This thesis examines three important topics in corporate governance: the relationship between activist hedge funds and other institutional investors, the role of perks in the market for CEO talent, and public scrutiny and the changing nature of perks. First, I provide an in depth study of the interaction between activist hedge funds and other institutional investors. Hedge funds are more likely to target firms with high levels of institutional ownership, and demonstrate a preference for short term focused institutional investors. Hedge fund activism generates short run and long run abnormal returns without increasing stock return volatility. Regardless of investment horizon, volatility is inversely related to prior period institutional ownership. The trading behavior of institutional owners with different investment horizons is consistent with hedge fund activism creating value. These findings hold regardless of whether investment horizon is based on portfolio churn rate or type of institution. Overall, the results suggest a mutually beneficial relationship between activist hedge funds and other institutional investors. Second, in a coauthored paper with Drs. Seungijn Han and Jiaping Qiu, I provide the first comprehensive analysis on how CEOs’ wage and perks are jointly determined in a competitive CEO market. The underlying theory shows that in equilibrium, firm size, wage, perks and talent are all positively related. Perks are more sensitive than wage to changes in firm size. The more perks enhance the CEO’s productivity, the faster perks increase in firm size. Closed form solutions allow the recovery of the cost function of providing perks. I examine the determinants of CEO perquisite compensation using hand-collected information for S&P 500 companies and find consistent empirical evidence. Third, I examine the impact of public scrutiny on CEO compensation using the unique opportunity provided by the 2008 financial crisis, government support, and legislated compensation restrictions. I introduce novel data on executive perks at S&P 500 firms from 2006 to 2012. Overall, my results are consistent with increased public scrutiny having lasting impact on perks and temporary impact on wage, and with legislated compensation restrictions having temporary impact on wage. Changes in specific perks items provide evidence on which perks firms perceive as excessive and which provide common value. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Using the setting of earnings conference calls, this paper investigates the temporal focus of management presentation during those calls, i.e., the extent to which managers allocate their discussions to future firm prospects relative to past firm performance. I find a negative association between firms' past performance and the future focus of management presentation. Moreover, the association is less negative for firms with more long-term investors and is more negative for firms with high litigation risk. Additionally, I find that the temporal focus of management presentation is positively associated with that of analyst questions. I also find that managers' future focus is positively associated with the number of analysts following the firm but negatively associated with forecast quality of analyst reports (lower accuracy and higher dispersion). Finally, I find the future discussions in management presentation is positively associated with the time that analysts took to release the next quarter's forecasts. / Ph. D.

The aim of this study was to understand how the professional in social work handles the media scrutiny. When the media writes about social services there is seldom anything positive written about it, many social services organizations are instead heavily criticized and scrutinized by the media. When social services organizations are scrutinized by the media there is a crisis at work, and therefore should be handled as a crisis. Therefore, we describe how a crisis management might look like in an organization. The study is qualitative therefore we have interviewed four municipalities in Sweden that have been exposed by the media at a national level. We interviewed eight social workers and managers to get different opinions about the handling after media critic and scrutiny. We wanted to study how a social service handles the media when it been scrutinized, when the previous research only shows how social workers are affected by it. When the professionals in social services organization are scrutinized by the media there are frequently negative criticisms and that can lead to social services organizations legitimacy decreases. Therefor we will analyze our result from professional theory to see how the professional handles media scrutiny. We see similarities between a crisis and a media scrutiny and therefore we also use the concept of crisis. The results shows that it is important that colleagues support each other and that the professionals are open against media.  The differences between the positions are that managers are the ones who have the ultimate responsibility for the medial scrutiny. The responsibility includes media contact; to ensure that there is enough support, information regarding the situation given out to everyone in the workplace and taking into account the security.  To meet media in a better way is by have a media education there social workers and journalist can meet and exchanges knowledge and experience of each other works.

