Browsing by Title
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(2023)In spite of the current wide-spread use of the idea of our personal liberties, not enough attention is given to the actual justification of this concept itself: from what philosophical grounds our liberties can be argued from and how the value of our personal liberties stands itself as a philosophical concept. One of the most important philosophers defending our personal liberties is widely perceived to be John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), an English philosopher who developed his thinking on liberty in the 19th century. However, the plausibility Mill’s hedonistic ethics has been widely criticized in philosophical literature. This research examines John Stuart Mill’s hedonistic ethics and his hedonistic defence for our personal liberties. The thesis asks, can Mill’s defence of our liberty that relies purely on the foundation of hedonism be plausible? The first chapter introduces the research question and the structure of the research. The second chapter first presents Mill’s core ethical ideas and then introduces how a perfectionist reading can challenge the hedonism of Mill’s ethics. The third chapter discusses G.E. Moore’s critique against hedonism. Chapter 4 defends Mill’s justification for his hedonistic foundation for morality with Geoffrey Sayre-McCord’s thinking. Chapters 5 and 6 examine Sarah Conly’s theory and her critique against Mill’s simple principle for liberty and argue the critique is not plausible if we read Mill as a hedonist. The concluding chapter draws together the results of the study. The thesis focuses on the problems of the arguments against Mill’s hedonistic ethics showing how these arguments fail to convince that the hedonistic reading of Mill’s ethics is not plausible. As a conclusion, the research provides arguments for why it is plausible to continue to interpret and examine Mill as a hedonist and argue for a hedonistic defence of our personal liberties regardless of the several things Mill states that appear to not adhere to the single value of hedonism. The research suggests that despite the challenges presented in this work, there remains a plausible rationale to continue to read Mill as a hedonist and argue for our personal liberties from this foundation. However, the conclusion is conditional. The research also shows that to plausibly argue for our personal liberties, Mill’s overall concept of happiness that contains the ideas of individuality and social flourishing, needs to be understood through the aspect of constant human progress. Whether such a concept of happiness can be argued to be a merely hedonistic concept, however, falls out of the scope of this research.
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(2016)This thesis explores the idea of the creation of political discourse on social media platforms, aiming to address whether social media (and in particular Facebook) under private ownership could be considered forms of Habermasian Public Spheres. A theory of what constitutes a modern Public Sphere is created and then, through a discourse analysis the ideology of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is examined in relation to his moderation of the platform and the effect this has on political discourse. This paper finds that under private ownership social media platforms such as Facebook have awarded unprecedented amounts of power over the public discourse to individual, unaccountable private citizens and that this calls into question the validity of these platforms as Public Spheres.
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(2015)The aim of this empirical study is to analyse whether announcements by Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s and Fitch Ratings regarding the credit rating of Ukraine and Russia can explain the movements in the yield spreads on their government bonds during 1st January 2010 – 6th February 2015. The motivation for this research question derives from the results of previous empirical studies, which have found that announcements by the three credit rating agencies regarding the sovereign rating of a country impact the country’s borrowing costs. Particularly negative rating news, concerning either a downgrade or the assignment of a negative outlook to the rating, have been found to impact yield spreads, leading to increased borrowing costs for the country. Against this background, this study analyses whether the many negative announcements from the credit rating agencies regarding the Ukrainian and Russian sovereign ratings can explain the large increases in the countries’ government bond yield spreads since 2010. The methodology used in the empirical study is based on regression analysis, which incorporates an event study through the use of dummy variables. The overall findings indicate that announcements from the rating agencies affect the government borrowing costs of the country concerned, as the results show a statistically significant impact of the announcement events on the country’s bond yield spreads. However, as the impact of the events on the yield spreads is considerably smaller in magnitude than the movements in the spreads, the results indicate that factors other than the rating agency announcements are driving the large increases in the Ukrainian and Russian borrowing costs. The conclusion of the study is therefore that although some of the announcements are found to be statistically significant, the rating events alone cannot explain the movements in the yield spreads on the countries’ government bonds during 1st January 2010 – 6th February 2015. Contrary to previous studies, the results show no clear evidence that negative events affect yield spreads to a greater extent than positive events. There is also no considerable difference in the impact on the yield spreads between announcements by the different agencies. In terms of the magnitude of the impact of rating events on yield spreads, the results of this study are largely in line with previous findings in the literature. The analysis of the relationship between credit rating announcements and government bond yield spreads for Ukraine and Russia since 2010 presented in this paper is divided into five chapters, which approach the research question from different perspectives. Chapter one provides the necessary background for the analysis and offers a theoretical explanation for why announcements by the rating agencies may impact the yield spreads on a country’s government bonds. Chapter two presents an overview of the empirical literature on the topic; three previous papers which use event study analysis to investigate the impact of rating agency announcements on government yield spreads are discussed and evaluated. Against this background, chapter three describes the empirical methodology used in this paper to study the relationship between Ukrainian and Russian credit rating announcements and yield spreads; the data set on which the analysis is based is introduced in chapter four. The results of the analysis are discussed in chapter five, followed by concluding remarks.
