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Thesis advisor: Utku Unver / Thesis advisor: Bumin Yenmez / This dissertation consists of two chapters. Both are centered around the theory and design of markets, in which the use of money is prohibited and/or strongly undesirable. In my first chapter, I study multi-object assignment problems. Here, the assignment of graduate students to teaching assistant positions over the course of two semesters, serves as an illustrative application. In my second chapter, I propose an alternative way to distribute asylum seekers among European member states based on the preferences of both sides. Chapter 1: Multi-Object Assignment: Booster Draft In my first chapter, I ask the question of how to divide among a set of n individuals a set of n × m indivisible objects without using monetary transfers, in a way that is efficient, incentive compatible, and ex-post fair. A well known impossibility result shows that the only mechanisms that are both incentive compatible and efficient are dictatorship mechanisms. I fill a gap in the literature by describing a novel mechanism that is both incentive compatible and fair in the responsive preference domain. The mechanism is inspired by booster drafts used in competitive card game tournaments. The idea is to arbitrarily divide the set n × m objects into m \boosters" (sets) of size n and specify a priority order for each such booster. Afterwards the individuals pick objects from the boosters in order of priority. The outcome of the booster draft mechanism can be improved if additional knowledge about a particular market is incorporated into the creation of boosters. I point out a special case of multi-object assignment problems, motivated by the allocation of teaching assignments among graduate students. In this domain the creation of the boosters is straightforward. Indeed, at the Boston College economics department, graduate students are assigned exactly one fall and one spring semester task over the academic year. Here the optimal way of creating boosters is to group up all spring teaching assignments in one booster and all fall semester assignments in the other. In this case the balanced booster draft is not only strategyproof and fair, but also weakly efficient (dominance efficient). Moreover, for this restricted assignment domain I characterize the set of all booster drafts as any (strongly) strategyproof, neutral and non-bossy mechanism. In the final part of the paper I take a closer look at the teaching assistant assignment problem, using date on the submitted rankings over semester-tasks by graduate students. The simulation exercise provides additional evidence that the proposed mechanism is a sensible practical solution. In particular, I show that for a simple measure of welfare students prefer a balanced booster draft to a serial dictatorship mechanism if they are mildly risk averse. Chapter 2: An Alternative Asylum Assignment The 2015 refugee crisis has demonstrated the necessity of revising the current European asylum system. As an alternative, I propose to take into account preferences of asylum seekers as well as preferences of member states. Asylum seekers indicate how long they are willing to wait for their asylum application for any given member state, allowing them to avoid overburdened member states by opting for \less popular" member states. Within the market design literature, this is the first paper proposing to match asylum seekers as opposed to refugees. In other words, its stays much closer to the template of the Common European Asylum System. From a theoretical perspective, it turns out that the asylum seeker framework can be formulated as an application of the well-known matching with contracts model by Hatfield and Milgrom (2005a). This simplifies the analysis a great deal, as matching with contracts is a well studied framework within the matching/market design literature. I show that the standard cumulative offer mechanism (Gale and Shapley, 1962a; Hatfield and Kojima, 2010a) is asylum seeker incentive compatible and leads to stable outcomes, using the fact that the proposed choice functions have a completion satisfying substitutability and the law of aggregate demand Hatfield and Kominers (2016). Moreover, stability implies two sided Pareto efficiency, giving consideration to both preferences of member states and asylum seekers. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

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Thesis advisor: Michael Grubb / This paper investigates the discount rates applied by NFL teams to future draft picks when engaging in trades during the annual NFL Draft. Utilizing a dataset of 353 draft pick trades from 2010 to 2024, the study employs a non-linear regression model to estimate the parameters of a Weibull distribution, which captures the value decay of draft picks over time. The model incorporates a discount factor to account for the devaluation of future picks. The results provide evidence of varying discount rates across the three days of the draft, with the highest rate of approximately 182% on Day 1, and lower rates of 53% and 97% on Day 2 and Day 3, respectively. These findings suggest that NFL teams place a greater premium on immediate returns when trading early round picks. The study contributes to the understanding of decision-making under uncertainty in high-stakes environments and offers insights into the strategic considerations and market dynamics of the NFL Draft. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics. / Discipline: Departmental Honors.

