<p>Can a country function without a legislative framework able to inform decisionmaking processes taken at different spheres of government? To what extent would actions conducted at various&nbsp / spheres of government be efficiently coordinated and informed by appropriate channels of constitutional provisions and legislative amendments to consolidate financial and intergovernmental&nbsp / fiscal relations policy-making tools for the realization of an efficient local developmental state? Answers to the above mentioned two questions refer to normative fiscal policy principles and&nbsp / prescriptive instruments of intergovernmental fiscal transfer design, whose orientation suggests better ways of framing sound and coherent programs and interventions that strengthen&nbsp / cooperative synergy and transfer knowledge of experience gained in empirical investigations and various South African environments of higher academic learning. Growing evidence&nbsp / acknowledges South Africa as one of the young democratic countries that has been going through a period of transition over the past three years as it changes its system of public finance from&nbsp / a structure suited to the old apartheid system to one consistent with the new South African Constitutional dispensation. While the former system was highly centralized, the newconstitution makes a clear commitment to municipal governments as important providers of government services, with greater tax and spending powers. Even as local autonomy has been substantially increased,&nbsp / there remains uncertainty as to the most appropriate design of a system of intergovernmental fiscal grants to metropolitan areas and townships. This study analyses this situation and further&nbsp / develops a generic design for intergovernmental transfers and its suitability to the realities of South African municipalities on the ground within the framework of Cooperative Government. This&nbsp / study concludes that fiscal&nbsp / management, as a cross-cutting discipline, is a&nbsp / powerful instrument for government&rsquo / s revenue sources at the national, provincial and local government levels.&nbsp / Financial management should be regarded as a co-coordinating mechanism managing government&rsquo / s expenditure and catalyzing sound financial relationship for an efficient management in the&nbsp / country, thus allowing government to budget effectively for the delivery of goods and services in order to attain the constitutional mandate of a developmental state.</p>

Contexte : Les interventions sur l'environnement bâti reliées au transport peuvent contribuer à l'augmentation de la pratique de l'activité physique. En tant qu’intervention, les programmes de vélos en libre-service (PVLS) peuvent contribuer à l’utilisation du vélo. BIXI© (nom qui fusionne les mots BIcyclette et taXI) est un programme de vélos en libre-service implanté à Montréal, au Canada, en mai 2009. Le programme BIXI© met à la disposition des gens 5050 vélos à 405 bornes d’ancrage. Objectif : L'objectif général de cette thèse est d'étudier l'impact d'un programme de vélos en libre-service sur l’utilisation du vélo. Les objectifs spécifiques de la thèse sont de : 1) Estimer la prévalence populationnelle et identifier des variables environnementales, sociodémographiques et comportementales associées à l’utilisation des vélos en libre-service. 2) Estimer l’impact populationnel de l’implantation des vélos en libre-service sur l’utilisation du vélo et les contributions respectives de l’utilisation du vélo pour des fins utilitaires et récréatives à l’utilisation totale du vélo. 3) Estimer l’impact local de l’implantation des vélos en libre-service sur l’utilisation du vélo. Méthodes : Un devis populationnel transversal avec mesures répétées. Des enquêtes ont été réalisées au moment du lancement du programme de vélos en libre-service (4 mai au 10 juin, 2009), à la fin de la première année d’implantation (8 octobre au 12 décembre, 2009), et à la fin de la deuxième année d’implantation (8 novembre au 12 décembre, 2010). Les échantillons se composaient de 2001 (âge moyen = 49,4 années, 56,7 % de femmes), 2502 (âge moyen = 47,8 ans, 61,8 % de femmes) et 2509 (âge moyen = 48,9 années, 59,0 % de femmes) adultes à chaque période de mesure respectivement. Résultats : Globalement, les résultats démontrent le potentiel des PVLS pour augmenter l’utilisation du vélo. Les résultats suggèrent que près de 128 744 habitants ou 8,1 % de la population adulte ont utilisé les vélos BIXI© au moins une fois dans la première saison. Après deux ans d’implantation, ceux qui sont exposés à BIXI© dans leur milieu résidentiel avaient une probabilité significativement plus élevée d’utiliser le vélo par rapport à ceux non exposés. Par contre, il n'y avait aucun impact local de l’implantation du programme BIXI© sur l’utilisation du vélo. Conclusions : L’implantation d'un PVLS à Montréal a augmenté la probabilité d’utiliser le vélo chez les individus habitant près d'une borne d'ancrage. Mots clés : programme de vélos en libre-service, expérience naturelle, santé des populations. / Background: Interventions in transportation and the built environment have the potential to increasing physical activity. Public bicycle share programs (PBSP) are one such intervention which may contribute to increasing cycling and physical activity. BIXI© (name merges the words BIcycle and taXI) is a public bicycle share programs launched in Montreal, Canada in May 2009. BIXI© makes available 5050 bicycles at 405 docking stations. Purpose: The overarching aim of this dissertation is to estimate the impact of a built environment intervention on cycling using. The specific research objectives are: 1) To estimate the population prevalence and identify built environment, sociodemographic and behavioural correlates of public bicycle share program use. 2) To estimate the population level impact of implementing a public bicycle share program on cycling and the contribution of utilitarian and recreational cycling to overall cycling. 3) To estimate the local impact of implementing a public bicycle share program on cycling. Methods: A population-based repeat, cross sectional time series design was used. The population of the Island of Montreal was sampled at three time points. Surveys were conducted at launch of the public bicycle share program (May 4th - June 10th 2009), at the end of the first year of implementation (October 8th - December 12th 2009), and at the end of the second year 2 of implementation (November 8th - December 12th 2010). Samples consisted of 2001 (Mean age=49.4 years, 56.7% female), 2502 (Mean age=47.8 years, 61.8% female), and 2509 (Mean age=48.9 years, 59.0% female) adults at the each time period. Results: Overall the results provide a proof of concept for the potential of PBSPs to increase cycling. Approximately 128,744 inhabitants or 8.1% of the adult population used BIXI© bicycles at least once in the first season. Respondents exposed to BIXI© at their residence after two years had a significantly greater likelihood of all forms cycling. However, there was no local impact of the BIXI© intervention on cycling. Conclusions: The implementation of a PBSP in Montreal had increased all forms of cycling in areas where it was deployed.

