The thesis tests the efficacy of Principal-Agent (PA) theory in explaining the creation and development of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). As such, the thesis is subject as well as theory-driven. Empirically, the focal point is how the interaction between the EU member states and the European Commission affected the development of the ENP. It is a theme which is largely overlooked in the ENP literature. In terms of theory, the ENP represents a fascinating case study for PA analysis not only because it has rarely been applied to the field of EU foreign policy but also because PA has seldom been used for studying the evolution of a policy (both pre and post-delegation). Conceptualising EU member states as principals and the European Commission as agent, the thesis examines PA dynamics through the following three ENP policy stages: formulation (2002-2004), finalisation (2004-2006), and implementation (2007-2009). Three hypotheses are tested for each stage of the ENP. Two hypotheses are rooted in PA scholarship, and address the influence of the agent as an informal agenda-setter, while the third distinguishes the agent's influence between different stages of the policy development. Methodologically, the research design is based on within-case process-tracing while the empirical data is drawn from a triangulation of official documents, secondary sources and elite interviews. The thesis findings show that during the initial stages of the policy, the Commission took advantage of its favourable position (e.g. informational asymmetries and uncertainty among the member states) to establish itself as the key actor in the ENP. As the ENP evolved, the Commission’s influence has diminished while the member states, collectively and individually, became more engaged in determining the course of the policy. However, contrary to PA assumptions, member states' increased oversight over the Commission did not come as a response to disobedient behaviour. Based on the empirical data, the Commission, as an agent, was in fact trying to implement the ENP following the guidelines which were previously agreed by its principals. Thus, in the case of the ENP, my PA analysis shifts from the traditional inquiry of how principals control opportunistic agents, to examining how principals could hinder the work of the agent. This phenomenon, broadly defined by Thompson (2007) as the ‘principal problem’, is an anomaly in existing PA literature dominated by an agency-biased standpoint and has previously not been analysed in the context of the European Union. Finally, the wider implication of this thesis is that there is still room for broadening the scope of PA analysis while highlighting the necessity to keep a watchful eye on both the principals and the agent.

Crowdfunding innebär ett insamlande av kapital från stora mängder individer, oftast med små belopp vardera, utan användandet av traditionella finansiella mellanhänder. Crowdfunding som investerings- och finansieringsalternativ växte fram efter finanskrisen 2007/2008 då det blev svårare för företagen att få finansiering från restriktiva banker. Med grund i crowdfundingmarknadens novelitet och att företagen som bedriver en crowdfundingkampanj i många fall är små och nystartade, framstår crowdfunding som en riskfylld investeringsform som medför problem för investerare. Nya investeringsbeteenden har uppmärksammats hos generationen millennials där osäkerhet råder huruvida millennials beteende och preferenser liknar tidigare generationer. Studien ämnar därav att utreda vilka problemområden som existerar vid investering i equity-crowdfunding, samt vad som påverkar millennials inför investeringsbeslutet. Studien anammar en kvalitativ metod och omfattar totalt tio intervjuer, varav sju intervjuer med millennialinvesterare (födda mellan 1980-2000) som vardera gjort minst en investering i en equity-crowdfundingkampanj, två intervjuer med yrkesverksamma private equity- managers från Swedbank och Skandia, och en intervju med Nordeas ansvarige för utveckling av Nordeas egen crowdfundingplattform. Studien resulterar i en identifiering av framstående problemområden vid equity-crowdfunding. Problemområden inkluderar ett informationsasymmetriskt underläge för investeraren som gör investeraren motvillig att investera stora belopp. Crowdfundings små investeringsbelopp påverkar mängden utförd due diligence och rationaliteten av due diligence förvrängs av flockbeteendet crowdförtroende, där investerarna förlitar sig på varandras bedömningar och i en form av fear of missing out investerar irrationellt. Millennialgenerationen premierar investeringar där en personlig koppling finns och generationen använder sig av sociala medier för att utvärdera företagen och ägarna. Adverse selection identifieras som ett konkret problem inom crowdfunding gällande equity-crowdfundingkampanjer och studien rekommenderar att lagstiftning bör fattas för att minska det informationsasymmetriska underläget. Studien bidrar med begreppsutveckling och ökad förståelse för equity-crowdfunding och dess olika problemområden, samt uppmärksammar millennialgenerationens förändrade investeringsbeteende. / Crowdfunding is a rising mass funding concept, where a large number of investors each contribute with a small amount, without using standard financial intermediaries. Crowdfunding as an investment and financing alternative started developing after the subprime crisis in 2007/2008. During this period, the economic situation was in decline and banks financing more restrictive. Due to the novel crowdfunding market and the primarily young companies that conduct crowdfunding campaigns, crowdfunding as an investing alternative is considered high risk and uncertain, and entails considerable problems for the investors. New investing behaviour has been recognized in the millennial generation and it is unclear whether they have the same behaviour and preferences as previous generations. The purpose of this study is thereby to examine which problematic areas exist when investing in equity-crowdfunding and what affects millennials investment decision. The study takes on a qualitative method by conducting a total of 10 interviews: seven interviews with millennial investors (born between 1980-2000) who have completed at least one equity-crowdfunding investment, two interviews with professional private equity- managers from Swedbank and Skandia, and one interview with Nordeas Head of Alternative Finance responsible for the development of their crowdfunding platform. The study identifies prominent problematic areas when investing in equity-crowdfunding. An information asymmetric substandard shows impact on the investors’ willingness to invest and especially to invest larger amounts. The small amount invested affects the level of performed due diligence, and wherein the rationality of due diligence is perverted by the heard behaviour crowd trust. Crowd trust is the phenomena where investors rely on each other as quality signals, and due to a fear of missing out, invest irrational. The millennial generation is shown to prefer investments where they have a personal connection with the company or product, and millennials primary source of due diligence is through social media. Adverse selection is identified as a concrete problem in equity-crowdfunding and the study proposes that legislation can reduce the information asymmetric problem. The study contributes with an increased understanding for equity-crowdfunding and its problematic areas, but also with added knowledge for the millennial generation and its investing behaviour.