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(2013)A model is been built where two countries compete for a multinational enterprise’s (MNE’s) foreign direct investment (FDI) provided that its arrival will increase the host country’s social welfare. Both potential host countries have unionised labour markets where monopoly labour unions determine the level of the wage setting to be either decentralised, intermediate level, or centralised. The governments may influence the unions’ decision by setting a lump-sum tax on them. Both countries have two sectors, a non-sheltered and sheltered sector. The MNE will enter in the non-sheltered sector and is assumed to be more productive than the incumbent firms there. Product market competition between the MNE and domestic incumbent firms is ruled out to isolate the effect of product market competition from the effect of pure wage compression. The game evolves in five stages: (1) the governments set taxes, (2) the monopoly unions choose the level of the wage setting, (3) the MNE chooses its investment location, (4) the monopoly unions set wages, and (5) the firms set output. The purpose of the model is to learn whether the degree of centralisation of wage setting can be used as a strategic choice to attract foreign direct investment. The main results of the paper are the following. It was found that the MNE’s (incumbent unions’) most preferred choice is always centralised (decentralised) wage setting. It was shown that the governments’ most preferred choice is either decentralised or centralised wage setting – depending on the relative sizes of the two sectors. If the social welfare in country 1 is the highest under decentralised wage setting, then the optimal policy of government 1 is to set zero income taxes. If the social welfare in country 2 is the highest under centralised wage setting, then the optimal policy of government 2 is to set positive taxes slightly over that required to make the domestic incumbent labour unions prefer centralised wage setting. Given this, the MNE will always invest in country 2. The exact expressions for the stage-contingent lump-sum taxes were derived. To my best knowledge, this is a novel contribution that cannot be found elsewhere.
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(2023)In the future we’ll see increasing collaboration between humans and artificial entities. Many of our jobs will be outsourced to them as they advance and outperform us in various tasks. The rapid progress of these artificial entities raises important ethical questions, one of these is whether we should strive for artificial moral agency. It would allow for ethically inclined robots. Having ethically acting artificial entities not only ensures that their behavior aligns with our norms but also builds trust in their actions and enhances collaboration. This is also a means of protecting humans from potential apocalyptic scenarios depicted in science fiction, as morally inclined artificial entities could prevent such outcomes. I focus on the philosophical question of how artificial entities would satisfy the conditions required for moral agency. In this thesis I examine three conditions that entities must satisfy to have moral agency: intentionality, autonomy, and moral responsibility. My argument is based on the premise that, since humans are essentially biological machines operating according to complex algorithms, when artificial algorithms attain a comparable level of complexity, they meet the criteria for moral agency and should be held accountable for their actions. Therefore, artificial entities could satisfy these conditions and possess moral agency. To identify moral agency in others, I propose that we should take the stance of mind-reading, contemplating whether the actions of others tell us whether they have inner states. I make the claim that artificial entities can achieve a state where they display behavior complex enough for us to treat them as moral agents. By displaying complex behavior and expressing it in correlation with their inner states, artificial entities would meet the requirement for identifiable moral agency. This thesis argues that artificial entities can be blameworthy, as they can possess authentic inner states, enabling self-reflection and responsiveness to reasons. They can have the ability to project these inner states into the actual world as acts, and of their own accordance. I also argue, through psychopathy, that moral agency doesn’t require empathy or emotions, but that morality can be achieved in other ways. This thesis also offers a new perspective on 'punishment' and how it could enable us to reprimand artificial entities.
