Hedge funds have the past few years become an increasingly popular investment alternative and in the last decade hedge fund assets managed have quadrupled to USD 2000 billion, a growth rate of around 25-30% per year. One explanation for this substantial increase is that hedge funds' minimum limits on capital invested has declined, which have made ??them available to retail investors. The recent turmoil in financial markets has also contributed to investors finding their way to hedge funds, whose goal is to generate stable returns regardless of how the market develops.Using Sharpe?s, Treynor?s and Jensen's performance measures, I have investigated whether hedge funds manage to generate higher risk-adjusted returns than traditional managed funds.

Risk assessment of effects on the environment and health outcome caused by the iron industryLina LöfqvistIn Sweden you can find lots of contaminated areas, which can create problems for both humans and nature. To reduce the long-term contamination grades, Naturvårdsverket have created a report with regard to the contaminated sites. This builds on the ?Method for Inventories of Contaminated Sites? which is abbreviated MIFO. The aim of MIFO is to achieve better environmental planning in Sweden.

This master thesis was written for Arla Foods and the result of the thesisserves to gain Arla Foods in its work with chemical hazardous and to bringnew academic results. The thesis aims to create a common methodology forrisk analysis with the handling of chemicals.The theories displayed in this thesis focuses on different risk managementmethods in order to build up a framework out of which a risk management toolwas created. The main primary data source consists of interviews held withemployees within Arla Foods at different facilities.The risk management tool can be found in appendix K.Available recommendations for how to evaluate risks with chemicals can befound at appropriate government agencies. These recommendations aredrawn up to suite small and medium enterprises and therefore are to narrowto make a good foundation for analysing chemical risks at large companies.With the legislation and government demands in mind, a tool has beencreated to fit a large company?s needs when managing chemical risks.

The purpose was to create differentiation concepts due to the upcoming deregulation of the Swedish pharmacy monopoly. Apart from the theory, the study is based on interviews with pharmacy customers and experiences from former pharmacy market deregulations in some of the other Scandinavian countries. The result shows that a differentiation concept that could work in a shorter perspective is a low service quality but with lower prices and a unique location. In a longer perspective it seems like the concept should change to a more service orientated differentiation concept with a variation of high quality services to gain competitive advantage..

The electrical grid needs to be changed in the future in order to manage more distributed and renewable generation and also to make it possible for electricity consumers to be more active and aware of their electricity consumption. This future grid is usually referred to as a smart grid. With the transition to a smart grid, new challenges occur. One method to determine those challenges is to perform risk and vulnerability analyses. InStockholm, the new urban district Stockholm Royal Seaport is built.

The term "Project" have become a growing work model that exist in almost all bransches. A project is a work effort made over a finite period of time with a start and a finish to create a unique product, service, or result. Science shows that time limitation has an impact on humans to perform under pressure, which challanges the contributor to deliver. This report contains an examination about project management, both coming from scientific results and an external business. The point of this study is to bring ideas of improvement, which can make the work method more effective in this company..

The purose of the study is to increase knowledge regarding systematic enviromentarl work in an organization that works with road services. Work on the road is done in a hazardous environment with constant danger regarding the life of the individual. The site of the work varies in accordance with where the needs ae . This requires skilled workers capable of working independently and that they are experienced din doing their own risk assessments in accordance with the individual believes that the situation calls for work to be performed safely. The study was conducted with a qualitative research approach in which four employees of different positions, knowledge, experience and vision to work in a hazardous environment were interviewed. The focus rests on the organization, management, and individual aspirations for a safe and secure working environment. The study adds weight to the relationship between the purchaser of the work and the organization as a prime contractor due to the compexity of the organization.

The LSH-study started in 2003 at the department of Health and Society at the University of Linköping. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between life condition, stress and health. A total of 1007 people from ten different health centres in Östergötlands län participated. At the follow up, a couple of years later, 795 of the 1007 participated. 127 of the 212 in the attrition turned down the follow up, twelve people were not invited (for example in case of death) and the rest did not respond at all.

The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes towards criminality among adolescent people. The main goal of this study is to find out, which risk factors are for criminal behavior among the youth. It?s also to understand if gender and ethnicity of the adolescent people plays any part in their attitudes towards criminality and risk factors for criminal behavior. The study has been carried out using a quantitative method for the data collection.

