This study is designed to examine how much of an impact crisis or the perception of a crisis might have on Congressional policy making for private electric utilities and how the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) reacts to Congressional action or inaction in such cases. Also, where appropriate the influence and impact of other actors in the different crises are mentioned. The first set of findings came from the era running from 1977 to 1986 as FERC was created by Congress in 1977 to address in part the stagflationary crisis of the 1970s of which electric utilities played an important role. Next, the Congressional response to the Gulf War and FERC's reaction to it is analyzed as in that case legislators were reacting to the perception that another energy driven economic crisis in the U.S. might occur as happened after the OPEC oil embargo of 1973. Finally, the study examines the Congressional response and FERC's reaction to the Midwest price spike, the California electricity crisis, the Northeast blackout of 2003, and the financial decline of electric utilities nationally due to the failures of wholesale electricity market restructuring. Modern technology driven societies like the U.S. need access to vast supplies of cheap reliable electricity to run everything from computer systems to public sanitation systems. Most of that electricity in the U.S. is provided by private electric utilities. As a result, this study focuses primarily on federal public policies, created by Congress and implemented by FERC, related to private utilities. Yet, despite the importance of electricity to contemporary societies, public affairs scholarship has generally not addressed this issue. In order to probe the impact of Congress and FERC, I examine interconnected events and actions that take place at different points in time to determine what influence, if any, these organizations have had. Crisis seems to be the primary causal mechanism pushing Congress to act in this area of public policy. Indicators of Congressional action include hearings, proposed federal legislation, and statutes, while indicators of a response from FERC include the issuance of orders, opinions, and formal docketed decisions. / Ph. D.

A central question in corporate finance has been about the optimal balance between both debt and equity financing when trying to determine the optimal capital structure of a new or existing firm. In this thesis, I investigate how the capital structure of the parent and carve-out company evolve following the carve-out itself. This investigation is a direct extension of Dittmar's (2004) work and contributes to the literature on the choice of a carve-out or spin-off. This leverage choice may be influenced by the parent corporation's need for cash, either to finance growth opportunities, to distribute cash to shareholders, or to repay debt (Michaely & Shaw, 1995). Using a sample of 102 subsidiaries that have completed a carve-out between the years of 1985 and 2001 , I find that carve-outs do not have higher debt levels than spinoffs as reported in Dittmar's (2004) study. I also find that the parent firms ' leverage does not decrease as predicted. Leverage actually increases during the three years following the carve-out. I have also found that cash constraints, collateral value, and the parent firms ' pre-debt level are positively related to leverage choice while the parent firms' precarve- out cash constraint is negatively correlated. However, there is no significance between leverage and firm size, growth opportunities, or profitability.

Orientador: Giovanni Antonio Pinto Alves / Banca: Francisco Luiz Corsi / Banca: Vinício Carrilho Martinez / Resumo: O objeto de estudo deste trabalho encontra-se na análise do Programa de Desligamento Voluntário - PDV implementado no Banco do Estado de São Paulo após a privatização da instituição ocorrida em 20 de Novembro de 2000, e nas implicações deste programa para o mundo do trabalho bancário. Trata-se de refletir sobre as formas contemporâneas de exploração do trabalho bancário e sobre as formas complexas de estranhamento social na etapa de mundialização do capital sob predominância do capital financeiro. Tomando como referência a reestruturação produtiva do trabalho bancário ocorrida no bojo do processo de reestruturação produtiva do sistema financeiro nacional nas últimas décadas do século XX, esta investigação analisa, a partir de dados bibliográficos, documentais e empíricos, a origem, a forma de ser e a lógica do PDV, e ainda, os impactos que este programa causa na subjetividade bancária. Parte-se da hipótese que o PDV é um instrumento fetichizado de gestão do trabalho utilizado como medida de redução de pessoal que, em seus desdobramentos, exerce forte efeito sobre a subjetividade bancária, ocasionando crise e rupturas e contribuindo para o desmonte do setor bancário estatal no país. A pesquisa concluiu que o PDV emergiu como uma importante ferramenta de gerenciamento do trabalho no bojo do processo de ofensiva do capital nos anos 1980 e foi amplamente utilizado por empresas públicas e privadas