Purpose The purpose of our study was to investigate the changing nature of volatility during the last 80 years. Like in an American study, we tried to find some trends in the risk of stocks and bonds that would have an impact on the balance of a portfolio of stocks and bonds. At the same time we investigated the influence of inflation on the choice of portfolio. Methods We have used standard statistic tools and formulas to obtain our results. In most cases it was a matter of calculating average and standard deviation.

Uppsatsen avser att undersöka huruvida den nya rådgivningslagen kommer att uppfylla sitt syfte, det vill säga huruvida konsument-skyddet kommer att stärkas på den finansiella marknaden. Uppsatsen avser även att undersöka om denna eventuella förstärkning avkonsumentskyddet kommer att leda till en ökad effektivitet på den finansiella marknaden. Analysen visar på att lagen uppfyller sitt syfte genom att rådgivarens ansvar för brister i rådgivningen blir större i och med den nya lagen. Lagen ger rådgivaren incitament att verkapå ett sätt som gynnar konsumenten och i förlängningen också effektiviteten på den finansiella marknaden med en starkare samhällsekonomi som följd..

In May 2004 eight former communist countries (EU-8) with close historical trade ties to Russia joined the European Union. According to integration theory, we expect that Russia ? a so called third country ? in some cases may suffer from trade diversion due to this. This thesis focuses on the possible effects on Russian trade resulting from the 2004 eastern enlargement of the European Union. It aims to find out whether any evidence of trade diversion can be found.

Studien tittar på betydelsen av jordbruk för utveckling. Därefter fortsätter studien att titta på hur jordbrukets roll i Kambodja ser ut och finns det andra sätt som bättre lämpar sig för att Kambodja ska nå utveckling. Vi har lagt speciellt fokus på risodlingens roll som inkomst aktivitet. För att hitta svaren på frågorna tittar vi på två olika aspekter, economic development samt livelihood approaches. Economic development ser jordbrukets roll som en central del i utveckling av industri medan livelihood ser att det finns mer komplexa mönster i verkligheten att beakta för att utveckla ett land.

Uppsatsen undersöker vilken av den indirekta och den direkta metoden som bör användas vid prognostisering av den svenska inflationen baserat på kvartalsdata för perioden 1993:1-2005:4. Ytterligare en aspekt med uppsatsen är att ge ökad förståelse för hur inflationen i Sverige i allmänhet ska prognoostiseras. Prognoserna skapas med de respektive metoderna och jämförs därefter med faktisk inflation för att utvärdera vilken metod som ger minst prognosfel. De slutsatser som dras från undersökningen är att det inte är en av metod som strikt föredras vid prognostisering av den svenska inflationen. De metod som är bäst av den indirekta och den direkta beror på prognoshorisonten.

Abstract Syftet med uppsatsen är att empirisk testa om fondförvaltare uppvisar timing och selektivitetsförmåga, det vill säga om de har förmåga att förutse aktiemarknadens rörelse och att hitta vinnaraktier. Våra undersökningsdata sträcker sig under en tvåårsperiod och omfattar 40 globalfonders dagsavkastningar. Vi har utifrån två olika modeller undersökt om det går att påvisa förmågorna timing och selektivitet. Undersökningen genomförs via ett antal OLS?regressioner där timing och selektivitet kan påvisas.

Myanmar?s entry in Association of South Eastern Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1997 brought about several economic and social changes. One important change is tariff reduction through the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT-scheme), which increased Myanmar?s export to countries outside the ASEAN. The increase in exports facilitated trade creation and investment creation for Myanmar.

This is an examination of the Swedish unemployment insurance system and the effects it has on the Swedish long-term unemployment. A search model is explained to give an understanding to the incentives of the unemployed. Different mechanisms that create unemployment and that could create long-term unemployment are investigated, but primarily the unemployment insurance is in focus.The Swedish unemployment insurance has undergone several changes the last fifteen years that have improved its efficiency. The introduction of a finite duration of unemployment insurance entitlement was an important step and so was the decrease in the replacement ratio. Even so, I assess that there is still room for improvements of the incentives to search for work among the unemployed.

Several studies have investigated the relationship between different measures of innovative activity, such as patent statistics and R&D expenditures and some have looked deeper into the differences between large and small firms regarding number of patents issued per employee or per R&D dollar. In this paper, the objective is to find out if there are any indications of a barrier to entry (due to economical factors, lack of knowledge etc) for small firms to get into the field of patent handling. The approach is to first set up a hypothesis based on some simple assumptions about how firms would make decisions about whether to apply for a patent or not and thereafter use econometric methods in an empirical investigation. The data used for this study are figures on number of employees, number of patents granted and R&D expenditures for the Swedish firms in the pulp and paper industry. The main conclusion is that, based on the analysis of the data from this rather limited group of firms, no such barrier can be seen..

The transition from a planned economy to a market economy was initiated in Russia in the beginning of the 90s. The three components: privatization, liberalization and stabilization constitute the trinity of the transition theory. This thesis has its focus on the privatization, that also can be referred to as a piratization of Russia. The purpose of the thesis is to explain what went wrong with the privatization, and also why it went wrong. A few men, called oligarchs, got their hands on great wealth which has lead to an abuse of power.

Through trading with countries that have a relative aboundant supply of labor, Sweden changes it's effective supply of labor, in a Factor Content perspective. This essay does two Factor Content analyses, one for year 1995 and one for 2000. The first comparison of these analyses shows that Sweden exports about 27 600 labor-years more year 2000 than 1995. However, since Factor Content analysis arguably underestimates the imported labor, some assumptions are made in order to correct for this. This correction has great importance for the final analysis.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om ryssladsspecifik räntevolatilitet smittar av sig på de baltiska staterna. Efter den asiatiska krisen 1997 är contagion ett av det mest debatterade ämnena inom internationell finansiell ekonomi och definieras som kriser som smittar av mellan regioner. Metod: 1998 utförde Sebastian Edwards en studie baserat på en bivariat GARCH-modell där han undersökte om volatilitet i den korta räntan sprids från Mexico till Argentina och Chile. Jag följer Edwards (1998) metoder för att undersöka om Baltikums räntevolatilitet är påverkad av rysslandsspecifik volatilitetsspridning. Resultat: Med bristande tillgång till långa tidsserier för emerging markets kan jag inte påvisa någon volatilitetsspridning.

The purpose of this Bachelor thesis in Economics at Lund University is to try to establish the correlation between the value change of retail real estate buildings in Sweden and macro economic variables. The principal method is the multiple regression model and it is used to estimate the basic model. The basic model is enhanced by estimating some 30 models and the result is two good models. The difference between the basic model and the two better models are small but important. In the lagged basic model, the same variables are used as in the basic model but with different time lags.

The background for this thesis is that at the beginnings of 1980´s the National Board of Forest started an experiment of lime dressing to reduce acidification in forest soil and in ground water. The purposes of this report are to explain organization?s, government?s and private landowners viewpoint on lime dressing and vitalization fertilization, some socio-economic aspects are presented. The general conclusions are that the majority of the interested party?s are positive to vitalization fertilization but the forests owner?s in generally need much more information about this topic..

The aim of this thesis is to discuss and analyse the American cotton subsidies? effect on the world market in general and developing countries in particular. The amount of U.S. subsidies is substantial compared to most other countries, but a great deal of the effect is due to the USA?s significant share of the market.