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Consumer confidence is one of the potential indicators of investor sentiment. Its movements have been suggested to be related to strong stock market price movements, which can complicate the efficient allocation of capital and investment decisions of investors, and affect consumption and economic activity through the wealth channel. It is therefore important to obtain more research information on the relationship between consumer confidence and stock markets. The aim of the thesis is to study the relationship between consumer confidence and stock returns in Europe, as well as to examine the impact of changes in US consumer confidence on stock returns and consumer confidence in European countries. The time series data of the thesis consists of the consumer confidence index of 11 European countries and the EU, stock returns, and business cycle control variables, as well as the US consumer confidence index. The thesis uses Granger causality analysis to determine whether consumer confidence contains additional information for predicting stock returns beyond the information of stock returns itself and vice versa. Regression analysis is used to determine whether consumer confidence predicts current and near-future stock returns and vice versa. Impulse response functions and forecast error variance decompositions derived from SVAR models are used to analyze the effects of consumer confidence and stock return shocks. Consumer confidence is found to Granger-cause stock returns in half of the tested European countries. Stock returns are found to Granger-cause changes in consumer confidence in all tested European countries. US consumer confidence is found to Granger-cause stock returns in Germany and the Netherlands, while stock returns in all tested European countries are found to Granger-cause changes in US consumer confidence. Consumer confidence in European countries is found to predict contemporaneous stock returns well, but poorly predicts near-future stock returns. A similar result is achieved between US consumer confidence and stock returns in European countries. Positive shocks to consumer confidence in European countries are found to produce a temporary rise in stock returns. Positive shocks to stock returns are found to produce a temporary rise in consumer confidence in European countries. Shocks to US consumer confidence are found to be transmitted to stock returns and consumer confidence in European countries. Similarly, shocks to stock returns and consumer confidence in European countries are found to be transmitted to US consumer confidence. The results suggest a steering effect of stock returns in relation to consumer confidence. Consumers are inferred to use stock returns as a source of information when adjusting their view of the future development of their personal finances and the general economy. Rising stock returns strengthen confidence in economic prospects, increasing consumers' willingness to take risks and demand for stocks. The results support the theory that sentiment has the greatest impact on stocks whose valuation based on fundamentals is challenging and which suffer from arbitrage exploitation constraints.

Aims of the study. The initial aim of this study was to discover the connections of adolescents’ sleep and exercise habits. It is known that adolescents generally sleep and exercise too little. Studies have also shown that physical activity and sleep are connected to each other. However, it is not completely clear how exercise affects sleep quality especially in young people. This study concentrates specifically on how the intensity of exercise affects different parameters of sleep quality in adolescents. Additionally, as the results are somewhat conflicting at the moment, another aim of this paper is to research the possible differences between girls and boys in these matters. Methods. This study was a part of SleepHelsinki! research, which is a population based cohort study. SleepHelsinki! was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, 7539 Finnish speaking adolescents participated in an online survey about their health habits. Altogether 552 adolescents were invited to the second phase of the study, in which they were given the actigraph device and instructions. The data in hand consists of 329 of those adolescents. Multivariate analysis was used for the statistical analysis of the data. Results and conclusions. High MET (metabolic equivalent) was connected to shorter sleep latency. Lesser activity was connected to later bed- and get up times, thus representing possibly a later chronotype. Among those who exercised more vigorously, sleep efficiency was higher with lower night time mobility and sleep latency. Basically the amount and intensity of exercise seem to have positive effects on sleep quality of adolescents. Additionally, in this data girls had better sleep quality whereas boys were slightly more physically active.

