La présente thèse contribue à la littérature sur trois principaux axes de recherche relatifs à la structure du capital: les déterminants de la structure du capital, la profitabilité et la demande de travail. (i) Le fondement théorique des déterminants de la structure du capital montre qu’il existe trois modèles qui peuvent expliquer la structure du capital: la théorie de ratio optimal d’endettement, la théorie hiérarchique de financement et récemment la théorie de market timing. De plus, l’évaluation empirique montre un effet positif des coûts d’ajustement et de la garantie. Par contre, l’opportunité de croissance, l’impôt non lié à la dette et la rentabilité sont corrélés de façon négative avec l’endettement. (ii) L’impact de la structure du capital sur la profitabilité peut être expliqué par trois théories essentielles: la théorie du signal, l’influence de la fiscalité et la théorie de l’agence. L’analyse empirique a permis de distinguer trois groupes différents de secteurs: pour le premier groupe, la structure du capital n’a aucune incidence sur la profitabilité. Le deuxième, c’est le groupe où l’endettement affecte négativement la profitabilité de manière linéaire. Le dernier groupe se caractérise par la présence d’un effet négatif de façon linéaire et non linéaire (iii) Théoriquement, un impact négatif de la structure du capital sur la demande de travail est prévu. L’application empirique montre une hétérogénéité des comportements entre les secteurs en ce qui concerne l’effet de l’endettement sur la demande de travail, donc, il existe aussi trois groupes différents de secteurs (pas d’effet, effet négatif linéaire et effet négatif linéaire et non linéaire). De plus, la magnitude de l’effet de l’endettement sur la demande de travail et sur la profitabilité dépend, non seulement du secteur, mais aussi de la taille d’entreprise. / This thesis contributes to the literature in three main areas of research about capital structure: the determinants of capital structure, the profitability and the labour demand. (i) The theoretical basis of the determinants of capital structure shows that there are three models that explains the capital structure: Trade-Off theory, Pecking Order theory and Market Timing theory. Further, the empirical evaluation shows a positive effect of the adjustment costs and the tangibility. On the other hand, growth opportunity, non-debt tax shield and profitability are negatively correlated with debt. (ii) The impact of capital structure on profitability can be explained by three essential theories: signal theory, tax theory and the agency costs theory. The empirical analysis allowed to distinguish three different groups of sectors: for the first group, the capital structure has no impact on profitability. The second, it is the group where the debt affects negatively the profitability in a linear way. The last group is characterized by the presence of a negative effect in a linear and nonlinear way. (iii) Theoretically, a negative impact of the capital structure on labour demand is expected. The empirical application shows heterogeneity of behavior between sectors regarding the impact of debt on the demand for labor; therefore, there are three different groups of sectors (i.e. no effect, negative linear effect, and linear and non linear negative effect). Furthermore, the magnitude of the effect of debt on the labour demand and on the profitability depends not only of the sector, but also of the size of company.

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This thesis examines the theoretical premises of and ways that macro deliberative approaches to decision making function in application to specific instances of science and technology governance. Macro-level deliberations constitute complex, extended, distributed decision making processes, in contrast to individual micro deliberation exercises undertaken in particular settings. Macro deliberations employ the mechanism of ‘division of labour' in terms of actors, tasks and methods in order to secure the two essential qualities of ‘inclusiveness' and ‘deliberativeness' – thus resolving the inherent tension between number of participants and deep discussion. Accordingly, the thesis focuses on the ways in which this paradoxical mechanism of ‘inclusion by division' functions in macro deliberations. An interrogation of two UK nationwide public deliberation cases – GM Dialogue (on GM crops) and the CoRWM process (on radioactive waste) – sheds light on the significant role of reflexivity in such macro deliberative approaches to decision making. The thesis adopts a triangulated approach towards both documents and interviews employing contending representations to cross-check the one with the other. In considering the ways in which reflexivity constitutes a critical quality of the process and outcome of division of labour in macro deliberations, the thesis argues that the notion of reflexivity is central to explaining how macro deliberation functions: The reflective and self-contingent feature of reflexivity enables participants to explore diverse rationales on division of labour through continuous generation of new rationales; this recursive self-reconfiguration process of rationales on division of labour entails an evolutionary development of division of labour. As division of labour is played out not in a static, exogenous fashion, but through a dynamic, endogenous construction process, reflexivity in real-world macro deliberations illuminates some significant contrasts in the ways that ‘deliberation' and ‘inclusion' take place to those characterised in theory. Indeed, deliberation emerges in practice as more than just open rational dialogue. In order to understand this more fully, it must be seen in terms of diversity of material, social and political interactions, and relationships – referred to here as ‘discursive relations'. In reality, then, inclusion occurs in more emergent ways than intended by design, rather, unfolding as participants engage with each other. In this way, actors' divergent views are cross-reflected and mutually influence each other, not through theoretically-envisaged top-down aggregation but via a kind of endogenous ‘fermentation' process. In this way, reflexivity actually makes macro public deliberation a more effectively inclusive and deliberative decision making process. In short, recognition of this inherent reflexivity in macro deliberations offers practically to aid improved understanding of the complex process of engagement in science and technology governance. It suggests that we would benefit from shifting our attention somewhat away from the direct provision of strictly prescriptive design protocols towards the construction of better general environments for facilitating more reflexivity, which should enable actors to shape their own reflexive deliberation. Then let them brew!

