The objective of this study is to empirically investigate the differences in human capital profile of new appointed female directors to corporate boards as a result of mandatory quotas and voluntary targets. By exploring differences in age, and human capital differences in board tenure, executive experience (CEO, CFO), number of qualifications, and the number of directorships held by these women, this study contributes to the important and current international public policy decision debate on relevance and wisdom of adopting a mandatory gender quota or introducing voluntary targets. The study uses human capital theory to evaluate the profiles of 41 new female directors appointed through a mandatory quota in Norway and 397 new female directors appointed through voluntary targets in Australia and extends the current corporate governance literature on board gender regulation by exploring whether female directors differ in human capital as a result of the two types of regulations. The results of this study show that new female directors hired through a quota are on average younger than new female directors hired through a target; new female directors hired through a quota are less likely to have more years of board experience than new female directors hired through a target; new female directors hired through a quota are likely to have more years of executive experience than new female directors hired through a target; and new female directors hired through a quota have lower number of qualifications than new female directors hired through a target. These results, albeit contrary to the hypotheses developed in this study, propose several important implications from an academic, management, and policy point of view while at the same time have limitations that present opportunities for future research.

Despite global progress on gender equality, women continue to be underrepresented in politics. One widely debated policy measure aimed at tackling this issue is gendered public funding – which has been adopted in more than 30 countries worldwide yet remains understudied in the literature on gender and politics. In this thesis, I address that research gap and examine the broader impact of electoral, political, and cultural factors on gendered political funding by conducting quantitative cross-national analyses. I used data from four different sources, such as the International IDEA Political Finance Database, the IDEA Quota Database, QOG, and V-Dem, to examine the relationship between these factors and the probability of gendered public funding adoption. It is evident from the findings of this thesis that the presence of quotas has a significant influence on determining the likelihood of adopting gender-specific public funding policies, with countries implementing quotas demonstrating a higher likelihood of adopting such policies. Contrary to theoretical expectations concerning electoral and cultural variables and earlier research, no significant effects are found. The thesis offers valuable insights into the interplay between political trends, electoral institutions, cultural dynamics, and financial mechanisms in shaping gender equality initiatives. While gender quotas may enhance the probability of gender public funding, exploring all relevant contextual factors is critical.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第24030号 / 情博第786号 / 新制||情||133(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科知能情報学専攻 / (主査)准教授 宮崎 修一, 教授 岡部 寿男, 教授 阿久津 達也, 教授 湊 真一 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Informatics / Kyoto University / DFAM

Thesis (MBA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / The South African clothing and textile industry has historically benefited from import substitution industrialisation which protected the industry through tariff and non-tariff barriers from foreign competition. Factors such as the impact of globalisation, our accession to the World Trade Organisation and the associated effects on trade liberalisation changed South Africa‟s trade policy to move towards export lead growth at the threshold of South Africa‟s democracy, which paved the way for increased imports from foreign countries. The opening up of the South African economy to foreign competition negatively impacted on the competitiveness of these industries. The clothing and textile industry has been plagued by various challenges, amongst others, cheap imports especially from China (often illegal), South Africa‟s accelerated tariff reduction programme and currency fluctuations (especially the appreciation of the Rand), which culminated in factory closures and huge job losses. South Africa has since 1994 developed unstructured and uncoordinated sectoral responses to these challenges in the absence of a comprehensive industrial policy. The government‟s response to deal with the challenges facing the clothing and textile industry was to re-impose protectionist measures via import quotas on certain categories of products from China. These measures were intended to protect the industry and provide it with breathing space to reposition itself and regain its competitiveness, retain existing jobs and create additional jobs. The quest to regain global competitiveness should be founded on a combination of measures (e.g. the legislative and institutional environment, infrastructure, skilled workforce, innovation and networking) designed to satisfy consumer tastes and preferences that aims to improve the potential for growth in the medium to long-term. The objective of this research report was to assess whether the introduction of import quotas on Chinese goods positively contributed to the South African clothing and textile industry in regaining a measure of competitiveness and growth. The basis of the study is informed by a series of personal interviews with the key industry stakeholders which focused on examining the state of the industry, especially the impact of import quotas of certain categories of Chinese goods. The results revealed that the impact of import quotas on Chinese goods failed to provide any significant benefits to the clothing and textile industry since: (i) although there was a reduction in imports from China into South Africa in the quota categories, importers merely sourced their products from other low cost countries (e.g. Pakistan, Vietnam, Mauritius); (ii) there was no significant increase in local output and purchases; and (iii) there was no significant reduction in the number of jobs lost and none created during this period. These results although supported by business and other academic literature are contested by both labour and government. One conclusion was that a comprehensive approach should be pursued to arrest the challenges faced by the clothing and textile industry to reposition itself within the global environment to regain its competitiveness. This requires the active participation of all industry stakeholders and the implementation of appropriate strategies and tactics which is sequenced and coordinated to enhance their collective outcomes.

