Essays on the Costs and Benefits of Large Shareholders in Corporate Governance (summary section only)

“Corporate governance deals with the ways in which suppliers of finance to firms assure themselves of getting a return on their investment” (Shleifer and Vishny (1997, p. 737). According to La Porta et al. (1999), research in corporate finance relevant for most countries should focus on the incentives and capabilities of controlling shareholders to treat themselves preferentially at the expense of minority shareholders. Accordingly, this thesis sets out to answer a number of research questions regarding the role of large shareholders in public firms that have received little attention in the literature so far. A common theme in the essays stems from the costs and benefits of individual large-block owners and the role of control contestability from the perspective of outside minority shareholders. The first essay empirically examines whether there are systematic performance differences between family controlled and nonfamily controlled firms in Western Europe. In contrast to the widely held view that family control penalizes firm value, the essay shows that publicly traded family firms have higher performance than comparable firms. In the second essay, we present both theoretical and empirical analysis on the effects of control contestability on firm valuation. Consistent with the theoretical model, the empirical results show that minority shareholders benefit from a more contestable control structure. The third essay explores the effects of individual large-block owners on top management turnover and board appointments in Finnish listed firms. The results indicate that firm performance is an important determinant for management and board restructurings. For certain types of turnover decisions the corporate governance structure influences the performance / turnover sensitivity. In the fourth essay, we investigate the relation between the governance structure and dividend policy in Finnish listed firms. We find evidence in support of the outcome agency model of dividends stating that lower agency conflicts should be associated with higher dividend payouts.

The Phraseology and Structure of Latin Building Inscriptions in Roman North Africa

This study analyses the diction of Latin building inscriptions. Despite its importance, this topic has rarely been discussed before: the most substantial contribution on the subject is a short dissertation by Klaus Gast (1965) that focuses on 100 inscriptions dating mostly from the Republican period. Marietta Horster (2001) also touched upon this theme in her thesis on imperial building inscriptions. I have collected my source material in North Africa because more Latin building inscriptions dating from the Imperial period have survived there than in any other area of the Roman Empire. By means of a thorough and independent survey, I have assembled all relevant African Latin building inscriptions datable to the Roman period (between 146 BC and AD 425), 1002 texts, into a corpus. These inscriptions are all fully edited in Appendix 1; Appendix 2 contains references to earlier editions. To facilitate search operations, both are also available in electronic form. They are downloadable from the address http://www.helsinki.fi/hum/kla/htm/jatkoopinnot.htm. Chapter one is an introduction dealing with the nature of building inscriptions as source material. Chapter two offers a statistical overview of the material. The following main section of the work falls into five chapters, each of which analyses one main part of a building inscription. An average building inscription can be divided into five parts: the starting phrase opens the inscription (a dedication to gods, for example), the subject part identifies the builder, the object part describes the constructed or repaired building, the predicate part records the building activity and the supplement part offers additional information on the project (it can specify the funding, for instance). These chapters are systematic and chronological and their purpose is to register and interpret the phrases used, to analyse reasons for their use and for their popularity among the different groups of builders. Chapter eight, which follows the main section of the work, creates a typology of building inscriptions based on their structure. It also presents the most frequently attested types of building inscriptions. The conclusion describes, on a general level, how the diction of building inscriptions developed during the period of study and how this striking development resulted from socio-economic changes that took place in Romano-African society during Antiquity. This study shows that the phraseology of building inscriptions had a clear correlation both with the type of builder and with the date of carving. Private builders tended to accentuate their participation (especially its financial side) in the project; honouring the emperor received more emphasis in the building inscriptions set up by communities; the texts produced by the army were concise. The chronological development is so clear that it enables stylistic dating. At the beginning of the imperial period the phrases were clear, concrete, formal and stereotyped but by Late Antiquity they have become vague, subjective, flexible, varied and even rhetorically or poetically coloured.

Lipid-Containing Icosahedral dsDNA Bacteriophages: Entry, Exit and Structure

In this thesis three icosahedral lipid-containing double-stranded (ds) deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) bacteriophages have been studied: PRD1, Bam35 and P23-77. The work focuses on the entry, exit and structure of the viruses. PRD1 is the type member of the Tectiviridae family, infecting a variety of Gram-negative bacteria. The PRD1 receptor binding complex, consisting of the penton protein P31, the spike protein P5 and the receptor binding protein P2 recognizes a specific receptor on the host surface. In this study we found that the transmembrane protein P16 has an important stabilization function as the fourth member of the receptor binding complex and protein P16 may have a role in the formation of a tubular membrane structure, which is needed in the ejection of the genome into the cell. Phage Bam35 (Tectiviridae), which infects Gram-positive hosts, has been earlier found to resemble PRD1 in morphology and genome organization The uncharacterized early and late events in the Bam35 life cycle were studied by electrochemical methods. Physiological changes in the beginning of the infection were found to be similar in both lysogenic and nonlysogenic cell lines, Bam35 inducing a temporal decrease of membrane voltage and K+ efflux. At the end of the infection cycle physiological changes were observed only in the nonlysogenic cell line. The strong K+ efflux 40 min after infection and the induced premature cell lysis propose that Bam35 has a similar holin-endolysin lysis system to that of PRD1. Thermophilic icosahedral dsDNA Thermus phages P23-65H, P23-72 and P23-77 have been proposed to belong to the Tectiviridae family. In this study these phages were compared to each other. Analysis of structural protein patterns and stability revealed these phages to be very similar but not identical. The most stable of the studied viruses, P23-77, was further analyzed in more detail. Cryo-electron microscopy and three-dimensional image reconstruction was used to determine the structure of virus to 14 Å resolution. Results of thin layer chromatography for neutral lipids together with analysis of the three dimensional reconstruction of P23-77 virus particle revealed the presence of an internal lipid membrane. The overall capsid architecture of P23-77 is similar to PRD1 and Bam35, but most closely it resembles the structure of the capsid of archaeal virus SH1. This complicates the classification of dsDNA, internal lipid-containing icosahedral viruses.

Health-Related Quality of Life, Costs and Treatment of Inflammatory Rheumatic Diseases in Routine Practice : With special emphasis on biological drugs

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other chronic inflammatory joint diseases already begin to affect patients health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in the earliest phases of these diseases. In treatment of inflammatory joint diseases, the last two decades have seen new strategies and treatment options introduced. Treatment is started at an earlier phase; combinations of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and corticosteroids are used; and in refractory cases new drugs such as tumour necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors or other biologicals can be started. In patients with new referrals to the Department of Rheumatology of the Helsinki University Central Hospital, we evaluated the 15D and the Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) results at baseline and approximately 8 months after their first visit. Altogether the analysis included 295 patients with various rheumatic diseases. The mean baseline 15D score (0.822, SD 0.114) was significantly lower than for the age-matched general population (0.903, SD 0.098). Patients with osteoarthritis (OA) and spondyloarthropathies (SPA) reported the poorest HRQoL. In patients with RA and reactive arthritis (ReA) the HRQoL improved in a statistically significant manner during the 8-month follow-up. In addition, a clinically important change appeared in patients with systemic rheumatic diseases. HAQ score improved significantly in patients with RA, arthralgia and fibromyalgia, and ReA. In a study of 97 RA patients treated either with etanercept or adalimumab, we assessed their HRQoL with the RAND 36-Item Health Survey 1.0 (RAND-36) questionnaire. We also analysed changes in clinical parameters and the HAQ. With etanercept and adalimumab, the values of all domains in the RAND-36 questionnaire increased during the first 3 months. The efficacy of each in improving HRQoL was statistically significant, and the drug effects were comparable. Compared to Finnish age- and sex-matched general population values, the HRQoL of the RA patients was significantly lower at baseline and, despite the improvement, remained lower also at follow-up. Our RA patients had long-standing and severe disease that can explain the low HRQoL also at follow-up. In a pharmacoeconomic study of patients treated with infliximab we evaluated medical and work disability costs for patients with chronic inflammatory joint disease during one year before and one year after institution of infliximab treatment. Clinical and economic data for 96 patients with different arthritis diagnoses showed, in all patients, significantly improved clinical and laboratory variables. However, the medical costs increased significantly during the second period by 12 015 (95% confidence interval, 6 496 to 18 076). Only a minimal decrease in work disability costs occurred mean decrease 130 (-1 268 to 1 072). In a study involving a switch from infliximab to etanercept, we investigated the clinical outcome in 49 patients with RA. Reasons for switching were in 42% failure to respond by American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 50% criteria; in 12% adverse event; and in 46% non-medical reasons although the patients had responded to infliximab. The Disease Activity Score with 28 joints examined (DAS28) allowed us to measure patients disease activity and compare outcome between groups based on the reason for switching. In the patients in whom infliximab was switched to etanercept for nonmedical reasons, etanercept continued to suppress disease activity effectively, and 1-year drug survival for etanercept was 77% (95% CI, 62 to 97). In patients in the infliximab failure and adverse event groups, DAS28 values improved significantly during etanercept therapy. However, the 1-year drug survival of etanercept was only 43% (95% CI, 26 to 70) and 50% (95% CI, 33 to 100), respectively. Although the HRQoL of patients with inflammatory joint diseases is significantly lower than that of the general population, use of early and aggressive treatment strategies including TNF-inhibitors can improve patients HRQoL effectively. Further research is needed in finding new treatment strategies for those patients who fail to respond or lose their response to TNF-inhibitors.

