Master‘s thesis is focused on the possibility of financing a company through entering the alternative market of the Prague Stock Exchange Ltd. The alternative market of the Prague Stock Exchange is the START Market, which is suitable for smaller and innovative czech companies. This is about an unregulated market, which means that the conditions of admission conditions and trading rules are set by the stock exchange. The thesis defines the basic starting points, which are connected with the capital market, the market organizer and the initial public offering of stocks (IPO).

This thesis deals with the methods of the real estate market segmentation in relation to the valuation process. Following the application part, which is an analysis of the real estate market in the city of Brno. On its basis procedures, that can help the expert with dividing real estate market into individual segments, are described. And also gives recommendations on how to deal with the information obtained.

The societal problem regarding the housing shortage has made the housing market inaccessible. With the reduced number of rental apartments and longer housing queues, people face more challenges finding a suitable home. Swapping intermediaries have emerged over the years to facilitate the search process to swap apartments. However, tenants are still struggling to find apartments to swap with. Limited research has been conducted about tenants' experiences and perspectives regarding the swapping process. Through an exploratory approach, this study examines what problems tenants encounter during the swapping process. The research findings indicate several opportunity areas for improving and streamlining the swapping process. The made recommendations were regarding the search process, listing information, and apartment viewings. Further, to create an efficient market, the platform needs to consider thickness, overcome congestion, and make participation safe and simple. / Det samhälleliga problemet gällande bostadsbristen har medfört en oåtkomlig bostadsmarknad. Med minskade antalet hyresrätter samt längre bostadsköer står människor inför större utmaningar att hitta ett passande boende. För att underlätta bytesprocessen av hyresrätter har antalet bytesplattformar ökat under åren. Dock kämpar fortfarande många hyresgäster med att hitta en lägenhet att byta med. Begränsat antal studier har genomförts på hyresgäster gällande deras upplevelser samt perspektiv på själva bytesprocessen. Genom användande av en undersökande metod, undersökte denna studie vilka problem hyresgästerna stöter på under bytesprocessen av hyresrätter. Forskningsresultatet indikerade att flera möjligheter finns för att förbättra och effektivisera bytesprocessen. De rekommendationer som gjordes inkluderade sökprocessen, annonssidan, samt lägenhetsvisningar. Vidare, för att skapa en effektiv bytesmarknad, måste plattformen beakta tjocklek, övervinna trängsel, samt göra användandet säkert och enkelt.

