Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / This research investigates the performance of private sector participation (PSP) in the water sector from a governance perspective. It is concerned with the role that institutions play in the interaction between the state and the private sector, which occurs with respect to the regulation and implementation of such PSP arrangements. The research takes place within the context of a development debate and practice, which identifies water as a key poverty issue in a substantial part of the developing countries, which advocates private sector participation as a remedy to inadequate water management and which acknowledges good governance as a crucial requirement for development. Nevertheless, few studies have scrutinized the impact of governance and institutions on the outcome of PSP arrangements in the water sector. Most research on the performance of PSP arrangements has examined exogenous and endogenous determinants, such as the price mechanism and the property rights allocation, but these factors proved unsatisfactory as explaining variables in the context of natural resource management. To contribute to filling a gap in research this study aims at evaluating the impact of institutional frameworks on the outcome of private sector participation in water supply and sanitation through a case study of the Management Contract for Water and Wastewater Service in the Amman Governorate, Jordan. At the end of the 1990s the quality of water supply and sanitation in the Jordanian capital Amman was unsatisfactory, as supply was insufficient and entailed high costs. Therefore, in 1999, the government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan contracted a private joint venture to improve water service provision in the Amman Governorate. The research takes into account the specific institutional framework for the mentioned arrangement in Amman, which is comprised of the national judicial and political institutions, the specific regulatory institutions as well as relevant international institutions. These institutions are not limited to laws and regulations only, but also include informal institutions such as traditions. The specific objective of this study is to show how the institutional framework of a transaction affects regulatory processes by abating and amplifying the potential for opportunistic behavior of the contracting parties, and thereby affecting the performance of a privately operated water utility. The examination of the institutional framework of the Amman Management Contract revealed that mainly judicial and international institutions and specific contract rules were constraining the discretion of the contracting parties. Political checks and balances were insufficiently established and the regulatory institutions of the water sector were set up in an improper way. The field study discovered that the resulting discretionary power of certain actor was used opportunistically, which had a detrimental effect on the outcome of the PSP arrangement. Nevertheless the overall performance of the arrangement was good from which the general insight was drawn that regulatory credibility may be developed even in unpropitious environments. However, to be able to judge upon the effect of governance and institutions on a planned or existing PSP arrangement each time a complex assessment of the respective institutional environment is necessary. This is because institutions may not be seen as independent building blocks but rather form a network which is likely to be unique for each country and situation. The mini-thesis is organized as follows. In Chapter 1 an outline of the study and its problem background is provided. Chapter 2 provides a detailed literature review and sets out the theoretical framework and research hypotheses of the study. Chapter 3 outlines the research design and methodology that was used for the study. Chapter 4 provides background detail on the Jordanian political, economic and social situation, on the issues pertaining to the water sector, andon the Amman water contract. Chapter 5 provides a description and analysis of the main research findings. Chapter 6 provides a summary as well as final conclusions and considerations.

The energy sector of Ukraine is of strategic importance not only within the national economy, but is also significant from a European perspective, because it includes transit energy networks that are essential for a large part of Europe. The fundamental problem still remains low energy efficiency of the economy, obsolete infrastructure, dysfunctional system and the absence of major reforms. At the moment, another round of reforms is taking place under the influence of a rapprochement with the European Union, to modernize the sector and adapt it to European standards. This work describes the development of the sector and the reform efforts since independence until today with a particular focus on the gas sector and the period 2014 to 2017. This is particularly the developments in the energy market, pricing policies, availability, security and decentralization of the system. In addition, the work also focuses on the development of energy efficiency, the environment and renewable energy sources. Following on the theoretical basis (especially the theory of institutional economics) through analysis of described facts assesses developments in the reforms and their impact on the whole sector including evaluation of the role and influence of oligarchs in these reform attempts. In terms of reforms, four...