Questa tesi ha come obiettivo quello di contribuire all'analisi empirica della struttura dei costi del ciclo dei rifiuti solidi urbani in un campione di 534 comuni italiani, per un periodo di sette anni, dal 2004 al 2010. Dopo una panoramica sia delle varie fasi del servizio RSU che del funzionamento del settore in Italia, nel primo capitolo, il secondo analizza la letteratura empirica delle funzioni di costo, con particolare attenzione per i lavori più recenti, tra cui anche i pochissimi italiani sul tema. L’argomento del terzo capitolo riguarda lo studio della presenza di economie di scala e di densità nel settore dei rifiuti utilizzando una specificazione translogaritmica per la funzione di costo stimata con il metodo SUR. L'ultimo capitolo si propone di fornire risposte a domande molto attuali come: la raccolta porta a porta è più costosa? E' meglio smaltire in discarica i rifiuti residui o bruciarli? Data una certa quantità di rifiuti da smaltire, esiste una quantità ottimale da incenerire? Inoltre, dato che molte comunità usano contemporaneamente diversi siti di smaltimento, qual è il numero ottimale di siti per portare i propri rifiuti indifferenziati? / This thesis aims to contribute to the empirical analysis of the cost structure of municipal solid waste management in a sample 534 Italian municipalities, for a period of seven years, from 2004 to 2010. After giving an overview both of the various phases of the MSW service and of the functioning of the sector in Italy in the first chapter, the second chapter reviews the cost function studies, with particular emphasis on recent years including also the very few Italian papers on the topic. This topic of the third chapter the study of the presence of scale and density economies in the Italian waste sector using a translogarithmic specification estimated with the SUR method. The last chapter aims to provide answers to very actual questions as: is the door to door collection more expensive? Is it better to burry residual waste or to incinerate it? Given a certain amount of garbage, is there an optimal quantity to be incinerated? Moreover, given that many communities use contemporaneously different dumpsites, which is the perfect number of disposal sites for unsorted waste?