Costs and Benefits of a Shared Digital Long-Term Preservation System

This paper describes the cost-benefit analysis of digital long-term preservation (LTP) that was carried out in the context of the Finnish National Digital Library Project (NDL) in 2010. The analysis was based on the assumption that as many as 200 archives, libraries, and museums will share an LTP system. The term ‘system’ shall be understood as encompassing not only information technology, but also human resources, organizational structures, policies and funding mechanisms. The cost analysis shows that an LTP system will incur, over the first 12 years, cumulative costs of €42 million, i.e. an average of €3.5 million per annum. Human resources and investments in information technology are the major cost factors. After the initial stages, the analysis predicts annual costs of circa €4 million. The analysis compared scenarios with and without a shared LTP system. The results indicate that a shared system will have remarkable benefits. At the development and implementation stages, a shared system shows an advantage of €30 million against the alternative scenario consisting of five independent LTP solutions. During the later stages, the advantage is estimated at €10 million per annum. The cumulative cost benefit over the first 12 years would amount to circa €100 million.

Renewable Energy and Climate Policies: Studies in the Forest and Energy Sector

‪This dissertation examines the impacts of energy and climate policies on the energy and forest sectors, focusing on the case of Finland. The thesis consists of an introduction article and four separate studies. The dissertation was motivated by the climate concern and the increasing demand of renewable energy. In particular, the renewable energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission reduction targets of the European Union were driving this work. In Finland, both forest and energy sectors are in key roles in achieving these targets. In fact, the separation between forest and energy sector is diminishing as the energy sector is utilizing increasing amounts of wood in energy production and as the forest sector is becoming more and more important energy producer.‬ ‪The objective of this dissertation is to find out and measure the impacts of climate and energy policies on the forest and energy sectors. In climate policy, the focus is on emissions trading, and in energy policy the dissertation focuses on the promotion of renewable forest-based energy use. The dissertation relies on empirical numerical models that are based on microeconomic theory. Numerical partial equilibrium mixed complementarity problem models were constructed to study the markets under scrutiny. The separate studies focus on co-firing of wood biomass and fossil fuels, liquid biofuel production in the pulp and paper industry, and the impacts of climate policy on the pulp and paper sector.‬ ‪The dissertation shows that the policies promoting wood-based energy may have have unexpected negative impacts. When feed-in tariff is imposed together with emissions trading, in some plants the production of renewable electricity might decrease as the emissions price increases. The dissertation also shows that in liquid biofuel production, investment subsidy may cause high direct policy costs and other negative impacts when compared to other policy instruments. The results of the dissertation also indicate that from the climate mitigation perspective, perfect competition is the favored wood market competition structure, at least if the emissions trading system is not global.‬ ‪In conclusion, this dissertation suggests that when promoting the use of wood biomass in energy production, the favored policy instruments are subsidies that promote directly the renewable energy production (i.e. production subsidy, renewables subsidy or feed-in premium). Also, the policy instrument should be designed to be dependent on the emissions price or on the substitute price. In addition, this dissertation shows that when planning policies to promote wood-based renewable energy, the goals of the policy scheme should be clear before decisions are made on the choice of the policy instruments.‬