On studying the unstudyable: a quantitative literature review of proposed causes of corruption and how these have been studied

This thesis is a quantitative review of research on the causes of corruption. The aim is twofold: firstly to establish the degree of agreement between researchers regarding the causal effect of seven different explanatory dimensions on corruption. These explanatory dimensions are: economic liberalization, level of democracy, regime transitions, the strength of democratic traditions, the presence of a free media, level of economic development and natural resource dependency. I find that there is high agreement that economic liberalizations and regime transitions lead to more corruption. There is also high consensus that the presence of a free media and high economic development, respectively, lead to less. Concerning the effect of level of democracy, democratic traditions and natural resource dependency the findings are more diverse. About half of prior research concludes that level of democracy and stronger democratic traditions lead to less corruption. Also about half conclude that natural resource dependency leads to more corruption. The second aim of this thesis is to discover whether the disagreement between researchers can be explained by the data they have applied as operationalizations of corruption as the dependent variable. This is done through a series of logistic regressions, where the explanatory variables are the different data sources on corruption. These fall into the categories perceptions based cross-national data", experience based cross national data" and country-or region-specific studies". The results show that applying experience based cross national data gives significantly lower likelihood for concluding that higher economic development leads to less corruption. It also makes it less likely to conclude that natural resources lead to more corruption. Applying perceptions based cross national data in some instances provide higher likelihood for observing significant effects of the explanatory dimensions treated in this thesis and sometimes lower likelihood. An interesting finding is that the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index and studies conducted with country- or region specific foci agree" on the effects on corruption of all of the treated explanatory dimension where comparison is possible. This is counter to what is assumed based in theory.Master i Sammenliknende politikkSAMPOL350MASV-SAP

Constructing Green Seats for the Table: Environmentalist perspectives on the democratisation of environmental governance in Colombia

This dissertation presents an assessment of the strengths and limitations of environmental democracy in the context of governance through exploring the localisation of the Escazú Agreement and its ongoing implementation in Colombia. The country has observed a procedural strengthening of environmental governance measures, yet the situation has remained volatile and dangerous for those involved in environmental matters. As environmental democracy aims to enhance public participation in decision-making regarding environmental matters, it is of high value to identify the strengths and weaknesses of such an approach to environmental governance within the socio-ecological conditions of a country such as Colombia. Particularly in terms of having substantive participation, the exploration of how the agreement is understood and experienced by those affected by it is essential. With the dissertation seeking to assess the localisation of the Escazú Agreement, and in turn, understand the theoretical and practical implications of integrating environmental democracy into Colombian environmental governance, it creates fertile ground for understanding the significance of regional legal frameworks in promoting environmental, and potentially also ecological, justice. The research was based on 14 semi-structured interviews with local environmentalists in Medellín and Bogotá, conducted over a six-week period in early 2023. In understanding the Escazú Agreement as a tool for democratisation, the dissertation argues that the agreement can positively impact environmental justice in Colombia. The study reveals that the agreement will not have a direct impact on nature as an actor in its own right as the agreement takes an anthropocentric approach to environmental governance. This also points to a need for radical structural change, and here, environmental justice can serve as a steppingstone for more transformative measures enabling ecological justice in the future

Why do companies use rolling forecasts? : a case study on the rolling forecast as a management tool

This thesis focuses on the use of rolling forecast as a management tool in companies. Increasingly dynamic business environments make it important for companies to be more responsive to adjust to changes. Through a case study approach, we aim to explore the drivers behind the use of rolling forecasts, and how the rolling forecast is used as a management tool in a company, namely OffCo. The study uses qualitative research methods, explicitly semi-structured interviews with employees in OffCo to collect the data for the thesis. Both the company and the respondents in this study are anonymized. Our main findings show that there are two drivers that are specifically important for the use of rolling forecasts in OffCo; uncertainty and financial position. An interesting finding is that these drivers interact and are amplified by each other. OffCo have experienced increased uncertainty in recent years due to a dramatic drop in the oil price in 2014. This resulted in a weakened financial position causing challenges for the company. Due to the weak financial position, the consequences for uncertainty caused by fluctuating oil prices are more severe. Further, we find that the budget and the rolling forecast is closely linked together. The processes of forecasting and budgeting in OffCo are interdependent, and the two tools have the same level of detail in information content. Rolling forecast is seen as a tool to improve the accuracy of the budget which is quickly outdated. The main purposes of the rolling forecast are therefore short-term decision making and planning regarding resources in the company. Moreover, the rolling forecast is used for performance evaluation in the same way as with the budget. The close link between the two tools seems to create confusion whether the rolling forecast is a target or a realistic prediction of future outcomes. Through studying the use of rolling forecasts in OffCo, some potential improvements for the forecasting process have been detected. These include shortening the time horizon of the rolling forecast, reducing the level of details included in the forecast, and utilizing access to technology to make the process more efficient.nhhma

