This thesis contributes to the research literature by reporting the results of an investigation that explores whether regulatory governance practices in Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector are fit for purpose. The rationale for the study originated from issues relating to the management of Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector that were identified in the extant literature. These issues were of such significance that their resolution could impact positively and materially on Nigeria’s economy and at the same time the research would fill a gap in the relevant literature. The data for this empirical research were collected using questionnaire and interview instruments and the findings were analysed against a backdrop of the Public Interest Theory of Regulation. The results obtained revealed perceptions of major weaknesses in the regulatory governance practices adopted by Nigeria’s downstream regulatory agencies namely: the regulatory independence of Nigeria’s downstream regulators has declined over time; there are flaws in the accountability practices of Nigeria’s downstream regulators; and there are other related factors such as the absence of openness, poor consultation and a lack of public sensitisation that affect the transparency practices of Nigeria’s downstream regulators. Interestingly, the results also revealed that although Nigeria’s downstream regulators appear to possess the required skills to regulate the sector, their talents are not being fully utilised. Recommendations to resolve the weaknesses identified are made which, if properly and effectively implemented, should have a significant positive impact on the Nigerian economy. Such recommendations may also be applicable to those countries with similar regulatory governance challenges.

<p>Denna uppsats syftar till att dels beskriva, dels med utvald ekonomisk teori analysera regleringen av den svenska formen av kasinoverksamhet. Av särskilt intresse är att diskutera orsaken till den svenska lagstiftningen som reglerar spelverksamhet samt lagstiftningens relevans för en spelverksamhet som är utsatt för utländsk konkurrens. För att besvara syftet har följande frågeställningar formulerats: - Hur kan regleringen av den svenska spelverksamheten förklaras utifrån ekonomisk teori? - Vad är motiven till den svenska lagstiftningen som reglerar spelverksamhet? - Hur är kasinoverksamheten i USA och Storbritannien utformad? - Hur kan en framtida reglering av spelmarknaden utformas? Regleringen av spelmarknaden kan dels förklaras utifrån välfärdsteori, dels utifrån politisk ekonomi i form av särintresseteorin. Välfärdsteorin förklarar regleringen av spelmarknaden genom att den dels kan ses som en marknad som ger upphov till negativa externa effekter i form av spelmissbruk, dels som ett naturligt monopol då det finns stordriftsfördelar i information och kontrollen av verksamheten. Den nuvarande regleringen kan även förklaras utifrån agentteorin eftersom den menar att verksamheten drivs optimalt om staten både är uppdragsgivare och agent. Fördelarna är bland andra att problemen med asymmetrisk information och adverse selection minimeras. Eftersom spelandet medför betydelsefulla intäkter till staten samtidigt som få resurser används till att hjälpa personer som drabbats negativt av spelandet anser jag att särintresseperspektivet till stor del förklarar regleringen av spelmarknaden. Kasinoverksamheten i USA och Storbritannien drivs genom spellicenser. Kasinona i USA är, till skillnad från de i Storbritannien, till stor del semesterkasinon med lojalitetsprogram. En framtida svensk reglering skulle kunna utformas genom spellicenser. Därmed skulle statens arbete endast inriktas på att minska de negativa effekterna av spel och dess trovärdighet skulle därmed öka. En viss procent av spelbolagens intäkter skulle kunna avsättas till vård av personer med spelberoende.</p>