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(2020)The Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2019 was awarded to Banerjee, Duflo, and Kremer for their fight against poverty, as well as for their methodological contributions to development economics. This thesis discusses their methodological approach, the use of randomized field experiments (RFE) in policymaking, which according to the advocates of the evidence-based policy (EBP), provide better and more objective evidence. This claim will be examined, and rejected, in the light of the methodological literature of field experiments in economics and a case study of the Finnish Basic Income Experiment (BIE Finland). It will be argued that EBP’s view on RFE’s objectivity is rooted on the narrow view of mechanical objectivity, which overemphasizes methodological norms, such as randomization. This hinders various value choices regarding the research process and ignores the fact that the quality and nature of the evidence can change in the process. Co-creation of the scientific methods and interaction of the science and policy, thus, challenge EBP to reconsider their normative guidelines. This thesis examines BIE Finland and demonstrates how ethical values can become as constitutive values of the research via decisions over (i) the experimental design and (ii) theoretical content, and via (iii) interpretation of the results. It will be argued that these three routes present epistemic risks, but also opportunities to increase the relevance and validity of the research. Ultimately these routes show how scientists are troubled by uncertainty and the risk of error, providing also an avenue for subjectivity. While these routes show complex trade-offs between epistemic and non-epistemic values, their implications for the objectivity of the research are also not clear. This is not only because, as will be illustrated with BIE Finland, RFE’s are compatible with various epistemic aims and inferences that are not always clear, but also because the consequences of inductive risk for the normative guidelines and evidential standards is neither obvious. It will be argued that EBP should clarify the constituents of the trained judgment and the role of epistemic and non-epistemic values throughout the research process, because it ultimately shows how researchers are troubled with uncertainty and the risk of error. This requires them to abandon the value-free ideal and move beyond narrow mechanical objectivity in order to address the epistemic risks and potential disappointment associated with the evidence-based policymaking.
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(2020)Greenhouse gases can be considered as negative externalities that harm the climate. Externalities can be internalized by setting a tax equal to the marginal damage from the externality; a lesson taught by Pigou already a hundred years ago. Carbon pricing has long been seen as the most prominent tool to fight climate change. In recent decades there have been efforts to agree on a global carbon emission reductions. Although international agreements have been implemented, most of those have lacked either effective quantity goals or adopting of global carbon price. The failure of global agreements is ambiguous, but a tendency to trust on countries altruism in agreeing on costly emission reductions has hardly helped. There are already numerous scientists who have suggested that adopting a single global carbon price would be both relatively easily agreed and sufficient as a tool to restrict global carbon emissions. By adopting a mutual price for carbon, the national authorities would be left with implementing the emission reductive policies. As some countries and unions have adopted carbon pricing schemes, knowledge on the effectivity of those instruments are beginning to emerge. Carbon taxes and cap and trade systems are common mechanisms to implement carbon pricing and in optimal settings, the outcomes of the instruments will be identical. Nevertheless, in practise the outcomes of the instruments depend on the regulative authority’s capability in estimating an effective level for the tax or the emission cap. It is suggested that it is easier to reach an international agreement of a price rather than quantity measure. Although a global single carbon price would likely represent a compromise, having a shadow value of carbon can help in knowing price ranges given by modern models that combine climate science with economical approaches. With carbon taxes the national authorities gain tax revenue, which is a specific benefit with taxes over emission caps. This revenue recycling makes interactions of carbon taxes and specifically labor taxes especially important to investigate. This study goes through the backgrounds of carbon pricing in the perspectives of international agreements, efficiency, modern integrated assessment models and their estimates for the social cost of carbon. Further, we will go through a simple model which shows the interactions of environmental taxation and the economy. The guiding light of the study is especially Weitzman’s (2014) idea of the single carbon price. The study aims on combining the knowledge on carbon pricing and pointing to the urgency for emission mitigative actions to be made.
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(2020)Female migration has been widely studied in Europe. Previous studies had found that migration is gendered, thus, the experience of migrants differs depending on issues such as gender, class and ethnicity along with career and familial relations. The position of the migrants in the post-migration time period is influenced by the recognition of their skills and the assessment of human capital they possess in the host society, which has a considerable effect on the position of immigrant women. Thus, I employ a feminist extension of Bourdieu’s forms of capital in migration studies as a theoretical framework to examine the position of immigrant women and to better understand their experience in a host society. In addition, I utilize the ideas of emotional capital to discuss the importance of studying caring practice, including everyday activities and the caring work done for other family members, and its interactions with the outside of the household, the local community and, possibly, with integration. My focus is on the position of immigrant woman in Finland, a country where the Nordic welfare regime, which is built on egalitarian practices, creates a paradox for immigrant integration, as national belonging is built on labour market participation and the idea of gender equality. I pay specific attention to the Cash for Care scheme in relation to high female labour participation and the choices of childcare provision. Thus, my intention is to explore immigrant women’s decision making on childcare, what kind of activities the women engage in while taking care of their child, and their progress in integration. My research questions are: 1) do immigrant women utilize caring practice in capital accumulation; and if so, how? and 2) how do they generate various forms of capital and transform them into other types of capital and, ultimately, into economic capital? The sub-questions include: how does the notion of national belonging related to labour market participation and gender equality in Finnish society intertwine with individuals’ decision making with regards to the process of capital accumulation and transformation? I employed a feminist standpoint to conduct 6 in-depth interviews using a narrative approach. The interviewees are all from outside of the European Union, are highly skilled, have at least one child whose age is under three years old, have experienced staying at home with a child and currently live in the Helsinki metropolitan area. I utilized thematic analysis to explore the experiences of the immigrant women. The results show the potential for immigrant women to be subjects of capital accumulation, as well as objects where their capital is utilized in supporting and enhancing the lives of other family members. First, the results establish the importance of a local and neighbouring context in capital accumulation in relation to how caring for a child goes beyond the household, and is linked to the generation of social and cultural capital. The choice on the length of stay with one’s child at home intertwines with the social and economic statuses of the interviewees, but remains primarily a matter of individual preference. Second, two of the cases demonstrate the transformation of accumulated capital into economic capital through caring for other members of the family, which works as a resource of emotional capital. At the same time, the position of these women is constrained by social and cultural barriers, as they lack appreciated capital, the most important of them being a sufficient knowledge of Finnish language and culture along with relevant social networks. The position of immigrant mothers can also be observed from an objective viewpoint: there are limitations on the women’s ability to accumulate capital for themselves due to them taking care of the child. However, at the same time, the women can engage in transmission of capital and enhancing their children’s capital development. This thesis shows that the caring work of mothers goes beyond the household, contributing to the generation of capital in their integration process as well as for their children. Caring practice in research demands further investigation to better understand the paths of immigrant women and, possibly, the involvement of their spouses in this practice, in order to improve the women’s social and economic positioning in Finnish society.
