I juni 2023 gav Bokföringsnämnden, en statlig myndighet i Sverige ut en remiss som riktar sig mot bostadsrättsbranschen. Remissen innebär delvis att man reglerar redovisningsvalet för bostadsrättsföreningar och är ett av flera ageranden från myndigheter i Sverige, där alla haft i syfte att öka jämförbarheten. Problematiken med att reglera ett redovisningsval grundar sig i effekter, konsekvenser och jämförbarhet där vi ifrågasätter nyttan av godtagandet av remissens förslag. Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med kunskap om hur de som upprättar de ekonomiska rapporterna i bostadsrättsföreningar påverkas om de tvingas övergå till att redovisa enligt K3- regelverket utifrån bokföringsnämndens remiss. Vidare är syftet att undersöka hur jämförbarheten mellan bostadsrättsföreningars ekonomiska rapporter påverkas av remissen. Studien har två frågeställningar: ➢ Vilka konsekvenser innebär övergången till K3 för upprättare av finansiella rapporter i bostadsrättsföreningar? ➢ Hur påverkar den föreslagna regleringen av bostadsrättsföreningars redovisningsval jämförbarheten i branschen? Vi har genomfört semistrukturerade intervjuer och uppsatsen är därmed av kvalitativ karaktär. Studiens population består av alla som arbetar med en bostadsrättsförenings ekonomiska rapporter, där urvalet var ekonomiska förvaltare och revisorer i Stockholm. Den tidigare forskningen i studien består exempelvis av studier som undersökt implementeringen av IFRS och jämförbarhet. Av vad som framgår av den insamlade empirin varierar uppfattningarna kring det principbaserade regelverket K3. Ur vad som går att uttyda ur den insamlade empirin kommer jämförbarheten i branschen att öka om remissen godkänns, men förslag på ytterligare åtgärder har angivits. De effekter och konsekvenser som kunnat identifieras i såväl tidigare forskning som studiens empiri är: tid, utbildning, felbedömningar och möjlig minskad kvalitét på ekonomiska rapporter. / In June 2023 the accounting board of Sweden gave a proposal that affects the industry of condominium associations. The proposal implies that the accounting choice will be regulated and is one of several actions from Swedish authorities, all of which has the purpose of increasing the comparability in the industry. The problem with regulating accounting choice is based on effects, consequences and comparability where we question the usefulness of accepting the proposal. The purpose of this study is to bring knowledge about how those who works with the financial reports within condominium associations will be affected if the proposal from the Swedish accounting board is accepted, which propose a transition to a principle-based regulation. The purpose is also to investigate how comparability in the industry is affected by the proposal. This study has two questions: ➢ What consequences will the transition to a principle-based regulation have for those who work with the financial reports within condominium associations? ➢ How will the proposed regulation of the accounting choice affect the comparability in the industry? We performed semi-structured interviews and therefore this is a qualitative study. The population in this study is all who work with the financial reporting of condominium associations. The selection further on is economists and auditors who are based in Stockholm, Sweden. Previous research used in this study's framework theory consists partly of some who studied the implementation of the IFRS and comparability. The empirical parts of the study show that the perceptions vary regarding the principle-based regulation and its meaning. From what can be deduced from the collected empirical evidence, comparability in the industry will increase if the proposal is accepted, but we have given proposals for further measures. The effects and consequences identified in previous research and the empirical parts of this study are time, education, misjudgments and possible decreased quality of the financial reporting.

Yes / This paper examines arms trade regulation in the late 19th century and contributes to the literature on norms, arms regulation, humanitarian arms control and arms control as governmentality. I begin by examining the 1890 Brussels Act as an example of the first ‘Matryoshka doll’ of arms trade governance, a specific humanitarian initiative focused on regulating a particular class of weapons in a specified area. I suggest the Act represented an attempt to graft a regulatory arms trade norm onto an established anti-slavery norm and that it was more extensively implemented than has been recognised. I then locate the Act within the second Matryoshka doll of arms trade governance, the broader approach to prohibition operating in the era. In contrast to representations of the period as one of free trade in arms I demonstrate the extensive efforts to restrict the transfer of firearms to colonial subjects. Finally, I demonstrate how mechanisms of prohibition and permission constituted the practices of arms control as governmentality – the third matryoshka doll - where the concern was to define and manage which gradations of people could legitimately own, trade and use which gradations of weapons in what contexts. Overall, the paper challenges the optimistic assumptions in much of the literature on humanitarian arms control and arms trade norms. Instead, I suggest the merger of humanitarianism and arms control can reflect the influence of both good and bad norms; is not necessarily incompatible with colonialism, racism or imperial violence and can be congruent with liberal militarism. / Research Development Fund Publication Prize Award winner.

