The thesis handles the principal-agency problem between shareholders and the Chief Executive Officer. The purpose of the thesis was to examine the link between CEO compensation and corporate performance measured as a change in Market to Book ratio. Data was collected from corporate annual reports between the years 2000 ? 2008 and the study covers 39 Swedish companies from the Stockholm Stock Exchange Large Cap list. To examine whether there is a link between the CEO´s compensation and firm performance, we performed a regression analysis, and no significant relation is found.

The reason why this essay is written can be parted in two, whereas one would be the global trend of urbanization that occurs to this moment and forward, whereas the other would be the debate of how motorism has come to be an issue of sustainable management of our cities and our environment. In purpose to deliver a thorough understanding of how the car and its capacity has come to shape the society of today, and to emphasize the problems it´s brought, a historical survey has been made, followed by the report of problems to the society formed by the needs of the car, discussed in several environmental issues, such as jamming, noise and air pollution. This is followed by the discussion of potential solutions for how city planning could return to the focus of the human scale and perspective, in purpose to correspond with the issue of ways to decrease the car use in towns. In conclusion, the given solutions are discussed, where examples like shared space, investment in public transport, mobility management and the theory of the assembled city are included, with aid from literature, to finally conclude the essay with personal thoughts of how the planning of today, or the given solutions, really are the result of sustainability for city planning from a human perspective.

The reason for performing an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is to incorporate environmental concern in different kinds of plans and projects. The purpose of such an assessment is to identify and describe direct, indirect and cumulative environmental impacts.Geographical Information System (GIS) is a tool that can be used to combine spatial extension of both sensitive areas and different environmental impacts in a quick and easy way. Because of that, descriptions of environmental impacts and motivation of different standpoints on a specific issue can be more correct and easier to make if GIS is used as a tool.Hence, GIS can contribute to improve the quality of Environmental Impact Assessments. If the benefits of using GIS are to out weight the costs, geographical information of satisfactory detail, actuality and accuracy need to be available at reasonable prices.In this paper, case studies are carried out for three different geographical analyses to investigate the use of GIS as a tool in EIA. From these case studies, more general conclusions about the benefits and limitations of using GIS for Environmental Impact Assessments are also drawn.

This study test the short-termism of companies listed on the market OMX Stockholm 30. We will use a deductive point of view where the purpose of this study is to investigate whether corporate short-term returns can be explained by the independent variables related to corporate governance and compensation practices. This is to investigate whether there is an intentional action on raising the short-term return in order to achieve a higher CEO compensation. In the study, theories dealing with corporate governance and agency theory have resulted in two hypotheses. Basic Hypothesis H1 is: if short-termism of Swedish industry due to the company's short-term returns can be explained by the independent variables related to the company's management and compensation. This hypothesis could not be verified through the quantitative study. Alternative Hypothesis H2 is: the compensation of a CEO can be explained by the independent variables related to company performance and size.

The purpose of this study has been to evaluate whether a Low temperature bio-mass dryer could be integrated with the local district heating system in Malå. The aim is to increase the thermal efficiency of the cogeneration plant in Malå, by lowering the temperature of the cooling medium. Another benefit that comes from this is improved combustion efficiency at the power plant, since drying the fuel causes an Increase of the heating value.Simulations has been made in Excel, and with use of linear regression, to find out if it is profitable. Data for this purpose has been supplied by the power company Skellefteåkraft and furthermore SMHI.The result of the Calculations shows that a very efficient bio-mass dryer is needed, if yield of investments should be made possible. An Investment of 4,27 Mkr, in a dryer, could at a such criterium return 60000 kr/year, if the price of the biomass is 190kr/MWh.

The insurance industryis challengedby major changesthrough internationalizationand thusgrowingcompetitionwithmore optionsand greater availabilityfor customers.Solvency II, a new regulatoryframework and anew standard forinsurance companies,is therefore implemented in a steptowardsa more competitive Europeaninsurancemarket. Solvency II will result in extensive structural changes for many insurance companies. Newstandards andinternal models must also be implemented by the companies. Solvency IIhasa tightening effect on thesolvency capital requirements forinsurance companies. At the same time it also leads tomajor changesandincreased demandon risk management andinternal control, alongside with demands fordisclosure of informationto the market.

This master thesis is looking into the stories on the internet forum www.resedagboken.se. The stories of Swedish teenaged exchange students in the U.S. are studied and the main purpose is to see both what they are writing about and the reason for why they are spending their time writing down their experiences in a public forum.Even though most of the teenagers here are writing with a specific audience in mind, all the stories are free to anyone to take part of and this causes a difficult position for the teenagers who often seem to forget the public point of view when they are telling about their personal lives.The study is divided into two parts. The first one looks into the content of the stories and the other one focuses on the storytellers and their reasons for writing. The teenagers are writing both a lot about their everyday lives in their new environment, but also a lot of things to keep in touch with what their friends and family in Sweden are doing.