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(2016)Tässä pro gradu -tutkielmassa tutkitaan Carl Mengerin ja Ludwig von Misesin metodologiaa. Nämä kaksi tieteentekijää kuuluvat taloustieteen itävaltalaiseen koulukuntaan, joka on marginaalinen, mutta mielenkiintoinen paradigma. Se esimerkiksi ei käsittele taloustieteen lainalaisuuksia matemaattisin menetelmin. Lähtökohta tälle tutkielmalle muodostuu pääasiassa näiden kahden tieteentekijän alkuperäiskirjallisuudesta. Modernia kontekstia itävaltalaiselle taloustieteelle ei metodologian osalta juurikaan löydy. Vain Uskali Mäki on tehnyt korkealaatuista tutkimusta itävaltalaisen metodologian suhteen. Tällä tutkielmalla on kaksi tavoitetta. Ensin esitetään miten Mengerin ja von Misesin metodologia periaatteessa on rakentunut. Tämä tehdään esittämällä ensin heidän metodologiansa, ja sitten pohtimalla millaisista rakenteista ja ulottuvuuksista tämän metodologian mukaisesti kehitetyt teoriat koostuvat. Lopputulos on se, että Mengerillä teoriat ovat aina kytkettynä ulkomaailmaan, mutta von Misesillä teoriat ovat osittain a priori -formaaleja ja osittain riippuvaisia ihmisen fenomenologisesta ja empiirisestä elinympäristöstä. Sitten esitetään neljä tulkintaa siitä, mikä painoarvo kullakin ulottuvuudella von Misesin kaksijakoisessa metodologiassa on. Onko fenomenologinen vai formaali ulottuvuus painavampi. Tulkinnat tästä ovat seuraavat: von Mises pitää formaalia menetelmää tärkeämpänä, Mäki pitää fenomenologiaa painavampana, Hans-Herman Hoppe (itävaltalainen nykytieteilijä) pitää molempia ulottuvuuksia samanarvoisina, ja Mengerin teoriat ovat aina kytketty ulkomaailmaan. Tämän tutkielman toinen tavoite on esittää miten Mengerin ja von Misesin teoriat käytännössä toimivat. Tavoitteena tämän toisen kysymyksen osalta on arvioida missä määrin rahaan liittyvien teorioiden syntymekanismi on luonteeltaan formaalia ja missä määrin fenomenologista. Tämä arvio tehdään käyttämällä hyväksi yllä mainittuja tulkintoja siitä, miten painavia itävaltalaisten teorioiden ulottuvuudet ovat. Vastakkain asetetaan Mäen fenomenologinen ja von Misesin formaali näkemys. Tutkimusmenetelmänä tämän toisen tavoitteen osalta on myös eriävä. Tässä osassa esitetään teoriat alkuperäislähteitä lainaten niin, että ilmenee miten eri ulottuvuudet ovat teorioissa läsnä. Lopputulos tämän kysymyksen osalta on seuraava: perimmäisten ilmiöiden osalta (esimerkiksi rahan synty) on yleensä havaittavissa fenomenologisia piirteitä, kun taas rahan teorian ollessa valmiina voidaan helposti formaalisti johtaa siitä muita ilmiöitä (esimerkiksi inflaatio). Tutkielman johtopäätös on siis, että perimmäinen itävaltalaisen taloustieteen olemus on fenomenologinen.
