SYFTESyftet med uppsatsen är att analysera Svenska hedgefonders historiska avkastning beträffande riskjusterad avkastning och korrelation mot marknaden. Vidare studeras dessa faktorer ur ett investerarperspektiv för att undersöka huruvida Svenska hedgefonder fyller ett syfte som komplement i en marknadsportfölj. METOD Uppsatsen använder sig till största del av kvantitativ data som insamlas med hjälp av relevanta teorier. Kvalitativ data såsom intervjumaterial är ett komplement till de kvantitativa data och leder så småningom till ett större djup i analysdelen. Undersökningen gällande den historiska avkastningen för Svenska hedgefonder är uppdelad i tre olika tidsperioder.

This master thesis is performed at Scania Axles and Gearboxes, a production plant located in Södertälje. Within the plant axles, gearboxes as well as central gears are assembled from components to finished products. All production is conducted on production lines, with a pre-determined rate, which is supplied with components by the material handling department. Since the production quantity and the mix of product variants produced on the production line is customer order-based, the number and type of components needed for production as well as appropriate staffing within the material handling department is difficult to predict. Scania is currently using a number of different resource planning tools for each material handling-department within Axles and Gearboxes to visualize the workload within the departments.

SEB Merchant Banking provides to its institutional customers a true market neutral product called Dynamic Manager Alpha (DMA). The DMA is constructed by a long position in an exceptionally well performing mutual fund and a beta adjusted short position in an appropriate index. The key to making the product market neutral is adjusting with the correct beta, since the beta changes, it is very important to have a good model for predicting beta in the future.This master thesis begins with describing what beta is in a CAPM sense. It then continues with recognizing the so called ?Two Beta Trap?, which separates two kinds of beta.

John B. Taylor, professor i nationalekonomi vid Stanford University, presenterade år 1993 en penningpolitisk regel som syftade till att vara ett hjälpmedel för centralbanker vid räntebeslut. Taylor-regeln är mycket enkel i sitt uförande och baseras på att styrräntan bör sättas efter två variabler: BNP-gapet och inflationsavvikelsen. Denna styrränteregel fick genomslag inom den vetenskapliga världen men spreds även till makroekonomisk praktik och medförde stora förändringar för penningpolitiken.Flera empriska studier har publicerats sedan Taylor-regeln tillkom och det råder det delade meningar om hur väl Taylor-regeln presterar för olika typer av ekonomier och hur användbar den är idag. Det har även uppkomit nya teorier angående trögheten i effekterna av styrränteförändringar och vid vilken tidpunkt dessa får en inverkan på inflationstakten.Syftet med denna uppsats är att jämföra hur väl den ursprungliga Taylor-modellen och en tidslaggad modell förklarar centralbankernas historiska styrräntesättning i fem länder med inflationsmål under tidsperioden 2000-2013.

The objective of this thesis is to examine the capital structure of Swedish small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Accounting data from Swedish game developers, combined with the result from a survey, is used to examine their financial conditions and capital structure decisions. We find that non-debt tax shield, firm size, growth opportunities and age are, to various extents, the determinants of capital structure in the game industry, while effective tax rate and asset structure have marginal effects. Our study also implicates that most of the existing capital structure theories can explain SMEs leverage decisions to some extent; however, some adaptation is needed to fit these theories into the SME context. Additionally, we find the existence of a financial gap in the game industry which might need efforts from both demand side and supply side to eliminate..

Background: A majority of strategic alliances do not create value for the participants. One of the main reasons for the high failure rate is an inadequate process for partner selection. If the correct partner is not selected, it can have serious effects on the management of the partnership. This is a serious problem since failed alliances usually are very expensive for the involved companies. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate which theoretical factors are important when selecting a partner for a strategic alliance.

According to the theory of elitist democracy civic political participation should be reduced to participation in the democratic elections. This essay examines whether a high rate of institutionalized political participation beyond the elections leads to: (a) that those who are included gets a more favourable treatment at the expense of the common interest, in other words that their self interest threatens the political equality, (b) reduced freedom of action for the politicians and the headmasters, (c) the emergence of vague conditions of responsibility. These hypotheses are examined in an empirical study of user-boards at four schools on three locations in southern Sweden. In these user-boards the parents are in majority and have the right of decision, which has been delegated to them from the local government and the headmaster. The main conclusion is that, based on this empirical investigation, there is no support in any of the hypotheses.

