Does goodwill affect the cost of capital? Goodwill is an asset which is characterized by much uncertainty regarding both what it is and how much it is really worth. Based on economic theory about information risk and principal-agent problems as well as theory regarding the cost of capital we test for the hypothesis that debt and equity investors perceive goodwill as something risky and hence demand compensation for taking on this extra risk. The proxies used for the cost of capital are cost of debt, beta and the EP-ratio. On a general level we find that increasing the level of goodwill seems to result in higher cost of capital as represented by the three proxies.

I denna uppsats redovisas en benchmarkingstudie i syfte att jämföra Sveriges försvar mot ett urval av andra länders försvarsmakter, nämligen EU- och NATO-länderna samt Schweiz. Studien har skett med avseende på kostnadseffektivitet och fokus på output i internationella insatser, som har kommit att vara allt mer prioriterade i västvärldens försvarsmakter under senare år. Vidare genomförs en kvantitativ jämförelse mellan värnplikt och andra personalförsörjningssystem genom att länder med likartade personalförsörjningssystem förs samman i fyra kategorier: värnpliktsbemanning av stående styrkor, värnpliktsbemanning av mobiliserande styrkor, blandsystem respektive professionella styrkor. Kategorierna särskiljs genom kvantitativa data, dels andelen värnpliktiga i de aktiva styrkorna, och dels storleken på reserverna i relation till de aktiva styrkorna. Två olika outputmått har utnyttjats, dels faktisk personalvolym i internationella insatser, och för EU-länderna också storleken på de styrkebidrag som utlovats till EU:s gemensamma insatser.

The following study aims to investigate the environmental conditions of the harbor of Sk?rhamn, a small fishing community on the west coast of Sweden. The interest to do so rose as a newly built apartment residence failed to connect the sewage pipes of 18 apartments, causing the untreated sewage running into the sea. The parameters accounted for are the C/N ratio, total organic carbon (TOC) as well as total nitrogen present (TN) and ?13C in the top ten centimeters of a sediment core retrieved in the Sk?rhamn harbour.

This thesis, drawing from several empirical investigations, reaches the conclusion that there seems to be a positive correlation between the level of democracy and the level of state capacity in Latin American countries. This correlation is explained by a hypothesis derived from Rational Choice theory. With some important caveats, this conclusion is then applied to the discussion about democracy as a form of government. Within democracy, the thesis also offers an insight into different electoral systems and its possible implications, mostly on a theoretical level. The thesis only exists in swedish as of yet..

To be allowed to sell Z-suspended vehicles with dipped beam Xenon or LED lighting, Scania have to develop automatic headlight level control. This master?s thesis aims to be the foundation to that development.The thesis consists of several parts; a market analysis of how competitors to Scania and the general vehicle industry solve this problem; several available principles for detecting the amount of control needed; the construction of a test station for sensors, a control unit and components connected controlled by the control unit; a further theoretical and practical development of one principle ? one rotational sensor connected between the chassis and the back drive axis; a state flow model programmed in Simulink that produces the control signal for the headlight leveling from the sensor input.Lastly the thesis gives some recommendations to the further development and implementation of automatic headlight level control on Scania vehicles..

The idea to create authentic learning situations where students are highly integrated made me want to try to develop a new method in the course Restaurant and Catering B MAKU 1208 (another field practicing cuisine). In my quest to do just the practical part as rewarding, stimulating and efficient as possible for the student, I planned for a training model with   focus on group interaction.The implementation of the model for learning was to strengthen students confidence both in themselves and in each other, stimulated to greater cooperation and it has also provided an incentive to the student's own development but not least, a growing self-confidence for many students. Several have also had an increased sense of knowing something, to have something to contribute and that their labour input actually was needed. While highlighting that further education to seek knowledge strengthens the individual's skills and consolidates and increases deeper knowledge in the professional field.In conclusion, training should be done in both individual and group basis for optimal learning process..

