In the first paper, using a dataset of the records of Texas Real Estate Agents, I reexamine the findings of Hsieh and Moretti (2003) regarding the inefficiency of free entry in real estate industry: first, I point out one important source of misidentification in that paper's analysis of the relationship between home prices and the number of real estate agents in a city. This misidentification stems from not including the ratio of houses sold in a city to its labor force size as an explanatory variable. Failure to account for this variable will result in inflated coefficient for the effect of home prices on the percentage of real estate agents in a city's labor force. Second, I analyze the effect of home prices on productivity of real estate agents. Empirical evidence supports theory prediction of inverse relationship between home prices and productivity of its real estate agents (measured as the number of houses sold per agent) and the empirical results in Hsieh and Moretti (2003). Third, I investigate the relationship between the extra wages of real estate agents (defined as average earning net of agents' outside option) and home prices in a city. In support for free entry, I find no evidence of any such relationship. In theory, free entry potentially leads to social inefficiency. This paper finds strong empirical evidence consistent with excess entry into Texas Residential Real Estate Brokerage Industry and studies the effects of heterogeneity and future uncertainty on such inefficiencies. I develop a dynamic model of entry and exit with heterogeneous agents and modify the predictions of the earlier literature. I show that the heterogeneity among (real estate) agents results in a weaker relationship between the real estate commission fees and the number of real estate agents. I also show that the models developed for static cases in the previous papers are special cases of the more general model in this paper. The model allows us to explain the lower business stealing effect compared to static and homogeneous models that is observed in the data. To address the issue of excess entry, I separate the business stealing effect from demand driven entry and find that on average 75 percent of entry is due to business stealing. To evaluate free entry, I control for agents' outside options and find that the extra wages of the real estate agents do not vary with housing prices. The objective of the third paper is to study the determinants of commission rates in the two-sided market of real estate brokerage industry and explain the emergence of the MLS and its impact on commission rates. In addition to their commission rates, real estate agencies decide on their MLS policies as well: they can either list the property with the MLS and share information about it, or not list the property with the MLS. If a property is listed with the MLS, all MLS subscribers can see the listing and send their potential buyers to see that property. Potential buyers can go to any agency to purchase such a property. If the property is \textit{not} listed with the MLS, to buy a house, a buyer must go to the same agency that the seller has signed up with. Since sellers pay the commission fees, and buyers no longer have to go to the same agency, with MLS listing, buyers choose the closest agency regardless of the commission rates charged by the agencies. Therefore, changes in the commission rates only change the affiliation of the sellers and not that of the buyers. This leads to a softer competition under MLS listing as agencies compete only in the seller side of the market. The softer competition and resulting higher commission rates are desirable to the agencies. They prefer the MLS listing outcome and given the optimal strategies after observing each other's listing decisions, agencies weakly prefer listing to no listing. I show that the one period game has two Nash Equilibria in which either both real estate agencies choose to list their houses with the MLS, or both decide not to list their houses with the MLS. The no listing equilibrium forces buyers to work through that agency's agents and effectively ties the both sides of the market. The higher commission rate equilibrium of the game allows buyers to choose either agency and reduces the competition to the sellers side. Softer competition in turn, results in higher equilibrium commission rates and higher profits along the equilibrium path. / text

<p>Syfte: Studien har två huvudsakliga syften. Det första är att beskriva hur proxy voting sker i Sverige och i hur pass stor omfattning proxy voting förekommer. Det andra är att analysera proxy voting utifrån den teoretiska bild som finns om bolagsstyrning och ägande.</p><p>Metod: Vi intervjuade nyckelpersoner i proxy voting-processen och genomförde en enkätundersökning med företag på large cap-listan.</p><p>Slutsatser: Svensk bolagsstyrning är i förändring, ägare som visar upp ett nytt beteende. Det ställs krav på bättre informationssystem hos företag för att hantera proxy voting. Delade meningar om proxy voting som metod.</p>

This thesis consists of an introductory part, including venture capital definitions, the history of venture capital in Sweden, and an overview of the venture capital process, and four self-contained papers on venture capital and the venture capital process. Paper 1 investigates the standardisation of the contractual strategies applied in the Swedish venture capital industry. The study was based on a questionnaire data regarding the use of contractual covenants. Our results indicate that the greatest differences occur among those with different investment preferences. There would appear to be two distinct venture capital cultures controlling contractual choices in these groups. Our findings generally conform to expectations as predicated by institutional theory. Paper 2 investigate venture capital firms’ valuation practices in two different economic contexts, in the economic boom of 1999 and in the downturn market of 2002 by using an experimental case study design with a case based on a real firm. Contrary to our expectations, in times of heightened stringency and economic downturn, venture capital investors employ fewer valuation models than they do in boom times. The main contribution of our research is an increase in the knowledge of venture capitalists’ valuation practices under different market conditions. It can also contribute to researchers developing more relevant theories of valuation, valuation models and valuation practice. Paper 3 empirically examines the linkage between governance, trust and performance based on a questionnaire sent to entrepreneurs in venture capital backed companies in Sweden. The results suggest that the level of trust between the venture capitalist and the entrepreneur affects the relationship between VCs governance and the portfolio company’s performance. Paper 4 analyse exit strategies and exit-directed activities among entrepreneurs in venture capital relationships. The study focuses on the effect of the venture capital organization (independent, public sector and captive) on strategy and exit-directed activities. The results indicate that firms with a trade sale strategy tend to have a higher degree of exit activities compared to other exit strategies. Furthermore, the type of venture capital organization involved (especially when comparing private independent VCs to public sector VCs) also affects exit strategies and activities.

