Magister Legum - LLM / Euthanasia is controversial topic that attracts conversations on grounds of fundamental human rights and freedoms. The opinions of legal scholars are inconsistent because while some view euthanasia as a gross violation of one’s human rights, others argue that it should be regarded as a fundamental human right. Extending the ‘right to die’ to children is more controversial because they are considered to be a vulnerable demographic and generally presumed to be legally incompetent to exercise their rights autonomously. The State aims to protect children by restricting their rights rather than enhancing their autonomy and including them in the discussion. To that end, children are often excluded from decision-making on the understanding that they are legally incompetent and cannot comprehend the consequences of their decisions.

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The construction industry is inherently multidisciplinary and has adopted many intellectual and technical business improvements from other industries in an effort to optimize productivity. In construction, management inactivity is the root cause of 30% of non-productive time. This has created an opportunity and need for standardized and structured repeatable procedures for new managerial strategies. A theoretical framework for Organizational Intelligence (OI), which encompasses the procedural ability of an organization to efficiently process, support, measure and reason through management issues, is proposed. The elements of organizational intelligence are divided into three types of intellectual capital: Human Capital, Organizational Capital, and Relational Capital. The performance of an organizational activity depends on the quality of these capitals that are available within an organization. An organization's Human Capital (HC) is the human resources within the organization that can be deployed to acquire and apply its knowledge to perform, respond, or control designated work with available organizational assets. Organizational Capital (OC) refers to the assets available to the organization to support the performance of organizational activities Relational Capital (RC), which combines human capital and organizational capital to perform, is needed specific organizational activities. In addition, the research uses human cognitive abilities as the basis of a fundamental structure from which to form new organizational cognitive abilities that are capable of presenting management processes as critical value creations. Organizational cognitive ability is suggested to define appropriate organizational resources in order to integrate and determine a rational selection of applicable technologies and improvements. This ability can develop knowledge with interconnected variables, namely intellectual capital, managerial process, and performance, all of which support organizational intelligence. From the theoretical framework for OI, a prototype (Intelligibility Learning Model), which determines the role of relationships in an organization's operation and use of resources, is formulated. A case based research then applies the prototype to a managerial process in the construction industry. The case research demonstrates that the Intelligibility Learning Model (ILM) could be use effectively by industry decision makers to improve performance of organizational activities. The identification and application of a theoretical framework constitutes the foundation of a new managerial theory, Organizational Intelligence Management. It thus provides a fundamental foundation that explains how the construction processes, knowledge, skills, and resources used for managerial activities function. This theory contributes and establishes a better understanding of management, from organizational resources through to final production. / Ph. D.

In this thesis, a literature review was conducted in order to analyze the numerous sources that investigated the effects memory games may have on participants. Each study covered different scopes and methods in the field of cognitive improvement, which gave way to a variety of results used to create a comprehensive literature review. The experiments included in the literature review gathered evidence to find the effect that “brain” games had on memory and cognitive skills. An explanation and analysis were made on the brain’s deterioration as it ages and the varying amounts of plasticity it contains. The overall perspective gained from the literature review allowed for a better understanding of the results of the surveys conducted for this thesis. The distinctive ways to encourage and improve brain health were researched, and a particular focus was placed on memory games regarding brain health factors. Overall, the benefits identified covered an increase in working memory, skills, and processing speed. However, there was an indication that the improvements were only for the tasks at hand. When research was conducted on transferable activities, there was little to no proof of the transferability of measured improvements. During the research portion of the thesis, a survey was conducted that involved 90 participants from the age of 60 and older on their perception of brain games. The results of the 9-question survey showed statistically significant correlations between the amount of times individuals had played memory games and their perception of both the simplicity and effectiveness of these games. Participants who had played games more frequently viewed the games as both more effective and simpler. Similarly, participants with more education perceived the games as being simpler. The male participants in this study were found to play memory games more frequently than the women. Overall, the correlations drawn from the results of the survey promote the enriched discussion on the subject of memory games and cognitive improvement.