<p>Opinions, rankings and evaluations of states’ development are proliferating. In the context of the transformation and EU accession of the Baltic States, there were many organizations involved in the scrutiny of their efforts to become accepted as modern and European. This scrutiny directed towards states can be seen as a new practice of transnational regulation. Especially in times of major transformation, as was the case in the Baltic States after the collapse of the Soviet bloc, monitoring and evaluation of achievements can be expected to shape how reforms were prioritized and how problems were perceived. In order to gain a better understanding of these transformations it is necessary to study the practice of organizations that scrutinize the states.</p><p>The aim of the thesis is to analyze the role of scrutiny as a practice of transnational regulation. By analyzing how international organizations scrutinize states, this thesis adds knowledge to how transforming states are constructed in the everyday practices of scrutiny. A main argument is that by evaluating and reporting on states, international organizations can be seen as ‘auditors’ of transformations in states. The thesis compares three such ‘auditors’ and their respective relations to the states under scrutiny, namely: the European Commission, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the NGO Transparency International. </p><p>The thesis contributes to discussions about the role of transnational regulation in the transformation of states. By comparing the three cases of scrutiny it is concluded that scrutiny produces both comfort and critique for and about these transforming states. In addition, through processes of scrutinizing, states are constructed as auditable and comparable. Scrutiny also inscribes states into a story about progress, it thus offers hope about reforms and of a better future.</p>

Opinions, rankings and evaluations of states’ development are proliferating. In the context of the transformation and EU accession of the Baltic States, there were many organizations involved in the scrutiny of their efforts to become accepted as modern and European. This scrutiny directed towards states can be seen as a new practice of transnational regulation. Especially in times of major transformation, as was the case in the Baltic States after the collapse of the Soviet bloc, monitoring and evaluation of achievements can be expected to shape how reforms were prioritized and how problems were perceived. In order to gain a better understanding of these transformations it is necessary to study the practice of organizations that scrutinize the states. The aim of the thesis is to analyze the role of scrutiny as a practice of transnational regulation. By analyzing how international organizations scrutinize states, this thesis adds knowledge to how transforming states are constructed in the everyday practices of scrutiny. A main argument is that by evaluating and reporting on states, international organizations can be seen as ‘auditors’ of transformations in states. The thesis compares three such ‘auditors’ and their respective relations to the states under scrutiny, namely: the European Commission, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the NGO Transparency International. The thesis contributes to discussions about the role of transnational regulation in the transformation of states. By comparing the three cases of scrutiny it is concluded that scrutiny produces both comfort and critique for and about these transforming states. In addition, through processes of scrutinizing, states are constructed as auditable and comparable. Scrutiny also inscribes states into a story about progress, it thus offers hope about reforms and of a better future.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) was enacted as a response to some of the most egregious accounting scandals in history. Since SOX’s inception, experts continue to debate the costs and benefits associated with the act. Prior research suggests that some of the benefits associated with the Act may actually be attributable to other concurrent events such as firms’ reactions to the negative publicity. This paper investigates the effect that a firm’s publicity level has on the firm’s likelihood to issue a financial restatement. This study suggests that some of the benefits associated with SOX can actually be attributed to what I call the publicity effect. I find that although high publicity firms are more likely to issue a financial restatement post-SOX relative to low publicity firms, this difference is mitigated by the publicity effect. The empirical model suggests firms that are classified as having low publicity prior to SOX’s enactment are more likely to respond to the adverse publicity of the major accounting scandals. This study suggests that the benefit of more reliable financial statements is a combination of the stringent SOX regulations as well as the market’s reaction to negative publicity. My findings suggest that future cost-benefit analyses of SOX should attempt to capture the publicity effect.

