Despite its prominent role in firms' external financing, debt is highly underrepresented in the academic literature, compared to equity financing (Cumming, 2016). This thesis investigates corporate debt under diverse bankruptcy regulation in Europe (Chapter 1), as well as benefits arising from debt renegotiation among US firms (Chapter 2 and 3). The first study examines whether corporate borrowing responds to the strength of creditor rights, which differ greatly across countries. We use a difference-in-differences (DiD) methodology around an EU-wide bankruptcy reform in 2002 as an exogenous shock that reshaped the institutional environment for corporate debtors and their creditors in Europe. Our findings suggest that subsidiaries in the EU decrease their leverage when they are exposed to less creditor-friendly regimes after 2002, while there is hardly any impact on leverage when shifting to an equally creditor-friendly regime, and even less so when shifting to a more creditor-friendly one. We conclude that the legal environment under which credit is granted matters for firms' access to finance. The following two studies take a closer look into the bank-firm relationship during which renegotiations of existing loans are frequently observed. While the area of private debt renegotiation (among healthy firms) is not very well researched so far, this is the first study to link between loan renegotiation and firms' credit rating (Chapter 2) and firms' adjustments toward capital structure targets (Chapter 3). Firms' credit rating is important as it determines the rate firms have to pay for private debt and it governs capital requirements of lenders (Basel II and III). The study shows a positive impact on a firm's credit ratings whenever there was a loan amendment in the month prior to the rating update. Amending loans after the initial loan contract therefore carries signalling power to the capital market (in line with existing literature) and implies benefits to both borrowers and lenders. The third study finds an additional beneficial effect of loan amendments for firms. We investigate whether loan amendments might serve as a channel available to firms to speed up their adjustments toward capital structure targets. Against a broad range of alternative leverage target definitions used in the capital structure literature recently, loan amendments tend to accelerate firms' speed of adjustments by up to 10.6 percent points within twelve months after the loan has been amended (in addition to firms' general speed of adjustment). Therefore, our studies provide evidence for additional, novel benefits of corporate debt renegotiation which encourages firms to update and optimise financial contract design even after origination.

Contratos de concessão de serviços públicos em setores de infraestrutura, e particularmente no setor portuário, deverão passar por um período de revisões contratuais no Brasil. O prazo de concessões realizadas na década de 1990 está se encerrando, e alterações substanciais nas condições de diversos contratos realizadas sem a devida preocupação com os impactos no equilíbrio econômico-financeiro aumentam a complexidade nos processos de renegociação. A renegociação de contratos de concessão é um tema de grande foco acadêmico, por ser uma grande fonte de ineficiências e custos de transação em concessões de serviços públicos, podendo eliminar os benefícios do processo de competição via licitação e acarretar em maiores tarifas e/ou menor qualidade no serviço aos usuários. Nesse contexto, esta dissertação tem como objetivo contribuir com os aspectos metodológicos associados ao reequilíbrio econômico-financeiro de contratos de concessão, com aplicação específica em arrendamentos do setor portuário. As mudanças no ambiente regulatório devem visar um aumento de transparência e previsibilidade no processo de renegociação, com vistas a garantir que serviços públicos sejam prestados de forma adequada e universal (objetivo do Poder Público) e que o agente privado receba uma remuneração justa em relação aos investimentos realizados. Ainda que os princípios sejam claros, a revisão de contratos firmados com o Poder Público e a quantificação de eventuais desequilíbrios não são exercícios 100% unívocos. A falta de dados históricos confiáveis e a sobreposição de fatores ordinários e extraordinários dificultam a definição de parâmetros e exigem uma arquitetura meticulosa para estabelecer a álgebra mais adequada e conceber uma solução satisfatória. / In Brazil, the first cycle of concession contracts of transport infrastructure assets is about to end, giving birth to a period of contract renegotiations. In the seaport industry, the concession contracts signed in the 1990s terminated or are about to expire. However, in most cases their clauses have not been adapted to meet the many factors that affected the implicit financial equilibrium, increasing the complexity of the renegotiation process. The renegotiation of concession contracts has been addressed in several academic works. The authors acknowledge that this process is a major source of inefficiencies and transaction costs in public service concessions, and may reduce or eliminate the benefits of competition through bidding processes, leading to higher costs and/or worst level of service to users. In this context, this thesis proposed a methodology to evaluate the financial equilibrium of concession contracts in seaport terminals, as well as to make sure this equilibrium is not affected whenever changes in contract conditions happen. Changes in regulatory framework should increase transparency and predictability of contract renegotiation processes, ensuring public services are properly provided and private agents investments are correctly recovered. Nevertheless, the concession contract renegotiations and the evaluation of the implicit financial equilibrium are usually difficult to accomplish due to lack of reliable data and miscomprehension of ordinary and extraordinary factors. As a result, is usually necessary to develop detailed and ad hoc approaches to achieve a satisfactory solution both for government and private parties.

