The high debt levels experienced in European Countries have lead to academic interest in the deficit bias -the tendency for governments to run budget deficits and accumulate debt. In part one of this thesis a surveyof the economic literature on the origins and solutions to the deficit bias are conducted. The proposedinstitutional solution to the deficit bias in the form of Fiscal policy councils (FPC) are outlined and existingEuropean FPCs presented. Based on the works of Calmfors and Wren-Lewis (2011) the EuropeanCommission (EC) is defined as an FPC. Based on this survey, two hypothesis are formulated: (1) theforecasts of future macro-economic events and fiscal performance will differ between the national FPCs andthe national government.

Fiscal policy and its consequences have attracted much attention on both academic and societal level, in Sweden and elsewhere. However, the dependence between fiscal policy on municipality level and business cycles has only recently sparked a debate among Swedish economists. Studies point out that a law which came to force in 2000, balanskravet, may have caused municipalities to lower expenditures, alternatively raising taxes, during recessions. This thesis examines how the level of municipality taxes depends on business cycle fluctuations and the impact that balanskravet has had on this correlation. We employ econometric regressions, with annual data covering the period 1980-2014, to enable an analysis of the dependence between taxes and business cycles, both before and after the introduction of balanskravet.

The aim of this study is to investigate wether the participatory democracy is a threat or a complement to the representative democracy. To achieve my purpose I will focus on two different lokal councils, the civil council in Hovsjö and the youth council in Västra Skogås, which have been objects of the urban policy in 1998. The theoretical framework on which this study is based consists of the participation democratic theory, representative democratic theory and implementation theory. By problemizing these theoretical frameworks in comparison with eachother I will mapp how these two lokal councils were implemented. The research question is: In what way was the civil council and the youth council a complement or threat to the representative democracy? In which way was it difficult to implement them?The method used for this purpose is a qualitative comparative case study.

To integrate environmental concerns into non-environmental policy making has become an important policy objective within the European Union. This essay investigates policy instruments in use to achieve environmental policy integration in the EU's transport sector respectively fisheries sector. The point of departure is a theoretical discussion about governance and the use of different policy instruments for environmental management at the EU-level. The focal point is the argumentation that regulatory policy instruments alone cannot achieve environmental policy integration satisfactory. By using Jordan et al's classification of so called "new" environmental policy instruments (market-based instruments, voluntary agreements and ecolabels) as complements to regulatory measures, the essay investigates whether the first-mentioned are used within the two sectors.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the real aggregated consumption and empirically determine its exogenous variables. A multiplicative analysis is done in the context of government stabilization policy to find out how policymakers can execute a stimulus package that will bring the best multiplicative effect to the economy The conclusion of the study is that real income, net financial assets and real-estate price index are all statistically significant. An effective expansive fiscal policy is a public-financed investment in the private sector. Coordination is going to be crucial when stimulus package is developed due to the fact that leakage in the form of imports will prevent the expected multiplicative effect..

This essay examines the policy process of specialist medical training in three Swedish counties. The essay will first describe the policy process. Secondly the politicians parti-cipating in the process is examined. Thirdly, it is tested whether it is possible to analyze the policy process based on Ostrom's theories of cooperation around a common pool resource. In this case, the common pool resource is specialized medical practitioners skills that the Swedish county councils must collaborate on to competence should be sufficient for the county council needs, something that is not the case today.One conclusion of the study is that the health care law is not clear enough when it comes to who is responsible for providing a sufficient number of specialists.

AbstractThis bachelor thesis deals with the close company rules in chapter 56-57 within the Swedish income tax law (IL). The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the outsider rule in 57:5 IL. If a shareholder or a family member works or have worked actively within the company within the fiscal year or the last five fiscal years then the partner has qualified shares and is to be taxed according to the special closed company rules.If an outsider, directly or indirectly, is a significant shareholder within the company, and directly or indirectly, are entitled to dividends then an active partner only has qualified shares if there is special reasons. When making the assessment regard must be made to conditions under the fiscal year or the last five fiscal years. There is special reason not to apply the rule if there are agreements regarding how the profit should be split or cross-ownerships between companies.If a taxpayer can show that an outsider own 30 percent of the closed company and has a right to dividends and there is no special reason to why the rule should not be applied then the outsider rule is applicable.

BackgroundThis paper is based on an issue raised by the organization Energigas Sverige, which together with the Ministry of Finance has posed the question about the fiscal impact of an increase in biogas production. Since the fiscal effects of an increased biogas production are both positive and negative, due to reduced use of fossil fuels, we want to investigate this further.PurposeThe purpose is to describe and explain the obtained fiscal impacts of an increased biogas production and based on our problem: ?What are the obtained fiscal effects caused by an increase in biogas production?? we could see the following fiscal effects: positive impact on employment, increased revenues of social security contributions and income taxes, reduced unemployment costs and reduced tax revenues on fossil fuels. These effects are summarized in a negative tax revenue of 2,6 billion SEK. Along the summarized negative effect we also accepted one of the two prepared hypotheses, which stated that an increase in biogas production leads to a negative fiscal impact. Design/Methodology/ApproachWe have chosen to work from an Anglo-Saxon scientific tradition and furthermore, we have a positivistic approach when we want to explain the relationship between cause and effect of an increase in biogas production and the following fiscal impacts.

