Cross-country differences in self-employment rates: A panel data study on the relation between entrepreneurship, taxes and institutions within the OECD.

This essay provides an analysis of the relation between entrepreneurship, taxes and institutions. Based on endogenous growth theory, the entrepreneur, as a provider of innovations, is expected to have an essential impact on economic growth. For the modern welfare state this raises the question on how to optimally tax entrepreneurial activity in order to minimize distortion effects, while stimulating growth. The most widely used proxy for entrepreneurship in the tax literature is self-employment. However, a large part of the empirical literature is based on single country analysis and fewer studies have been concerned with longitudinal cross-country comparisons. Using a relatively novel data set on harmonized self-employment rates, this thesis aims at contributing to the literature by further investigating the channels by which taxes affects self-employment in order to explain the large cross-country variations in self-employment over time in OECD countries. Moreover, this study analyses, both theoretically and empirically, the joint effect of tax policies and institutional quality on self-employment, two aspects that the economic literature previously has investigated, though mostly in isolation. The effect of taxes is estimated using a panel data set on 17 OECD countries between 1982 and 2008, using data on personal income taxes and corporate income taxes. The main contribution of the study is the use of a relatively new harmonized measure of self-employment, the use of both personal and corporate income taxes in an aggregated cross-country setting as well as the inclusion of several measures of institutional quality. The results indicate that corporate income tax is the only tax that seems to have a significantly robust negative effect on self-employment, even though the effect is very small. The results also suggest that opposing effects of taxes may be explained by the degree of corruption in a country. In general, regulation of business, labour and credit seems to have a larger impact on self-employment relative to taxes

Changes in IFRS - Swedish Listed Entities

We aim to clarify how Swedish listed entities experience and manage changes in IFRS and how they are adapting to new and revised standards as issued by the IASB. This thesis has an abductive approach. A qualitative method was selected as a research strategy, and semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to gather relevant information from the respondents; listed entities and auditors. The theoretical frame of reference considers the IFRS regulation and existing experiences of the legal framework. Further, theory of change has been a central tool for us when addressing our research questions and purpose. The institutional theory has also been applied, but to a miner extent. The empirical foundation is built upon ten interviews with respondents from listed entities. The respondents have key positions and possess competence within the area of consolidated financial statements. Empirical information is also gathered from four auditors from three international audit firms. In summary, the complex nature of IFRS makes it difficult to interpret, and thereby manage and adapt to the ongoing changes in IFRS. Small cap entities have a noticeable degree of resistance towards the changes. These entities are adapting to the changes by observing other listed entities and working closely with their auditors. Small cap entities are dependent on this support in order to keep up with the changes

Development of Income-Related Health Inequality in Europe - The Impact of Different Value Judgements

This essay estimates the trends in Income-Related Health Inequalities (IRHI) in 11 European countries between 2006 to 2013 and investigates the sensitivity of these trends with respect to different inequality measures. The motivation for this study is both empirically and theoretically driven. Empirically, there have been many studies aiming to quantify and explain IRHI but relatively few have investigated the trends in IRHI. Of those who have, an increasing, to the least, stable trend in IRHI seem to be suggested. However, recent theoretical developments and debates have highlighted technical complications and lately, normative challenges that arises when researchers aim to estimate IRHI using bounded health variables, variables that are commonly used in the literature. Thus, by summarising the most recent theoretical developments in the field of IRHI measurements and applying these different inequality indices in an empirical analysis, this essay contributes to the current literature by, firstly, the trend analysis over time and secondly, and most importantly, by the thorough and transparent empirical design which allow us to perform an extensive sensitivity analysis not previously performed. The results yield IRHI trends that are both increasing (Germany, the Netherlands and Spain) and decreasing (Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium and Czech Republic) between 2006 to 2013. The sensitivity analysis indicate that most of these findings are robust across different measurements but contain a few examples of different and even opposing changes over time when using different indices. Thus, the results confirm the recent theoretical debate and underline the need for using several measurements when estimating IRHI. The analysis of the consistent trends across measures are explained by the characteristics of the health variable and points to the close link between the results of different measurements and the prevalence of health

Cyclosporine Treatment in Cats with Presumed Chronic Pancreatitis—A Retrospective Study

Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a common disease in middle-aged to older cats. Cyclosporine has been suggested as an alternative treatment when other immunosuppressive treatments are insufficient or contraindicated. However, no published studies have investigated its efficacy on feline CP. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the efficacy of cyclosporine on supranormal serum feline pancreas-specific lipase (Spec fPL) concentrations in cats with presumed CP. Inclusion criteria were history and clinical signs suggestive of CP, serum Spec fPL concentrations above 5.3 μg/L (reference range 0–3.5 μg/L, equivocal range 3.6–5.3 μg/L) on at least two occasions and treatment with cyclosporine for at least three weeks. Serum Spec fPL was analyzed at Idexx Laboratories, Kornwestheim, Germany. Nineteen cats, aged 6.9–17.5 years (median 11.6), were included. No pancreatic biopsies were available. Median (range) serum Spec fPL concentration was 14.2 μg/L (6.1–43.3) at baseline and 6.7 μg/L (0.9–23.6) at follow-up. Cyclosporine treatment (5.0–7.9 mg/kg orally SID) was associated with a significant reduction in serum Spec fPL concentrations (p < 0.001) at follow-up after 23–206 days (median 35). Body weight decreased significantly between inclusion and follow-up (p = 0.013). Significant improvement of clinical signs could not be measured (p = 0.781). This study has several limitations, including unstandardized treatment length and dose, no control group and lack of pancreatic biopsies. Despite the limitations, our results suggest that cyclosporine treatment reduces supranormal serum Spec fPL concentrations in cats with presumed CP

Fåglar i staden

Världen över pågår urbaniseringen. Fler och fler människor flyttar in till städerna och det blir allt vanligare att stadsbor får sin enda kontakt med naturen genom stadens grönområden. En undersökning gjord i Malmö visar att djurlivet är det som de tillfrågade tycker är allra viktigast i ett grönområde. Förutom insekter så är fåglar den djurgrupp som snabbast kunnat anpassa sig till stadens olika förutsättningar, mycket beroende på en av fåglarnas utmärkande egenskaper: flygförmågan. Eftersom att fåglarna utgör en så stor del av den totala faunan som man finner i staden så spelar de en stor roll i att skapa naturlika miljöer, där besökarna kan få känslan av ”vild” natur på väg hem från jobbet eller skolan. Artantalet och arttätheten i våra städer är dock lägre än i naturen. Med tanke på att de flesta av våra städer växer och förtätas, vilket medför mindre grönområden med längre dem emellan, så är risken att artantalet minskar ytterligare. Några av problemen som fåglarna ställs inför i staden är lägre skiktningsdiversitet, stora öppna ytor och hög skötselnivå. Att tillgodose våra fåglars behov och att skapa miljöer där de kan trivas är ingen konst. Med ett varierat växtmaterial (främst släktesdiversitet) och genomtänkt vegetationsuppbyggnad som skapar mikrobiotoper där fler arter kan hitta sin nisch är goda grunder för att få en individ- och artrik fågelfauna i våra städer

Cyclosporine Treatment in Cats with Presumed Chronic Pancreatitis—A Retrospective Study

Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a common disease in middle-aged to older cats. Cyclosporine has been suggested as an alternative treatment when other immunosuppressive treatments are insufficient or contraindicated. However, no published studies have investigated its efficacy on feline CP. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the efficacy of cyclosporine on supranormal serum feline pancreas-specific lipase (Spec fPL) concentrations in cats with presumed CP. Inclusion criteria were history and clinical signs suggestive of CP, serum Spec fPL concentrations above 5.3 μg/L (reference range 0–3.5 μg/L, equivocal range 3.6–5.3 μg/L) on at least two occasions and treatment with cyclosporine for at least three weeks. Serum Spec fPL was analyzed at Idexx Laboratories, Kornwestheim, Germany. Nineteen cats, aged 6.9–17.5 years (median 11.6), were included. No pancreatic biopsies were available. Median (range) serum Spec fPL concentration was 14.2 μg/L (6.1–43.3) at baseline and 6.7 μg/L (0.9–23.6) at follow-up. Cyclosporine treatment (5.0–7.9 mg/kg orally SID) was associated with a significant reduction in serum Spec fPL concentrations (p < 0.001) at follow-up after 23–206 days (median 35). Body weight decreased significantly between inclusion and follow-up (p = 0.013). Significant improvement of clinical signs could not be measured (p = 0.781). This study has several limitations, including unstandardized treatment length and dose, no control group and lack of pancreatic biopsies. Despite the limitations, our results suggest that cyclosporine treatment reduces supranormal serum Spec fPL concentrations in cats with presumed CP

Cholestyramine treatment in two dogs with presumptive bile acid diarrhoea: a case report

Background: In people, bile acid diarrhoea is a prevalent complication of Crohn’s disease and diarrhoea- associated irritable bowel syndrome. Affected patients typically respond to bile acid sequestrants, such as cholestyramine, but human gastroenterologists often fail to recognize bile acid diarrhoea. Consequently, bile acid diarrhoea is regarded as an underrecognized and undertreated condition in human medicine. Due to lack of diagnostic tools, clinical response to bile acid sequestrants is often used to confirm a diagnosis of bile acid diarrhoea in people. Several recent studies have shown that bile acid dysmetabolism also occurs in dogs with chronic enteropathies. It has further been shown that dogs with chronic enteropathies have significantly decreased expression of a bile acid transport protein in the ileum compared to healthy dogs, which correlates with faecal bile acid dysmetabolism. Consequently, in spite of the lack of reports in the literature, bile acid diarrhoea is likely to exist in dogs as well. Case descriptions: Two dogs, an 8-year old Rottweiler and a 4.5-year old Siberian Husky were evaluated for chronic watery diarrhoea. Neither dog responded to dietary trials, probiotics, cyclosporine, faecal microbial transplantations or metronidazole. One of the dogs responded to high daily doses of corticosteroids, which were however associated with unacceptable side effects. The other dog was refractory to all standard treatment protocols, including cyclosporine and corticosteroids. Since none of the dogs responded satisfactorily to standard treatment or modulation of the intestinal microbiome, a suspicion of possible bile acid diarrhoea was raised. Treatment with cholestyramine, a bile acid sequestrant was initiated and resulted in marked improvement of faecal consistency, frequency of defecation and activity level in both dogs. Conclusion: This report presents two dogs with presumed bile acid diarrhoea that were successfully treated with cholestyramine. Therefore, bile acid diarrhoea should be considered as a possible diagnosis in dogs with treatment-refractory chronic diarrhoea. Keywords: Bile acids, Diarrhoea, Dog, CholestyraminePeer reviewe

Den särskilda statliga ersättningen för vanvård i den sociala barnavården – från utredning till ersättning

År 2006 valde den svenska regeringen att tillsätta en utredning för att kartlägga omfattningen av den vanvård som skett i den sociala barnavården. Utredningen bedrevs främst genom intervjuer med frivilliga, som ville berätta om vad de utsatts för i sin barndom. Över 1000 personer blev intervjuade, det stora intresset var inte väntat utan utredningen överskred sina tidsramar både en och två gånger. Innan den första utredningen, kort benämnd Vanvårdsutredningen, hade avslutats stod det klart att en ny utredning, Upprättelseutredningen, måste initieras. Upprättelseutredningen hade som syfte att ge förslag på hur en upprättelseprocess för de drabbade skulle kunna se ut. Förslaget innebar en process i tre steg: ett erkännande och en ursäkt, en ekonomisk kompensation samt åtgärder för att förhindra upprepning. Upprättelseutredningens förslag på en ekonomisk kompensation innebar att en statlig ersättning skulle utges till de drabbade, trots att någon egentlig ersättningsskyldighet för staten inte förelåg. Staten följde utredningens rekommendation och införde en ny lag som ger möjlighet till ersättning, lagen (2012:663) om ersättning på grund av övergrepp eller försummelser i samhällsvården av barn och unga i vissa fall. Lagen började gälla den första januari 2013 och ger rätt för de som drabbades av vanvård när de var placerade i den sociala barnavården mellan åren 1920-1980 att ansöka om ersättning hos en särskild nämnd kallad Ersättningsnämnden. Ersättningen måste sökas senast den sista december 2014. Lagen ställer upp ett antal specifika villkor, villkor som Ersättningsnämnden har att bedöma om de är uppfyllda eller inte i varje enskilt fall. Till sin hjälp att tolka villkoren har nämnden lagens proposition. Lagen och propositionen blev hårt kritiserade från flera håll när det framkom att hela 43 % av de som ansökt om ersättning fått avslag, efter att nästan ett år av beslutsfattande passerat. Kritiken handlade framförallt om att ersättningen är för svår att få – något som många menar har som konsekvens att ersättningen inte alls fyller sitt syfte som upprättelse, utan snarare innebär att staten återigen sviker de drabbade.The Swedish government initiated an inquiry in 2006 to survey the extent of serious abuse or neglect of children in social care. The inquiry took place primarily through interviews with volunteers who wanted to share what had happened to them in their childhood. More than 1000 people were interviewed, the huge interest was not expected and the time frame for the inquiry had to be extended not once, but twice. Before the completion of the first inquiry, Vanvårdsutredningen (inquiry of serious abuse or neglect), a new inquiry had to be initiated – Upprättelseutredningen (inquiry of redress). The purpose of the new inquiry was to suggest a redress for those affected by the deficiencies in social care. The suggestion intended a three step process: a recognition and an apology, an economic compensation and to develop measures to prevent similar events from happening again. The inquiry suggested that the government should give an economic compensation even though there was no legal obligation for the government to do so. The government followed this suggestion and introduced a new law granting economic compensation. The law entered into force on the 1st of January 2013 and gives those who were subjected to serious abuse or neglect as a child in social care between 1920 and 1980 the right to apply for compensation with Ersättningsnämnden, the government agency examining the eligibility for compensation. It is possible to apply for the compensation up to and including the 31st of December 2014. The law stipulates a number of conditions whose fulfillment has to be evaluated by Ersättningsnämnden in every single case. The government bill serves as a guidance of interpretation. The law and the government bill were widely criticized when it became clear that 43 % of those who have applied for compensation have been denied such, after almost one year of decision making conducted by the agency. The criticism mainly referred to the fact that the compensation is too difficult to receive – to many the consequence of this is, that the compensation system does not fulfill its purpose as a means of redress, instead the government once more lets down those affected

Fly-The-Bee: A Game Imitating Concept Learning in Bees

AbstractThis article presents a web-based game functionally imitating a part of the cognitive behavior of a living organism. This game is a prototype implementation of an artificial online cognitive architecture based on the usage of distributed data representations and Vector Symbolic Architectures. The game demonstrates the feasibility of creating a lightweight cognitive architecture, which is capable of performing rather complex cognitive tasks. The cognitive functionality is implemented in about 100 lines of code and requires few tens of kilobytes of memory for its operation, which make the concept suitable for implementing in low-end devices such as minirobots and wireless sensors

Effects of oral cobalamin supplementation on serum cobalamin concentrations in dogs with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency: A pilot study

The objective of this retrospective study was to evaluate serum cobalamin concentrations before and after oral cobalamin supplementation in dogs with low serum cobalamin concentrations and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI). Eighteen dogs with serum trypsin-like immunoreactivities between <1.0-2.7 μg/L (reference interval, 5.2-35 μg/L) and serum cobalamin concentrations ≤350 ng/L (reference interval, 244-959 ng/L) were enrolled. All dogs were treated with oral cyanocobalamin according to a previously described protocol (0.25-1.0 mg daily, depending on bodyweight). Median (range) serum cobalamin concentrations at inclusion was 188 ng/L (<111-350 ng/L), which increased significantly to 1000 ng/L (794-2385 ng/L; P < 0.001) after cobalamin supplementation for 19-199 days (median, 41 days). Oral cobalamin supplementation is a potential alternative to parenteral supplementation in dogs with EPI.The objective of this retrospective study was to evaluate serum cobalamin concentrations before and after oral cobalamin supplementation in dogs with low serum cobalamin concentrations and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI). Eighteen dogs with serum trypsin-like immunoreactivities between < 1.0-2.7 mu g/L (reference interval, 5.2-35 mu g/L) and serum cobalamin concentrations < 350 ng/L (reference interval, 244-959 ng/L) were enrolled. All dogs were treated with oral cyanocobalamin according to a previously described protocol (0.25-1.0 mg daily, depending on bodyweight). Median (range) serum cobalamin concentrations at inclusion was 188 ng/L (< 111-350 ng/L), which increased significantly to 1000 ng/L (794-2385 ng/L; P < 0.001) after cobalamin supplementation for 19-199 days (median, 41 days). Oral cobalamin supplementation is a potential alternative to parenteral supplementation in dogs with EPI.Peer reviewe