Bioethanol is one alternative energy fuel that can be produced from different types of biomass. Second generation bioethanol comes from fermentation of lignocellulosic material and can be seen as a more environmental friendly alternative as e.g. forest residues and agricultural by-products are used. To be able to use lignocellulosic biomass in ethanol production, it has to be subjected to different treatments first. In this study, aspen sawdust was used as lignocellulosic material.

Variations in fertility have caused a problematic situation in Sweden among other European countries. According to the Council of Europe we are facing an economic and demographic challenge, when the baby boomers of the 1940?s are retiring. Economists have for a long time studied the connection between economic factors and fertility, and several studies have found a correlation between business cycles and birth rates. This connection is again of current interest 2008, when a financial bubble bursts at the same time as a baby boom occurs.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the perception of value and risk in CSR as well as analyzing how financial institutions influence responsible behavior in business in order to create sustainable Economic growth.Methodology: The study has a qualitative research method used by an abductive process. Data has been collected through semi-structured interviews with respondents from three venture capital companies and three banks. The sample of respondents was done through a convenience sample with respect to access and expertise in the research area.Conclusion: The most important meanings of the research results have shown that CSR holds an intrinsic value concerning contributing value as its conceptual meaning in terms of sustainable development. CSR can also be regarded as a dimension of risk management to reduce the risk of negative externalities on corporate activities. Investors and financiers contribute to sustainable companies through active ownership and improvements in the CSR dimensions.

AbstractOil rich states all over the world share a common feature. They are less likely than other states, depending on other resources, to be ruled democratically. In this essay Saudi Arabia has been studied with the purpose of trying to find which mechanisms that lie behind why oil rich states do not have institutions or institutional change that promotes democracy.Saudi Arabia has the world's largest known reservoir of oil. The oil brings huge revenue each year to the Saudi Arabian government. Why have Saudi Arabia not developed democratically when their Economic growth suggests that to be a natural step? Under the framework of historical institutionalism and path dependency theory, I have used process tracing trying to track the mechanisms behind Saudi Arabia's authoritarian rule down.

The objective of this study was to get a better understanding of how the cultivation methods influence the vitality in Prunus avium. The purpose was also to examine if there was any differences in shoot growth and trunk expansion depending on the method of cultivation. To find the answer to this question a literature study and a case study has been done. The literature study concerns the concepts vitality and stress. Different definitions of these concepts are shown and their connection whit establishment is explained. In the background the species Prunus avium, and the four method of cultivation that are included in this case study are described. Measurements of the shoot growth and trunk expansion were made in this study, and as a complement to these methods, a visual estimate of the vitality was made.

Oljeprisets påverkan på svensk och europeisk ekonomi är högaktuell ? det skapar dagligen rubriker i massmedia. Inte minst på aktiemarknaden iakttas oljepriset noggrant. Denna studie undersöker huruvida statistiska samband mellan oljepriset och olika aktieindex kan påvisas, och även huruvida dessa går att utnyttja för prognostisering. Fyra branschindex ? industri, kemi, transport och råvaror ? samt generalindex, för Sverige respektive EU, undersöks.Kointegrations- och regressionsanalys används för att undersöka sambanden mellan oljepris och aktieindex, och resultaten tillämpas sedan för prognostisering.

Följande uppsats utgör en litteraturstudie över två vanliga konsumtionsvalsteoretiska antagande och deras biologiska rimlighet. De antagande som testas är: (A) En ekonomisk agent handlar som om hon maximerar en nyttofunktion. (B) Individen är självisk. Angående (A) dras slutsatsen att denna kan antas uppfylld. Antagande (B) är mer komplicerat.

Since the beginning of the new millennium, China has opened itself to the outside world and in an enormous pace increased its contacts and relationships with other countries. The trigger to these dramatic changes of economic and foreign policies is the insight that China can no longer sustain its rapid Economic growth, largely based on industrial production, on energy and raw materials from China alone.Good relations with African countries have been of highest priority in China?s strategy of ?Going global?. The new African policy is based on the two principles of mutual benefit and non-interference in internal affairs ? as opposite to the West?s strategy of structural adjustment programmes (SAP), which include massive interference in internal affairs.