Orientador: Francisco Luiz Cazeiro Lopreato / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Economia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T10:08:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Vieira_DaniloJorge_M.pdf: 3998304 bytes, checksum: 6938562babd230de9f35cbc8b4b6d12e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: O trabalho aborda as conseqüências do ajuste das finanças estaduais efetuado a partir da renegociação da dívida pública, promovida ao amparo da Lei 9.496/1997, sobre a capacidade de implementação de políticas autônomas de fomento por parte dos estados. Demonstra, de início, que os novos parâmetros de gestão fiscal estabelecidos no bojo do processo de ajustamento, aprofundados posteriormente por meio da promulgação da LRF, fizeram emergir fortes restrições, implicando na desarticulação daquelas políticas, que perderam substância e espaço no âmbito dos orçamentos. A partir da análise mais detalhada da experiência de Minas Gerais, verifica, primeiramente, o impacto que tal reordenamento fiscal e financeiro teve para as finanças públicas. Avalia, em seguida, os desdobramentos sobre as estratégias levadas adiante pelo governo mineiro para apoiar a estrutura produtiva local, descrevendo as mudanças pelas quais passaram as diretrizes de atuação e os instrumentos de estímulo manejados, que se tornaram muito mais contidos, obscurecendo as perspectivas de crescimento e modernização da base econômica instalada na região. Conclui que a nova institucionalidade emergente a partir da renegociação da dívida problematizou a evolução dos desequilíbrios econômicos regionais, uma vez que a desestruturação das políticas fomentadoras dos estados ¿ que ocuparam, ainda que de maneira deficiente, a lacuna deixada pelas ações do governo central ¿ não foi acompanhada por uma presença mais incisiva da União. Assim, o ajuste fiscal deixou como saldo possibilidades bem mais opacas de retomada de um novo ciclo expansivo e resultou, em verdade, no debilitamento amplificado da atuação conjunta do setor público, que adquiriu feições bem mais acanhadas a favor do crescimento, empalidecendo as perspectivas de desenvolvimento regional / Abstract:This research analyze the consequences of the adjustment of the states finances, promoted by agreement of the public debt (supported in Law 9.496/1997), for the capacity of the states for implementation of regional development policies. It demonstrates that the established new fiscal parameters in the process of the adjustment, fortified later with the LRF (¿Fiscal Responsibility Law¿), resulted in very restrictions, implying in the rupture of those policies and, thus, in the her loss of substance and of space in the budgets. From the more detailed analysis of the experience of Minas Gerais's state, it verifies, first, the impact that such fiscal and financial adjustment had for the public finance. After this discussion, it evaluates the impact on the used strategies by the government of Minas Gerais to stimulate the local productive structure, describing the changes in the directives and in the used instruments to promote the growth, showing that these had been contained, weakening the possibilities of development of the economic base installed in the region. In the conclusion, it calls the attention that the resultant fiscal order of the adjustment process had consequences for the evolution of the regional economic inequalities, because it weakened the development policies of the states, but without establishing, at the same time, a more strong action of the central government in the attack to the regional inequalities / Mestrado / Economia Regional e Urbana / Mestre em Desenvolvimento Econômico

This thesis describes principles of specific HTTPS attacks and provides realization of attacks using lab environment based on VMware. Elaboration is divided to specific dedicated attacks, each part evaluates risk of vulnerability and describes the way of realization in guides for students and lector´s manuals.

