Thesis advisor: David A. Deese / My research builds upon the resource curse and external democracy promotion literatures to assess the prospects of transparency advocacy in non-democratic resource-rich countries. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan are all rich in hydrocarbons; however, in the last two decades, they have shown significant variation in terms of the transparency of oil revenues and expenditures. While Azerbaijan undertook substantial reforms to make its government revenues from oil almost completely transparent, Turkmenistan refrained from disclosing its revenues from natural gas exports. Finally, Kazakhstan, while undertaking some reforms, lagged behind Azerbaijan in pursuing a fully transparent revenue management policy. In authoritarian countries, transparency-related governance reforms are shaped by an interaction between international and domestic factors. Transparency in natural resource revenues is promoted by global actors including states, international financial institutions, and transnational networks as a measure to prevent or minimize corruption and mismanagement of revenues. In all three of my cases, the lack of public accountability and limited civil society activism prevented domestic agents from carrying out successful institutional reforms. In each case, the preferences of the elites have been important determinants of the degree of economic reform. I argue that transparency promotion from outside is expected to lead to institutional reform when it is matched with strong incentives for compliance. These incentives are created mostly by external actors, including states, international organizations, and international companies; yet they are also conditioned by the domestic economic and political landscape. Three cases from the Caspian region fully demonstrate the potential for different institutional outcomes among resource-dependent countries. A comparison of these countries' experiences will not only shed light on our understanding of the resource dependency and institutions, but also explain the institutional variance among the many non-democratic countries. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

Many argue that personalization is needed in a modern marketing strategy. Whilst there are several positive aspects of personalization, e.g. improved customer satisfaction rates, it can also lead to firms being perceived as intrusive and elicit privacy concerns. This dilemma describes the personalization paradox, which refers to the two-sided results of using personalized communication by collecting and analyzing consumer data. To address the issue of how firms balance the need for personalization while still respecting consumers’ privacy, previous researchers have mainly investigated the issue from the consumer perspective. However, the consumer is believed to display a paradoxical behavior in regards to personalization. Therefore, we have addressed this issue through interviewing 12 company representatives from 7 companies. Our findings indicate that companies are mindful when creating personalized content and do acknowledge the issues with privacy and the risk of being perceived as intrusive. To overcome the personalization paradox, firms are not explicit about their data analysis in their personalized communication as this can lead to consumers feeling discomfort. Finally, an essential way that firms can prevent privacy concerns is to create relevant content as this outweighs feelings of discomfort. These findings to a certain extent do not reflect the empirical research on the topic, however the discrepancies may exist as previous studies were conducted from the consumer side.

O Acordo de Capital ?Basiléia 2? traz importantes inovações à regulação prudencial do sistema bancário internacional. A principal delas é a possibilidade dos bancos desenvolverem e utilizarem modelos internos de adequação de capital. Contudo, esta possibilidade exige que estes modelos sejam validados, tanto pelas autoridades supervisoras, quanto pelos demais participantes do mercado. Em virtude disto, o referido Acordo está estruturado em três pilares: Pilar 1, dos requisitos mínimos de capital; Pilar 2, do processo de revisão do órgão supervisor; e Pilar 3, da disciplina de mercado. O Pilar 3 estabelece exigências mínimas e recomendações sobre as informações que devem ser divulgadas pelos bancos, a fim de garantir ao mercado as condições para avaliar os riscos incorridos pelo banco e sua adequação da quantidade de capital. Sob a luz das recomendações do Acordo ?Basiléia 2?, foi analisada a transparência das demonstrações contábeis dos principais bancos brasileiros. Concluiu-se que a divulgação dos bancos no Brasil encontra-se num estágio incipiente, uma vez que foram divulgados apenas 26% dos itens pesquisados, próximo ao mínimo exigido pela legislação brasileira em vigor, enquanto que os bancos internacionais, analisados em uma pesquisa conduzida pelo Comitê da Basiléia, divulgaram 63% dos itens. / The ?Basel 2? brings important innovations to prudential regulation of international banking system. The main innovation is the possibility of banks to develop and use internal models to capital adequacy. However, this possibility demands these models to be validated by both the supervisory authorities and the market participants. As a result, the Accord is structured into three pillars: pillar 1 ? minimum capital requirement, pillar 2 ? supervisory review process, and pillar 3 ? market discipline. The pillar 3 establishes minimum requirements and recommendations about the information ought to be disclosed by banks, in order to guarantee the market the conditions to assess the risks incurred by the bank and its capital adequacy. According to the recommendations of ?Basel 2?, the financial statements disclosure of the most important Brazilian banks was analyzed. It was concluded the disclosure of banks in Brazil is in a budding stage, since only 26% of the items surveyed were disclosed, nearly the minimum required by Brazilian legislation in effect, whereas the international banks analyzed in a survey conducted by the Basel Committee disclosed 63% of the items.