Redovisning av leasing har diskuterats under många år. Den nuvarande standarden, IAS 17, har kritiserat på grund av att många företag har möjlighet att klassificera sina leasingavtal som operationella för att slippa redovisa leasingen som en tillgång eller skuld i balansräkningen. IASB och FASB jobbar gemensamt för att ändra standarden för leasingredovisning och de engagerar olika grupper av intressenter genom att de skickar in comment letters. Det första förslaget för ändringar av standarden var Exposure Draft 2010/9. Förslaget fick så många kommentarer att det resulterade i ett reviderat förslag som kom ut i maj 2013 och heter Exposure Draft 2013/6. Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka attityder från olika grupper (akademiker, upprättare, användare, redovisningsprofession, nationella reglerare och andra internationella intresseorganisationer) i Europa till det nya förslaget i Exposure Draft 2013/6 - Leasing, angående frågorna som handlar om leasingredovisning hos leasingtagare och klassifikation av leasing. Tycker de olika grupperna att det nya förslaget besvarar problemen, angående klassifikation och redovisning av leasing, som finns i den nuvarande internationella redovisningsstandarden (IAS 17) eller skapar det bara nya problem? Vi har också undersökt i vilken utsträckning dessa grupper deltar med kommentarer i comment letters. Studien är en kvalitativ undersökning där vi analyserade och tolkade kommentarer och attityder i comment letters till det nya förslaget. I den teoretiska referensramen tas upp hur forskningen bedrivs för att ta fram nya standarder, hur och i vilken grad de olika grupperna är involverade i detta genom deltagande i comment letters och den kritik som riktats mot det nya förslaget angående klassifikation och redovisning. Resultatet av studien baserades på 151 comment letters skickade till IASB/FASB. Analysen har gjorts genom att använda analysmodellen i avsnitt 3.9 och det empiriska resultatet har kopplats till den teoretiska referensramen. Resultatet visade att det inte finns några akademiker från Europa som deltagit i comment letters. Den grupp som har kommenterat comment letters i störst utsträckning har visat sig vara upprättare och detta går i linje med vad tidigare forskning visat. Majoriteten inom samtliga grupper håller inte med om det nya förslaget. Attityden mot förslaget är negativ både när det gäller redovisning hos leasingtagare och klassifikation. / Discussion on the accounting treatment of leases has been going on for many years. The current standard, IAS 17 has criticized because many companies are able to classify their leases as operational leasing agreements in order not to reflect assets and liabilities on the balance sheets. IASB and FASB working together to amend the standard for lease accounting and they involve various groups of stakeholders and individuals by submitting comment letters. The first proposal for the amendment of the standard was Exposure Draft 2010/9. The proposal received so many comments which resulted a revised proposal that came out in May 2013 and called Exposure Draft 2013/6. The aim of this study was to examine the attitudes of different groups (academics, preparers, users, the accounting profession, national regulators and other international organizations) in Europe to the new proposal of Exposure Draft 2013/6 -Leasing, regarding questions relating to lease accounting in lessee and classification. Do they think that the new proposal solve the problems concerning classification and financial statements of leasing, which is found in the current international accounting standard (IAS 17) or just create new problems. We have also investigated in which extend these groups participated with comments in the comment letters. The study is a qualitative survey where we analyzed and interpreted the comments and attitudes in the comment letters to the new proposal. In the theoretical frame addressed how research is conducted to develop new standards, how and to what extent the different groups involved in this by participating in the comment letters and the criticism leveled against the new proposal concerning classification and accounting. The results of the study are based on 151 comment letters sent to the IASB/FASB. The analysis has been made by using the analysis model in section 3.9 and the empirical results have been applied to the theoretical frame of reference. Analysis showed that there are no academics who participated in the comment letters. The group that has commented most on the comment letters have proved to be the pre-parers and this is in line with what previous research has shown. The majority of all groups do not agree with the new proposal. The attitude to the proposal is negative in terms of accounting in lessee and classification.

