The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between Earnings Management (EM) and certain characteristics of management forecasts, among a sample of Swedish listed companies. The forecast characteristics studied are: 1) Forecast venue: How explicitly is the forecast presented? 2) Forecast precision: How detailed is the estimated number? 3) Forecast measure: Which measure(s) are forecasted? We use a sample of 68 annual management forecasts, obtained from year-end reports between the years 2007-2011. EM during the forecasted year (2008-2012) is estimated using the cross-sectional modified-Jones model. The forecast characteristics are then related to the degree of EM during the forecasted period.

The forecast ability of four well-known exchange rate models for theSwedish krona is tested in this thesis. The models that are tested arethe purchase power parity, the real interest differential model, thesticky-price model and a productivity model. In addition to thebenchmark, the random walk, they are also compared to each other.They are all tested on three different horizons one quarter, two quartersand four quarters. The mean squared forecast error criteria and thedirection of change criteria are used for evaluation of the forecastability. Only in a couple of cases are the forecast ability of thetheoretical based models significant better than the random walk..

For the actors in the Swedish forest industry, it is important to have the ability to forecast the state in the privateforests. The information that comes out of the forecasts will be the base for the activities strategic direction.The aim in this exam is to survey what information that is present today as basis for forecast calculation, andeven to examine what other possibilities it might have in the future.From a limited geography and out of different time perspective forecast the felling potential in the privateforestry.With the word felling potential means regeneration felling and thinning. The exam will answer the questions:What information is needed to build a relevant forecast model?Is this information available today?Is there information to buy that would improve the forecast model?The result of this exam will be presented in form of a ”case study” showing the opportunities in the market tocreate a forecast calculation of felling potential in the private forestry within the Forest Owners’ AssociationMellanskogs wood-area Dalarna..

Previous studies have shown that there is a relationship between voluntary disclosure and analysts' forecast accuracy. However, there has been no research conducted specifically on bridges. Bridges contain information on how components such as price, volume, foreign exchange rates and acquisitions have impacted the financial performance between two periods. The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate the usage of bridges in quarterly financial information of companies listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. We provide a descriptive mapping of bridges and find that 30 out of 268 companies are presenting bridges as a part of their voluntary disclosures, with large firms being the most frequent users.

During the last decades business journalism has vastly increased its share of media coverage. Hvitfelt och Malmström (1990) states that media space devoted to business reporting have more than doubled since the mid 1980s. This fact alone is an important reason for studying the same. Hence this study, which is aimed explicitly at investigating how business press use and manage experts, in this case primarily equity analyst, in their reporting. Our purposes are the following: Examine to what extent media players use analyst in their business reporting.

Volvo in Arvika produces wheel loaders, and the production is based on forecasts. When a machine is ordered, the customer can choose what type of equipment he or she wants, and these equipments are also made forecasts on. This is made by giving each equipment an estimated procentual usage that shows how many of the machines that will use this option. Today two people are working with the forecasts, planer A in Eskilstuna and planer B in Arvika. Planer A makes a forecast based on the historical outcome and planer B then makes adjustments of this based on how many options that are ordered.

The Swedish population has the world?s largest percentage of shareholders either by direct or indirect owning. Due to the increasing interest of equity capital markets, private as well as institutional investors rely on forecasts from financial analysts. The reason for this is due to the lack of expertise among investors in this area. Due to the fact that analysts influence the Swedish stock market immensely, it?s of great interest to explore whether an analyst can be seen as a rational participant.

According to statistics, requirements management is identified as a major source of error to failed IT-projects. Moreover communication is identified as a factor affecting the require-ments management and can lead to deficiencies in the requirements. The requirements analyst is responsible for managing the requirements from the different stakeholders, act as a com-munication accommodator and to translate abstract requirements expressed by users to more specific requirements that developers can implement. The purpose of this thesis is to study the role of the requirements analyst to investigate the problems that may arise in working with requirements management.  To achieve the purpose we have performed a requirements management process in which we ourselves took the role as the requirements analysts. The requirements management process consisted of three phases: gather requirements, document requirements and validate require-ments.

Background: An evaluation of analysts´ forecasting ability is interesting since their estimates constitute an important part in stock valuation and investment decisions. The recent years´ development in the stock market has lead to criticism of analysts? deficient forecasts. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate analysts´ forecasting ability concerning companies quoted at Stockholmsbörsen between 1987 and 2002. We also intend to discuss possible explanations for analysts? behavior in case of deficient accuracy.

Being able to predict the future had been an invaluable competitive advantage for any corporation. Forecasting is a vital part of any business, hence a good forecast allows enterprises to invest in a beneficial way. However, there are several ways to prepare forecasts and the forecast methodology can vary. An industry that is dependent on forecasts is the energy industry. By predicting consumers' energy consumption, Swedish energy companies can hedge on the Nordic power market Nord Pool.

Examensarbetet har utförts under våren 1998 på Mandator Teknik. Bakgrunden till arbetet är att Mandator vill undersöka om möjligheten finns att hantera diverse GIS-funktionalitet i en modul. GIS-modulen ska i första hand kunna användas för analys av bästa vägval och siktanalys. I examensarbetet ingår också en studie av befintliga GIS-verktyg på marknaden. Målet för studien är att finna den/de produkter som lämpar sig bäst för geografisk analys av bästa vägval och siktanalys.

According to ?Fotförbundet" (2012), Overpronation occurs frequently (80 %) in the Western World and furthermore overpronation of calcaneus influences the position of the pelvic and thorax (Fotförbundet, 2012; Behnke, 2008). The aim of this study is to investigate whether or not it is possible to connect overpronation of calcaneus to the problem in the rider?s seat as observed by the instructors of Strömsholm. The study will also investigate if the riders seat problems as noticed by the riding instructors are comparable with the problems found by the analyst during testing. One purpose with the study is to raise the instructors and riders awareness that anatomical deviations in the rider might influence the rider?s position in the saddle. The questions of the study are: - Is it possible to see seat problems in riders with overpronation of calcaneus? - If it is possible to see more seat problems in riders with overpronation of calcaneus, do the instructors in the study considers the seat problems be similar with each other? - If there are seat problems in the study, is it the same according to the instructors and the analyst in human biomechanics? The hypothesis of the study is that overpronation of calcaneus has an effect of the rider?s position in the saddle. The study is conducted as a blind study where the test subjects have been filmed (from knees down) as they walked barefooted and later while riding.

Prior studies have shown that earnings management can be used either to inform or to mislead investors about the future performance of a company. However, few studies have examined the impact of earnings management on forecasting return on equity (ROE). The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether the ability to forecast next year's ROE is improved when taking earnings management, measured as discretionary accruals, into account. This is examined by comparing a forecast model that takes the magnitude of discretionary accruals into consideration with a model that does not. The study is based on companies that were listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during 2002-2012.

Wind is used as an energy source all over the world. To be able to use this effectively, there is a need for as good forecasts and forecast models as possible. One of these models is Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS®) that is used to calculate short time forecasts. This model is used here to calculate wind speeds at two different areas in Västra Götaland, Bengtsfors and Vänersborg. There are also wind measurements with SODAR stations for these areas.

The question of whether financial analysts can forecast stock movements or not has been widely debated for many years. This study examines if an investor has been able to receive an excess return by following financial analysts? recommendations. We continue by studying if an investor has been able to earn a different excess return by following different types of recommendations. The study includes more than 15,000 recommendations made by 10 first tier banks and brokerages on the Swedish market during the years 2003-2007.