Digital Consumption and Over-Indebtedness Among Young Adults in Sweden

This LUii report presents empirical results from studies on consumption and over-indebtedness in Swedish young adults in a digital context. The studies have been conducted through in-depth interviews with municipal financial counsellors as well as a quantitative survey with approximately 1,100 respondents in a sample representative of Swedes from 18 to 25 years old. The report includes an extensive literature review on over-indebtedness and consumption in a digital context. The purpose of the project has been to form a better understanding of in what ways the digitization of our everyday lives – including consumption, credit handling and overall communication – influences economic vulnerability among young adults. The research report is written by researchers linked to Lund University Internet Institute (LUii) and has been funded by the Swedish Enforcement Authority. The research has also been conducted in connection with a wider interdisciplinary research theme on ”The Credit Society”, at the Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies at Lund University. The research group is led by Stefan Larsson, Associate Professor in Technology and Social Change, and involves Lupita Svensson, PhD in Social Work, and Hanna Carlsson, PhD in Information Science. The work with the literature review received invaluable help from Fredrik Åström, bibliometrician and Associate Professor at Lund University. The empirical research was conducted during 2015 and early 2016

Financing Africa: Through the crisis and beyond.

[Dataset available: http://hdl.handle.net/10411/17679]

Human Wellbeing and Local-level Sustainability

Doctoral thesis (PhD) – Nord University, 2021publishedVersio

Financial stability, economic growth, and the banking sector

Dit proefschrift bevat vier studies op het gebied van financiële stabiliteit, economische groei, bankenconcurrentie en marktconcentratie in de financiële sector. Een belangrijke bevinding is dat de liquiditeit van banken een belangrijke rol speelt bij de bepaling van de liquidatiekosten van banken tijdens financiële crises. Deze uitkomst impliceert dat de maatschappelijke kosten van financiële instabiliteit beperkt kunnen worden door regelgeving die banken dwingt een buffer van liquiditeit aan te houden. Een andere bevinding is dat toenemende marktconcentratie in de financiële sector van de Europese Unie geen noemenswaardig effect lijkt te hebben gehad op de financiële stabiliteit van deze sector. Deze bevinding impliceert dat, in tijden van financiële turbulentie, herstructurering van banken door middel van fusies een interessant alternatief is voor het redden van banken door middel van overheidsinjecties. Ten slotte toont dit proefschrift aan dat het loslaten van concurrentiebeperkende regelgeving in de bancaire sector van de Verenigde Staten tot positieve effecten op de economische groei heeft geleid. Deze positieve effecten beperken zich niet tot de staten in de V.S. die de betreffende regelgeving hebben afgeschaft, maar strekken zich ook uit tot omliggende staten. Deze uitkomst suggereert dat concurrentiebeperkende maatregelen in de financiële sector een remmende werking hebben op de economische groei.This thesis comprises four studies on the issues of financial stability, economic growth, banking competition and market concentration in the banking sector. An important finding is that the liquidity of banks plays an important role as a determinant of the costs of the liquidation of banks during financial crises. This outcome implies that the societal costs of financial instability can be reduced by regulation which requires banks to hold a liquidity buffer. Another finding is that increases in the degree of market concentration in the financial sector of the European Union have not had an economically meaningful effect on the financial stability of this sector. This finding implies that, in episodes of financial distress, restructuring mergers of banks are an attractive alternative to governmental bailouts. Finally, this thesis shows that the deregulation of competitive restrictions in the banking sector of the United States has had positive effects on economic growth. These positive growth effects are not restricted to deregulated states themselves, but have spilled over to neighboring states. This outcome implies that competitive restrictions in the banking sector hamper economic growth

