The aim of the thesis is to understand why European countries show a very different picture of female employment (in their fertile ages) which is not the case for men of the same age. We shed light on the various positions of countries in this framework of earner-carer models, in analysing policy designs, policy outcomes and policy determinants. That is, respectively, family policy indicators, employment of mothers and childless women, gender role attitudes and their interacting effect with policies and employment outcomes. We have used a wide range of primary or secondary quantitative and qualitative data to carry out our comparative analysis, mixing approaches, techniques and methods, from micro-econometric models to macro-level harmonised indicators, supplemented with a case study. The dissertation is divided in three parts, each focusing on one question: (i) Are there complementarities or distinctions between types of family policies across Europe, as regards gender equality and dual-earner friendliness, and how can we compare different policy settings as they are found to be very heterogeneous? (ii) To what extent can institutional settings explain cross-country differences in female employment outcomes, and especially those of mothers, in a context of decreasing fertility? (iii) Do individual preferences counteract (or reinforce) the policy impact on employment in connexion with the prevalence of traditional gender role attitudes? Results show that the institutional variation across countries explains a great deal of differences in female employment, especially for mothers. If policies are not supportive of the dual-earner model, even those women who have a stronger preference for labour market attachment face obstacles that reduce their employment opportunities in the presence of young children. However, even in countries where a somewhat dual-earner friendly model is favoured, our detailed analysis of policy instruments reveals that gender equality is still far from being achieved.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the definition of the phenomenon corruption, and also if corruption can be measured. There are many definition of the concept, the most common and simplest definition being the one by the World Bank “the abuse of public power for private benefit” (Tanzi, 1998: 564). Various organizations measure corruption and each organization uses different methods to collect information. Many organizations present their results by ranking countries according to a scale, making a cross-country comparison. Using their own specific scaling gives a general view of how corrupted a country is. In this thesis, five international organizations are chosen. What they all have in common is that they are connected to corruption in some way. Most of the five organizations do not devote their time only on investigating corruption. Out of the five it is only Transparency International who focuses exclusively corruption. The other four organizations investigate corruption as a part of a more extensive research. The information from defining corruption and information based on international organizations are applied to four countries chosen for this study. The four countries are: Denmark, Greece, Italy and Sweden. The countries are chosen due to that they are all members of the European Union. Denmark and Sweden are generally placed on a high ranking when organizations measure corruption, indicating that there is little corruption in the country. Greece and Italy are not ranked as high as the two Nordic countries. This thesis is based on various literature and information from organizations, especially when investigating how corruption can be measured among countries.

In Bezug auf irreguläre Migrationsformen, die sich den bestehenden rechtlichen Einreise- und Aufenthaltsregelungen entziehen, wird nur selten hinterfragt, inwieweit diese durch Attribution von Aufenthaltsmerkmalen konstruiert werden. Entscheidend hierfür ist die national(staatlich)e Zugehörigkeit. Die vorliegende Arbeit fokussiert die Wechselwirkungen von Illegalität und Illegalisierung. Um die Konstruktionsmechanismen besser aufzudecken, wurde ein Ländervergleich zwischen Deutschland und Frankreich gewählt. So wurden Zeitungsartikel aus jeweils zwei deutschen und französischen Zeitungen inhaltsanalytisch untersucht. Zwei zentrale Fragestellungen standen im Vordergrund. Zum einen wurde untersucht, in welchem Kontext Illegalität und Illegalisierung thematisiert werden und in welcher Gewichtung sie auftreten. Des Weiteren wurde betrachtet, welche Argumentationen im Umgang mit den Betroffenen im öffentlichen Diskurs dargestellt werden. Dabei wurde festgestellt, dass stärker als angenommen Illegalisierungselemente in den Medien dargestellt werden, allerdings kaum als solche benannt werden. Illegalität und Illegalisierung werden darüber hinaus kaum in einen Zusammenhang gestellt. Argumente werden selten detailliert dargestellt, wobei in der Regel eine Rückbindung an allgemeine Zuwanderungsdiskurse zu beobachten ist. Ein diskursiver Exkurs deckt wesentliche Unterschiede zwischen Deutschland und Frankreich auf. Die Arbeit versucht, das Bild von Migranten ohne regulären Aufenthaltsstatus zu differenzieren und Fragen im Umgang mit Fremdheitserfahrungen zu erörtern.

The aim of the thesis is to understand why European countries show a very different picture of female employment (in their fertile ages) which is not the case for men of the same age. We shed light on the various positions of countries in this framework of earner-carer models, in analysing policy designs, policy outcomes and policy determinants. That is, respectively, family policy indicators, employment of mothers and childless women, gender role attitudes and their interacting effect with policies and employment outcomes. We have used a wide range of primary or secondary quantitative and qualitative data to carry out our comparative analysis, mixing approaches, techniques and methods, from micro-econometric models to macro-level harmonised indicators, supplemented with a case study.<p>The dissertation is divided in three parts, each focusing on one question:<p>(i)\ / Doctorat en sciences de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished