The size of government has increased dramatically over the last century. Given the magnitude of government involvement in the economy and the potential influence it has on individuals as well as the economy, studies documenting the effects of government size may offer particularly timely insights. This thesis addresses some of these issues. Chapter two and three deal with welfare reform. Welfare

Traffic noise causes annoyance and sleep disturbance and has been linked with several other adverse effects on life quality and health, including increased risk of hypertension and myocardial infarction. Conservative estimates assume that at least one million healthy life years are lost every year from traffic related noise in the western part of Europe. We know from earlier studies that the adver

This thesis consists of four essays on individual health behaviour and investment in higher education. Three of them consider different aspects of pharmaceutical utilization and aim at explaining some of the observed individual variation in access and adherence to treatment regimens. The fourth explores the potential link from health in young adulthood to subsequent university education. The firs

Psychological distress is well known to be associated with psoriasis, both as a disease consequence, and as a causative factor for onset and exacerbations. Psychoneuroimmunological mechanisms have been suggested to be involved in the pathogenesis of psoriasis and have often been shown to be related to psychological distress and pruritus in psoriasis. The general aim of this thesis was to investig

Today's industrial systems are regarded to have unsustainable characteristics. In order to acquire a more sustainable state, fundamental changes are needed in the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the resource flows associated with such systems. These need to go hand in hand with a more equitable distribution of the benefits and burdens associated with such resource use. The identification a

The importance of cross-sectoral collaborative initiatives, that is partnerships of governments, civil society and the private sector, was elevated due to the belief that the issues of SD are a collective responsibility of all societal actors. The assessment of these initiatives is ranging dramatically; from giving them a status of an unbeatable solution for the SD challenges, to blaming them for

The advance of analytic (mechanistic) design methods increases the need for fundamental material properties. Fatigue cracking due to traffic loading, in combination with permanent deformation (rutting), thermal cracking, irregularities, frost heave and reflective cracking are some of the major criteria used when designing an asphalt concrete pavement. The objective of this Ph.D. project is to eva

Festuca ovina, sheep's fescue is a widely distributed perennial outbreeder that belongs to the grass family Poaceae and is very common in the northern temperate zone. The genus Festuca s.l. is partitioned into fine-leaved fescues to which F. ovina belongs, and broad-leaved fescues to which the genus Lolium is a close relative. Wide crosses within the Festuca-Lolium complex often yield fertile hybr

Incisional hernia is one of the most common complications (5–20%) after abdominal surgery. Surgery is the only option to cure a hernia. Symptoms of an incisional hernia depend on the size of the abdominal wall defect and the protruding tissue. About 30% of the patients with an incisional hernia will have an operation performed. Traditional surgical sutured techniques have very high recurrence rateIncisional hernia is one of the most common complications (5–20%) after abdominal surgery. Surgery is the only option to cure a hernia. Symptoms of an incisional hernia depend on the size of the abdominal wall defect and the protruding tissue. About 30% of the patients with an incisional hernia will have an operation performed. Traditional surgical sutured techniques have very high recurrence rate

Accidental fires represent a risk for people from the heat and fire effluents produced. It is clear from fire statistics that it is, in fact, the toxic gases that kill and injure many fire victims. Further, there are a number of compounds that are readily produced in fires, which have important sublethal effects on humans. Some of those compounds are known to have a long-term effect on people, and

This thesis consists of five self-contained, yet related, research papers, which all contribute to the economic literature on socioeconomic differences in health and health related behavior. The first two papers provide a compass in the discussion of how to measure health inequality and, more specifically, how to adjust measures and concepts when moving from an unbounded income variable to a bound

A basic premise of this dissertation is that social movements are political and social actors expressing the centrality of autonomy in modernity. To grasp the nature of the relation between politics and social movements, the latter has to be related to the profound transformation in the forms of politics implied by the breakthrough of modernity, and the subsequent transformations within modernity.

This dissertation is to be regarded as a contribution to the discussion about a "cultural economy". The aim of the study is to gain a perspective as to how a new economy can be shaped and take its place in everyday life, as well as identify the cultural values and ideas created in the process, by analysing the production and consumption of dairy products. Theoretical inspiration is derived from st