Currency Crises in Emerging Markets - Selected Comparative Studies

This volume presents seven comparative studies of currency crises, which happened in the decade of 1990s in Latin America, South East Asia and in transition countries of Eastern Europe and the former USSR. All the studies were prepared under the research project no. OI44/H02/99/17 on "Analysis of Currency Crises in Countries of Asia, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe: Lessons for Poland and Other Transition Countries", carried out by CASE and financed by the Committee for Scientific Research (KBN) in the years 1999-2001. They will be subjects of public presentation and discussion during the seminar in Warsaw organized by CASE on June 28, 2001, under the same research project. This is a continuation of two other issues of CASE Reports containing eleven countries' monographs related to currency crises episodes in these three regions and a couple of other comparative studies published in the CASE Studies and Analyzes series. Three first studies in this volume deal with broad issue of current account, exchange rate and international reserves of a central bank. Marcin Sasin discusses the importance of the real exchange rate overvaluation and the current account deficit, which are usually considered as the main causes of currency crises. While generally confirming the importance of the first factor, author shows that question of sustainability of current account deficit has a very individual country characteristic. The next analysis of Malgorzata Jakubiak concerns the choice of exchange rate regimes from the point of view of both avoiding and efficient managing currency crises. Author compares advantages and disadvantages of the fixed versus floating exchange rate regimes from the point of view of credibility of monetary policies, preventing currency crisis and coping with its consequences. She demonstrates, basing on an empirical analysis, that the most costly are changes of exchange rate regimes (usually abandoning the peg) under the pressure of speculative attack. Mateusz Szczurek provides the additional insight to this discussion estimating the size of optimal international liquidity taking into consideration potential costs of the crisis, on the one hand, and costs of maintaining the international reserves, on the other. The next study concerns interrelations between banking and currency crises basing on extensive review of an economic literature. Marcin Sasin analyzes the institutional and structural sources of instability of the banking sector in emerging markets. One of them is the direct and indirect vulnerability of banks in relation to sudden interest rate and exchange rate changes. On the other hand, collapse of the some big banks must lead to credibility crisis of a domestic currency. Lukasz Rawdanowicz addresses another hot issue in the economic debates of the last decade, i.e. contagion effect of a crisis in one country on the macroeconomic stability of its close and more distant neighbors. He analyzes the impact of the Russian 1998 crisis on the situation of CIS countries taking into consideration both trade and financial channels. Monika Blaszkiewicz and Wojciech Paczynski try to assess the economic and social consequences of currency crises in the last decade. The main question discussed by them is to what extent crisis plays a role of self-correcting mechanism of previously unsustainable policies. Finally, Rafal Antczak, Malgorzata Markiewicz and Artur Radziwill analyze the role of the IMF in preventing the currency crises in five selected CIS countries - Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, identifying the main sources of Fund's failures.financial crises, currency crises, IMF, financial systems, exchange rate regime, transition economies

Non Linear Modelling of Financial Data Using Topologically Evolved Neural Network Committees

Most of artificial neural network modelling methods are difficult to use as maximising or minimising an objective function in a non-linear context involves complex optimisation algorithms. Problems related to the efficiency of these algorithms are often mixed with the difficulty of the a priori estimation of a network's fixed topology for a specific problem making it even harder to appreciate the real power of neural networks. In this thesis, we propose a method that overcomes these issues by using genetic algorithms to optimise a network's weights and topology, simultaneously. The proposed method searches for virtually any kind of network whether it is a simple feed forward, recurrent, or even an adaptive network. When the data is high dimensional, modelling its often sophisticated behaviour is a very complex task that requires the optimisation of thousands of parameters. To enable optimisation techniques to overpass their limitations or failure, practitioners use methods to reduce the dimensionality of the data space. However, some of these methods are forced to make unrealistic assumptions when applied to non-linear data while others are very complex and require a priori knowledge of the intrinsic dimension of the system which is usually unknown and very difficult to estimate. The proposed method is non-linear and reduces the dimensionality of the input space without any information on the system's intrinsic dimension. This is achieved by first searching in a low dimensional space of simple networks, and gradually making them more complex as the search progresses by elaborating on existing solutions. The high dimensional space of the final solution is only encountered at the very end of the search. This increases the system's efficiency by guaranteeing that the network becomes no more complex than necessary. The modelling performance of the system is further improved by searching not only for one network as the ideal solution to a specific problem, but a combination of networks. These committces of networks are formed by combining a diverse selection of network species from a population of networks derived by the proposed method. This approach automatically exploits the strengths and weaknesses of each member of the committee while avoiding having all members giving the same bad judgements at the same time. In this thesis, the proposed method is used in the context of non-linear modelling of high-dimensional financial data. Experimental results are'encouraging as both robustness and complexity are concerned.Imperial Users onl

