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- Mood, Carina, 1973-
(författare)
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Poor Choices? : On Social Context and the Claiming of Means-tested Benefits
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this dissertation, comprising one theoretical chapter and three self-contained empirical studies, I study how the choice to claim means-tested benefits is affected by the social context. In Chapter 1, Considering Choices, I discuss how sociological research can benefit from taking choices into account, and I review the literature on rational choice theory to assess its relevance as a tool for considering choices in sociology.In Chapter 2, Social Influence Effects on Social Assistance Recipiency, I use aggregated register data on individuals 20–25 years old in Stockholm County during the 1990’s, to study whether Social Assistance (SA) recipiency of others of the same age in the parish of residence is related to one’s own propensity to apply for such benefits: the results show that it has substantial effects on inflow to SA but only weak effects on outflow from SA.In Chapter 3, Endogenous Neighbourhood Effects on Welfare Use, I use micro-level register data to study these processes among couples in Stockholm. The results corroborate the finding that SA recipiency among people in the neighbourhood substantially affects the probability of inflow to SA recipiency at a given income standard, suggesting self-reinforcing effects of changes in the level of SA. The estimated effects on outflow are negligible.Chapter 4, Take-up Down Under: The Under-use of Means-tested Benefits in Australia, studies the choices to claim means-tested benefits in Australia. In contrast to Sweden, virtually all benefits in Australia are means-tested. I use survey panel data to estimate the general level of non-take-up of means-tested benefits among the poor, and to study the extent and causes of take-up of Parenting Payment. The results suggest that take-up of means-tested benefits is relatively high in Australia, but that groups likely to experience higher stigma, higher transaction costs, and to have less access to information have lower take-up than others.
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| 2. |
- Sardiello, Tiziana, 1965-
(författare)
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Playing the Matching Game : An Institutional Analysis of Executive Recruitment and Selection in Software Start-ups: Silicon Valley and Stockholm
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Software start-ups make media headlines daily, suggesting that it may take only a garage and two engineering students to begin such companies, and that these same people will constitute the core of the executive team until these organizations become multinational giants. Despite these spontaneous starts, newly formed entrepreneurial ventures have many obstacles to overcome in their resource and cultural environments when establishing their practices. These obstacles vary depending on the local institutional contexts and can exert relevant pressures on how, where and why start-ups recruit and select certain candidates for their executive teams.Based on interviews conducted in Silicon Valley and Stockholm with 40 key hiring and intermediary actors – entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, board directors, CEOs and executive recruiters - the general aim of this work is that of disclosing step-by-step the process of executive recruitment and selection in start-ups. At the same time, this study seeks to analyze how institutional environments, through the actions of states, governments, universities, professional associations and society in general, shape start-up practices. Finally, the work aims at testing the explanatory power of institutional theories in sociology.The analysis of the interviews shows that different local institutional environments differently and crucially shape organizational actors' interests, roles and patterns of behavior when constructing their practices. Two distinct ideal-typical dominant logics surface among key actors in the two geographical contexts. On one side, Silicon Valley actors recruit and select their executives by using a business logic based on an efficiency rationale. On the other side, Stockholm actors make use of a personal logic based on a rationale of cultural fit when calculating which specific candidate better matches a certain executive position.
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