The Mean Sea Level Pressure (MSLP) Gradient across the Denmark Strait as Index for the Oceanographic Conditions in North Icelandic Waters

The oceanographic conditions in Icelandic waters are closely related to atmospheric forcing. In the present paper winter means of the atmospheric sea level pressure gradient across the Denmark Strait are correlated to a time series of temperature at station S3 off North Iceland. These data show that variations in North Icelandic shelf waters are closely related to the gradient. The correlation between 3-years moving averages of the gradient and the temperature at S3, one year delayed, was 0.73. This climatic relation clearly reflected the abrupt change from Atlantic to Arctic conditions on the North Icelandic shelf in the 1960s and the variability since then. Further, the effects of the variations on water mass properties in the southern Norwegian Sea are discussed. Biological effects have been observed on all levels in the food web. Various authors describe related biological variations, from the primary production level to cod and herring. The cod responded to the climatic variability and the associated narrowing habitat with a decline in abundance. The stock of herring that earlier was grazing north of Iceland, changed its migration pattern, and has not yet returned

Leveraging Social Sustainability and Effective Leadership to Improve Reputation and Attract Skilled Employees in the Hotel Industry

The purpose of this study was to investigate the implementation of social sustainability practices and effective leadership in the hotel industry within the Stavanger region regarding the hotels reputation and how they can attract skilled employees. The study focused on understanding how hotel leaders perceive and address various aspects of social sustainability, including their working environment, leadership styles, risk management, collaboration, cultural differences, and community engagement. The research question guiding this study is: “How can the hotel industry in Stavanger leverage social sustainability initiatives and effective leadership to enhance its reputation and attract skilled employees?”. A qualitative study was conducted, collecting data through semi-structured in-depth interviews with hotel leaders. The hotels experienced different challenges related to risk, necessitating individualized plans to address them, but they mostly depended on generic systems. This could hinder recruitment and retention rates, from being misaligned with local demands. Leaders faced communication issues with multicultural staff and had varying views and knowledge about social sustainability and relevant laws. Despite having mainly centralized management styles, the hotels had autonomy to choose their own initiatives in the local community. They also showed signs of good cooperation with their competitors. This study can inspire future research in the new field of social sustainability within hospitality, and be an inspiration for students, educators, and practitioners. Hopefully, the results from the study could further aid the affected stakeholders in the hospitality industry. Keywords: Risk management, leadership, cultural differences, community engagement, collaboration, organizational change

On studying the unstudyable: a quantitative literature review of proposed causes of corruption and how these have been studied

This thesis is a quantitative review of research on the causes of corruption. The aim is twofold: firstly to establish the degree of agreement between researchers regarding the causal effect of seven different explanatory dimensions on corruption. These explanatory dimensions are: economic liberalization, level of democracy, regime transitions, the strength of democratic traditions, the presence of a free media, level of economic development and natural resource dependency. I find that there is high agreement that economic liberalizations and regime transitions lead to more corruption. There is also high consensus that the presence of a free media and high economic development, respectively, lead to less. Concerning the effect of level of democracy, democratic traditions and natural resource dependency the findings are more diverse. About half of prior research concludes that level of democracy and stronger democratic traditions lead to less corruption. Also about half conclude that natural resource dependency leads to more corruption. The second aim of this thesis is to discover whether the disagreement between researchers can be explained by the data they have applied as operationalizations of corruption as the dependent variable. This is done through a series of logistic regressions, where the explanatory variables are the different data sources on corruption. These fall into the categories perceptions based cross-national data", experience based cross national data" and country-or region-specific studies". The results show that applying experience based cross national data gives significantly lower likelihood for concluding that higher economic development leads to less corruption. It also makes it less likely to conclude that natural resources lead to more corruption. Applying perceptions based cross national data in some instances provide higher likelihood for observing significant effects of the explanatory dimensions treated in this thesis and sometimes lower likelihood. An interesting finding is that the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index and studies conducted with country- or region specific foci agree" on the effects on corruption of all of the treated explanatory dimension where comparison is possible. This is counter to what is assumed based in theory

Viser zombie-argumentet at fysikalisme er en inadekvat teori? Does the zombieargument show that physicalism is inadequate?