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(2024)When the Syrian conflict escalated in 2011, millions of Syrians needed to leave the country. Türkiye invited Syrians to the country, and today Türkiye hosts the highest number of displaced people in the world, 3,8 million. Of them, 3,7 million are Syrians. Since non-European citizens cannot receive official refugee status in Türkiye, the country has given Syrians temporary protection status which includes certain rights including a right to education, work, and health care. When the refugee crisis hit Europe in 2015, the European Union started discussions with Türkiye about economic support for refugees if Türkiye tightened its border control. These discussions led to the EU-Türkiye deal in 2015, and in 2016 the European Union’s biggest humanitarian project the Emergency Social Safety Net started. It has aimed to answer to the basic needs of refugees in Türkiye with monthly cash assistance. The programme has supported almost 1,5 million refugees, including more than 1,3 million Syrians under temporary protection. From July 2023, the Emergency Social Safety Net programme was discontinued, but continued as the Social Safety Net programme. This master’s thesis is a qualitative study on how the Emergency Social Safety Net cash assistance programme has managed to support Syrians in Türkiye, especially during a crisis. The usage of cash assistance as a foreign aid has increased during the previous years, especially in refugee contexts, which is why this study is important and timely. The theoretical framework relies on the concept of the humanitarian-development nexus and foreign aid critique. Foreign aid has been criticized for its limited results, which is why there is discussion of an increased need to combine humanitarian and development aid better in the future. The data of the study consists of six semi-structured interviews with professionals working closely with the Syrians under temporary protection receiving cash assistance, conducted during the summer of 2022. In addition, nine Turkish Red Crescent qualitative and quantitative research reports from the COVID-19 pandemic time were analysed. The COVID-19 pandemic period from 2020 to 2022 was chosen as a case example of a crisis because it was raised in discussion in the interviews. The data was analysed with qualitative content analysis. Analysis shows, how informants disagreed on whether the Emergency Social Safety Net supports the integration of Syrians into Turkish society. Some saw the programme as an integration tool whereas some stated that the programme has nothing to do with integration. During the years Syrians have stayed in Türkiye, the migration question has become increasingly politized and questions about Syrians’ status have been in discussion. Syrians want to stay in Türkiye, but in Türkiye, the question is whether it would be possible to send them back to Syria. Even though the programme has managed to support Syrians with their basic needs, it has caused dependency where the recipients cannot sustain themselves without cash assistance. The COVID-19 pandemic made the situation even more challenging despite the additional top-ups provided. During the pandemic, unemployment increased dramatically, and there were severe challenges in attending online school lessons and accessing health care, Syrians needed to increase the usage of negative coping strategies including restricting food consumption, buying less expensive food, buying food on credit, borrowing money, reducing from education and health, and sending children to work. The debt rate increased significantly in households during the pandemic. Despite the challenges, there is an inevitable need to continue cash assistance until the recipients are integrated into society and have the means to fulfil their basic needs without the programme’s support.
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Catastrophe bond spread pricing in the primary market based on multifactorial models : new evidence (2022)The prevailing volatility of the price/spread related to catastrophe risk around this newly innovative type of instrument, called CAT bond, gave light to this literature. Contrarily to normal type of insurance coverage risks (such as cars, houses, etc...) risk associated to natural and human catastrophes is more unpredictable and costly for (re)insurance companies. Insurance and reinsurance companies found a way to finance this expensive risk by shifting it to investors through Insurance-Linked Securities (ILS), more precisely and successfully, CAT bonds. By cross-checking data and information from multitude of sources, I investigated which are the main determinants capable to influence the price, spread or coupon of a catastrophe bond on the primary market for those instruments. This paper gathers data of 284 catastrophe bonds issued in the market between January 2013 and October 2021 provided by Artemis deal directory. My research contains an introduction part on those innovative type of bonds, an overview on previous research regarding the question and their results, and some empirical data on the main goal of this work, which is defining what variables influence the price of the CAT bond in the primary market. OLS regressions techniques with heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent standard errors are mainly used based on multifactor based models in order to identify the main determinants of the price. The work of Alexander Braun will be the main inspiration for this work, I will apply a couple of same techniques on my work, according to the data available and Stata limitations. The outcome of the larger model including the whole set of variables and crossed variables shows that the expected loss is the major influencers of the catastrophe risk prices for both the in-sample and out-of-sample estimation and across diversified subsamples and models. As per the conclusion from previous researchers, the expected loss variable has shown to impact positively the price of the coupon bond much more than any other variable.