The Multifibre Agreement ("MFA") regulated textile trade until 1 January 2005. It was predominantly focused on curtailing textile exports from developing countries, like South Africa and China. With the end of the MFA, a textile crisis occurred in South Africa due to the domination of the domestic market by more affordable Chinese textile products. This case study is applied to illustrate the inadequacy of domestic legislation to provide for the resolution of an international trade dispute that affects an industry. No legislation refers to the resolution of the trade dispute by entering into a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU"), or recourse to the neutral dispute settlement body of the World Trade Organisation ("WTO"). Due to the absence of legislation that directly addresses either forum, all the power is vested• in the government to determine the appropriate course of action. Applications brought by textile industry representative bodies like TEXFED, CLOTRADE and SACTWU were inadequately investigated due to the limited powers of the independent investigative body, ITAC, and were ultimately abandoned. The government entered into a MOU with the Chinese government and in doing so violated international agreements, rights and obligations. An analysis of the inadequacy of the MOU that was entered into and the suitability of the WTO as dispute settlement body is conducted. It is concluded that the current legislation is inadequate in that it doesn't provide for recourse to the WTO and in that it doesn't clearly set out the obligations on government and the independent powers of an independent body. / LLM (Import and Export Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

Politiska ungdomsförbund är viktiga arenor där unga människor diskuterar och formulerar frågor som kan bli en del av den politiska dagordningen. Sättet som en politisk fråga diskuteras skapar också gränserna för hur det är möjligt att förstå och tala om den. I denna studie undersöks det socialdemokratiska ungdomsförbundets (SSU) könspolitik under perioden 1970- 2000. Mer specifikt analyseras hur frågan om kvinnors politiska representation framställts inom förbundet och vilka lösningar som varit möjliga att föra fram på förbundskongresserna. Avhandlingens utgångspunkter är feministisk teori och teori om problem konstruktion. Studien baseras på källmaterial som kongressprotokoll, handlings- och principprogram, stadgar, motioner från individuella kongressledamöter och från distrikt, förbundsstyrelsens utlåtande över motioner, förbundsskrifter samt tidskrifterna Tvärdrag och P- Information. Avhandlingen visar att SSU, trots sin radikala självbild, haft liten egen drivkraft att driva frågan om att öka kvinnors representation i förbundets beslutsfattande organ. Problem med låg representation av kvinnor inom förbundet erkänns, men fram till 1990-talet är det någon annan, någon annanstans, som ska lösa underrepresentationen. Avhandlingen visar också att problemkonstruktionerna ofta innehåller motsägelsefulla förståelser av frågan om kvinnors representation. Sammantaget bidrar en rad antaganden som, normer om frivillighet, samarbete mellan män och kvinnor, könskomplementaritet, samt även passiva och symboliska hinder och utlyftande praktiker, till att forma gränserna för hur kvinnors politiska representation kan diskuteras inom SSU. / Political youth associations are important political arenas where young people discuss and formulate issues that can become part of the political agenda. The way a political issue is discussed and problematized also creates the borders for how it is possible to talk about it and to understand a particular issue. In this thesis, the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League’s (SSU) gender politics are explored. More specifically, the question of how women’s representation is constructed and what solutions are seen as possible is analysed. The analytical points of departure are feminist theory and theory of problem construction. The source material consists of congress material from 1970 until 2001: congress protocols, motions from individuals and district committees, League committee reports on the motions and debates in the congresses. Other source materials are debate publications, booklets, written documents, internal material about women’s representation, programs of action and ideas and the periodicals Tvärdrag and P-Information. The study shows that the Social Democratic Youth League, despite of its radical self image, has few ambitions of its own to politicise the question of women’s representation. Problems with women’s low representation within the league are admitted, but until the 1990’s, these problems are always associated with someone else, somewhere else, who is going to solve the under representation. The study also shows that the problem constructions often contain contradictory understandings of the question of women’s representation. A number of assumptions such as norms for volunteering, cooperation between men and women, gender complementary, barriers as passive and symbolic barriers, and ‘externalizing practices’, contribute to shaping the borders of how the question of women’s representation can be discussed within the League.

