This thesis studies the stock price reaction around 68 announcements of special dividends and share redemptions on the Swedish stock market between the years of 2003 and 2007. We show that for the Swedish private investor, the tax effect of a share redemption is lower than that of a special dividend. Moreover, a share redemption could be interpreted as a signal of undervaluation. These two factors lead us to assume that the stock market would react more positively in connection to the announcement of a share redemption. We test this hypothesis through an analysis of the risk-adjusted abnormal return for the observations in the sample.

Recent accounting scandals, often led by managers trying to improve results and thereby their own bonuses, have severely damaged the publics view of management. In the aftermath of scandals such as Enron, Parmalat and Skandia, demand has increased for Corporate Governance codes and similar regulation. The Swedish code for Corporate Governance came into effect on July 1, 2005. The code requires all Swedish companies listed on the Swedish Stock Exchange (OMX A- and O-list), with a turnover exceeding 3 billion SEK, to disclose a report regarding Corporate Governance, attached to the annual report.The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the new disclosure required by the Swedish Corporate Governance code will have a measurable effect on stock prices. The authors have applied event study methodology examining daily returns around the announcement of the Corporate Governance reports.

The importance of human capital in firm valuation is something Huang and Wang points out in there paper from 2008. We expand Ohlson?s valuation model (1995) in line with Huang and Wang (2008) to enhance a market value that includes proxies for human capital. By using human capital based market value and one of Francis, Nanda and Olsson?s (2008) version of earnings quality, we create a value table which aim to sort for undervalued and overvalued companies during the  economic upswing of 2003 to 2007 in the human capital line of business.

This report describes a synchronous machine model with magnetic saturation in d-axis, neutralconnection and electrical exciter interface for the transient simulator PSCAD/EMTDC. It hasbeen designed and verified in comparison to the regular machine model in EMTDC.The performance of the model is very good when incorporating a linear as well as a saturatedmagnetising inductance. The dynamic deviation is only thousandths to ten thousandths perunit. By using a cubic interpolation of the saturation curve, the model gives a good representationof the saturation effect. The open source code implementation of the synchronousmachine model gives the possibility to easily adapt the model to specific requirements.The derived model makes it possible to simulate a synchronous machine with its excitationsystems, e.g.

The aim of this master thesis was to create a dynamic model for the processes in a solid fuel boiler of the moving grate type. Another aim with the model was to keep it as simple as possible but still able to catch the dynamics of the processes in the bedplate of the boiler. The creation of the model had its origin from drying and combustion equations used in earlier modeling work of boilers. The represented model has been used to simulate different kinds of disturbances in a boiler and different ways to control the boiler. These tests show that controlling a number of parameters in the bed of the boiler is an effective way to keep the grate stable during disturbances.

This master?s thesis describes the development of a model of the catalystsystem aiming at control by an MPC. A well functioning model, which is suitable in control purpose, is important while emission legislation become more and more hard to fulfill for the car manufacturers. Much research has been done in the field of physical modeling of the system, but in this work a linear adaptive time discrete ARX-model is developed and validated.The systems tendency to change its dynamic during usage implies that the model must be adaptive. The developed model proved to be well functioning and shows promising conditions for the MPC design.

En elementär beståndsdel av en fungerande marknad är tillförlitlig finansiell information. Ämnet Earnings Management består av olika teorier och metoder för att mäta manipulationer av den finansiella informationen som redovisas av bolag. Anledningen till manipulationer beror bland annat på agentproblemet mellan bolag och intressenter. Bolag (eller tillämparen) har incitament att vilseleda sina intressenter genom redovisningen för att nå fördelar. Ett sätt att motverka agentproblemet och kvalitetssäkra redovisningen är att låta en revisor genomföra revision på bolagets räkenskaper.

Med inspiration från tidigare forskning vill vi utreda om det är som IASB anger, att resultatet är ett bättre mått på att estimera ett framtida aktiepris än dagens kassaflöde. En anledning till att resultatet anses vara ett bättre mått är att det även innehåller periodiseringar vilka är tänkta att minska timing- och matchningsproblem. Det andra alternativet är att kassaflödet är ett mått med högre värderelevans eftersom periodiseringarna ger möjlighet till earnings management och därför kan ge en skev bild av företagets prestation. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur mycket värderelevans periodiseringarna innehåller. Studien testar ett flertal olika mått av kassaflöden mot aktiepriset nästkommande år och kommer fram till att kassaflödet från den löpande verksamheten har den högsta värderelevansen följt av årets resultat, kassaflöde vid årets slut och det fria kassaflödet när vi undersöker den svenska marknaden mellan 2001-2010..

Marknadens reaktion när ett företag informerar och annonserar om en eventuell nyemission sägs vara oförutsägbar. Enligt tidigare forskning pressas aktiekursen i de flesta fallen nedåt vid en nyemission. Under det senaste året har en del nyemissioner utförts i synnerhet på grund av den globala lågkonjunkturen då många företag haft för lite kapitalbas. Vad gäller företag på Stockholmsbörsen som valt att nyemittera aktier har även här de flesta fått se sin aktiekurs rasa.Författarna till denna uppsats avser att studera hur marknaden reagerar på ett offentligt tillkännagivande av en kommande nyemission. Det undersöks även om det förefaller någon skillnad mellan tillkännagivanden av nyemissioner genomförda innan eller under lågkonjunkturen och skillnader branscher emellan.Då vi ville se hur denna händelse påverkar ett företags aktiekurser valde vi att göra en eventstudie.

Bakgrund och problem: Goodwill är ett aktuellt ämne som många studier grundas på. Sedan införandet av IFRS har goodwillposten i svenska bolags balansräkningar ökat exponentiellt. Varför är det på det här sättet? Vad ligger bakom avsaknaden av nedskrivningar? Syfte: Vårt syfte är att analysera svenska bolags goodwillpost för att ta reda på vilka faktorer som driver nedskrivningar av goodwill och hur bolagens ägare skyddar sig mot earnings management.Studieunderlag: För att undersöka vårt syfte kommer denna rapport undersöka hälsovårdsbolag som är noterade på Nasdaq OMX Stockholms Large Cap-, Mid Cap- och Small Caplista. De år som kommer behandlas är från de nya reglerna trädde i kraft fram till den senast publicerade årsredovisningen (2005 - 2013).

The market is developing and a growing competition increases pressure on companies to maintain their competitive advantage. Working with cost savings is a way to enhance earnings in a short term but also in a longer perspective. Volvo Powertrain Production Köping has an overall goal; to reduce costs by nine percentages in three years. To achieve the goal, Volvo Powertrain Production Köping works with World Class Manufacturing where the Department of Processing Technology constitutes an important part.Volvo Powertrain Production Köping lacks a standard for how savings within the metal cutting tool area are to be calculated. This makes it difficult to control and monitor their business outcome but it also causes difficulties in controlling the tool suppliers? outcome.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is a correlation between the actuarial assumptions, of listed groups in Large Cap on the Nasdaq Stockholm, equity ratio and their pensionplans funding status.Method: The study is based on a quantitative research method, where the analysis of annual reports takes place. The quantitative research method has enabled the paper to perform related analyzes and comparisons of means between groups, for listed companies equity ratio and pension obligation, and the relation to its actuarial assumptions. Correlation measurements are made using a non-parametric method, Spearman's rho, then further tested using one-sided hypotheses t-test.Theory: The backbone of the thesis is presented using two theories, earnings management and the principal-agent theory. These theories are intertwined with the previous researches, which also dealt with the essay topic of earnings management in previous years and in other countries.Empirical: Correlation analyzes between the studied actuarial assumptions and corporate groups solidity and pension financial status is presentedusing tables and charts. These are further analyzed using hypothesis tests and scatterplots.Conclusion: All tests resulted in very weak correlation between the different variables and can there for not be classified as significant.

This report describes a synchronous machine model with magnetic saturation in d-axis, neutralconnection and electrical exciter interface for the transient simulator PSCAD/EMTDC. It hasbeen designed and verified in comparison to the regular machine model in EMTDC.The performance of the model is very good when incorporating a linear as well as a saturatedmagnetising inductance. The dynamic deviation is only thousandths to ten thousandths perunit. By using a cubic interpolation of the saturation curve, the model gives a good representationof the saturation effect. The open source code implementation of the synchronousmachine model gives the possibility to easily adapt the model to specific requirements.The derived model makes it possible to simulate a synchronous machine with its excitationsystems, e.g.

The purpose of this thesis was to analyse, model and finally generate dynamic vehicular motions in a train. The objective with the analysis was to find important motions for a realistic train experience. The motions from the analysis were then weighted against possibilities for generation in a motion platform.A dynamic motion model was created to model the selected motions. The model was implemented in a simulation environment, more specifically MATLAB/Simulink. The simulation environment was used to simulate the model and to generate outputs to control a motion platform.

This project consists of an adaptation, trial and evaluation of a model for practicing. Based on prior research I created a model aiming mainly to raise a musician?s self- awareness around the different parameters a performance consists of. An additional wish was for it to simultaneously assist the musician in monitoring his or her progress. With video recording and self-evaluation as the two main parts I tried the model by using it over a period of three months.