Akademisk avhandling--Stockholm, 1994. / Résumé en anglais. Bibliogr. p. 299-313.

Les technologies informatiques – et plus spécifiquement les systèmes d’information – occupent une place de plus en plus importante au sein des administrations publiques, dans un contexte où la « modernisation » de l’Etat s’accompagne des mythes de la « transparence » et de la « rationalisation ». Si dans les pays anglo-saxons, les effets du couplage entre technologies et politique publique ont fait l’objet de nombreux travaux, en France, la nature des transformations induites par ce type de dispositif sur les façons de concevoir et mettre en œuvre l’action publique n’est que peu abordée. Cette thèse examine, à partir du cas du déploiement d’un système d’information dans l’institution judiciaire pénale, les effets produits par l’introduction de ces technologies d’information et de communication sur les rapports qu’entretiennent les différents niveaux d’action publique.Ce travail conjugue une approche de type « top down » – afin de saisir les logiques qui président à la conception et à la diffusion du système d’information – et une approche de type « bottom up » – permettant d’appréhender les logiques d’appropriation et d’usage qui se jouent localement. Il met notamment en exergue les paradoxes qui se révèlent au cours de la confrontation entre les normes véhiculées par le dispositif et les normes d’action locale, et leurs conséquences, notamment sur les objectifs de rationalisation, maîtrise et performance assignés aux systèmes d’information. In fine, cette thèse interroge la fonction politique de ce type de dispositif et discute du type de configuration que ces outils induisent entre les différents échelons de l’administration pénale au prisme des ses instrumentations. / Computing technologies – specifically information systems – occupy an increasingly important place within Public administrations and the government of public action, in a context where the myths of "transparency" and "rationalization" accompany "state modernization". In Anglo-Saxon countries, the association of technology and public policy have led to many studies, whereas in France, this kind of transformations based on the effects of technical tools on the designing and implementation of public action is barely approached. Based on the study of a criminal information system deployment in the Justice administration, this thesis examines the consequences of the introduction of information and communication technologies on the relationships between the different levels of public action.The “ top down ” and “ bottom-up ” approaches are both used in this analysis : one to capture the logic governing the design and the dissemination of the information system, and the other to apprehend the local logic of appropriation and use. It highlights in particular the paradoxes revealed through the confrontation between the standards promoted by the IT tool and the standards of local action, and their consequences, regarding the objectives of rationalization, control and performance of information systems. Ultimately, this thesis questions the political function of this type of tool and discusses the type of mutual interaction induced by these tools between different levels of penal administration through the prism of their instrumentations.

M.Com. (Business Management) / Financial institutions and regulatory bodies of the financial services industry have, in the last decade of the 20th century, woken up to the realisation that the risk management procedures adopted and promoted by them did not take into account all the risks to which financial institutions were exposed. The one risk category, made up by an array of risks, that has been acknowledged by financial institutions and regulatory bodies for some time, but that has not received much recognition in the risk management procedures is operational risk. This is quite ironic, as operational risk is the only 'pure" risk, i.e. the only risk with only a downside potential. Credit, market and underwriting risk, on the other hand, could result in profits if managed properly. But the losses to which operational risk exposes a financial institution can be minimised through effective risk management. Purpose The greatest obstacle in the process of operational risk management is the fact that there is no universally accepted definition of operational risk. The main purpose of this study is to perform an empirical study of the discipline of operational risk management. This includes research on the subject of operational risk management, assessing the problems experienced in the operational risk management field, considering the different operational risk strategies that exist and evaluating qualitative operational risk methodologies as well as the problems experienced in quantifying operational risk. In conclusion, a definition for operational risk is suggested, based on the research conducted.

It is accepted institutions and the parameters they create are important facets in development planning. Organizations then lobby policy makers and manoeuvre their resources in response to the attendant restrictions, perceived benefits and censures. This paper seeks to examine the formal and informal context of planning in Zimbabwe. Through a series of interviews with civil servants at state, provincial and municipal level the role of the state and its agencies as initiators and guarantors of the various development frameworks post-independence in Zimbabwe-in tandem with a traditional leadership devoid of all but ceremonial powers is examined in the case study of the Private Partnership, Chisumbanje and the ethanol power plant. It is evident that fissures existed as a deliberate act borne out of the Rhodesian elites ideological aspirations of separate development vis a vis land rights, customary and rule of law, these have been exploited by post-independence regimes in pursuit of self-interests. The culpability of the political organization in the deliberate use of archaic exclusionary and disenfranchising legal instruments in complicity with International capitals has manifested in skewed development in local communities. Physical Planning and its noble intentions of sustainable development for the benefit of both individuals and societies and for future generations are systematically politicized rendering it a mere puppet lacking professional legitimacy an epitaph to politics and their pre-eminence in the Zimbabwean planning paradigm