Our digital society encompasses nowadays different channels, which includes social media where many users consider it as a platform where they can fetch news or exchange news and information. This leads to a large spread of news exchange in a very fast speed, which involves the global users within social media to be a part of this social interaction. This study is focused on how Twitter affects the usage of the user?s news consumption. By reaching out to our specific target audience, which includes Twitter users in Sweden, we made a web based survey with a content of relevant questions.

Objective: Our purpose with this study is to demonstrate the impact of natural disasters on banks' share prices.Method: Quantitative survey method, an event study.Conclusion: There is no association or a very weak correlation in this study between natural disasters and the Swedish banks' share prices..

The background to this study is that the forest company, Holmen, has found large discrepancies between harvested volume and the measured volume at the industry. Factors like bark features, breakage, double tops, bends and stem damages was noted, and all stems were measured manually. Hypothesis testing with the method "random in pairs" were used to examine whether the harvester measured values significantly differed from the manually measured. The result of a properly calibrated harvester shows in average underestimation of the volume with Skogforsk Pine as a bark function. This means that the harvester isn´t the reason why the volume measured in the industry is lower, the fault is elsewhere. The study also indicates a need for a unique bark function for logepole pine..

This thesis studies the negative impact that control signal saturation may have on a controlled system. Different methods that are used to compensate for this problem are also studied and evaluated. Both sensitivity to disturbances and the effect the method has on the systems'ability to follow a reference signal will be examined. Stability will be discussed, but no conclusions whether the systems are stabilized or not can be drawn. Control signal saturation will lead to a slower behavior in general.

This thesis focus on the presentation of the filmic room the viewer sees in George A. Romero´s three horror classics Night, Dawn and Day of the Dead. The hypothesis goes as follow; fear and element of tension becomes greater if the audience/viewer has a good knowledge about the filmic room in the film, in other words, a good spatial awareness. The conclusion is that it does. The environment is active in its becoming and in its presentation to the viewer.

SammanfattningSyftet med denna uppsats är att söka svar på vilka analytiska verktyg som krävs för att förstå villkoren för mänskligt handlande. Min tes är att den diskursteoretiska epistemologi som kommit att dominera samtida feministisk forskning - i uppsatsen representerad främst av Judith Butler - inte tillhandahåller dessa analytiska verktyg. För att pröva denna tes har jag intervjuat fem heterosexuella, feministiska män om deras erfarenheter av sex. Jag frågar mig: på vilket sätt bestäms intervjupersonernas sexuella interaktion med kvinnor av deras respektive positioner som heterosexuella män och som feminister? I min analys tillämpar jag ett dialektiskt angreppssätt och stöder mig framför allt på Margaret Archers teoribygge.Min slutsats blir att det, för att i detalj kunna blottlägga villkoren för männens handlande, är fundamentalt att göra den typ av distinktioner som diskursteorin emotsätter sig - mellan subjektivt och objektivt, diskurs och praktik, etcetera.

This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using different benchmarking models to measure and compare the efficiency of Swedish gas distributors. It also discusses to which extent the results of a benchmarking study should influence the revenue-cap which will be implemented in the gas distribution sector in Sweden from year 2011. The discussion is based on arguments from both theory and practical applications of benchmarking. The results suggest that benchmarking Swedish gas distributors against distributors in another country using a parametric model is most favorable, but the reliability will be increased if non-parametric models are used also. Partial and total productivity measures could be used to confirm results of other benchmarking analyses.

The purpose of this paper is to study whether or not stock returns increase abnormally over month ends on the Swedish stock exchange. Previous research has proven an international so called ?Turn-of-the-Month? effect where stock returns increase significantly over a few days around month ends. If the effect exists, it is a violation of Fama?s Efficient Market Hypothesis.

The purpose of this study was to examine how students of the Human Resources and Labour Relations Programme evaluates work applications from Swedish and Somali women. 55 students participated in the study. The respondents were supposed to read a fictitious work and from that, judge four applications from four women where two had Swedish names and two had Somali names. The independent variables were the participants' gender, grade and university (between subject variables) as well as the applicant's name (Swedish vs. Somali) as the within-subject variable.