We have studied how power is portrayed in Swedish journals by analyzing eight portraits of Swedish persons with economic or political power. We have studied how they and their power are described by the journalist in text and picture. We wanted to see which picture the journalist shows of people with power, what properties they are given by the journalist and how this picture is shown by the texts and the pictures. We have also looked if there are any differences between people with political power and people with economic power. We have under our studies noticed that the persons with power are described as very successful and special and this picture are shown in a very clear and unproblematic way..

The economic policy of the Swedish Social Democrats has undergone major changes during the last thirty years. From using a so-called Keynesian policy to promote full employment in the economy, the Social Democrats have switched to a more monetaristic policy to promote low inflation instead. What I intend to do with this study is to see if the policy change also can be noticed in how the party describe their own policy. Have the Social Democrats been open and transparent with their change in priorities, or have they tried to hide this in their rhetoric?The purpose of this thesis is to examine if one can notice a change from a Keynesian to a monetaristic policy in the Social Democrat?s descriptions of their economic policy.

I början av juni 2003 lämnade Brasilien, Thailand och Australien in en anmälan till World Trade Organisation (WTO) med EU:s sockerpolitik som utgångspunkt. Drygt ett år senare, den 14 juli 2004, presenterade den Europeiska Kommissionen ett förslag på en genomgripande omarbetning av EU:s sockerordning. Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka effekterna av Europeiska Kommissionens reformförslag på sockerindustrin i de nordiska medlemsländerna, med den nuvarande sockerpolitikens påverkan på dessa länder som bakgrund. Sockerindustrin i Danmark, Sverige och Finland har olika förutsättningar inför en reformering och kommer således att drabbas olika, men framtiden ser inte så ljus ut för de nordiska medlemsländerna. Sockerindustrin i Finland kommer med stor sannolikhet att slås ut och näringen i Sverige och Danmark kommer att få det något svårare på längre sikt..

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka vilka effekter östutvidgningen kan ha på den svenska familjeförsäkringen. Arbetet fokuserar på Polens inträde i EU och en eventuell polsk immigration till Sverige. Metod: Undersökningen bygger på migrationsteorier och jämförelser med tidigare utvidgningar av den Europeiska Unionen och pekar på drivkrafter bakom immigration. Slutsatser: Arbetet visar på stora ekonomiska skillnader mellan Sverige och Polen och att det finns avsevärda incitament till immigration. Samtidigt ger tidigare utvidgningar prov på att människor i allmänhet är trogna sin hembygd.

The thesis explores the Uncovered Interest rate Parity (UIP) and the possibility of cross-currency arbitrage between England, Germany and Sweden. The data is gathered between May 1999 and December 2005 on a monthly basis and is compared using simple regression analysis. The aim is to find out whether UIP holds and, if it does not, a risk premium exists that makes it possible to make arbitrage gains on moving capital between England, Germany and Sweden. It is discovered that UIP does not hold and that cross-currency arbitrage possibilities exist. In the end a an attempt is made to practically show how the arbitrage possibility could be used for a real investor to make risk free gains from the Foreign Exchange market..

The subject of this study was to research whether or not the effect of job insecurity on self reported health differs between good and bad times in the economic climate. Two different years of a national health survey from the Swedish institute of health (FHI) served as data, with 2007 representing good economic climate and 2009 doing the opposite. Both years consisted of data from a national health survey distributed to 20 000 random individuals in Sweden, where 2007 had 5738 valid cases and 2009 had 10 373. A quantitative method was used to determine the difference, consisting of a three variable cross tabulation with chi2-analysis as well as a model of binary logistic regression for each of the two years.The cross tabulation found a significant difference between the two years, with those reporting job insecurity having less of a chance to report bad health during the year representing bad economic climate. While the logistic regression showed the same tendency, the two years could not be significantly differed from each other in that part of the analyzes.With this in mind, the conclusion from the whole test was that no significant difference could be found between the years regarding the health effect of job insecurity..

In the society there is different kind of people that belongs to different groups. The different groups that people belong to are depending on where you live, grow up, ethnic group, level of education and which economic standard you have. The subject of our composition is about children and teenager growth environment and about what society they belong to and how it affects their possibility to exercise. Our composition is built from the question: Are there any differences connected to exercise in an association compared to spontaneous exercise based on economic standard and what district of the city you live? To be able to find an answer to our question we have chosen to concentrate on three districts in the city of Helsingborg.