We consider the problem of optimization and decision-making in various settings involving complex systems. In particular, we consider specific problems in decentralized finance which we address employing insights from mathematical finance, in course-mode selection that we solve by applying mixed-integer programming, and in social networks that we approach using tools from graphical game theory.In the first part of the thesis, we model and analyze fixed spread liquidation lending in DeFi as implemented by popular pooled lending protocols such as AAVE, JustLend, and Compound. Empirically, we observe that over 70% of liquidations occur in the absence of any downward price jumps. Then, assuming the borrowers monitor their loans with exponentially distributed horizons, we compute the expected liquidation cost incurred by the borrowers in closed form as a function of the monitoring frequency. We compare this cost against liquidation data obtained from AAVE protocol V2, and observe a match with our model assuming the borrowers monitor their loans five to six times more often than they interact with the pool. Such borrowers must balance the financing cost against the likelihood of liquidation. We compute the optimal health factor in this situation assuming a financing rate for the collateral. Empirically, we observe that borrowers are often more conservative compared to model predictions, though on average, model predictions match with empirical observations. In the second part of the thesis, we consider the problem of hybrid scheduling that was faced by Columbia Business School during the Covid-19 pandemic and describe the system that we implemented to address it. The system allows some students to attend in-person classes with social distancing, while their peers attend online, and schedules vary by day. We consider two variations of this problem: one where students have unique, individualized class enrollments, and one where they are grouped in teams that are enrolled in identical classes. We formulate both problems as mixed-integer programs. In the first setting, students who are scheduled to attend all classes in person on a given day may, at times, be required to attend a particular class on that day online due to social distancing constraints. We count these instances as “excess.” We minimize excess and related objectives, and analyze and solve the relaxed linear program. In the second setting, we schedule the teams so that each team’s in-person attendance is balanced over days of week and spread out over the entire term. Our objective is to maximize interaction between different teams. Our program was used to schedule over 2,500 students in student-level scheduling and about 790 students in team-level scheduling from the Fall 2020 through Summer 2021 terms at Columbia Business School. In the third part of the thesis, we consider a social network, where individuals choose actions which optimize utility which is a function of their neighbors’ actions. We assume that a central authority aiming to maximize social welfare at equilibrium can intervene by paying some cost to shift individual incentives, and that the cost is upper bounded by a budget. The intervention that maximizes the social welfare can be computed using the spectral decomposition of the adjacency matrix of the graph, yet this is infeasible in practice if the adjacency matrix is unknown. We study the question of designing intervention strategies for graphs where the adjacency matrix is unknown and is drawn from some distribution. For several commonly studied random graph models, we show that the competitive ratio of in intervention proportional to the first eigenvector of the expected adjacency matrix, approaches 1 in probability as the graph size increases. We also provide several efficient sampling-based approaches for approximately recovering the first eigenvector when we do not know the distribution. On the whole, our analysis compares three categories of interventions: those which use no data about the network, those which use some data (such as distributional knowledge or queries to the graph), and those which are fully optimal. We evaluate these intervention strategies on synthetic and real-world network data, and our results suggest that analysis of random graph models can be useful for determining when certain heuristics may perform well in practice.

