A reforming trend is captured showing that countries are shifting from defined benefit pension systems towards defined contribution systems. The reforms have been justified through predictions that the defined benefit systems will not manage to provide good enough pensions to members in the future. The newer defined contribution pension plans often include individual financial accounts where individuals have the possibility to choose how a part of their pension savings should be invested. Sweden was early to introduce such a system, which at the moment provides more than 800 funds to choose from. The aim of this thesis is to capture the market risk associated with these individual investments and does so by using Monte Carlo simulations for six selected pension funds.

I uppsatsen undersöker vi vilken grupp av låg-, medel- och höginkomsttagare som kan tänkas gynnas mest av det nya pensionssystemet. Vi har gjort beräkningar för att få fram skattning av hur mycket respektive grupp kan tänkas få i pension i förhållande till sin slutlön beroende på hur man placerar sin premie- och tjänstepension. Utifrån dessa resultat har vi även undersökt vilken grupp som har störst nytta av att placera sin premie- och tjänstepension i låg- och högriskfonder. Undersökningen pekade på att ju lägre inkomst man har desto högre kompensationsgrad får man vid placering i högriskfonder. Däremot fick höginkomsttagarna störst nyttoökning av att placera sin pension i högriskfonder.

Our purpose of this paper is to seek an understanding of which service quality factors that affects customers in their decision making progress regarding purchasing financial services such as pension products. We also seek to evaluate the different service quality factors by compare their relative strength against each other. The study aim to investigate if there are any connections between customer behavior variables such as gender, age and income in comparison to these service quality factors related to pension products.The findings aim to help a small financial institute such as our case company Plain Capital to understand how their customers experience service quality regarding pension products.In order to find empirical results we conducted a qualitative research as well a quantitative research. The qualitative research employed both a focus group interview with pension savers and an interview with our case company Plain Capital. We were able to identify the service quality factors for pension?s products with help from the focus group interview.

I uppsatsen undersöker vi vilken grupp av låg-, medel- och höginkomsttagare som kan tänkas gynnas mest av det nya pensionssystemet. Vi har gjort beräkningar för att få fram skattning av hur mycket respektive grupp kan tänkas få i pension i förhållande till sin slutlön beroende på hur man placerar sin premie- och tjänstepension. Utifrån dessa resultat har vi även undersökt vilken grupp som har störst nytta av att placera sin premie- och tjänstepension i låg- och högriskfonder. Undersökningen pekade på att ju lägre inkomst man har desto högre kompensationsgrad får man vid placering i högriskfonder. Däremot fick höginkomsttagarna störst nyttoökning av att placera sin pension i högriskfonder.

Syftet med denna studie är att analysera och jämföra inkomst från privat pension mellan utrikes födda individer som kom till Sverige före år 1970 och inrikes födda individer. Grupperna som har observerats är utrikes födda och inrikes födda, män och kvinnor som år 2008 var i åldrarna 65-66, 70-74 samt 75 och uppåt. Syftet är att, med utgångspunkten att de utrikes födda erhåller lägre inkomstsnivåer från offentlig pension än de inrikes födda, analysera om de kompenserar med högre nivåer från privat pensionsinkomst. Studien visar på att utrikes födda i åldersgruppen 75 och uppåt erhåller något lägre inkomstnivåer från privat pension än motsvarande inrikes födda, i åldersgruppen 70-74 är skillnaden större medan utrikes födda i åldersgruppen 65 erhåller avsevärt lägre nivåer än inrikes födda. Således kompenserar inte utrikes födda en lägre offentlig pension med privat pensionssparande.

 The luxury market has steadily grown from the industrial revolution and onwards. Changes in society, trends and the increased living standards has enabled more people to consume luxury goods.The world is going through a major economic crisis at the moment. Studies shows that companies that have focused on added value rather than lowering prices has survived past financial crisis. It is also obvious that companies act very different during times of crisis. Adding to the problem is trends that point to a more careful consumption and environmental awareness.

Background: Operating on the stock market is associated with risks. If a particular asset is not traded with the same frequency as the average market asset, this particular asset is exposed to a liquidity risk. It means that the investor might not be able to sell the asset at a desired time without incurring expensive transaction costs. The query is whether or not the investor is compensated with a liquidity premium for bearing the extra risk. Earlier studies on the Stockholm Stock Exchange have failed to prove that there is a relation between stock return and liquidity.

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.

Title: Establishing in China?s ?good-enough? market - A benchmarking study on Scandinavian engineering industries? further establishment in China. Problem discussion: The Chinese market is gaining importance for Scandinavian engineering industries and is by many considered a crucial market to be successful in. These companies have a tradition of producing premium products for premium customers. However, in China many are currently experiencing the threat from local competitors producing products of somewhat less quality aimed at the vast Chinese middle market - the good-enough market.

The competition in the milk industry has increased during the last couple of years. This is a result of the trade barrier that dissolved when Sweden entered the European Union. The membership signifies an increased internationalization for the dairies, which has also increased the existence of low price chains in the Swedish food market. The increased share of private brands has strengthened the competitive situation for the manufacturer- owned brands. Three of Sweden?s seven largest dairies have now decided to launch a low price milk to cope with the competitive situation.

The process of European Integration and creation of the single market revealed many questions and boundaries on the development and improvement of the European Social Policy. Pension?s sustainability has become the priority issue especially during the EU enlargement processes. Different policy instruments and institutions available to governments of Member States in realization of social objectives resulted in a growing diversity of pension polices which produced different combinations of public and private provisions - ?private-public hybrids? , with the state exercising different degrees of influence in their development.

The prevention of age discrimination in Sweden did not have any solvent grounds until directive 2000/78/EG was implemented into Swedish law. Today age discrimination has been banned for just over two years. This ground of discrimination has, compared to other existing grounds of discrimination in Swedish law, a lot more opportunities to make exceptions from. Given the fact that the exemption rules are vague, it is difficult to determine whether the protection against age discrimination is in fact a protection at all. The purpose of this essay is to describe what the law regarding age discrimination means.

This paper studies the option market?s implied dividend as a predictor of future equity market returns. We introduce this variable in the simple total return framework and discuss some complications of using it as a proxy for the expected dividend. We construct some regressions using the price-dividend ratio and the implied dividend growth, and test them on six years worth of data on the EURO STOXX 50-index. The main result is that implied dividend growth exhibits some forecastability over two-year horizons, but that the dataset is too short to draw any definitive conclusions about long-horizon forecastability.

En kvantitativ analys av budpremier och kursutveckling i samband medföretagsförvärv på Stockholmsbörsen..

This paper presents empirical evidence on the determinants of interest rate swap spreads in Sweden during the period 1999-2003. The results suggest that the spread between STIBOR and the general collateral repo rate is positively related to shorter maturity swap spreads. The risk premium associated with commercial bonds is positively related to swap spreads of all maturities. A negative relationship is observed between the term structure of interest rates and swap spreads. The short-term interest rate is positively related to spreads with shorter maturities.