This thesis investigates whether there has been an improvement and convergence of productive efficiency across European banking markets since the creation of the Single Internal Market: it examines the main European banking systems between 1993 and 1997 and estimates the efficiency characteristics of these markets by employing nonparametric estimation techniques, in the form of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the Free Disposal Hull (FDH) approach. In addition, this study also evaluates the productivity change across banking markets employing the Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI). Using efficiency measures derived from DEA estimation, it also evaluates the determinants of European bank efficiency using the Tobit regression model approach. Finally, this thesis extends the established literature on modelling the determinants of bank efficiency by recognising the problem of the inherent dependency of DEA efficiency scores when used in regression analysis. To overcome the dependency problem, a bootstrapping technique is applied. Overall, the results suggest that since the EU's Single Market Programme there has been a small improvement in bank efficiency levels, although there is little evidence to suggest that these have converged. The results also suggest that inference on the determinants of bank efficiency drawn from non-bootstrapped regression analysis may be biased and misleading.

Producer Choice was the title given to the trading system, designed around an internal market, which was introduced at the BBC in the years between 1991 and 1994. The initiative represented the biggest organisational change in the BBC's history. The political background to Producer Choice was conditioned by the perceived need of the BBC to ensure renewal of its ten-year Charter in 1996. Producer Choice helped to secure Charter Renewal because it provided the means whereby new accountability and cost measurements were set in place. The 'command economy' of the old BBC was to be replaced with an internal market, and the organisation given an enhanced managerial focus. Using a combination of participant observation, semi-structured interviews, an analysis of all relevant documentation, and the application of theory concerning processual models of change, the nature of bureaucracy, changes in public sector management and the shift from hierarchy to marketisation, the thesis answers three questions: What is Producer Choice? How has it been implemented? What have been its outcomes? The thesis concludes by drawing out some analytical generalisations about the management of change regarding the 'process of sanctification', the effects of divisionalisation on organisational cohesion, and the characteristics of internal markets.

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Investigating internal employee behaviors that influence firm results is an area of on-going interest to both academics and practitioners. This study combined the two recently developed constructs of internal market orientation and industrial service quality to investigate their relationship. The integration of the business outcomes of overall service quality, customer satisfaction, and commitment to the relationship were included to add practical application to study. Additionally, the moderator length of relationship between service provider and customer was included to examine its influence in the model. Internal marketing and market orientation influenced the development of the internal market orientation. Decades of studies into service quality lead to the development of the business-to-business service quality scales applied to this study. Studying these constructs in real world settings, including the moderator, and measuring subjective business outcomes was conducted to confirm scale use, broaden the settings, and offer depth to the field of study. Two surveys to employees and one survey to matching customers created 107 dyad records for structural equation model analysis. Results showed no significant relationship between internal market orientation and industrial service quality. There was a significant relationship between industrial service quality and overall service quality perception, confirming past studies. However, counter to past research industrial service quality did not influence customer satisfaction and commitment to the relationship. A surprising result was the significant relationship reported between employee perceived service quality and the two business outcomes of customer satisfaction and commitment. This research did not support the theoretical premise that internal market orientation is an antecedent to industrial service quality. This study reported mixed results for the connections between perceived service quality and the business outcomes included. Some of the limitations from previous research were addressed while a more integrated model was investigated to add to the understanding of the marketing concept.

De nombreuses études et écrits ont été réalisés sur le thème du plafonnement de carrière au cours de ces trente dernières années. Cependant, peu se sont penchés sur le degré de volonté qu’une personne peut avoir dans la construction d’un plafonnement de carrière, dès lors que celui-ci apparaît, non pas comme la conséquence de caractéristiques personnelles ou structurelles, mais comme un moyen d’atteindre un objectif précis. Existe-t-il des personnes qui peuvent accepter une situation de plafonnement de carrière ? Y a-t-il des raisons qui les amènent à rechercher une telle situation ? C’est au travers de l’analyse de personnes en situation de plafonnement au sein d’une banque française, que ces questions seront abordées. Les résultats de notre recherche font ressortir une idée maîtresse : l’impact de la présence d’une ou plusieurs ancres de Schein sur les attentes vis-à-vis de la carrière et la volonté d’être en situation de plafonnement. Ces résultats permettent ainsi de proposer un modèle du plafonnement volontaire. / Many studies and writings have been made on the them of plateauing career over the last thirty years. However, few have examined the degree of commitment a person can have in builgind a plateauing career, since it appears, not as the result of personal characteristics or structural, but as means achieve a specific objective. Are there peopel who can accept a situation of plateauing career ? Are there reasons that lead them to seek such a situation ? Is it through the analysis of people suffering in plateauing career in a French Bank, that these question will be addressed. The results or our research reveal a key insight : the impact of the presence of one or more Schein anchor’s expectations to the career and will be a plateauing. These results thus suggest a model of voluntary plateau.

