait of the household in Maharashtra for the first three decades after India’s independence. The fourth section offers a statistical application of the atomistic perspective using socioeconomic and demographic data available in five separate samples of India’s National Sample Surveys; combining atomistic hypotheses with Ermisch and Overton’s (1985) ‘loneship ratios’, we quantify the effects of several determinants of residential autonomy and household composition in Maharahstra for the years 1983-2004. Our results show no sign of a nuclearization of the HJH in Maharashtra, and indicate that there was even a rise in the residential and domestic subordination of young Maharashtrian couples from 1993 to 2004.

Les produits forestiers non ligneux (PFNL) font partie des ressources naturelles dont la population congolaise a recours pour diversifier ses activités productives et améliorer ses revenus. Ces produits font partie essentielle des différents menus ; ils garantissent la diversité, la qualité et l’accessibilité des aliments à une grande majorité de la population. Le manque d’information systématique permettant d’évaluer la contribution des PFNL au revenu des ménages et à l’amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire, l’absence des programmes officiels de gestion et de promotion de ces produits constituent un des obstacles à la prospérité du secteur des PFNL et à l’amélioration du niveau de vie de la population.Le présent travail analyse de manière globale et pour la première fois en République du Congo la contribution des PFNL à la sécurité alimentaire. Il couvre les aspects liés aux définitions des PFNL, à leur classification en PFNL d’origine végétale et en PFNL d’origine animale, au contexte institutionnel ; il identifie les principaux acteurs notamment le groupe d’acteurs socio-économiques impliqués dans l’exploitation et la gestion des PFNL au niveau local, les modes d’exploitation et leurs impacts sur le milieu naturel ; les filières de commercialisation permettant de cerner les produits d’exportation ont été tour à tour analysées. Une partie importante de l’étude est consacrée à l’analyse de la contribution des PFNL au régime alimentaire de la population congolaise. Ce travail relève les principales difficultés et obstacles d’ordre social, institutionnel, commercial et de gestion qui freinent le développement normal du secteur des PFNL. / The non-timber forests Products (NTFP) are part of natural resources of which the Congolese population has recourse to diversify its productive activities and to improve its income. These products are essential part of various menus; they guarantee the diversity, the quality, and the access to foods to a greater majority of the population. The lack of systematic information enabling to evaluate the contribution of NTFP to the income of households and to the improvement of food security, the lack of official programs of management and the promotion of these products constitute one of the obstacles to the prosperity of the NTFP sector and the improvement of the living standard of the people.The present work is aimed at analyzing in a global way and for the first time in the Republic of the Congo, the contribution of NTFP to food security. It covers the aspects related to the definitions of NTFP, to their classification in NTFP of vegetable origin and NTFP of animal origin, to the institutional context; it identifies the main stakeholders mainly the group of socio- economic actors involved in the exploitation and management of NTFP at the local level, the modes of exploitation and their impacts on the natural environment; the fields of commercialization enabling to fully understand the export products have been alternatively analyzed . A great important part of the study is devoted to the contribution analysis of the NTFP to the food diet of the Congolese people. This work highlights the main difficulties and obstacles of the social, institutional, commercial order and management which hinder the normal development of the NTFP sector.

70 ABSTRACT The topic of my Master's degree thesis is institution of "Marriage". I chose this topic because I am interested in family law and I would like to be an attorney focusing on this area of law in future. I also think that marriage is an important legal and social institute, which proves its long-standing history. This thesis reflects the historical development of the law but it mainly deals with legislation in force. Specifically it deals with the origin of marriage, dissolution of marriage and the legal consequences that legal negotiation brings. I also pay attention to the legal regulation of rights and responsibilities of spouses. The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is dedicated to an introduction. The next three chapters deal with the actual institution of marriage and its aspects. The fifth and last chapter is the conclusion. In addition to these chapters thesis contains the Content, the Bibliography and the Annexes. The second chapter describes the historical development of legal regulation of marriage. This chapter is divided into two subchapters, the first of which is devoted to marriage in Roman law and the other depicts the development of legislation marriage on Czech territory. Chapter Three discusses legislation in force of marriage in the Czech Republic and...