- / The PhD thesis is about measurement and effects of environmental policy in the context of the Porter Hypothesis (PH). The first chapter offers a critical review of the large empirical literature on the Porter Hypothesis. The second chapter presents an empirical investigation of the Porter Hypothesis focusing on the manufacturing sectors of European countries between 1997 and 2009. We look at overall innovation and productivity impact that are the most relevant indicators for the “strong” PH. This approach allows us to account for potential opportunity costs of induced innovations. As a proxy of environmental policy stringency we use pollution abatement and control expenditures (PACE), which represent one of the few indicators available at the sectoral level. We remedy upon its main drawback, that of potential endogeneity of PACE, by adopting an instrumental variable estimation approach. The third chapter represents a novel approach, inspired by the literature on multilevel latent models and Item Response Theory, to assessing countries’ environmental and energy policy performance. We use data on energy efficiency policy targeting industrial sectors in 27 EU countries between 2004 and 2009 and rank countries with respect to their ability to implement policy over time. Unlike previous contributions in this respect, our model accounts for the inherent difficulty of a given policy instrument mix. Moreover, the model is extended to deal with the longitudinal data and to adjust the country ranking as a result of economic and institutional observables, which are likely to affect policy design and implementation.

Submitted by Noeme Timbo (noeme.timbo@metodista.br) on 2017-09-28T19:35:27Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Wellington Luiz Santos.pdf: 1870493 bytes, checksum: d356fb4e1f32ece8f0b209966fb240a7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-28T19:35:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Wellington Luiz Santos.pdf: 1870493 bytes, checksum: d356fb4e1f32ece8f0b209966fb240a7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-10-08 / The dissertation analyzes the technological education in its current configuration, investigating the perception of students of a degree of security technology at work, for their insertion in the professional field; investigating the hypothesis that these agents can sense lags in the real social process, which are expressed in the inadequacy between: the course structure of security technology at work, the judicial-legal sphere and the structure of the labor market. The research adopts an exploratory qualitative approach, based on the case study method to collect data. To discuss the issue of the professional formation and technological education in Brazil, we use bibliographic research in order to unveil the type teaching evolution in the contextual way in its relation to economic phenomena, social and political. To verify the research hypothesis, we investigated students and teachers of a safety course at work in an educational institution, through questionnaires and interviews; and we conducted a documentary research in related legislation on the issues of professional regulations in the specific field of the safety area at work. The results confirmed the research hypothesis, establishing serious modifications in the purpose and objectives of technological training, especially in its social effects. The documentary research articulated to the subjects’ answers, indicated the gap of the politics between the education area and the politics of labor and employment. Nevertheless, in the teachers’s discurses evidences were found to support hypothesis of the issue dealt with here, extend to other courses. The results show that it are necessary, further studies on this issue and to restablish a research agenda aimed at agents and process involved in this context, for the purpose of promoting discussions and identify actions and procedures to guide, correct any distortions and reduce the possibility of the repetition of events related to the problem under discussion. / A dissertação analisa a educação tecnológica em sua atual configuração, investigando a percepção de alunos de um curso superior de tecnologia em segurança no trabalho, para sua inserção no campo profissional; investigando a hipótese de que estes agentes pressentem defasagens que se encontram no processo social real e, que se exprimem na inadequação entre: a estrutura do curso de tecnologia em segurança no trabalho, a esfera jurídico-legal e a estrutura do mercado de trabalho. A pesquisa adota uma abordagem qualitativa exploratória, pautada no método de estudo de caso para a coleta de dados. Para discutir o tema da formação da educação profissional e tecnológica no Brasil, utilizamos a pesquisa bibliográfica de forma a desvelar a evolução desta modalidade de ensino de modo contextual em sua relação com os fenômenos econômicos, sociais e políticos. Para verificar a hipótese de pesquisa, investigamos discentes e docentes de um curso de segurança no trabalho em uma instituição de ensino, por meio de questionários e entrevistas; e realizamos uma pesquisa documental na legislação relacionada a questão da regulamentação profissional do campo específico da área de segurança no trabalho. Os resultados obtidos confirmaram a hipótese da pesquisa, configurando grave desvio no propósito e objetivos da formação tecnológica, mormente, em seus efeitos sociais. A pesquisa documental articulada às respostas dos sujeitos, indicou defasagem das políticas entre a esfera da educação e das políticas de trabalho e emprego. Ainda, na fala dos docentes verificou-se evidências que sustentam a hipótese da problemática tratada aqui, estender-se a outros cursos. Os resultados evidenciam que se faz necessário, aprofundar estudos neste tema e estabelecer uma agenda de pesquisas dirigidas aos agentes e processos envolvidos neste contexto, para fins de promover discussões e alcançar ações e medidas que visem orientar, corrigir eventuais distorções e reduzir a possibilidade de repetição de eventos relacionados ao problema em discussão

The diploma thesis investigates causes and progression of the mortgage crisis beginning in 2006 in the United States. Theoretical part of the thesis explains general causes of economic crises in accordance with the Austrian theory of the business cycle. Some of the basic problems of nonmonetary business cycle theories are mentioned and the most common ABCT attacks refuted. Analytical part of the thesis tries to explain why the current business cycle appeared primarily in the form of mortgage crisis. For this reason institutions playing the main role in the American mortgage market are being analysed including Federal Reserve System, government-sponsored enterprises, and three biggest rating agencies Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings. Thesis conclusion should answer the question why and how the mortgage crisis originated in the United States.