Bakalauro baigiamajame darbe nagrinėjamos Lietuvos apskričių darbo rinkų situacijos, remiantis mokslinėje literatūroje išskirtais darbo rinką apibūdinančiais rodikliais, kurie buvo suskirstyti į keturias grupes ir padėjo įvertinti keturis darbo rinkos aspektus: darbo rinkos pajėgumą, darbo pasiūlą, darbo paklausą ir darbo rinkos lankstumą. Darbe nustatyta, kurioje Lietuvos apskrityje situacija darbo rinkoje yra geriausia taip pat, kurioje yra prasčiausia. / Bachelor Final work examines the situation of Lithuania‘s counties labour markets with reference to in scientific literature defined labour market indicators, which were grouped into four groups and helped to assess four aspects of labour market: labour market capability, labour supply, labour demand and labour market flexibility. In this work it was assessed in which Lithuania‘s county labour market situation is the best, as well as, in which is the worst.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the incentives regarding the education decisions, resulting from a minimum wage over the period 2005-2014. The question is investigated by comparing the changes in the wage dispersion and upper secondary graduation rate in 17 OECD countries. And then, by comparing the changes in the bites of the minimum wage and educational attainment for upper secondary students in 11 OECD countries, where minimum wages are regulated by law. The majority of previous research seem to point out a negative educational effect of minimum wages. However, this paper finds no evidence that increasing the minimum wage can decrease the high school graduation rate. A possible explanation is that the correlation between the higher employment prospect and educational attainment can create incentives for young individuals to undergo education. This study seems to be the first to investigate the educational effects of minimum wages using internationally comparative data.

This DPhil thesis comprises three empirical essays that survey the evolution of gender differences in the labour market of urban Colombia since the 1980s. The first essay examines the evolution of gender segregation using occupational indices between 1986 and 2004, and presents a decomposition of their changes over time using a technique proposed by Deutsch et al. (2006). We find that a substantial proportion of the reduction in segregation indices is driven by changes in both the employment structure of occupations and the increasing participation of female labour observed over these years. The second essay assesses the effects of occupational segregation on the gender wage gap in urban Colombia between 1984 and 1999. The empirical strategy involves the estimation of a counterfactual distribution of female workers across occupations, as if they had been treated the same as their male counterparts. This provides a basis to formulate a decomposition of the gender wage gap in which the explained and unexplained portions of the gender distribution of jobs are explicitly incorporated. The results indicate that the unequal distribution of women and men across occupations actually helps, on average, to reduce gender pay differences in urban Colombia, particularly in the ‘informal' segment where the labour income differential between women and men is the largest. The third and final essay examines the effects of trade liberalisation on the gender composition of employment across manufacturing industries in urban Colombia from 1981 to 2000. The empirical strategy involves a comparison of estimates drawn from different panel data techniques. As a main finding, we verify that increasing trade flows are associated with higher proportions of female employment.

Partendo dalla constatazione della sempre maggiore complessità del contesto economico e sociale nazionale ed internazionale, imputabile da un lato al processo di integrazione economico e monetario europeo, e dall'altro alla progressiva decentralizzazione dei poteri a livello regionale, la tesi intende proporsi come uno strumento analitico di supporto al decisore. A tal fine, in base a dati annui di fonte ISTAT-SVIMEZ per il periodo 1970-2003, viene sviluppato un modello econometrico regionale 'globale' per il mercato del lavoro italiano, estendendo un precedente modello mono-regionale proposto da Baussola (2003), ad un contesto pluri-regionale. Il modello conduce non solo a rappresentare soddisfacentemente i mercati regionali italiani, ma opera altresì efficacemente nel ricostruire i valori delle variabili a livello nazionale. Il modello si conferma robusto ed efficace nel rappresentare le realtà regionali, anche nell'ottica di analisi propria dell'econometria delle serie storiche. / The starting point of this thesis is the remark that recent decades have been characterized by a rising complexity in the economic and political context both at the national and international level. This is due both to the European economic and monetary integration process and to the regional decentralisation process. With the aim of providing a useful tool of analysis for the decision-maker,. a 'global' regional model for the Italian labour market has been constructed on the basis of annual data from ISTAT-SVIMEZ over the 1970-2003 period. This model could be viewed as an extension to a multi-regional framework of the previous one-region model developed by Baussola (2003). The model shows good performance not only in representing regional labour market specificities, but also in reproducing national variable values. It is also robust and effective in a time-series context.

