Applying microeconomic theory, we develop a forecasting model for firm entry into local markets and test this model using data from the Swedish wholesale industry. The empirical analysis is based on directly estimating the profit function of wholesale firms. As in previous entry studies, profits are assumed to depend on firm- and location-specific factors,and the profit equation is estimated using panel data econometric techniques. Using the residuals from the profit equation estimations, we identify local markets in Sweden where firm profits are abnormally high given the level of all independent variables included in the profit function. From microeconomic theory, we then know that these local markets should have higher net entry than other markets, all else being equal, and we investigate this in a second step,also using a panel data econometric model. The results of estimating the net-entry equation indicate that four of five estimated models have more net entry in high-return municipalities, but the estimated parameter is only statistically significant at conventional levels in one of our estimated models.

During the 90’s, several reforms took place in order to change the educational system. The reforms intended to increase the freedom of choice and to facilitate the start-up process for driving independent schools. A broad alliance of political parties from left to right supported these reforms. Twenty years later, the independent schools constitute a substantial part of schools in Sweden. However, recently there has been a debate about the expanding number of independent schools and whether these schools should be allowed to make profits or not.   In an official statement in the autumn of 2012 the Social Democratic Party announced their new policy declaring that independent schools and freedom of choice are important parts of the educational system. To prevent independent schools from making big profits, the Social Democratic Party launched ideas such as stringent quality requirements. This enquiry analyses the motions written by members of the parliament representing the Social Democratic Party in order to distinguish the pursued policy regarding independent school during the period 2006 - 2012. In this study, I draw the conclusion that members of the parliament representing the Social Democratic Party pursued different policies in the question regarding independent schools. It turned out there was a dividing line between those who pursued traditional working class politics and those who pursued a liberal middle class politics. The former were more eager to criticise the expansion of the independent schools than the latter. Making profit in publicly funded independent schools was something that most members of the Social Democratic Party disliked, but none of them raised their voices for a prohibition.

In Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) with profits, a profit is associated with each city and the requirement to visit all cities is removed. The purpose is to simultaneously minimize cost (excluding as many cities as possible) and maximize profit (including as many cities as possible). Although the reduced single-objective case of the problem has been well-studied, the true biobjective problem has been studied only by a few researchers. In this paper we study the true biobjective problem using the Multiobjective Genetic Algorithm NSGA II and the Lin-Kernighan Heuristic. We propose several improvements for NSGA II in solving the problem. Based on these improvements, we provide computational results of the approximated Pareto-optimal front for a set of practically large size TSP instances. Finally, we provide a framework and its computational results for a post-optimality analysis to guide the decision maker, using the data mining software Clementine.

<p>Syfte: Målet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om det finns något samband mellan FoU and företagsvinster. Författarnas förhoppningar är att resultaten från studien kommer att bidra med användbar information som både investerare och forsknings intensiva företag kan ta del av och utvärdera.</p><p>Metod: En kvantitativ infallsvinkel har valts att genomföra vår undersökning på. Data har erhållits genom företags årsredovisningar och statistik från börslistor. Slutligen har alla siffror sammanställts i Microsoft Excel and därefter analyserats i SPSS.</p><p>Resultat: Resultaten visar att det inte finns något samband mellan FoU och rörelseresultat. Däremot då rörelseresultat varierar kraftigt mellan olika industrier valde författarna att genomföra en branschanalys istället.</p>

published_or_final_version / Economics and Finance / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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By September 2010, in its ongoing effort to clarify the subject of taxing a permanent establishment, the OECD launched a new article 7 in its model tax convention together with a revised version of the report on the attribution of profits to permanent establishments. The article and the report contain a new order of taxation, where a permanent establishment should, in almost all aspects, be treated as a separate entity. The question is if the new approaches, methods and solutions provided by the article and the report will prove effective against double taxation. The thesis has studied this by analysing and then comparing the OECD’s authorised approach with the relevant literature and the current practical situation. The result of the thesis presents that there are problems with the approaches and methods, which in some situations will cause double taxation, not the least regarding allocation of Free Capital. The thesis also concludes that the way in which article 7 of the model tax convention tries to solve double taxation without unnecessary use of the mutual agreement procedure is flawed in relation to differences in national legislation.