Leasing har länge varit en viktig finansieringskälla för företag och därför är det viktigt att redovisningen av leasingavtal ger användarna av de finansiella rapporterna en komplett och korrekt bild av företagets leasingverksamhet. Den nuvarande leasingstandarden IAS 17 har under en tid fått utstå kritik för dess komplexitet, bristen på jämförbarhet i informationen mellan företag som tillämpar samma standard, samt att den inte uppfyller användarnas informationsbehov. IASB och FASB ingick 2010 ett samarbete för att med ett gemensamt projekt ersätta den befintliga leasingstandarden. Första förslaget har blivit omarbetat och 2013 utgavs ett reviderat förslag till förändring av standarden (ED/2013/6).Syftet med vår uppsats var att ta fram de som vi ansåg var de mest uppmärksammade förslagen i ED/2013/6och med hjälp av typfall försöka att förutsäga vilka effekter dessa förslag skulle komma att få för företag om förslaget antas. Vi har med typfallen undersökt effekterna på ett exempelföretags räkenskaper och därefter även undersökt vilka effekter förändringarna fått på företagets nyckeltal.Med typfallen kommer vi fram till att förslaget får stora effekter på företagets räkenskaper och således även deras nyckeltal. Framförallt är det skuldsättningen som ökar när leasingåtagandet numera redovisas som en skuld i balansräkningen. Likaså ser vi att räntekostnaden ökar i resultaträkningen till följd av att leasingräntan nu redovisas som en räntekostnad. Avskrivningarna ökar också då rättigheten att använda leasingtillgången skrivs av på liknande sätt som om företaget hade ägt tillgången. Däremot minskar företagets kostnader när leasingavgiften inte längre redovisas som en kostnad, i enlighet med dagens operationella leasingavtal, vilket får positiva effekter på räntabiliteten på totalt kapital.Det framgår från de inkomna remissvaren att förslaget fortfarande inte uppfyller IASBs och FASBs mål med att öka användbarheten för intressenterna och jämförbarheten mellan företag samt minska komplexiteten. Företag måste fortfarande göra uppskattningar gällande fastställandet av leasingperioden, bedömningen av leasingavgifter samt omvärderingen av dessa. IASB och FASB har därför inte lyckats uppnå sitt syfte med det publicerade förslaget. En del arbete kvarstår för att erhålla en praktiskt fungerade standard.Vår studie har bidragit till forskningsområdet genom att belysa de effekter som ED/2013/6 kan komma att medföra för leasingtagare, om det antas i sin nuvarande form. Vi kom fram till att det nya förslaget inriktar sig på användarna av de finansiella rapporterna och att det på ett bättre sätt återspeglar de risker som företagen utsätts för i samband med leasingavtal. / Leasing has long been an important financing source for corporations and therefore it’s important that the disclosure of leasing arrangements provide users of financial reports a complete and accurate picture of the company’s leasing activities. The current leasing standard IAS 17 has been criticized for its complexity, lack of comparability between corporations that have adopted the same accounting standards, in addition to the fact that it doesn’t provide the users with the information they need. The IASB and FASB converged in a joint project 2010 to replace the existing leasing standard. The first proposal has been revised and 2013 they issued a revised exposure draft (ED/2013/6).The purpose of this essay is to analyze the ED/2013/6 and focus on the parts that we deemed to be extra interesting. With the help of typical cases we tried to foresee the impact these parts of the revised exposure draft would have on corporations and their financial reports and by extension their key figures if the proposal is accepted in its current state. In the typical cases we reach the conclusion that the proposal will have an impact on the lessees financial statements and by extension its key figures. Especially the debt to equity ratio increases when the lease liability is reported on the balance sheet. We also noticed that the rent expense increased as a consequence of the rent arising from the lease contract. The depreciation also increases since the right of use asset is being amortized in the same way as if the company owned the lease asset. In contrary the rest, the corporations reported expenses decrease since the lease expense is no longer reported as an expense in the financial reports, in contrast to the current standards operational lease contracts. This is something that has a positive impact on the return on capital key figure.From the comment letters it can be understood that the proposal still doesn’t achieve IASB’s and FASB’s objective to improve the usefulness for the companies’ stakeholders and the comparability between corporations as well as reducing the complexity. Corporations still have to make estimates regarding the duration of the lease period, assessing the lease expense and reevaluating the both of them if necessary. Some work still remains before IASB and FASB can accomplish the purpose to attain a practically working standard.Our study’s contribution to the field has been to illustrate the impact that ED/2103/6 will have on lessees. We conclude that the proposal aim to provide accurate information for the users of the financial reports and as such better reflects the risks associated with the lease arrangements for lessees.The essay is hereafter written in Swedish.

