The aim of the thesis is to analyse how to measure an economic pillar of sustainable urban development when it is understood in terms of qualitative city development. This principly means achieving economic prosperity which does not lead to damage of the city areas and decrease the quality of life for its residents. This approach requires the creation of an appropriate set of indicators that will cover qualitative aspects of sustainable economic development. The first section summarizes existing approaches to the definition of sustainable development and ways of measuring both on the Czech and the international level. There are also defined basic characteristics of the urban development which are appropriate to express a qualitative development of the city. The second part is focused on existing ways in which sustainable development is measured, i.e. especially in the context of indicator sets. These are under detailed assessment which aim is to show how useful is to measure the economic sustainability from the qualitative point of view. In this part, the limits of using economic macro aggregates (especially Gross Domestic Product) is emphasized because there are still regarded as one of the key economic indicators of sustainable development. In the next part the thesis deals with the definition of economic prosperity and focuses on the characteristics typical for short, medium and long term perspective. Measurement of sustainable urban development in the short term is based on assessment of financial situation. From the medium-term point of view, it is crucial to assess how the city handles its property, i.e. mainly buildings and land. These property components are substantial for a further direction of city development. In the next section are designed indicators aimed at measuring the ability of the city to maintain a skilled workforce which is one of the most important conditions of long-term economic prosperity. The final theoretical part of the thesis is focused on how the long-term sustainable urban development is to be expressed in an economic way through the assessment of investments in urban infrastructure and its operational efficiency. The designed set of indicators is verified on case studies of three medium-sized Czech cities.

More and more capital is being directed towards the private equity industry. As a result, private equity owned firms make up an increasingly large share of the economy. Therefore, it is becoming more important to understand the nature of how the operational performance of firms change under private equity ownership. This study looked at how the operational efficiency in terms of EBIT-margin changed over a three-year period after a private equity acquisition in the Nordic market. The study found that companies which had an initial positive EBIT margin behaved differently from companies with an initial negative EBIT margin and therefore two separate models where created. It was found that in the case where the company had a positive EBIT margin before being bought by a private equity firm saw an average decrease in EBIT margin of 1.14% units. In the case of a firm with initial negative EBIT-margin a private equity acquisition led to an average increase in EBIT margin by 1.99% units compared to the reference data. This study thus shows that private equity ownership affects the operational efficiency of companies. Moreover, it shows that one should make a distinction between PE ownership in profitable growth cases and turn-around cases of inefficient companies and that the impact of PE ownership in terms of effect on operational profitability can be vastly different depending on the nature of the acquisition in this regard. / Private Equity industrin ser ökande inströmning av investeringskapital, vilket resulterat i att en allt större del av ekonomin utgörs av private equity-ägda företag. Därmed ökar vikten av att förstå hur private equity firmor påverkar sina portföljbolag under ägandeperioden. Denna studie undersöker hur EBIT-marginalen i företag förändrats över en treårsperiod efter att företagen blivit förvärvade av ett nordiskt private equity-bolag. Studien hittade en signifikant skillnad mellan hur företag med initialt positiv, respektive negativ EBIT-marginal påverkades under treårsperioden och två separata modeller skapades för att utvärdera effekten. Resultaten påvisade med signifikans att företag med initial positiv EBIT-marginal minskade sin EBIT-marginal med 1.14% relativt jämförbara företag efter ett private equity förvärv. För företag med initialt negativ EBIT-marginal påvisades med signifikans en ökning av EBIT-marginalen med 1.99% relativt jämförbara företag efter ett private equity förvärv. Studien påvisar därmed att private equity ägande har en påverkan på operationell lönsamhet och att den skiljer sig markant beroende på ifall företaget initialt är operativt lönsamt eller ej.