The future electricity grid is likely to be increasingly complex and uncertain due to the introduction of new technologies in the grid, the increased use of control and communication infrastructure, and the uncertain political climate. In recent years, the transactive energy market framework has emerged as the key framework for future electricity market design in the electricity grid. However, most of the work done in this area has focused on developing retail level transactive energy markets. There seems to be an underlying assumption that wholesale electricity markets are ready to support any retail market design. In this dissertation, we focus on designing wholesale electricity markets that can better support transactive retail market. On the highest level, this dissertation contributes towards developing tools and models for future electricity market designs. A particular focus is placed on the relationship between wholesale markets and investment planning. Part I of this dissertation uses relatively simple models and case studies to evaluate key impediments to flexible transmission operation. In doing so, we identify several potential areas of concern in wholesale market designs: 1. There is a lack of consideration of demand flexibility both in the long-run and in the short-run 2. There is a disconnect between operational practices and investment planning 3. There is a need to rethink forward markets to better manage resource adequacy under long-term uncertainties 4. There is a need for more robust modeling tools for wholesale market design In Part II and Part III of this dissertation, we make use of mathematical decomposition and agent-based simulations to tackle these concerns. Part II of this dissertation uses Benders Decomposition and Lagrangian Decomposition to spatially and temporally decompose a power system and operation problem with active participation of flexible loads. In doing so, we are able to not only improve the computational efficiency of the problem, but also gain various insights on market structure and pricing. In particular, the decomposition suggests the need for a coordinated investment market and forward energy market to bridge the disconnect between operational practices and investment planning. Part III of this dissertation combines agent-based modeling with state-machine based modeling to test various spot, forward, and investment market designs, including the coordinated investment market and forward energy market proposed in Part II of this dissertation. In addition, we test a forward energy market design where 75% of load is required to be purchased in a 2-year-ahead forward market and various transmission cost recovery strategies. We demonstrate how the different market designs result in different investment decisions, winners, and losers. The market insights lead to further policy recommendations and open questions. Overall, this dissertation takes initial steps towards demonstrating how mathematical decomposition and agent-based simulations can be used as part of a larger market design toolbox to gain insights into different market designs and rules for the future electricity grid. In addition, this dissertation identifies market design ideas for further studies, particularly in the design of forward markets and investment cost recovery mechanisms.

With increasing computational power and more elaborate software comes greater opportunities to complement traditional research methods with alternative methods. In this paper we argue for why the area of two-sided markets could benefit from this alternative approach and attempt to implement a theoretical model in an agent-based framework. By first replicating the theoretical findings in this framework we expand the model in increments in different directions through introducing different set of heterogeneity and behavioral limitations on our actors to see how the theoretical model develops. Only changing the model in increments found the analytical outcome to be robust for many of our changes, in this regard we have not managed to successfully take advantage of the full potential of the agent-based framework.

In this paper we analyze the impact of global imports on regional labor markets, and how such impact translates to changes in voting patterns in the U.S. Presidential elections from 2000 to 2016. We find that imports from different U.S. trading partners influence voting patterns in different ways. In particular, we observe an anti-incumbent effect caused by import competition from OECD countries. Such an effect cannot be observed for imports from low-income countries. There is also evidence that suggests high exposure to import competition tends to drive voters toward the Democratic candidate, who typically proposes better social welfare programs and more protectionist policies. For imports from low-income countries, evidence for such effects is less robust, but still significant. Despite the voters’ earlier alignment toward the Democrats, we observe a significant voter realignment toward the Republican candidate in the 2016 election due to sudden changes in the Republicans’ stance on global trade. Taken together, these results paint a picture of how the voters’ sentiment towards global trade evolves throughout time and varies with regards to different U.S. trading partners.