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The purpose of the present study was to attempt to reconcile the seemingly overwhelming body of empirical evidence arguing for the preeminence of general cognitive ability in relation to specific abilities with the general resistance of the majority of Industrial-Organizational psychologists to such a position. The contention of the present study was that the primary evidence used to support the view that specific abilities are of little importance relative to general cognitive ability did not faithfully represent the classic selection model and was based on tenuous assumptions about the operationalizations of general and specific cognitive abilities. By virtue of being defined in un-interpretable terms with respect to content or function, prior operationalizations of specific abilities did not lend themselves to logical and theoretical relationships with job specific job performance. The general thesis of the present study was that if a "construct oriented approach" that is largely based on this classic selection model were implemented, a composite of psychologically interpretable job related specific abilities would prove equivalent or even superior to general cognitive ability in the prediction of job performance. Results suggest implementation of the construct oriented approach demonstrates potential for the value of this approach with respect to balancing criterion related validity and social equity. / Ph. D.

Matrices reasoning tests, which contain missing pieces in matrices that participants attempt to figure out, are one of the most popular types of tests to measure general intelligence. This thesis introduces several methods to develop matrices items, and presents them in different test forms to assess general intelligence. Part 1 introduces the development of a matrices test with reference to Carpenter’s five rules of Raven’s Progressive Matrices. The test items developed were administered together with the Standard Ravens’ Progressive Matrices (SPM). Results based on confirmatory factor analysis and inter-item correlation demonstrate good construct validity and reliability. Item characteristics are explored with Item-Response Theory (IRT) analyses. Part 2 introduces the development of a large item bank with multiple alternatives for each SPM item, with reference to the item components of the original SPM. Results showed satisfactory test validity and reliability when using the alternative items in a test. Findings also support the hypothesis that the combination of item components accounts for item difficulty. The work lays the foundation for the future development of computer adaptive versions of Raven’s Progressive Matrices. Part 3 introduces the development of an automatic matrix item generator and illustrates the results of the analyses of the items generated using the distribution-of-three rule. Psychometric properties of the items generated are explored to support the validity of the generator. Figural complexity, features, and the frequency at which certain rules were used are discussed to account for the difficulty of the items. Results of further analyses to explore the underlying factors of the difficulty of the generated items are presented and discussed. Results showed that the suggested factors explain a substantial amount of the variance of item difficulty, but are insufficient to predict the item difficulty. Adaptive on-the-fly item generation is yet to be possible for the test at this stage. Overall, the methods for creating matrices reasoning tests introduced in the dissertation provide a useful reference for research on abstract reasoning and fluid intelligence measurements. Implications for other areas of psychometric research are also discussed.

This thesis consists of four self-contained papers. Essay I (with Linuz Aggeborn): Fluoridation of the drinking water is a public policy whose aim is to improve dental health. Although the evidence is clear that fluoride is good for dental health, concerns have been raised regarding potential negative effects on cognitive development. We study the effects of fluoride exposure through the drinking water in early life on cognitive and non-cognitive ability, education and labor market outcomes in a large-scale setting. We use a rich Swedish register dataset for the cohorts born 1985-1992, together with drinking water fluoride data. To estimate the effects, we exploit intra-municipality variation of fluoride, stemming from an exogenous variation in the bedrock. First, we investigate and confirm the long-established positive relationship between fluoride and dental health. Second, we find precisely estimated zero-effects on cognitive ability, non-cognitive ability and education for fluoride levels below 1.5 mg/l. Third, we find evidence that fluoride improves later labor market outcomes, which indicates that good dental health is a positive factor on the labor market. Essay II: I study the associations between cognitive and non-cognitive abilities and mortality using a population-wide dataset of almost 700,000 Swedish men born between 1950 and 1965. The abilities were measured at the Swedish military enlistment at age 18-20. In addition, I investigate if income and education are good proxies for the abilities. The results suggest that both cognitive and non-cognitive abilities are strongly associated with mortality, but that non-cognitive ability is a stronger predictor. The associations are only partly mediated through income and education. For middle and high income earners and individuals with a college education there are no associations with mortality. However, for low income earners and individuals without a college education, both abilities are strongly associated with mortality. The associations are mainly driven by the bottom of the distributions. Essay III (with Matz Dahlberg, Kevin Mani and Anders Wanhainen): We examine how health information affects individuals' well-being using a regression discontinuity design on data from a screening program for an asymptomatic disease, abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). The information provided to the individuals is guided by the measured aorta size and its relation to pre-determined levels. When comparing individuals that receive information that they are healthy with those that receive information that they are in the risk zone for AAA, we find no effects. However, when comparing those that receive information that they have a small AAA, and will be under increased surveillance, with those who receive information that they are in the risk zone, we find a weak positive effect on well-being. This indicates that the positive information about increased surveillance may outweigh the negative information about worse health. Essay IV: I estimate the effect of SSRI antidepressants on the risk of mortality for myocardial infarction (MI) patients using Propensity Score Matching on individual health variables such as pharmaceutical drug prescription, patient history and severity of the MI. The effect of antidepressants on mortality is a heavily debated topic. MI patients have an elevated risk of developing depression, and antidepressants are among the most common treatments for depression and anxiety. However, there are indications that some classes of antidepressants may have drug-induced cardiovascular effects and could be harmful for individuals with heart problems, but there is a lack of large-scale studies using credible identification strategies. My findings indicate no increased risk of two-year mortality for MI patients using SSRI. The results are stable for several specifications and robustness checks.