This paper seeks to investigate the current state of market integration among European electricity day-ahead spot prices. We provide reasoning that market integration brings about benefits, such as lower average prices and increased welfare from allocative efficiency. Yet, price convergence leads to higher prices in the low-price market and to lower prices in the high-price market, which creates winners and losers and thus makes the political implementation of market integration cumbersome. In our empirical analysis, we utilize a large sample of hourly spot prices of 25 European markets for the period 01.01.2010-30.06.2015 and combine it with other relevant data such as interconnector capacities and the existence of market coupling. Firstly, empirical results from cointegration analysis indicate that market integration increased from 2010 to 2012 but then declined until 2015, most likely due to increased feed-in from intermittent renewables. Secondly, we empirically assess the speed of adjustment from price shocks and reach the conclusion that the resulting efficiency of integration is rather modest. In general, our findings suggest that integration among European electricity markets has a large potential for improvements from additional capacity investments and further promotion of market coupling. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

This thesis explores subsidiarity's untapped potential as an enforceable legal principle in EU law. To date, discussion of the principle's function in European integration remains overly focused on its effect as a restraint on the Union legislature. In the first part of the thesis, I seek to challenge this entrenched view. Specifically, I question whether or not the subsidiarity principle could and, ultimately, should apply also as a brake on the interpretative authority of the Court of Justice. Arguing that subsidiarity does indeed have a role to play in this context, I then turn to examine, in the second part of the thesis, the implications of this conclusion for the Court's interpretation of the scope of the Treaty provisions guaranteeing intra-EU movement. In the final analysis, I argue that the subsidiarity principle necessitates an adjustment of the Court's current approach to defining the concept of an obstacle to intra-EU movement. This adjustment isolates and protects an appropriate sphere of Member State regulatory competence from the Court's scrutiny at Union level. In so doing, it ensures that, in the process of establishing and managing a functioning internal market, Member States retain some space to breathe.

Le commerce des substances chimiques constitue l’une des principales activités économiques mise en cause dans les pollutions environnementales, et dans l’augmentation de certaines maladies mortelles ou invalidantes, qu’elles soient d’origine professionnelle ou non. Le règlement REACH, acronyme de « registration evaluation authorisation of chemicals » définitivement adopté le 18 décembre 2006, et entré en vigueur le 1er juin 2007, vise à encadrer le secteur des substances chimiques, pour élever le niveau de protection de la santé humaine et de l’environnement tout en améliorant la compétitivité de l’industrie chimique européenne. Le recours à un règlement d’applicabilité directe et immédiate permet l’harmonisation des ordres juridiques des États membres en vue d’une part, de contribuer au processus d’intégration du marché intérieur, et d’autre part, afin de permettre une application uniforme des prescriptions à visée environnementale et sanitaire. Fondé sur le principe de précaution et le développement durable, le règlement REACH constitue un instrument de régulation sectorielle, renvoyant à une vision systémique, dont l’objectif est d’établir un dialogue entre des enjeux a priori antinomiques. Aussi, cette norme met-elle en exergue l’émergence et la construction d’un équilibre de ces trois enjeux en présence. La question qui se pose est de savoir si, confronté à la réalité économique, sociale et environnementale, cet équilibre peut se maintenir dans la pratique, ou s’il ne tend pas à se fragiliser, faisant potentiellement ressurgir le conflit originel existant entre les exigences marchandes et non-marchandes. / The trade of chemicals is one of the one of the main economics activities involved in the environmental pollutions and in the increase of certain fatal or invalidating diseases, professionals or not. The REACH regulation, acronym of « registration, evaluation, authorization of chemicals », of 18 December 2006, came into force the July 1st, 2007, to improve the protection of human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals, while enhancing the competitiveness of the european chemical industry. The use of a regulation of direct and immediate applicability allows the harmonization of laws of each member states in order to on one hand, contribute in the process of market integration and on the other hand, allow a uniform sanitary and environmental prescriptions application. Based on the precautionary principle and the sustainable development, the REACH regulation instrument gives rise to a systemic approach with the objective to establish a dialogue between imperatives a priori divergent. This norm highlights the emergence and the construction of a balance of these three imperatives present. The question is if, confronted with the economic, environmental and sanitary reality, this balance can persist in practice, or if it becomes uncertain, to lead potentially, the reappearance of the original conflict between economics and non-economics imperatives.