How should a fair income tax system be designed? Since Estonia became the first country to introduce a flat tax on incomes in 1994, this question has been in focus of public debate. The aim of is this thesis is to show that a flat income tax system, combining a proportional tax rate on all incomes with an allowance exempt from tax, is consistent with the demands of justice. In order to achieve this I construct a two level argument using normative method. The first part consists in the justification of a specific ethical theory which is derived from to notion of human dignity.

This essay has examined the effects that new issues had on the four Swedish football clubs that are organized as sport limited companies. The difference between a limited company and a sporting limited company is that the clubs always have majority ownership by the 51% rule. Previous research on sport limited companies and on new issues has been associated with the agent theory and the pecking order theory in order to explain the effects.The thesis is a qualitative study with an inductive approach, where the interviews have been selected as the method of collecting data. Through the years the clubs have performed new issues several times. The study says that the clubs perform a new issue for two reasons, either for investment purposes or because they have a poor economy and must collect liquid assets.

An increasing number of health problems in the population and an uneven distribution of health between different groups in the society, have been identified as a problems and has therefore been put on the political agenda in Sweden. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to estimate and discuss the significance an individual?s behaviour, in a number of areas, has on his/her level of health.The empirical material for this thesis is taken from a nationwide inquiry conducted in 2004,which was called ?Hälsa på lika villkor?? (Health on equal terms?) The material used consists of the answers and records from individuals living in the administrative district of Kronoberg. 9972 individuals were included in the sample and the answering frequency was 63,2%. To map and analyse the material, which was done mainly through crosstabs, chi-square tests and logistic regressions, the statistics software SPSS 11.5 was used.The parameter used to measure the health level is the individual?s own perception of his or her general health.

The technology used in the development of web-applications is evolving at such rate that it has become more and more important to keep web-applications modern. If an application is based on a technical platform that is not renewed, the platform may over time develop into an obstacle in further development of the application. There may be compatibility issues and some of the code may be unnecessary due to abstraction, and therefore more time consuming to work with. Sometimes the reason may be that an application has been built to run, and is running on an application server that is no longer being maintained. The system can be large and modernization can cost a lot.

This master?s thesis was written on the behalf of Saba Frukt och Grönt AB inHelsingborg and is the final part of the Master program in MechanicalEngineering at Halmstad University.The main task was to introduce visual control and increase the rate of concept intwo of the departments of the company. The goal is to come up withimplementation proposals, and if possible to implement one in the near future.The author attacks the problem by using the Six Sigma DMAIC-methodology as itis a clear and structured approach. As a complement Lean-inspired tools are used.After compiling the results from the interviews and benchmarking somesuggestions are made. These are reviewed with stakeholders and a discussion ofhow to go on further was held.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the properties of the municipalities in Sweden that influence the choice of being a certified Fairtrade city. The independent variables which are used in the statistical analysis are municipal governance, local tax rate, whether there is an university and/or university college in the municipality, average income and higher education in the municipality. The variables are examined by logistic regression. Since there are no statistical data on ethical procurement, this exogenous variable isn?t included in the regression.

Transformation of inorganic mercury (Hg) to methyl mercury (MeHg) is a biotic process that is proposed to be conducted primarily by sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB). The formation of MeHg is of great interest because it is the mercury species that biomagnifies to the greatest extent in the aquatic food webs; about 90 % of all Hg in fish is MeHg. Our understanding of factors involved in the production of MeHg is very important for making a reliable risk assessment. The purposes of this study were to investigate the different factors that control the solubility of Hg and the production of MeHg in a contaminated lake sediment. The lake Ala-Lombolo, Kiruna municipality, is well-known to be contaminated by mercury from different sources. Sediment cores were sampled at three different locations (N, SW and SE) in the lake and divided in three different layers; 0-5, 5-10 and 10-15 cm.

This thesis investigates techniques for stealth hydroacoustic communication using spread spectrum. The Swedish naval defense organisations have a vision that all their units should be able to communicate with each other, even between underwater vehicles. But the properties of water makes it a complex channel to use for wireless communications. Radiomagnetic waves have very limited range in water, therefore acoustic waves are used. In this report the basics of wireless communication systems are described including source coding, channel coding, modulation techniques as well as different techniques for spread spectrum.