Raising the quality of education in Europe by reducing the rate of early school leaving through international cooperation

ABSTRACT Early school leaving is an obstacle to economic growth and employment. It hampers productivity and competitiveness, and fuels poverty and social exclusion. With its shrinking workforce, Europe has to make full use of its human resources. Young people who leave education and training prematurely are bound to lack skills and qualifications, and to face serious, persistent problems on the labor market. The latest Education and Training Monitor showed that there are nearly 5,5 million early school leavers across Europe and that the average unemployment rate amongst them is about 40% . The EU average rate of early leavers from education and training in 2013 was 11.9%, down 0.8 percentage points from 2012. The improvement is in line with recent progress and, if continued, means that the Europe 2020 headline target below 10% is within reach. Eighteen Member States have rates of early leavers from education and training below the Europe 2020 headline target (CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, FR, HR, CY, LV, LT, LU, NL, AT, PL, SI, SK, FI, SE). This number was 13 in 2012, meaning that in addition four countries dropped below the 10% for the first time in 2013 (DE, EE, CY, LV) Eleven EU Member States have by now reached their national targets for early leavers from education and training (CZ, DK, DE, HR, CY, LV, LT, LU, AT, SI, SE). Some of these countries had not yet reached the national targets in 2012 (DE, HR, and CY). SK is the only State Member, which has reached its national target before (in 2008) but now featuring a rate of early leavers slightly above its national target. According to the definition used by EUROSTAT and the European Commission, ESL early school leaving occurs when an individual aged 18 to 24 has attained at most lower secondary education and is not engaged in education and training . Currently, one student out of seven European students leaves school early without gaining a basic qualification. The aim of EUROPE 2020 Strategy is to reduce the average percentage of early school leavers from 14.1% to less than 10% by 2020. This means all young people aged between 18 and 25, who are not undertaking education/training and increasing the rate of tertiary qualification to 40 %. The aim of this research is to provide evidence that international cooperation is needed in order to achieve the set goals. Since some countries have already achieved their target, whilst others have not, it is important to share those countries. This research has analysed a wide range of literature on the subject, from articles, to books, researches, and EU educational projects outcomes. In order to understand the complexity and dimension ofthe problem, the study focuses on defining the problem, identifying its multiple causes and analysing the effective policy responses that should European countries to reach the mutual target of reducing the rate of early school leavers. The present research offers a useful tool to compare some best practices in Europe, that thanks to dissemination, can help policy makers, schools or professional, involved in the struggle against school failure, to reducing the rate of early school-leaving below 10%. By sharing them, it will be possible to reach easily the set target of Europe 2020 Strategy among State members in order to guarantee its social and economic welfare. The following paragraph is a short presentation of each chapter. Chapter 1 is an Introduction to present dissertation followed by the Targets of Europe 2020 Strategy. In Chapter 2, different definitions of ESL as adopted by different EU partners, will be analysed. In Chapter 3, I will consider what kind of problem ESL is, in relation to the commitment undertaken by the EU partners, in view of Europe 2020 strattegy. Main theories about the learning process have been be necessary, in order to understand the neuroscience approach behind it, and to better understand and recognize disorder are sometimes late diagnosed or underestimated(Chapt. 