Between 2004 and 2017, the aggregated amount of outstanding student loans in the United States increased from $345 billion to $1,38 trillion, an increase of 300% over a little more than a decade. While this study partly explains the above increase, its aim is to determine whether outstanding student loans adversely affect a household’s ability to accumulate home equity. Median regression results of the 50th, 75th, 90th and 95th percentile all show negative association between home equity and outstanding student loans, with a decrease of -$0.32 to -$0.92 in homeequity for every $1 in outstanding student loans. The increasing burden of outstanding studentloans may pose a threat to the short- and long-term financial health of households in the United States.

Matchning på arbetsmarknaden är av intresse att analysera då eventuella problem kan vara tecken på friktioner på arbetsmarknaden. En väl fungerande matchning ger högre sysselsättning, lägre arbetslöshet och kortare arbetslöshetstider. Som utgångspunkt för en empirisk analys tillåter matchning oss analysera dessa friktioner med en relativt liten adderad komplexitet. Strävan med uppsatsen var att estimera den relativa matchningseffektiviteten i Sveriges län. Genom data från arbetsförmedlingen mellan åren 2006–2018 användes stokastisk frontanalys för ändamålet. Studien finner att andelen utrikesfödda och andelen arbetslösa som deltar i arbetsmarknadsprogram påverkar effektiviteten negativt. Det verkar som att urbaniserade län generellt är mindre effektiva än rurala områden. Vidare pekar resultaten på, likt tidigare studier i Sverige, att matchningseffektiviteten har försämrats sedan finanskrisen.

Uppsatsen ämnar undersöka om det finns arbetsmarknadsmässiga fördelar för tätbefolkade områden genom att behandla matchningen på den svenska arbetsmarknaden. Utifrån ett paneldata för Sveriges 21 län över tidsperioden 2007–2018 studeras sambandet mellan arbetslöshet och vakanser för Stockholms-, Skåne-, Blekinge- och Norrbottens län med hänsyn till agglomerationseffekter. Befolkningstäthet, medellöner och nettoflyttningar inkluderas som kontrollvariabler för att möjliggöra en analys av agglomerationseffekters inflytande på matchningseffektiviteten. Uppsatsen skiljer mellan inrikes- och utrikes födda för att undersöka om matchningseffektiviteten visar samma trend för utrikes och inrikes födda inom länen. Den ekonomiska modell som valts karaktärisera matchningseffektiviteten mellan Sveriges län är Beveridgekurvan. Med minsta kvadratmetoden, fixa effekter och robusta standardfel skattas den långsiktiga jämviktsrelationen mellan andelen arbetslösa och andelen vakanser med nettoflyttingar, befolkningstäthet, medellöner och säsongsvariation som kontrollvariabler. Regressionsresultaten indikerar högre matchningseffektivitet för svenskfödda än utlandsfödda för samtliga län. Matchningseffektiviteten för både utlandsfödda och svenskfödda är högre i de tätbefolkade länen relativt rikssnittet samtidigt som de mindre tätbefolkade länen visar lägre matchningseffektivitet.

This paper demonstrates an overview of the empirical literature from the 1960s and onward as to why yield curve inversions are a leading recession forecasting indicator for the two to four-quarter forecasting horizon. This approach establishes a research framework within the delimitations of yield curve analysis and specifically, the effects of practical computational issues. Furthermore, this paper presents a macroeconomic dissection of the most influential variables affecting the yield curve such as the slope, curvature and level factors. In essence, this paper establishes a connection between our increasingly sophisticated understanding of monetary policy, which in turn allows the private sector to better calibrate and optimize their expectations in line of the stance of the monetary policy. Consequently, the role of these policy inventions gradually improved the credibility of financial institutions globally. The recent zero lower bound conditions in the money markets created a surge in liquidity, ultimately leading to a decrease in the risk premium component on the long end of the yield curve, even further tightening the yield spreads and flattening the yield curve.

