In May 2004 eight former communist countries (EU-8) with close historical trade ties to Russia joined the European Union. According to integration theory, we expect that Russia ? a so called third country ? in some cases may suffer from trade diversion due to this. This thesis focuses on the possible effects on Russian trade resulting from the 2004 eastern enlargement of the European Union. It aims to find out whether any evidence of trade diversion can be found.

Background: Sweden is a country with 30 million memberships in different non- profit organizations. In total these organizations employees about 400 000 people, through employment and voluntary work. The complete turnover for non- profit organizations is 100 billion Swedish crowns per year. It has only since 2001 been compulsory to follow the Swedish account rules BFL and ÅRL. Trade unions are one type of non-profit organizations with the main purpose to care for the interest of its members concerning their working condition.

Money by definition is always a subjective human creation. Because of this it is unavoidablethat the physical and mental structure of a specific money system will have an effect on thesociety where it is circulating. With this fact as a starting point, the thesis is analysing whetherthe Swedish national currency, the crown, is consistent with a sustainable development. Theaim of the analysis is to: (a) identify the major shortcomings of the infrastructure of the crownin relation to its ability to support a sustainable development, (b) evaluate what possiblesolutions there are at hand to adjust for the shortcomings. The method used is purely based ontheoretical analysis, with emphasis on abstraction and causal simplicity.In a modern society, money is not only circulating as coins and bills, but also as digital assetstransferred directly between bank accounts.

The purpose of this study was to examine and illustrate how people look at themselves and their happiness in relation to their economic situation. This study was based on interviews with eight adults divided in two groups, four were big-income earners and four were unemployed/sick-listed. I identified factors that affected the feeling of happiness such as family, friends and economy. During the process four themes were identified, happiness, work, economic strain and the importence of money versus happiness. The analysis was based on the concept of aspiration levels and an economic perspective.The conclusion of the analysis was a surprise to me, showing that economic strain could be detected in both groups but by different means.

The relationship between free trade and the environment is often considered conflicting and the debates surrounding it are infected. My thesis deal with this conflict and how environmental concerns are integrated in three regional free trade agreements, North American Free Trade Agreement, The common market of the southern cone (MERCOSUR) and Southern African Development Community (SADC). I point out how the organizations differ from each other in this respect and I present a possible explanation to why they differ. The explanation is founded on the theory of the environmental Kuznets curve and that environmental concerns will depend on which level of development the member states in the organizations have. To judge and rank the organizations I have composed a model based on a pre-existing description of the trade and environment conflict.

This paper is an attempt to distinguish the specifics of the conflict resolution process and the negotiations during trade conflicts. First of all, this kind of conflict almost always contains some kind of protectionism which doesn?t make sense economically. Imposing trade-barriers decrease the overall welfare of your own nation and the only winner is the protected sector. These policies can be introduced since the political pressure from threatened industries is usually much stronger than the pressure from the consumers who will bear the burden of protectionism.

This rapport examines six Swedish workplace unions, in manufacturing internationalised companies, degree of internationalised trade union work. The report is based on interviews with local shop stewards. All local workplace unions were in some form internationalised. They were placed in three different groups of strategies: Passive, Tactical and Strategic. The Passive union only tried to get information; the Tactical unions were reactive against initiative from company management and used the channels provided of Industrial Relation laws.

How affected are the sugar production in Mozambique and Tanzania by EU sugar regime? What does the EU sugar reform constitute in these countries?Using theories regarding free trade and anti-free trade, I am able to answer these questions. The aim of this paper is to study how the various sugar agreements with EU affect the sugar production in Mozambique and Tanzania. Therefore I am using a method called a most similar system design in this comparative case study. The conclusion is that the EU sugar regime is the main reason to how the sugar productions in developing countries are.

In the beginning of 2002 a new kind of debate started inside the Swedish trade unions that also were published in the newspapers. The debate was about if the Swedish trade unionshould organize the undocumented workforce or not. In this thesis I will deal with this issue and also investigate what kind of solutions the trade unions in Sweden use on this newphenomenon, a phenomenon that recently have become a social and political problem during the last years. This is a new subject within political science and there is limited research made before. Because of that, this thesis will be empirical, inductive and exploring by its nature.

Research in international trade situations has mainly focused on understanding the exporter?s actions and has showed ways on how these can be optimized. Although the importer in most cases, until this day, has been left outside this focus, it has been showed that the importer often is the active participant in an international dyad. It is the importer who is actively seeking suppliers for its production or distribution. Based on previous research in the area, the following study identifies the factors that are vital to the importer for satisfactory relations.

Trade Unions are finding it increasingly challenging to appeal to employees and all trade unions alike are encountering new challenges to attract and retain members. Additionally a more diversified and educated labor market is creating demands for trade unions to better meet individual needs. The purpose of this study was to explore and analyze the role of branding in Unionen, the largest white-collar trade union in Sweden, and how branding efforts help in attracting and retaining trade union members. The theoretical foundation of this thesis is based on theories related to corporate branding and relationship marketing. Furthermore, the study develops and introduces the concept of member branding in the context of trade unions.

In the light of ever increasing international trade around the globe, affecting men and women in all countries, it is surprising that so little attention is given its gender effects. The effects of trade are said to be gender neutral, but could potentially act reinforcing on the existing gender patterns in a society. The aim of this thesis is to examine whether the implications for men and women in relation to trade liberalization can be found to differ. By stylizing some differences between men and women, this is done by examining the theoretical implications mainly via the Heckscher-Ohlin model and through a Beckerian approach. The implications found are then compared with the findings in existing empirical work.

Uppsatsen sammanfattar nationalekonomiska teorier kring fair trade och, för teorierna, relevant empiri. Störst vikt läggs vid fair trades prismekanism och vilka effekter samt bieffekter den innebär. Teorikapitlet består i princip av fyra delar; Premiens konsekvenser i effektivitetshänseende. Rational choice, om incitamenten att delta i fair trade. Därefter en handelsteoretisk jämförelse mellan fri handel och fair trade i heckscher-Ohlinmodllen.

Trade is the driving force for economic development. A greater equity in international trade can improve the livelihoods and the well being of producers in developing countries. The small-scale farmers have limited resources and have difficulties to get access to the international market. As a result of this, the Fair Trade movement has been developed and has now formed a trading partnership between the producer and the consumer. This study analyses if the Fair Trade movement can be a way for the workers in developing countries to achieve more justice in their production manner in the international trade of cut flowers and continue to be an important competitor of these products, but with better livelihood conditions. My method has been to do a comprehensive literature study of the Fair Trade movement, in which I describe the certification process, and the market of Fair Trade in Sweden.

AbstractThe intention of our study is to examine how the view of homeless people and their life situation looks according to a selection of persons, which in their work get into contact with homeless people. The study is based on a qualitative method that includes interviews.The result of the study is based on interviews with eight persons working in the social services, volunteer organisations, the police and a security organisation. The majority of the persons that have been interviewed are normalising homeless people; they do not look upon them as different. At the same time they have the opinion that homeless people live a tougher life and that they have to fight more for their living than other people. The persons that we have interviewed share the view that homeless people live under a constant pressure of finding a place to sleep.