This dissertation titled "Essays in the Political Economy of Inflation" is comprised of three papers which study the problem of inflation from a political-institutional perspective. All the three essays apply modern technical tools of macroeconomics to study different factors that affect the choice of policies. It is shown that these factors are crucial in shaping the governance structure conducive for policy effectiveness. The complex political-economic environment is difficult to study with traditional models of economic policy based on a benevolent social planner maximizing the utility of a representative individual. This thesis, therefore, approaches the political economy of inflation from a realistic practical side. The first essay titled "Taxing the unobservable: The impact of shadow economy oninflation and taxes", is motivated from several theoretical and empirical studies which argue that optimal inflation rate increases in the size of informal economy. In this paper, we construct a small theoretical model that has two key components. First, it explicitly models the government's choice for income or inflation tax. Our framework is general and does not impose any condition about the nature of the government (i.e., it does not require government to be necessarily benevolent or corrupt). Secondly, we explicitly consider the shadow economy in the government's objective function. It allows us to see how it impacts the tax burden and inflation. Our theoretical model indicates an increasing marginal cost of taxes and an increasing rate of inflation in the shadow economy. The principle of marginal substitution rationalizes the government's choice of inflation tax over income tax.

Inom ramen för IVIN- projektet avsåg föreliggande studie att explorativt undersöka vilka variabler som kan moderera behandlingsutfallet i en internetadministrerad KBT-behandling för personer som upplever svårigheter att reglera ilska, aggressioner eller utagerande beteenden i nära relationer. Sextiofem personer inkluderades och randomiserades till de två betingelserna behandlingsgrupp (n=32) och kontrollgrupp (n=33). Aktuell studie baserades på resultaten för de deltagare som fyllt i för- och eftermätning (n = 59). Huvudutfallsmåtten beräknades utifrån individuella värden vid eftermätningen kontrollerat för förmätningen på Multidimensional Measure of Emotional Abuse och Aggression Questionnaire - Revised Swedish Version. För att undersöka valda variablers modererande effekt på respektive utfallsmått användes multipel regression. Resultaten visade att individer med initialt hög frekvens av emotionellt- och fysiskt våld, låg ilskeruminering och hög acceptans av sin partners negativa beteenden drog mest nytta av behandlingen. Resultaten visade även en tendens till att högre motivation, lägre ångest och högre ålder modererade ett bättre behandlingsutfall. Dessa tendenser bör dock utforskas vidare för att bringa ytterligare klarhet till dessa moderatorers påverkan på behandlingsutfallet. / IVIN

The contemporary working environment is characterised by constant change and increased cognitive and emotional demands on employees. At the same time, long-term employment is no longer guaranteed and often employees are not loyal to one organisation throughout their careers. These changes alter and threaten the viability of the employment relationship. Employees still provide a competitive edge for organisations and their expectations should be managed in such a way that the current organisation remains the employee’s employer of choice. If employers fail to achieve this, employees will be less satisfied and voluntary turnover will result, with detrimental effects on the organisation, both directly and indirectly. In order to ensure the retention of valuable employees, organisations need to identify the predictors of employees’ intention to leave and the nature of the relationships between these factors. Previous studies focused on evaluating the content of the psychological contract and its relation to employee well-being and intention to leave. However, the focus should be less on what employees expect from employers and more on whether these expectations are being fulfilled, now and in future, and whether employees perceive it as fair. Although numerous studies have been conducted on the outcomes of the psychological contract, the evaluation of the state of the psychological contract and its predictive ability remains largely unexplored. More research is also needed to identify mediators in the psychological contract domain. Employability emerged as a coping resource for employees in times of uncertainty. Unfortunately, the more employable employees are, the more likely they will leave the organisation. Due to the assumed positive relationship between employability and performance, organisations should aim to enhance the employability of their employees but at the same time they should seek ways to retain these employees. Empirical research on the outcomes of perceived employability is limited and more research is also needed to identify moderators. The objectives of the study were 1) to determine whether the state of the psychological contract (as perceived by the employee) mediates the relationship between employees’ well-being and their intention to leave the organisation; and 2) to determine whether the state of the psychological contract (as perceived by the employee) moderates the relationship between perceived employability and employees’ well-being and their intention to leave the organisation, respectively. Structural equation modelling was used to establish the significance of the relationship between the variables simultaneously. Two structural models were evaluated; one with employee well-being as mediator and one with the state of the psychological contract as moderator. The results indicated that employee well-being partially mediates the negative relationship between the state of the psychological contract and intention to leave. The state of the psychological contract played a significant role in predicting individual outcomes. The results also indicated that perceived employability had a positive relationship with intention to leave. This is in line with previous international studies. Contrary to what was expected, no significant relationship was found between perceived employability and employee well-being. Furthermore, the state of the psychological contract did not moderate the relationship between perceived employability and employees’ well-being and their intention to leave the organisation, respectively. The results highlighted the importance of well-being as a factor in employees’ intention to leave the organisation. Recommendations were made for organisations and futher reseach. / Thesis (MCom (Human Resource Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The