Sverige är ett exportland med lång tradition av handel med omvärlden. För att kunna utnyttja våra absoluta och komparativa fördelar gäller det att vi har god kunskap om vad som påverkar vår handel. Dagens konsumenter har ett stort antal produkter att välja mellan. Handla har aldrig varit lättare och med hjälp av internet är det möjligt att handla varor från andra sidan jordklotet med minimal ansträngning. Vi ställer oss frågan, har vår språkkunskap och kultur en inverkan på den internationella handeln? Denna fråga ska försöka besvaras med hjälp av ett bland de vanligaste verktygen vid skattning av bilateral handel, den så kallade gravitationsmodellen.

Export is a top priority for Sweden's economy but for Swedish companies it may involve uncomfortable risks of exporting without sincere consideration. When the United Nations Security Council puts an embargo against a country, this often mean an import and export restriction. The thought is to push undemocratic regimes into respecting human rights. When the embargo is in force, however, the parties are not able to fulfill their contractual obligations, which practically means that the agreement will be suspended. The problem is what happens when an embargo is in force for a longer period of time.

The subject of this essay in archaeology is the economy at the mining village of Saladuringthe 16th and early 17th century. The silvermine in Sala was once the foremost producer of silver in Sweden, and the mine as well as the mining village had had a long and rich history. This history can be seen in historical documents as well as in archaeological findings. The lure of silver attracted many different people to the mining village. This in turn madetrade an important part of the mining village.

This paper describes and develops a trade off model of optimal capital structure by Bradley et al. (1984). The model is then tested to examine how changes in corporate tax rates affect the optimal capital structure of firms. Based on theoretical implications of the model, four hypotheses are derived stating that firms? optimal debt-to-value ratio is (1) negatively related to financial distress costs, (2) negatively related to non-debt tax shields, (3) negatively related to firm volatility and (4) positively related to the corporate tax rate.

AbstractEssay in Political Science, autumn 2010. ?ALBA ? A regional integration project with good conditions?? Autor: Anna Sjögren. Course: Political Science, C-level, Tutor: Sten Berglund An essential part of the political science research on regional integration has been about why states join economic unions and what forces drive the process of integration. This essay is a case study on the Latin American regional integration project called ALBA.

Sustainability work is something that is emphasized more and more. Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, is discussed and the question of how much responsibility companies should really take is frequently in the news. Companies tend to ask themselves how much responsibility they should take. CSR is a common concept of companies environmental and social work and a concept we tend to see here and there in our modern society. CSR includes companies? social responsibilities, both in terms of carbon footprint, working conditions, social responsibility and more.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the institutional effectiveness of the environmental institutions Helcom and the Mediterranean regime, by using Haas, Levy and Keohane's "the three Cs"; governmental concern, contractual environment, political and administrative capacity. The method used is a comparative analysis.This study takes into consideration the specific structural and economic factors that are prevailing in each region where the environmental regime operates. This study also takes into account the influence of the European Union as a factor that affects the environmental progress.By focusing the study on the line of conduct concerning hazardous substances by respectively regime this study shows that the institutional effectiveness is fulfilled in neither Helcom nor the Mediterranean Regime, although Helcom has been more successful. The lack of state capacity is the most restraining factor for both developing countries and countries in the transition towards being developed, to achieve a good environmental status of the sea. This study also shows that the European Union sometimes has a greater impact on the environmental progress in states, rather than the environmental regime in countries that were/are aspiring members, thus showing the ineffectiveness of the regime..

This essay discusses the issue of the role of women and also whether they could obtain a strong social position during the Viking Age. Moreover, it does discuss the question of how frequent women were present in Viking Age scriptures, art and archaeological artefacts in comparison to our view of women and her position in the modern society. The archaeological material used is in majority that found in Birka, such as burial and habitational findings. These objects, as well as other comparable and similar findings from other places, when put together with written sources, show that women had different roles in the society. She was able to have a strong social role during the Viking Age not only becauseof the status her family had but also because of her own merit depending of her skills and ability.The archaeological findings found in female graves and other findings in the area, suggest a specializing within both textile production and trade for the women.