UNIVERZITA KARLOVA FAKULTA SOCIÁLNÍCH VĚD INSTITUT POLITOLOGICKÝCH STUDIÍ Vplyv implementácie práv duševného vlastníctva na rozvoj vnútorného trhu NAFTA Bc. Ivana Miková MAGISTERSKÁ DIPLOMOVÁ PRÁCE Praha 2013 Abstract: The thesis discusses the impact of intellectual property rights on economic development of NAFTA. It is based on the theoretical assumptions of the new institutional economics and its notion of transaction costs and institutions and their impact on economic growth, in particular the impact of intellectual property rights, which are an important part of the NAFTA treaty and are contained in chapter 17. of the NAFTA Agreement. Their impact is connected with the new growth theory, which considers innovation and new technology as a major source of economic development. The empirical analysis has found that measures of IPRs contributed to transfer technologies and economic development. Mexico has become the main beneficiary. In the U.S., the situation in the field of innovation and economic development associated with IPRs has not changed significantly, compared with the period before the emergence of NAFTA.

We live in a world where criminality is a part of our everyday life. In order for criminality to continue, it is essential for criminals to be able to use the financial system to launder money and finance terrorism. Money laundering means that funds of illegal origin are laundered in the financial system in order to later become legal. Unlike money laundering, funds used to finance terrorism can have both illegal and legal origins. Transactions linked to money laundering and terrorist financing are suspected to account for 1% of the EU’s annual economic activity and thus pose a threat to the EU’s financial stability.  Today, the responsibility for monitoring and supervising money laundering and terrorist financing is decentralized to the Member States. EU-regulation is currently not clear enough or efficient. Member States’ enforcement of the regulation is asymmetric, the supervisory work of national authorities is insufficient and cross-border cooperation is deficient. In order to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, it is essential that the supervisory work is effective in order to detect and prevent these crimes. A change is needed and in July 2021 the European Commission therefore presented a proposal for a legislative package containing a number of measures to prevent the financial system from being used for money laundering and terrorist financing. The most central part of this package contains a proposal to centralize the supervision by setting up an EU-level authority. The authority shall monitor the supervisory work of national authorities and be responsible for direct and indirect supervision. This thesis examines how monitoring and supervision should be organized within the EU in order to prevent the financial system from being used for money laundering and terrorist financing. In addition, the thesis discusses whether a change in the institutional structure can lead to a more efficient supervisory work for national supervisory authorities.  The conclusion of this thesis is that a change in the institutional structure is necessary in order to change the supervisory work of national authorities and make it more efficient. Centralized monitoring and supervision at EU-level must therefore be considered as beneficial. The commission’s proposal to set up an EU-level authority is currently the most effective way of organizing monitoring and supervision. The authority can, by adopting guidelines and by exercising direct and indirect supervision, contribute to a reduced uncertainty regarding the application of the regulation and the exercising of supervision. Hence, the commission’s proposal most likely will lead to a decrease in money laundering and terrorist financing. / Vi lever i en värld där kriminalitet är en del av vardagen. För att kriminaliteten ska kunna fortlöpa är det essentiellt för de kriminella att de kan utnyttja det finansiella systemet för att tvätta pengar och finansiera terrorism. Penningtvätt innebär att medel med illegalt ursprung tvättas i det finansiella systemet för att sedermera bli legala. Till skillnad från penningtvätt kan medel som används för att finansiera terrorism härröra från såväl illegal som legal verksamhet. Transaktioner kopplade till penningtvätt och finansiering av terrorism misstänks utgöra 1% av EU:s årliga ekonomiska aktiviteter och utgör ett hot mot EU:s finansiella stabilitet.  Ansvar för övervakning och tillsyn av penningtvätt och finansiering av terrorism är i nuläget decentraliserat till medlemsstaterna. EU-regleringen är i dagsläget inte tillräckligt tydlig och effektiv. Medlemsstaternas tillämpning av regleringen är asymmetrisk, nationella myndigheters tillsynsarbeten är otillräckliga och de gränsöverskridande samarbetena är bristfälliga.  För att kunna bekämpa penningtvätt och finansiering av terrorism är det essentiellt att tillsynen är effektiv i syfte att upptäcka och förhindra dessa brott. En förändring behöver ske och Europeiska kommissionen lade därför i juli 2021 fram ett förslag till lagstiftningspaket innehållande ett antal åtgärder för att förhindra att det finansiella systemet utnyttjas för penningtvätt och finansiering av terrorism. Lagstiftningspaketets mest centrala delinnehåller ett förslag till att centralisera tillsynen genom att inrätta en myndighet på EU-nivå. Myndigheten ska övervaka nationella myndigheters tillsynsarbeten samt ansvara för direkt och indirekt tillsyn. I uppsatsen utreds hur övervakning och tillsyn bör organiseras inom EU för att förhindra att det finansiella systemet utnyttjas för penningtvätt och finansiering av terrorism. Dessutom utreds huruvida en förändring av den institutionella strukturen kan leda till att nationella tillsynsmyndigheters arbeten effektiviseras.  Slutsatsen i denna uppsats är att en förändring av den institutionella strukturen är nödvändig för att förändra och effektivisera nationella myndigheters tillsynsarbeten. Att centralisera övervakning och tillsyn på EU-nivå får därför anses fördelaktigt. Kommissionens förslag att inrätta en myndighet på EU-nivå är i dagsläget troligen det mest effektiva sättet att organisera övervakning och tillsyn på. Myndigheten kan, genom att anta riktlinjer samt utöva direkt samt indirekt tillsyn, bidra till att osäkerheten avseende tillämpningen av reglering och utövandet av tillsynen minskas. Kommissionens förslag kan därför med stor sannolikhet förväntas leda till en minskning av såväl penningtvätt som finansiering av terrorism.