Denna uppsats syftar till att dels beskriva, dels med utvald ekonomisk teori analysera regleringen av den svenska formen av kasinoverksamhet. Av särskilt intresse är att diskutera orsaken till den svenska lagstiftningen som reglerar spelverksamhet samt lagstiftningens relevans för en spelverksamhet som är utsatt för utländsk konkurrens. För att besvara syftet har följande frågeställningar formulerats: - Hur kan regleringen av den svenska spelverksamheten förklaras utifrån ekonomisk teori? - Vad är motiven till den svenska lagstiftningen som reglerar spelverksamhet? - Hur är kasinoverksamheten i USA och Storbritannien utformad? - Hur kan en framtida reglering av spelmarknaden utformas? Regleringen av spelmarknaden kan dels förklaras utifrån välfärdsteori, dels utifrån politisk ekonomi i form av särintresseteorin. Välfärdsteorin förklarar regleringen av spelmarknaden genom att den dels kan ses som en marknad som ger upphov till negativa externa effekter i form av spelmissbruk, dels som ett naturligt monopol då det finns stordriftsfördelar i information och kontrollen av verksamheten. Den nuvarande regleringen kan även förklaras utifrån agentteorin eftersom den menar att verksamheten drivs optimalt om staten både är uppdragsgivare och agent. Fördelarna är bland andra att problemen med asymmetrisk information och adverse selection minimeras. Eftersom spelandet medför betydelsefulla intäkter till staten samtidigt som få resurser används till att hjälpa personer som drabbats negativt av spelandet anser jag att särintresseperspektivet till stor del förklarar regleringen av spelmarknaden. Kasinoverksamheten i USA och Storbritannien drivs genom spellicenser. Kasinona i USA är, till skillnad från de i Storbritannien, till stor del semesterkasinon med lojalitetsprogram. En framtida svensk reglering skulle kunna utformas genom spellicenser. Därmed skulle statens arbete endast inriktas på att minska de negativa effekterna av spel och dess trovärdighet skulle därmed öka. En viss procent av spelbolagens intäkter skulle kunna avsättas till vård av personer med spelberoende.

In many parts of the world women are still largely underrepresented in parliaments. Sweden is however one of the countries that have developed one of the more equal parliaments in the world. This progress has given rise to a question in women studies; how does a more equal representation affect the politics? Earlier studies on this field in Sweden was mainly done in the late 80’s and early 90’s and how the situation is today, being largely unknown. This thesis explores differences between men and women in the writing of motions. To identify these differences, a quantitative content analysis is conducted of all freestanding motions of 2015. As it turns out there is large differences between male and female commissioners both in regard to the participation as well as the content of the motions. For example, women write considerably less motions and men’s motions gets twice the amount of endorsements. / I många delar av världen är kvinnor fortfarande underrepresenterade i parlamenten. Sverige är dock ett av länderna i framkant vad det gäller en jämställd representation och många andra länder blir mer och mer jämställda. Denna utveckling har lett till att ett kvinnovetenskapligt problemområde utvecklats; hur påverkar en mer jämställd representation politiken som förs? Tidigare studier på området har framförallt genomförts under sent 80-tal och tidigt 90-tal och hur situationen ser ut idag är i stort sett outforskat. Denna uppsats undersöker skillnader mellan manliga och kvinnliga riksdagsledamöter i motionsskrivandet. För att identifiera skillnader så genomförs en kvantitativ innehållsanalys av fristående motioner från år 2015. Det visar sig att det finns stora könsskillnader både vad det gäller hur många motioner som skrivs och vad de handlar om. Kvinnor skriver bland annat betydligt färre motioner och mäns motioner får dubbelt så ofta någon form av bifall.

Many small business owners lack strategies needed to prevent permanent business closure in the wake of extreme natural disaster situations. After a natural disaster, small businesses suffer financial losses in millions of dollars related to damage and destruction that disrupt their lives, families, and communities. This multiple case study explored strategies that 5 small business owners in northeastern Florida used to avoid permanent business closure in the aftermath of a natural disaster. The theory of planned behavior and vested interest theory were the conceptual frameworks used in this multiple case study. In-depth interviews with purposively selected small business owners were supplemented with a review of documentation from archival records. Yin's 5-step analysis guided the coding process of participants' responses, and member checking was used to validate the transcribed data. The major themes of the study revealed the owners' strategies relating to flood barriers, maintaining adequate insurance coverage, damage and destruction aftermath, and experience with natural disasters. This study's implications for social change include contributing to social stability and continuing economic growth by benefitting small business owners without a natural disaster plan or a plan that needs updating, new small business owners, and community organizations. This study may benefit small businesses by providing lessons learned on how to survive natural disasters.