År 2000 blev det möjligt för svenska börsnoterade bolag att göra återköp av egna aktier. Detta har medfört ytterligare en möjlighet för hur bolagen kan distribuera den vinst de gör vid brist på andra gynnsamma investeringar. Under perioden 2000 till 2013 har 139 olika bolag genomfört återköp av egna aktier och bland dessa bolag varierar mängden återköpta aktier och antalet genomförda återköpsprogram kraftigt. Aktiebolagslagen sätter ramarna för återköpet och per återköpsprogram får maximalt tio procent av det totala aktiekapitalet köpas tillbaka. Bolagstämman beslutar om återköp skall bli aktuellt och beslutet sträcker sig som längst till nästa bolagsstämma. Sedan 2010 finns en utredning hos regeringen där det föreslås att ta bort tioprocentsspärren och låta det stå bolagen fritt att återköpa hur mycket aktier de vill. Detta examensarbete syftar till att undersöka den svenska markanden och att bidra i debatten och belysa ett område som ej tidigare har undersökts, nämligen sambandet mellan de bolag som genomför återköp av egna aktier samt hur ägarandelen i grupperna styrelsen, ledningen och verkställande direktör påverkas före och efter återköpen. Vidare analyser i den här studien inkluderar 126 av de 139 bolagen. Tretton bolag har exkluderats på grund av bristande uppgifter eller att årsredovisningar helt saknas. Materialet kategoriseras efter dels hur återköpen genomförs; ett enda program, flera program i följd alternativt spridda program, dels efter storlek på bolag enligt SmallCap, MidCap och LargeCap. Vidare analyseras sambandet mellan den genomsnittliga ökningen av det egna innehavet hos bolagets styrelse, ledning och verkställande direktör samt ägarandelen, bolagets storlek och återköpsstrategi. Den slutliga analysen bygger på de bolag som gjort flera återköpsprogram samt där styrelse och VD tillsammans ökat sitt genomsnittliga egna aktieinnehav per återköpsprogram. Vår studie visar ett signifikant samband utifrån den avsedda beroendevariabeln, den genomsnittliga ägarandelen för styrelse och VD samt ett signifikant negativt samband med storlekskategorin largecap. Vilket innebär att den genomsnittliga ökningen i innhav per återköpsprogram delvis kan förklaras genom hur stor ägarandelen var innan återköpet samt bolagets storlek. Även grupptillhörighet, det vill säga typ av återköpsstrategi, har ett samband men detta placerar sig strax under en signifikansnivå på 90 procent. / In the year of 2000 the Swedish government changed a part of the Swedish Companies Act and made it possible for swedish listed companies to repurchase a maximum of ten percent of their own shares. Up until today 139 companies have chosen to use this possibility to distribute some of their profit. Out of the 139 companies thirteen companies are excluded due to missing data, 126 companies remains in further studies of this paper. The pattern of the repurchase varies in three different systems; one share repurchase program alone, several consecutive share repurchase programs and several scattered share repurchase programs. We aim to study if there is a connection between the way the companies repurchase their own shares and the change in ownership within the board, CEO and company management. Our study show that a higher concentration of ownership within the board and CEO has a significant positive effect on the average increase of own shares per program. Also largecap firms has a significant negative effect on the average increase per program.