L’imprévision est un thème à la frontière entre liberté contractuelle et justice contractuelle. Cependant, un nouveau regard peut être porté sur cette institution du droit des contrats grâce à la théorie des contrats relationnels développée par Ian R. Macneil ou encore à travers le contrat-coopération théorisé par Suzanne Lequette. Ces théories invitent à prendre en considération la valeur intrinsèque du lien contractuel et l’incomplétude du contrat. L’imprévision fait donc partie intégrante des contrats relationnels de par leur nature. La vocation première des contrats relationnels est de perdurer, obligeant les contractants à des normes de coopération et de flexibilité. Sous couvert de bonne foi, la relationnalité serait le fondement des changements de circonstances. Une étude comparative du régime des changements de circonstances apporte certaines précisions. Il semble exister deux approches des changements de circonstances, l’une restreinte aux modifications économiques et l’autre étendue, basée sur l’objectif ou le fondement contractuel. Une approche étendue de l’imprévision semble nécessaire dans les contrats relationnels. Enfin, les effets des changements de circonstances devraient donner priorité au maintien de la relation et à la norme de coopération en imposant une renégociation puis en permettant une adaptation judiciaire des termes de l’engagement. La résiliation, contraire à la nature des contrats relationnels, ne devrait intervenir qu’exceptionnellement. / Hardship is a topic at the border between contractual freedom and contractual justice. However, a new glance can be carried on this institution of contract law through the theory of relational contracts developed by Ian R. Macneil or the contrat-cooperation theorised by Suzanne Lequette. This theory invites to take into account the intrinsic value of the contractual link and the incompleteness of the contract. Imprévision thus forms integral part of the relational contracts from their nature. The primary purpose of the relational contrat is to continue, forcing the contractors to standards of cooperation and flexibility. According to good faith, the relationnality would be the foundation of changed of circumstances. A comparative study of the regime of changed of circumstances makes certain clarifications. There appear two approches of the changed of circumstances, one restricted based on economic modifications, and the second wide one, based on the purpose or foundation of the contract. Finally, the effects of the changed of circumstances should give priority to maintain the relation and the norm of cooperation by imposing renegotiation then by allowing judicial adaptation of the terms of the contract. Termination, contrary to the nature of relational contracts, should intervene only exceptionally.