This thesis provides an understanding of how new audit regulation affect firm growth and how audits affect the cost of capital. To investigate the effect of audit reforms on employment growth, we exploited a Swedish reform made in November 2010 that gave certain firms the option to opt out of previously imposed statutory audits. We find that firms which fulfilled the requirements for voluntary auditing, compared to a control group of similar firms that did not, increased their employment growth rate by 0.39%. Furthermore, the reform was also exploited to investigate if audited financial statements add value for firms in the private debt market. We find that firms with audited financial statements, on average, save 1.26 percentage points on cost of debt compared to firms with unaudited financial statements. Thus, the reform creates a possibility for firms that have the ambition to grow in employment to do so by not auditing, and those who want to grow by investments in capital to do so by reducing the cost of such investments by auditing. However, the current ceiling of the reform is also likely to force some firms to operate at sub-optimal levels, those without having the option to opt out of audit even though they might not accrue any benefit from auditing, at least in the short-run. One can argue that is partly due to how institutions evolve, generally slower than other actors in the society do.

Esta dissertação de mestrado consiste de uma resenha crítica da teoria econômica da educação no que se refere à análise de sistemas educativos, e de um estudo empírico do desempenho do sistema educativo brasileiro, com ênfase em indicadores de iniqüidade. Procura-se apresentar a evolução e o estado atual do debate relacionados aos seguintes assuntos: demanda por educação, oferta de educação (insumos monetários e não-monetários), arranjo institucional do sistema educativo, arranjo institucional sócio-econômico (em que se insere o sistema educativo), e os produtos do sistema educativo. Por fim, por meio da análise estatística de uma base de dados internacional (PISA 2000), apresenta-se um estudo empírico que visa a avaliar o desempenho do sistema educativo brasileiro, especialmente seu grau de iniqüidade. / This MA dissertation thesis consists of a critical survey of the economics of education literature concerning educational system analysis, and of a study of the performance of the Brazilian educational system, with an emphasis in equity measurement. I discuss the evolution and the current state of the debate on the following subjects: demand for education, supply of education (monetary and non-monetary inputs), educational system institutional framework, socio-economic institutional framework (in which the educational system is imbedded), and the output of the educational system. Finally, by means of a statistical analysis of an international database (PISA 2000), I present an empirical study aiming at assessing the Brazilian educational system performance, especially its degree of inequity.