This thesis studies the use of expert consultations by the Finance, Administration, Agriculture and Forestry, and Commerce Committees of the Parliament of Finland during the year 2013, and examines the differences between national and EU-related matters. Expert consultations are an important method for committee members to gain information on the actions of the executive and on the matters they are handling. Although the Grand Committee is the European Affairs Committee of the Parliament, the relevance of the special committees in the handling of EU-matters has increased in recent years. Much of the research on parliamentary scrutiny of European issues has focused on the Grand Committee, with the special committees receiving little attention. The consultation performed by the committees have been analysed through a theoretical framework derived from the principal-agent theory. The special committees are viewed as principals of the executive, and of their counterpart ministries, whom power has been delegated to by the Parliament. The study examines expert consultations by focusing on the frequencies of experts consulted, the backgrounds of the experts and the use of consultations as a method of oversight. The data used in the analysis of this thesis was gathered from all of the reports and statements adopted by the committees during the year 2013. All the experts consulted were coded and categorised according to the institutions they represented. The matters handled by the committees were categorised to matters with an EU-connection and matters without an EU-connection based on their content. U- and E-communications formed separate categories. The data was analysed through statistical methods. The analysis of the data shows that the committees consult fewer experts during the handling of U- and E-communications, with the difference being greatest in the Administration Committee. There are otherwise no significant differences in the amount of experts consulted. During the handling of U- and E-communications the committees also rely more on the hearing of the representatives of the ministry in charge of the matter than during the handling of other matters. Representatives of third parties form a majority of all of the experts consulted by the committees during the handling of all matters, indicating that the committees utilise the knowledge of the third parties when monitoring the actions of the executive. Of the four committees, the consultations of the Finance Committee differ the most between EU-connected matters and other matters. The results of this thesis show that there are certain differences in the consultation of experts performed by the committees, but that the largest differences can be found between the consultations during the handling of U- and E-communications and consultations during the handling of other matters. The results indicate that, regarding expert consultations, the committee members do not differentiate between national legislation that is intended to implement EU directives from legislation that is of national origin without an EU-connection. The lower use of consultation during the handling of U- and E-communications do not indicate that the committees concentrate their efforts in gaining information at the early stages of the legislative process at the EU-level

This thesis studies the principle of proportionality in the non-discrimination case law of the European Court of Human Rights (the Court). The specific research interest is the content and structure of the proportionality assessment. The general principles on proportionality that the Court has developed in its non-discrimination case law, on legitimate aim, suitability, necessity and balance, is at the center of this thesis. There is currently a lack of an abundant academic discussion on proportionality in the non-discrimination practice of the Court. The thesis is mainly a doctrinal study of the Court’s practice. The thesis also includes a small empirical study of the number of times the Court has mentioned its proportionality principles. The thesis also presents theoretical issues related to proportionality. The research questions are, firstly, regarding content, what kind of elements does the Court evaluate in its proportionality assessment, and how does the Court deal with legitimacy, suitability, necessity and balance? Secondly, on structure, how does the Court structure its proportionality assessment, and does the Court use a vertical or a horizontal proportionality test? Thirdly, how much focus does the Court put on proportionality? Especially in relation to the final question, the thesis investigates how prevalent inconsistencies and ambiguities are in the studied case law. The thesis begins by situating the subsequent discussion into a wider theoretical discussion and into the non-discrimination context. The thesis proceeds by discussing how previous scholarship has understood the Court’s non-discrimination practice on proportionality. The contributions made in this thesis to its research field are made mainly in the subsequent empirical study and the analysis of selected case law from the years 2020-2023. The answer to the first set of questions is found to be that the Court in its case law has repeatedly evaluated legitimate aim, suitability, necessity and balance, but that the Court also refers to other types of elements in its proportionality assessment, such as consistency, relevance and sufficiency. The answer to the second set of questions is found to be that even though the Court’s general principles on proportionality indicate a structure built on the idea of a vertical proportionality test, the case law analyzed seem to point to that the Court often does more of a horizontal proportionality test. The answer to the third set of questions is that the Court does not seem to put, at least explicitly, proportionality front and center in its review of justifications in its non-discrimination case law. The finding on how few times the Court seems to have mentioned its proportionality principles also specifically supports this conclusion. Inconsistencies and ambiguities are prevalent regarding proportionality in the studied case law.

Museums can be considered as out-of-school environments that are able to support school subjects with their special requirements and offer multifaceted learning environments, as required in the Finnish curriculum. In order to facilitate pupils′ learning in museums, we need to understand how a museum context affects learning. Learning theories that explain learning in the school realm cannot be fully applied to the museum context, because the context where learning occurs is part of the learning. The model of the museum learning the Contextual Model of Learning (CML), developed by Falk and Dierking, provides a descriptive framework for how and where to look for learning in mu-seums. How ever, the model is based on free-choice learning: a museum visitor´s control over her/his own learning, which is not entirely the case with pupils` out-of-school learning. Thus the aim of the study is to analyse in the context of the recent museum studies how CML is able to describe learning in out-of-school education in museums in the context of the reviewed articles. The methods adopted in this study were systematic literature review and rational reconstruction. The studied museum research was defined to consist of only science or STEM education (Science, Tech-nology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in out-of-school context in museum. 13 studies in total were reviewed in this study in order to answer the first research question: what kind of research has been published during 1 Jan 2014–30 April 2016 in the field of STEM and science education in the out-of-school context. After this the CML and the research material were compared to each other to clarify whether CML is able to describe museum learning in this specific context. In this way the core of the CML was compressed in the context of the studies by utilizing rational reconstruction. Themes and conceptual frameworks of the reviewed articles were multifaceted. The findings of this study indicated that for the most part CML is able to describe pupils′ science and STEM learning in the context of the reviewed articles, but the emphasis of the three contexts in the CML might differ somewhat. In the personal context situational interest, situation motivation and gender might have some relevance. It seemed that in the sociocultural context the role of the teacher, educator and struc-ture should be given more attention. In the physical context, the concept behavior setting might be more complex than assumed in the CML. The results of this study indicate that CML should be critically analyzed in the context of out-of-school science and STEM education in museums.