La sélection de l'information intégrée à l'agenda politique représente une étape décisive pour les politiciens, influencée par des contraintes telles que les ressources limitées et la dispersion de l'attention nécessaire pour résoudre les problèmes prioritaires. Cette dynamique souligne l'importance croissante du rôle de la capacité de l'État dans la conception et la formation de l'agenda politique, un sujet sous-étudié dans la littérature sur les politiques publiques. Cette thèse se focalise précisément sur une question qui a été peu explorée jusqu'à présent : quelle est l'influence de la capacité de l'État sur la formation de l'agenda politique ? Afin de répondre à cette question, trois chapitres empiriques ont été développés, visant à examiner la dynamique complexe entre la capacité de l'État et l'agenda politique au Brésil. Le premier article (chapitre 3) met en lumière les mécanismes de changement de l'agenda législatif pendant les conflits agro-environnementaux au niveau national. Il souligne comment la capacité du secteur agricole et de l'environnement influence les informations intégrées dans l’agenda politique. L'article conclut que les secteurs agricoles dotés d'une plus grande capacité étatique ont tendance à bloquer les sujets environnementaux de l'agenda politique, mais que sous la pression médiatique, ils peuvent être amenés à concéder temporairement à ceux avec une capacité moindre. Le deuxième article (chapitre 4) examine l'influence de la capacité étatique sur l'utilisation de l'information scientifique pendant la pandémie de COVID-19 au niveau régional. Il révèle que les États avec une forte capacité épidémiologique ont tendance à privilégier l'information scientifique dans leur agenda politique, même lorsque d'autres approches sont disponibles. L'article souligne également que la capacité épidémiologique des États devient cruciale pour déterminer le type d'information intégrée dans l'agenda politique, en particulier en période de crise. Le troisième article de cette thèse (chapitre 5) explore l’influence de l'opinion publique sur la gravité des mesures prises lors de la pandémie de COVID-19 au niveau régional. Il met en évidence que les États avec des capacités épidémiologiques plus fortes tendent à accorder une plus grande importance aux préoccupations de santé publique dans leurs décisions politiques, tandis que ceux avec des capacités moindres peuvent être davantage influencés par les préoccupations économiques. L'article conclut que la capacité étatique influence la manière dont les ii gouvernements interprètent et utilisent l'information de l'opinion publique pour définir leur agenda politique. En conclusion, ces articles démontrent le rôle crucial de la capacité étatique dans la formation de l'agenda politique. Cette capacité influence la sélection et la priorisation de l'information, ce qui en retour détermine les sujets abordés par les décideurs politiques. Comprendre le fonctionnement de la capacité étatique est donc indispensable pour appréhender pleinement les mécanismes de la formation de l'agenda politique. / The selection of information integrated into the political agenda represents a crucial step for politicians, influenced by constraints such as limited resources and the dispersion of attention needed to address priority issues. This dynamic increasingly emphasizes the importance of the state's capacity in shaping and forming the political agenda, a topic under-explored in the literature on public policy. This thesis specifically focuses on a question that has been relatively unexplored until now: what is the influence of state capacity on the formation of the political agenda? To address this question, three empirical chapters were developed, aiming to examine the complex dynamics between state capacity and the political agenda in Brazil. The first article (Chapter 3) highlights the mechanisms of legislative agenda change during agroenvironmental conflicts at the national level. It emphasizes how the capacity of the agricultural and environmental sectors influences the information integrated into the political agenda. The article concludes that agricultural sectors with greater state capacity tend to block environmental issues from the political agenda, but under media pressure, they may be temporarily compelled to concede to those with lesser capacity. The second article (Chapter 4) examines the influence of state capacity on the use of scientific information during the COVID-19 pandemic at the regional level. It reveals that states with strong epidemiological capacity tend to prioritize scientific information in their political agenda, even when other approaches are available. The article also emphasizes that the epidemiological capacity of states becomes crucial in determining the type of information integrated into the political agenda, especially during times of crisis. The third article of this thesis (Chapter 5) explores the influence of public opinion on the severity of measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic at the regional level. It highlights that states with stronger epidemiological capacities tend to prioritize public health concerns more in their policy decisions, while those with weaker capacities may be more influenced by economic concerns. The article concludes that state capacity influences how governments interpret and use public opinion information to shape their political agenda. In conclusion, these articles demonstrate the crucial role of state capacity in shaping the political agenda. This capacity influences the selection and prioritization of information, which in turn determines the topics addressed by policymakers. Understanding the functioning of state capacity is therefore essential for fully grasping the mechanisms of agenda formation.

This thesis project explores how interactive technologies can facilitate a sense of social connectedness with others whilst remotely located. While studying the way humans use rituals for emotional management, I focused my interest on the act of commensality because it is one of the oldest and most important rituals used to foster togetherness among families and groups of friends. Dining with people who do not belong to the same household is of course hard during a global pandemic, just like many of the other forms of social interactions that were forcibly replaced by the use of technological means such as video-chat apps, instant messaging and perhaps an excessive use of social networking websites. These ways of staying connected, however, lack the subtleties of real physical interaction, which I tried to replicate with my prototype system, which consists of two sets of a lamp and a coaster which enable to communicate through light and tactile cues. The use of such devices creates a new kind of ritual based on the simultaneous use of the devices by two people, thus enabling a new and original form of commensality that happens through a shared synchronized experience.