Rights today are a jumble of conflicting and incompatible claims. Without correction, the concept of rights will be eroded and eventually abandoned. The loss would be tragic, because rights are essential to our long-term planning and success. Incompatible claims have arisen from incommensurable conceptual foundations. Historically and essentially, rights are egoistic. Attempts to justify rights according to other criteria - divine command, human dignity, altruism, utilitarianism - fail on their own terms. Egoism or self-interest is fully compatible with social responsibility and with regard for the interests of others. The nature of rights is examined and ethical diversity is defended. The evolution of rights is traced from Roman antiquity through medieval developments through modern refinements, with particular attention paid to the rights theories of Gerson, Grotius, Hobbes, and Locke. A will theory of rights is proposed based on contract rather than on natural law and teleology. This will theory is explained using state of nature theory, with reference to Olson's logic of collective action. It is contrasted with the egoistic theories of Rand and Smith, with the utilitarian will theories of Hart and Wellman, and with the interest theories of MacCormick and Kramer. / Philosophy

A imperiosidade de uma eficaz tutela do ambiente econômico parece indiscutível nos dias atuais. A estrutura do sistema capitalista pós-industrial revela, contraditoriamente, características não desejadas pelo próprio modo de produção vigente, o que a sociologia contemporânea entende ser o consectário da reflexividade da sociedade do risco. Neste sentido, os agentes econômicos empreendem comportamentos atentatórios à conformação econômica da sociedade, pondo em risco o regular funcionamento da própria economia. Nesse contexto, o Direito, mormente o campo penal, é utilizado para tentar rechaçá-los. Ocorre que tal emprego do ramo jurídico-criminal entra em confronto com seus tradicionais contornos, delineados desde a Ilustração. Complexas condutas econômicas são penalmente vedadas, no mais das vezes por meio de formulações tipificadoras antecipatórias, pouco consistentes e com caráter de meio de conformação de comportamentos de alçada administrativa, consagrando-se a administrativização do ramo jurídico-criminal. O presente estudo tem, então, por objetivo investigar a legitimidade do Direito Penal Econômico. Inicialmente, analisar-se-á o histórico da intersecção entre Direito Penal e economia, para fins de constatação de um possível traço evolutivo. A seguir, delimitar-se-á o que se entende por Direito Penal Econômico, bem como se seria necessário e possível subsumi-lo à teoria do bem jurídico. Uma vez identificada a ordem econômica como objeto de tutela penal, serão verificados seus contornos no ordenamento brasileiro, assim como os problemas dogmáticos decorrentes de sua construção. Após isso, serão investigadas, respectivamente, e de modo complementar, a tentativa de tutela penal da ordem econômica em face do conceito de lesividade penal, vez que se sinaliza neste ponto larga vulneração das formulações típicas comumente editadas, bem como a possibilidade, ou não, de justificação da tutela penal na seara econômica em razão da teoria da cumulatividade delitiva, a qual prescinde da aferição de lesividade concreta. Serão constatadas, seqüencialmente, teorias que pretendem equacionar a administrativização do Direito Penal hodierno, destacando-se a proposta administrativo-sancionadora. Por fim, concluir-se-á pela melhor construção jurídica a regrar as infrações econômicas, delimitando-se o papel do Direito Penal neste contexto. / The imperiousness of effective protection of the economic environment seems undeniable today. The structure of post-industrial capitalist system reveals, paradoxically, features unwanted by the existing mode of production, which the contemporary sociology understands as the reflexivity of risk society. In this sense, the economic agents undertake conduct detrimental to the conformation of the economic society, undermining the smooth functioning of the economy itself. In this context, the law, especially the criminal law, is used to try to head them off. It happens that such employment of legal and judicial branch clashes with their traditional boundaries, delineated since the Enlightenment. Complex economic behavior are criminally prohibited, in most cases through typifying proactive formulations, which are inconsistent and display as mere means of behavioral conformation, subject to administrative jurisdiction, which leads to the administrativization of the criminal law. The present study is then undertaken to investigate the legitimacy of Economic Criminal Law. Initially, it will examine the history of the intersection between criminal law and economy, aiming at finding a possible evolutionary trait. Then it will define what is meant by Economic Criminal Law, and whether it would be necessary and possible to subsume it to the protected interest theory. Having identified the economic order as an object of penal protection, its outlines will be verified in the Brazilian legal system, as well as problems arising from its dogmatic construction. After that will be investigated, respectively, and in a complementary way, the attempt to the penal protection of the economic order in the face of the concept of criminal harmfulness, since it signals at this point a violation from the typical formulations commonly edited, and the possibility or not of justification of the penal protection in the economic area because of the theory of cumulative criminal offense, which dispenses with the measurement of actual harmfulness. Will be analyzed sequentially, theories that intend to equate the administrativization of criminal law, highlighting the proposed administrative-punitive. Finally, the conclusion will be the search for the best legal construction of the rules for economic infractions, limiting the role of criminal law in this context.