para demitir trabalhadores. Nesse contexto, o PDV apresenta-se como um instrumento fetichizado que impacta sobre os bancários causando a degradação de suas condições de vida e trabalho, complixificando o quadro de exploração e de estranhamento no ambiente laboral. / Abstract: The purpose of this work is the analysis of the Voluntary Resignation Program - VRP implanted in the Banco do Estado de São Paulo (State of São Paulo Bank) after the privatization of the institution in November 20th, 2000, and the consequences arising out of it to the banking labor world. It intends to ponder on the contemporary ways of exploiting the banking work as well as on the intricate ways of social strangeness in the stage of the worldwide capital spreading submitted to the preponderance of the financial capital. Upon the reference of the productive restructuring of the banking labor occurred during the process of productive restructuring of the national financial system in the last decades of the XX Century, this research analyses, from bibliographic, documental and empiric data, the VRP origin, way of being and its logic, and also the impacts this program causes on the bank subjectivity. The starting point of this work is the hypothesis that the VRP is a fetishistic tool of the work management, used as a means of cutting staff that, by its consequences, has a strong effect on the bank subjectivity, causing some crises and disruptions and collaborating for the dismantling of the state bank branch in the country. This research concluded that the VRP arose as an important tool of work management used by public and private enterprises aiming to workers dismissal. In this context, the VRP is presented as a fetishistic tool that causes impact on banking workers, motivating the degeneration of labor and life conditions, the exploitation panorama and strangeness in the labor environment becoming more intricate. / Mestre

Cette thèse est une investigation de la structure syntaxique et de l'interprétation modale des phrases impliquant le modal dénominal de nécessité behar ‘devoir, falloir, avoir besoin’ et un complément infinitif. La thèse analyse le statut syntaxique des compléments non finis du verbe modal denominal behar en examinant leur interaction avec des phénomènes syntaxiques sensibles à des conditions structurelles et de localité diverses, et conclut que les compléments d’infinitif de behar peuvent correspondre à différentes structures sous-jacentes. Le type d'infinitif le plus complexe du point de vue structurel est un infinitif non-restructurant qui projette une architecture de phrase complète (c.-à-d. une CP), et le plus petit est un infinitif réduit de restructuration qui projette une structure de phrase de niveau vP. Il y a des preuves pour l'existence des types intermédiaires projetant jusqu'au domaine flexionnel (IP / TP). D'autre part, la thèse examine les propriétés thématiques et de portée des sujets dans chacun des différents types structurels et l'interprétation modale à laquelle elles donnent cours. Sur la base de cette analyse, la thèse soutient que l'interprétation modale n'est déterminée par aucun facteur en particulier (la présence de la restructuration, le statut référentiel du sujet et sa portée relative vis-à-vis du prédicat modal, parmi d'autres fréquemment mentionnés), mais dépend de l'effet cumulatif de plusieurs facteurs travaillant ensemble. La thèse montre également la nécessité d'adopter une vision plus fine de la modalité radicale (root modality), qui permet une association plus simple entre structures syntaxiques et significations modales. / This dissertation is an investigation of the syntactic structure and modal interpretation of clauses involving the denominal necessity predicate behar ‘need’ and an infinitival complement. On the one hand, it analyses the syntactic status of non-finite complements of denominal behar by examining their interaction with syntactic phenomena sensitive to different structural and locality conditions, and concludes that the infinitival complements of behar can correspond to different underlying structures. The largest type of infinitive is a non-restructuring infinitive that projects a full clausal architecture (i.e. a CP), and the smallest one is a reduced restructuring infinitive that projects up to vP. There is evidence for intermediate types projecting up to the inflectional domain (IP/TP). On the other hand, the dissertation examines the thematic and scope properties of the subjects in each of the different structural types and the modal interpretation that they can give rise to. On the basis of this analysis it is argued that modal interpretation is not constrained by any single factor (the presence of restructuring, the referential status of the subject and its relative scope vis-à-vis the modal predicate, among other frequently mentioned ones), but depends on the cumulative effect of several factors working together. The dissertation also shows the necessity of adopting a more fine-grained view of root modality, one that allows a simpler mapping of syntactic structures into modal meanings.

