Background: With the first green bond being issued in 2008 as a joint venture between World Bank Organization and the Swedish bank SEB the financial instrument has made an impact on the financial markets. With a high demand for sustainable investments in Sweden partly due to policies a premium for the green bonds is to be expected at least according to theory. The real estate market has adapted to the increased demand for green investments by moving more towards green bonds, and rightfully so as it is one of the largest polluters seen by sector. In result, it is also one of the largest issuers of bonds which creates an excellent opportunity to research the industry as there is plenty of data available. Purpose: This report will examine the premium of green bonds in the Swedish real estate market. Furthermore, it will also examine the effects of Covid-19 and to what extent this pandemic had an impact on green bonds. Method: The thesis examines the Option Adjusted Spread (OAS) of 166 bonds of 9 different companies from the start of 2016 to December 2020 within the Swedish real estate market. Control variables such as Company risk, Market risk and Macroeconomic variables were used in an OLS regression to estimate the premium. The effect of the Covid-19 pandemic was also examined. Conclusion: After analyzing 53 green and 113 conventional bonds no significant results were found on how premium differs between green and conventional bonds. However more general findings were found that suggest bonds become more sought during the Covid-19. It was further found that the green bond market is rapidly growing and may in a few years be in a better position to be examined.

Background: The impact of climate change on people's health and lives is a growing concern, with viruses, malnutrition, and heat stress potentially causing up to 250,000 deaths per year between 2030-2050. To address this issue, organizations and institutions are taking action to create a more sustainable world. One major step was signing the Paris Agreement in 2015, and financial investors have also taken on greater responsibility for the environmental transition. In response, green bonds have become increasingly popular. The key difference between a green and conventional bond is that the green bond is issued with the specific purpose of financing green projects. However, investors are still unsure about the financial performance of green bonds compared to conventional bonds, as the costs of issuing them may impact profitability and economic benefits. Purpose: This report examines how the premium on green corporate bonds, i.e., greenium, evolves over time. The main objective is to assess the performance of green bonds compared to conventional bonds in terms of yield to maturity and the impact of a bond’s green label. To gain a thorough understanding of the development of greenium over time, it is important to examine the factors that influence the yield differences between green and conventional bonds. This analysis of the existence and evolution of greenium and its driving forces can offer valuable insights to investors interested in sustainable finance and green instruments. Method: This study analyzed 267 green corporate bonds and 3,997 conventional corporate bonds issued globally between 2015-2022. The greenium was calculated by comparing green and conventional bonds' average yield to maturity. Additionally, three OLS regressions were conducted to assess the impact of a bond's green label and factors driving the yield to maturity of both green and conventional bonds, respectively. The regressions included control variables such as green label, issuer rating, time to maturity, seniority, and local currency. Conclusion: After analyzing the results, we found that conventional bonds performed better in yields than green bonds over the entire sample. However, in specific individual years, the green bonds outperformed the conventional bonds, indicating that the greenium is not negative each year separately. Regardless, conventional bonds generate higher yields over the whole sample period, implying that greenium exists. The green label does not significantly influence the variance of bond returns in all time periods, suggesting that investors' preference for environmentally friendly bonds is inconsistent across the entire sample. Additionally, the determining factors for conventional bonds are more predictable than for green bonds, and the future events of green bonds can be challenging to forecast due to the larger variation in the effects on yield to maturity.

Abstract What role does our consumption of television play in the trust we have in our politicians? This study examines how the theses of American political scientist Robert D. Putnam on the part played by TV viewing in a failed civic spirit from the year 2000 hold up in a changed media landscape. The relationship between TV viewing and trust in politicians over time, between the years 2002 to 2014, is tested through regression analysis. This is conducted with data from the European Social Survey, which includes 16 European countries, all of which participated in all rounds of the period. The study finds, despite a weak negative relationship, that tv consumption cannot be said to be a particularly strong predictive factor for the level of trust a consumer has in politicians. This in contrast with Putnam’s theses, which points out TV as an important explanation for what he believes is a failed civic spirit. The study also finds that the negative relationship becomes somewhat stronger over time. This aligns with Putnam’s description that individualization has led to TV viewing taking us further away from community with other people, rather than the opposite, which negatively impacts the trust. The study contributes by bringing Putnam’s theses into a new time period, and broadens the perspective by taking his ideas of media and civic spirit across the Atlantic.

Fokuset för den svenska familjepolitiken har länge varit på möjligheten att kombinera familj och förvärvsarbete men hjälp av föräldraförsäkringen och barnomsorgen. Tidigare forskning har visat att barnomsorg av hög kvalitet kan främja barns humankapitalutveckling och en central fråga som uppstått är om kvaliteten på de tillgängliga förskolorna påverkar föräldrars benägenhet att skriva in sitt barn i förskolan. Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilken effekt kvalitet på förskolor har på föräldrars konsumtion av förskola. För att undersöka effekten utförs en tvärsnittsregression och i en panelregression med fixa effekter. För att mäta kvaliteten på förskolor används variabeln förutsättningsindex. Indexet består av två nyckeltal personaltäthet, som utgörs av antal inskrivna barn per årsarbetare och andel heltidstjänster i förskolan med förskollärarlegitimation. En högre andel med förskollärarlegitimation och färre barn per årsarbetare leder till ett högre indexvärde. För att spegla föräldrars konsumtion av förskola används variablerna antal uttagna dagar med föräldrapenning per mottagare och andel inskrivna barn i förskola. Resultatet för tvärsnittsregressionen finner en negativ samvariation mellan förutsättningsindexet och antal uttagna dagar med föräldrapenning per mottagare samt en positiv samvariation mellan förutsättningsindexet och andelen inskrivna barn. Resultatet för panelregressionen med fixa effekter går i motsatt riktning från tvärsnittsregressionen och studien finner inte att förutsättningsindexet har en kausal effekt på föräldrars konsumtion av förskola.