Covid-19 pandemin skapade många begränsningar i det fysiska mötet för företag i Sverige. Problematiken för de företag som inte kunde erbjuda sin produkt på samma sätt digitalt var det som skapade ett intresse att genomföra denna studie. Många företag fick göra ett skifte och fokusera mer på de digitala verktygen under den här tiden. Därför valde gruppen att fördjupa sig i hur företag på Instagram arbetar med sitt innehåll för att skapa engagemang. Frågorna som besvarades togs fram med syftet att skapa en uppfattning kring vilken av de tre framtagna inläggs kategorierna som skapar högst engagemang, rationella inlägg, interaktionella inlägg eller transaktionella inlägg. Samt hur innehållet på Instagram kan förändras beroende på om det fysiska mötet är begränsat eller ej.En kvalitativ fallstudie på Liseberg genomfördes i form av dokumentanalys på företagets Instagramkonto. Resultatet kopplades därefter samman med den tidigare forskningen inom engagemang, digital marknadsföring, sociala medier marknadsföringsstrategi och Social Exchange Theory. Studien är avgränsad till att endast mäta engagemang baserat på gilla-markeringar och kommentarer. Vikten av att ett företag behöver engagemang för att vara konkurrenskraftiga klarläggs samt relevans att företag finns på sociala medier. Resultatet visade att de transaktionella inläggen hade betydligt högst engagemang, men även att de interaktionella inläggen skapade högt engagemang. Förslagsvis borde företag under perioderna de har nedstängt fokusera just på dessa två kategorier som uppmanar till att skapa engagemang i form av gilla-markeringar och kommentarer. Studien visade också hur Liseberg anpassade mängden samt innehållet av deras inlägg under de olika perioderna för att hålla sig aktuella med vad besökarna efterfrågade. Studien är skriven på svenska. / Covid-19 pandemic created a lot of limitations for companies when it came to the physical meeting. The problem that occurred when companies no longer were able to offer their product in reality created an interest in this study. Many companies had to make a shift and focus more on digital tools during this time. Therefore, this group chose to dive into how a company on Instagram works with their content to create engagement. The questions that were answered were developed with the aim of creating knowledge about which of the three developed post categories create the highest engagement, rational posts, interactional posts or transactional posts. As well as how the content on Instagram may change depending on whether the physical meeting is limited or not.A qualitative case study on the amusement park Liseberg was carried out in the form of document analysis on @Lisebergab Instagram. The result was then connected with the previous research on engagement, digital marketing, social media marketing strategy and the Social Exchange Theory. The study is limited to only measuring engagement based on likes and comments. The importance of companies needing engagement to be competitive is clarified, as well as the relevance of companies being on social media. The transactional posts received the highest engagement, but it was also shown that it is not financially sustainable to focus on this too much.The results showed that transactional posts had the highest engagement, but also that interactive posts created high engagement. It is suggested that companies during periods of shutdown should focus on these two categories that encourage engagement in the form of likes and comments. This study also showed how Liseberg adapted the amount and content of their posts during different periods to stay current with what visitors demanded from the company. Following will this paper be written in swedish.