This thesis explores the constitutionality of compulsory electoral quotas for women imposed by law. The central question this thesis attempts to answer is what makes these quotas constitutional or unconstitutional in a given jurisdiction. A double methodology was employed to answer this question: theoretical and comparative. From a theoretical perspective, it is proposed that the constitutionality of electoral quotas for women depends on the approach that domestic legal orders adopt to four issues: political representation, equality, affirmative action and political rights. An additional crosscutting factor that influences the constitutionality of these quotas is gender, mainly through its effects on the understanding of political representation and equality. From the comparative law perspective, three jurisdictions were analysed: France, Spain and Mexico. After exploring these systems' approaches to political representation, equality, affirmative action and political rights, the process of adoption of electoral quotas for women is discussed, particularly the constitutional litigation about quota laws. Finally, the relationship between the theory and the practice of assessing the constitutionality of electoral quotas for women is analysed, concluding that although courts use a theoretical framework formed by political representation, equality, affirmative action and political rights, they adopt a somewhat simplistic approach to these issues, using only one of these theoretical factors as the primary determinant, often side-stepping the most controversial issues connected with these factors, and almost completly ignoring the particularities of the target group (women). Additionally, in each jurisdiction the decisions of the courts are also influenced by domestic political and legal factors.

Political Finance Reform and Public Procurement:  Evidence from Lithuania. Can political donations buy influence? This paper studies whether firms trade political contributions for public procurement contracts. To answer this question, I focus on the Lithuanian political economy. Combining data on a large number of government tenders, the universe of corporate donors and firm characteristics, I examine how a ban on corporate donations affects the awarding of procurement contracts to companies that donated in the past. Consistent with political favoritism, contributing firms’ probability of winning goes down by five percentage points as compared to that of non-donor firms after the ban. Among different mechanisms, the hypothesis that corporate donors get confidential information on competing bids prevails. The empirical results are in line with predictions from a first-price sealed-bid auction model with one informed bidder. Evidence on firm bidding and victory margins suggests that contributing firms adjust their bids in order to secure contracts at a maximum revenue. I assess that tax payers save almost one percent of GDP thanks to the reform. Gender Quotas and the Quality of Politicians. We analyze the effects of the introduction of gender quotas in candidate lists on the quality of elected politicians, as measured by the average number of years of education. We consider an Italian law which introduced gender quotas in local elections in 1993, and was abolished in 1995. As not all municipalities went through elections during this period, we identify two groups of municipalities and use a difference-in-differences estimation. We find that gender quotas are associated with an increase in the quality of elected politicians, with the effect ranging from 0.12 to 0.24 years of education. This effect is due not only to the higher number of elected women, who are on average more educated than men, but also to the lower number of low-educated elected men. The positive effect on quality is confirmed when we measure the latter with alternative indicators, it persists in the long run and it is robust to controlling for political ideology and political competition. Affirmative Action and the Power of the Elderly. There is evidence that age matters in politics. In this article we study whether implementation of affirmative action policies on gender can generate additional effects on an alternative dimension of representation, namely, the age of politicians. We consider an Italian law which introduced gender quotas in candidate lists for local elections in 1993, and was abolished in 1995. As not all municipalities went through elections during this period, we can identify two groups of municipalities and use a difference-in-differences estimation to analyze the effect of gender quotas on the age of elected politicians. We find that gender quotas are associated with election of politicians that are younger by more than one year. The effect occurs mainly due to the reduction in age of elected male politicians and is consistent with the optimizing behavior of parties or of voters. Let the Voters Choose Women. Female under-representation in politics can be the result of parties' selection of candidates and/or of voters’ electoral preferences. To assess the impact of these two channels, we exploit the introduction of Italian Law 215/2013, which prescribes both gender quotas on candidate lists and double preference voting conditioned on gender. Using a regression discontinuity design, we estimate that the law increases the share of elected female politicians by 22 percentage points. The result is driven by the increase in preference votes cast for female candidates, suggesting a salient role of double preference voting in promoting female empowerment in politics.