4). The main criteria to identify children/pupils at risk and the different approaches, if individually or as an organized target group are the topic of Chapter 5. The study goes deeper looking at the Causes of ESL, which will be analysed from an individual and external point of view (Chapter 6). A focus on the pupils’ background was needed identifying those Factors, which are more family or school-related (Chapter 7). Systemic factors or school-based factors as the most influential in undermining the students’ performances, are better described in the following Chapter 8 The Consequences and risks related to ESL are discussed in Chapter 9. The Economic impact of ESL, which is a dramatic burden on Europe economy, is analysed in Chapter 10. Analysing the possible actions from the assumption that preventing is better than cure. Prevention, intervention and compensation actions are considered in Chapter 11. Chapter 12 is focused on the Quality of Education in ECEC and Chapter 13 is about the Quality of Education in higher Education, following the EU 2020 strategy. Second chance schemes have been proposed as alternatives to educational choices in Chapter 14. Special target groups as Migrant Students are the content of Chapter 15. There is a section dedicated to some Case studies reported as some of the Best EU experiences, providing an overview about those countries that are performing better in terms of educational outcomes and registering lower ESL rates, and some more examples of countries which, despite active intervention are still above the 10% as the set EU standards (Chapter 16). Chapters 17, 18 and 19 describe The Dutch, Belgium and Spain Experience. Chapter 20, is about The Italian experience is analysed in describing the school system first and some actions, which have been undertaken in Turin. Chapter 21 describes some good examples of International Cooperation in Europe. In Chapter 22 Learning from best practices in Europe, few case studies have been reported, following the grouping in four macro-areas. Chapter 23 is about the EU Commission recommendations that influence so deeply poly.icy making in Europe and guide the present EU strateg The Europe 2020 Strategy as a comprehensive approach to ESL is provided in Chapter 24. Chapter 25 opens to the recent view of Horizon 2020, the new EU Strategy, which is building a bridge over the future Europe’ perspectives to innovation & research, where education places a fundamental role. Finally, in the Chapter 26 I draw my Conclusions about this research project on ESL, that Europe could fight by using a holistic/comprehensive approach, which can provide better results and students’ performances. The research has taken into account some examples of case studies related to ESL which have been implemented either at local level by educational project carried out by EU municipalities. It will in particular analyse the international Network the ECEC Early Childhood Education and Care network and the Nesse Report; these independent work was submitted to the EU Commission for the Thematic Working Group on ESL, addressed to local and national policy makers involved in the difficult task of achieving the Europe 2020 target. My research will also provide evidence about the experiences carried out by those countries that have already succeeded in achieving the set target of the Europe 2020 strategy. The dissemination of the projects that have already been experienced and were successful can bring better and new perspectives to policy makers or school institutions, working on the difficult task of ESL. Reducing ESL is an important target for sustainable, smart and inclusive economy that Europe needs for a better future. Better Quality in Education in the future will certainly raise the standards of education but also bring welfare and prosperity to its citizens as a benefit if more efforts and investments, but especially motivation and trust, will be put together in a cohesive climate of collaboration, among EU countries.Diese Doktorarbeit konzentriert sich auf eines der fünf Ziele, die von der Europa-2020-Strategie abzielt, die Rate des vorzeitigen Schulabbruchs Rate unter 10 % eingerichtet. Schulabbruch ist eine Barriere gegen Wirtschaftswachstum und Beschäftigung. Es verringert die Produktivität, Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und sollte Armut und soziale Eingliederung zur gleichen Zeit verhindern. Diese Arbeit ist das Ergebnis meiner bisherigen Erfahrungen, während ich in der Ausbildung Abteilung von Turin Landeshauptstadt und mein Studium an LMU gearbeitet habe. Als ich anfing, auf diesem Feld der Erziehung zu