This master thesis focuses on regional shopping centre’s market shares. It is written in cooperation with IKEA Centres that provided data regarding their shopping centres and funds for the gathering of statistics. The research question for the study is: What level of market share is valid for regional shopping centres in close proximity to an IKEA warehouse? In order to answer this question as accurate as possible the study is designed as a case study. The case is implemented on three different shopping centres, owned by IKEA Centres, with similar locations and market areas. The three shopping centres that are selected as subject centres in the study are Birsta City in Sundsvall, I-Huset in Linköping and Erikslund Shopping Center in Västerås. The case is focused on the regional shopping centres isolated and do not include the IKEA furniture store. The first part of the study concerns the delineation of the subject centres’ primary- and secondary market area. This is done using Reilly’s Law based on the prerequisites of the specific shopping centre. By using this method breaking points or borders of the market areas can be defined and located based on the calculated driving time. To be able to calculate the potential market shares for the centres, the buying power segmentation method is used.  The statistics are bought from Statistics Sweden and concerns mainly the number of households in the market areas and their disposable income. The market share is calculated by comparing the potential buying power of the households and the actual sales in the shopping centres. The results of the conducted study regarding the market share in the total market area is that Birsta City has a significant larger market share (60%) than the two other centres that the study concerns. I-Huset (17% market share) and Erikslund Shopping (25% market share) are located in regions with a higher population and more competition, the authors see this as the main factor to the difference in the market share. Results regarding market shares in different categories of goods are also presented. The three subjects’ centres offer several different collections of items. All centres have a large market share in the fashion segments that are offered, a wide tenant mix in combination with the target groups is seen to be an effecting factor. / Denna masteruppsats fokuserar på ämnet regionala shoppingcenters och dess marknadsandel. Uppsatsen är skriven i samarbete med IKEA Centres vilka har bidragit med data angående köpcentren samt medel för inköp av statistik. Studiens frågeställning är: Vilken marknadsandel har regionala köpcenter där ett Ikeavaruhus finns i närheten? För att besvara denna frågeställning på bästa sätt är studien utformad som en fallstudie. Fallstudierna är implementerade på tre olika shopping center i liknande läge och med likvärdiga marknadsområden. De tre köpcentrumen vilket är utvalda som ämnescenter i studien är Birsta City i Sundsvall, I-Huset i Linköping och Erikslund Shopping Center i Västerås. Forskningen är baserad på shopping centret och berör inte IKEAs möbelvaruhus. Den första delen av studien behandlar avgränsningen av köpcentrumens primära och sekundära marknadsområden. Avgränsningen är utförd med Reilly’s Law baserad på de specifika köpcentrets förutsättningar. Genom att använda den här metoden definieras brytpunkter och gränser för marknadsområdet kan avgränsas med hjälp av den beräknade körtiden. För att sedan beräkna köpcentrets marknadsandel används metoden ”Buying power segmentation method”. Statistiken som används är köpt från SCB och berör huvudsakligen antalet hushåll i marknadsområdena samt dess disponibla inkomst. Marknadsandelen är beräknad genom att jämföra den potentiella köpkraften hos hushållen med den faktiska försäljningen i köpcentren. Resultatet av den utförda studien rörande marknadsandelar av den totala marknaden är dels att Birsta City har en betydligt större marknadsandel (60%) än de två andra undersökta köpcentren. I-Huset (17% marknadsandel) samt Erikslund Shopping (25% marknadsandel) är belägna i regioner med högre invånarantal och större konkurrens. Författarna ser detta som en avgörande faktor till skillnaden i marknadsandel jämfört med Birsta City. Resultat angående marknadsandelar i olika kategorier av varor är också presenterade. De tre studerade köpcentren erbjuder ett brett utbud av produkter. Samtliga center har en stor marknadsandel i kategorier rörande kläder & mode. Den breda hyresgästmixen samt målgruppen för köpcentren antas vara påverkande faktorer till detta.

Bostadsmarknaden i Stockholm har sedan finanskrisen 2008 befunnit sig i en skönhetshistoria medstigande priser och korta försäljningstider. Idag befinner sig bostadsmarknaden i allt annat än enskönhetshistoria, prisutvecklingen har stannat av, rekordmånga objekt finns ute till försäljning ochbostadsutvecklare väljer att avvakta med nya bostadsprojekt. Med anledning av utvecklingen påbostadsmarknaden syftar studien till att konstruera ett nytt index som baseras på time on market,försäljningstid. Vidare syftar studien till att utreda vilka effekter de utvalda makroekonomiskafaktorer har på time on market och om time-on-market-index kan användas för att förklarahusprisutvecklingen. Metoden i denna studie utgår från såväl ekonomiska teorier somekonometriska analyser. Genom tillämpningen av regressionsanalyser, utifrån tvärsnittsdata ochtidsseriedata, kan ett index konstrueras. Resultat visar att time on market för både småhus- ochbostadsrättsmarknaden har ett cykliskt mönster. Vidare visar resultatet att bostadsmarknadentidigare har befunnit sig i en dal, tid med låg time-on-market-värde, för att sedan stiga och slutligenvända nedåt. Time on market korrelerar med de utvalda faktorerna, arbetslöshet, omx30,bolåneränta för tre månader samt prisutveckling för bostäder. Studiens resultat indikerar att demakroekonomiska faktorerna har en viss eftersläpning i förhållande till index. Vidare visarresultatet att time-on-market-index endast kan användas som indikator för bostadsrättsmarknaden,då indexet visar utslag sex månader innan husprisutvecklingen. / The housing market in Stockholm has since the financial crisis in 2008 been remarkable with risingprices and short sales periods. Today the housing market is everything but remarkable. The pricetrend has stopped, record numbers of objects are out for sales and housing developers choose towait with new housing projects. Due to the changes in the housing market, the study aims toconstruct a new index based on time on market. The aim also includes investigating what effectsmacroeconomic factors have on time on market and if the time on market index can be used as anindicator to show the price development on the housing market.The method used in this study is based on both economic theories and econometric analysis.Through the application of regression analyzes, based on cross-sectional data and time series data,an index can be constructed. Results shows that time on market for both the house- and tenantownedmarket has a cyclical pattern. Furthermore, the results show that the housing market haspreviously been in a valley, with low time on market value, to then rise and finally turn downwards.Time on market correlates with the chosen macroeconomic factors being unemployment, omx30,mortgage rate and price development for housing. The results indicate that the macroeconomicfactors have a certain lag in relation to the time on market index. Moreover, the result shows thatthe time on market index can only be used as an indicator for the tenant-owned market, as itchanges six months before the price development on the housing market.