Essay I (with Mattias Öhman): Fluoridation of the drinking water is a public policy whose aim is to improve dental health. Although the evidence is clear that fluoride is good for dental health, concerns have been raised regarding potential negative effects on cognitive development. We study the effects of fluoride exposure through the drinking water in early life on cognitive and non-cognitive ability, education and labor market outcomes in a large-scale setting. We use a rich Swedish register dataset for the cohorts born 1985-1992, together with drinking water fluoride data. To estimate the effect we exploit intra-municipality variation of fluoride, stemming from an exogenous variation in the bedrock. First, we investigate and confirm the long-established positive relationship between fluoride and dental health. Second, we find precisely estimated zero effects on cognitive ability, non-cognitive ability and education. We do not find any evidence that fluoride levels below 1.5 mg/l have negative effects. Third, we find evidence that fluoride improves labor market outcome later in life, which indicates that good dental health is a positive factor on the labor market. / Essay II: Motivated by the intense public debate in the United States regarding politicians’ backgrounds, I investigate the effects of electing a candidate with earlier experience from elective office to the House of Representatives. The U.S. two-party-system with single-member election districts enables me to estimate the causal effect in a RD design where the outcomes are measured at the election district level. I find some indications that candidates with earlier elective experience are more likely to be members of important congressional committees. I also find some indications that directed federal spending (pork barrel spending) is higher in those districts were the elected representative had earlier elective experience prior of being elected to the House, but the effect manifests itself some years after the election. In contrast, I find no robust or statistically significant effects for personal income per capita or unemployment rate in the home district. / Essay III: This paper uses Swedish and Finnish municipal data to investigate the effect of changes in voter turnout on the tax rate, public spending and vote-shares. A reform in Sweden in 1970, which overall lowered the cost of voting, is applied as an instrument for voter turnout in local elections. The reform increased voter turnout in Sweden. The higher voter turnout resulted in higher municipal taxes and greater per capita local public spending. There are also indications that higher turnout decreased the vote share for right-wing parties. I use an individual survey data set to conclude that it was in particular low income earners that began to vote to a greater extent after the reform. / Essay IV (with Lovisa Persson): In a theoretical model where voters and politicians have different preferences for how much to spend on basic welfare services contra reception services for asylum seekers, we conclude that established politicians that are challenged by right-wing populists will implement a policy with no spending on asylum seekers if the cost is high enough. Additionally, adjustment to right-wing populist policy is more likely when the economy is in a recession. Voters differ in their level of private consumption in such a way that lower private consumption implies higher demand for basic welfare services at the expense of reception of asylum seekers, and thus stronger disposition to support right-wing populist policies. We propose that this within-budget-distributional conflict can arise as an electorally decisive conflict dimension if parties have converged to the median voter on the size-of-government issue.

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