In the late 1980s, governments in New Zealand and Australia began to deregulate their telecommunications markets. This process included the corporatisation and privatisation of former state owned telecommunications monopolies and the introduction of competition. The Telecom Corporation of New Zealand (TCNZ) was corporatised in 1987 and privatised in 1990. Its Australian counterpart, Telstra, was corporatised in 1989 and partially privatised in 1997. This thesis examines and compares TCNZ and Telstra's changing organisational and workforce restructuring strategies, as they responded to these changes. It further examines how these strategies influenced the firms' employment relations (ER) policies. Strategic human resource management (SHRM) and transaction costs economics (TCE) theories assist in this analyse. TCE links organisational restructuring to the make/buy decisions of firms and the asset-specificity of their employees. It suggests that firms will retain workers that have developed a high degree of firm-specific skills, and outsource more generic and semi-skilled work. Firm strategies are also influenced by national, contextual, factors. From a TCE perspective, these external factors alter relative transaction costs. Hence, different ownership structures, ER legislation and union power help to explain differences in TCNZ and Telstra's organisational restructuring and ER strategies. During the decade from 1990 to 2000, TCNZ and Telstra cut labour costs through large-scale downsizing programs. Job cuts were supported by outsourcing, work intensification and the introduction of new technologies. These initial downsizing programs were carried out through voluntary redundancies, across most sections of the firms. In many instances workers simply self-selected themselves for redundancies. TCNZ and Telstra's downsizing strategies then became more strategic, as they targeted generic and semi-skilled work for outsourcing. These strategies accorded with a TCE analysis. But TCNZ and Telstra engaged in other practices that did not accord with a TCE analysis. For example, both firms outsourced higher skilled technical work. TCNZ and Telstra's continued market domination and the emphasis that modern markets place on short term profits, provided possible reasons for these latter strategies. This thesis suggests, therefore, that while TCE may help to predict broad trends in 'rational organisations', it may be less effective in predicting the behaviour of more politically and ideologically driven organisations aiming for short term profit maximisation. Some TCNZ and Telstra workers were shifted to subsidiaries and strategic alliances, which now assumed responsibility for work that had previously been performed in-house. Many of these external firms re-employed these workers under more 'flexible' employment conditions. TCNZ and Telstra shifted to more unitarist ER strategies with their core workers and reduced union influence in the workplace. Unions at Telstra were relatively more successful in retaining members than their counterparts at TCNZ. By 2002, TCNZ and Telstra had changed from stand-alone public sector organisations, into 'leaner' commercially driven firms, linked to subsidiaries, subcontractors and strategic alliances.

Orientador: Maria Encarnação Beltrão Sposito / Banca: Everaldo dos Santos Melazzo / Banca: Wilian Ribeiro da Silva / Resumo: A urbanização contemporânea articula-se às dinâmicas do modo capitalista de produção, o qual direciona esse processo sob a perspectiva de uma economia política da urbanização compreendida conjuntamente com uma economia política da cidade. Por conta disso, a estruturação dos espaços urbanos e os objetos que os constituem não podem ser tomados, nem analisados, como simples objetos estruturantes da base material, tendo em vista que a produção do espaço urbano sob tais perspectivas os envolvem como meios de reprodução do capital, sendo que, não somente o solo urbano, mas todos os meios que o caracterizam como um ambiente construído, também se tornam meios de consumo urbano. Esse consumo pode ser visto a partir de duas dimensões: a individual e a coletiva. Nessa dissertação, trabalharemos com os meios de consumo coletivo - as infra-estruturas, os equipamentos e os serviços urbanos -, que adquirem características e importâncias peculiares no cotidiano das cidades o que, na pesquisa realizada, foram tomados em sua dimensão econômica. Porém, muitos fatores estão presentes na distribuição dos meios de consumo coletivo. Para debatê-los, escolhemos duas infra-estruturas na cidade de Bauru (SP), as constituintes das redes de drenagem pluvial e de pavimentação das vias públicas... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The contemporary urbanisation is articulated to the dynamics of the capitalist mode of production that directs the process under the perspective of a political economy of urbanisation understood beside a political economy of the city. Because of this, the structuring of urban spaces and the objects that constitute them cannot be took nor analysed as simple structuring objects of the material basis. The production of the urban space under such perspectives takes these objects as a way of reproducing capital because not only the urban soil but also all the means that characterise it as a built environment become means of urban consumption. This consumption can be seen through both the individual and the collective dimensions. In this master thesis, we analyse the means of collective consumption - the infrastructures and the urban equipments and services -, which acquire peculiar characteristics and importance in the city daily life and are took, in the research, in their economic dimension. However, many factors are involved in the distribution of the means of collective consumption. For debating them, we have chosen two infrastructural objects of Bauru city: the pluvial drainage and the paving public paths networks... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Esta dissertação se desenvolve sobre o tema das transformações nas relações de produção imobiliária causadas pelo forte processo de centralização de capitais que atinge o setor a partir de meados da primeira década do século XXI. Tem como objetivo ampliar o conhecimento sobre um aspecto pouco estudado destes processos, que é o aumento dos investimentos na produção imobiliária por parte dos maiores grupos empresariais brasileiros com tradição no desenvolvimento de obras de infraestrutura (empreiteiras), que intensificam sua atividade imobiliária no período recente por considerarem que este novo cenário de crescimento da economia e do setor oferece grandes potencialidades de negócios, atrelando esta ampliação ao aumento dos investimentos em infraestruturas no país. Estas novas relações foram investigadas a partir da análise das especificidades da produção da OR Realizações imobiliárias (OR) - braço imobiliário das organizações Odebrecht criado em 2007 - na cidade e São Paulo, com foco principal no estudo de caso do empreendimento Parque da Cidade, um conjunto multiuso com valor geral de vendas (VGV) estimado em quatro bilhões de Reais em construção em um terreno de oitenta mil metros quadrados na região da Operação Urbana Consorciada Água Espraiada (OUCAE). Primeiro, reflete sobre as condições que levaram à criação da OR e sua influência nas transformações do setor. Depois, analisa as características da atuação da Odebrecht dentro da OUCAE, destacando a aposta imobiliária desta empresa no setor Chucri Zaidan e suas relações com a produção mais geral do espaço em obras civis realizadas pela Odebrecht na área. Finalmente, busca compreender o impacto dos processos de reestruturação imobiliária e reestruturação urbana na produção imobiliária e a sua forma predominante, ou seja, as transformações na forma condomínio. / This dissertation develops on the theme of the transformations in the relations of real estate production caused by the strong process of centralization of capitals that reaches the sector from the middle of the first decade of the 21st century. Its objective is to increase the knowledge about a less studied aspect of these processes, which is the increase in investments in real estate production by the largest Brazilian business groups with tradition in the development of infrastructure works (contractors), which intensify their real estate activity in the recent period considering that this new scenario of growth of the economy and the sector offers great potential of business, linking this expansion to the increase of investments in infrastructures in the country. These new relationships were investigated from the analysis of the specificities of the production of OR Realizações Imobiliárias (OR) - the real estate arm of the Odebrecht organizations created in 2007 - in the city of São Paulo, with a main focus on the case study of the Parque da Cidade project, a multifunctional development set with general sales value estimated at four billion Reais, under construction in an area of eighty thousand square meters in the region of the Operação Urbana Consorciada Água Espraiada (OUCAE). First, it reflects on the conditions that led to OR creation and its influence on the transformations of the sector. Then, analyses the characteristics of Odebrecht\'s activities within OUCAE, highlighting the company\'s real estate betting in the Chucri Zaidan sector and its relations with Odebrecht\'s more general production of civil works in the area. Finally, it seeks to understand the impact of the processes of real estate restructuring and urban restructuring on real estate production and its predominant form, that is, the transformations in the condominium form.