The study begins with a historical background over the fisheries development in North America and in the Baltic Sea area in Finland and Sweden. As we can see the fisheries development depends on the interaction between ecology, state of production, politic and also social factors. In Sweden the fishery politic has changed over the period of the study. In the 1970: s the main politic focus was on the fisheries progress, expansion and rationalization. The State in Sweden took a vast part in this development and gave economic support.

This essay illustrates the rules and procedures when it comes to inclusive labor markets. In Sweden we have a labor market program called entry-level jobs, which makes it easier for immigrants to get work since our public employment agency pay remuneration to the employers.In this essay I am answering the following questions:How does the work of our public employment agency and Trade union looks like before, during and after an employee has gotten a subsidized employment called entry-level job, and in which way can this work be improved if necessary?How extensive do entry-level jobs contribute to increased integration and establishment on the labor market for newly arrived immigrants?How does the Swedish measure on entry-level jobs approach within the scope of European regulations about measures for inclusive labor market?To find answers to my questions I have used social science methodology and juridical method. I have performed document studies and interviews with concerned parts.The conclusion of above subordinated questions is that we need to extend the Swedish laws covering entry-level jobs so that the concerned parts know which assignments they will be responsible for when problems emerge on a workplace.When it comes to if entry-level jobs contribute to increase integration and establishment on the labor market it seems to be more important to integrate the immigrants quickly, and with which quality it is made does not seems to matter. The public employment agency has to emphasize the importance of Swedish language so that the employees can be independent from authorities in the future.

The purpose of this thesis is to through the analysis of interviews with finance professionals in listed companies answer the question on what lies behind capital structure decisions, and to see how well the prevailing theories fit the answers. This article is an explorative and descriptive hypothesis creating study. We have used a qualitative method to analyse practice through theory. We have conducted telephone interviews with CFO:s and financial executives in Swedish listed companies on how they reason when they make capital structure decisions. We have then thoroughly reviewed the theory and empirical tests of the theories.

This thesis studies two instruments within EC-law, affecting asylum issues, the Schengen Convention and the Dublin Regulation. These instruments are developed as a result of the free movement of persons in the European Union, and the development of the free internal market. The member states are afraid of losing control of who is residing within their borders, as their border controls has been removed, and these instruments are made to protect the member states now that their own means of control are gone. The thesis explains the relationship between the free movement and asylum issues and shows the connection between them. Its focus is aimed at the free movement of workers and how the European court of justice has interpreted article 39 to increase the workers ability to move within the union.

The free movement of the Roma minority has become questioned within the European Union. This study seeks to understand why this question has reached disproportionally importance in comparison to the number of Roma migrants within the union, and to understand the great attention given to the question. Based on the Copenhagen?s school of securitization, the purpose of this study is to show how this magnification of the question occurs due to the framing of the Roma migrants as a security problem. Focusing on the speech act of the securitization theory, this paper contains a study of political actor?s statements concerning Roma migrants.

With background in the acknowledgement of the current period of major change in the characteristics of traditional Swedish foreign policy, considering the membership in the European Union, as well as the new contextual scenarios that Sweden has been situated in after the end of the cold war, this thesis aims at scrutinizing the Swedish Foreign Policy from 1991 to 2010. The purpose of the thesis is further to localize continuity and change in the ideas which Sweden has explicitly stated in its foreign policy. Based on the theory of institutionalism, the thesis also aims to bring forward plausible explanations built on the main empirical findings. This has been done by identifying different types of goals and means within realism and liberalism as well as categorizing each theory within three ideal types.The chosen research method has been a qualitative text analysis with focus on an ideational analysis. The material on which the descriptive analysis is based upon is constituted by the annual statements of government policy in parliamentary debates on foreign affairs.The results of the thesis show that the ideas that are related to solidarity, consensus and active foreign policy are constant through the period of examination.

A majority of the payments that are carried out today are executed through the electronic payment systems. Payments that are executed through these systems are administrated by payment service providers, these providers are, in general, banks. In spite of the socio-economic importance of payments and payment intermediation, there is an uncertainty regarding the legal status of payments and payment intermediation. Some describe payment intermediation as transport of means of payments, while some describe it in terms of claims and intermediation of information. There is, in other words, a need for clarification.