The purpose of this essay is to acquire variables that explain and may be used as a base for wage estimation in the private sector in Sweden. The factors that are assumed to have an impact on wage estimation are based on earlier Swedish and international studies. Business survey data, which is based upon monthly questions to firms in various sectors of the Swedish economy posed by the Swedish National Institute of Economic Research, will be analyzed to find out weather they have an impact on Swedish wage settings or not. Tests including business survey data are yet rarely frequent, why this essay will be some kind of a pioneer within the area. To estimate significant factors that influence wage setting in Sweden, three different wage equations have been modeled and tested with a regression model.

This study aims at examining the prospects for a policy transfer of a Swedish municipal environmental policy (that of Växjö) to the French urban commune Blois, for which an ambition of becoming a leading eco-city in France, was declared by the mayor in 2008.In the analysis, emphasis is laid on mechanisms to institutionalize the main environmental policy principles, such as political and institutional structures and processes. Other prospects for an institutionalization of a new environmental policy that are to be investigated are economic structures as well as visions of the different decision-makers concerned. Research methods used in the study are qualitative interviews, document studies and a questionnaire.The findings of the analysis show that today?s prospects for an environmental policy in Blois close to that of Växjö, are clearly limited. The limitations can partly be found in economic structures but these seem to be rather related to a lack of priority amongst actors.

The aim of this paper is to try to explain how specific, foreign policy decisions are made, and why one state decides to use violence against another state. A qualitative method is used, and text and documents are analysed. The two theoretical points of departure are central within foreign policy analysis: realism´s theories on external threats and constructivism´s theories on ideas´ policy influence. The empirical case chosen is the US decision to use military violence against Iraq. The paper investigates whether the real threat from Saddam Hussein´s Iraq was the cause of the American military attacks, or whether the ideas of leading politicians in the USA were decisive for the decision to invade the country.

Sweden introduced a development assistance policy in 1952 and thirteen years later Sida, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency started, in 1965. But in 1995, five separate development assistance authorities came together and established the new Sida as it is today. Sida is Sweden?s representative in the development assistance policy field and they work through projects that have to be presented through a Country Strategy Process (CSP). The aim of this paper is to point out Sida?s perspective on the conducted development assistance policy and what guide lines that are followed.

Forecasting stock market returns is an interesting topic since more and more Swedes enter and invest in this market. Theory implies, however, that such exercises should be impossible. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the possibility to forecast future stock returns by looking at macroeconomic variables? history. The study is limited to the Swedish market as it is based on the OMXS30-index which represents the 30 most exchanged stocks on Stockholms¬börsen, the Swedish stock exchange.

The right to non-discrimination is a fundamental part of human rights. Sweden has enacted legislation which prohibits employers from discriminating or harassing employees and job seekers. Swedish authorities also receive a substantial amount of complaints concerning ethnic discrimination in the workplace every year and there are volumes of research showing structural injustices related to discrimination. Despite these facts few employers have so far been found guilty of discrimination on ethnic grounds in Swedish courts.This thesis aims to shed lights on and analyse how the Swedish anti-discrimination legislation is utilised in the Swedish Labour Court regarding discrimination and harassment on ethnic grounds. On the basis that very few lawsuits brought on behalf of employees/job seekers have been successful it is hypothesized that there are problems either with the form of the legislation or the assessment of the court.

Title: Overreaction on the Swedish stock market Seminar date:2008-01-30 Course:Nek K01- Bachelor Thesis in Economics (15 ETCS) Authors: Advisor:Oskar Herbe and Ludvig Persson Hossein Asgharian Key Words:Overreaction, Anomalies, Market Efficiency, Contrarian investment strategies Purpose:The purpose of this thesis is to test if the overreaction hypothesis as originally described by De Bondt and Thaler is a good explanation model for the Swedish stock market. Further, our intension is to divide the stock market into three segments by company size, in terms of market capitalization, to control for size effects. Method:We have conducted this study by analyzing Swedish stock data in the period of 1989-2007. Within this time span, using overlapping formation periods, we have constructed two types of portfolios, winner portfolios and looser portfolios. The portfolios represent the 30 per cent best performing respectively worst performing stocks in terms of returns.