contemporary working environment is characterised by constant change and increased cognitive and emotional demands on employees. At the same time, long-term employment is no longer guaranteed and often employees are not loyal to one organisation throughout their careers. These changes alter and threaten the viability of the employment relationship. Employees still provide a competitive edge for organisations and their expectations should be managed in such a way that the current organisation remains the employee’s employer of choice. If employers fail to achieve this, employees will be less satisfied and voluntary turnover will result, with detrimental effects on the organisation, both directly and indirectly. In order to ensure the retention of valuable employees, organisations need to identify the predictors of employees’ intention to leave and the nature of the relationships between these factors. Previous studies focused on evaluating the content of the psychological contract and its relation to employee well-being and intention to leave. However, the focus should be less on what employees expect from employers and more on whether these expectations are being fulfilled, now and in future, and whether employees perceive it as fair. Although numerous studies have been conducted on the outcomes of the psychological contract, the evaluation of the state of the psychological contract and its predictive ability remains largely unexplored. More research is also needed to identify mediators in the psychological contract domain. Employability emerged as a coping resource for employees in times of uncertainty. Unfortunately, the more employable employees are, the more likely they will leave the organisation. Due to the assumed positive relationship between employability and performance, organisations should aim to enhance the employability of their employees but at the same time they should seek ways to retain these employees. Empirical research on the outcomes of perceived employability is limited and more research is also needed to identify moderators. The objectives of the study were 1) to determine whether the state of the psychological contract (as perceived by the employee) mediates the relationship between employees’ well-being and their intention to leave the organisation; and 2) to determine whether the state of the psychological contract (as perceived by the employee) moderates the relationship between perceived employability and employees’ well-being and their intention to leave the organisation, respectively. Structural equation modelling was used to establish the significance of the relationship between the variables simultaneously. Two structural models were evaluated; one with employee well-being as mediator and one with the state of the psychological contract as moderator. The results indicated that employee well-being partially mediates the negative relationship between the state of the psychological contract and intention to leave. The state of the psychological contract played a significant role in predicting individual outcomes. The results also indicated that perceived employability had a positive relationship with intention to leave. This is in line with previous international studies. Contrary to what was expected, no significant relationship was found between perceived employability and employee well-being. Furthermore, the state of the psychological contract did not moderate the relationship between perceived employability and employees’ well-being and their intention to leave the organisation, respectively. The results highlighted the importance of well-being as a factor in employees’ intention to leave the organisation. Recommendations were made for organisations and futher reseach. / Thesis (MCom (Human Resource Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The aim of this thesis is to gain improved understanding of the income convergence between Finland and Sweden 1950-2000 with a focus on catch-up growth, wage formation, productivity growth, migration and structural change in a setting of structural and institutional differences on the factor markets. Earlier studies of Finnish and Swedish convergence has overlooked the international perspective and therefore missed the general European – US convergence during the period. The results shows that Sweden converged to 80 percent of the US productivity level in the early 1970s and is following US productivity growth thereafter. The Finnish catch-up growth towards the US continues until the beginning of the 1990s. This corresponds well with the convergence of labour productivity between Finland and Sweden which took place around 1970 and the gap was closed in the beginning of the 1990s. The convergence between the countries can therefore be understood from the catch-up growth against the USA and if the countries growth rates are plotted against their income level 1950 one can see that the two countries are well in line with other West European countries. This means that either country is deviating in a positive or negative direction during the period. This is to some extent in contrast with the view that has been put forward in the countries national economic historical writing where Finland is often since as a growth miracle while Sweden especially since 1970s is seen as a case of falling behind.      In order to explain the convergence scenario structural and institutional differences on the countries factor markets is examined. One aspect concerns Barry Eichengreens hypothesis regarding wage moderation as cause of the Post-War European convergence. The wage setting system in Sweden has been put forward by Eichengreen as a raw model for the type of institutional setting that would promote wage moderation. One central finding in this thesis is that we can not find support for wage moderation for Sweden as the labour share of the national income rises during the phase of Swedish catch-up growth while the labour income share was constant and periodically falling in Finland. In contrast with the view of the Finnish low interest rate policy during the post- the actual real interest rate was lower in Sweden.      There has also been a significant migration flow from Finland to Sweden especially from the 1950s to mid 1970s.  In the thesis we find a positive and significant relationship between wage and productivity differences on industry level between the countries. This supports the conclusion that migration was leading towards factor price convergence between the countries.      The shift-share analysis shows that there were higher gains for the productivity growth in reallocating labour on the Finnish labour market than in Sweden. This could be explained by the higher share of the labour in the agricultural sector as predicted by Peter Temin.

