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In a world facing environmental destruction and social injustices, corporations are called upon to act more sustainably. There has been an upswing in demand for green investments in the last decades, a trend further facilitated by the covid-19 pandemic. The increased demand has prompted scholars to investigate the relation between ESG-ratings and corporate financial performance. Despite a multitude of research being conducted in the field, it is difficult for firms and investors alike to get a grasp of the relation between the two as results are not coherent. The inconsistency in previous research implies further research in the field is necessary to improve the understanding of the relationship between ESG-ratings and corporate financial performance. A myriad of scholars has investigated the relation between ESG-ratings and corporate financial performance, research has found positive, insignificant, and even negative relationships between the variables. To further explore this relation, this thesis aims to answer the research question “Is there a relationship between ESG-scores and financial strength in publicly traded Swedish companies?”. By answering this research question, this thesis aims to provide additional insights on the relationship between ESG-scores and corporate financial performance. This thesis uses an unconventional proxy, the Piotroski F-score, to measurefinancial performance. The results of this study are analysed through the lens of economic theories such as the Efficient Market Hypothesis, Agency Theory, and Stakeholder theory. This is a panel data analysis based on 622 observations of Swedish firms through the years 2020-2022. Under a positivist paradigm with a deductive approach, this thesis seeks to contribute to the academic discourse on ESG-ratings and their relation to financial performance. The results were obtained through a pooled regression analysis with robust standard errors. The results of the regression showed that within Swedish publicly traded firms, the social pillar of the ESG-score has a significant relation to financial strength.

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Employing the causal inference methods (matching for binary and continuous treatments), I examined the impact of conservation payments on corn yield. I used the propensity score and covariate distance matching and generalized propensity score methods to manage the problem of selection bias since the enrollment of conservation programs (i.e., receiving conservation payments) is not a randomized experiment. Using USDA Economic Research Service – Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ERS-ARMS) field-level data, I assessed whether receiving conservation payments had harm on corn yield in the Mississippi and Arkansas Delta. The findings from the two binary matchings showed that receiving conservation payments didn’t decrease corn yield. The generalized propensity approach revealed that lower conservation payments received held higher corn yield while higher conservation payments led to lower corn yield.

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<p dir="ltr">Background—Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are events that occur before age 18, such as abuse and neglect, which are potentially traumatic. ACEs can lead to profound negative impacts on physical and psychological health and social relationships. Despite this, positive social connections can mitigate these effects. However, individuals with ACEs may struggle to form healthy relationships because of mistrust, leading to continued exposure to detrimental social environments. Additionally, ACE-exposed adults often internalize stigma.</p><p dir="ltr">Methods—Utilizing data spanning from 1995 to 2014, Chapter 2 examines 629 adults from the MIDUS II: Biomarker study. Employing counterfactual modeling, the study estimates the treatment effect of ACE exposure on well-being and employs weighted multilevel mixed models to analyze life course changes. Chapter 3 uses 1,243 respondents from the MIDUS II: Biomarker study, employing latent class analysis to identify social relationship patterns and assess their mediation between ACEs and the pursuit/enjoyment of new relationships. Chapter 4 uses experimental data from 493 respondents, employing vignette experiments to gauge perceptions of warmth and competence, with gender and happiness examined as moderators, and threat, status, four stigmatizing descriptions as mediators.</p><p dir="ltr">Results—ACE exposure is associated with increased chronic conditions, lower self-rated health, diminished psychological and social well-being. However, the strength of the treatment effects differs based on the type and number of ACE exposures. Latent Class Analysis of social relationships indicates four classes: healthy, ambivalent, kin-focused, and difficult, with higher ACEs linked to a decreased probability of being in the “healthy” class. ACEs also predict reduced enjoyment of interactions with new people, mediated 41% by the current social relationship class. ACE vignettes are perceived as less warm and competent, with happiness moderating some ACE-related perceptions. Status, “mentally ill”, and “damaged” emerged as strong mediators.</p><p dir="ltr">Conclusion—While ACE exposure is related to lower well-being, the rate of decline does not differ from non-ACE-exposed individuals across time. Those in strained relationships are less likely to enjoy new social interactions, potentially perpetuating ACE-related health consequences. Addressing interpersonal trust issues in ACE-exposed adults through social interventions may mitigate these effects. Additionally, there is stigma against each of the ten ACEs, and the medicalization of ACEs contributes to stigma.</p>