Esta dissertação de mestrado consiste de uma resenha crítica da teoria econômica da educação no que se refere à análise de sistemas educativos, e de um estudo empírico do desempenho do sistema educativo brasileiro, com ênfase em indicadores de iniqüidade. Procura-se apresentar a evolução e o estado atual do debate relacionados aos seguintes assuntos: demanda por educação, oferta de educação (insumos monetários e não-monetários), arranjo institucional do sistema educativo, arranjo institucional sócio-econômico (em que se insere o sistema educativo), e os produtos do sistema educativo. Por fim, por meio da análise estatística de uma base de dados internacional (PISA 2000), apresenta-se um estudo empírico que visa a avaliar o desempenho do sistema educativo brasileiro, especialmente seu grau de iniqüidade. / This MA dissertation thesis consists of a critical survey of the economics of education literature concerning educational system analysis, and of a study of the performance of the Brazilian educational system, with an emphasis in equity measurement. I discuss the evolution and the current state of the debate on the following subjects: demand for education, supply of education (monetary and non-monetary inputs), educational system institutional framework, socio-economic institutional framework (in which the educational system is imbedded), and the output of the educational system. Finally, by means of a statistical analysis of an international database (PISA 2000), I present an empirical study aiming at assessing the Brazilian educational system performance, especially its degree of inequity.

African economies, including Nigeria continued to perform poorly despite the adoption of economic policy reforms in the 1980s. An explanation for the failure of economic policy reforms was therefore sought from an institutional perspective. Since active state intervention in the economy was the rationale given for the economic crisis of developing countries, the conventional case for an active state which rested on the need to correct for market failure was counterposed with the argument that the economy was best coordinated by market forces given that the state was not benevolent, omniscient or omnipotent. However, the state has played an important role in the transformation of late developers while a state-market dichotomy takes no account of institutional factors. The widespread adoption of economic policy reforms owed more to an ideological shift in the development paradigm than to the debt crisis and there was a great deal of controversy about the theoretical foundations and impact of these reforms contrary to claims of a consensus. An institutionalist political economy which recognises that the market is not the only institution and that economic transformation requires the positive use of political power was proposed. Such an approach takes account of history, politics and the institutional diversity of capitalism. A more nuanced view of state intervention was therefore advocated. The importance of institutional arrangements in the quest for economic transformation underscored the inadequacy of structural adjustment which was hampered by the lack of price and institutional flexibility as well as other institutional constraints. The Nigerian experience of structural adjustment shows that long term growth prospects were not enhanced and that the reforms tended to favour the financial sector over the real sector. The failure of economic policy reforms in Nigeria can be attributed to the continued presence of constraining institutional factors and the absence of a positive use of political power. / Economics / D. Comm. (Economics)

台商乃是兩岸政治經濟下，不同「身份資本」所孕育出來的特殊群體，特別是大陸特殊制度環境及大陸對台商制度規範下，所造成的高交易成本，使得台商為因應而運用下列三種方式 以降低交易成本：非制度化管道、制度化管道、抗衡促使制度變遷，進而參與制度創新的過程。 　　但在加入WTO之後，面對制度化及法制化的大陸制度環境變遷，台商應著重後二種的管道來降低大陸的高交易成本。 　　本文採用新制度經濟學中的交易成本理論來分析大陸對台商的制度規範及台商因應策略。 / Taiwanese investors are particular group who come from different “Capital of identity “ between Mainland China and Taiwan. Under high transaction cost caused by particular institution in China and China’s institutional regulation on Taiwanese investors, they have to take non-institutional way, institutional way and the way that they against current institution to improve institutional change and then join the procedure of institutional innovation in China. So, they can bring the transaction cost down. But after both sides have entered WTO and Taiwanese investors have to obey the regulation of WTO and they should put emphasis on latter two ways, that is institutional way and the way that they against current institution to improve institutional change and then join the procedure of institutional innovation in China to bring their transaction cost down. This dissertation analyzes the Taiwanese investors under Mainland China’s institutional regulation and their survival strategy in Transaction cost approach.

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