In multicultural societies people with different cultures and values meet, and value conflicts naturally arise. To handle such value conflicts is an increasingly important, yet challenging, task for public administration. This study aims at increasing the understanding of how civil servants approach existing value conflicts, as well as their discretion to handle this. The study is based on qualitative interviews with public officials in the municipality of Örebro. Those interviewed for this study are either social workers or heads of various units within the social services. The analysis is based on the interviewees perceptions and experiences, interpreted with help of a theoretical framework including various approaches to value conflicts. The essay concludes that officials aim at treating all individuals equally, regardless of cultural background. The results also show that in certain situations, where coercive legislation is applied, the officials' room for maneuver is rather limited.

The forced water entry and exit of two-dimensional bodies through a free surface is computed for various 2D bodies (symmetric wedges, asymmetric wedges, truncated wedges and boxes). These bodies enter or exit water with constant velocity or constant acceleration. The calculations are based on the fully non-linear timestepping complex-variable method of Vinje and Brevig. The model was formulated as an initial boundary-value problem with boundary conditions specified on the boundaries (dynamic and kinematic free-surface boundary conditions) and initial conditions at time zero (initial velocity and position of the body and free-surface particles). The formulated problem was solved by means of a boundary-element method using collocation points on the boundary of the domain and solutions at each time were calculated using time stepping (Runge-Kutta and Hamming predictor corrector) methods. Numerical results for the deformed free-surface profile, the speed of the point at the intersection of the body and free surface, the pressure along the wetted region of the bodies and force experienced by the bodies, are given for the entry and exit. To verify the results, various tests such as convergence checks, self-similarity for entry (gravity-free solutions) and Froude number effect for constant velocity entry and exit (half-wedge angles 5 up to 55 degrees) are investigated. The numerical results are compared with Mackie's analytical theory for water entry and exit with constant velocities, and the analytical added mass force computed for water entry and exit of symmetric wedges and boxes with constant acceleration and velocity using conformal mapping. Finally, numerical results showing the effect of finite depth are investigated for entry and exit.

Series: Creative Industries in Vienna: Development, Dynamics and Potentials

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Economics / Philip G. Gayle / This dissertation constitutes two essays in the field of industrial organization. Specifically, the research focuses on empirically assessing the market effects of airline alliances. The first essay examines how codesharing, a form of strategic alliances, by airlines affects market entry decisions of potential competitors. Researchers have written extensively on the impact that strategic alliances between airlines have on airfare, but little is known of the market entry deterrent impact of strategic alliances. Using a structural econometric model, this essay examines the market entry deterrent impact of codesharing between incumbent carriers in U.S. domestic air travel markets. We find that a specific type of codesharing between market incumbents has a market entry deterrent effect to Southwest Airlines, but not other potential entrants. Furthermore, we quantify the extent to which market incumbents’ codesharing influences market entry cost of potential entrants. The second essay examines the effects of granting Antitrust Immunity (ATI) to a group of airlines. Airline alliance partners often want to extend cooperation to revenue sharing, which effectively implies joint pricing of their products (explicit price collusion). To explicitly collude on price, airlines must apply to the relevant government authorities for ATI (U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Transportation in the case of air travel markets that have a U.S. airport as an endpoint), which effectively means an exemption from prosecution under the relevant antitrust laws. Whether consumers, on net, benefit from a grant of ATI to partner airlines has caused much public debate. This essay specifically investigates the impact of granting ATI to oneworld alliance members on their price, markup, and various measures of cost. The evidence suggests that the grant of ATI facilitated a decrease in partner carriers’ marginal cost, and increased (decreased) their markup in markets where their service do (do not) overlap. Furthermore, member carriers’ price did not change (decreased) in markets where their services do (do not) overlap, implying that consumers, on net, benefit in terms of price changes.

In 1998/99 the European Union (EU) acknowledged a need for an autonomous military action force. In 2007 the European Battlegroups (EUBG) were ready for ‘rapid reaction’. Today, in the year of 2016, they have still never been deployed. – How come the EUBG still exist, even though they have never been used? By an approach of explaining outcome process tracing, this study address – How can we understand the persistence of EUBG within the European Union in terms of integration and disintegration of regional organisations? By the developed theoretical framework of Security Communities (SC), it is argued that the EU, as a ‘tight, pluralistic, mature security community’ possibly cannot revise the renowned EUBG; disintegrate the Union, due to external and internal pressures and integrated features. This is shown by a method of a triangulated approach of surveys, interviews and textual analysis. The research concludes that deep-rooted integration and strong loyalty prevent members, of a regional organisation, to express contingent dissatisfaction and/or leave cooperation.

Using a human capital perspective, this study investigates the relationship between the specific human capital of the top management teams of venture capital firms (VCFs) and the firms’ investment performance. The results of this study demonstrate that, in the early-stage information technology and communication (ICT) industry, VCFs’ technological expertise strongly predict better venture capital firm performance in the form of greater portfolio exit ratio. While financial expertise shows a positive but not significant effect. This study finds that although venture capital investing is a financial activity, technological expertise is the human capital characteristic that is more appropriate for this sub-environment. Future research is suggested.

Exit polls have had a hard time predicting election results in Sweden over the last decade. The introduction of the Sweden Democrats in the political scene has generally caused problems for polling organizations. Opinion polls have a big influence on the economic market and therefore any wrongdoing might cause a big disturbance in the economy. This paper develops a model based on systematic sampling differences and sociodemographic background variables in order to predict the results of the Swedish general election 2018. The study uses data from SVT´s exit poll and SCB´s voter turnout survey. The results of the study show that the model in general predicts the 2018 Swedish general election better than the prognosis of SVT.