Jämfört med andra branscher har fastighetsmarknaden låg avkastning på totala tillgångar, de utnyttjar istället en hävstångsstrategi för att skapa mer effektiv utväxling på eget kapital. Det finns många riskvariabler kopplat till fastighetsbranschen och flera sätt att differentiera sig från den osystematiska risken. De kommunala fastighetsbolagen har en finansieringskälla Kommuninvest, som enbart vänder sig till allmännyttiga bolag och inte privata aktörer.Syftet med uppsatsen är att historiskt analysera hur risk och avkastning genererats av kommunala och privata fastighetsbolag. Metoden är kvantitativ, kombinerat med en deduktiv metod och som har en förklarande ansats.Utifrån teori har vi formulerat tre hypoteser för att undersöka om vi kan finna indikatorer på hur kommunala och privata fastighetsbolag skiljer sig till från varandra. För att genomföra undersökningen har uppsatsen utgått från en kvantitativ metod och statistiska test har gjorts för att kunna analysera utfallen.Resultaten indikerar på att det finns en signifikant skillnad mellan kommunala och privata fastighetsbolag i två av hypoteserna.

Den omgivning organisationer idag ställs inför blir alltmer krävande. En allt hårdare reglering, hot från nya teknologier, samt de företagsskandaler som härjat i media, har lett till att dagens organisationer ser på risk på ett nytt sätt. En utveckling som nyligen skett inom riskhantering är Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). Denna uppsats undersöker den roll ERM, och i synnerhet ett nyutvecklat ramverk som används för att implementera ERM, har i en organisations riskarbete. Ramverket, COSO:s ERM, består av åtta kontrollpunkter som enligt ramverket bör finnas i en organisation som utför sitt ERM-arbete på ett korrekt sätt.Studiens syfte är att undersöka likheter och olikheter mellan en organisations riskarbete och COSO:s riskhanteringsramverk samt den teoribildning som skapats kring Enterprise Risk Management.

The dairy market will change importantly in the coming years. The quota system, which has regulated the European dairy production, will disappear in 2015 and the European dairy market will then be importantly affected by the volatility characterizing the dynamic of world prices. Besides this, the global demand of dairy products is expected to increase due to the growing world population. Farmers in countries such as the U.S. and New Zealand, when compared to Swedish farmers, show greater familiarity and experience with risk management tools.

This master thesis was written for Arla Foods and the result of the thesisserves to gain Arla Foods in its work with chemical hazardous and to bringnew academic results. The thesis aims to create a common methodology forrisk analysis with the handling of chemicals.The theories displayed in this thesis focuses on different risk managementmethods in order to build up a framework out of which a risk management toolwas created. The main primary data source consists of interviews held withemployees within Arla Foods at different facilities.The risk management tool can be found in appendix K.Available recommendations for how to evaluate risks with chemicals can befound at appropriate government agencies. These recommendations aredrawn up to suite small and medium enterprises and therefore are to narrowto make a good foundation for analysing chemical risks at large companies.With the legislation and government demands in mind, a tool has beencreated to fit a large company?s needs when managing chemical risks.

The purpose of this study was to create a deeper understanding for, and shine a light on the exit process for former criminal gang members. Which conditions appear to be important and what may constitute the enabling and inhibiting factors of an exit process? The study was based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with respondents who themselves have experience of a criminal lifestyle and gang affiliation, and with professionals in social work. Our theoretical approach is based on Helen Ebaugh?s definition of an exit process, labeling theories, strain theory and control theory.

Recently, the selections of ethical funds are increased; at the same time investors with social and moral preferences have increased in the capital market. There are currently debates on whether ethical funds perform better or worse than funds without ethical criteria. This also involves a vivid discussion on whether investors know about the consequences of investing in ethical funds. Therefore, this study involves theories about the rationality and decision theory, in addition to what mainly control the investment decisions. The study also discusses portfolio theory since this is one of the underlying theories behind fund management and its development.The purpose of this study is to explain if ethical limitations in the selection of securities affect risk and return in the fund portfolio.