In this thesis, the focus lies on the determinants of changes in credit ratings. Multiple regression is used to study the relation between credit ratings and a quantity of selected economic variables. The study is restricted to the US market and the ratings have been assigned by Moody’s during the period 1999-2008. In line with previous studies, the short-term interest rate and corporate profits a

This paper analyzes a way of allocating primarily three indivisible objects to the same number of individuals. We define an allocation rule that, given the preferences of the individuals, distributes an amount of money together with exactly one indivisible object to each of the individuals in a fair and optimal way. The monetary distributions are foremost interpreted as compensations and are regul

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a fairly new concept that acknowledges the social and environmental responsibility of Multinational Corporations (MNCs). This thesis sets out to investigate the incentives for Multinational Corporations to engage in CSR and, if they choose to do so, what effects such an engagement has on development in the host country of investments. The study focuses on d

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka huruvida musiktjänsten Spotify kan minska den illegala fildelningen av musik. För att kunna undersöka detta har vi genomfört en enkätundersökning bland studenter vid Lunds Universitet vilket resulterat i data från 747 individer. Utifrån dessa data har vi sedan kunnat dra slutsatser för populationen studenter kring deras uppfattning om illegal fildelning och Sp

In this study, a macroeconomic credit risk model is applied to Sweden to judge the stability of the Swedish financial system to changes in the macroeconomic environment. Default rates for each industry are regressed against the macroeconomic variables to which Sweden has the greatest exposure and then stress tests are performed on the Swedish corporate loans portfolio to determine whether structur

With the development of international markets and the globalization of economic activities, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) as a strategy for both internal and external growth become more and more important. A representative case is the M&A transactions in North American and European airline industry. This paper investigates the impact of mergers and acquisitions on value creation for the b

Arbetsmarknadsutbudet för män och kvinnor har historiskt uttryckt sig olika. I Sverige har ett högt arbetskraftsdeltagande givit landet en framträdande position i internationella jämförelser om jämställdhet på arbetsmarknaden mellan könen. Syftet med denna uppsats är att i en egen undersökning beräkna arbetsmarknadsutbudet för män och kvinnor åren 1989-2008 som uppföljning av en tidigare studie på

The subject of institutions and their impact upon economic growth has been widely explored by a variety of literature. What has often been ignored, however, is the topic of how institutions arise in the first place. This paper thus takes the view that institutions are shaped by geography, and specifically, the agricultural sector. It is found that there exists some statistical and legal evidence t

This paper examines the parental background effect on male and female second generation immigrants’ annual earnings by comparing their annual income to that of workers with American descent on the US labor market. It uses data from the Current Population Surveys for the period 2000 - 2008 and utilizes the human capital earnings function into an OLS regression model to capture the income differenti

Denna uppsats syftar till att ekonometriskt undersöka möjligheten till ett asymmetriskt konsumtionsbeteende vid en ändring av räntan med utgångspunkt från livscykelteorin. Detta skulle kunna innebära att en sänkning av räntan leder till en högre konsumtion men en höjning av räntan leder till en mindre minskning av konsumtionen. Datat är mellan 1985-2007 för Sverige respektive USA. Den beroende var

The crude assumption on log normal stock returns and constant volatility in the Black-Scholes model is a big constraint which constructs smile and skew inconsistent prices. The Heston model and its suggested approximation built on stochastic volatility are introduced and faced against the Black-Scholes model in hope of producing option prices where the smile and skew are taken into account.. As on

Lifelong Learning (LLL) involves the formal and informal education and learning of individuals and by extension society in a bid to function efficiently in today’s knowledge world. This Learning is not limited by age, race, or other susceptible circumstances; it is instead encouraged and seen in the contexts of adult learning, continuing learning, and work/ professional learning. By de-facto, it i

Syftet är att testa om Hyman P. Minskys teori om finansiell instabilitet och uppkomsten av finansiella kriser är relevant för, och applicerbar på, moderna ekonomiska förhållanden. Studien är framför allt av kvalitativ metod, och tar hjälp av tidigare forskning och olika nyckeltal i analysen av de finansiella kriserna. Valet av kriser har avgränsats till den svenska fastighetskrisen, Asienkrisen, I

Purpose: The purpose with this paper is to investigate if the inverted yield curve was a good predictor of the financial crisis and the following U.S recession and, if this is the case, which yield spread had highest level of significance. Methodology: The methodology is a quantitative study with a simple linear regression model based on econometric theory. Theory: The theoretical framework is bui

Bakgrunden till denna studie är problemen som uppstår på grund av implementeringen av utvecklingsmetoden Scrum. Enligt Schwaber (2004) så försöker många företag att behålla sina projektledare även efter att ha implementerat Scrum. Därmed undersöker vi om de två nya rollerna som tillkommer med metoden, produktägare och scrummaster, ersätter den traditionella projektledaren och i så fall, på vilket

A considerable number of studies on historical and some third world populations have reached a magnificent consensus that both mortality and fertility do respond to economic changes in a surprisingly shared pattern. Such response, however, remains a great deal of controversy, obscure and inconsistency in the secular industrialized countries. The aim of this paper is to explore the association betw

Det finns två kategorier av anställningsformer, fasta och tidsbegränsade. Andelen tidsbegränsade arbeten har ökat under de senaste två decennierna. För den anställde kan tidsbegränsad anställning vara ett ofrivilligt val. Anställningsformen innebär ofta större osäkerhet för individen, men kan även innebära andra begränsningar. Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkar sannoli

The primary purpose of this Thesis is to explore views on Green IT/Computing and how it relates to Server Virtualization, in particular for Data Centre IT environments. Our secondary purpose is to explore other important aspects of Server Virtualization, in the same context. The primary research question was to determine if Data Centre (DC) power consumption reduction is related to, or perceived a

Instant messaging has become widely used in many instances. The concept of synchronous communication changed the terms of communication in distance education. This paper aims to achieve a deeper understanding of the current status of communication in distance education, additionally, to explore the usability of IM features in the e-learning process. Five interviews and a questionnaire investigatio

"Software as a Service" (SaaS) concept emerged in the late twentieth century as a new software delivered model and is outstanding in terms of swift software delivery. Some analysts predict that the unique of some characteristics in SaaS motivate software providers to offer many types of software as a service. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system has been delivered by providers a