En dépit des réformes visant à faciliter l’accès aux marchés, les grandes firmes françaises s’endettent en majeure partie auprès des banques. Cette thèse tente donc de comprendre les décisions d’endettement des entreprises, et plus particulièrement leur choix entre dettes directes et/ou indirectes. Ce choix a un impact sur la valeur boursière à court terme des grandes sociétés françaises. En effet, les résultats de l’étude d’événements indiquent que le marché réagit positivement aux annonces d’emprunts bancaires, mais ne réagit pas aux annonces d’emprunts obligataires. L’effet de signal positif est d’autant plus important lorsque les annonces concernent le renouvellement de dettes bancaires, des échéances relativement courtes et des emprunts bancaires syndiqués. La structure d’endettement des grandes firmes dépend en fait de certaines de leurs caractéristiques. Ce sont essentiellement les plus grandes sociétés françaises, celles qui bénéficient d’une certaine notoriété, qui ont le plus de chance d’émettre des emprunts directs. Toutefois, un certain nombre d’entre-elles tirent avantage de leur envergure pour accéder à la dette de marché, alors qu’elles présentent un risque de crédit relativement élevé. Ces firmes continuent donc à se financer en majeure partie auprès des banques afin de bénéficier d’une plus grande flexibilité. Par ailleurs, les entreprises innovantes optent pour une structure d’endettement mixte, qui leur permet de choisir leur source de dette en fonction de la confidentialité des projets à financer. Les variables de gouvernance jouent également un rôle dans les choix d’endettement des firmes. Au final, les deux types de dettes sont plus complémentaires que substituts. / In spite of public market deregulation in the 1980s, large French companies continue borrowing predominantly from commercial banks. To understand corporate debt decisions, this thesis examines the choice between arm’s-length debt obtained in public market and/or monitored debt supplied by banks. This choice has an impact on firms’ common stock prices. Bank loan announcements convey information to the capital market and generate positive share price effects, while bond debt announcements do not. Market reaction is even more important when announcements are related to bank credit renewals, to shorter maturities and to syndicated loans. In fact, corporate debt ownership structure depends on several firm characteristics. Results indicate that largest and oldest firms are most likely to issue public debts. However, some of them draw advantage from their scale to reach bond markets, whereas they have a relatively high credit risk. These firms continue borrowing from banks to benefit by a greater flexibility. Moreover, firms with sensitive information have a mixed structure of debt, since they choose their debt source according to the confidentiality of the projects to be financed. Corporate governance variables also play a part in the corporate debt choices. Finally, the two types of debts are more complementary than substitute.

Financial intermediaries are recognized to promote the efficiency of resource allocation by mitigating problems of incentives, asymmetric information and contract incompleteness. The role played by financial intermediaries is perceived so crucial that these institutions have received all over the world the greatest attention of regulators. Differences in regulatory regimes as well as in the real economies have produced a large variety in the characteristics of financial sectors and of individual intermediaries. In particular, in different places and times it is possible to observe banking sectors more or less competitive, populated by credit intermediaries of different sizes and with different levels of specialization. This variety of institutions raises interesting questions about the features of a well functioning financial intermediation sector. These questions have inspired an important body of economic literature which, however, is still inconclusive in many aspects. This dissertation includes three studies all intending to contribute in this direction. Chapter 2 Recent empirical works have found evidence consistent with larger banks having lower incentives to collect soft information and, in particular, to lend to small firms which are typically regarded as relatively opaque borrowers. Another market segment affected by relatively high levels of opaqueness is that of long-term loans and the reason is that, as emphasized in the corporate finance literature, short-term maturities are useful for the purpose of screening and monitoring investment projects. It is therefore interesting to assess whether large and small banks differ in their propensity to issue long-term loans, a type of investigation which has not been conducted yet. The reason why small and large banks might be expected to have a different propensity to issue long-term loans has to do with two notions. First, the effectiveness of a short-term maturity as a screening and monitoring device is preserved only if parties anticipate that, when payments are due, the lender will not be willing to extend the maturity, otherwise the initial short-term loan is de facto a long-term one. The problem may rise if the liquidation of insolvent firms produces lower payoffs than their refinancing: under these circumstances, as suggested by theories on renegotiation, liquidation is not implemented no matter what is written on the contract (parties can easily avoid the inefficiency that would result from liquidation, for example by simply granting a new loan). Second, at a more specific level theories on renegotiation suggest that the ability to commit to not extend thematurity decreases with bank size.1 Small banks are therefore predicted to issue shorter-term loans and to make a better selection of projects. The results are consistent with this prediction. Controlling for other characteristics of both the demand- and the supply-side as well as for the type of guarantee supplied, small banks have lower proportions of long-term loans to total loans and lower proportions of non performing loans to total loans. It should be pointed out that this does not imply that small banks are necessarily more efficient since short-term maturities also have costs; in particular, short-term maturities can interfere with the incentives of good types by inducing short-termism (the inflation of shortterm results at the expenses of total profitability). Moreover, beyond the ability to commit other supply-side features are shown to be relevant in the determination