It is widely recognized that coal is and will continue to be a crucial element in a modern, balanced energy portfolio, providing a bridge to the future as an important low-cost and secure energy solution to sustainability challenges. The designer of coal mining operations needs to simultaneously consider legal, environmental, and sustainability goals, along with traditional mining engineering parameters, as integral parts of the design process. However, traditional coal mining planning seldom considers key “sustainability factors” such as societal impacts; dislocation of towns and residences; physical and economic impact on neighboring communities and individuals; infrastructure concerns; post-mining land use habitat disruption and reconstruction; and long-term community benefit. This work demonstrates the advantage of using a systems engineering approach based on the premise that systems can only be optimized if all factors are considered at one time. Utilizing systems engineering and optimization approaches allows for the incorporation of regulatory and sustainability factors into coal mine design. Graphical approaches, based on the use of GIS tools, are shown as examples of the development of models for the positive and negative impacts of coal mining operations. However, this work also revealed that there are significant challenges inherent in optimizing the design of large-scale surface coal mining operations in Appalachia. Regulatory and permitting programs in the United States, which give conflicting and ill-defined responsibilities to a variety of federal and state agencies, often focus on single parameters, rather than the full suite of desirable outcomes for sustainability, and serve as barriers to innovation. Sustainable development requires a delicate balance between competing economic, environmental and social interests. In the context of coal mining in the U.S., the current regulatory frameworks and policy-guidance vehicles impede this balance. To address this problem, and thus effectively and efficiently provide energy resources while protecting the communities and environments, the U.S. will likely need to fundamentally restructure regulatory programs. Ideally, revisions should be based upon the key concepts of public ecology and allow for a systems engineering approach to coal mine design. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this research was to evaluate current management strategies for the New River, Virginia, muskellunge Esox masquinongy fishery, which is the premier muskellunge fishery in the state. The primary objectives were to evaluate potential benefits and angler support for more restrictive harvest regulations and to quantify habitat selection at multiple spatial scales. A secondary objective was to develop an alternative procedure for testing differences in muskellunge condition from relative weight Wr data that incorporates uncertainty regarding the accuracy of the standard weight equation and that is based on derived statistical properties of the Wr index. Abundance of memorable-length (³1,070 mm) muskellunge was predicted to increase with minimum length limits of 914, 1,016, and 1,143 mm. Although yield per recruit would decline under a 1,143-mm minimum length limit, it was predicted to remain fairly stable at length limits of 914 and 1,016 mm due to fast growth rates of young fish. Even though most anglers defined trophy muskellunge to be in excess of 1,016 mm, angler support for length limits in excess of 1,000 mm was low. Habitat variables that were most strongly related to muskellunge habitat selection were measures of patch shape complexity and water depth. Increased river discharge was found to significantly affect muskellunge habitat use and selection, with fish abandoning deeper open-water habitats and moving to shallower areas closer to the shoreline during periods of high discharge. As for the secondary objective, a new statistical test (R-test) was developed that can be used to test for differences in Wr between and within fish stocks. Comparison with other statistical tests indicated that the R test provides more conservative results than traditional statistic procedures, and that substantial variability in standard weight equations will make it more difficult to detect statistical differences. Management recommendations for the New River muskellunge fishery include increasing the minimum length limit to approximately 965 to 1,067 mm and limiting the stocking of muskellunge only to those areas with sufficient juxtaposition of shallow- and deep-water habitat patches. / Ph. D.

More than thirty years ago Congress passed the Educational Amendments to ensure fair treatment for all students. Specifically, Title IX provided that [N]o person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance (Educational Amendments of 1972,p. 7). The number of court cases against colleges and high schools for violating various aspects of Title IX continues to increase. This study looked at court cases involving high school and college athletes claiming violations of Title IX, then six schools were selected in Virginia to determine if these schools met the legal standards, as determined by the Code of Federal Regulations. An analysis of judicial opinions for cases on Title IX formed the foundation of this study. The six schools were visited, records reviewed, principals, and coaches were interviewed The information and data gathered from site visits and interviews as well as the statistical data generated by the statistical software were used to determine if these schools were in compliance with Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972. / Ed. D.