O mercado de capitais, e especialmente o mercado secundário, está entre os setores da economia que reagem mais prontamente às inovações tecnológicas. Nos últimos anos, o desenvolvimento tecnológico e das telecomunicações alterou dramaticamente a configuração do mercado secundário: os pregões viva-voz desapareceram, dando lugar aos sistemas eletrônicos de negociação que executam negócios a velocidades imperceptíveis ao ser humano. Concomitantemente, alterações regulatórias visando ao aumento da concorrência nos mercados secundários proporcionaram a criação de ambientes de negociação com e sem transparência, gerando a fragmentação da liquidez. No Brasil, embora o mercado seja altamente eletronificado e o processo de alteração regulatória também tenha ocorrido, não se verificou o aumento da concorrência no mercado secundário de ações. A partir de uma análise comparativa com mercados fragmentados, este trabalho propõe algumas reformas na regulação brasileira com vistas a melhoraria da qualidade do mercado por meio da introdução de concorrência. / Capital markets, and especially the secondary market, are among the sectors that react more quickly to technological innovations. In recent years, technological and telecommunication developments dramatically changed the structure of the secondary market: the open outcry sessions disappeared, giving way to electronic trading systems with execution speeds imperceptible to humans. At the same time, regulatory changes aimed at increasing competition in the secondary markets led to the creation of lit and dark trading venues, generating the fragmentation of liquidity. In Brazil, although the market is highly electronic and the regulatory change process has also occurred, there was no increased competition in the secondary stock market. From a comparative analysis with fragmented markets, this paper proposes some reforms in the Brazilian regulation in order to improve the quality of the market through the introduction of competition.

Essa pesquisa discute a relação entre transparência e accountability no âmbito da contratualização de resultados com as organizações sociais de cultura do Estado de São Paulo. Parte-se de uma perspectiva instrumental e limitada da transparência, compreendendo-a como um requisito importante para demonstrar o desempenho e os resultados atingidos pelos agentes públicos, mas que, no entanto, dependeria dos arranjos institucionais de controle para influenciar na accountability. Neste contexto, verificou-se com Heald (2006) que a transparência ocorre em retrospecto por meio do fornecimento periódico de informações para a prestação de contas, e é centrada na evidenciação de eventos - inputs, outputs e outcomes do contrato de gestão e não nos seus processos de execução. Sendo assim, a transparência depende da atuação integrada dos controles interno e externo, com fornecimento tempestivo e eficaz de informações que permitam a responsabilização dos agentes perante os resultados. A partir disso, foi feito um estudo dos apontamentos do Tribunal de Contas do Estado de São Paulo sobre as prestações de contas das OSs de Cultura de São Paulo, procurando-se identificar as falhas mais recorrentes, sua relação com os eventos de transparência previstos e sua influência no julgamento de irregularidade, para então analisar como o fluxo de informações se posiciona no atingimento da accountability. Tal esforço analítico resultou no reconhecimento da fragilidade da relação entre transparência e accountability: a falta de transparência dos inputs do contrato de gestão foi preponderante para o julgamento de irregularidade de alguns ajustes; no entanto, no que se refere aos outputs do contrato, a verificação foi difusa, uma vez que os documentos são menos mensuráveis e dependem da atuação consistente do controle interno, que em geral não ocorre. Sendo assim, o fluxo de informações do contrato de gestão não expõe os componentes do contrato e, tampouco, permite a verificação dos resultados alcançados, dificultando a obtenção da accountability de resultados / This research discusses the relationship between transparency and accountability within the results of contracting with social culture organizations in São Paulo state. Part is an instrumental and limited perspective of transparency, understanding it as an important requirement to demonstrate the performance and results achieved by the public, but which, however, depend on the institutional arrangements of control to influence accountability. In this context, it was with Heald (2006) that transparency occurs in retrospect - through the regular provision of information for accountability, and is centered on the events of disclosure - inputs, outputs and outcomes of the management contract and not in their implementation processes. Thus, transparency depends on the integrated internal and external control activities with timely and effective provision of information to the accountability of agents towards the results. From this, a study was made of the notes of the São Paulo State Court of Auditors on the supply of accounts of the OSs of Culture of São Paulo, seeking to identify the most frequent failures, its relationship with the envisaged transparency events and its influence on judgment error, and then examine how the information flow is positioned in the accountability achievement.This analytical effort resulted in the recognition of the fragility of the relationship between transparency and accountability: the lack of transparency in the inputs of management contract was leading to the judgment of irregularity some adjustments, however, with regard to the outputs of the contract, verification it was widespread, since the documents are less measurable and depend on the timely performance of internal control, which generally does not occur. Thus, flow information of management contract does not expose the contract components and either allows the verification of the results achieved, making it difficult to obtain the results of accountability