A imperiosidade de uma eficaz tutela do ambiente econômico parece indiscutível nos dias atuais. A estrutura do sistema capitalista pós-industrial revela, contraditoriamente, características não desejadas pelo próprio modo de produção vigente, o que a sociologia contemporânea entende ser o consectário da reflexividade da sociedade do risco. Neste sentido, os agentes econômicos empreendem comportamentos atentatórios à conformação econômica da sociedade, pondo em risco o regular funcionamento da própria economia. Nesse contexto, o Direito, mormente o campo penal, é utilizado para tentar rechaçá-los. Ocorre que tal emprego do ramo jurídico-criminal entra em confronto com seus tradicionais contornos, delineados desde a Ilustração. Complexas condutas econômicas são penalmente vedadas, no mais das vezes por meio de formulações tipificadoras antecipatórias, pouco consistentes e com caráter de meio de conformação de comportamentos de alçada administrativa, consagrando-se a administrativização do ramo jurídico-criminal. O presente estudo tem, então, por objetivo investigar a legitimidade do Direito Penal Econômico. Inicialmente, analisar-se-á o histórico da intersecção entre Direito Penal e economia, para fins de constatação de um possível traço evolutivo. A seguir, delimitar-se-á o que se entende por Direito Penal Econômico, bem como se seria necessário e possível subsumi-lo à teoria do bem jurídico. Uma vez identificada a ordem econômica como objeto de tutela penal, serão verificados seus contornos no ordenamento brasileiro, assim como os problemas dogmáticos decorrentes de sua construção. Após isso, serão investigadas, respectivamente, e de modo complementar, a tentativa de tutela penal da ordem econômica em face do conceito de lesividade penal, vez que se sinaliza neste ponto larga vulneração das formulações típicas comumente editadas, bem como a possibilidade, ou não, de justificação da tutela penal na seara econômica em razão da teoria da cumulatividade delitiva, a qual prescinde da aferição de lesividade concreta. Serão constatadas, seqüencialmente, teorias que pretendem equacionar a administrativização do Direito Penal hodierno, destacando-se a proposta administrativo-sancionadora. Por fim, concluir-se-á pela melhor construção jurídica a regrar as infrações econômicas, delimitando-se o papel do Direito Penal neste contexto. / The imperiousness of effective protection of the economic environment seems undeniable today. The structure of post-industrial capitalist system reveals, paradoxically, features unwanted by the existing mode of production, which the contemporary sociology understands as the reflexivity of risk society. In this sense, the economic agents undertake conduct detrimental to the conformation of the economic society, undermining the smooth functioning of the economy itself. In this context, the law, especially the criminal law, is used to try to head them off. It happens that such employment of legal and judicial branch clashes with their traditional boundaries, delineated since the Enlightenment. Complex economic behavior are criminally prohibited, in most cases through typifying proactive formulations, which are inconsistent and display as mere means of behavioral conformation, subject to administrative jurisdiction, which leads to the administrativization of the criminal law. The present study is then undertaken to investigate the legitimacy of Economic Criminal Law. Initially, it will examine the history of the intersection between criminal law and economy, aiming at finding a possible evolutionary trait. Then it will define what is meant by Economic Criminal Law, and whether it would be necessary and possible to subsume it to the protected interest theory. Having identified the economic order as an object of penal protection, its outlines will be verified in the Brazilian legal system, as well as problems arising from its dogmatic construction. After that will be investigated, respectively, and in a complementary way, the attempt to the penal protection of the economic order in the face of the concept of criminal harmfulness, since it signals at this point a violation from the typical formulations commonly edited, and the possibility or not of justification of the penal protection in the economic area because of the theory of cumulative criminal offense, which dispenses with the measurement of actual harmfulness. Will be analyzed sequentially, theories that intend to equate the administrativization of criminal law, highlighting the proposed administrative-punitive. Finally, the conclusion will be the search for the best legal construction of the rules for economic infractions, limiting the role of criminal law in this context.