In order to assist the people in the transportation industry in accurately understanding and interpreting the transportation regulations, a prototype expert guidance system called REGS has been developed for Part 382 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. This PC-based system models the regulatory guidance methodology employed by statutory interpretation experts in the industry. The working environment of this system is very user-friendly. When a query is put forth requesting interpretation, the system is initiated and the user is presented with a set of choices. These choices are designed to cater to the needs of the user for providing appropriate and adequate guidance. If the user chooses to run the REGS module, the system puts forth a series of questions to arrive at the conclusions. While the user responds to these questions, the system evaluates the responses, internally reviews the relevant regulations and past interpretations and stops to provide a conclusion. The system can also handle "how", "why" and "what-if' type of questions by giving explicit explanations. While the system searches through its regulations knowledge base, the user is provided an option to look at the regulatory text, select the relevant sections and print them if it is required to answer the request for interpretation. This type of "all at one place" guidance helps the user to understand the intent latent in the regulations. It also helps the user in assembling a boilerplate response based on which an interpretation for the request can be prepared. The system is useful to enforcement officials, motor carrier company officials, drivers and government regulators, who all need to be intimately familiar with Part 382 of the FMCSRs. Since the architecture of REGS is transportable to any set of regulations, similar systems could easily be developed for any other set of transportation regulations. / Master of Science

Reporting regarding issues that are related to Corporate Social Responsibility have come into more and more focus lately. Most countries currently have a limited or no mandatory regulations regarding what should be included in either an annual report or in a stand-alone report in terms of CSR. However Denmark is one of the pioneers regarding mandatory CSR regulations and as such has certain rules and regulations that their companies have to follow. Even if today’s regulations are heavily focused on financial information that companies have to disclose there also exists regulations regarding non-financial information. As with the financial crisis that occurred in the early 21st century that led to stricter disclosures requirements for financial information we see a need for regulating non-financial information and especially CSR information. We have been able to see that some companies have been able to manipulate their CSR report so as to put themselves in a good light. Therefore the question arises if mandatory CSR disclosure will have any influence on the stock market.The purpose of this study was to examine if Swedish companies and the Swedish stock market could benefit from having mandatory CSR regulations, similar to those that exist in Denmark. We sought to examine if fulfilling certain amount of CSR criteria would reduce the volatility of a company’s stock price.In order for us to achieve the purpose of our research we had to conduct an experiment on the Swedish companies. In order for us to conduct the experiment we firstly had to select what type of research we would conduct and what type of research was most suitable for our research. In order for us to achieve an answer to our research question and to be able to fulfill the purpose of our research we decided to conduct a quantitative research. We have chosen to utilize the quantitative research approach as this would allow gathering sufficient data from existing databases and reports. The database that we chose to utilize in order for us to find our sample population was NASDAQ OMX Nordic where the companies had be listed as of 2015-03-31 as well as having financial data for the entire year of 2014, meaning between 2014-01-01 and 2014-12-31. NASDAQ OMX Nordic was also used in order for us to find market indexes. In order for us to able to answer our research question we developed three different hypotheses based on our theoretical framework that would later be tested.From the testing of our hypotheses we could determine that there is a relationship between the amount of CSR that a company reports, in terms of how many of our CSR criteria they fulfill, and the historical volatility of the company’s stock price. We were also able to determine that there exists a relationship between the amount of CSR that a company reports and the level of Beta that a company has. This implied that the Swedish stock market could benefit from mandatory CSR regulation as it would reduce the volatility which would also be beneficial for the company’s different stakeholders.