of the maturity, at least with specific classes borrowers. In particular, the findings are also consistent with the presence of economies of scale in lending at long maturities to firms in more technical and innovative industries. Since providing the right incentives to high quality entrepreneurs and to firms in innovative sectors is more likely to be a priority in more advanced countries, a policy implication is that these economies need more the presence of large credit institutions and the more so if venture capital and stock market are of limited size. Chapter 3 As already emphasized, theories on renegotiation suggest that the ability of banks to commit to a given course of action is an important factor for efficiency and that such ability depends on observable characteristics, like bank size. An important aspect which has not been analyzed in the theoretical literature is the effect that competition among banks exert on their ability to commit. The theoretical model presented in chapter 3 tries to provide an answer to this question. More specifically, the model studies the effects of competition among banks when these are subject to dynamic commitment problems which may result in excess refinancing of insolvent borrowers (soft budget constraint) as well as in excess termination of profitable ones (ratchet effect and short-termism). The building assumption is that, because of priority schemes and relationship lending, competition is harsher for new lending than for lending to ongoing projects. The main conclusion is that there exists a trade-off between the benefits that competition brings by disciplining low quality borrowers and the costs implied by worsening the incentives of good ones. The model also allows to look at the effects of competition on stability. This is done in two ways by looking at the extent to which competition interferes with the procyclicality of the banking sector and by studying if competition may eliminate or add inefficient equilibria. The main policy implication is that the optimal level of competition of a banking system is positively related to the quality of the underlying economy. If taken together, the results of chapters 2 and 3 also provide a theory about local or regional banks which is not based on any aprioristic assumption about the technology of these type of intermediaries. As long as these institutions can be seen as banks with a relatively high market power and a relatively small size (they are often important players at a local level although of limited size), both chapters 2 and 3 suggest that these intermediaries can more easily commit to a tough stance at the refinancing stage, with positive effects on their ability to screen out bad projects but with negative effects on their ability to incentivize good types and to fund more technical and innovative firms. In other words, these institutions might promote growth at earlier stages of development, although they are not sufficient to address the incentive issues of more advanced economies. Interestingly, this interpretation of the role of local banks is totally distinct from the traditional one which is based on the aprioristic assumption that these banks are good in doing relationship lending. Chapter 4 Conflicts of interest of economic institutions carrying out a variety of functions are considered a widespread phenomenon severely limiting the efficiency that can be achieved. These worries are often taken as justification for regulations imposing transparency requirements or tougher measures like separation of functions. At the same time, contract theory suggests that the effects of opportunistic behavior can be limited by adopting appropriate incentive schemes. The third study, chapter 4, tries to understand from a theoretical point of view to what extent the use of incentive schemes can address the distortions posed by the presence of conflicts of interest. The universal bank is regarded as a (common) agent serving different clients with potentially conflicting interests: for example, it may buy assets on behalf of investors and sell assets on behalf of issuing firms. The clients offer incentive schemes to the bank and they behave non-cooperatively. The bank decides a level of effort and, when firewalls are absent, a level of collusion, modelled as a costly and unproductive redistribution of wealth among the clients (for example, the banks can at no cost sell the securities it is underwriting to the funds it manages and can do so at the price it likes). Firewalls are defined as all legal or economic devices imposing a real separation of functions and therefore preventing the bank from colluding as specified above. The main conclusion is that in the absence of firewalls the equilibrium incentive schemes are steeper. This means that the equilibrium level of effort is higher and may compensate the (ex post) inefficiency of collusion. In other words, not only appropriate incentive schemes can eliminate the distortions posed by conflicts of interest but, at least in principle, their presence may even be necessary for efficiency (this happens if effort is a public good for the two principals so that the allocation without firewalls is characterized by under-provision of effort). At the same time, the allocation without firewalls is shown to be the least efficient in the presence of one naive player who does not recognize the existence of the conflict of interest. As long as transparency requirements can be considered tools to improve market participants’ sophistication, these results suggest why and how this type of regulation can work. Moreover, the model allows to draw conclusions about the desirability of tougher regulation prescribing a more or less neat separation of functions. With sophisticated economic agents, who can address the distortions posed by conflicts of interest by choosing appropriate incentive schemes, separation of functions is unnecessary or even detrimental for efficiency. On the other hand, more or less powerful firewalls are desirable if market participants are not considered sufficiently sophisticated to be able to react to the presence of conflicts of interest and if transparency requirements cannot increase their sophistication. In few words, the optimal regulation of conflicts of interest is softer in situations involving professionals who are more likely to realize and to react by choosing an appropriate incentive scheme or, more generally, for institutions operating in advanced economies where the average level of market participants sophistication is higher.