Recently, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) have adopted policies that engage the private sector in the implementation of their development mandates. Despite the implications of these changes, the subject is among the least conceptualized. By applying a theory-guided process-tracing (TGPT) methodology, this paper examines the process of change at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It advances a constructivist argument and evaluates whether this change could be viewed as a norm-driven change, where norms of corporate social responsibility (CSR), in the process of interaction and learning, have obtained an intersubjective quality and redefined the role of the private sector in the context of organization’s objectives. The paper evaluates this argument in light of the alternative assumptions of the principal-agent model, the bureaucratic culture literature, and rational choice institutionalism. It highlights the implications of this research in empirical, analytical, and theoretical terms for further studies and concludes that, without a due assessment of the intervening effect of norms on policies, the causal claims of other theories are seriously challenged.

Becker's discrimination theory predicted that the discrimination by employers on competitive markets should cease to exist. However, in past decades, it was shown that discrimination on the labour market is a prevalent phenomenon. In this thesis I analyse what is the impact of agency problem on the theory of discrimination. I show that when an agent (in the thesis called 'agent employer') is deciding whether to employ or not to employ a worker, his motivation is different compared to principal's. The outcome of the analysis is such that under certain assumptions, the agent employer with non-zero taste for discrimination will always choose to discriminate.

This paper will introduce the reader to the issues of moral hazard in a principal-agent setting, with the primary focus on the incentive pay models of moral hazard. Firstly, with an introduction and analysis of various microeconomic models designed to alleviate the problems of moral hazard, and secondly, with an analyses of these models in the context of a specific company, the aim of this thesis is to offer a comprehensive understanding of the specific problems caused by moral hazard in the principal-agent problem, as well as the mechanisms used to lessen such problems in the real business environment and their connection to the theoretical microeconomic models.

Diploma thesis tests the existence of luck premium on U.S. CEOs' compensations. Luck premium means that in case of high principal-agent costs, CEOs are rewarded for random luck and not only for their productivity. Thesis uses financial crisis in 2008 as a breaking event after which attention and control of CEOs' remuneration by owners, public, and media intensified. Using regression with fixed effects on panel data between years 2004 and 2012 thesis proved impact of luck premium before 2008 while the influence was not significant after 2008. Results were not robust for other model specifications, which might be caused by selectivity of the dataset. Thesis then presents overview of theoretical approaches to CEOs' compensation analysis and recommendations for optimal compensation set-up.

The time-saving bias is a cognitive error which systematically influences human perception of relationship between speed and time. As a consequence they overestimate time gained/lost when accelerating/decelerating from higher speed and underestimate time gained/lost when accelerating/decelerating from lower speed. This bias is most salient in the context of a car driving where such a misperception might lead to an excessively high travelling speed. Apart from the impact on the driving safety, unduly high speed have negative effect also on the fuel economy. An undue fuel consumption can be an issue not only for firms, but also for the environment. This work tested a formerly proposed de-biasing measure, a paceometer, in a field experiment with the intention to find out if this kind of intervention can alter drivers' behaviour in order to reduce speeding and thus increase the driving safety and decrease the fuel consumption. To test also the strength of the measure the experiment was done within a middle size company where employees did not bear driving costs. Results based on 1 year fuel consumption data of 45 participants showed no particular effect of the measure on the average fuel consumption. A reason for this finding can be an existence of a principal/agent problem which considerably affects incentives of drivers.