The thesis investigates the role of structural rigidities in recent labour market performances in Europe through various and complementary angles in five essays. By structural rigidities, we mean a lasting feature caused by a set of institutions, which prevents a market from operating efficiently. The approach is essentially empirical and macro-economic, while the scope of the analysis is definitely European, which is technically reflected in the use of either euro area aggregates or panels and cross-sections of European countries. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This master’s thesis analyses labour market in South Moravian Region, related problems of supply surplus especially in information technologies area, problems of recruiting graduates and foreigners. It suggests solutions and methodology for recruiting candidates evaluation.

“What drives firms' performance?” remains one of the most intriguing topics in the economic literature. The myriad determinants identified so far include both internal and external factors. While the internal factors tend to relate to either firms' characteristics or the business decision-making process determined by managers/owners, the external factors tend to relate to the business environment and any possible stimulus for the conditions in which firms are located and operate. This thesis follows the strand of literature that continues the quest for relevant firm-performance-driving factors, taking an applied approach. The thesis, consisting in three essays, provides empirical evidence of how trade liberalization, together with local business environment features, affects firms' performance in the context of a transitional country, Vietnam. The main focus centres particularly on firms' productivity (the first and second essays). As firms use labour as an indispensable input of production, interest, in the third essay, shifts to firm-level demand for skills so as to understand also potential consequences of trade reform policies for the labour market. Highlights of the three essays are as follows: The first essay (Chapter 2) investigates the interplay of trade liberalization and local business environment features in affecting firms’ productivity. Particular interest lies in how frictions in the local business environment where firms operate alter the productivity gains from trade. Making use of a large panel dataset of Vietnamese manufacturing firms from 2006 to 2012, the analysis provides robust evidence of a positive effect of trade liberalization on firms’ total factor productivity. However, distortions in the local business environment such as unenforceable property rights, an ineffective land-titling system, bureaucratic hurdles and labour market frictions play a crucial role in the transmission of trade liberalization shocks. It is recommended, from the results obtained, that complementary business environment reforms addressing local market constraints need to be implemented alongside trade liberalization. The second essay (Chapter 3) investigates first the impact on firms’ productivity of trade liberalization and second how corruption interacts with trade policies. Particular interest centres on how firms’ productivity improvement induced by trade openness is reduced by corruption. Using firm-level data on Vietnamese manufacturing enterprises from 2000 to 2012, the period of which spans the country's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the analysis provides robust causal evidence that trade openness increases firms’ productivity, the higher so if firms export. However, the productivity gains expected by firms from trade liberalization are reduced by corruption, which has important implications for aggregate productivity. The findings suggest that complementary policies addressing either export constraints or corruption need to be implemented in company with trade reform policies. The third essay (Chapter 4) investigates the firm-level employment consequences of trade liberalization. Particular interest is given to how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) adjust their labour demand in response to different types of trade shocks. Using a unique dataset of private manufacturing SMEs over the 2003--2014 period that captures the 2007–2008 drastic reduction in both output and input tariffs, that analysis shows that the effects on firms' labour demand of output and input tariff liberalization are non-identical. While output tariff liberalization has a labour-friendly effect on unskilled workers, a reduction in input tariffs has an “absolute” skill-biased effect, shifting firms’ demand from unskilled workers to skilled labour. The findings suggest important consequences of trade openness for the labour market evolution. A cautious view on the employment consequences of trade openness is strongly suggested, coupled with the implementation of coherent education and training policies to guide the labour supply under trade liberalization. The contributions of this thesis to the literature are as follows. First, it helps to understand how firms adjust to trade liberalization policies in terms of both behaviour and performance in the context of a developing country in transition. Second, it shows that the effectiveness of trade liberalization policies significantly varies with the business environment conditions, explaining why gains from trade are unevenly distributed across locations. Third, in a movement towards free trade, benefits are shown to go hand in hand with drawbacks. In terms of policy implications, a thorough multi-dimensional view on the potential consequences of trade openness is highly recommended. Besides, the effective implementation of appropriate complementary policies in the wake of trade liberalization is of utmost importance in order to first achieve an overall optimal economic outcome and second make trade openness beneficial for everyone.