The purpose of this thesis was to investigate whether accounting quality is a priced factor by investors. The event studied is the release of year-end result and the release of the annual report. To assess accounting quality a sample of 30 companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during 2003 to 2007 are studied. We assess accounting quality by the absolute size of discretionary accruals using the modified Jones model developed by Dechow et al. (1995).

Purpose: The main purpose of the thesis is to examine the consequences of applying IAS40 on the Swedish real estate companies? annual reports. How does its application affect the companies? stockholders? capital and how do the companies solve the problems that occur due to the application of this standard.Method: The authors use both the qualitative and quantitative approaches to process the thesis. The primary data comprises of hard data in form of annual reports and the secondary data consists of the soft data as direct interviews and email interviews.Theory: There aren?t any theories on the subject.

The purpose of this essay is to identify the costs of illness in different organizations, and compare the calculated result with the actual result in their annual reports.We collected information thru interviews with the personnel manager in the selected organizations, and used the annual reports to add necessary information.When we applied our model, we found that the selected organizations, in some cases, have a cost of illnes which is up to seven times higher than shown in their annual reports. It?s, in general, the costs that aren?t related to the salary (additional costs), which are much higher than shown.The absence of a model that calculates the costs of illnes can result in wrongful decisions. If a model would be applied in an organization, it should increase the awearness of the actual costs of illnes, which can lead to better decisions througout the whole organization.This report is written in Swedish..

Sustainability reporting in Sweden is a voluntary disclosure action for non-governmental companies. Since 2009 all state-owned companies must however publish a sustainability report according to GRI guidelines and with independent assurance statement. Three different sustainability reporting methods are primarily used: (1) Separate Sustainability Report, (2) Sustainability Report included in the Directors? Report, and (3) Sustainability Report forming part of the Printed Annual Report. The aim of this paper is to explore why some companies choose to publish a sustainability report and identify the motivational factors behind this decision, as well as attain an understanding for companies? choice of reporting method.

The purpose of this paper was, on the basis of the association?s annual reports, to describe appropriate key performance indicators for non-profit associations. The purpose was furthermore to study how the associations show their goal-attainment. The research was delimited to contain the second category of non profit associations, which include sports associations. The authors choose three non profit associations, which according to the law, shall draw up annual reports. The three ice hockey associations HV71, MODO Hockey and Frölunda Hockey Club, were thereafter chosen on the basis of those delimits.

The aim of this study is to try to explain the process using both an actor driven perspective as well as a structural perspective examining the reasons why the County Council of Värmland wants to merge with Region Västra Götaland. The answers to the following research questions are sought to shed light on the problem: What constrained the discretion of  the political actors in the choice of region to merge with? Which role did  different political actors play? Does the study provide Game Theory, from Rational Choice theory,  and Path Dependency, from Historic Institutionalism, a new perspective and strength especially  when bringing them together? The study is limited to two policy areas, health care and regional development policy. The structural background is drawn upon the Annual Report 2008 of the County Council Värmland, the Regional Development Program and Regional Transport Infrastructure Plan 2010-2021 by Region Värmland. The chronological order of decisions and events is drawn upon protocols from various regional political organs all linked to the municipal of Värmland and the correspondence between the officials of Värmland?s municipal and the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency of the State.

German regional policy has changed from a strategy of redistribution to a regional growth focused policy- strategies, which are often seen as opposites. Both policies, however, still have to relate to the constitutional objective ?to achieve equal living conditions for the country?s citizens.?This paper examines what effects a political change may have had on the interpretation of the German constitutional objective. Its aim is to examine German regional policy and its relationship to justice, using John Rawls? A Theory of Justice.

Background: In 2001 the European Commission presented legislation to require use of IASB standards named IAS/IFRS for all listed parent companies within the EU no later than 2005, to improve an internal market for financial services within the EU. This harmonisation of the accounting regulations answers to the social development of today with land-frontiers easier to cross, increased demands on an open financial market and the companies searching for risk capital outside the boundaries of the own country. International comparisons within accounting have consequently become more of current interest and necessary. When the requirement to use the IASB standards only is intended for the group accounting the remaining question is according to which regulations the parent companies will set up their annual financial reports. In Statens Offentliga Utredningar 2003:71(Swedish Government Official Reports) the parent companies are suggested to be given an opportunity to apply IAS/IFRS also in the annual financial report.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explain which factors that affects Swedish listed companies choice of placement for the corporate governance report when the regulation gives different options.Methodology: The chosen research philosophy is positive, research strategy is deductive and methodology is quantitative.Theoretical Perspectives: As support for the dependent (placement) and independent factors agency theory, positive accounting theory, accounting choice, legitimacy-, stakeholder-, and institutional theory are used.                  Empirical foundation:The sample consists of 249 companies. The empirical data consists of the companies Annual reports and Corporate Governance reports for financial year 2011 or when split financial year, 2010/2011. Limitations: A limitation of the study is that it is based on observations from only one year why it is not certain that the results should have been the same if a comparison between several years had been done.Conclusions: The factors size and growth explain the placement of the Corporate Governance Report in Swedish listed companies..

In the beginning of the 21th century several successful companies filed for bankruptcy. These bankruptcies have been known as large accounting scandals and the largest scandals did Enron and Worldcom stand for. These bankruptcies arose without any warning signal from the auditors about the companies? financial problems and their inability to continue as a going concern. The bankruptcies damaged the reputation of auditors and broad criticism has developed at the auditors? inability to discover companies? financial problems and their unwillingness to reveal a going concern opinion in the audit report.

Problem: After several corporate scandals concerning accounting around the world a discussion concerning corporate governance arose. The public demanded greater insight and better corporate governance in public companies. The discussions led to the development of codes of corporate governance, codes such as the Sarbanes Oxley Act, the Combined Code and the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance. The Swedish code is a clarifying of the Swedish law, a codification of praxis and in some cases an increase in the demands on reporting of information from the companies.Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to describe what effects the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance has had on the content of annual reports of listed companies and if different types of companies have been affected in different ways.Method: The investigation was conducted using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Through a preliminary study knowledge about the subject was gathered.

In this essay I examine how a municipal- and an independent upper secondary school compare to the ideal types the Company and the Political organization and how that affects the school practise as it?s described in policy documents. The conclusions are that the municipal school on a number of variables correlate to the ideal type the Political organization. At the same time the school reforms of the 1990s are considered as an intention to ?companylize? the municipal school and a number of tendencies how that have affected the municipal school are shown.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to describe and analyse the origin and development of the municipal library of Västervik. There have been four previous libraries and our examination starts in 1859 with the foundation of a parish library. The other forerunners were a working-class movement library and two libraries in the International Orders of Good Templars. Before the merger of the libraries there were discussions in the municipal council, among the working-class movement and in the IOGT.

The aim of this report was to investigate which factors determine municipal taxes in Sweden.The aim was also to find out whether and how the forms of political rule are significant covariates. A multiple regression analysis was performed using data from 289 municipalities. The analysis resulted in five dierent models, of which a model based on municipal grouping was found to be most satisfactory. In all of the models, there are effects from the form of political rule. The results indicate that socialist municipalities have higher tax rates than non-socialist.

Previously studies have shown that the way companies explain outcome in their annual report is not totally trustworthy. Studies show that the management has a self serving bias when they explain the result to give a positive image of the company. Our study is based on investigations into this phenomenon in the telecom market in Sweden. Turbulent market conditions with, among other, deregulation of the monopoly of fixed telephony and a huge technical evolution, which has led to an increase in competition, is the reason to why we have chosen to study the telecom market in Sweden. As a benchmark in our study the attribution theory will be used.