This master?s paper first presents some of the principal theories and concepts developed by the poverty researchers Rowntree, Titmuss, Townsend, Sen and Lister. These theoretical frameworks are then related to two documents from the EU and Sweden concerning combating poverty and social exclusion, bearing on the establishment of the ?Year 2010 against Poverty?. Finally, I discuss the value in practice of these theories and policy documents, as regards reducing poverty in Europe.It has become clear in this investigation that the theories and concepts from earlier research are still relevant to the formulation of contemporary policy programmes, and that earlier research helps us to avoid old traps in fighting poverty.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka huruvida BNP-gap kan förutspåinflationen bättre jämfört med arbetslöshetsgap. Svensk kvartalsdata från1993 till och med 2005 har använts. Gapmåtten skapas med två olika metoder,en linjärregression och ett HP-filter. En direkt prognosmodell används föralla prognoser med out of sample metodik. Prognoshorisonterna somanvänds är ett kvartal, fyra kvartal samt åtta kvartal.

This Master Thesis investigates changes in Thailand's foreign policy towards its neighbouring country Burma. It argues that Thai foreign policy towards Burma has experienced major changes during four periods between 1945 and the present. The thesis investigates these foreign policy changes during the four periods. What changes occurred? What were the reasons for the changes? What reasons dominated during what periods? The four periods of Thai foreign policy changes towards Burma and the common history of the two countries since their respective foundations does not suggest a stable peaceful relationship or a bitter hostile relationship leading to war.

Syftet med denna studie är att, med hjälp av ett urval tillväxtvariabler, analysera hur det kommer sig att länder rika på naturresurser generellt uppvisar lägre tillväxt än länder som saknar naturtillgångar. Fenomenet brukar benämnas ?the Resource Curse?, eller ?resursfällan? som det här kommer kallas. Utmärkande för denna studie är att jag valt att analysera hur variablen statlig konsumtion interagerar med naturresurstillgången i landet och hur denna interaktion kan leda till att länderna i analysen fastnar i resursfällan..

This essay deals with the relationship between the influx to higher education and the situation on the labor market in Sweden. It also examines whether overeducation as a phenomenon is present among Swedish academics and if there is any obvious discrimination between the sexes. The Swedish government has an outspoken goal that at least 50% of every age group shall undergo an academic education. Therefore, they have expanded the possibilities ofobtaining one. We have used three economic theories to investigate the subject of this thesis and applied these on the statistics of 4 different educations.

Uppsatsen är en kvantitativ studie som undersöker vilka faktorer som har kunnat förklara den svenska swapspreaden under tidsperioden 2001-12-31 till 2008-10-31. Resultatet är en linjär regressions modell som påvisar att swapspreaden är kointegrerad med svenska statens upplåningsbehov samt räntespreaden för europeiska kommersiella obligationer. På kort sikt förklaras swapspreaden av bland annat att den är mean reverting kring ett långsiktigt samband med tidigare nämnda variablerna, basis risken, den historiska volatiliteten på aktiemarknaden, bankaktiers utveckling i förhållande till övriga aktiemarknaden samt lutningen på Money Market kurvan..

I denna studie undersöker vi vad som påverkar oljeaktier och oljeservice aktier. Vi har valt ut fem aktier med varierad storlek från varje bransch, på den amerikanska börsen.Vi använde oss av en multipel regressionsanalys för att komma fram till vilket av oljepriset och Dow Jones index som påverkade aktierna mest. Vi analyserade effekterna både på kort och på lång sikt.Studiens resultat visade att på kort sikt påverkade oljepriset och Dow Jones index aktierna ungefär lika mycket, men på lång sikt var det bara oljepriset som hade en inverkan..

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine ideas used to legitimate Swedish digital libraries, with a focus on the cultural heritage, their relation to cultural policy and an eventual crisis within the latter. Which ideas are linked to digitalisation? How do the arguments for creating digital libraries differ between central actors? How do the digital libraries relate to cultural policy and an eventual legitimacy crisis? These are the questions this thesis seeks to answer. The theoretical starting-point consists of a legitimacy discussion and its connection to Swedish cultural policy. The method used is idea analysis.