The phenomenon of educational inequality on access to physical resources in the Highveld Ridge East Circuit of Mpumalanga was investigated in the study. Since the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic had affected education on a global scale, South Africa included, it became necessary to incorporate this new development into the emerging design that unfolded. The study explored the impact of access to physical resources in three public schools. The aim of the investigation was to ascertain how educational disparities on access to physical resources manifested at the chosen research sites, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative research approach was utilised comprising of a multiple case study design. The study reported how the principal and deputy principals viewed educational inequality on access to physical resources from a management perspective, while educators provided insight on the effect of this phenomenon on the teaching and learning process. Observations, individual interviews involving the principal and deputy principals as participants, and focus group interviews involving the teachers, as well as the scrutiny of relevant official documents provided the empirical data for this investigation. All research participants were purposively selected, as a full staff complement was unavailable at the research sites during the pandemic. The results that emerged from the study indicated that educational inequality was prevalent in these public schools. The dearth of resources, and in some instances basic essential resources, had a marked impact on the management as well as the teachers and students at these schools. A significant point to consider was how ill-equipped the public schools in this area were to deal with education during a global pandemic. The backlog of the inequities on access to physical resources needed to be addressed as a matter of dire urgency if the country had any hope of salvaging the education process even at the most basic level. The recommendations in the conclusion of the study are desperate pleas for help in assisting the country, especially the previously marginalised, to move forward in the worst of times. / Educational Management and Leadership / M. Ed. (Education Management)

Выпускная квалификационная работа состоит из трёх глав и заключения. Объем работы составляет 123 страница. Темой диссертационной работы «Факторы повышения конкурентоспособности международных компаний в современных условиях». Исследование является актуальным, так как энергетика находится на этапе всеобщего перехода к возобновляемым источникам энергии. Enel глобализирует распространение новых технологий и нуждаются в иностранных инвестициях стран потенциального будущего присутствия. Целью выпускной квалификационной работы является разработка рекомендаций для компании, находящейся в стадии подготовки к привлечению иностранных инвесторов. Объектом научно-исследовательской работы является итальянская энергетическая компания Enel s.p.a. Предметом – особенности стратегического планирования компании энергетической отрасли. Проведена оценка энергетической отрасли в ситуации пандемии COVID-19. Высказаны предположения по поводу последствий влияния пандемии на рынок энергетики. Описаны особенности деятельности компании-объекта, организационная структура, а также риски и корпоративное управление. Проведена оценка основных производственноэкономических показателей̆компании, а также оценка стоимости компании. Далее проведен анализ рынка конкурентов путем оценки результатов деятельности четырех основных конкурентов. Проведена оценка позиции Enel S.P.A на энергетическом рынке на основании положения крупнейших конкурентов. Разработана стратегия повышения инвестиционного потенциала международной энергетической компании. Проанализирована эффективность деятельности компании путем выявления рисков. Привлечены такие методы, как «Three Pillars of Electricity industry sustainability», The 3A Framework», SWOT анализ. Далее проведена оценка глобальной деятельности компании путем вычисления Индекса транснациональности. Выявлены аспекты ключевой стратегии Enel. Завершающей частью работы стало разработка рекомендаций для повышения возможности трансформации внутренней̆ среды Enel S.P.A. в целях повышения привлекательности общества в свете интересов иностранных инвесторов. / The study is relevant, as the energy sector is at the stage of universal transition to renewable energy sources. Enel is globalizing the spread of new technologies and needs foreign investment from countries with a potential future presence. The purpose of the final qualification work is to develop recommendations for a company that is in the process of preparing to attract foreign investors. The object of the research work is the Italian energy company Enel s. p.a. The subject is the peculiarities of strategic planning of the company in the energy industry. An assessment of the energy industry in the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic was carried out. Suggestions have been made about the impact of the pandemic on the energy market. The features of the target company's activity, organizational structure, as well as risks and corporate governance are described. The assessment of the main production and economic indicators of the company, as well as the assessment of the company's value, was carried out. Further, the analysis of the competitors ' market is carried out by evaluating the performance of the four main competitors. The assessment of Enel S. P. A's position in the energy market is based on the position of its largest competitors. A strategy has been developed to increase the investment potential of an international energy company. The effectiveness of the company's activities is analyzed by identifying risks. Methods such as "Three Pillars of Electricity industry sustainability", The 3A Framework", SWOT analysis are involved. Further, the assessment of the global activity of the company is carried out by calculating the Index of transnationality. Aspects of Enel's key strategy are identified. The final part of the work was the development of recommendations to increase the possibility of transforming the internal environment of Enel S. P. A. in order to increase the attractiveness of the company in the light of the interests of foreign investors.