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(2018)In Finland, interest groups have traditionally had a somewhat permanent role in policymaking process. Interest groups use a variety of tactics to influence policymaking. These tactics have often been considered as part of two strategies: inside strategy, which is directed to decision-makers, and outside strategy, which is more public-oriented. According to traditional views, the use of these strategies depends on the level of access the group has in decision-making. However, as the role of interest groups in policymaking process has become less permanent and the importance of media has been increasing as a part of mediatization development, the ways of influencing might become more diverse. Newer studies have suggested that interest groups combine a variety of different tactics. A number of other factors have also been found to affect the use of different influence tactics, such as group type, resources, political system and groups’ position in the policy network. The theme of this study is built against this framework. The aim of this study is to understand what kind of tactics groups use to influence climate policies in Finland. In addition, this study attempts to find the factors that explain the tactic choices. The data of the study were collected in 2014 as a part of Comparing Climate Change Policy Networks -research project. The study was conducted as a quantitative analysis based on a questionnaire sent to Finnish organizations that try to influence in climate policies. The respondents included 79 organizations, of which 59 interest groups were included in the analysis. The effect of different variables that were chosen based on earlier studies was tested by using statistical methods. The results show that Finnish interest groups seem to prefer using inside tactics and are highly connected to key ministries. However, the use of media is also very popular, which supports the views that media has become a necessary channel for all kinds of groups for influencing. In contrast, activating and mobilizing citizens was used by only a small minority of groups. However, it seems that interest groups use a variety of tactics and do not necessarily choose between two strategies. Interestingly, different tactics were explained by partly different factors. As some of the newer studies, the results questioned the relevance of access in tactic use: access to ministries was not able to explain the use of most tactics. Most importantly, it seems that network position was able to explain the use of tactics better than access, which indicates that using policy network approach has some potential in future research of the subject. In addition, it did not seem that tactic use was divided between group types: the most popular tactics were generally used by all kinds of groups.
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(2022)The phrase 'central limit theorem' has commonly come to stand for a result where partial sums of random variables converge to a gaussian random variable in the sense of distribution. Theorems of this nature readily yield applications to statistics and econometrics since they form the theoretical basis of approximating the sampling distribution of a given test statistic when the exact distribution may be intractable or otherwise infeasible to be retrieved. Faced with such a situation, a researcher can instead ask whether the test statistic, or a certain transformation of it, converges in distribution as the sample size grows without bound. If the answer is in the affirmative, then one may in a principled manner approximate the distribution of the finite-sample statistics with that of the limit distribution such that the approximation can be made in some sense arbitrarily good by sufficient increases in the sample size. Naturally, similar procedures apply in the case of estimators. These asymptotic normality results for econometric estimators, as they are called, require differing conditions to be satisfied depending on the nature of the data-generating process where the observations are thought to originate from. This thesis examines a selection of foundational central limit theorems in the cases of I.I.D., independent, D.I.D., and dependent data-generating processes and presents examples of their econometric applications, primarily to deduce asymptotic normality for a selection of key econometric estimators.
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(2012)This thesis is an analysis of the relationship between the concepts of chance, choice and responsibility in Michael Sandel’s 'The Case against Perfection' (2007). Sandel predicts that if genetic enhancements were introduced in the society, the social meaning of these concepts would change significantly and social solidarity would vanish. He argues that that if people were able to control their genome and the element of chance in the genetic lottery would be replaced with choice, individuals could be held responsible for their deficiencies. Thus, the societal motivation to share our wealth with the disadvantaged would be eroded. However, the philosophical premises in Sandel’s argument remain obscure. Therefore, a new means for the philosophical assessment of Sandel’s argument is introduced in my thesis. The method for the analysis is to examine the premises in Sandel’s argument by comparing it to responsibility-sensitive egalitarian theories and their critique. The central literature used in the analysis is Sandel’s 'Liberalism and the Limits of Justice' (1982) and 'Democracy’s Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy' (1996). The examination of responsibility-sensitive egalitarianism is based on Ronald Dworkin’s article 'What is Equality? Part 2: Equality of Resources' (1981) and contrasted to John Rawls’ 'A Theory of Justice' (1971), and the critique of responsibility-sensitive egalitarianism is derived from Samuel Scheffler’s article 'What is Egalitarianism?' (2003). I suggest that Sandel’s argument is based on the principle of responsibility of the responsibility-sensitive egalitarian theories: unequal outcomes are just if they arise from factors for which individuals can properly be held responsible and are otherwise unjust. As Sandel’s argument entails this principle, the critique of the principle of responsibility can be applied to it. I conclude that due to extensive critique posed to the principle of responsibility, Sandel’s prediction about the changing notions of responsibility and solidarity is not as straightforward as he suggests. Furthermore, I propose that the principle of responsibility is not compatible with the general foundations of Sandel’s philosophy, which are the aspiration for cultivating a strong sense of community and social solidarity. The principle of responsibility does not foster social solidarity and, therefore, is not suitable for Sandel’s vision of a good society. This vision would be better achieved with a principle that guarantees a certain asset of basic needs to each person, regardless of the responsibility and control that people have in particular situations. It remains an open question why Sandel adopts in his argument the principle of responsibility that is contradictory to his general philosophy.