The history of set theory is a long and winding road. From its inception, set theory has grown to become its own flourishing branch of mathematics with a pivotal role in the attempt to establish a foundation for all of mathematics and as such its influence is felt in every corner of the mathematical world as it exists today. This foundational effort, in the form of establishing new set theoretic axioms, is still ongoing and a big driving force behind this movement is the many unanswered questions that remain out of reach of the set theory of today. One of the most well known of these open questions is that of the Continuum Hypothesis. In this thesis we will first dive into the history of set theory, starting by looking at the role that infinity has played in the history of mathematics. From the ancients Greeks to Cantor who finally brings infinity into mathematics in a major way through set theory. We look at the development of a foundation for mathematics through the axiomatization of set theory and then focus on the role the Continuum Hypothesis played in this effort, leading up to Gödel’s and Cohen’s proofs that showed its independence and beyond that to the research being done today. We then turn our attention to potential candidates for new axioms that would solve the Continuum Hypothesis. First we take a closer look at Gödel’s constructible universe, in which the Continuum Hypothesis is true. We look at how it is built and consider the potential results of accepting the corresponding Axiom of Constructibility as a new axiom of set theory. In the final section we examine Chris Freiling’s proposed Axioms of Symmetry, which imply the negation of the Continuum Hypothesis. After looking at Freiling’s constructions in detail we consider the arguments for and against accepting them as new axioms.

Air pollution kills an estimated seven million people per year according to the World Health Organization – people living in the cities of low- and middle-income countries being the one’s most exposed to toxic air. As rapid urbanisation continues to dominate the demographic trends in the developing world into the fore-seeable future, so will the negative consequences of air pollution. This, coupled with the intense pressure for developing economies to prioritise rapid and unadulterated growth as a mean to raise the living standards of their citizens over the environmental consequences of that growth, will almost invariably make air pollution one of the leading causes of death in the world, if it is not already. This thesis analyses environmental policy around air pollution to not only under-stand the policies and their effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, but also their rationality regarding the wider economic activities in the background. The study examines (state´s) air pollution abatement efforts in Delhi and the National Capital Region concerning the four primary sources of particulate matter in Delhi´s air: vehicular emissions, industries, dust, and crop burning. The research approach is based on policy analysis while the theoretical framework leans on political ecology. More specifically, the theoretical starting point is in urban political ecology, and political ecology of the state as per Antonio Ioris (2014), the former being built upon Marxist historical materialism, while latter is found upon a Marxist analysis of the (capitalist) state. The research aims to answer two questions: Does the quality and nature of Delhi´s environmental action correspond with Antonio Ioris’ theory of the environmental (capitalist) state; and second, to what extent do state interventions fail to address, further, or even create environmental issues due to the contradictory positions they hold with respect to accumulation and environmental protection. The main findings of the study follow the claims of Antonio Ioris about environmental statehood: the nature of state interventions concerning air pollution in Delhi and the National Capital Region have largely been ineffective, temporary, provisional, and partial. Furthermore, the failure to address the issue effectively obligates the Delhi government to declare air pollution emergency every winter during the worst pollution months in late October and November, introducing increasingly ad hoc - and drastic - measures that cascade up in accordance with the toxicity levels. From increasing parking tickets prices and banning diesel generators, to closing schools, banning all heavy vehicles, and prohibiting construction. Not coincidentally, the main source of air pollution during this worst period of the year is crop burning, a practice that has its roots in state legislation curbing water use in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana, as well as in state procurement policies that promote the unecological farming of rice in the northern plains of India. And so, the state has not only been ineffective in curbing air pollution in Delhi but has also played a part in bringing about the situation in the first place. The case of Delhi´s air pollution gives valuable insight into the contradiction the modern state finds itself when trying to balance between its two opposing responsibilities: the first as the one creating the best conditions for economic growth, and the other as the entity regulating and mitigating the environmental consequences of this growth. It is likewise yet another sobering instance of contemporary green action, where environmental action is rationalised though and out while maintaining irrationality in the assessment and conceptualisation of the issue the mitigation action is supposed to address in the first place, leading to environmental policy that is dislocated from the root cause of the issue. The inherent issues of state environmental policy highlight the need for more focus not only on the state policy itself, but on the rationality and commitment behind those policies. The Indian Democracy similarly offers a resolution by being able to exert pressure on state entities for more meaningful mitigation action. To make this happen, there needs to be an available and open real-time monitoring infor-mation on the pollution levels to empower the local residents and organisations to not only be able to point out the local pollutants in their areas and understand the health hazard these emissions are exposing them to, but also to be able to effectively direct action and demands towards the local, state, and federal rep-resentatives for meaningful environmental action to happen.