Football is the most exerted sport worldwide and can arguably be considered as a major industry on its own, where the English Premier League stands out as the most popular league in the world. This thesis examines what factors that generate utility, given the assumption that clubs are utility maximization units, for the individual club in the English Premier League. Where final position is of utmost interest. For this analysis, ordered logit and multinomial logit regressions are performed through the usage of 180 observed final positions between the years of 2009-2017. Although this thesis focuses on the club’s individual utility, socio-economic utility tends to appear as a consequence when producing sports. Several parameters are discovered to have a significant and substantial impact on clubs’ final position and thus their utility.

The European Union uses a considered amount of the member states´ resources in the structural and cohesion funds to equalise income differences in the union and to induce growth to get economic cohesion between regions. An interesting and disputed question is if the funds are used in an effective way and if they reach their goals of economic growth. This is studied in the paper by a literature review and a following policy analysis which compare EU cohesion policy and academic knowledge. This question is addressed by performing a literature review of 16 articles about economic growth and its determinants in the European Union, and by comparing results from these studies with priorities of the main structural and cohesion fund’s policy, the investment priorities of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The paper concludes that seven out of 11 investment priorities correspond or fairly well correspond, to results from academic research of European growth. The study highlights the importance of the 11th investment priority, which is regional governments´ quality and its impact on the structural and cohesion funds´ growth efficiency. The paper also concludes that a well-adopted policy change would be to increase the status and importance of the 11th investment priority of the ERDF and the overall EU cohesion policy.

This paper investigates the relationship between oil price shocks on two measures of oil importers and exporter´s trade balances, namely the Merchandise Trade balance and Non-oil trade balance. The paper also aims to analyse whether oil price fluctuation tend to explain a smaller or larger part of the variability on the Trade and Non-oil trade balance. The short-run dynamics running from the oil price to overall and non-oil trade balance are investigated using a Impulse Response function, Granger causality test and Forecast error variance decomposition test(FEVD) with quarterly data spanning between Q1 1995 to Q4 2018. Two Nordic countries distinguishable in their terms of oil characteristic are regarded in this analysis. Sweden as an oil importer and Norway as oil exporter. Furthermore, a subperiod estimation are performed by splitting the time series into two subperiod, and thereby be able to perform a FEVD test to see whether the share of oil regarding its influence on the trade balance are decreasing over time.

This study tests whether if heuristics affect the decisions of an economic agent. Through different sets of lottery games conducted on students, the participants made choices between an uncertain asset and a risk-free asset. Instead of the classical approach, I chose to relate the uncertain asset to a financial asset and the risk-free asset to a cash payment placed in a savings account. The game contained a total of six rounds, where the participants made choices on different level of risk for the first three rounds. In the remaining three rounds the participants made choices on the same level of risk do distinguish if past experience affected their risk preference. The experimental results show that when the risk environment change, participants in the low risk environment became more risk averse, as oppose to participants in the high risk environment. The results also show that when exposed to avolatile environment, participants tend to switch to the safe option earlier compared to when stakes are low. However, when the participants made choices on the same level of risk, the switch from the lottery to the safe option did not differ between the participants. In other words, past experience did not seem to aect the valuation of the asset. In this experiment, women tend to be more risk averse than men. On average, women switched to the safe option earlier than the men.

Using both an OLS as well as VAR model approach, this study investigates the role of interest, exchange and bank lending rates in aggregate firm investment in Sweden, based on quarterly data from 2008 to 2018. While an initially strong and positive relationship between policy-controlled interest rates and bank lending rates reports evidence for efficient monetary policy transmission, aggregate firm investment rates seem to respond to changes in interest and previous periods’ investment rates only, suggesting exchange rates to be insignificant for aggregate firm investment spending decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine if there is cointegration between the daily closing price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and five other cryptocurrencies; Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, EOS and Litecoin in five different time periods, all ending April 9, 2019. To test if there is a long-run relationship between Bitcoin and these mentioned cryptocurrencies, two different tests for cointegration are applied; the Engle-Granger two step approach and Johansen’s cointegration test as well as a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). The results from both cointegration tests suggest that Bitcoin is cointegrated with Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple. The Johansen test and the Engle-Granger method for cointegration demonstrate that Bitcoin and EOS do not have any cointegrating relationship. Another finding is that, based on the results from the VECM estimation, the price of Bitcoin has a statistically significant long-run impact on the prices of Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple.