Browsing by Subject "globalisation"

Avhandlingen ser på ekonomisk brottslighet (white-collar crime, på svenska ofta kallat manschettbrottslighet) speciellt i formen av förskingringar, och hur de visar sig i välfärdsstater såsom Finland och Sverige. Avhandlingen ger även en översikt över kriminologisk teori, manschettbrottslighet och dess kopplingar till globalisering. I ljuset av avhandlingens källmaterial är en kort diskussion beträffande kriminaljournalistik även inkluderad. Teorimässigt ligger fokus på hur manschettbrottslighet och kriminologiska teorier har utvecklats genom åren. Avhandlingens källmaterial och fallen som analyseras samlades genom användning av internetbaserade nyhetsmedier i januari och februari 2021. Som sökmotor användes Google, där sökningen begränsats till www.yle.fi och www.svt.se. Finland och Sverige blev valda tack vare deras många likheter samt relativt lätta jämförbarhet. Det som skiljer avhandlingen från andra studier inom samma område är dess fokus på Finland och Sverige, samt dess metod för datainsamling, vilket ter sig unikt, eftersom en liknande analys mellan länderna inte gjorts tidigare. Forskningens resultat visar på en variation mellan gärningsmannens ställning och tillvägagångssätt, där brottsmetoden ofta var överraskande enkel. Dessutom kan man i analysen finna påfallande likheter mellan Finland och Sverige. Några uppenbara slutsatser på globaliseringens direkta inverkan på själva brottet förblir dock tvetydigt. Hursomhelst kan det ändå konstateras att medan globalisering i sig inte är källan till allt det onda, är det ändå ofrånkomligt att fenomenet globalisering samt allt vad det innebär nog underlättat genomförandet av en del former av ekonomisk brottslighet. Dock visar även avhandlingens slutsatser på att den stereotypiska manschettbrottslingen som en manlig medelålders chef inte stöds av källmaterialet. Poängteras bör ändå också att definitionen av manschettbrottslighet, som den används i denna avhandling, samt omfattningen av vad som räknats som förskingring, tvingar betydelsen av denna traditionella, och aningen konservativa, stereotypen att minska i värde.

Within the last forty years, capital has increased its share of national income at the expense of labour across developed and developing economies, with few exceptions. The trajectory has been successfully linked to technological change, globalisation and the erosion of the bargaining power of employees in theoretical and empirical examinations. Due to short time series, it has remained unclear whether the increase in capital share is a consequence of modern trends, such as hyperglobalisation or the ICT-boom. Recognizing the mechanisms behind the increase is worthwhile from the social planner’s viewpoint, because of factor shares’ connection with personal income inequality and unemployment, both triggers of social unrest. This thesis examines the connection between labour income share and its potential determinants in Finnish industry, namely technological change, globalisation, union power, devaluations, capital mobility and public expenditure between 1907 and 2015. The main empirical strategy used was the fixed effects regression, where the first three aforementioned determinants were proxied with capital intensity, total factor productivity (TFP), import and export exposure, union density and the number of strike days per worker, while controlling for branch fixed effects, common national trends and branch-specific trends. The last three country-level determinants were studied using time series analysis. The primary data source was Bank of Finland’s Growth studies, which was complemented with the data in various volumes of the Official Statistics of Finland, in addition to selected separate publications. According to the results, technological change has a negative effect on labour share, while union power and import exposure have a positive impact. Periodizing, the increase in capital intensity can more than explain the decrease in labour share from 1907 to 1943. Between 1943 and 1991 the quadrupling of union density accounts around a third of the 28.2 percentage point increase in labour share. From 1991 to 2007, the acceleration of TFP growth rate can predict around 60% of the 23.7 percentage point decline in labour share. The findings suggest, that technology is the key driver of functional income distribution also in the long-term, which complements its importance in the recent increase in capital shares, covered in previous research. Moreover, in the early 20th century technology appears to have worked more as a substitute for labour, while after mid-century it has become rather complementary and efficiency-improving. In addition, the ICT era has brought along an increase in market concentration, implying that technology operates also potentially through rising economic rents. Union power had a non-trivial role in inflating labour share during the post-WWII decades. Finally, import exposure has increased labour share presumably by squeezing profits, but its significance is overshadowed by the other covariates.

The aim of this thesis is to examine migration of educated Dominicans in light of global processes. Current global developments have resulted in increasingly global movements of people, yet people tend to come from certain places in large numbers rather than others. At the same time, international migration is increasingly selective, which shows in the disproportional number of educated migrants. This study discovers individual and societal motivations that explain why young educated Dominicans decide to migrate and return. The theoretical framework of this thesis underlines that migration is a dynamic process rooted in other global developments. Migratory movements should be seen as a result of interacting macro- and microstructures, which are linked by a number of intermediate mechanisms, meso-structures. The way individuals perceive opportunity structures concretises the way global developments mediate to the micro-level. The case of the Dominican Republic shows that there is a diversity of local responses to the world system, as Dominicans have produced their own unique historical responses to global changes. The thesis explains that Dominican migration is importantly conditioned by socioeconomic and educational background. Migration is more accessible for the educated middle class, because of the availability of better resources. Educated migrants also seem less likely to rely on networks to organize their migrations. The role of networks in migration differs by socioeconomic background on the one hand, and by the specific connections each individual has to current and previous migrants on the other hand. The personal and cultural values of the migrant are also pivotal. The central argument of this thesis is that a veritable culture of migration has evolved in the Dominican Republic. The actual economic, political and social circumstances have led many Dominicans to believe that there are better opportunities elsewhere. The globalisation of certain expectations on the one hand, and the development of the specifically Dominican feeling of ‘externalism’ on the other, have for their part given rise to the Dominican culture of migration. The study also suggests that the current Dominican development model encourages migration. Besides global structures, local structures are found to be pivotal in determining how global processes are materialised in a specific place. The research for this thesis was conducted by using qualitative methodology. The focus of this thesis was on thematic interviews that reveal the subject’s point of view and give a fuller understanding of migration and mobility of the educated. The data was mainly collected during a field research phase in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic in December 2009 and January 2010. The principal material consists of ten thematic interviews held with educated Dominican current or former migrants. Four expert interviews, relevant empirical data, theoretical literature and newspaper articles were also comprehensively used.

This thesis will explore the variance in support of the European Union between Scotland and England and explain the Brexit referendum vote through a focus on identity and nationalism. A theory of allegiance is developed to explain the linkage between Scottish and English nationalism and opinion formation vis-à-vis the European Union. The paper finds that national identity played a key role in how people voted in the Brexit referendum as it shapes where individuals locate the terminal political community.