La relation d’activation père-enfant est une nouvelle théorisation du lien d’attachement au père faisant référence au pôle exploration. Cette relation se développe dès la deuxième année de l’enfant et principalement à travers les jeux physiques. La relation d’activation met prioritairement l’accent sur l’ouverture au monde et permet alors de répondre avant tout au besoin de l’enfant d’être stimulé et de se surpasser, venant compléter ses besoins de sécurité premiers. L’objectif de la présente thèse est d’étudier les liens entre la relation d’activation au père et le développement socio-affectif des enfants à l’âge préscolaire, plus précisément en matière de problèmes intériorisés (PI) et d’anxiété. Deux articles empiriques composent cette thèse. Le premier a été réalisé avec un échantillon de convenance composé de 51 dyades père-enfant. Les analyses démontrent les liens anticipés entre la sous-activation et les PI : les enfants sous-activés ont significativement plus de PI que les enfants activés. Également, l’association initialement observée entre le score d’activation et les PI reste significative même après avoir contrôlé pour certaines variables comme le sexe et le tempérament de l’enfant ainsi que les comportements parentaux. Plus les enfants étaient activés positivement dans leur relation avec leur père, moins ils présentaient de PI. Enfin, l’exploration des liens entre la relation d’activation et les sous-échelles des PI a révélé un lien unique avec l’anxiété. Le deuxième article a été réalisé avec 49 familles issues d’une population clinique (c.-à-d. service de pédopsychiatrie). Il est le premier à mettre en lien l’activation au père, l’attachement à la mère et l’anxiété chez l’enfant d’âge préscolaire. Les analyses confirment les résultats déjà existants en matière d’attachement mère-enfant et d’anxiété; ce sont les enfants insécurisés, plus précisément les enfants insécurisés-ambivalents et insécurisés-désorganisés-contrôlants du sous-type caregiving qui présentent le plus d’anxiété. Les hypothèses concernant les liens entre l’anxiété et l’activation ne sont quant à elles pas confirmées. Enfin, un effet de modération de la relation d’activation père-enfant est mis en évidence sur l’association entre l’attachement à la mère et l’anxiété chez l’enfant; la relation d’activation peut être considérée comme un facteur de protection ou de risque. Les résultats de la présente thèse sont discutés à la lumière de la théorie de l’attachement et de deux modèles étiologiques de l’anxiété (c.-à-d. modèle de psychopathologie développementale et modèle évolutionniste). Cette thèse pourrait mener au développement de programmes de prévention et d’intervention qui prendraient en considération les deux figures parentales. / The father-child activation relationship is a new theorization of a child’s attachment to the father, which emphasizes the «exploration» pole. This relation begins during the second year of life and especially develops through physical play. The activation relationship primarily focuses on the child’s openness to the world, and enables the father to respond specifically to the child’s need to be stimulated and to overcome personal limits, in turn satisfying the child’s need for emotional security. The main goal of this thesis is to study the links between the activation to the father and the socio-affective development of the child at preschool age, more specifically in terms of internalising disorders (IDs) and anxiety. This thesis is made up of two empirical articles. The first one used a convenience sample of 51 father-child dyads. Analyses demonstrated the existence of the anticipated link between underactivation and IDs: underactivated children had significantly more IDs than activated children. Furthermore, the association between activation scores and IDs was significant after controlling for variables such as the child’s gender and temperament, as well as parental behaviour. The more positively activated children were in their relationship with their father, the fewer internalising disorders they displayed. The exploration of links between the activation relationship and ID subscales revealed a unique connection to anxiety. The second article was based on a sample of 49 families from a clinical population (i.e. child psychiatry department). This study is the first to explore the relationship between activation to the father, attachment to the mother and child anxiety at preschool age. Analyses confirmed the results already established in the literature about attachment to the mother and anxiety; insecure children, more specifically insecure-ambivalent and insecure-disorganized-controlling caregiving, present with more anxiety. Hypotheses about the links between anxiety and activation were not confirmed. Finally, a moderation effect of the father-child activation relationship on the association between attachment to the mother and child anxiety is demonstrated; the activation relationship can be considered a protective or risk factor. Results of the present thesis are discussed in terms of attachment theory, using two etiological models of anxiety (i.e. developmental psychopathology and evolutionist models). This thesis can lead to the development of prevention and intervention programs, which would take into account both parental figures.

