The purpose of this study is to map out and to analyze the spatial variation of female representation at the national level in established democracies. The aim is also to explain the variation in the female representation. The main questions that the paper tries to answer are:1.How does women representation in established democratic parliaments vary?2.Why does women representation in established democratic parliaments vary?This study is a comparative and statistic study, i.e. a study that includes a bigger number of countries and where quantitative analysis methods are used in order to achieve comparative analyses.

This paper relates a debate on a book Vetenskapen och förnuftet (1986) written by the Scandinavian philosopher Georg Henrik von Wright (1916 - 2003). The book brings up fate of mankind, raising the question if human rational thinking and scientific achievements are threatening our very existence on earth. Shortly after the book was published, it was intensively debated in a leading Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. Some 20 leading politicians and scientists contributed with their criticism during spring 1987. The paper highlights this debate by writing reception history, describing how the book with its serious message was received by leading scientists of the time.

Tillväxtteori är något som studeras mycket bland nationalekonomer eftersom fattigdom är ett stort problem i världen. För att det inte ska bli ännu större kan det vara väldigt viktigt att veta hur tillväxten ska komma igång i ett fattigt land som lidit hårt av exempelvis inbördeskrig. Det finns inga modeller som specifikt modellerar detta, men det är antagligen för att de faktorer som är betydelsefulla troligen är desamma som för ett fattigt land som inte har hamnat långt under sitt steady state (det jämviktsläge som ekonomin är på väg mot på lång sikt). Det finns många modeller som försöker förklara vilka faktorer som driver tillväxt i fattiga länder, och eftersom modeller alltid är förenklingar av verkligheten, finns det inga perfekta modeller, men de flesta har någon viktig faktor som belyses. En modell som ofta används för att beskriva tillväxten i fattiga länder är teknologispridnings-modellen som visar att fattiga länders ekonomier växer då de lär sig att använda mer teknologi.

This study analyzes 66 Swedish actively managed mutual funds investing in the Swedish stock market during the period 2005-2014. The purpose is through pooled data regressions analyze the relationship between both the mutual fund?s annual fee and risk-adjusted return to the fund?s characteristics. The characteristics of the study are the size of the fund's assets, age, if the fund is bank managed or not, Tracking Error, and standard deviation of return.By using the performance measures of CAPM, Fama and French 3-factor model, and Carhart?s 4-factor model monthly risk-adjusted returns are created for all funds over the period.

Billions of children, women and men lack access to safe water supplies, whichputs the affected in both social as well as economic despair. This paper willpresent some of the conclusions leading Non Governmental Organisations suchas the UN has presented recently concerning the terms of sustainability. Much ofit is true and important, but nothing can be done without extended cooperationbetween nations worldwide to find arguments that prevent short-term thinkingand economic wealth on the behalf of future sustainability.With a growing population and an increased competition for fresh water, theworld will soon face a severe shortage of good quality water for irrigation. This isbecause the distributions rarely match the demand, neither in Australia nor inAfrica. Important to notice is the major factor that the degradation of theenvironment is not one country?s problem to solve.

?CSR and political consumption ? a study of Nike?s and Puma?s CSR-reports?The purpose of this dissertation is to examine if political consumption has influenced multinational corporations to improve their Corporate Social Responsibility reports and policies more, than a company who has not been a target for political consumption.This dissertation is a content analysis of Nike?s and Puma?s first (Nike 2001, Puma 2001) and latest (Nike 2007/09, Puma 2007/08) CSR- reports. Archie Carroll?s model of Corporate Social Responsibility is used as theoretical framework in this study. The model is used to focus on four areas within CSR; economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic.

I och med att länderna i världen blivit allt rikare har även miljöförstöringen ökat. Detta är ett problem som uppmärksammas allt mer och det sker allt fler studier om sambandet mellan ekonomisk tillväxt och miljöförstöring. I början av 1990-talet publicerade Grossman och Krueger en undersökning som visade på ett uppochnedvänt U-förhållande mellan inkomst och miljöförstörande utsläpp, dvs att miljöförstöringen först ökar med den ekonomiska tillväxten tills den vid en viss nivå vänder och börjar minska samtidigt som ekonomin fortsätter att växa. De kallade denna kurva för ?The Environmental Kuznets Curve? (EKC).

