Are Dividend Arbitrage Strategies Present in Asia? An empirical study on cum-cum and cum-ex transactions in Asian markets

This thesis investigates whether dividend arbitrage strategies are present in Asian markets. The term refers to trading schemes where investors collude to exploit loopholes related to dividend withholding taxes. We focus on two variations of these strategies, known as cum-cum and cum-ex transactions, which have caused substantial tax losses in Europe. Our sample consists of the ten largest stock exchanges in Asia, spread across a total of nine countries. We conduct a review of dividend taxation in these countries and determine that the tax laws in four of them provide incentives for investors to engage in dividend arbitrage strategies. We use an event study methodology to analyse whether abnormalities in share turnover and short sales occur around ex-dividend dates for the 25 largest companies on each stock exchange during the period from 2012 to 2022. Our findings indicate that dividend arbitrage strategies are mostly absent in Asian markets. However, we find indications that they may be present in Taiwan and Japan. For Taiwan, we find that share turnover increases by 48% immediately before the ex-dividend date. Similarly, we find that short selling in Japan increases by 72.5%, but the evidence is inconsistent on a yearly basis. In contrast to that of Europe, it appears that legislations in most Asian countries are effective in preventing exploitation of dividend withholding taxes. Nonetheless, our findings suggest that Taiwan and Japan might be an exception.nhhma

Karriereveiledning til hvilken pris? En kvalitativ studie av hvordan karriereveiledere hos private tiltaksarrangører opplever mulighetsrommet for å bidra til at deltakere kommer ut i jobb

Master's thesis in Sociology and social work (ME522)As a part of reaching the goal of getting as many people as possible out in employment, NAV purchases services from private institutions that provide career guidance. Many of these initiatives are tender-based and have a strong focus on earnings, target and performance requirements. This thesis is a qualitative study aiming to explore how career counselors in private organizations experience the process and work of getting people into employment. The initiative takers, and subsequently their employees or hired counselors, must comply with NAV and their guidelines. This can create unpredictability for the counselors as the control and charge happens on the outside/outside of their office. The research question for this thesis is: "How does career counselors at private organizations/institutions experience the opportunity to get people into employment?" To answer the research question, I conducted qualitative in-depth interviews with counselors at various private organizations. The interviewees have very different experiences, backgrounds and education, which helped shed light on different sides of the topic. Norway has previously received international criticism for not having sufficient quality of professionalization and adequate focus on career guidance (OECD, 2004)

Achieving enhanced peroxidase-like activity in multimetallic nanorattles

Gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) have been extensively used as artificial enzymes, but their performance is still limited. We address this challenge by focusing on multimetallic nanorattles comprising an Au core inside a bimetallic AgAu shell, separated by a void (Au@AgAu NRs). They were prepared by a galvanic replacement approach and contained an ultrathin and porous shell comprising an AgAu alloy. By investigating the peroxide-like activity using TMB oxidation as a model transformation, we have found an increase of 152 fold in activities for the NRs relative to conventional Au NPs. Based on the kinetics results, the NRs also showed the lowest K-m, indicating better interaction with the substrate and faster product formation. We also observed a linear relationship between the concentration of the product and oxTMB as a function of H2O2 concentration, which could be further applied for H2O2 sensing applications (colorimetric detection). These data suggest that the NRs enable the combined effect of an increased surface area relative to solid counterparts, the possibility of exposing highly active surface sites, and the exploitation of nanoconfinement effects due to the void regions between the core and shell components. These results provide important insights into the optimization of peroxidase-like performances beyond what can be achieved in conventional NPs and may inspire the development of better-performing artificial enzymes.Peer reviewe

“Jeg hadde ikke ansatt meg selv en gang, jeg”. En litteraturstudie om sosialfaglig gruppearbeid og arbeidsinkludering.

Sosialfaglig gruppearbeid er en av flere tilnærminger i sosialt arbeid, og brukes blant annet i NAV og hos tiltaksarrangører. En mulig kontekst for arbeidet er med arbeidsledige deltakere, der målet er å bli arbeidsinkludert. Oppgavens mål er å undersøke om tilnærmingen er en effektiv metode for å skape arbeidsinkludering. Svaret søkes gjennom problemstillingen «På hvilken måte kan sosialfaglig gruppearbeid bidra til å fremme arbeidsinkludering?» og ved bruk av metoden litteraturstudie. Studien etterstreber å bruke nye og relevante forskningsstudier. Sentrale temaer i besvarelsen er kjennetegn ved arbeidsledige, barrierer i arbeidslivet, arbeidsinkludering, drivkrefter i gruppearbeid og anerkjennende metode. I tillegg belyses teori gjennom et par empiriske eksempler. Litteraturstudien konkluderer med at sosialfaglig gruppearbeid kan ha størst effekt i bruk med deltakere som har en tilknytning til arbeidslivet, såkalt place then train. Økt støtte i gruppearbeid kan bidra til at deltakerne forblir i arbeidslivet og forebygger frafall

Klar-for-55: Luftfartens nye tiltak og dens effekter på Norges klimamål

Denne masteroppgaven tar for seg de potensielle effektene av de nye tiltakene for luftfarten, lagt frem i Klar-for-55. Klimagassutslipp og reduksjonene av utslippene blir stadig omdiskutert, hvor EU-kommisjonen i juli 2021 kom frem med en omfattende tiltakspakke Klar-for-55. Reduksjon av klimagassutslipp i transportsektoren er en sentral del av det grønne skiftet, og mer bærekraftig luftfart vil være en viktig del av dette. Både innovasjon og utslippsreduksjon vil være viktig i en grønn fremtid, kanskje spesielt for luftfartssektoren. Klimatiltak som retter seg mot både teknologisk utvikling og utslippsreduksjon anses derfor som spesielt viktig dersom luftfartssektoren skal være levedyktig i lavutslippssamfunn. I denne masteroppgaven skal vi forsøke å se på hvilke effekter, Klar-for-55 tiltakene for luftfarten kan ha for oppnåelsen av Norges klimamål. Oppgaven begynner med en gjennomgang av dagens situasjon, før det gis nødvendig bakgrunnsinformasjon for videre analyser og drøftelser. For å gi økt forståelse av analysen og dens resultater, vil vi også gå gjennom relevant teori og tidligere litteratur på fagfeltet. Videre har vi analysert og diskutert funnene i lys av teori og litteratur. Vi har valgt å anvende en samfunnsøkonomisk modell, der vi har tatt utgangspunkt i fire ulike scenarioer for å undersøke problemstillingen. Vi utfører analysen trinnvis, der vi tar for oss et scenario om gangen, før vi diskuterer effekten tiltakene vil på teknologisk utvikling. Oppgaven har vist oss at samtlige tiltak som omhandler luftfarten bidrar til utslippsreduksjon og innovasjon. Tiltakene er imidlertid avhengig av både kortsiktig og langsiktig teknologisk utvikling, noe de er med å bidra til. Dette tyder på at implementeringen av tiltakene i Klar-for-55 er en gunstig strategi for å redusere luftfartens miljøpåvirkning og videre bidra til å oppfylle Norges klimamål. Som følge av dette konkluderer vi med at sektorene i Norge er avhengig av hverandre for at klimamålene skal oppnås.This master’s thesis examines the potential effects of the new policies for aviation, presented in Fit-for-55. Greenhouse gas emissions and the reductions of emissions are constantly debated, with the European Commission in July 2021 coming up with a comprehensive package of policies Fit-for-55. Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in sectors is a central part of the green shift, and more sustainable aviation will be important climate policies. Both innovation and emission reduction will be important in a green future, perhaps especially for the aviation sector. Climate policies aimed at both technological development and emission reduction are therefore considered particularly important if the aviation sector is to be viable in low-emission societies. In this master’s thesis, we will try to see what effects Fit-for-55 policies for aviation can have on the achievement of Norway’s climate goals. The thesis begins with a review of the current situation, before providing the necessary background information for further analysis and discussions. In order to provide greater understanding of the analysis and its results, we will also go through relevant theory and previous literature in the field. Furthermore, we have analyzed and discussed the findings in light of theory and literature. We have chosen to use an economic model, where we made four different scenarios to examine the issue. We carry out the analysis step by step, where we consider one scenario at a time, before discussing the effect the policies will have on technical development. The master’s thesis has shown us that all policies relating to aviation contribute to emission reduction and innovation. However, the policies are dependent on both short-term and long-term technological development, which they help to contribute to. This suggests that the implementation of the measures in Fit-for-55 is a favorable strategy for reducing aviation’s environmental impact and further contributing to meeting Norway’s climate goals. As a result, we conclude that the sectors in Norway are dependent on each other for the climate goals to be achieved

SupportPrim—a computerized clinical decision support system for stratified care for patients with musculoskeletal pain complaints in general practice: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundMusculoskeletal disorders represented 149 million years lived with disability world-wide in 2019 and are the main cause of years lived with disability worldwide. Current treatment recommendations are based on “one-size fits all” principle, which does not take into account the large degree of biopsychosocial heterogeneity in this group of patients. To compensate for this, we developed a stratified care computerized clinical decision support system for general practice based on patient biopsychosocial phenotypes; furthermore, we added personalized treatment recommendations based on specific patient factors to the system. In this study protocol, we describe the randomized controlled trial for evaluating the effectiveness of computerized clinical decision support system for stratified care for patients with common musculoskeletal pain complaints in general practice. The aim of this study is to test the effect of a computerized clinical decision support system for stratified care in general practice on subjective patient outcome variables compared to current care.MethodsWe will perform a cluster-randomized controlled trial with 44 general practitioners including 748 patients seeking their general practitioner due to pain in the neck, back, shoulder, hip, knee, or multisite. The intervention group will use the computerized clinical decision support system, while the control group will provide current care for their patients. The primary outcomes assessed at 3 months are global perceived effect and clinically important improvement in function measured by the Patient-Specific Function Scale (PSFS), while secondary outcomes include change in pain intensity measured by the Numeric Rating Scale (0–10), health-related quality of life (EQ-5D), general musculoskeletal health (MSK-HQ), number of treatments, use of painkillers, sick-leave grading and duration, referral to secondary care, and use of imaging.DiscussionThe use of biopsychosocial profile to stratify patients and implement it in a computerized clinical decision support system for general practitioners is a novel method of providing decision support for this patient group. The study aim to recruit patients from May 2022 to March 2023, and the first results from the study will be available late 2023.Trial registrationThe trial is registered in ISRCTN 11th of May 2022: 14,067,965