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(2021)Unprecedented environmental challenges require new entrepreneurs who develop disruptive ideas, products and services. These entrepreneurs are becoming increasingly dependent on their surrounding context and the other actors situated within this context. Against this background, this research focused on the emergence of bioeconomy entrepreneurial ecosystems in two Finnish regions: Lahti and Tampere, and investigated regional differences in entrepreneurial ecosystem emergence, evolution and legitimacy. This research was based on an iterative process of theory elaboration. Spigel’s relational perspective to entrepreneurial ecosystem attributes was used as the main guiding perspective. An integrative literature review conceptualized and synthesized literature around the topic. A comparative case study design was applied, and case regions were selected based on theoretical relevance. The primary data consisted of 21 interviews which were analyzed using thematic analyses. The results showed contrasting development paths for ecosystem emergence: the Lahti ecosystem was emerging from established and maintained arrangements, whereas the Tampere ecosystem was emerging from change processes; the change seemed to be easiest for those areas within cities that do not suffer from path-dependent arrangements. The findings challenge standard evolutionary models and bottom-up models of entrepreneurial ecosystems. When successful, changing ecosystems could potentially reduce the timespan for ecosystem development. Moreover, different ecosystems had different implications for legitimacy. In conclusion, the public sector and research institutions should play a more prominent role in the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems in the bioeconomy and work towards a more inclusive collaborative process. Nonetheless, the dichotomy between change and path dependence in entrepreneurial ecosystems was based on preliminary categorizations that can be elaborated in further study and broader empirical data.
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(2020)The determinants of FDI have been a topic of interest in economics since the 1980s and this paper aims to contribute to this field. This study aims to measure how associated FDI is with the political risk as well as to see the extent of this relationship in Turkey in the years 1996–2017. The political risk is measured as a change in indexes that are provided by the World Bank, Freedom House, and Transparency International. These political indicators are Political Rights, Civil Liberties, the Corruption Perceptions Index, Regulatory Quality, Voice and Accountability, Rule of Law, Government Effectiveness, Control of Corruption, and Political Stability. The earlier literature on FDI and political risks is mostly empirical and there has not been much theoretical research. Chakrabarti analyzed the past studies on FDI and its determinants in 2001 and found out that in the earlier research, almost every explanatory variable of FDI except the market size was sensitive to small changes in the conditioning information set, casting doubt on the robustness of the results. There have also been conducted studies that address political risk or equivalent concepts. The 2005 research of Busse and Hefeker had the same topic as this paper but their data consisted of many countries and they employed two different panel models. One was a fixed-effects panel analysis while the other utilized a generalized method of moments estimator. I selected three model specifications for the time-series regression analysis. All three specifications have market size as a control variable and the other two also have the economy’s growth rate and trade openness. The third has the inflation rate as the final control variable. The data have a small number of observations which limits the options available for the empirical part of the study. Out of the nine political indicators, Regulatory Quality is the only political indicator that is not associated with FDI, while the results on the Corruption Perceptions Index and Control of Corruption are inconclusive. The rest six are associated with FDI. The Rule of Law index has the highest estimated coefficient value of the World Bank indicators and the Political Rights index has the highest estimated coefficient value of the Freedom House’s indicators.
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(2023)Finland’s climate policy has become more ambitious. Since 2014, the first climate policy was adopted in 2015, climate funding has significantly increased and the goal in 2022 is to become a carbon neutral welfare state by 2035. All at once, a new wave of environmental actors, such as Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future have entered the policy scene. This Master’s Thesis investigates two possible mechanisms behind the policy change: the increase in the influence of environmental organizations and the changes in the beliefs of policy elites. Previous literature has pointed out that the Finnish ENGOs are relatively weaker than their counterparts in other policy sectors, weaker than other competing coalitions and weaker than in other comparable countries, while still being extremely radical in their views on climate change, indicating no co-optation to institutional logic. The ENGO coalition was found to be structurally included in the policymaking but was assessed the least influential of all coalitions. Thus, in the changed policy context, the following hypothesis is examined: ENGOs occupy more power in the climate policy network in 2020 than in 2014. The Finnish policy network has been found to be conflictual due to discrepancy in policy core beliefs among the policy actors, as well as historical emphasis on industry interest. The Finnish climate policy has been hindered by Tripartite coalition that prioritises economic values. Research has pointed out that influence attribution is a prompt proxy for policy influence. Thus, the second hypothesis states: The most powerful actors in the network have shifted in their views towards pro-mitigation over time. The research is carried out through utilizing data collected by COMPON- research group, analysing ENGO centralities, influence attribution and a composite measure for policy core beliefs. The results support the first hypothesis only partially. The ENGOs affiliations remain somewhat similar over time. Conventional ENGOs remained at the centre of the network, whereas the contentious ENGOs occupy outskirts of the network. However, more ENGOs report being included in the policy process in 2020 than 2014. Aligned with previous knowledge about ENGO influence, inclusion in the policy process is the most important factor behind successful influencing. The second hypothesis is supported by the results: a shift in policy core beliefs towards pro-mitigation has occurred among the policy elite, i.e., the central policy actors. Regardless of the corporate actors’ increased emphasis on economic values, there is an increased consensus about the importance of climate change. The two mechanisms examined in this research do not constitute a comprehensive explanation of the change in Finnish climate policy, as other factors such as changes of governments evidently play a role. They are, however, an important part of the explanation: mainstreaming of climate values has occurred in the Finnish climate network, which undermines previously strong coalition structures that would hinder progress.
