This work aims to assess the development of competition in the electricity industry of England and Wales, emphasising one of the key elements of the restructured industry, the pool - a centralised day ahead electricity spot market. The pool's structure is examined, along with the relationship that the pool has with the market for electricity forward contracts. However, the key to this work is the relationship between the major electricity generators and the industry's regulator. This is introduced through two theoretical models, and undertaken through a series of econometric models using pool prices, forward prices, electricity demand, and the sharep rices of the major generators: National Power and Powergen. The work tests the hypotheses put forward by Green( 1992) and Helm & Powell (1992) of an inverse relationship between the volume of output that a generator sells forward through contracts and the general level of pool prices. The break-up of the first and second sets of forward contracts - which expired in 1991 and 1993 - and their impact on pool prices are assessed By using the market model, this work examines the impact of a series of both regulatory and nonregulatory events on the share returns of National Power and Powergen. Given the existence of spot and forward markets for electricity, one would expect a relationship between the prices in these markets The relationship is examined for England and Wales by a synthetic data set that approximates the prices at which the contracts were sold. The relationship is then examined using actual and forecast electricity prices for California, this latter analysis forming part of an overview of electricity deregulation in America. Ultimately, this research hopes to add to the growing amount of material on energy privatisation - a topic that continues to promote interest and controversy in academic and industrial circles.

This study investigates organizational response as a mediating factor in the relationship between environmental change and deprofessionalization of stockbrokers between the years 1975 and 1990. Both quantitative and qualitative content analysis are used to analyze 412 business news articles concerning three brokerage firms. It is hypothesized that the environmental changes of jurisdictional competition resulting from deregulation of the industry, technological changes, and declining client trust resulting from scandals, will not have a direct effect on deprofessionalization of stockbrokers in these firms. It is expected, instead, that these environmental changes will be mediated by organizational responses, resulting in variation among the firms in the deprofessionalization of stockbrokers. The quantitative portion of the study shows different patterns of organizational response among the three firms examined regarding the environmental changes being investigated. The qualitative portion of the study indicates variation in deprofessionalization for stockbrokers within these firms resulting from differences in organizational response. The results of this study suggest a need for further investigation of the effects of organizational responses on the extent of deprofessionalization for professionals working in organizations. Organizational responses are likely to influence not only stockbrokers but other professionals in times of change and flux due to events both internal and external to the organization. / Ph. D.

The effects of the deregulation of the electricity market 1996 in Sweden on short-term hydropower regulation are unknown. This report investigates patterns in subdaily regulation in the Ångerman River Basin during the period 1993-2011. Differences in subdaily flows and zero flow events between the periods 1993-1995 and 1996-2011 were studied by analyzing hourly data from 8 regulated and 8 unregulated locations with four subdaily flow variation indices. No correlations between the market deregulation and the regulation intensity in the Ångerman River basin were detected. The number of days natural ranges of variability were exceeded and the magnitude of subdaily variation were significantly higher at regulated locations. Zero flow events increased substantially when the periods 1993-2007 and 2008-2011 were compared. Significant correlations were detected in the summer periods between dry years and high magnitudes for the indices that measured variation in volume and low magnitudes for subdaily flow reversals. Zero flow events in the summer periods increased during dry years if the period 2008-2011 were excluded. The major conclusions are that the deregulation of the electricity market has not affected the subdaily regulation of the Ångerman River and that the regulated sites show highly unnatural subdaily variations. Regulation intensity and zero flows events increases during summertime in dry years and the latter also increased substantially after 2007. The current regulation regime is considered harmful for riverine ecosystems and the high and increasing levels of subdaily flow alteration shows the urgent need of national directives for subdaily hydropower operation.

Liberalization and privatization of the electricity industry is one of the most important processes in the few last years. Even when the electricity market is fully open, substantial barriers to competition often remain. These barriers are refusal of access to the market, the lack of capacity in interconnectors and long-term contracts. The process of liberalization has shown that a third-party access to the network is a critical and important factor in ensuring a real and effective liberalization of the market. The process of liberalization has also supported new ways and forms of energy trading including financial contracts instead of purely physical contracts for the delivery of electricity. It is a question if the benefits of liberalization of the electricity industry compared with a regulated private monopoly or public monopoly were profitable. Someone could argue that the liberalization of electricity tends to bring benefit to monopoly structures and increase prices of electricity in industry. This work tries to present the pros and cons of liberalization in the electricity industry while taking in consideration the best means of making the liberatization as much profitable and useful as possible.