With the world becoming more conscious about achieving 1.5-degree scenario as promisedby the most powerful economies of the world, much needed push was received by the renewable energy technology providers.  This has led to an increased a share of energy production from renewables and a decrease in the fossil-based energy production with the overall energy production.  As a result, a large share of inertia of the system is lost and a big challenge in the name of flexibility is presented to the world of energy.  Virtual Power Plant is quite a novel and new concept to address the new generation challenge of flexibility and can offer various other benefits like competitivity,reliability, accessibility etc.  In this thesis, a commercial virtual power plant is studied by developing a mixed integer linear model to emulate the trading for short term markets with the risk mea- sures in a Nordic Electricity Framework.  Further, the developed model is implemented in a quite a new mathematical programming language known as “Julia”.  The model is implemented using a hypothetical portfolio consisting of a dispatchable unit, a battery system and a wind farm in the SE3 bidding zone of Sweden.  An investigation on varia- tion of imbalance costs in three different modes also has been carried out, to demonstratethe advantage of such a virtual power plant concept in reducing the imbalance costs. / För att uppfylla 1,5-gradersmålet som beslutats av världens ledande ekonomier har olika‌typer av förnybar energiproduktion fått ett stort uppsving. Detta har lett till ökad energiproduktion från förnybara källor och minskad energiproduktion från fossila källor. För elsystemen innebär en högre andel förnybar produktion minskad svängmassa ochökat behov av flexibilitet för att kompensera för variationen hos förnybara energikällor. Virtuella kraftverk är ett nytt koncept för att tillgodose behovet av flexibilitet och kanäven ge andra fördelar som konkurrenskraft och tillförlitlighet. I denna uppsats studeras ett virtuellt kraftverk genom att utveckla en optimeringsmodell för att emulera handeln i elmarknader med riskmått inom ett ramverk för den nordiska elmarknaden. Modellen implementeras i det nya programmeringsspråket Julia. Modellen innehåller en hypotetisk blandning av resurser bestående av ett planerbart kraftverk, ett batterisystem och en vindpark i elområdet SE3 i Sverige. Balanseringskostnaderna i tre olika modeller undersöks för att visa potentialen hos det virtuella kraftverket att minska dessa kostnader.

Digitalization is hitting the energy industry by empowering energy producers and retailers, butmore importantly it’s empowering the end customers and the energy producers and retailers areno longer in possession of all power. Due to digitalization, energy networks are beingmodernized and new emerging technologies called smart grids and smart meters have beenintroduced. Smart grids can automatically monitor energy flows and adjust to changes in energysupply and demand. Smart meters on the other hand empowers the consumers to adapt theirenergy usage in both time and volume to different energy prices throughout the day by costcuttingtheir energy.With empowered and conscious end-customers, electricity retailers will have to compete in newways or risk losing their business. There is a risk that the majority of the over 100 electricityretailers in Sweden will be wiped out with time if data and information is not leveraged to theend-customers. This is potentially also threatening the business of TSU as well as othercompanies providing IT solutions to the energy market.For long Tieto Smart Utility (TSU) has offered IT services for both electricity retailers anddistributors across the Nordics. In relation to recently developed solutions as well as theopportunities and challenges created by digitalization and disruptive technologies such as smartmeters, the Nordic countries are in the forefront. Hence, TSU sees a potential in increasing itspresence in Western Europe to provide services to the retailers and distributors. However, inorder to expand to Western European countries TSU seeks to have a greater marketunderstanding of the different markets, in terms of for example market size, market structure,regulations. The problem is to have a structured and comprehensive way to increase marketunderstanding when assessing new West European energy markets due to the major differencesin each country.This thesis therefore aims to develop a framework which enables IT solution providers toconduct a market opportunity analysis in order to increase market awareness and assess theopportunities and potential in Western European markets, influenced by the smart-meter roll outand thus facilitate strategic decisions.A framework has been developed on the foundation on existing frameworks and applied onTSU by conducting a case study on a market opportunity assessment tool for energy IT solutionproviders. The framework consists of three levels of analysis; European-, Country- andCustomer Level which intends to identify market opportunities and potential.This thesis provides a framework for companies who wants to assess market opportunities andfacilitates strategic decisions regarding the potential of entering the markets. The findings of thisthesis has shown that the market opportunities for TSU are the greatest in Germany especiallydue to the market magnitude as well as the status for the smart meter roll-out. Furthermore,since IT solution providers usually offers many different services and solutions, the findings canbe used in a larger extent in order to asses the potential depending on type service and solution.