Thesis advisor: Sarah Babb / The years since the Paris Agreement have seen intensifying efforts to decarbonize the financial system. Disclosure frameworks, notably the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD), and Net-Zero targets, are fast becoming institutionalized globally to incentivize financial institutions to divert capital into low-carbon activities and away from carbon-heavy ones. I examine the implementation of these frameworks among financial corporations (FCs) in Singapore. 15 semi-structured interviews with professionals in the industry at the forefront of TCFD and Net-Zero suggest that FCs’ “talk” often does not match with their “actions”. Organizations ceremonially comply with new global standards as well as local regulations on TCFD and Net-Zero while they continue to finance carbon-intensive economic activities. Yet this apparent “hypocrisy” may not be so much a result of coordinated efforts for organizational buffering, as it is a consequence of disorganization and discoordination. Informants suggest that different parts within FCs independently perceived and responded differently, at a different pace, to the novel challenges that climate change has brought. I contribute to the environmental sociology literature on “organized hypocrisy” by examining how commonly perceived “hypocrisy” is or is not, in fact, “organized”. In doing so, I suggest that we should not assume “hypocrisy” to be an intentional organizational project. Furthermore, rather than seeing “hypocrisy” as effort to keep an organization “stable”, I argue that hypocrisy may be indicative of slow and potentially discordant organizational change, with ongoing internal efforts by insiders to match “actions” with “talk”. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Alla nyproducerade studentbostäder handikappanpassas i Sverige. Regler för att bostäder ska handikappanpassas framgår i tre juridiska grundpelare nämligen PBL, PBF och BBR. Detta leder till en oproportionerlig användning av yta i respektive bostad. Därtill befinner sig Sveriges studenter i en prekär situation. Bostäderna som är tillgängliga för dem är svåra att få tag i, har höga hyror och är undermåligt planerade.Följaktligen synes det onödigt att ödsla resurser på att handikappanpassa samtliga studentbostäder när ytterst få har behov av det. Syftet med denna uppsats är att utreda huruvida det finns utrymme för en förändring av Boverkets byggregler angående handikappanpassning av studentbostäder. För att undersöka detta kommer följande frågeställningar att besvaras. Hur stort är behovet av att ändra Boverkets föreskrifter? Hur ser den svenska modellen ut och hur kan man förbättra den? Är detta förenligt med internationella bestämmelser? Hur hanteras handikappanpassning av studentbostäder i Norge? Vilka potentiella effekter kommer en föreskriftsändring att leda till? För att svara på dessa frågor har en ansats till rättsvetenskaplig metod använts för att sammanställa en bakgrund med fakta. Vidare har en kvalitativ metod använts för att bredda perspektiven i analysen. I huvudsak tar handikappanpassningen upp mycket yta i hygienrummen, då de ska dimensioneras för en rullstolsburen och dess medhjälpare. Antalet personer på eftergymnasial nivå som är i behov av detta står inte i rimlig proportion till att samtliga studentbostäder ska anpassas, då endast ett fåtal personer som studerar har en funktionsnedsättning. Förändring av regelverket gällande handikappanpassning är ett känsligt ämne. Detta beror på att Sverige tolkat FN:s konvention om rättigheter för personer med funktionsnedsättning som att den byggda miljön ska vara tillgänglig för alla. Norges tolkning av samma konvention är däremot att 20 procent handikappanpassas och resterande besöksanpassas. Implementeras denna modell i Sverige, är det troligare att följden blir förhöjd livskvalitet för hyresgästerna snarare än sänkta hyror och fler bostäder på marknaden. / All newly produced student housing in Sweden is designed to be accessible for individuals with disabilities, governed by three key pillars: PBL, PBF and BBR. This leads to a disproportionate use of space in each housing unit. Additionally, Swedish students are in a precarious situation. The student housing is difficult to obtain, has high rents, and is poorly planned. Consequently, it seems unnecessary to waste resources on making all student housing accessible when very few actually need it. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether there is room for change in the Building Regulations concerning accessibility adaptations for student housing. To explore this, the following questions will be answered: How great is the need to amend Boverket’s building regulations? What does the Swedish model look like and how can it be improved? Is this consistent with international regulations? How is accessibility for student housing managed in Norway? What potential effects will a change in regulations lead to?To answer these questions, a legal method has been used to compile a background with facts. Furthermore, a qualitative method has been used to broaden the perspectives of the analysis. Primarily, the accessibility adaptations take up significant space in the bathrooms, as they must be sized for a wheelchair user and their assistant. The number of individuals at the post- secondary level who need this is not proportionate to the requirement for all student housing to be accessible, partly because only a few individuals of study age have disabilities. Changing the regulations regarding accessibility adaptations is a sensitive issue. This is because Sweden interprets the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to mean that the built environment should be accessible to all. Norway, on the other hand, interprets this to mean that 20 percent should be fully accessible while the rest should be visitable. If this model is implemented in Sweden, it is more likely that the result will be an increased quality of life for tenants rather than lower rents and more available housing on the market.

This thesis explores the challenges Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) face in complying with EU sustainable packaging regulations as they pose ever tightening guidelines to follow. The study respondents are representatives from SMEs operating within the EU, who provided insights through semi-structured interviews. Employing the 7Rs framework—Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle, and Rot—this research investigates how these enterprises adapt their packaging strategies to align with EU directives aimed at achieving 70% recyclable and reusable packaging by 2030. Despite varied challenges such as high costs and diverse regulatory demands across EU states, SMEs demonstrate resilience and innovation in their compliance strategies. environmental impact while maintaining economic viability. Such as an SME transitioning from using plastic packaging to cardboard, driven by both regulatory requirements and carrier fees for non-compliance, which resulted in reduced environmental impact and improved customer satisfaction. This research provides insights into the dynamic interplay between regulatory frameworks and business practices, offering a deeper understanding of sustainability in the packaging industry.