Dans cette recherche intitulée « Fonction Scopique et Investigation du Réel Anglo-Caribéen dans l’OEuvre de Caryl Phillips », il s’agit de suivre le développement de l’oeuvre de Caryl Phillips qui se déploie à partir du sentiment d’extranéité né d’un sentiment de dissociation ressenti dès l’enfance. Les scènes fondatrices sont celles de la remise en cause par l’autorité visualisante de son appartenance à la nation en tant qu’Anglo-Caribéen, puis adolescent, de la découverte de l’antisémitisme et de la possibilité du génocide au cœur même de l’Europe. Elles sont suivies de l’apprentissage volontariste de la culture caribéenne durant ses années d’études à Oxford, de sa découverte de la littérature afro-américaine aux Etats-Unis, et d’un voyage à travers l’Europe entant qu’Anglo-Caribéen, expériences qui vont fixer les trois pôles de la triade à partir de laquelle se déploie l’oeuvre de cet écrivain également dramaturge. La source de la pulsion d’écrire serait donc à trouver dans un sentiment de différence ontologique naissant de l’appréhension du soi essentiellement scopique, vécue comme anxiogène. Le sentiment d’extranéité trouve sa source dans la discrimination et l’angoisse d’appartenance qu’elle déclenche. Elle remet en cause le vécu en toute plénitude de l’être, et les bases de l’inclusion sociale de l’enfant et de l’adolescent. L’oeuvre se déploie de manière constructiviste et spiralée à partir de l’exploration des regards croisés que nous classerons selon cinq thématiques qui rassemblent les principaux fils de cet écheveau, éclairés par cinq films servant de contrepoint au discours de l’auteur. Une intention didactique existe au cœur de l’écriture de Caryl Phillips qui procède de la remédiation historique, et tente de faire voir au lecteur toute la complexité humaine sans volonté de jugement. Alors que l’esthétique fait épouser à la structure de ses écrits le bouleversement des vies diasporiques, et met à l’épreuve les capacités du lecteur à discerner le programme de création de chacun de ses ouvrages, le souci éthique de l’auteur est de redonner le droit de regard, le droit à la compassion, et le droit d’être compris à tous ceux et celles qui se voient nier le droit d’appartenir pleinement au monde qu’ils habitent. / The purpose of this work is to follow the development of Caryl Philips’s work from a feeling of unbelonging finding its root in the experience of being dissociated from his peers at an early age through systemic visualizing.Founding scenes show how the author as an Anglo-Caribbean child is denied his Englishness and how he discovers as a teenager the possibility of genocide at the heart of Europe. These experiences will be part of the foundation of his anxiety of belonging. A determined exploration of Caribbean culture, of African-American writing and an investigation of the European gaze on the Anglo-Caribbean person he is, will determine the three strands with which will be woven the increasing spiraling scope of his work.The writing impulse is then born out of an ingrained feeling of dissociation created by the alarming discriminating gaze which forfeits the inclusion of the Anglo-Caribbean child and questions the fulfillment of his human potential in all its plenitude.We will argue that the work develops along a constructivist and spiraling approach from an exploration of comparative views. Novels, plays and essays will be observed along five thematic lines which will start with a short analysis of five corresponding cinematographic works acting as a counterpoint to the author’s stance. There is a didactic intention in the writing which proceeds from historical remediation and aims at making the reader see the whole human complexity, encouraging the willing suspension of blaming. While aesthetic concerns model the structure of his works on the fractured lives he is exploring, and challenge the cognitive capability of the reader to discern the patterns of production of each of his works, the ethical demand evinced by Caryl Phillips’s work is to give the scrutiny right, the right to be understood, and the right to compassion back to those who see their right to fully belong to the world they inhabit denied.

This thesis explores the barriers to effective tenant involvement at an organisational level in housing associations by tracking, over a long period of time, the experience of tenants who get involved in the forums, panels and boards of housing associations. The focus of the research is the relationship between the tenants and the professional staff, in corporate environments where delivery of a user-focused service is purported to be the shared goal. The aim has been to explore with tenants and staff their experiences of trying to make tenant involvement work at a strategic level within the organisation. My research seeks (a) to unravel the methods used by the different actors to influence activities and outcomes, and (b) to examine their effects on the power balance in and between the groups of people in question. Clegg’s 1989 ‘Circuits of power’ theory is used to plot and analyse the processes involved in the transformation (or not) of power within the culture and practice of tenant involvement and the empowerment (or not) of the tenants who work with staff at the heart of these corporate cultures. In addition I use Somerville’s 1998 typology of empowerment to illustrate the potential for organisational change. I gather a wide range of material, using a detailed questionnaire, 17 case studies plus a further three of national level involvement initiatives, and an analysis of 112 Housing Corporation and Audit Commission inspection reports (from 2003 and 2008). To this I add my own experience as a participant observer in a range of settings over the period. This thesis is intended to shed some light on why the same barriers continue to exist and why so many involved tenants and their housing associations are still struggling to make involvement really make a difference at this level, despite a decade of intensive regulations and inspection of involvement activities.