Esta dissertação visa contribuir com uma agenda específica na Ciência Política, a saber, a questão da transparência de dados econômicos e sociais. Apesar da importância que tem sido dada ao tema, são poucos os estudos que analisam os determinantes políticos da transparência. Quando o fazem, utilizam medidas de democracia e variáveis socioeconômicas em sua explicação. Nosso texto vai além disso e identifica que a variação no nível de transparência pode ser explicada por variáveis institucionais e de competição política, vale dizer, o tipo de forma de governo e força da oposição em países democráticos, em um primeiro momento, e a consolidação democrática na sobre as novas democracias da América Latina em sequência. A nossa análise se debruça sobre uma amostra de 78 países de 1980 a 2007 e evidência efeitos significativos de nossas variáveis explicativas. / This thesis aims to contribute to a specific agenda in political science, namely the issue of transparency of economic and social data. Despite the importance that has been given to this issue, there are few studies that examine the political determinants of transparency. When they do, they are using measures of democracy and socioeconomic variables in their explanation. Our text goes beyond this and identifies that change in the level of transparency can be explained by institutional variables and political competition, that is, the kind of form of government and opposition forces in democratic countries, at first, and the consolidation democratic in on the new democracies in Latin America in sequence. Our analysis focuses on a sample of 78 countries from 1980 to 2007 and evidence significant effects of our explanatory variables.

This dissertation examines administrative roles within the context of everyday public administration. Specifically, it studies the relationship between administrative roles assumed by public administrators and (1) the perceived presence of administrative discretion, (2) individual level beliefs regarding involvement in policy formulation and (3) tenure with organization. This dissertation has a three-fold purpose. First, it delineates the types of roles assumed by public procurement specialists. Second, it tests whether administrative discretion, beliefs regarding participation in policy formulation and organizational tenure are significant in explaining the assumption of certain types of roles. Finally, the dissertation evaluates the implications for the public procurement process of the predominance of certain roles. vi The theoretical logic for this dissertation draws on the theory of representative bureaucracy and role theory. ... It is found that administrative discretion, individual expectations and organizational tenure are indeed important predictors of the assumption of administrative roles. Administrators who believe that they have access to relatively high levels of discretion and those who believe they should be involved in policy formulation are more likely to assume a representative type role. On the other hand, with increased tenure public administrators are less likely to assume a representative type role. / by Alexandru Vasile Roman. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

O Acordo de Capital ?Basiléia 2? traz importantes inovações à regulação prudencial do sistema bancário internacional. A principal delas é a possibilidade dos bancos desenvolverem e utilizarem modelos internos de adequação de capital. Contudo, esta possibilidade exige que estes modelos sejam validados, tanto pelas autoridades supervisoras, quanto pelos demais participantes do mercado. Em virtude disto, o referido Acordo está estruturado em três pilares: Pilar 1, dos requisitos mínimos de capital; Pilar 2, do processo de revisão do órgão supervisor; e Pilar 3, da disciplina de mercado. O Pilar 3 estabelece exigências mínimas e recomendações sobre as informações que devem ser divulgadas pelos bancos, a fim de garantir ao mercado as condições para avaliar os riscos incorridos pelo banco e sua adequação da quantidade de capital. Sob a luz das recomendações do Acordo ?Basiléia 2?, foi analisada a transparência das demonstrações contábeis dos principais bancos brasileiros. Concluiu-se que a divulgação dos bancos no Brasil encontra-se num estágio incipiente, uma vez que foram divulgados apenas 26% dos itens pesquisados, próximo ao mínimo exigido pela legislação brasileira em vigor, enquanto que os bancos internacionais, analisados em uma pesquisa conduzida pelo Comitê da Basiléia, divulgaram 63% dos itens. / The ?Basel 2? brings important innovations to prudential regulation of international banking system. The main innovation is the possibility of banks to develop and use internal models to capital adequacy. However, this possibility demands these models to be validated by both the supervisory authorities and the market participants. As a result, the Accord is structured into three pillars: pillar 1 ? minimum capital requirement, pillar 2 ? supervisory review process, and pillar 3 ? market discipline. The pillar 3 establishes minimum requirements and recommendations about the information ought to be disclosed by banks, in order to guarantee the market the conditions to assess the risks incurred by the bank and its capital adequacy. According to the recommendations of ?Basel 2?, the financial statements disclosure of the most important Brazilian banks was analyzed. It was concluded the disclosure of banks in Brazil is in a budding stage, since only 26% of the items surveyed were disclosed, nearly the minimum required by Brazilian legislation in effect, whereas the international banks analyzed in a survey conducted by the Basel Committee disclosed 63% of the items.