Esta dissertação se desenvolve sobre o tema das transformações nas relações de produção imobiliária causadas pelo forte processo de centralização de capitais que atinge o setor a partir de meados da primeira década do século XXI. Tem como objetivo ampliar o conhecimento sobre um aspecto pouco estudado destes processos, que é o aumento dos investimentos na produção imobiliária por parte dos maiores grupos empresariais brasileiros com tradição no desenvolvimento de obras de infraestrutura (empreiteiras), que intensificam sua atividade imobiliária no período recente por considerarem que este novo cenário de crescimento da economia e do setor oferece grandes potencialidades de negócios, atrelando esta ampliação ao aumento dos investimentos em infraestruturas no país. Estas novas relações foram investigadas a partir da análise das especificidades da produção da OR Realizações imobiliárias (OR) - braço imobiliário das organizações Odebrecht criado em 2007 - na cidade e São Paulo, com foco principal no estudo de caso do empreendimento Parque da Cidade, um conjunto multiuso com valor geral de vendas (VGV) estimado em quatro bilhões de Reais em construção em um terreno de oitenta mil metros quadrados na região da Operação Urbana Consorciada Água Espraiada (OUCAE). Primeiro, reflete sobre as condições que levaram à criação da OR e sua influência nas transformações do setor. Depois, analisa as características da atuação da Odebrecht dentro da OUCAE, destacando a aposta imobiliária desta empresa no setor Chucri Zaidan e suas relações com a produção mais geral do espaço em obras civis realizadas pela Odebrecht na área. Finalmente, busca compreender o impacto dos processos de reestruturação imobiliária e reestruturação urbana na produção imobiliária e a sua forma predominante, ou seja, as transformações na forma condomínio. / This dissertation develops on the theme of the transformations in the relations of real estate production caused by the strong process of centralization of capitals that reaches the sector from the middle of the first decade of the 21st century. Its objective is to increase the knowledge about a less studied aspect of these processes, which is the increase in investments in real estate production by the largest Brazilian business groups with tradition in the development of infrastructure works (contractors), which intensify their real estate activity in the recent period considering that this new scenario of growth of the economy and the sector offers great potential of business, linking this expansion to the increase of investments in infrastructures in the country. These new relationships were investigated from the analysis of the specificities of the production of OR Realizações Imobiliárias (OR) - the real estate arm of the Odebrecht organizations created in 2007 - in the city of São Paulo, with a main focus on the case study of the Parque da Cidade project, a multifunctional development set with general sales value estimated at four billion Reais, under construction in an area of eighty thousand square meters in the region of the Operação Urbana Consorciada Água Espraiada (OUCAE). First, it reflects on the conditions that led to OR creation and its influence on the transformations of the sector. Then, analyses the characteristics of Odebrecht\'s activities within OUCAE, highlighting the company\'s real estate betting in the Chucri Zaidan sector and its relations with Odebrecht\'s more general production of civil works in the area. Finally, it seeks to understand the impact of the processes of real estate restructuring and urban restructuring on real estate production and its predominant form, that is, the transformations in the condominium form.

I conducted a qualitative study, interviewing thirty-three workers from the baby-boomer generation, with an objective of examining the intersection of aging and economic restructuring for boomer professionals. Participants’ careers had been impacted by the restructured economy at a point after they reached the age of forty. I applied an identity theory framework that emphasized meanings associated with growing older in the workforce, changes in the economy, self-meanings, and behavior in the restructured workplace. My focus also included process and questions of structure and agency. I used grounded theory methods to provide theory that explains the experience of transitioning from an existing work role as a downsized worker seeking a new job, entering selfemployment, or pursuing a reinvention of one’s career. I examine the transition process, the effects of structure, the formation and maintenance of identity in the transition role, and the factors that impact transition outcomes. I propose a theoretical argument that provides a comprehensive framework for the transition process. I establish transition as a relatively new and legitimate role for today’s worker, identify hegemonic structure as being particularly influential in the development of transition role identities, conceptualize personal resources—specifically self-esteem, selfefficacy, and authenticity—as key aspects of maintaining identity during transition, and investigate worker attributes that relate to transition outcomes. I assess career outcomes in terms of how successfully the transition role is negotiated and identify characteristics that comprise successful and unsuccessful transitions. I then discuss the implications of unabated economic restructuring for boomer professionals and, more broadly, for the future of the U.S. economy.

I conducted a qualitative study, interviewing thirty-three workers from the baby-boomer generation, with an objective of examining the intersection of aging and economic restructuring for boomer professionals. Participants’ careers had been impacted by the restructured economy at a point after they reached the age of forty. I applied an identity theory framework that emphasized meanings associated with growing older in the workforce, changes in the economy, self-meanings, and behavior in the restructured workplace. My focus also included process and questions of structure and agency. I used grounded theory methods to provide theory that explains the experience of transitioning from an existing work role as a downsized worker seeking a new job, entering selfemployment, or pursuing a reinvention of one’s career. I examine the transition process, the effects of structure, the formation and maintenance of identity in the transition role, and the factors that impact transition outcomes. I propose a theoretical argument that provides a comprehensive framework for the transition process. I establish transition as a relatively new and legitimate role for today’s worker, identify hegemonic structure as being particularly influential in the development of transition role identities, conceptualize personal resources—specifically self-esteem, selfefficacy, and authenticity—as key aspects of maintaining identity during transition, and investigate worker attributes that relate to transition outcomes. I assess career outcomes in terms of how successfully the transition role is negotiated and identify characteristics that comprise successful and unsuccessful transitions. I then discuss the implications of unabated economic restructuring for boomer professionals and, more broadly, for the future of the U.S. economy.