Familial combined hyperlipidemia (FCH) is a complex and common familial dyslipidemia characterized by elevated total cholesterol and/or triglyceride levels with over five-fold risk of coronary heart disease. The genetic architecture and contribution of rare Mendelian and common variants to FCH susceptibility is unknown. In 53 Finnish FCH families, we genotyped and imputed nine million variants in 715 family members with DNA available. We studied the enrichment of variants previously implicated with monogenic dyslipidemias and/or lipid levels in the general population by comparing allele frequencies between the FCH families and population samples. We also constructed weighted polygenic scores using 212 lipid-associated SNPs and estimated the relative contributions of Mendelian variants and polygenic scores to the risk of FCH in the families. We identified, across the whole allele frequency spectrum, an enrichment of variants known to elevate, and a deficiency of variants known to lower LDL-C and/or TG levels among both probands and FCH affecteds. The score based on TG associated SNPs was particularly high among affected individuals compared to non-affected family members. Out of 234 FCH affecteds across the families, seven (3 %) carried Mendelian variants and 83 (35 %) showed high accumulation of either known LDL-C or TG elevating variants by having either polygenic score over the 90th percentile in the population. There was large between-family variation in how much the polygenic scores contributed to the FCH phenotype. FCH is highly polygenic, supporting the hypothesis that variants across the whole allele frequency spectrum contribute to this complex familial trait. This reinforces the clinical tenet that FCH is a cluster of overlapping genetic defects instead of an etiologically homogenous disease entity.