This thesis consists of three self-contained essays about immigrants’ experiences in Sweden. They all focus on the interaction between institutional settings and effects on immigrants’ economic conditions. Essay I examines the effects of changed eligibility rules for disability pension in the 1979 Swedish pension reform on immigrant retirement behavior. The reform made disability pension in the form of basic pension available to a wider group of immigrants. Before the pension reform, the eligibility for a basic pension for foreign citizens living in Sweden was dependent on bilateral and multilateral agreements on social security between Sweden and other countries. Thus, immigrants who were not covered by any of these agreements had no access to a basic pension before the reform. Through the reform, all foreign citizens residing in Sweden were made eligible for a basic pension after a short qualification period. The results indicate a substantial impact on the retirement rate with disability pension on the immigrant group that was made eligible for a basic pension by the reform. These findings confirm previous research showing that the size of the benefit levels in the pension system affects early retirement behavior. Essay II analyzes the impact of the Swedish taxi and bus deregulations on the differences in labor earnings between Swedish born and foreign born workers in these sectors. The changes in the gap in labor earnings that are due to the deregulation are estimated. The results show that there was no significant decrease in the differences in labor earnings between Swedish born and foreign born workers in the bus sector as a result of the 1989 deregulation. As regards the taxi sector, the results show that, before the deregulation, there were only small differences in labor earnings between Swedish born and foreign born workers. After the deregulation, the real labor earnings of foreign born workers decreased substantially more than those of Swedish born workers. However, there was a larger increase in the inflow of foreign born workers than of Swedish born workers into the taxi sector after the deregulation, which may have changed the composition of immigrant workers in this sector. Essay III investigates the impact of becoming a Swedish citizen on annual labor earnings. The study finds a positive impact of naturalization on labor earnings, in particular for immigrants originating from Africa and Asia, an effect than cannot only be attributed to selection into citizenship. A clear trend of increasing labor earnings during the years before becoming a Swedish citizen is found. This trend also continued during the years after citizenship acquisition. The study also suggests that the effects of naturalization on labor earnings are larger for men than for women, and larger for individuals with very low income.

This master's thesis desribes the import process of aggregate invoices and prepayments into the gas trader's SAP IS-U information system. It explains some of the essential SAP terms and contains an analysis of final product requirements. Additionally, it concerns the implementation of the designed solution itself and describes achieved results. In conclusion, it mentions possible extensions.

Implementeringen av trafikstyrningssystemet European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS), som för närvarande det största infrastrukturprojektet i Sverige, kommer successivt att ersätta det nuvarande systemet Automatic Train Control (ATC) fram till 2035. På grund av Sveriges nyligen slutförda avreglering av järnvägsmarknaden är de viktigaste aktörerna i implementationsprocessen de aktörer som ansvarar för tågen (tågoperatörerna) och den som ansvarar för infrastrukturen (Trafikverket). Arbetet är utfört på uppdrag av Trafikverket och syftar till att undersöka riskfördelningen mellan huvudintressenterna i samband med implementeringen av ERTM. En riskanalys med avseende på tekniska risker och finansiella risker är utförd samt en litteraturstudie och intervjuer med relevanta personer inom sektorn. Resultaten visar en motvilja från operatörerna att implementera tekniken och betydande skillnad i den risk som de två aktörerna är utsatta för. Operatörerna exponeras för en relativt hög risk i varje scenario som undersöks och som potentiellt kräver riskreducerande åtgärder. I ett scenario exponeras operatörerna för oacceptabelt hög finansiell risk som kräver riskreduceringsåtgärder. Transportverket är föremål för låg risk i alla scenarier som undersökts. Data från studien tyder på att motviljan från operatörerna mot implementeringen av ERTMS beror på att de risknivåer som denna grupp utsätts för inte lever upp till de fördelar de förväntar sig att systemet kommer leverera. / Currently the largest infrastructure project in Sweden, the implementation of the rail traffic management system European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) will gradually replace the incumbent system Automatic Train Control (ATC) until 2035. Due to Sweden’s recently completed deregulation of the railway market the main stakeholders in this implementation process are the actors responsible for operations (the train companies) and the actor responsible for the infrastructure (the Swedish Transportation Administration). The thesis is commissioned by the Swedish Transportation Administration and aims at examining the allocation of risk associated with the implementation of ERTMS among key stakeholders. A risk analysis with regards to technological risk and financial risk is conducted as well as a literature study and interviews with relevant persons in the sector. The results reveal a hesitation from operators to implement the technology and considerable difference in the risk the two main stakeholders are subject to. The operators maintain a relatively high level of risk in every scenario examined, potentially requiring risk reduction measures. In one scenario the operators are subject to inacceptable levels of financial risk that demands risk reduction measures. The Swedish Transportation Administration is subject to low levels of risk in all scenarios examined. Data from the study suggests that the hesitation from operators to implement the technology may be due to the levels of risk they are exposed to do not match the benefit they expect the system will provide.

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- 62 - 8. SUMMARY The thesis deals with the television policy of the Labour Parry, 1992-1997. The topic works as a framework for interpretation of Norman Fairclough's concepts, applying his transdisciplinary approach and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Within the framework, I answer simple questions such as whether discourse that had reached the status of policy can have real economic impact (in the case of Campaign for Press and Broadcasting not) or where the global discourse meets the local (issues of cross media ownership and new technologies). In my quest to better understand the relationship between social change and discourse, I follow the history of deregulation of the broadcasting duopoly, the way of the Labour Party towards deregulation and in the light of this information analyse three different texts and shortly follow up on coherence in the 1992 and 1997 Labour and Conservative manifestos. To conclude, I appreciate the wide academic freedom that discourse and its interconnectivity provides. As discourses can influence society, a free society should understand and participate in its discourses. In Labour Party television policy, the participation was certainly not complete.