Le changement climatique est l'un des plus importants enjeux mondiaux. D'une part, la question du changement climatique est liée aux intérêts fondamentaux de l'humanité tout entière, dont elle menace le développement et la destinée future voire la survie. D'autre part, la diplomatie, dans les principaux domaines de la politique internationale, et en raison du manque de moyens, peine à atteindre une logique d’action collective et à établir une gouvernance climatique mondiale. Par sa croissance économique rapide, la Chine est devenue le plus grand émetteur mondial de gaz à effet de serre, et joue un rôle clé dans la diplomatie climatique. L’évolution de sa position dans les négociations sur le climat influence l’architecture du changement climatique international, pour la période pré-2020 aussi bien que pour l’après-2020. La recherche se concentre sur les interactions entre politiques locales, politiques nationales et la diplomatie sur le climat pour mettre en évidence les perspectives de la politique du changement climatique en Chine. Selon cette étude, la construction d’une civilisation écologique et la dé-carbonisation profonde de la Chine reposent principalement sur la transformation de son mode de développement économique. L’instrument de marché d'échange de carbone jouera un rôle décisif dans la future politique climatique de la Chine. Cela déterminera sa politique étrangère future, et lui permettra de jouer un rôle plus constructif / Climate change is one of the most important global issues of the world. On the one hand, the issue of climate change relates to the fundamental interests of the whole humanity, its development and future destiny, and even threats its survival. On the other hand, climate diplomacy, from the different perspectives of the main areas of international politics, and for lack of means, struggles to reach a logic of collective action in global climate governance. With its rapid economic growth, China has become the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases and plays a key role in climate diplomacy. The evolution of its climate negotiation position influences the international climate change architecture for the pre and post-2020 period. The research will focus on the interaction between local policies, national policies and climate change foreign policy, in order to highlight the perspectives of climate change policy in China. According to this research, the construction of ecological civilization and its deep decarbonisation action in China need the transformation of the economic mode of development. Carbon trading market instruments will play a decisive role in China’s future climate policy. It will determine its foreign policy, and allow China to play a more constructive role

Orientador: Dagoberto José Fonseca / Banca: Márcia Teixeira de Souza / Banca: Maria Teresa Micelli Kerbauy / Banca: Helio de Souza Santos / Banca: Ricardo Costa de Oliveira / Resumo: O estudo enfatiza a Lei Nº 14.274 - 24/12/2003, que institui a reserva de 10% das vagas para afrodescendentes em todos os concursos públicos do Estado do Paraná. Busca-se à luz de teorias sobre "relações raciais" no Brasil e no Paraná, de "políticas públicas", "ações afirmativas", analisar as experiências e estratégias formais e informais vigentes neste processo e o significado da presença de negros (pretos e pardos) nos serviços públicos do Paraná. As questões norteadoras foram: as características das relações raciais no Paraná; conjuntura social e política que possibilitou a aprovação da Lei; papel do Movimento Social Negro local na construção e aplicação da referida Lei; forma de gerir este programa nos diversos órgãos onde aconteceram concursos de 2004 a 2009; e apreensão dos beneficiados (cotistas). Consideram-se, ainda, indicadores sobre a presença de negros em diversos órgãos públicos do Paraná, assim como em empresas de economia mista do Estado. A partir de uma análise "qualitativa", os resultados revelam a possibilidade que - dada a complexidade das relações raciais no Brasil -, ações potencialmente inovadoras, como é o caso da Lei 14.274 de 2003, tenham sido orientadas por percepções e valores tradicionais, isto é, gestadas a partir da ideia, por exemplo, de "democracia racial" e da invisibilidade da população negra no Estado e pouco tenham alterado a sub-representação de negros nos diversos espaços / Abstract: The study emphasizes the Law No. 14274 - 24/12/2003 establishing a reserve of 10% quota for Afro-descendants in all procurement of Paraná State. Search in light of theories about "race relations" in Brazil and Parana, "public policy", "affirmative action" to analyze the experiences and strategies in formal and informal existing process and significance of the presence of (black and mulatto), public services do Paraná. The questions were: the characteristics of race relations in the Paraná, social and political situation that led to the approval of the law, the role of Black Social Movement in the local construction and application of this Act; way of managing this program in various organs where they occurred contests 2004 to 2009, and seizure of beneficiaries (unitholders). Still considered as indicators of the presence of blacks in various public agencies of Paraná, as well as companies in the Mixed Economy of the State. From an analysis of "qualitative", the results reveal the possibility that - given the complexity of race relations in Brazil - potentially innovative actions, such as the practice of Law 14,274 of 2003 have been guided by traditional values and perceptions, ie gestated from the idea, for example, of "racial democracy" and invisibility of the black population in the state and slightly altered the under-representation of blacks in several areas / Doutor