Magistro darbe kaip verslo įsigijimo (pardavimo) būdas nagrinėjama uždarosios akcinės bendrovės kontrolinio akcijų paketo pirkimo – pardavimo sandoris. Darbe tyrinėjami tiek ikisutartiniai šalių santykiai, tiek pačios akcijų pirkimo – pardavimo sutarties nuostatos. Akcijų pirkimo – pardavimo sutartis analizuojama kaip praktikos standartizuota šios sutarties forma. Nagrinėjant šį sandorį analizuojama specifinių tiek sandorio, tiek pačios akcijų pirkimo – pardavimo sutarties institutų kilmė, teisinė reikšmė bei vieta Lietuvos teisinėje sistemoje. Darbe pateikiamas ketinimų protokolo įvertinimas bei kvalifikavimas, aprašomas bendrovės patikrinimas ir jo reikšmė, analizuojama, kas laikytina akcijų pirkimo – pardavimo sutarties dalyku, aprašomi bei įvertinami kainos nurodymo sutartyje ir jos sumokėjimo būdai, aptariama pareiškimų ir garantijų instituto kilmė, jo reikšmė akcijų pirkimo – pardavimo sutartyje bei vieta Lietuvos teisės sistemoje, taip pat analizuojamas sandorio užbaigimas, bei nurodoma, koks Lietuvos teisės institutas akcijų pirkimo – pardavimo sutartyse yra vadinamas šiuo terminu, be to įvertinama atidedamųjų sąlygų teisinė reikšmė. / In the master paper the transaction on sale – purchase of the controlling block of shares of the close company as a way of the acquisition (sale) of the business is analysed. The pre-contractual relations of the parties as well as the provisions of the agreement on the sale – purchase of the shares itself are examined in the paper. The agreement on sale – purchase of the shares is analysed as a form of the agreement standardised by the practise. While analysing the aforementioned transaction, the origin, legal meaning and place in the legal system of Lithuania of the specific institutes of the transaction as well as of the agreement are examined. In the paper the valuation and legal qualification of the letter of intent, the description and meaning of the due diligence are also presented, the subject matter of the agreement on sale – purchase of the shares is analysed, the description and valuation of the ways of stipulation of the payment and settlement are presented, the origin of the representations and warranties, it’s meaning in the agreement on sale – purchase of the shares as well as the place in the legal system of Lithuania is presented, the closing of the transaction is analysed and the qualification which Lithuanian legal institute stands for the term of closing of the transaction in the agreements on sale – purchase of the shares, and evaluation of the legal meaning of the conditions precedent is presented.

The aim of this thesis is to gain improved understanding of the income convergence between Finland and Sweden 1950-2000 with a focus on catch-up growth, wage formation, productivity growth, migration and structural change in a setting of structural and institutional differences on the factor markets. Earlier studies of Finnish and Swedish convergence has overlooked the international perspective and therefore missed the general European – US convergence during the period. The results shows that Sweden converged to 80 percent of the US productivity level in the early 1970s and is following US productivity growth thereafter. The Finnish catch-up growth towards the US continues until the beginning of the 1990s. This corresponds well with the convergence of labour productivity between Finland and Sweden which took place around 1970 and the gap was closed in the beginning of the 1990s. The convergence between the countries can therefore be understood from the catch-up growth against the USA and if the countries growth rates are plotted against their income level 1950 one can see that the two countries are well in line with other West European countries. This means that either country is deviating in a positive or negative direction during the period. This is to some extent in contrast with the view that has been put forward in the countries national economic historical writing where Finland is often since as a growth miracle while Sweden especially since 1970s is seen as a case of falling behind.      In order to explain the convergence scenario structural and institutional differences on the countries factor markets is examined. One aspect concerns Barry Eichengreens hypothesis regarding wage moderation as cause of the Post-War European convergence. The wage setting system in Sweden has been put forward by Eichengreen as a raw model for the type of institutional setting that would promote wage moderation. One central finding in this thesis is that we can not find support for wage moderation for Sweden as the labour share of the national income rises during the phase of Swedish catch-up growth while the labour income share was constant and periodically falling in Finland. In contrast with the view of the Finnish low interest rate policy during the post- the actual real interest rate was lower in Sweden.      There has also been a significant migration flow from Finland to Sweden especially from the 1950s to mid 1970s.  In the thesis we find a positive and significant relationship between wage and productivity differences on industry level between the countries. This supports the conclusion that migration was leading towards factor price convergence between the countries.      The shift-share analysis shows that there were higher gains for the productivity growth in reallocating labour on the Finnish labour market than in Sweden. This could be explained by the higher share of the labour in the agricultural sector as predicted by Peter Temin.