In this thesis I evaluate the departures of three common assumptions in macroeconomic modeling and estimation, namely the Rational Expectations (RE) hypothesis, the representative agent assumption and the use of first-order approximations in the estimation of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models. In the first chapter I determine how the use of survey data on inflation expectations in the estimation of a model alters the evaluation of the RE assumption in comparison to an alternative assumption, namely learning. In chapter two, I use heterogeneous agent models to determine the relationship between income volatility and the demand for durable goods. In the third chapter I evaluate if the use of first-order approximations in the estimation of a model could affect the evaluation of the determinants of the Great Moderation. / En esta tesis analizo desvíos de tres supuestos comunes en la elaboración y estimación de modelos macroeconómicos. Estos supuestos son la Hipótesis de Expectativas Racionales (ER), el supuesto del Agente Representativo, y el uso de aproximaciones de primer orden en la estimación de los modelos de equilibrio general. En el primer capítulo determino como el empleo de datos de expectativas de inflación en la estimación de un modelo puede alterar la evaluación del supuesto de ER en comparación a un supuesto alternativo como learning. En el segundo capítulo, utilizo modelos de agentes heterogéneos para determinar la relación entre la volatilidad de los ingresos y la demanda de bienes durables. En el tercer capítulo, analizo si el uso de aproximaciones de primer orden afecta la evaluación de los determinantes de la Gran Moderación.

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The transformation of a manual paper-based moderation process into an electronic moderation (eModeration) process poses unique challenges. These challenges concern academic processes, people and the user experience of interactive systems. eModeration can improve the user experience of assessment processes while lowering the risk of delaying the process or losing scripts. Despite the benefits associated with optimising assessment procedures, particularly examination procedures, the use of eModeration in South Africa is limited. There are several possible reasons for a lack of eModeration adoption ranging from infrastructure and technical issues through to organisational and human factors. The focus of this study is on the human factors involved in eModeration. Since no User Experience Evaluation Framework for eModeration existed at the time of this research, an in-depth study was conducted based on the experiences of eModeration users in the context of private higher education institutions. The study focused on identifying the most important user experience constructs for the evaluation of an eModerate system within the context of private higher education institutions in South Africa towards proposing a framework. The study was based in the fields of Information Systems and Human-Computer Interaction with eModeration being the application domain. The research used a Design Science Research methodology, which involved the development and testing of a User Experience Evaluation Framework for eModeration. The data generation methods included interviews with deans, eModerators and management, as well as a survey that included responses from both moderators and deans. The research was conducted at Midrand Graduate Institute and evaluated at Monash University. The study makes a validated contribution towards identifying the most important user experience constructs. The identified constructs were utilised in the design and development of the User Experience Evaluation Framework for eModeration, which can be used along with the evaluation criteria tool to evaluate eModerate systems. / Information Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Information Systems)

This work deals with the comparison of Plato and Aristotle's conception of virtue ethics. The first part describes Plato's view of this area of philosophy. Plato puts his ethics based on the analogy between the municipality and the soul. Plato also operates with good ideas. In the second part, Aristotle view. First, I discuss the objectives of its philosophy, which is good, and then bliss. Then there is the division of the moral virtues and intellectual. Then describe each of Aristotle's virtues. The third main section consists of two subsections, the first of which generally compare both concepts when I find the first differences in the overall approach of both authors. In the second subsection I compare other points of doctrine, especially community, friendship and goodness.