The programmability property of floating-gate transistors is exploited in this work to compensate for mismatch and device parameter variations in various high performance analog circuits. A careful look is taken at the characteristics and behavior of floating-gate transistors; issues such as programming, precision, accuracy, and charge retention are addressed. An alternate approach to reduce the offset voltage of the amplifier is presented. The proposed approach uses floating-gate transistors as programmable current sources that provide offset compensation while being a part of the amplifier of interest during normal operation. This results in an offset voltage cancelation that is independent of other amplifier parameters and does not dissipate additional power. Two compact programmable architectures that implement a voltage reference based on the charge difference between two floating-gate transistors are introduced. The references exhibit a low temperature coefficient (TC) as all the transistors temperature dependencies are canceled. Programming the charge on the floating-gate transistors provides the flexibility of an arbitrary accurate voltage reference with a single design and allows for a high initial accuracy of the reference. Also, this work presents a novel programmable temperature compensated current reference. The proposed circuit achieves a first order temperature compensation by canceling the negative TC of an on-chip poly resistor with the positive TC of a MOS transistor operating in the ohmic region. Programmability of the ohmic resistor enables optimal temperature compensation while programmability of the reference voltage allows for an accurate current reference for a wide range of values. Finally, this work combines the already established DAC design techniques with floating-gate circuits to obtain a high precision converter. This approach enables higher accuracy along with a substantial decrease of the die size.

There are a variety of studies that show that absolute income is positively correlated with individual well-being, but find at the same time that average income of the reference group (comparison income) affects individual well-being most often negatively (Clark et al., 2008). Although the results allover the literature are quite consistent, there is a large variety how the reference group is defined. For example, some authors assume that people compare themselves with people living in the same area (Luttmer, 2005; Graham & Felton, 2006) or with people inside the same age range (McBride, 2001). Others define the reference group more precisely and assume that people compare themselves with people of same age, same education and same area of living (Ferrer-i-Carbonell, 2005). However, to the best of my knowledge, there is no systematic empirical research on the impact of different reference group specifications on life satisfaction in happiness regressions. Therefore, I investigate in this master thesis to what extent different reference group specifications alter the statistical impact of comparison income on happiness regarding sign, magnitude and statistical significance. The results show that the specification of the reference group matters, since some specifications produce significant and others produce insignificant coefficients. However, the results also show that the sub-sample treated has a considerable impact on sign and statistical significance of the reference groups defined.

The topic of the thesis are CILFIT criterions. These criterions were established by the Court of Justice of the European Union as conditions for application of the acte clair doctrine by national courts of last resort. The conditions determine situations in which such a court does not have an obligation under Article 267/3 to bring a matter before the Court of Justice. First of all, thesis describes the historical circumstances, which gave rise to the CILFIT case as well as the facts of that issue. Then it analyses one by one CILFIT criterions and also current procedure of submitting preliminary questions as a whole. As a part of the analysis, it focuses on the practical application of the abovementioned conditions by the courts of the Member States. It targets purely theoretical ideas too. The thesis, further, identifies certain problematic aspects of the CILFIT conditions. Subsequently, some possible solutions are being suggested and their effectiveness and appropriateness are being examined.

There are a variety of studies that show that absolute income is positively correlated with individual well-being, but find at the same time that average income of the reference group (comparison income) affects individual well-being most often negatively (Clark et al., 2008). Although the results allover the literature are quite consistent, there is a large variety how the reference group is defined. For example, some authors assume that people compare themselves with people living in the same area (Luttmer, 2005; Graham & Felton, 2006) or with people inside the same age range (McBride, 2001). Others define the reference group more precisely and assume that people compare themselves with people of same age, same education and same area of living (Ferrer-i-Carbonell, 2005). However, to the best of my knowledge, there is no systematic empirical research on the impact of different reference group specifications on life satisfaction in happiness regressions. Therefore, I investigate in this master thesis to what extent different reference group specifications alter the statistical impact of comparison income on happiness regarding sign, magnitude and statistical significance. The results show that the specification of the reference group matters, since some specifications produce significant and others produce insignificant coefficients. However, the results also show that the sub-sample treated has a considerable impact on sign and statistical significance of the reference groups defined.:Chapter Page Outline II List of Figures and Tables III Abbreviations III 1 Introduction 1 2 Measurement of Happiness in Economics 2 3 The Economics of Happiness 6 3.1 The Relation between Absolute Income and Happiness 6 3.2 Unemployment, Inflation and Inequality 12 4 The Role of Relative Income 15 4.1 Empirical Evidence 16 4.1.1 Empirical Evidence for the \''Social Comparison Effect\'' 16 4.1.2 Empirical Evidence for the \''Tunnel Effect\'' 21 4.1.3 Derived Empirical Regularities 23 4.2 Theoretical Considerations 24 4.2.1 Modeling of Utility Functions 24 4.2.2 A Contribution in Explaining the Easterlin-Paradox? 26 4.2.3 Concluding Remarks 29 5 Specifications of the Reference Group 30 5.1 The Reference Group as Exogeneous Variable 30 5.2 The Reference Group as Endogeneous Variable 33 6 Different Reference Group Specifications and Life Satisfaction 35 6.1 Data Description and Choice of Variables 36 6.2 Methodology 38 6.2.1 Data Preparation 38 6.2.2 Estimation Procedure 39 6.2.3 Further Econometric Issues 44 6.3 Relative Income and Reference Group Specifications 46 6.4 Results 49 6.4.1 Whole Sample 49 6.4.1.1 Looking for the Tunnel Effect: Young and Old respondents 54 6.4.1.2 Looking for the Tunnel Effect: Transition Countries 56 6.4.2 German Sub-Samples 57 6.4.2.1 Whole German Sample 57 6.4.2.2 Looking for the Tunnel Effect: Young and Old respondents 58 6.4.3 Summary of the Empirical Results 60 6.5 Problems and Shortcomings of the Study 61 7 Conclusion 63 Appendix A – List of Variables 65 Appendix B – Correlations 67 References 68 Statement of Authorship 74