This thesis studies the role of new firms in the labour market and uses Swedish data to analyze labour mobility in new firms, including both transitions of workers into and from new firms. In particular, it focuses on employees’ wages in new firms and post-new firm employment labour market outcomes as transitions into long-term employment and entrepreneurship.  This thesis consists of four essays. The first two essays concern labour mobility into new firms. The last two essays focus on post-new firm employment mobility. The first essay explores the role of new firms as an entry point into the labour market for individuals with little (or no) labour market experience. The findings show that the wage penalty found in previous research, which includes more heterogeneous groups of employees, decreases once the focus is solely on labour market entrants.  The second essay investigates whether there is a wage penalty for being employed at a new firm if the individual employee’s experience and status in the labour market are taken into account; this essay focuses on individuals who decide to switch jobs. The findings show that there is a wage penalty for being employed at a new firm; however, considering a random selection into new firms may underestimate the wage differentials. The third essay studies the role that new firms play for the career path of their employees. In particular, this paper analyzes whether short-term employment in new firms (employment lasting less than one year) may serve as a stepping stone toward long-term employment (at least two years of employment with the same employer) for non-employed individuals. The findings indicate that short-term employment in new firms may serve as a stepping stone toward long-term employment. The fourth paper examines the new firm effect on entrepreneurship, which the findings indicate is positive and statistically significant; this effect remains even after controlling for a worker's ability and shows that employees with both high and low levels of ability may transition to entrepreneurship. / <p>QC 20160916</p>

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Humanities, Department of English, 2007. / Bibliography: p. 239-289. / Introduction -- Fantastic metamorphosis as childhood 'otherness' -- The metamorphic growth of wings : deviant development and adolescent hybridity -- Tenors of maturation: developing powers and changing identities -- Changing representations of werewolves: ideologies of racial and ethnic otherness -- The desire for transcendence: jouissance in selkie narratives -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Appendix: "The great Silkie of Sule Skerry": three versions. / My central thesis is that fantastic motifs work on a metaphorical level to encapsulate and express ideologies that have frequently been naturalised as 'truths'. I develop a theory of motif metaphors in order to examine the ideologies generated by the fantastic motif of metamorphosis in a range of contemporary children's and young adult fantasy texts. Although fantastic metamorphosis is an exceptionally prevalent and powerful motif in children's and young adult fantasy literature, symbolising important ideas about change and otherness in relation to childhood, adolescence, and maturation, and conveying important ideologies about the world in which we live, it has been little analysed in children's literature criticism. The detailed analyses of particular metamorphosis motif metaphors in this study expand and refine our academic understanding of the metamorphosis figure and consequently provide insight into the underlying principles and particular forms of a variety of significant ideologies. / By examining several principal metamorphosis motif metaphors I investigate how a number of specific cultural beliefs are constructed and represented in contemporary children's and young adult fantasy literature. I particularly focus upon metamorphosis as a metaphor for childhood otherness; adolescent hybridity and deviant development; maturation as a process of self-change and physical empowerment; racial and ethnic difference and otherness; and desire and jouissance. I apply a range of pertinent cultural theories to explore these motif metaphors fully, drawing on the interpretive frameworks most appropriate to the concepts under consideration. I thus employ general psychoanalytic theories of embodiment, development, language, subjectivity, projection, and abjection; poststructuralist, social constructionist, and sociological theories; and wide-ranging literary theories, philosophical theories, gender and feminist theories, race and ethnicity theories, developmental theories, and theories of fantasy and animality. The use of such theories allows for incisive explorations of the explicit and implicit ideologies metaphorically conveyed by the motif of metamorphosis in different fantasy texts. / In this study, I present a number of specific analyses that enhance our knowledge of the motif of fantastic metamorphosis and of significant cultural ideologies. In doing so, I provide a model for a new and precise approach to the analysis of fantasy literature. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / [12], 294 p