This project explores the impact of international and domestic institutions on the decisions of political leaders. A theory of two-level institutional incentives is developed that seeks to explain how institutional context at the domestic and international levels affects the incentives, and thus the behavior of political leaders when making decisions related to trade policy. This theory argues that the institutional context in which political leaders make policy decisions has a significant effect on their decision-making. Further, the institutional context must include both domestic and international institutions. Building on previous work on the impact of institutions at both the domestic and international levels, this project seeks to test the theory of institutional incentives in the context of trade disputes under the GATT and WTO.A series of empirical tests are conducted using a dataset of GATT disputes combined with a new dataset of disputes under the WTO. These tests demonstrate strong support for the theories set forth in this project that domestic and international institutions combine to affect the behavior of political leaders. Domestic institutions affect the impact of international institutions and vice versa. This project extends previous work in two-level institutional incentives by demonstrating that institutional change at both levels has significant effects on the behavior of political leaders.

No description available.

This research aims to study the relationship between economic performance, economic reforms, corruption, ethnic diversity and business environment. In chapter two, meta-analysis and meta-regression analysis methods are applied to study the relationship between economic growth and corruption. This shows that despite severe publication bias, there seems to be a genuine negative effect of corruption on growth. This impact is systematically affected by whether the authors are academics and whether the study controls for endogeneity and heterogeneity. As for mechanisms, the findings show that corruption significantly undermines the positive influence of institutions and trade openness on economic growth. Chapter three investigates the effect of dynamic ethnic diversity as endogenous variable on economic growth in the transition context. For this purpose, a unique data set is constructed based mostly on primary data (national censuses). Once diversity is instrumented; it shows a significant negative impact on economic growth which is robust to different specifications, polarization measures, econometric estimators, as well as to the use of an index of ethnic-religious-linguistic fractionalization. Chapter four provides evidence of the role of economic reforms on economic performance in developing countries measured by economic growth and industrial growth. This research focuses on, and constructs individual indicators for the following reforms: external stability, macroeconomic stability, financial development, trade liberalization and institutional quality. The main finding is that economic reforms strongly support growth in the long-run. They mostly have mixed effects in the short-run. Moreover, institutions are imperative to boost economic performance over the long run. Finally, chapter five demonstrates the relationship between firm performance and business environment, ownership, competition and exports in Syrian industrial private sector. Performance is measured in level and growth variables. The main findings show that firm performance is positively boosted by finance and technology and hindered by poor investment climate, in particular, corruption. However, competition and foreign ownership seem to not have first-order effects.

No description available.

This thesis examines the reintegration of localities in Poland through foreign investment in general and transnational corporations, in particular. The focus of the research is on the relationships and interplay between incoming foreign firms, the corporate strategy of individual companies and the role of institutions and local actors. The region which is the focus of the empirical work is Wroclaw, which is located in the South West of Poland, and regarded as a relatively successful example of transformation. The analytical framework is radical institutionalist in emphasising the socially and politically embedded nature of economic behaviour and the existence of differentiated interests and power. Four dimension of embeddedness, structural, cultural, cognitive and institutional are used to examine how far and in what ways recent changes in the corporate strategy of firms have influenced the nature of firms' quantitative and qualitative linkages in the locality. The main conclusions are that although the multiplier effects through supplier linkages were modest, a process of cumulative causation was evident through the demonstration effect of incoming firms and the stimulation of a range of business services. Ambiguous and embryonic structures of local governance Wroclaw meant that foreign investors were significant contributors to the building of formal institutions. The research findings emphasise the use of enabling myths by foreign investors in attempting to instill a set of values, beliefs and expectations viewed to be congruent with a market economy, in both the locality and the workplace, while displacing or circumventing what were regarded as the inappropriate institutional legacies of the previous regime. The overall conclusion is that there needs to be a radical break with the free market status quo and that change can only come from below in the workplaces and local communities through participatory systems of local governance.

M.Econ. / Please refer to full text to view abstract