Voisimme kysyä, aiheuttaako ylikansallisten yritysten kasvaminen ihmisoikeuksien vaarantumista maailmanlaajuisesti. Perinteisesti on katsottu, että pelkästään valtioilla on velvollisuus ihmisoikeuksien toteutumisessa, mutta nykypäivänä ylikansallisilla yrityksillä voi olla laajakantoisia vaikutuksia ihmisoikeuksiin eri puolilla maailmaa. Kansainvälinen ihmisoikeussääntely ei aseta oikeudellisia velvoitteita yrityksille. Yritysvastuuta on kuitenkin säännelty kansainvälisesti erinäisin suosituksin sekä ohjeistuksin. Näillä mainituilla säännöksillä ei ole kuitenkaan minkään asteista juridista sitovuutta, eivätkä loukkauksien kohteiksi joutuneet uhrit voi vedota niihin kansainvälisissä tuomioistuimissa. Yritysten vastuuta ihmisoikeuksien toteutumisessa on säännelty niin kansainvälisellä kuin kansallisellakin tasolla. Valtioilla ei ole toimivaltaa säännellä ylikansallisia yhtiöitä eivätkä kansalliset tuomioistuimet omista valmiuksia käsitellä yritysten globaaleja ihmisoikeusloukkauksia. Ylikansalliset yritykset eivät ole pelkästään sijoittuneet yhteen valtioon, vaan niiden toimintamalli pitäisi olla kestävää globaalisti. Yritysten rekisterivaltioiden on miltei mahdotonta säännellä näitä yrityksiä sitovasti, kun taas isäntävaltiot eivät oman hyvinvointinsa vuoksi usein tahdo kritisoida ylikansallisia yrityksiä peläten niiden vaihtavan hyväksyvämpään maahan. Valtiot eivät myöskään ole valmiita luopumaan osasta suvereenia valtaansa, jotta kansainväliset järjestöt voisivat sitovasti säännellä ylikansallisia yrityksiä. Yhdistyneiden Kansakuntien sekä Euroopan Taloudellisen Yhteistyöjärjestön suositukset ovat pelkästään muodollisesti "soft law"- instrumentteja ja niiden muuntaminen juridisesti sitoviksi vaatisi kaikkien jäsenvaltioiden hyväksynnän. Tutkielmassani esittelen erinäisiä sääntelytapoja, jotka suoranaisesti sääntelevät yritysten velvollisuutta ihmisoikeuksien toteuttamisessa. Erityisesti tarkastelen Yhdistyneiden Kansakuntien, Euroopan Taloudellisen Yhteistyöjärjestön sekä Kansainvälisen Työjärjestön kansainvälisiin suosituksiin ja standardeihin perustuvia ihmisoikeusvelvoitteita. Kansallisesti ihmisoikeudet ovat inkorporoitu valtion perustuslakeihin ja nykyisin esimerkiksi Amerikan Yhdysvalloissa ovat kansalliset tuomioistuimet alkaneet käsitellä yritysten tekemiä ihmisoikeusloukkauksia. Yritykset ovat myös itse alkaneet luoda eettisiä toimintaohjeitaan, joita noudatetaan yrityksen sisäisessä sekä ulkoisessa toiminnassa. Tarkoituksenani on osoittaa, miten erinäiset kansainväliset sääntelytavat eivät ole juridisesti sitovia tai ovat muulla tavoin tehottomia. Yritysten annetaan vapaasti päättää ne velvoitteet, joihin ne sitoutuvat. Tätä valta-asemaa yritykset käyttävät hyväkseen nostattaakseen omaa taloudellista kannattavuuttaan samalla unohtaen roolinsa ihmisoikeuksien toteuttajana. Uskon, että tulevaisuudessa sääntelyyn voidaan saada muutos. Kuluttajat, asiantuntijat, kansainväliset järjestöt sekä valtiot vaativat jonkin asteista sitovuutta ihmisoikeuksien toteutuksissa myös yritysten osalta. "Soft law"- instrumenteilla on useita hyötyjä, mutta niiden avulla yritysten on helppo paeta juridista vastuutaan ihmisoikeusloukkauksissa. Tutkielmassani esittelen esimerkkinä, miten lapsityövoiman käytön ehkäisyyn on ryhdytty erinäisin suosituksin ja kuinka yritykset ovat oikeuksien toteutuksessaan onnistuneet. Nykypäivän sääntelyjärjestelmillä on kuitenkin selvä yhteinen päämäärä eivätkä niiden säännökset paljolti eroa toisistaan. Näistä lähtökohdista toivoisin olevan mahdollista toteutua uutta eri tekijöiden suosituksista koostuvaa kansainvälistä tapaoikeutta.

This study explores a recently emerged financing innovation, social impact bonds (SIBs). The model of social impact bonds is essentially a financing mechanism with an objective to gather private capital to fund prevention-focused social programs. The model functions by connecting multiple actors into an arrangement, in which each counterparty is incentivized to pursue successfully intervening a social problem. The objective of this study was to synthesize the economic evidence documented in the literature in order to gain a realistic into the feasibility of the SIB model for targeting social welfare issues. The primary research question was: What is the cost-effectiveness and feasibility of SIBs compared to alternative social sector expenditure of public funds? Answers to the research question were sought through a systematic literature review. The search was restricted to English-language papers published between 1 January and 31 March 2019. Both academic papers and grey literature reports were included. A defined set of databases was searched using the search terms social impact bonds AND (cost OR effectiveness OR finance). The titles and abstracts of the identified papers were screened. A paper was excluded from further review, if it did not refer to SIBs or address the primary research question. Of the 520 papers screened, 27 fulfilled the criteria for full-text review. In the full-text review, a paper was excluded, if it was not considered to address the primary research question by providing a systematic approach to the economic aspects of SIBs. A qualitative systematic narrative was created of the finally selected 3 studies. The three selected studies approach from somewhat different angles. Liebman (2011) views SIBs as a potential tool to improve performance of the government agencies and to increase social sector innovation. Goldberg (2017) sees SIBs as a channel to gather financing for evidence-based social programs. Pauly and Swanson (2017) are slightly sceptical about the additional value created by the SIB model and consider the feasibility of SIBs as a financing mechanism strongly context-dependent. These qualitative results indicate that the application of the SIB model has the potential to result in improved social sector performance. While the feasibility of SIBs is viewed to be context-dependent, they are evaluated to lead to improved overall social outcomes by introducing an approach to manage with social problems from the perspective of a longer time horizon.