The expansion and diffusion of mobile phones globally has resulted in the provision of financial transactional services over the existing mobile phone platforms, generally referred to as mobile money. The supply end of mobile money services is an important factor in the success of the financial transactions offering. This research assessed vulnerabilities in the mobile money supply network that are inherently related to the existence of the principal – agent problem and their implications on availability and access to the services. The research study was conducted using a qualitative approach. Qualitative information was collected through interviews guided by open – ended questionnaires. Thematic analysis approach was followed to systematically analyse the data and generate findings of the study. Agent transactional data was analysed to complement the findings from qualitative analysis The findings suggest that the principal agent problem permeates the mobile money delivery network mainly after businesses joining as agents and manifests as moral hazard. Moral hazard is the dominant feature of the principal – agent problem, with adverse selection very low. Drivers of moral hazard are demonstrated by the influences and demands of agents’ core businesses and challenges in agent monitoring and training. The existence of the principal – agent problem has limited or no implications on access and availability of services. However, overtime the combined vulnerabilities identified related to the principal agent problem are likely to manifest into risks that are likely to affect access and availability of mobile money services. Regulators, Mobile Network Operators and agent enterprises must collectively review monitoring approaches for mobile money service providers to address challenges identified and increase the effectiveness of monitoring. Service provision standards should be reviewed to suit the various business environments the services are provided within. Mobile Network Operators and agent enterprises need to institute stronger partnership arrangements that enhance ownership and obligations for all parties, in particular agent enterprises. Agreements must enable application of different mobile money delivery models suitable to meet the demands and requirements of the agents’ core businesses. Innovations such as Near Field Communication (NFC) can be integrated with Point of sale (POS) applications and mobile money platforms to reduce the administration burden on agents and human error. Such applications must consider the cost implications of adoption from the agents’ business perspective.

Den genomförda studien syftar till att undersöka transaktionsprocessen och identifiera var det finns störst risk för felbeslut och irrationellt agerande blad fastighetsaktörer i Sverige. Studien bidrar med att skapa en förståelse för läsaren gällande vilka risker som finns i processen samt att framställa var i processen riskerna är som störst. Materialet som ligger till grund för studien består av intervjuer och enkätundersökningar som delats ut till flertalet bolag i branschen. Intervjuerna har genomförts med personer som arbetar med fastighetstransaktioner på väletablerade bolag i branschen. Resultatet av studien indikerar på att det finns stora risker för felbeslut genom hela transaktionsprocessen vilket påverkas av flertalet faktorer i de olika delarna. För den säljande parten är risken för irrationella beslut som störst i början av processen. De förklaras av att det är den säljande parten som i början av processen exempelvis väljer vilken marknadsföringsprocess som ska genomföras, samt vem marknadsföringen ska rikta sig till. Riskerna i processen övergår därefter till köparen. De faktorer som påverkar irrationellt beslutsfattande kan förklaras av de teorier som presenteras i litteraturstudien och teoriavsnittet: ‘Bounded rationality’, ‘principal agent problem’ och ‘ankar effekter’. Det går inte att säkerställa vad som leder till att ett irrationellt beslut genomförs eftersom varje process är unik. Den här studien syftar endast till att identifiera var i transaktionsprocessen det finns risker för aktörerna att agera irrationellt. Nyckelord för studien är: ‘Transaktionsprocess’, ‘bounded rationality’, ‘principal agent problem’, ‘ankar effekt’, ‘due diligence’, ‘fastighetstransaktion’. / The following study aims to examine the transactional process for real estate transactions and establish where there is a risk for irrational decision making amongst real estate investors and advisors in Sweden. The method consists of questionnaires that have been distributed to real estate transaction consultants in Sweden. The study also used semi-structured interviews as a method. The interviews in the study were carried out with real estate consulting companies that focus on real estate transactions in Sweden. The results of the study indicate that there are risks in regards to investment decision making throughout the whole transactionprocess that are affected by various factors for the different parts of the transactionprocess. The underlying explanation is that most of the decision making is done in the initial part of the transactionprocess. The factors that cause irrational decision making can be explained by the theories presented in the literature part of the study and the theory part of the study. Those factors are: Principal agent problems, anchor effects and bounded rationality. It is not possible to ensure exactly what causes irrational behaviour in decision making but the study aims to discover and indicate where in the process there is a risk for the various factors causing irrational behaviour in decision making.

National parliaments (NPs) are vital to the European Union’s (EU’s) democratic legitimacy. They are tasked with controlling their governments through oversight and scrutiny while providing a deliberative forum by offering policy alternatives, informing, and connecting citizens to the EU. NPs can only provide public accountability if they adequately meet these challenges, ensuring a well-informed citizenry that is able to form and vote according to their preferences on European integration. To do this, Members of Parliament (MPs) need to publicly communicate EU issues and important developments concerning the EU project. Yet, the use of the communicative function of NPs in EU affairs remains underexplored and questions of public accountability unanswered. Against this background, this study aims to shed light on the general salience of the EU in the plenary by adopting a principal-agent framework to analyze the factors that co-vary with the willingness of MPs to discuss the EU. Employing regression analysis on a novel dataset with observations from 17 European NPsincluding over 20,000 plenary protocols from 2006-2019, this study notes a general upwards trend of the emphasis MPs put on the EU over time, driven by critical junctures, most notably, the Lisbon treaty and the Eurozone crisis. The results of this study also indicate that MPs are most consistently responsive to elections and other key EU events. Besides, factors related to authority transfers and EU legislation as well as strategic party incentives determine how much MPs use their communicative function in the plenary. Nevertheless, this study unveils some challenges to the democratic legitimacy of the EU.