With teleworking becoming an increasingly normalized work arrangement after the Covid-19 pandemic, it opens up possibilities for workers to be located elsewhere than their workplace. This indicates that work-related relocation may not be a necessity anymore for parts of the workforce, because they can choose to work remotely instead of relocating. The overall purpose of the thesis has been to investigate whether the normalization of telework as a part of the employee value proposition’s benefits will make people in the workforce less likely to relocate for work. The employee value proposition theory was used to understand the current role telework has as a part of the benefit component, and how telework may affect the employees' likelihood to relocate for work. Two research questions were used to answer the overall purpose:  Has telework resulted in the benefit component having a greater influence than other components for the workforce? Has telework offered as a benefit made people in the workforce less likely to relocate for work? The research purpose for the study was exploratory and the research approach was a deductive, qualitative study approach. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data and the sampling were selected by both the purposive and snowball sampling method. The sample for the interviews were employees who have a job where it is possible to do teleworking and were between 25-35 years old. After the interviews were conducted, the data was analyzed by using thematic analysis. The finding of the study indicates that the influence of the benefit component did not change compared to previous research and still had a mid-level of importance. It is not likely that telework has made the benefit component to have an overall greater influence compared to other components, but there were components such as affiliation that were very influential when making relocation decisions. It was also found that family members, especially partners and children, were a big influence on relocation decisions. The participants were more likely to consider teleworking instead of relocating when they had partners and children. Several of them could not see themselves only doing teleworking long-term though, because the connection with the colleagues and team at their workplace were also important. The findings of the study indicate that human connection and relationships have become increasingly important for the employees, and this affects both their teleworking and relocation decisions.

Syftet med denna studie är att analysera eventuella kapitalstruktursförändringar i samband med Covid-19 pandemin hos svenska företag noterade på Stockholmsbörsen, OMXS, inom Large Cap. Urvalet utgörs av företag inom alla sektorer i Large Cap, exklusive finanssektorn. Sambandet mellan bolagens beroende och oberoende variabler analyseras före och under pandemins tidsperiod, 2015–2022. De beroende variablerna utgörs som Proxy för kapitalstruktur och omfattas av totala-, kortfristiga-, och långfristiga skulder i förhållande till totala tillgångar. Medan de oberoende variablerna utgörs av företagsstorlek, lönsamhet samt tillväxt. För att uppnå detta baseras uppsatsens teoretiska ramverk på Modigliani och Miller proposition 1 & 2, Pecking Order teorin och Trade Off teorin tillsammans med tidigare empiriska studier samt undersökningar. Uppsatsens analyser omfattas av en deskriptiv analys av samtliga variabler, en korrelationsanalys av de oberoende variablerna och slutligen flera multivariata regressionsanalyser mellan samtliga variabler. För att erhålla de mest valida och reliabla slutsatserna kommer uppsatsen tillämpa en kvantitativ forskningsmetod och en deduktiv ansats. Uppsatsens resultat fann flest statistiskt signifikanta samband mellan samtliga skuldkvoter och företagsstorlek. Uppsatsens slutsats konstaterade att kapitalstrukturen hos OMXS företag inom Large Cap hade förändrats under pandemin i jämförelse med före pandemin. Sammantaget bidrar denna uppsats till en djupare förståelse för sambandet mellan samtliga analyserade variabler baserat på en historisk bakgrund. Därmed kan svenska bolag inom alla sektorer, exklusive finanssektorn, skapa en bättre uppfattning kring sina kapitalstrukturer inför framtida finanskriser. / The purpose of this study is to analyze potential capital structure changes in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic among Swedish publicly traded companies on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, OMXS, within Large Cap. The sample consists of companies across all sectors within Large Cap, excluding the finance sector. Focusing on the relationship between the dependent and independent variables before and during the period of the pandemic, 2015–2022. The dependent variables consist of total-, short- term-, and long- term debt as a proportion to the total assets. These dependent variables constitute as a Proxy for capital structure. The independent variables include size, profitability and growth. To accomplish this, the theoretical framework for this essay is based on Modigliani and Miller proposition 1 & 2, The Pecking Order Theory, The Trade Off Theory along with previous empirical studies. The analyzes contains of a descriptive analysis of all variables, a correlation analysis of the independent variables, and lastly several multivariate regressions analyses between all variables. In order to make it possible to acquire the most valid and reliable conclusions, the study will be based on a quantitative method, applying a deductive approach. The results found the most statistically significant relationships between all debt ratios and company size. The conclusion stated that the capital structure of OMXS companies, within Large Cap, had changed during the pandemic compared to before. In summary the results contribute to a deeper understanding of the relationship between all analyzed variables based on a historical background. Hence Swedish companies within these sectors can gain a better understanding of their capital structure for future financial crises.

