Call number: LD2668 .T4 1979 K65 / Master of Arts

<p>This study examines the European Unions (EU) promoting of regional cooperation, included in its programme, the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The thesis is based upon the agreed activities in the EU/Ukraine relation concerning regional cooperation.</p><p>The aim for this thesis is to visualise the policy outcome of the ENP concerning the EU/Ukraine relation and regional cooperation. The following questions are posed: What are the goals for the EU; what are the achievements and planned actions and what instruments are used by the EU in the ENP concerning the EU/Ukraine relation and regional cooperation?</p><p>The theoretical approach assumes that the Union is a power in international relations. It’s well suited promoting its policies in an asymmetric power environment, where the EU is the supremacy.</p><p>This study is conducted with a qualitative research method, based on text analysis on the European Unions official documents.</p><p>The result shows that the goals for the Union are the protection of its prosperity and its energy supply. Ukraine shall assist the EU, reaching these goals. In exchange, is the EU promising integration to the Unions internal market for Ukraine. But the EU has problems when this contravenes to Russia’s interests. This confirms the theory.</p>

Pastaraisiais metais Ukrainos vardas vis dažniau minimas tarp politologų ir politikos apžvalgininkų. Šios valstybės svarba Europai vis didėja, tiek kaip naftos importo kanalo, tiek kaip galimo strateginio partnerio. Tuo pačiu didėja ir Ukrainoje vykstančių procesų supratimo būtinybė. Dažniausiai Ukrainos dabartinis politinis nestabilumas aiškinamas pagal regioninio skilimo, ar tranzitologijos požiūrio taškus, kartais destabilizuojančiu išorės poveikiu, bet rezultatas aiškus – parlamento darbas didžiąją laiko dalį yra paralyžuotas tarpusavyje konkuruojančių dėl valdžios partinių blokų. Dėl to jau buvo rengiami ir preišlaikiniai rinkimai, bet padėtis nerodo pasikeitymų požymių, bent jau greitu laiku. Ukrainoje veikia daugybė skirtingų politinę sistemą nulemiančių faktorių, bet susitelksime į vieną – rinkiminę sistemą. Ukrainos rinkiminė sistema keitėsi net tris kartus. 1994 buvo mažoritarinė, 1998 ir 2002 – pusiau proporcinė, o 2006 ir 2007 – pilnai proporcinė. Rinkiminės sistemos parinkimas ir pokyčiais Ukrainoje ir davė pagrindą šiam darbui. Šių sprendimų radikalumas leidžia palyginti visas tris pagrindines rinkiminių sistemų rūšis vienoje valstybėje, kas kitur pasaulyje būtų beveik neįmanoma dėl to, kad rinkiminė sistema tradiciškai būna vienas iš stabilesnių politinės sistemos elementų it pokyčiai joje daromi tik išskirtinias atvejais. Ukrainoje trys rinkimų sistemos buvo išbandytos vieni po kitų sekusiuose rinkimuose. Aišku kokį efektą tai turėjo reikia tirti... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In recent years, the name of Ukraine is increasingly referred to the political and policy observers. These state the importance of Europe is increasing, as well as the oil import channel, both as a potential strategic partner. At the same time, Ukraine is increasing and the need for understanding the processes. In most cases, the current political instability in Ukraine interpreted according to the regional breakdown, or tranzitologijos point of view, sometimes destabilizing external influence, but the result is clear - the business of most of the time of paralyžuotas are competing for a government party blocks. As a result, has already been drafted and preišlaikiniai elections, but the situation does not show signs of pasikeitymų, at least in the short term. Ukraine operates many different factors determine the choice of political system, but to concentrate on one - the electoral system. Ukraine's electoral system is changed, even three times. 1994 was mažoritarinė, 1998 and 2002 - a semi-proportional, and in 2006 and 2007 - a fully proportional. Electoral system of selection and the evolution of Ukraine and the basis for this work. Extremeness of these solutions allows you to compare all three main types of electoral systems in one country, what the world would be almost impossible because of the electoral system is traditionally one of the sustainable elements of the political system it changes it made only in exceptional cases. Ukraine, the three electoral system was... [to full text]