Det har blivit allt vanligare att köpa och sälja företag vilket gör att företagsanalys väcker stort intresse bland revisorer, investerare och analytiker. Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva hur professionella analytiker på investmentbolag i praktiken arbetar inför ett företagsförvärv. Detta kommer förhoppningsvis mynna ut i större förståelse för hur förvärvsprocessen tillämpas i verkligheten. Studien kommer att fokusera på hur värderingar genomförs tills dess köpet är avslutat. Frågan som studien ska besvara är; Hur ser förvärvsprocessen ut för svenska investmentbolag fram tills dess köpet är genomfört?Studien använder sig av en kvalitativ metod och har genomförts med hjälp av intervjuer samt ett beskrivande företag.

Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att utreda huruvida avkastningar mellan etiska aktiefonder och traditionella aktiefonder är likvärdiga. Vidare avser uppsatsen att klargöra hur etiska fonder definieras ur ett teoretiskt perspektiv med utgångspunkt i rådande forskning. Metod: Studien är av kvantitativ karaktär och utfördes med hjälp av fonddata inhämtad från respektive storbank och Morningstar. Det kvantitativa innehållet består av fondernas årliga avkastningar. Undersökningsperioden sträcker sig från december 2008 till december 2012. Teori: Beta, Sharpekvot och Modern Portföljteori. Slutsats: Studiens slutsats påvisar inga större skillnader mellan de etiska och de traditionella fonderna sett till avkastning. Den traditionella fondgruppen var den som hade marginellt bättre avkastning..

In Sweden surgical treatment of vocal fold lesions in children is fairly uncommon. At Falun hospital they have adapted a more generous attitude towards phonosurgery of children?s vocal folds. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate surgical treatment of organic vocal fold lesions in children and to assess the phonosurgical patient utility. The study was carried out at the Ear-, Nose- and Throat clinic, Falun hospital, Sweden.

Pairs trading is a relatively new trading strategy, the strategy has only been used during a couple of decades. A study made on the American stock market has shown that the strat-egy has generated a positive result. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if pairs trad-ing has been able to create a positive result on the Swedish stock market during the time period of 1995-2004.The data required for this thesis was collected from Stockholm stock exchange and is ad-justed for splits and issues.The pairs trading strategy involves two stages ? identification of pairs and trading signals. The pairs were identified during a period of 12 months.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är tvåfaldig. Vårt sekundära syfte är att informera läsaren om börsnoteringsprocessen genom att bidra med betydande teoretisk information. Vårt primära syfte är att testa vår hypotes; institutionella investerare favoriseras genom en högre allokering av aktier i framgångsrika börsnoteringar på den skandinaviska finansmarknaden.Metod: För denna uppsats använder vi en hybrid av kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder. Vår kvalitativa metod har, genom intervjuer med ledande investmentbanker, försett oss med en up-to-date inne syn på beslutet fördelningen i vår kvantitativa metod har vi genomfört flera regressionsanalyser och presenteras också beskrivande statistik, för att hitta tilldelning och returnera mönster på den skandinaviska finansmarknaden.Teoretisk ramverk: För genomförandet av denna uppsats har vi samlat en mängd empiriska bevis om processen kring en börsintroduktion i allmänhet . Mer specifikt fokuserar det teoretiska materialet på besluten vid allokering av aktier.Empirisk analys: Resultat från vårt empiriska kapitel visar oss att institutionella investerare gynnas i allokeringsprocessen.

Abstract  The development and onset of diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD) and Type 2 diabetes are closely linked to genetics and lifestyle factors including physical activity and diet. A cluster of metabolic disorders called the metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a high-risk factor in developing these diseases. Acording to the International diabetes institute, one fourth of the worlds adult population has MetS. These individuals are twice as likely to die from CVDs compared to individuals without MetS. Physical activity (PA) and exercise has been shown to provide a number of positive effects that are considered to reduce the risk of developing sickness and premature mortality among both men and women of all ages, independent of other risk factors.

The banking industry is a fundamental part of the economy in Sweden. Despite its importance, the competition and the concentration level within the Swedish banking sector is relatively unexplored. This paper aims to examine the development of the concentration level in the Swedish banking sector during a period of ten years, 2003 to 2013. The examined banks in the study are the four largest banks in Sweden; Handelsbanken, Nordea, SEB and Swedbank, and four selected niche banks, ICA banken, Ikano Bank, Länförsäkringar Bank and Skandiabanken. In order to examine the development in percentage change, there are six selected variables; loans, deposits and borrowings (both public and households), net interest income and return on equity, which are observed during a period of ten years.

Bankruptcy is a problem for the society in form of high costs for including suppliers, customers, employees, investors, banks, insurance companies etc. The purpose of this study is to confirm or dismiss a bankruptcy prediction model that has been developed in a previous Swedish study, in order to predict bankruptcy with help of specific key figures. The model has only been tested in a larger perspective where the population consisted of all small firms in Sweden, in this study the model´s reliability is tested by that it instead been applied to a minor perspective, where the population only includes Stockholm. With a quantitative approach of 12 different key figures from a total of 60 Swedish smaller registered companies in Stockholm between the years 2005-2007, has been studied. The companies are divided into two groups, companies with good financial health and companies that have ended up in bankruptcy.The results shows that the model is applicable in a smaller population, but some of the key figures do not generate essential or any type of information about bankruptcy, but the majority of the key figures in the model did.