Hintergrund: Im Zuge der Eindämmung der COVID-19-Pandemie mitsamt der einhergehenden erhöhten Hautbelastung wurde bei Beschäftigten in Pflegeberufen im Gesundheitswesen eine erhebliche Zunahme von beruflich bedingten Handekzemen verzeichnet. Zielsetzung: Entwicklung und Exploration eines Konzeptes zur Prävention beruflich bedingter Handekzeme im Gesundheitswesen während der COVID-19-Pandemie. Methoden: Durchführung einer kontrollierten, prospektiven Interventionsstudie mit 302 Beschäftigten in Pflegeberufen im Gesundheitswesen. 135 Teilnehmende wurden der Interventionsgruppe (IG) und 167 Teilnehmende wurden der Kontrollgruppe (KG) zugeteilt. Die IG erhielt eine Online-Schulung und wurde für die Beobachtungsphase von Dezember 2020 bis Juni 2021 in der Hochphase neuer beruflicher COVID-19-Infektionen im Gesundheitswesen ad libitum mit einem Hautreinigungs- und Hautpflegeprodukt ausgestattet. Der Hautbefund wurde zu Beginn (T0) und nach 6 Monaten (T2) dermatologisch erhoben. Zudem wurde zu T0, nach 3 Monaten (T1) und zu T2 in beiden Gruppen der Hautzustand, das Hautschutz- und Hautpflegeverhalten und das Wissen zu Handekzemen mit Fragebögen erfasst. Die Anwenderakzeptanz der Produkte wurde in der IG zu T2 mit einem Fragebogen erhoben. Ergebnisse: Die Drop-out Rate betrug 16,9%. Im Beobachtungszeitraum traten in der IG bei keinem der 115 zu T2 Teilnehmenden und in der KG bei 12 (8,8%) der 136 zu T2 Teilnehmenden neue Handekzeme auf. Bei gleichem Ausgangsbefund (1,5 Punkte zu T0 in beiden Gruppen) zeigte der Osnabrueck Hand Eczema Severity Index zu T2 signifikant bessere Werte in der IG als in der KG (0,6 Punkte vs. 2,1 Punkte, p<0,001). Zu T2 lagen in der IG im Vergleich zur KG signifikant bessere Werte hinsichtlich der täglichen Eincremefrequenz der Hände im beruflichen (4,5 Mal vs. 2,9 Mal, p<0,001) und privaten Bereich (4,1 Mal vs. 2,6 Mal, p<0,001) vor. Für den Berufsdermatosen-Wissenstest lag eine stärkere Verbesserung in der IG als in der KG vor (Interaktion zwischen Bedingung und linearer Zeitvariable, p=0,003; Interaktion zwischen Bedingung und quadratischer Zeitvariable, p<0,001). Zu T2 konnten sich 91,3% der 115 Teilnehmenden der IG vorstellen, das im Sinne eines proof of concept erprobte Handpflegekonzept weiterhin anzuwenden. Fazit: Die Wirksamkeit des Interventionskonzeptes hinsichtlich einer Verbesserung des Hautzustandes, einer Optimierung des Hautschutz- und Hautpflegeverhaltens sowie einer Zunahme des Wissens über die Pathogenese und Prävention von beruflich bedingten Handekzemen wurde nachgewiesen. Es ist als belegt anzusehen, dass sich das vorliegende Interventionskonzept zur Prävention von beruflich bedingten Handekzemen in der Berufsgruppe der Beschäftigten in Pflegeberufen im Gesundheitswesen unter COVID-19-Pandemiebedingungen eignet. Das Interventionskonzept kann zukünftig im Rahmen der Prävention von beruflich bedingten Handekzemen bei Beschäftigten in Pflegeberufen im Gesundheitswesen Einsatz finden und somit einen dauerhaften und nachhaltigen Beitrag zur betrieblichen Gesundheitsförderung leisten. Die Hautschutz- und Hautpflegeempfehlungen können ferner für weitere Risikoberufe für berufliche Hauterkrankungen sowie für die Allgemeinbevölkerung in Pandemie-Zeiten adaptiert werden.

No description available.