La tesi analizza come le relazioni tra banche e imprese influenzino la capacità di aziende in difficoltà di rinegoziare il loro debito. Dopo una rassegna della teoria, con particolare attenzione ai fallimenti di mercato che ostacolano la rinegoziazione (primo paper), la tesi approfondisce i problemi di coordinamento tra più banche in presenza di multiaffidamento (secondo paper). Un modello a giochi ripetuti viene utilizzato per descrivere la situazione di banche che si incontrano ripetutamente per discutere su numerose imprese in difficoltà. In tale contesto, il coordinamento è raggiunto seguendo una classica ,'trigger strategy', che prevede la punizione dei comportamenti opportunistici. All’aumentare del numero di banche, altre strategie possono essere utilizzate, come l’esclusione dei creditori considerati inaffidabili (‘ostracismo’), migliorando così la probabilità di cooperare. L’ultimo paper affronta questi temi empiricamente: le banche ristrutturano più facilmente aziende il cui debito è prevalentemente di origine bancaria, più grandi e con una migliore situazione economica e finanziaria prima della crisi. Al crescere del numero di banche la probabilità di ristrutturare e il credito concesso dopo la crisi aumentano fino ad una soglia, stimata tra tre e quattro banche, oltre la quale trovare un accordo diventa più difficile. Questo risultato può aiutare a spiegare la diffusione del multiaffidamento. / The thesis analyses how bank-firm relationships affect firms facing financial distress and their capability to renegotiate outstanding debt. The first paper reviews the theoretical contributions on this process and the market failures that hinder it. The second paper studies coordination problems among multiple banks. Banks have more than one distressed firm to face and, therefore, they come across repeatedly and behave strategically. This setting is modelled as a repeated game, wherein coordination is improved by following a classical trigger strategy, which threatens a punishment in case of free riding behaviours. As the number of lending banks increases, different strategies can be adopted, such as ostracism against untrustworthy players, thus improving the likelihood of cooperation. The last paper analyses empirically the issue: banks tend to restructure those firms they are more involved in, larger and with a better economic and financial situation before the distress event. A higher number of banks and more dispersed debt increase the restructuring probability, the new credit granted after the distress event and the survival probability, up to a threshold estimated between three and four banks, beyond which reaching an agreement becomes harder. This result gives a new rationale to multiple banking relations.