Cette thèse explique la participation des parlements nationaux à l’élaboration et au contrôle des politiques européennes de justice et de sécurité intérieure. Le décalage que l’on observe entre les prérogatives formelles des parlements nationaux et la réalité de leur participation à l’élaboration des politiques européennes de justice et de sécurité intérieure nous conduit à adopter une grille de lecture fondée sur le cadre juridique, sur sa concrétisation et sur son interprétation par les acteurs parlementaires. La participation parlementaire est étudiée à l’aide d’une comparaison en deux temps. En premier lieu, les déterminants de l’activité parlementaire sont spécifiés à l’aide d’une comparaison quantitative de l’ensemble des parlements nationaux européens pour la période 2010-2012. La portée de ces déterminants est saisie, en second lieu, par une étude de l’examen parlementaire de trois enjeux de justice et de sécurité intérieure — la Convention d’application de l’accord de Schengen, les négociations pour les Accords Passenger Name Record (PNR) avec les États-Unis et la réforme de la gouvernance de Schengen — dans trois systèmes de gouvernement parlementaire majoritaire différents — la France, l’Italie et la Grande-Bretagne. La comparaison des cas contrastés a confirmé que, malgré les spécificités organiques et fonctionnelles nationales, le contrôle parlementaire des actes européens de justice et de sécurité intérieure revêt, dans les systèmes de gouvernement parlementaire majoritaire, des formes similaires. La participation des parlements nationaux à l’élaboration et au contrôle des politiques européennes de justice et de sécurité intérieure s’explique par un dosage variable de règles formelles relatives au contrôle parlementaire des politiques européens de justice et de sécurité intérieure, d’une part, et par les volontés des parlementaires à en faire usage, d’autre part. / Since the end of the 1980s, the traditional role of national legislatures regarding internal security and the protection of fundamental rights has been questioned by the progressive enforcement of the European Union’s legislative power. This thesis explains how national parliaments contribute to the decision-making process and to the scrutiny of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ). The gap between the formal scrutiny prerogatives of national parliaments and the reality of their participation in the AFSJ decision-making process leads us to adopt an approach based on the legal framework, its concretization and its interpretation by the parliamentary actors. The involvement of national parliaments in the AFSJ is examined using a two-step comparison. First, the determinants that contribute to the variation of parliamentary activity in the AFSJ are specified through a quantitative analysis of all 27 European national parliaments for the period 2010-2012. Second, the scope of each determinant is assessed though a study of the parliamentary scrutiny of three AFSJ issues – the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement, the negotiations of the Passenger Name Record Agreement with the United States and the Schengen governance reform- in three different majoritarian parliamentary systems - France, Italy and Great Britain. The most different systems design has confirmed that, despite institutional and functional national specificities, the parliamentary scrutiny of AFSJ takes on similar forms in majoritarian parliamentary systems of government. A mix of formal scrutiny prerogatives and MPs incentives explain the involvement of national parliaments in the AFSJ.

What is «liquidable» and how should this concept be faced by arbitrators and judges? Can an enforcement judge determine concepts such as costs, interests and/or penalties if the arbitral tribunal has not provided any parameters? What fundamental rights might be violated? In accordance with international arbitration practice, we will deal here with the problems arising from the division of functions between judges and arbitrators in relation to the enforcement of the «liquidable» concepts. / ¿Qué es lo «liquidable» y cómo debe ser este concepto enfrentado por los árbitros y jueces? ¿Puede un juez en ejecución determinar conceptos como costas, intereses y/o las penalidades sin que el tribunal arbitral le haya brindado ningún parámetro?¿Qué derechos fundamentales están en juego? En función de la práctica arbitral internacional, nos ocuparemos de los problemas que surgen por la división de funciones entre jueces y árbitros en relación con la ejecución de lo «liquidable».