Sweden's aging population makes the need for a viable health care urgent and telemedicine can be a solution to enable older people to receive or give themselves care in their homes. Furthermore, implementation of telemedicine has the potential to realise profits in society by increasing the accessibility of health care and minimizing travel costs. Sweden?s low population density and geographical configuration makes the advantages of telemedicine even more appealing. To illustrate the differences between the county councils? use of telemedicine and thus increasing the possibility for coordinated care between them, the authors have on behalf of the Innovation Centre at the Karolinska University hospital mapped the amount of telemedicine technologies that are available in the Swedish county councils? today. To collect information an electronic survey and video or telephone interviews were used.

The purpose of this study is to determine if and how municipal consultative entities through influence may affect the legitimacy of the Swedish democratic model. The study aims to do this through analysing the opportunities for influence present with the Youth Council and the Council of the Retired in Karlstads municipality, to determine how the councils may affect political participation and the role of elected representatives. To do so, the study asks the following primary research question:"What requisites for influence are present for participants of municipal consultative entities, as found for the representatives of the youth and the retired within the framework of their participation in the Youth Council and the Council of the Retired in Karlstads municipality?"The study answers this research question by dividing it into one question of policy and one question of democratic perspective, and investigating these matters through nine snowballing interviews with the decision makers, organisational actors and participants of the councils. The information from the interviews is then analysed per council through a framework of democracy theory, policy process theory and organisation theory.

At the moment, democracy enhancing projects can be seen everywhere on the municipal level. The purpose of this thesis is to explain how the city of Lund takes on this challenge, why they have chosen to carry out citizen councils and if these are a good way to intensify democracy and open communication channels between citizens, the administration and the elected officials.The theoretical framework consists of seven arguments for gaining citizen influence on policy, and as a counterweight three critical arguments that opponents of participatory democracy often use are added.After a survey over both the Swedish national trends in municipal renewal and the last years work in Lund, the analysis goes on showing that most of the arguments point to the disadvantage of the citizen councils. Even though legitimacy possibly is enhanced by the project, there are probably better ways to open up for more communication and intensify democracy in the local community..

A current debate is going on in Sweden about the health-care organization, how it is structured today and how it should be structured in the future. Despite major changes in the county council structures, they still got problems with for instance economy and the providing of staff. As an answer to these problems new solutions are being developed.In this thesis I examine such a solution consisting of cooperation between county councils. The aim of the thesis is to examine how and why the county councils in Sörmland and Västmanland have made a decision regarding cooperation over the administrative border.My contribution is to construct a model over change and decision processes that can be used in other cases as well. The conclusion is partly that the decision to cooperate is built on changing structural factors, such as economy, demography and medical development.

The concept of sustainable development is a challenge that demands cooperation from all levels of society for it to be successful. The focus for this thesis is how politicians within the local councils understand the concept of sustainable development and how they implement it in political decision-making.The basis for the study is a questionnaire that was distributed to 303 local politicians in three municipalities of varying size in Southern Sweden. The study concentrates on departments within the local councils that are directly connected to the Swedish environmental law and the Swedish planning and construction law. One of the primary goals with the aforementioned laws is the achievement of sustainable development within one generation.The outcome of the study was that over half of the local politicians could correctly define sustainable development according to the World Commission on Environment and Development?s (WCED) definition.

The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether the student councils at two schools really have the power to influence, or if it is a matter of mock democracy. I wanted to determine how the student councils work in reality. I conducted my investigation through personal and qualitative interviews with the board of the student council, a social studies teacher and the principle/school management at both schools. After the interviews I compared an analysed my findings. The results show that the two schools work very differently when it comes to studentdemocracy, and even have very different levels of ambition when it comes to the degree of influence that the student council should have at their respective schools.

The concept of sustainable development is a challenge that demands cooperation from all levels of society for it to be successful. The focus for this thesis is how politicians within the local councils understand the concept of sustainable development and how they implement it in political decision-making.The basis for the study is a questionnaire that was distributed to 303 local politicians in three municipalities of varying size in Southern Sweden. The study concentrates on departments within the local councils that are directly connected to the Swedish environmental law and the Swedish planning and construction law. One of the primary goals with the aforementioned laws is the achievement of sustainable development within one generation.The outcome of the study was that over half of the local politicians could correctly define sustainable development according to the World Commission on Environment and Development?s (WCED) definition.