Ancrée dans une tradition ethnosociologique et dans une perspective compréhensive, cette thèse se fonde sur l’analyse des conditions d’existence de dix hommes « sans domicile » vivant dans la rue hors des circuits d’assistance depuis au moins une dizaine d’années. L’ambition de cette thèse était de recueillir sur leur lieu de vie, les témoignages de ces hommes qui nourrissent ce paradigme sur la grande « exclusion » ; celui-là même faisant d’eux, ces « inutiles au monde » fréquemment présentés comme des êtres « désocialisés », rétifs à toutes action sociales, sous l’emprise d’une pathologie psychique expliquant leur situation d’(auto) « exclusion ». Il s’agissait ainsi de tenter de briser ces représentations au principe même de cette « individualité négative » pour mieux saisir les tenants mais surtout les aboutissants de telles existences, et pour mieux montrer toutes les logiques en action afin de survivre à leur condition d’existence infrahumaine et aux effets du déclassement portés par ce phénomène de régression sociale. Pour ce faire et d’un point de vue méthodologique, l’approche biographique a été privilégiée en adoptant la technique du récit de vie répétés agrémentée d’observations in situ. La particularité de la méthode choisie a été d’être engagée sur la durée, souvent sur plusieurs mois, afin d’analyser en détails leurs trajectoires sociales pour au final découvrir, malgré la singularité des personnes et de leurs histoires de vie, cette forme commune de résistance aux interstices de l’espace social. Une résistance fondée sur une renégociation identitaire utilisant des réminiscences d’un passé d’avant la chute, bien présentes dans les discours et dans les actes, pour laisser s’exprimer cette continuité de l’être malgré les circonstances et cette constance à soi salvatrice. / Rooted in an ethnosociological tradition and from a comprehensive perspective, this thesis is based on the analysis of the conditions of existence of ten men 'homeless' living on the Street outside the channels of assistance for at least a decade.The aim of this thesis was to collect on their place of life, the testimony of these men who feed this paradigm on the great 'exclusion '; same one making them, these " useless to the world " frequently present as human beings «desocialized», reluctant to all social action, under the influence of a psychic pathology explaining their situation of (auto) "exclusion". It was done to try to break these representations to the principle of this " negative individuality ' to understand proponents but especially outs of such lives, and to better show all logic in action in order to survive to their condition of existence subhuman and the effects of decommissioning by the phenomenon of social regression.To do that, and from a methodological point of view, the biographical approach was privileged by adopting the technique of the narrative of repeated life with observations in situ. The peculiarity of the method chosen was to be engaged over time, often over several months, in order to analyze in detail their social trajectories to ultimately discover, despite the uniqueness of people and their life stories, this common form of resistance in the interstices of the social space. Resistance based on identity renegotiation using reminiscences of a past of prior to the drop, well presented in the speech and acts, to let this continuity to be despite the circumstances and this saving constance in itself.

This thesis explores the relationship between a pastor’s personal ministry identity and the church role expectations that he encounters in the local church within which he ministers and takes place in the context of the discipline of “Building up the local church”. It is the hypothesis of this thesis that many Baptist pastors within the Baptist Union of Southern Africa are compromising the integrity of their own personal ministry identities in an attempt to meet the church role expectations of their local churches. The study considers firstly the nature development of personal identity in general as a precursor to understanding the nature of development of a personal ministry identity. At least six key elements are identified as being important in the development of an authentic personal ministry identity namely, spiritual gifting, personality, natural talentsabilities, divine call, congregational influence and finally passion. Pastoral ministry can be understood as an interface of expectations between the church role expectations of the church and the pastor’s expectations derived from his personal ministry identity. The consequences of this interface of expectations may be both positive and negative and may include role confusion, conflict, collusion or congruence. Role negotiation and renegotiation may be used to address some of the negative consequences of this interface. Empirical research results obtained as part of the study that explored the relationship between a pastor’s personal ministry identity, church role expectations and the current approach to ministry, clearly indicate that church role expectations are far more influential on current pastoral practice than are the personal ministry identities, indicating that the identities of these pastors have been undermined by church role expectations. A correct understanding of the Biblical view of self-denial and self-esteem would result in a greater freedom on the part of pastors to resist the undermining of their personal ministry identities. Copyright 2005, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Baston, GA 2005, Rediscovering pastoral identity : the influence of church role expectations in undermining a pastor’s personal ministry identity, MA(Theol) dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-06172005-101131 / > / Dissertation (MA (Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Practical Theology / unrestricted