The thesis studies aspects of the cost of equity trading in the emerging stock market of Ukraine. The market is quite new (opened in 1997 but started to operate actively only in 2004) and little research on this market has been done so far. The market appears to offer lucrative investment opportunities that attract attention of both Ukrainian and foreign investors but the cost of trading Ukrainian stocks is quite high and can considerably decrease the returns to investors. The empirical part of the thesis is based on the transactions data from the main trade floor in Ukraine, PFTS, for 59 Ukrainian stocks during 2004-2006. The cost of equity trading in Ukraine is found to be quite high compared to many other stock markets, both developed and emerging. An in-depth study has shown that the medium-sized trades are the cheapest to execute, followed by large and then small trades. The reason for the pattern is seen in the price improvement suggested by brokers to the larger, more valued customers in order to keep the business with them and is in line with the findings in other literature for dealership markets (Reiss and Werner (1996), Hansch et. al (1999), and Huang and Stoll (1996)). The average cost of institutional sale trades exceeds the average cost of institutional buy trades at any market condition (falling, neutral, or rising), which is a puzzling result given that sales are often found in the literature to be more expensive in falling market, while purchases are more expensive in rising market. The efficacy of a number of measures of liquidity is studied. In line with findings for other emerging markets, it is shown that the proportion of zero daily returns (Lesmond (1999)) and the proportion of no-trading days are the most reliable liquidity measures for the Ukrainian stock market. Turnover, a measure widely applied in literature for developed stock markets, has a very small power for measuring liquidity in Ukraine. The spread components are estimated by applying three spread decomposition models most frequently referred to in literature: Stoll (1989), Glosten and Harris (1988), and Huang and Stoll (1997). The estimation results show a low importance of the asymmetric information component, which is surprising given that insider trading is considered a serious risk in Ukraine. To present the importance of incorporating the transactions costs into portfolio return analysis, a momentum trading strategy is examined. It is shown that momentum portfolio returns decrease considerably when the cost of trading is taken into account.

Using the findings of a five-year ethnographic study, this thesis examines the contractual relationships that prevail in low-technology moderately competitive industries characteristic of the contemporary Ukrainian economy. The research reports on how contracts are enforced and how the stability of business relationships is ensured in Ukraine. The established view of many scholars that business efficiency is held back in most post-Soviet economies by frequent contractual violations and dysfunctional courts is not entirely supported by the research underpinning this thesis: in Ukraine, contract enforcement is generally effective enough to allow stability in day-to-day transactions, and the commercial courts do provide adequate backing. Although the mechanisms used to enforce contracts in Ukraine are generally similar to those found in developed countries, there are distinctive features within the overall pattern. In particular, firms rely extensively on repeated interactions and self-enforcing devices while signing short-term formal contracts and avoiding interdependency between trading partners. They do not rely on their reputation or business association memberships and they make no use of private arbitration. Instead, a few legal institutions dating back to the Soviet period proved adaptable and viable in a market economy. When transactions involve either state-owned companies or the exercise of administrative resources, contract enforcement becomes problematic. Illegal kickbacks from suppliers and the coercive use of state machinery come into play, and asking a court to enforce a contract is more costly and less effective than in other cases. However, the author shows that in the typical everyday transactions of Ukrainian private firms, the state and its administrative resources are involved in the minority of cases, and that they do not undermine the dominant pattern of orderly contractual dealings. The thesis concludes that the contractual pattern prevalent in Ukraine effectively serves straightforward traditional buyer-seller transactions but it is ill-suited to meet the requirements of globalized trade, production diversification and technological progress. Adaptations of the existing system to meet these requirements are likely to depend upon changes in the wider business environment, namely upon institutions constraining the coercive power of the state.