I denne masteravhandlingen har jeg presentert og analysert fysikalisme med det mål å finne en formulering som er både nødvendig og tilstrekkelig, slik at den uttrykker minimal fysikalisme. Jeg ender opp med en formulering basert på relasjoner og jeg formulerer spesifikt 3 versjoner av denne relasjonen; Nomologisk Superveniens, Logisk Superveniens og Metafysisk superveniens. Etter dette blir zombie-argumentet presentert, eksplisert og analysert. Ved dette punktet i avhandlingen presenteres også et rammeverk for tenkelighet, basert på David Chalmers Does Conceivability Entail Possibility". Dette gir oss begrepene prima facie og ideell tenkelighet, positiv og negativ tenkelighet, samt primær og sekundær tenkelighet. Det siste kapittelet i denne avhandlingen består av dette rammeverket implementert på tre sentrale spørsmål som zombie-argumentet stiller. Jeg viser i denne analysen at en zombie-verden er primært tenkelig, men ikke sekundært tenkelig. Dette betyr at argumentet suksessfullt kan vise at Logisk Superveniens er falsk, men ikke at Nomologisk eller Metafysisk Superveniens er falskt, Til slutt argumenterer jeg for at Logisk Superveniens ikke er uttrykk for en minimal fysikalisme da den ikke er nødvendig. Det samme gjelder Nomologisk Superveniens da denne ikke er tilstrekkelig. Vi ender derfor opp med å konkludere at Metafysisk Superveniens er uttrykk for minimal fysikalisme, samt at hvis vi holder en slik formulering, så er ikke zombie-argumentet vellykket.In this master thesis I present and analyse physicalism with the goal to formulate a definition of physicalism which is both necessary and adequate, so that it expresses a minimal physicalism. I end up with a formulation based on relations, and specifically i formulate three versions of this relationship; namely Nomological Supervenience, Logical Supervenience and Metaphysical Supervenience. After this the infamous zombie-argument is presented, explicated and analyzed. At this time in the thesis i present a framework for analyzing conceivability, which is based on David Chalmers Does Conceivability Entail Possibility". This gives us the concepts of prima facie vs ideal conceivability, positive and negative conceivability, and lastly primary and secondary conceivability. The last chapter in this thesis consist of an implementation of this framework upon three central questions posed by the zombie-argument. I show in this conceivability analysis that a zombie world is primary conceivable but not secondary conceivable. This in turn leaves me to grant that the zombie- argument i successful in showing that Logical Supervenience is false, but not that Nomological or Metaphysical supervenience is false. Lastly i argue that Logical Supervenience is not a necessary formulation of physicalism, and hence not an expression for minimal physicalism. The same goes for Nomological Supervenience as that formulation is not adequate, and we end up concluding that Metaphysical Supervenience is an expression of minimal physicalism. This way I show that the zombie-argument is not successful in showing that minimal physicalism is false.Master i FilosofiMAHF-FILOFILO35

Kongekrabbe - forvaltes den bærekraftig?

Rød kongekrabbe, kamtsjatkakrabben – eller bare kongekrabben ble bevisst introdusert til Barentshavet fra Stillehavet i løpet av 1960- og 1970-tallet av sovjetiske forskere. I 1977 ble de første funnene av kongekrabbe registrert i norske farvann, nærmere bestemt i Varangerfjorden nær den russiske grensen. Selv om det utover 1980-tallet ble registrert en økende mengde bifangst av kongekrabbe, var det ikke før i 1992 at krabben virkelig ble en plage for fiskerne i denne regionen. Dette gjorde sitt til at krabben for første gang ble tatt opp i Den blandete norsk-russiske fiskerikommisjon. Som en fremmed fugl i et nytt miljø er det vanskelig å kunne forutse hva de langsiktige konsekvensene kan bli, samtidig som kongekrabbe har bevist at den er en viktig kommersiell art for Norge (og særskilt for kystsamfunnene i Øst-Finnmark). I bunn og grunn er det gjeldende forvaltningsregimet for kongekrabben i dag, med et kvoteregulert område og et fritt fiske-område, fornuftig. Det blir, i et føre-var-perspektiv, satt inn tiltak for å forhindre at kongekrabben ikke sprer seg videre samtidig som at de som allerede er berørt av kongekrabben «vinner» på den. I forhold til Konvensjon om biologisk mangfold, Artikkel 8h, følger kanskje ikke Norge den helt, men i forhold til utfordringene rundt kongekrabben gjør vi så godt vi kan

Rasvurdering i tunneler og skjæringer

10000-01-0