This thesis presents the development of photonic microcells for use as the host for coherent optics phenomena and related applications. A photonic microcell consists of a length of hollow-core photonic crystal fibre (HC-PCF) with a gas-filled core that is spliced to conventional optical fibre at either end to seal the gas within the fibre. Towards the goal of demonstrating and assessing the coherence properties of quantum optical effects in photonic microcells, the fabrication of two types of HC-PCF is presented. The established photonic bandgap HC-PCF offers extremely low transmission loss of ~10 dB/km over kilometre distances. However, the fibre has a limited transmission bandwidth of ~50 THz and exhibits modal coupling unfavourable for many applications. Work is presented on the tailoring of this fibre by control and shaping of the core-surround in order to improve its modal properties. A second type of HC-PCF is based on a large-pitch lattice, whose guidance relies on a new mechanism. This fibre exhibits a much improved bandwidth (>1000 THz) and has a relatively higher but still practical loss of ~1 dB/m. The development of photonic microcells at microbar pressure level and with low optical insertion loss is shown, an important step in the improvement of the technology for coherent optics applications which will take advantage of the extreme gas-laser interaction efficiency achieved in HC-PCF. Finally, quantum optical effects are demonstrated in HC-PCF and photonic microcells loaded with both the molecular gas acetylene and atomic vapour rubidium. The observation of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in acetylene-filled HC-PCF represents the first such observation in a molecular gas, while the use of a photonic microcell allows a comparison of many experimental configurations to explore the coherence properties of coherent optical systems in the core of a HC-PCF. Furthermore, EIT is observed unambiguously in a rubidium loaded HC-PCF for the first time, and the anti-relaxation effects of a polymer coating demonstrated in this configuration.

För att ett företag ska kunna hålla sig flytande på marknaden idag krävs de att de har hundra procent koll på vad som sker i deras fabriker och att de strävar efter en mer hållbar tillverkningsprocess. Att försäkra konsumenterna om att fabrikerna inte använder sig av barnarbete eller dåliga arbetsförhållanden räcker inte längre utan det krävs en bredare kunskap inom miljö och hållbar utveckling för att den trogna kunden ska stanna. Syftet med denna rapport är att kontrollera det nyuppstartade företaget DENIM IS DEAD’s produktion och utvärdera om hur man kan förädla de olika processtegen samt skapa transparens gentemot kund.Metoden som arbetet utformades efter var genom en fallstudie som är baserad på en mestadels deduktiv metod men med inslag av induktiv metod. Där grunden lades genom en utförlig faktainsamling för att i rapportens senare del kunna analysera de hypoteser och problemformuleringar som ställts.Målet med rapporten var att ta fram en metod eller produkt som ska underlätta kommunikationen med DENIM IS DEAD’s kund. Resultatet av detta blev en prototyp på en hang-­‐tag och en broschyr, som ska följa med varje par jeans som hamnar i butik. Där ska information gällande deras produkt och produktion finnas med.Resultatet av vår studie visade att många företag idag arbetar mot en tydlig miljöprofil som de profilerar både i sin interna och externa kommunikation. En tydlig trend vi såg var att konsumenten blir mer medveten av kvaliten i deras köp och sätter mer press på producenterna.Environmentally friendly and sustainable are keywords for companies with consumers becoming more and more enlightened. Just ensuring that the production follows local laws and doesn’t use child labour is no longer enough. A brand must be prepared to adapt their production to follow environmental regulation and can also get an edge by going one step further.We have focused production process within the jeans industry and have done a case study by gathering facts to enable us to analyse and discuss the various production issues within the jeans industry.One of our goals was to map the production of the company DENIM IS DEAD and find a simple way of communicating their profile to the consumer in a transparent way. We came up with a hang-­‐tag that allows them to profile their brand and their production process. Our study showed that many companies use an environmental/sustainable profile in both their internal and external marketing campaigns. Many of today’s consumers value quality and sustainability above price and this puts pressure on the producers. / Program: Textil produktutveckling med entreprenörs- och affärsinriktning