Titel Den outforskade parten i ett leasingavtal – En studie om hur leasegivande företag kommer att påverkas ifall en ny redovisningsstandard för leasing införs Författare Fredrik Hellblom-Björn och Daniel Håkansson Handledare Rolf Rundfelt Introduktion IASB har under lång tid diskuterat behovet av en ny redovisningsstandard för leasing. Förslagen har mottagit mycket kritik, då många anser att de inte förbättrar redovisningen. Trots den stora kritiken på förslagen till leasegivares redovisning, har väldigt få studier genomförts på leasegivare. Syfte Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur leasegivande företag kommer att påverkas om en ny redovisningsstandard för leasing införs. Metod Studiens induktiva ansats innebär att insamlad empiri har bildat grund för de slutsatser som dras. Undersökningens design har följt en Små-N-studie, vilket innebär att ett mindre antal kvalitativa intervjuer har utförts. Intervjuerna har genomförts med redovisningsexperter,leasegivarrepresentanter och en analytiker. Slutsats Studien visar att en ny redovisningsstandard för leasingkommer att påverka leasegivare på flera olika sätt. Till följd av ökade krav på upplysningar, samt en mer komplexredovisning, kommer leasegivare påverkas negativt kostnadsmässigt. Främst sker detta via högre administrativa kostnader och betydande implementeringskostnader.Leasegivarna riskerar även att påverkas negativt av en minskad efterfrågan av leasing som finansieringslösning, tillföljd av en mer komplex redovisning för leasetagarna. / Title The unexplored part of a lease – A study on how lessors will be affected if a new accounting standard for leases is adopted Authors Fredrik Hellblom-Björn och Daniel Håkansson Supervisor Rolf Rundfelt Introduction The IASB has for a long time discussed the need for a new accounting standard for leases. The proposed standards havemet a lot of criticism, since many find they don’t enhance the accounting. In spite of the criticism of lessor accounting,very few studies have been conducted on lessors. Aim The purpose of this study is to explore how lessors will beaffected if a new accounting standard for leases is adopted. Method The inductive approach of the study means that the gathered empirical material forms the basis for the made conclusions.The design of the study is a small-N study, which means that a small number of interviews have been conducted. The interviews were held with accounting experts, lessors and afinancial analyst. Conclusion The study shows that a new accounting standard for leases will affect lessors in several ways. A consequence of increased mandatory disclosure and a more complex accounting will affect the lessors costs negatively. The costs will primarily increase through higher administrative burden and implementation costs. The lessors also risk being affected negatively by a decreased demand for leasing as financing solution as a consequence of more complex lessee accounting.

Thesis (MA (History))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / From 1952 until the ending of apartheid in 1994, South Africa possessed a system of compulsory military service for white males. Until 1967, conscription was not universal and men were selected by ballot to attend military training. From 1967 onwards, all medically fit white South African males were obliged to perform national service, a service which from the mid 1970s often included tours of duty on the border of Angola and South African-occupied Namibia, and later tours of duty in Angola or within the townships of South Africa herself. This thesis looks at aspects of the public reactions to compulsory military service in white South Africa. It traces the evolution of anti-conscription sentiment amongst the white community, juxtaposed with the continued support for compulsory military service that was found in many quarters up until the end of apartheid. It makes a brief examination of the anti-conscription organisations that existed, most notably the End Conscription Campaign, analysing their impact on white society as well as discussing their limitations. The impacts of conscription are also considered, looking at some implications of compulsory military service for the men involved, for society as a whole, and for the Defence Force in which the conscripts served. A thorough examination is also made of the motivations that existed for young men to either acquiesce to or reject military service, taking into account the unique set of circumstances that prevailed in South Africa during the military service era. While South Africa during these years has no direct parallel anywhere else in the world, this thesis briefly discusses South African conscription in an international context, demonstrating, where relevant, the similarities and differences between the South African experience and those of other Western nations, such as Britain, France, Israel and the United States of America. While a reasonable amount of literature and other media exist pertaining to South African conscription, this thesis demonstrates how many of these works are unsatisfactory, and how the topic is in some respects becoming largely misunderstood in both academia and in wider society. The current existence of a number of false beliefs, or myths, about South African conscription is discussed, along with an assessment of how and why these myths were created.