本研究是利用代理人基模型 (Agent-Based model) 結合遺傳規劃法(genetic programming) 在模組化經濟體系下價格動態對市占率之影響。現今企業多數以市占率作為公司在市場上表現的主要指標，如果擁有高市占率的廠商，可以確定在這產業中生存。以往的文獻顯示模組化經濟下高價格廠商在市場上的表現會優於低價格廠商，取決重要因素為品質，因為高價產品通常品質也較高，容易取得消費者喜愛。本研究想探討是否在這個體系下，消費者所考量的都是以品質高低來決定是否購買產品，是否會有過去以往的價格競爭情形，以及在價格動態體系，市場所呈現的風貌如何。本研究設計39組的加成率參數組，並依據兩間廠商的決策上製作成價格動態矩陣圖表。試圖以這些已知參數組與線性內插法所預測之市占率的參數組進行分析。此研究模擬中發現，在模組化經濟下，價格競爭並不一定會讓市占率趨向於某一點均衡，也可能會趨向於一條路徑上。而且不一定是高價位的廠商會有很大機會獲得市場，也沒有所謂的贏家擁有超高市占率的情況產生。 / This study is the use of agent-based model combined with genetic programming to explore the impact of the price dynamics for the market share in the modular economy. Nowadays, the majority of enterprises use market share as the key performance indicators in the market, if the enterprise has a high market share, it can be determined to survive in this industry. The previous literature shows that manufacturers of high prices on the market under the modular economy will be better than the low-price manufacturers, depending on the important factors for quality. Expensive products are usually higher quality, easily favorite by consumers. My study is to investigate whether consumers consider in this system are based on the level of quality to decide to buy the product or not, and whether there will be price competitive situation, as well as the outlook presented by the market price dynamics system. In this paper, we design 39 markup rate’s parameter set and making price dynamic matrix diagram in accordance with the decisions of two manufacturers. Trying to analyze these known parameter set and the parameter set of the market share predicted by the linear interpolation. The simulation of the study found that in the modular economy price competition does not necessarily make the market share tends to a equilibrium point, or it may also tend to be a equilibrium path. But not necessarily high-priced manufacturers get to the market, there is no so-called winners with higher market share.

We study the facial structure of the independent set polytope using the concept of conflict hypergraphs. A conflict hypergraph is a hypergraph whose vertices correspond to the binary variables, and edges correspond to covers in the constraint matrix of the independent set polytope. Various structures such as cliques, odd holes, odd anti-holes, webs and anti-webs are identified on the conflict hypergraph. These hypergraph structures are shown to be generalization of traditional graph structures. Valid inequalities are derived from these hypergraph structures, and the facet defining conditions are studied. Chvatal-Gomory ranks are derived for odd hole and clique inequalities. To test the hypergraph cuts, we conduct computational experiments on market-share (also referred to as market-split) problems. These instances consist of 100% dense multiple-knapsack constraints. They are small in size but are extremely hard to solve by traditional means. Their difficult nature is attributed mainly to the dense and symmetrical structure. We employ a special branching strategy in combination with the hypergraph inequalities to solve many of the particularly difficult instances. Results are reported for serial as well as parallel implementations.

Univ., Diss.--Kiel, 2002.

We study the long-term performance of companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange that announced their intention to repurchase shares between the years of 2005 and 2013. We test the hypothesis that the market underreacts to share repurchase announcements and that repurchasing firms consequently outperform the market in the following years. We find that repurchasing firms yield a cumulative abnormal return of 15.76 percent, significant at the 1 percent level, over the four years following the announcement. To address the concern that microcaps may be driving the results, we also investigate the differences in abnormal returns between companies of different sizes. We form three portfolios based on market capitalization and find that the large, medium-sized and small companies yield 14.34 percent, 20.13 percent and 6.61 percent respectively. / Vi studerar den långsiktiga avvikelseavkastningen för företag noterade på Stockholmsbörsen som annonserat aktieåterköp mellan åren 2005 och 2013. Vi testar hypotesen att marknaden underreagerar på dessa annonseringar och att aktieåterköpande företag överpresterar marknaden de nästkommande åren. Vi finner att företag som återköper aktier ger en kumulativ abnormal avkastning på 15,76 %, signifikant på enprocentsnivån, under fyra år efter att företaget annonserat ett aktieåterköpsprogram. För att bemöta kritik mot tidigare anomaliforskning om att microcaps ofta snedvrider resultaten, undersöker vi skillnader i avvikelseavkastning mellan företag i olika storlek. Vi skapar tre portföljer baserat på företagens marknadsvärde och finner att stora, mellanstora och små företag genererar en kumulativ avvikelseavkastning på 14,34 %, 20,13 % samt 6,61 %.