Background: With the tremendous growth of the Green Bond (GB) market, understanding the relationship of the GB market with other financial markets gains importance. The Covid19 pandemic causing a recession in most major economies creates an opportunity to see the co-movements of the GB market with other financial markets under a period of economic crisis. Purpose: This study aims to use the economic contraction catalyzed by the 2020’s Covid-19 pandemic as a means to investigate the co-movements between the GB and the treasury bond, corporate bond, stock, and carbon markets during an economic recession. Through this, we intend to find if co-movements of the GB market have changed, and if so, how. Method: As the collected data is time-series data, Augmented Dickey-Fuller and Ljung-Box tests are utilized for preliminary testing. Thereafter, a univariate-GARCH model is used for volatility modeling. Moreover, the DCC-GARCH model has been conducted to determine the co-movements between the markets. Conclusion: The results of the study show that in the case of GB, treasury, and corporate bond markets, no considerable changes were observed in the co-movement among the two different sample periods. Moving to the stock and GB markets, it was found that the co-movement increased at the beginning of the crisis. However, for the whole crisis period, no substantial changes can be seen in comparison to the pre-crisis period. Furthermore, the co-movement between the two markets was found to be weak in general. Moving on to the results obtained for GB and carbon markets, at the start of the crisis, a sharp fall can be observed. When compared to the pre-crisis period, the co-movement showed a slight increase, yet very weak. Furthermore, it was observed that the co-movement between the two markets has been weak during the whole sample period.

In Chinese culture, certain digits are considered lucky and others unlucky. This thesis evaluates how numerical superstition affects financial decision-making in the Chinese A-share IPO market for the period between 2003-2015. Evidence has been found that suggests that numerical superstition influences the initial return on the issuing day of A-share IPOs on the Shanghai exchange. On this exchange newly listed firms with the unlucky number 4 and lucky numbers 6 and 8 in their ticker are initially traded at a discount. A superstition effect for the lucky numbers 6 and 8 dissipates after the first trading day but remains visible after the IPO for the unlucky number 4 and disappears within a month. The Shenzhen exchange showed no effects of numerical superstition on the initial return of the first trading date. The additional regression results indicate that after one month and onwards, having an unlucky number in a ticker has a negative influence on IPO underpricing . After the 3rd and 6th month the lucky number 6 is has a significant negative impact on stock return.

The high level of inequality in South Africa remains one of the biggest problems facing the country. Inequality is not limited to income and can be found in infrastructure, health and education as part of the heritage of apartheid. Polarisation is related to inequality with increases in high- and low-earning jobs, while middle-earning jobs remain stagnant or even decline. This study will try to identify polarisation in the South African labour market since the end of apartheid by making use of the Post-Apartheid Labour Market Series that uses a compilation of Statistics South Africa data ranging from 1994 to 2012. The study finds some evidence of polarisation of employment and earnings in South Africa and the growth of the tertiary sector and the public sector in the country has meant gains in the middle of the distribution for people with a Grade 12 education. Relatively strong unions and the introduction of minimum wages have helped those at the bottom to catch up with the middle. / MCom (Economics), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015