English title: Part-time work among women in Sweden ? what influences choice of working hours? In the 1960s and 70s a large growth in part-time work amongst women in the Swedish labour market took place. A net inflow of workers into the labour market has been suggested as the main source. However, part-time work is still a common phenomenon among Swedish women; in 2004 almost 40% of all women worked part-time, and women are clearly dominating the part-time sector. A gradual changeover from house work to market work is hardly a valid explanation anymore.

A common way to stabilize high rise buildings is to use an elevator core built of concrete. Today, we use to build these elevator cores of in-situ concrete. Precast concrete twin wall (double wall) is a semi-finished product that has become more common in recent years. This diploma work studies how the twin wall works out as structural elements in an elevator core. The work also shows some possible ways of designing twin walls and highlights some important parts of the design that will be vital to the stability of the building.    The result shows that it is important to think through where the element joints should be placed.

The market for management training programs is growing and the supply of the service is increasing and getting further diversified. A consequence is a market with a wide variety of definitions of the very concept of development, and subsequently a wide variety of practices and methods to achieve development. The individuals that are subject to these programs seldom know what they are purchasing, or what to expect. When assuming a transfer of the developers view on development to the subject, a need for a greater understanding of the concept arises. The purpose of this thesis is to understand what views on development do exist among management trainers and map underlying dimensions of the views to increase the understanding of the concept of development.

This study is a value chain analysis for timber in East Africa. It was commissioned by Vi Agroforestry, a nongovernmental organisation registered in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania engaged in a rural development program that involves promoting tree planting and enterprise development (Vi Agroforestry, 2012). The purpose of the study was to identify and describe common value chains for timber in the countries where Vi Agroforestry operated. Value chain is a concept and a framework describing how to structure information regarding activities included in satisfying a certain customer need, e.g. procurement, logistics, transactions, production and marketing.

The ÅF Group is a leader in technical consulting, with expertise founded on more than a century of experience. They offer highly qualified services and solutions for industrial processes, infrastructure projects and the development of products and IT systems. They are also one of the leading names in certified third-party testing and inspection work.Today the ÅF Group has approximately 4,000 employees. Their base is in Europe, but their business and clients are found all over the world.A part of ÅF-Engineerings business is programming different automation systems to clients. Another part is support in both telephone and personal visits.Because the number of clients is high and the flora of different automation systems is big the consequence is that the employees must have access to many licenses with programming tools.

PR appears to be an indistinct division and a complicated resource for companies to value. The current circumstances are negative to the credibility and reliability of PR. This study emphasizes how an application of return on investment contributes to a more strategic use of PR and increases the status and credibility for the division.We experience that measuring the economic value of PR is of great importance and of current interest with few prior studies made. The purpose of this study is to find out how a PR-agency and one of its clients relates to and works with evaluation of PR-activities and to which extent the economic contribution of the activity is measured.The foundation which the theoretical reference grounds on is theories of Delusions of PR and the use of benefit-cost analyzes, Stages and Levels for Evaluating Public Relations Programs, Marketing Return on Investment and PR Return on Investment. The theoretical reference serves as a base during the analyze of the study.The conclusion, based on the empirical body of information, is that an application of return on investment could contribute with a higher status and credibility for the PR-division.

Investeringsbedömning är inte bara kalkyleringar och beräkningar. Människor påverkar och styr de data som ligger till grund för beslutsfattande och dessa individer kan därmed styra processen mot sina egna mål. Studien fokuserar på ett kommunalt investeringsprojekt, uppförandet av Arena Vänersborg. Investeringsprocessen, från planering och budgetering till slutförande av projektet studerades. Kostnadsavvikelser och styrningen i processen undersöktes och analyserades.

One step towards a more sustainable energy system is to create a more flexible electrical grid, where increased demand response among electricity consumers can play an important role. A distribution grid owner can encourage their customers to use electricity more evenly distributed during the day by introducing different types of grid fees such as time-differentiated power tariffs. In this master thesis, the theoretical economic impact of a flattened load profile for a distribution grid owner is investigated. Different factors that impact the distribution grid owner?s economy are identified and two are chosen to be quantified; losses in the grid and the fee to the feeding grid.