Vattenfall hedge its future electricity production in order to decrease fluctuations in theresult. Hedging can in a simplified way be described as selling the future electricity deliveriesin long-term contracts so that the future price of the delivery becomes fixed. The contractsused are electricity forwards traded at the Nordic electricity market Nord Pool. Animbalance between buyers and sellers can lead to a situation where the forward price notequals the expected spot price. The difference between the forward price and the expectedspot price is referred to as the market risk premium.

Climate change is the modern society?s common issue. The developed countries areconsuming more than what is sustainable, and the climate change due to the use offossil fuels can be seen clearly. EU has specified goals, in order to stop furtherdamage, which demand that every member state have to reduce its energyconsumption by 20 % before 2020 and 50 % before 2050, relative to 1995.The Swedish government uses a number of instruments to encourage reduction in theusage of energy, but every individual has to contribute to reach the goals.With increasing energy price the cost of living is going up. A lot of people are lookingfor ways to save energy and not be affected as much by the increasing price.Investments for insulation, replacement of windows and replacing old heating systemfor a new efficient heat pump is getting more and more common.This thesis is about investigating the possibilities in becoming independent from buyingenergy for households.

Mass media is becoming more and more personalized and despite common ideas it could actually be a good thing. Instead of affecting the actual content of news coverage it might only have an effect on the way in which news are presented. Famous politicians more regularly become symbols and synonyms for their parties or for the government and are being used to create interest in the beginning of articles.Those are the results from a content analysis of the newspaper coverage of the Swedish parliamentary election in 1976 and 2006 in which the scientist categorized each article in one of four ideal types, counted quotes and analyzed whether personal names were interchangeable with party names without affecting the content. All three methods showing that it is the presentation, not the content, which has been personalized.At the same time, psychology-science tells us about the human brains associative learning processes, where memorizing becomes far more efficient when the information can be connected to an already known person. Increased personalization of news might therefore increase the political knowledge of the receivers..

The aim of this paper is to describe how to measure welfare effect of the deregulation and increased competition of the public transport by railway in Sweden. The paper also includes a numerical example of how to measure the welfare effect. In our study we use public data from SJ regaring quantity and ticket prices for the period 1996 - 2005. We have used equivalent variation, EV, as the method to measure the welfare effect. We demonstrate how to derive the equation to calculate EV by starting with a Marschallian demand function.

The implementation of a material requirements planning system is a complex and demanding task. There has been much research into what factors are important in such implementations, but seemingly very little about the links between critical success factors and management control systems. This thesis attempts, through a case study, to answer the question of how management control systems affect the implementation of an MRP system in ASSA AB, a Swedish manufacturing firm. Data is primarily collected through interviews. Theory regarding implementation success definitions, critical success factors as well as management control systems is presented.

The last years? financial situation has contributed to an increased willingness from the banks to handle risks. The most important risk to cope with is a risk that is related to a customer?s ability to repay loans. Forecasts indicate that in the future, Swedish farmers will be facing profitability challenges, which points to a need to reconsider the banks procedures considering risk management in credit granting for agricultural businesses.Today?s risk management will be given two complements in this study.

Since the spring 2003 the tenant-owner home association the Terrace in Upplands Väsby municipality lies straight under the approach route to Arlanda Airport?s new third landing chute. Noise levels of over 70 dB have been measured in the area, which exceeds National Board of Housing?s, values for traffic noise at a terrace in connection to housing. By using the method of hedonisk pricing the essay tries to find out if there exists a willingness to pay to reduce the noise in the area.

 Problem   Are there any abnormal changes in the parent company's share price at the news of a spin?off.ObjectiveThe main purpose of the study is to investigate how the news of a spin-off affects the parent company's share price. In other words if the news of the Spin-off gives an abnormal return on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during the specific period of 1998?2008. In addressing this, the paper will also investigate the following sub sections: are there any differences in the abnormal returns in various sectors and what the reasons to perform a spin?off in the Swedish market are.MethodAn event study in which market data is used to measure specific events? impact on the value of the company and on the effects on the stock market.

The overall aim was to examine how the public interest to protect children from violence and sexual abuse at home, is realized by social workers. The study´s central focus was the risk assessments as Social services are obliged to do when they receive a report containing concern that children are being exposed to violence or sexual abuse at home. The study addresses the following questions:o How do social workers go about practically, and what support and knowledge is being used to determine whether the Social services need to intervene for the protection of a child?o What risk and protective factors are taken into account by social workers in the assessment process?o What contextual factors do social workers experience are affecting them in the assessment process?o Which support does the documentation system BBIC provide in the assessment process?The study material was collected through qualitative group interviews, with a modified vignette methodology as tools. The study included a total of twelve social workers, with varying numbers in each interview group.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the potential presence of a relationship between the quality of corporate financial disclosure and the volatility in stock price in the Swedish market. This was carried out by investigating the hypothesis that an accurate annual report with high information quality results in a decrease in volatility. Previous studies have been done with this approach and in some cases the above stated hypothesis was found to be true. Thus, in the absence of a perfect efficient market the level of information quality may to some extent explain the volatility in stock price. However, the result of our study gave no evidence in support of this hypothesis.

The last years? financial situation has contributed to an increased willingness from the banks to handle risks. The most important risk to cope with is a risk that is related to a customer?s ability to repay loans. Forecasts indicate that in the future, Swedish farmers will be facing profitability challenges, which points to a need to reconsider the banks procedures considering risk management in credit granting for agricultural businesses.Today?s risk management will be given two complements in this study.

This study is a first attempt to try to understand what the variables could be that make the person responsible for the grave sign up for grave gardening services by the church or to maintain the grave by him- or herself. There has been almost no research done within this subject. This study has been made by a qualitative research method and interviews have been performed with both persons responsible for the grave who have gardening services made by the church and with those who maintain the grave by themselves. The characteristics that are affecting consumer behaviour and the buyer decision process are presented in the theoretical part of this study. That is done so it can be seen if a comparison between the results of the study and the basic theoretical concept is possible, resulting in an understanding of how the costumers think and argue about this question.

Although previous research conclude that mergers and acquisitions do not always lead to improved profitability or increased shareholder return, the number and size of M&A?s is steadily increasing. In this thesis we examine why an acquirer pays a price higher than the market value. Can accounting data explain the size of the premium? 618 European transactions between 1997 and 2008 are examined and relationships between the targets? accounting data and the premium is analysed through statistical regressions.

The interest for power and energy measurement has greatly raised with todays increasing electricity prices and enviromental awareness. In the search for energy efficient solutions, the measurements are more complex due to increasing of non linear components. Harmonics and non sinusoidal voltages put high demands on sampling and filtering. Meanwhile, the price must be controlled so the customer still will find it interesting to invest in smaller plants. ITT W&WW asks for a robust, heat resistant power meter with compact dimensions to allow mounting inside the casing of a pump.

The purpose of this essay was to try to find out if the optimal farrowing pen exists. By interviewing producers, veterinarians and salesmen and also through a literature study, I have tried to evaluate advantages and disadvantages regarding different types of pen formations and environmental details. The interviews with the producers showed that they all were satisfied with their particular farrowing pen. It also showed that one material can be functional in one farrowing pen but not in another. The determining factor for the outcome of the farrowing pen was the individual experience and the way of thinking of the producers. The veterinarians were of the opinion that there today were no existing farrowing pens that responded to the pigs needs. However, the results on the farms were generally good. The salesmen thought that the production costs could be lower if a sort of a standard pen was used.