This paper examines the broader relationship between the United States and Russia since the end of the Cold War. In recent years, relations between the U.S. and Russia have seriously deteriorated. This thesis lists the four most important contributing factors: ineffective reforms of the 1990s, NATO’s continued expansion, escalation in Ukraine, and the failure to jointly address the Syrian conflict. It argues that one major consequence of the strained relationship is a stronger Russia-China partnership. If Washington continues to ignore Russia’s security and economic interests, relations are likely to further decline, harming U.S. objectives in the long term. In order to improve relations, this thesis recommends that the U.S. transform its existing NATO policy, reverse sanctions, and reorient U.S. foreign policy to focus less on Russia’s non-democratic system of government and more on geopolitical issues, such as coordinating measures with Moscow to stabilize Syria.

Successful presentation of a country as a brand and positioning its unique image on the global level can give significant opportunities for development and progress of the state in the different areas. This research applies theories on the country branding to estimate impact of mega sport events on the image of state. To accomplish these goal I used case study – formation of brand Ukraine before hosting European Football Championship 2012 (EURO 2012). To investigate  brand strategy of Ukraine and analyze implemented projects I conducted in-depth interviews with government officials and independent experts, who are involved in promo campaigns of Ukraine. The research concluded that Ukraine is in the process of  brand formation, but it is too early to to assume the existance of the comprehensive brand of the country. For Ukraine, EURO 2012 impulses change of negative perceptions of the country and  is a step towards complex strategy of brand creation. Future of this strategy therefore depends on conducting preliminary studies of each promo project and coordinated collaboration between all actors who take part in creation of brand Ukraine. Research also provides recommendations on how to make brand campaign more efficient.

The thesis aims to estimate the future migration flows from Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova to the EU. Based on the experience of previous EU enlargements and econometric modelling using the method of Ordinary Least Squares with Fixed Effects, multiple forecasts are created. The forecasts capture the likely development of migration flows in the event of collapse of labour market restrictions as well as the case of no labour market liberalization. The results show that migration flows are expected to be moderate, posing no threats to the stability of the labour markets of EU member states. The increase of migration due to the accession to the EU is likely to be short-term, without substantial impacts in the long-run. Ukraine has the biggest migration potential and is likely to supply the highest amount of labour migration.

The remittances or money transfers sent by migrants to the country of origin are considered to be one of the welfare channels with potential to influence macroeconomics indicators. The aim of this thesis is to analyse migration and remittance behaviour of Ukrainian migrants in the context of the EU. Study is based on the questionnaire survey inspired by the similar projects in the Latin America and Mexico. Contribution of the thesis lies in the detailed analysis of the topic that separates different forms of remittances. The econometric model consists of statistical summary of the data and three hypotheses tests focusing on the probability and amount remitted; consumption behaviour and probability of getting skilled position. According to findings, probability and amount remitted is determined by demographic factors and direction of effects differs in the case of regularly and one- time payments. Altruism and business financing are primary motives to remit. Remittances appear to be transferred by informal channels into the productive forms of consumption. A procurement of skilled position is positively influenced by human capital factors but also reflects labour market situation in the destination country. JEL Classification C31,C35,C51,C52, C83, E21, E27, F24, F22, J15, J24, J61, Y10 Keywords...

The Master Thesis The depiction of events in Ukraine on photographs - ethical aspects of depicting conflict presents a case study focused on depiction of Ukrainian crisis in photographs during a defined period of time of 2014 in five Czech and five foreign newspapers. The first part of the thesis introduces the theoretical concepts that are the basis for the analysis. The analytical part presents the research of depiction of the Ukrainian events in news photographs in the daily newspapers using the technique of content picture analysis. The results let us compare the differences between the approach of the individual Czech and foreign newspapers to the issue of publishing graphic images of violence and its victims. Based on these findings, the thesis tries to define the contemporary trends regarding the ethical issues of photojournalism. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)