The main purpose of this thesis is to examine the simultaneous determination of debt, dividend, and inside ownership policies in Sweden. We apply a simultaneous equation model estimated with 3SLS. The results reveal a positive two-way causal relationship between debt and dividend polices. We also find a two-way causal relationship between inside ownership and dividend policies, but dividends affect inside ownership in a positive way while inside ownership affects dividends in a negative way. Further, we find a relationship between inside ownership and debt policies, but any causality appears to run from inside ownership to debt in a negative way. This study supports the notion that the convergence of interest and the entrenchment theory are not mutually exclusive. We also show that a SEM estimated with 3SLS is justified empirically over the OLS and that the difference between using 3SLS compared to 2SLS is negligible in our model.

Gendered Interests and the European Union. The European Women’s Lobby and the Organisation and Representation of Women's Interests. On a general level this thesis concerns the changed and changing institutional conditions for gender equality in Europe and the organisation and institutionalisation of women’s social and political interests at the EU level. I ask in what ways political structures and authorities enable and/or obstruct women to generate, sustain and control their presence in politics as women. I explore how the EU institutions structure and provide opportunities and constraints for women to mobilise and organise to act as an authorised party vis-a-vis and within the EU political system. How does it come that women, as a collective, are not only recognised as a politically relevant group but also legitimised to act and be present as women in an organised relationship with the EU system’s main authorities? The presence comes in the form of the European Women’s Lobby (EWL), an EU level and EU wide non-governmental umbrella organisation which represents some 4000 women’s organisations on multiple levels of the EU. The EWL is not the first example of women organising on the EU level, but it is the first of its kind. The EWL was initiated by women from within the European Commission and is funded mainly via a grant from the Commission. The EWL’s objectives include the endorsement of equality between women and men and to ensure that measures to promote gender equality and women’s rights are taken into account and mainstreamed in all EU policy. Using material gathered through interviews, observations and official documentation I study the structure of the European Women’s Lobby; the participation of the EWL in EU politics; the relation between the EWL and the EU institutions; the relation between the EWL’s member organisations; and the forms the representation of women’s organised social and political interests at EU level can take. I argue that in the specific political system of the EU, organised interests in civil society and the EWL perform the functions of input, and participate in output and feedback. Organised interests function as intermediaries between the national and European levels. Organised interests strive to gain influence; the Commission, as a political authority, strives to gain legitimacy of its policy-making through the input and output of representative organised interests. As a consequence of what I argue is a corporatist policymaking style of the Commission the EWL has become increasingly institutionalised. The trade off is that while the EWL has enjoyed the Commission’s support and funding to constitute an established EU level platform from which women can formulate, mobilise and pursue their interests, the EWL has must organise and take control over the interests aggregated from its member organisations and over the form of the member organisations. The very structure of the EWL can be seen as part of the price the EWL has to pay to be granted somewhat of a representative monopoly in terms of opportunities to influence EU policy-making through the various channels of consultation. In this context, I argue that the representativeness of organised interests is key. There is no electoral basis legitimising the policy-making of the Commission, instead, this basis is constituted by organised interests. Paradoxically, this holds the potential for increasing the legitimacy of the Commission, something which increasing transparency has failed to do. It is no exaggeration to claim that the EWL offers a remarkable EU level platform for women to act and pursue their interests as women. By studying the actual impact of EU level policy-making and politics on various ways, this thesis argues that the very existence of the EWL can be understood as being in the interest of women.