The role of the financial sector in helping an economy grow has been the subject of debate for a long time. Recently, however, consensus has been reached, through empirical evidence, showing the importance of financial sector development in achieving economic growth (ADB, 2009). Using the Global Financial Development Database (GFDD) model, the study done here will provide an analysis of financial sector development in Sub-Saharan Africa and its effect on economic growth, using data for 40 countries, in the years from 2000-2014. This analysis was done using a cross-sectional regression analysis of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with data provided from the World Bank. The regression shows significantly positive results between economic growth and firms using banks to finance investments, bank cost to income ratio and bank credit to bank deposits, while significantly negative results are shown in financial system deposits and stock market total value traded. However, seeing as financial sector development is diverse and dynamic, these measurements and the regression done here will not provide a comprehensive picture of the state of financial sector development in SSA.

Over the last four decades emissions trading has enjoyed a high profile in environmental law scholarship and in environmental law and policy. Much of this regulatory discussion is promotional, preferring emissions trading above other regulatory strategies without, however, engaging with legal complexities embedded in conceptualising, scrutinising and managing emissions trading schemes. The combined effect of these debates is to create a perception that emissions trading is a straightforward regulatory strategy, imposable across various jurisdictions and environmental settings. This thesis shows that this view of emissions trading is problematic for at least two reasons. First, emissions trading responds to distinct environmental and non-environmental goals, including creating profit-centres, establishing a governance regime aimed at substituting state control of common resources, and ensuring regulatory compliance. This is important, as the particular purpose entrusted to a given emissions trading regime has, as its corollary, a particular governance structure, according to which the regime may be constructed and managed. Second, the governance structures of emissions trading regimes are culture- specific, which is a significant reminder of the importance of law in understanding not only how emissions trading schemes function but also what meaning is given to them as regulatory strategies. This is shown by deconstructing emissions trading discourses: that is, by inquiring into the assumptions about emissions trading that feature in the literature and in debates involving law- and policymakers and the judiciary at the EU level. Ultimately, this thesis makes a strong argument for reconfiguring the common understanding of emissions trading schemes as regulatory strategies, and sets out a framework for analysis to sustain that reconfiguration.

Corporate investment decisions are among the most important decisions of a firm. Internal capital markets play a key role in facilitating the allocation of capital resources in order to finance investment projects within diversified firms. This thesis investigates internal capital markets and its relationship with analysts earnings forecast errors in three countries with two distinct financial systems, namely, the market-based and bank-based financial system. Using segment level data for public listed companies in the UK, France and Germany between 2005 and 2010, we examine the operation and efficiency of internal capital markets in market- and bank-based systems. We also examine the impact of the financial crisis of 2008 on internal capital markets and analysts earnings forecasts errors, namely, the accuracy, bias and dispersion. The findings indicate internal capital markets actively facilitate the allocation of resources within diversified firms and, in general, operate inefficiently. Furthermore, internal capital markets appear to be more active in France compared with the UK. On the other hand, their role appears to be limited in Germany, as segments appear to rely more on their own resources and less on internal capital markets for investments. In addition, we find that internal capital market activity declines and efficiency improves during the financial crisis in UK. In contrast, there is no significant evidence to suggest that efficiency improves during the crisis in France or Germany. This research also finds some evidence to suggest internal capital markets operations aggravate firm complexity and, in turn, negatively affect short-term forecast accuracy in the UK. In addition to this, our analysis shows there is a positive relationship between the size of internal capital markets and dispersion in analysts earnings forecasts. In general, our study shows analysts are optimistic about firms future performance; however, the level of optimism significantly declines during the financial crisis. Lastly, we report a positive relationship between efficiency of internal capital markets and optimism in earnings forecasts.