Contrary to popular belief, we can’t all be winners. Suppose 6 people compete in a chess tournament in which all pairs of players compete directly and no ties are allowed; i.e., 6 people compete in a ‘round robin tournament’. Each player is assigned a ‘score’, namely the number of games they won, and the ‘score sequence’ of the tournament is a list of the players’ scores. Determining whether a given potential score sequence actually is a score sequence proves to be difficult. For instance, (0, 0, 3, 3, 3, 6) is not feasible because two players cannot both have score 0. Neither is the sequence (1, 1, 1, 4, 4, 4) because the sum of the scores is 16, but only 15 games are played among 6 players. This so called ‘tournament score sequence problem’ (TSSP) was solved in 1953 by the mathematical sociologist H. G. Landau. His work inspired the investigation of round robin tournaments as directed graphs. We study a modification in which the TSSP is cast as a system of inequalities whose solutions form a polytope η-dimensional space. This relaxation allows us to investigate the possibility of fractional scores. If, in a ‘round-robin’-ish tournament, Players A and B play each other 3 times, and Player A wins 2 of the 3 games, we can record this interaction as a 2/3 score for Player A and a 1/3 score for Player B. This generalization greatly impacts the nature of possible score sequences. We will also entertain an interpretation of these fractional scores as probabilities predicting the outcome of a true round robin tournament. The intersection of digraph theory, polyhedral combinatorics, and linear programming is a relatively new branch of graph theory. These results pioneer research in this field.

BACKGROUND: Elderly individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) suffer from several comorbidities, which affect their health outcomes, as well as process of care. This study assessed process and intermediate clinical outcomes of diabetes care among elderly individuals with T2DM and co-occurring Parkinson's disease(PD). METHODS: This study used a retrospective cohort design with propensity score matching using Humana Medicare Advantage Part D claims database (2007-2011) and included elderly (age ≥ 65 years) Medicare beneficiaries with T2DM (identified by ICD-9-CM code of 250.x0 or 250.x2). PD was identified using ICD-9-CM code of 332.xx. After propensity score matching there were 2,703 individuals with T2DM and PD and 8,109 with T2DM and no PD. The three processes of care measures used in this study included: (i) HbA1c test; (ii) Lipid test; (iii) and Nephropathy screening. Intermediate clinical outcomes consisted of glycemic and lipid control. RESULTS: Multivariable conditional logistic regressions revealed that elderly individuals with T2DM and PD were 12 % (AOR: 0.88, 95 %CI: 0.79-0.97) and 18 % (AOR: 0.82, 95 %CI: 0.72-0.94) less likely to meet the annual American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommended HbA1c and lipid testing goals respectively compared to individuals with T2DM and no PD. Multinomial conditional logistic regressions showed that elderly individuals with T2DM and PD were more likely to have HbA1c and lipid (HbA1c < 8 %; LDL-C <100 mg/dl; HDL-C ≥ 50 mg/dl; triglyceride <150 mg/dl; and total cholesterol <200 mg/dl) control. CONCLUSIONS: Among elderly individuals with T2DM, those with PD were less likely to achieve ADA recommended annual HbA1c and lipid testing compared to those without PD. However, PD individuals were more likely to achieve intermediate glycemic and lipid control.

HIV risk assessment models use multiple risk factors to build composite index scores to evaluate population level HIV risk. In this report, four risk assessment models were applied to a dataset with demographic, biological, and behavioral risk factors from 927 individuals in high and low HIV burden zip code groups in metro Atlanta, GA. Predictive ability of the risk assessment models were evaluated by comparing their sensitivity and specificity, area under the ROC curve, and mean score difference between high-burden and low-burden zip code area. The results show that the proportion of study participants who scored high in the risk assessment method are significantly greater in high-HIV burden zip code area than in low-HIV burden zip code area in all four risk assessment models. The Clinical Decision Rule risk-scoring model showed the best predictive ability of HIV risk and Binary Risk Indicator model showed the best predictive ability in predicting the residence zip code area.