The forecast ability of four well-known exchange rate models for theSwedish krona is tested in this thesis. The models that are tested arethe purchase power parity, the real interest differential model, thesticky-price model and a productivity model. In addition to thebenchmark, the random walk, they are also compared to each other.They are all tested on three different horizons one quarter, two quartersand four quarters. The mean squared forecast error criteria and thedirection of change criteria are used for evaluation of the forecastability. Only in a couple of cases are the forecast ability of thetheoretical based models significant better than the random walk..

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is widely regarded as a significant catalyst for economic development especially in emerging and developing economies. While previous research has found different effects from foreign direct investments in different countries this study aims to explore the varying effects of FDI in Serbia and Montenegro. The study focuses on how FDI influences key economic indicators, specifically GDP per capita and employment rates, in the context of their aspirations to join the European Union (EU). Employing a comparative approach, the thesis examines the differing trajectories of Montenegro and Serbia in utilizing FDI for economic advancement. The research reveals that while Serbia shows significant positive correlation between FDI and both GDP per capita and employment rates, Montenegro displays no significant relationship in these aspects.

I denna uppsats behandlas ett nytt sätt att beräkna korrelationen mellan olika tillgångar. Me­toden, tvärsnittskorrelationen, har framarbetats av Bruno Solnik och Jacques Roulet som be­skriver den i artikeln Dispersion as Cross-sectional Correlation. Vårt syfte är att med hjälp av detta nya sätt beräkna korrelationen över en tio års period på den svenska aktiemarknaden och se om vi kan hitta tendenser i korrelationens utveckling. Korrelationens tendens har tolkats genom trendlinjer och determinationskoefficienter. De re­sultat vi får fram tyder på en ökning i korrelationsnivå inom de flesta av våra observerade sektorer på den svenska aktiemarknaden..

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess whether the overreaction found in ?Does the Stock Market Overreact?? by DeBondt and Thaler still persists today, and by equivalence test if a trading strategy based upon these assumptions would generate abnormal returns. MethodThe research has been carried out by studies of the stocks that for a prior period of one year has over or underperformed their benchmark. The stocks used in my study are all part of S&P500 index, and the period of study runs from three to five overlapping years over the last twenty years. ResultsMy tests indicate that the type of overreaction proposed by DeBondt & Thaler still is present, at least considering the stocks that during the formation period were winners..

The social dimension in the EU, explored through the document texts of the Treaty of Rome, the Lisbon Strategy, the Social Policy Agenda and the Swedish Strategy ReportThis paper explores the social dimension of EU social policy, except the aspects of the economic and labour market. The EU documents reveal an underlying line of thought stemming from the alignment of the six founding countries, spearheaded by France, with the conservative corporatist welfare model. As one of four European welfare models, the conservative corporatist model emphasises labour market issues, corporate social responsibility and the subsidiarity principle in EU social policy. It also influences how the texts define the terms social, social policy and social exclusion. The definitions determine how policymakers combat problems such as social exclusion and identify the policy issues to be included in EU social policy.The Swedish Strategy shows how the country is responding to the objectives that it has been assigned by the EU and how it plans to attain them.

This master?s paper first presents some of the principal theories and concepts developed by the poverty researchers Rowntree, Titmuss, Townsend, Sen and Lister. These theoretical frameworks are then related to two documents from the EU and Sweden concerning combating poverty and social exclusion, bearing on the establishment of the ?Year 2010 against Poverty?. Finally, I discuss the value in practice of these theories and policy documents, as regards reducing poverty in Europe.It has become clear in this investigation that the theories and concepts from earlier research are still relevant to the formulation of contemporary policy programmes, and that earlier research helps us to avoid old traps in fighting poverty.

Title: Det nya Ryssland - En inblick over Rysslands utrikespolitik under 2000-taletAuthor: Tim Balder and Jens KindhLinnaeus UniversityDepartment of Political ScienceAutumn term 2011The purpose of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of how the Russian foreign policy is, how it is conducted and how it may develop in the future. To do that, we are going to try to answer the following questions:What characterizes Russia's official foreign policy?What theories are there for the Russian foreign policy?How can the various theories explain the Russian foreign policy actions at the international level?Our theory is to try explaining how the Russian foreign policy is continuing its development during the 21st century through three theories known as the Western liberalism, Pragmatic nationalism and Fundamental nationalism. Furthermore, to explain Russia's foreign policy and their behaviour, we are going to use the two foreign policy doctrines from 2000 and 2008. In addition, books and articles will also be used to explain how Russia's foreign policy is conducted and developed..