arbeiten, war vor einigen Jahren die Idee des Schreibens einer Dissertation zu diesem Thema noch sehr weit. Ich benutze, die Dropouts oder Schulabbrecher im wesentlichen im Zusammenhang mit meiner Arbeit und Pflichten zu prüfen. Zu dieser Zeit in der Stadt Turin, da die Mehrheit der Industriestädte im Norden Italiens, einen Prozeß der erheblichen politischen Veränderungen und gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen unterzogen wurde. Die Stadt hatte seit vielen Jahren in ein internationales Netzwerk namens Educating City tätig. IAEC Chart (International Association of Educating Cities) eine Internationale Erziehung Städtebund) wurde im Jahr 1990 unterzeichnet, und es wurde im Jahr 1995 ratifiziert. Ab dem Jahr ist 2000 Turin auch der National Sekretär der IAEC für Italien, Funktion der Koordination und Organisation von Hauptversammlungen. Politikers, Institutionen, Bildungseinrichtungen Offiziere und Schulen, wußten schon damals, daß wird eine Multi-Kulturelle Industriestadt, mit eine hohe Inzidenz von Migranten aus Nordafrika, Osteuropa und China, daß Turin dringende Reformen nötig. Mit der Unterzeichnung der Weiterbildung Städte Chart die Stadt engagiert zu Turin, das Projekt ein Arbeitsprogramm, das mehr und mehr ein Bildungssystem, das ist wird durch die Konzentration auf die wachsende Größe und Bildung der Bürger, insbesondere von Kindern, die Interaktion einer Pluralität von Menschen fördert, darstellt von denen jeder einen Mehrwert und pädagogische Verantwortung: Institutionen, Verbände, Gruppen in den urbanen Kontext tätig. Das Phänomen der Dropouts war eine Hauptursache von Interesse für unsere Stadt und die aktuelle Bildungspolitik waren sehr anspruchsvoll in Bezug auf Engagement innerhalb unserer Abteilung und das ESL-Problem zu kämpfen galt als eine der obersten Prioritäten. Der wichtigste Ansatz zur Verhinderung und Bekämpfung von mit Dropout Schüler in Turin wurde realisiert von der lokalen Projekt Provaci Ancora, Sam (Versuch es noch einmal, Sam) Sam ist ein Multi-institutionellen Projekt, dessen Methodik ein lokales Netzwerk zwischen Schulen, Gemeinde Büros und lokale Vereine beinhaltet. Das Projekt wurde im Jahr 1996 geboren, es richtet sich an 14-15 Jahre alten Schüler beibehalten. Während dieser langen Zeit (fast 20 Jahre) da das Projekt gestartet wurde, Sam hat erwies sich als einer der best Practices mit Bezug zu ESL in Italien und die Überwachung und Auswertung des Projekts gute Ergebnisse in Wirtschaftlichkeit und positive Resultate. Ich habe das Projekt gründlich analysiert und ich glaube, ist eines der best practices in Italien, in der Lage, mit solch eine schwierige Aufgabe als ESL anzugehen. Als ich anfing, in der pädagogischen Abteilung zu arbeiten, in Vergleichung der ESL Statistik in Europa, daß selbst wenn die Sam Projekt gut arbeitete, wir eine ganze Menge viel zu lernen aus anderen Ländern, in bezug auf die Ergebnisse. In der Tat über der Jahre, selbst wenn mit eine positive Entwicklung, wo wir noch sehr weit davon entfernen das EU-Ziel. Ich erkannte, daß Turins Erfahrung sinnvoll, verbreitet werde. Ich überlege, über die beste Möglichkeit, einen aktiven Beitrag zu diesem schwierigen sozialen Thema Auswirkungen auf unsere Gesellschaft zu bieten. Ich nahm an, daß es mußte, ein besserer Weg, um meine Ziele zu erreichen, als setzen die beiden Erfahrungen zusammen. Durch die Kombination meiner Berufserfahrung mit einer akademischen Forschung, war meine Dissertation auf jeden Fall bereit zu anfangen. Da ich in München zu dieser Zeit lebte ich ging zu meiner Universität, der LMU und fragte Professor Eckert der Abteilung von Pädagogik, meine Dissertation zu sichern. Er stimmte und in kurzer Zeit war ich bereit, meinen Seminaren zu beginnen, um die notwendigen Anforderungen für Dissertation zu erfüllen. Nach einem Jahr auf Seminare und Prüfungen verbrachte, begann eine Zeit der Forschung und Untersuchung auf dem Gebiet in München, während ich bewährte Methoden und Ergebnisse aus anderen Länder-Erfahrung gleichzeitig sammeln war. Bald erkannte ich, daß viele Länder ein starkes Engagement gezeigt hatten und einige hatten bereits ihre Ziele erreicht. Diese soziale Frage ist sehr engagiert und anspruchsvoll auf das hohe Niveau von Fachleuten und Fähigkeiten erforderlich. In den letzten Jahren jemand getan haben, besser, erreicht das Ziel, die nationalen Zahlen mit Bezug zu ESL unter die 