Syfte: Målet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om det finns något samband mellan FoU and företagsvinster. Författarnas förhoppningar är att resultaten från studien kommer att bidra med användbar information som både investerare och forsknings intensiva företag kan ta del av och utvärdera. Metod: En kvantitativ infallsvinkel har valts att genomföra vår undersökning på. Data har erhållits genom företags årsredovisningar och statistik från börslistor. Slutligen har alla siffror sammanställts i Microsoft Excel and därefter analyserats i SPSS. Resultat: Resultaten visar att det inte finns något samband mellan FoU och rörelseresultat. Däremot då rörelseresultat varierar kraftigt mellan olika industrier valde författarna att genomföra en branschanalys istället.

This thesis aims to develop an alternative expectations model to the Rational Expectations Hypothesis (REH) and adaptive-expectations models, which provides more accurate temporal predictive performance and more closely reflects recent advances in behavioural economics, the ‘science of complexity’ and network dynamics. The model the thesis develops is called Adaptive Interactive Expectations (AIE), a subjective dynamic model of the process of expectations formation. To REH, the AIE model provides both an alternative and a complement. AIE and REH complement one another in that they are diametrically opposite in the following five dimensions, agent intelligence, agent interaction, agent homogeneity, equilibrium assumptions and the rationalisation process. REH and AIE stress the importance of hyper-intelligent agents interacting only via a price signal and near zero-intelligent agents interacting via a network structure, respectively. The complementary nature of AIE and REH provide dual perspectives that enhance analysis. The Dun & Bradstreet (D&B 2008) profit expectations survey is used in the thesis to calibrate AIE and make predictions. The predictive power of the AIE and REH models is compared. The thesis introduces the ‘pressure to change profit expectations index’, px. This index provides the ability to model unknowns within an adaptive dynamic process and combine the beliefs from interactive-expectations, adaptive-expectations and biases that include pessimism, optimism and ambivalence. AIE uses networks to model the flow of interactive-expectations between firms. To overcome the uncertainty over the structure of the interactive network, the thesis uses model-averaging over 121 network topologies. These networks are defined by three variables regardless of their complexity. Unfortunately, the Bayesian technique’s use of the number of variables as a measure of complexity makes it unsuitable for model-averaging over the network topologies. To overcome this limitation in the Bayesian technique, the thesis introduces two model-averaging techniques, ‘runtime-weighted’ and ‘optimal-calibration’. These model-averaging techniques are benchmarked against ‘Bayes-factor model-averaging’ and ‘equal-weighted model-averaging’. In addition to the aggregate called all–firms, the D&B (2008) survey has four divisions, manufacturing durables, manufacturing non–durables, wholesale and retail. To make use of the four divisions, the thesis introduces a ‘link-intensity matrix’ based upon an ‘input-output table’ to improve the calibration of the networks. The transpose of the table is also used in the thesis. The two ‘link-intensity matrices’ are benchmarked against the default, a ‘matrix of ones’. The aggregated and disaggregated versions of AIE are benchmarked against adaptive-expectations to establish whether the interactive-expectations component of AIE add value to the model. The thesis finds that AIE has more predictive power than REH. ‘Optimal-calibration model-averaging’ improves the predictive performance of the better-fitting versions of AIE, which are those versions that use the ‘input-output table’ and ‘matrix of ones’ link-intensity matrices. The ‘runtime-weighted model-averaging’ improves the predictive performance of only the ‘input-output table’ version of AIE. The interactive component of the AIE model improves the predictive performance of all versions of the AIE over adaptive-expectations. There is an ambiguous effect on prediction performance from introducing the ‘input-output table’. However, there is a clear reduction in the predictive performance from introducing its transpose. AIE can inform the debate on government intervention by providing an Agent-Based Model (ABM) perspective on the conflicting mathematical and narrative views proposed by the Greenwald–Stiglitz Theorem and Austrian school, respectively. Additionally, AIE can provide a complementary role to REH, which is descriptive/predictive and normative, respectively. The AIE network calibration uses an ‘input-output table’ to determine the link-intensity; this method could provide Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) and Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) with a way to improve their transmission mechanism. Furthermore, the AIE network calibration and prediction methodology may help overcome the validation concerns of practitioners when they implement ABM.