The study tries to increase the understanding of the phenomenon known as the Big bath, on the question whether the market accepts Big bath accounting principle or not. Big bath is an accounting theory meaning that a company is likely to increase its impairment in a specific year. This could be as a reaction on a change in the leadership, a depreciation of the result or maybe an external decrease in demand. Through a quantitative survey of the market it is examining whether the companies themselves are inclined to use the procedure and if the stock market accepts it. The study concludes that Big bath similar procedures are a fairly common accounting practice and that the stock market does not seem to mind. .

Because of the large economic growth in China there are many companies who have economic interests in the Chinese market. Also in the forest market companies have started to invest in China and the interest for the market is growing. The question is how the Chinese forest market will develop in the years to come? How will China?s entry on the market of forest products affect the global forest market? The purposes of this study are to describe production, consumption and trade of forest products, and China?s possible competitive advantage in the forest industry. The purpose of this study is also to describe how China?s entry on the forest market affects the world market of forest products.

Essay in Political Science, Advanced Course, by Christoffer Hagström?The Bush Administration´s view on international cooperation and internationallaw and political-theoretical traditions influence on the administration´s foreignpolicy?Supervisor: Jan OlssonThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the American foreign policy, particularly with regard tointernational cooperation and international law. The two following research-questions are used inorder to fulfil the purpose: (1) what is the Bush-administrations´s view of of the place forinternational cooperation and international law in American foreign policy?, and (2) how does theadministration´s foreign policy correspond to dominant political-theoretical thought-traditions? Thetraditions used are: liberalism, realism and neoconservatism. The sources of the study mostlyinclude literature and policy-documents.

The purpose of this thesis is to study to what extent the UN millennium development goals have influenced Sweden?s development policy. The research method that I have used is a qualitative text analysis and I have studied the ideas in governmental texts and millennium development goals reports from 1995-2008.My hypothesis is that the basic ideas that has symbolized Sweden?s development policy has not changed much since the adoption of the millennium development goals in year 2000. This hypothesis is based on different ideas that the basic perspectives in international development policy are rather constant.My conclusion is that many of the areas that are affected by the millennium development goals already are prioritized areas within Swedish development policy, for example poverty reduction and gender equality.

The purpose of this study is to analyse how the local governments have implanted the new public health policy, which Sweden adopted in April 2003. The new health policy stakes out a new direction for national public health policy. Instead of focusing on diseases the new public health policy focus in factors that determine health.Important factors to study are the role of central steering from the central government. The method used is a case study of three Swedish local governments. The main material used is interviews and different policy documents within the area of public health.The conclusion of the study shows that the local governments are fairly satisfied with the steering of public health policy by the central government.

This report is a market research for the company 4 Body and Mind, a start-upcompany that works with personal training online. They wanted to know if themarket for elderly care could be interesting for them to enter. This report is hence aresearch of the market for health and welfare technology in elderly care within thepublic sector in Sweden. A general fact is that the world's population is getting older.This combined with rapid growth of individuals in the age 65+ changes the demandson the elderly care in Sweden?s municipalities.

The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding on how market leading pharmaceutical companies in Sweden limit the market share decrease when these companies patent expires. In order to respond to the purpose, two research questions have been asked: how do pharmaceutical companies deal with market strategies prior to the expiration of a patent: and how the market strategies is used when a patent has expired and as a consequence, generics entered the market. A case study was implemented based on two interviews with a brand manager and a therapy area manager within the company Pfizer AB in Sweden. The results suggest that pharmaceutical companies implement strategies in numerous ways which differs substantially from the theories, this having to do with Swedish legislation. The main aim with the execution of the strategy, before and after patent expiration is not to limit a decrease in market share hence, rather to retain the pharmaceutical companies strong brand image.

This thesis is seeking to explain why policy change come about. This is done by applying a part of Karin Lindgrens dissertation Vad styr ledaren?. The research evolves around the term pressure and the hypothesis are that policy change come about when there is middle range pressure on the decision-maker. Low and high pressure results in no or small policy change.The thesis is done as a case study where the economic crisis in Thailand 1996-1999 makes my case.