AbstraktAlla tillgångar på en balansräkning finansieras endera med eget kapital, skulder eller en mix.Beslutet hur företag finansiera sig är sällan uppenbart och påverkas, som analyserats i dennastudie, av flera olika faktorer. Mycket av tidigare forskning är inriktad på icke-finansiellaföretag och vilka faktorer som påverkar deras kapitalstruktur. Denna studie fokuserar i ställetpå europeiska banker och syftar till att förstå vilka faktorer som påverkar bankernaskapitalstruktur. De uppkomna resultaten jämförs även med icke-finansiella företag. Studien tarstöd av Modigliani och Millers proposition I och II, men även teorierna Trade off, PeckingOrder och Agentteorin som vidareutvecklats från proposition I och II. Studien tillämpar enkvantitativ metod med paneldata som samlats in för åren 2018–2022. Datamaterialet harhämtats in som sekundärdata från databasen Refinitiv Eikon. I urvalet ingår 81 börsnoteradeeuropeiska banker som har totala tillgångar som överstiger 30 miljarder euro. För att genomföraden statistiska analysen har en OLS-regression genomförts. För att förklara bankernas kapitalstruktur används faktorerna storlek, lönsamhet, risk ochlikviditet. Resultaten visar att storlek och lönsamhet kan förklarar kapitalstrukturen hoseuropeiska banker. Resultaten för storlek och lönsamhet är i linje med tidigare forskning somockså funnit att större banker har en större andel skulder och att högre lönsamhet är associeratmed lägre andel skulder. Denna studie särskiljer sig från tidigare forskning eftersom den intefinner signifikanta samband mellan risk, likviditet och kapitalstruktur. Det ska beaktas att dematematiska beräkningarna för de två sistnämnda determinanterna har annan utformningjämfört med andra studier. Studien valde också att dela upp Europa i två regioner, nord ochsyd. Där upptäcktes att modellen förklarar kapitalstrukturen för nordeuropeiska banker på ettmer tillförlitligt sätt än för sydeuropeiska. Våra fynd ger en viss bekräftelse på giltigheten avbåde Trade Off-, Pecking Order och Agentteorin. Även om dessa teorier traditionellt sett hartillämpats för att förstå kapitalstrukturen hos icke-finansiella företag, indikerar våra resultat attde även är relevanta och användbara för att beskriva finansieringsbeteendet hos större europeiska banker.

<p>Quantile regression have its advantage properties comparing to the OLS model regression which are full measurement of the effects of a covariate on response, robustness and Equivariance property. In this paper, I use a survey data in Belgium and apply a linear model to see the advantage properites of quantile regression. And I use a quantile regression model with the raw data to analyze the different cost of family on different numbers of children and apply a Wald test. The result shows that for most of the family types and living standard, from the lower quantile to the upper quantile the family cost on children increases along with the increasing number of children and the cost of each child is the same. And we found a common behavior that the cost of the second child is significantly more than the cost of the first child for a nonworking type of family and all living standard families, at the upper quantile (from 0.75 quantile to 0.9 quantile) of the conditional distribution.</p>

Quantile regression have its advantage properties comparing to the OLS model regression which are full measurement of the effects of a covariate on response, robustness and Equivariance property. In this paper, I use a survey data in Belgium and apply a linear model to see the advantage properites of quantile regression. And I use a quantile regression model with the raw data to analyze the different cost of family on different numbers of children and apply a Wald test. The result shows that for most of the family types and living standard, from the lower quantile to the upper quantile the family cost on children increases along with the increasing number of children and the cost of each child is the same. And we found a common behavior that the cost of the second child is significantly more than the cost of the first child for a nonworking type of family and all living standard families, at the upper quantile (from 0.75 quantile to 0.9 quantile) of the conditional distribution.

The aim of this master thesis was to examine whether the noticed effect of Black Monday October 1987 on stock market volatility has also influenced the predictive power of the single factor CAPM and the Fama French three factor CAPM, in order to conclude whether the models are less effective after the stock market crash. I have used an OLS regression analysis and a Monte Carlo Simulation technique. I have applied these techniques on 12 industry portfolios with US data to draw a conclusion whether the predictability of the single and three factor model has changed after October 1987. My research confirms that the single factor CAPM performs better before October 1987 and also found evidences that support the same hypothesis of Black Monday effect on the predictive power of the Fama French three factor model.

<p>The aim of this master thesis was to examine whether the noticed effect of Black Monday October 1987 on stock market volatility has also influenced the predictive power of the single factor CAPM and the Fama French three factor CAPM, in order to conclude whether the models are less effective after the stock market crash. I have used an OLS regression analysis and a Monte Carlo Simulation technique. I have applied these techniques on 12 industry portfolios with US data to draw a conclusion whether the predictability of the single and three factor model has changed after October 1987. My research confirms that the single factor CAPM performs better before October 1987 and also found evidences that support the same hypothesis of Black Monday effect on the predictive power of the Fama French three factor model.</p>

Sukuk are an important mode of financing in the Islamic financial system. As usury (interest) is prohibited in Islam, conventional bonds are not suitable for investors in Islamic countries. Since their launch in the 1980s, Sukuk have gained recognition and popularity as a substitute for conventional bonds. However, their unique features mean that Sukuk are not always clearly understood. The aim of this study is to analyse the differences and similarities between Sukuk and conventional bonds in terms of their risk and return characteristics.