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No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Stela Barros RIbeiro - 2016.pdf: 2466812 bytes, checksum: 6dcf03c36d51185279b526d71c61bd43 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-11 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The development of genomic analysis technologies, mainly the next generation sequencing platforms (NGS), has enabled to obtain a large amount of DNA sequencing information. The association between NGS data and cutting edge computational tools affords access to whole genome information for different organisms, through whole genome assembly (or partial) and structural and functional characterization. The cagaiteira tree (E. dysenterica DC.) is one of the Cerrado native species with potential utilization in crop production systems, due to its products exploration: fruits, leaves and bark. Besides, it has ecological importance for food availability to local fauna. Despite the efforts made, little is known about the organization and genetic structure of the cagaiteira tree. The previous researches take into account a reduced number of molecular markers applied to mating systems studies and effects of micro evolutionary events in populations. In this study we obtained an assembly and a partial characterization of E. dysenterica genome, regarding number, structure and function of genes and repetitive DNA. We obtained DNA sequences for five individuals from different populations using Illumina MiSeq sequencing platform. The quality control was performed with FasQc and Trimmomatic. We assembled the reads using dipSPAdes and used blastn and Samtools to verify the assembly quality. We used Repeat Masker, Repeat Modeler and QDD to identify and characterize the repetitive DNA content. For gene prediction and annotation we used AUGUSTUS and Blast2GO. The raw DNA sequences amounted 8.64 Gb, distributed in 63,017,960 reads. After trimming for low quality, the amount decreased to 5.63 Gb, distributed in 59,415,168 reads. After filtering for organellar DNA and contigs smaller than 500 bp, we assembled 130,243 contigs, representing 56.7% (~250 Mb) of estimated E.dysenterica genome size (~442 Mb). About 35.3% of genome assembled comprised repetitive regions, of which 27.1% are transposable elements (most LTR retrotransposons). We identified 55,491 microsatellite regions, 46,701 mononucleotides and 8,403 dinucleotides. The T/A motif was the most common follow by A/T and GA/TC. We predicted 60,171 gene fragments and 228,510 transcripts. We observed a gene density of 1 gene per 7.3 Kb and an average of 3.8 transcripts per gene. This study makes the cagaiteira tree the first native plant species from Cerrado of which genome was widely sampled and characterized using NGS data. / Com o desenvolvimento das tecnologias de análise genômica, entre elas o sequenciamento de nova geração (NGS), a obtenção de uma grande quantidade de dados de sequenciamento de DNA é hoje uma realidade. Estes dados, associados às ferramentas computacionais desenvolvidas para sua análise, permitem o acesso às informações sobre genomas de diversos organismos, através da montagem de suas sequências parciais ou completas, bem como sua caracterização estrutural e funcional. A cagaiteira (E.dysenterica DC.) é uma das espécies nativas do Cerrado que possui potencial de utilização em sistemas de produção agrícola, devido ao potencial de utilização de seus frutos, folhas e casca além de possuir grande valor ecológico, por servir de alimento para a fauna nas suas regiões de ocorrência. Apesar dos avanços obtidos, pouco se sabe sobre a organização e estrutura genética desta espécie, visto que os trabalhos já realizados fazem o uso de um pequeno número de marcadores moleculares, aplicados a estudos sobre sistema cruzamento e efeitos de eventos microevolutivos nas populações. Foi realizada a montagem e a caracterização parcial o genoma de E.dysenterica com relação à quantidade, estrutura e função de genes e DNAs repetitivos, de forma a agregar informações àquelas já existentes. DNAs de cinco indivíduos de populações distintas foram sequenciados utilizando a plataforma Illumina MiSeq. O controle de qualidade das sequências genômicas obtidas foi feito utilizando o FastQc e o Trimmomatic. O draft assembly foi obtido utilizando o dipSpades e o controle de qualidade do assembly foi feito utilizando o blastn e o SamTools. A identificação e caracterização de regiões repetitivas foi feita com os programas RepeatMasker, RepeatModeler e QDD. Para a predição e anotação de genes foram utilizados os programas AUGUSTUS e o Blast2GO. Foi obtido um volume inicial de 8,64 Gb de sequências, distribuídos em 63.017.960 reads. Este valor diminuiu para após o controle de qualidade, restando 5,63 Gb, distribuídos em 59.415.168 reads. Mesmo com diminuição da quantidade de dados, foi observado o aumento das taxas de alinhamento entre o genoma de E.dysentera e E.grandis, espécie mais próxima à cagaiteira, cujo genoma já foi sequenciado. Após a retirada de DNAs organelares e contigs menores que 500 bases, foram obtidos 130.243 contigs, representando 56,7% (~250 Mb) do tamanho estimado para o genoma de E.dysenterica (~442 Mb). Cerca de 35,3% do assembly é composto por regiões repetitivas das quais 27,1% são elementos transponíveis, sendo a maioria pertencente à ordem LTR retrotransposons. Foram identificadas 55.491 regiões microssatélites das quais 46.701 são monocleotídeos e 8.403 são dinucleotídeos. O motivo de repetição T/A foi o mais frequente, seguido por A/T e GA/TC. Foram preditos 60.171 fragmentos gênicos e 228.510 transcritos. Observou-se uma densidade de 1 gene a cada 7,3 kb e uma média de 3,8 transcritos por gene. Diante dos resultados obtidos e a abordagem utilizada, este trabalho faz da cagaiteira a primeira espécie vegetal nativa do Cerrado cujo genoma foi amplamente amostrado e caracterizado utilizando dados NGS.