10 %, wie die Finnisch und Niederländische Erfahrung zu halten während dieser Zeit wurden andere immer noch kämpfen, um ihn herum und hatte höhere Raten von ESL wie Spanien oder Italien. Ich wollte wissen, was funktionierte und was fehlte und wie weit, diesen Partnern, gegangen wäre. Das war ziemlich hart, denn Bekämpfung ESL einen langfristigen Prozeß, der viele Jahre, bevor die Ergebnisse deutlicher dauern könnten. Und zur gleichen Zeit, da war der Ansatz oft lokaler und nationaler und Daten waren schwer zu bekommen. Nach dieser Zeit der erste Material für meine Forschung hatte, ich erkannte daß um zu Ende zu kommen, mußte ich einige Fallstudien zu sammeln, um sie zu analysieren. Ich fing an, Interviews und Anfragen an Schulen und Institutionen. In München ich habe eine spezielle "Erlaubnis" aus dem Leiter von der Bildung Abteilung der Landeshauptstadt München bekommen, und lokale Schulen zu besuchen und Institutionen wie der deutschen Jugend Institut alle Lehrer interviewt. Ich wurde auch eingeführt, Schule-Leiter, politische Entscheidungsträger und Lehrer, Sozialpädagogen/innen, die ich regelmäßig traf. Alle von ihnen, die Bereitstellung von Daten und Fakten zur gleichen Zeit gebracht haben Das Bild entstand, daß Deutschland eine lange Tradition zur Bekämpfung mit ESL hatte und eine lange Geschichte den Migration-Ströme von weniger industrialisierten Ländern gemacht hatten der meistgesuchten Destination für Ausländer Familien und Jugendliche, die einen Job suchen. Integrationspolitik und Soziales Stand im Mittelpunkt der politischen Debatte. ESL Ausgaben Hauptgründe für Sorge und Maßnahmen in Deutschland, waren da das Land einen Großteil von Migrante-Familien aus der Türkei, Italien, Spanien, etc. Beherbergt und die Rate der ESL wegen der Sozial Ökonomie Untergrund und Sprachprobleme in der Schule immer noch hoch war. In vielen Schulen die Inzidenz von ausländischen Menschen könnten 60 % erreichen und könnten in einigen Bereichen auf hohe Inzidenz von SW (Sozial Wohnungen) (wie Riemer-Bereich in München, 80-90 % erreichen). Dies bedeutete, daß die öffentlichen Schulen in diesen Bereichen kaum von deutschen Studenten besucht wurden. Ich erkannte, daß bewährte Erfahrungen wäre einfach zu finden, aber wenn es die Zeit kam, die Aufgabe der Fallstudien zu füllen, z.B. einzelne Fälle wie Schüler, um abzuschließen meinen Recherchen wegen der Schutz von Daten auf Jugendschutz und Schülerinnen und Schüler, die eine harte Aufgabe gewesen wäre. Ich begann, wird besorgt, wie ich dieser Probleme überwinden und eine Lösung zu finden und meine Arbeit beenden konnte.. In der Tat entschied ich mich im Einvernehmen mit meinem Doktorvater, daß Beispiele für Fallstudien könnten Projekte/Erfahrungen in die EU und wurden nicht unbedingt im Zusammenhang mit einer Person insbesondere. Aber einige wichtigste Grund war geschehen.Deutsche Übersetzung des Titels: Senkung der Schulabbrecherquote durch Verbesserung der Bildungsqualität in Europ

Sociology of Law as the Science of Norms

This book proposes the study of norms as a method of explaining human choice and behaviour by introducing a new scientific perspective. The science of norms may here be broadly understood as a social science which includes elements from both the behavioural and legal sciences. It is given that a science of norms is not normative in the sense of prescribing what is right or wrong in various situations. Compared with legal science, sociology of law has an interest in the operational side of legal rules and regulation. This book develops a synthesizing social science approach to better understand societal development in the wake of the increasingly significant digital technology. The underlying idea is that norms as expectations today are not primarily related to social expectations emanating from human interactions but come from systems that mankind has created for fulfilling its needs. Today the economy, via the market, and technology via digitization, generate stronger and more frequent expectations than the social system. By expanding the sociological understanding of norms, the book makes comparisons between different parts of society possible and creates a more holistic understanding of contemporary society. The book will be of interest to academics and researchers in the areas of sociology of law, legal theory, philosophy of law, sociology and social psychology