The increasingly punitive nature of immigration control across the Western world and the overrepresentation of foreign nationals in European prisons has revitalised criminological interest in issues of migration. Alessandro De Giorgi (2010: 153) and others contend that restrictive, 'illegalising' immigration admission policies and 'hyper-criminalising' immigration controls create a population of migrant workers on European territory, whose legal precarity makes them ideal fodder for employment in post-Fordist neoliberal labour markets. This thesis refines the neoliberal-materialist analysis of immigration policy, as described most succinctly by De Giorgi (2010), through a comparative case study of the UK and Germany. To this end, it explores the various economic, political and cultural factors that have driven the development of a punitive regulation of immigration in the two countries and compares immigration control practices. It also examines the ways in which immigration status siphons immigrants into precarious work and how this process occurs differently in the UK and Germany. An underlying concern is to examine the extent to which differences in the underlying labour markets of the two countries, as described in Hall and Soskice's (2001) Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) typology, structure differences in the processes outlined in the neoliberal-materialist analysis. While the development of immigration controls is motivated by a wide variety of factors outside of the labour market, the fact that motivating factors are largely shared among countries of the same VoC type suggests some relationship with the underlying economic structure. In addition, the thesis argues that foreigners are vulnerable to specific forms of workplace exploitation and social marginalisation in 'coordinated' Germany because of factors associated with the VoC – a finding that also has important connotations for understanding the more intense overrepresentation of foreign nationals in German prisons. At the same time, it highlights the importance of other cultural and social factors, unique to each country, in the politics of immigration. The final section reverses the previous line of the enquiry by examining whether immigration 'neoliberalises' industrial relations in Germany. It finds that immigration's effects depend, to a significant extent, on the degree to which foreigners are constructed as precarious workers through state policy. In turn, immigration policy's wider effects on the labour market suggest native workers might also have an interest in preventing the precaritisation of their immigrant counterparts. Finally, immigration status may become less and less important in understanding the exploitation of workers in Europe, as citizenship is associated with fewer rights.

This masters thesis is based on study of technical analysis of financial markets, i.e. analysis of dependencies between past and present price data, especially when it comes to "supports" and "resistances" or historical price levels where price recently tended to stop and reverse. First of all, summary of the most relevant literature on technical analysis is presented, together with literature on psychology of investing, behavioral finance and market efficiency. Following that, theoretical arguments in favor of possible edge in trading of technical levels are introduced and possible objections are addressed. This theory - in the form of several thousands of unique but similar trading strategies - is then tested on historical data of the most important financial assets. Results are compared to those of conservative buy-and-hold strategy and random trading. We reached the conclusion that trading based on technical price levels brings positive capital gains which are better than those achieved by random trading and buy-and-hold strategy. Parameters of our strategies influence the results in expectable manner more often than not.

The efficient market hypothesis is one of the most important propositions in finance theory and has been subjected to years of rigorous empirical testing. We examine power of a new tool for evaluating market efficiency, fractal dimension. Characteristics and abilities of fractal dimension measure are explored through extensive Monte Carlo simulations. We prove that it provides an accurate evaluation of market's efficiency and its changes. This approach is highly innovative and creates new possibilities for examination of markets. The uniqueness of fractal dimension is in its ability to assign a numerical ranking to examined series describing the level of (in)efficiency; it is accurate for small samples of observations and quickly reflects changes in market efficiency structure. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This Master's Thesis deals with the EU competition law enforcement towards undertakings in the energy industry. The attention of the thesis is devoted only to the part of the energy industry, gas and electricity sectors, as the EU decided to liberalize these markets in the mid-1990s with the aim of gradually transform them into the single European energy market, which will be fully open to the competition. The aim of the thesis is to answer research question, what the specifics of the EU competition law enforcement towards undertakings in the energy industry are. The first chapter deals with the fundamental competition law rules, which are analysed in the thesis within the energy industry. These are prohibition of the agreements which have as their object or effect the restriction of competition (regulated in the Art. 101 TFEU) and prohibition of the abuse of dominant position (regulated in the Art. 102 TFEU). Besides these rules, which are enforced ex post, the chapter also deals with the control of merger of undertakings by the Commission as an ex ant competition law enforcement towards notified mergers. The chapter further looks at the main objectives of the competition law and the means the Commission has at its disposal to competition law enforcement. The second chapter briefly describes the...