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(2015)This paper examines the logos of Finnish universities which have failed to meet the aesthetic criteria established by the author in her earlier work. The research investigates the logos in order to determine a reason for their non-conformance and, in doing so, finds that they are examples of an emerging branding trend in higher education, a trend which coincides with and supports the latest tendency in higher education to internationalize and commercialize.
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(2023)Finland står inför problem med en åldrande befolkning samt brist på vårdpersonal. Därtill avväger en del av dem som för tillfället arbetar inom vårdbranschen att sluta, på grund av mångfacetterade krav och belastande element i arbetet. Mycket av den existerande forskningen har utförts ur vårdarnas perspektiv, så därmed behövs det mer kunskap om chefer inom branschen. Syftet med denna avhandling var att undersöka hur chefer inom äldreomsorgen diskursivt konstruerar arbetsresurser och -krav, samt hur de balanserar dessa. Ytterligare granskades vilka subjektspositioneringar cheferna påbjuds i dessa konstruktioner. Materialet bestod av tio semistrukturerade intervjuer med chefer inom den kommunala äldreomsorgen i Finland. Som metodansats tillämpades kritisk diskursiv psykologi, som har sina rötter i socialkonstruktionismen. Resultaten visar att som arbetsresurser konstruerar cheferna meningsfullhet, självständighet och socialt stöd. Som arbetskrav konstrueras däremot tillgänglighet, ensamhet och utmaningar. Ansvaret av balanseringen av arbetsresurserna och -kraven ställs till stor del på individen. Subjektspositionerna som cheferna påbjuds i dessa konstruktioner är: nöjda, självständiga, stöttade, tillgängliga, ensamma, utmanade och ansvarstagande/självständiga. I materialet identifierades även två ideologiska dilemman: 1) utmaningar mot mening och 2) självständighet mot ensamhet. Resultaten tyder på att chefsarbetet är mångfacetterat och att spänningar finns, vilket innebär att många olika aspekter bör beaktas då ämnet studeras. Förslag till framtida forskning är fortsatta studier om chefsarbete inom vårdbranschen, på en djup nivå som lyfter fram chefernas perspektiv. Med hjälp av forskning är det även möjligt att framföra fler positiva aspekter om arbete inom vårdbranschen, med målet att förhoppningsvis öka dragningskraften inom branschen.
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(2021)This study examined the relationship between maternal resources and child well-being in an attempt to outline which maternal resources, potentially could serve appropriate for facilitation of children’s developmental processes. Data from a Finnish sample of 52 mother-child dyads with children aged between 6–16 (29 boys), were analyzed. The children’s well-being was assessed via measures of life satisfaction and 5 positive psychological characteristics (engagement, perseverance, optimism, connectedness and happiness). The resources of the participating mothers were assessed via measures of; awareness of strengths, mindfulness, Mindful parenting (listening with full attention, emotional awareness of self and child, self-regulation in the parenting relationship, non-judgmental acceptance of self and child and compassion for self and child) and positive emotions. An Experience sampling method (ESM) and a web-based questionnaire were used to collect data from the participating mothers, and the children self-reported on their own well-being via a questionnaire, aided by their parents when/if necessary. Results showed that the mothers’ interpersonal Mindful parenting more specifically; emotional awareness of self and child, self-regulation in the parenting relationship and non-judgmental acceptance of self and child, were positively related to their children’s life satisfaction experienced within their family. The mothers’ mean Mindful parenting and Mindful parenting subscales non-judgmental acceptance of self and child and compassion for self and child, where negatively related with their children’s ability to engage in activity. In conclusion, the mothers’ Mindful parenting resources, shown to be significantly positively related to their children’s well-being could potentially be more efficient in supporting their children’s development, in contrast to the significantly negatively related resources which may even serve as counterproductive.
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