Traditional pension products have today been replaced by products that are linked directly to the unit value of some kind of investment portfolio. These products contribute to more vulnerable situations for insurance companies in terms of uncertainties of future obligations. This master thesis aims to create a general valuation model in line with Solvency II regulation, which is able to value the best estimate of the insurance liability. The model will use a state model, stochastic scenario generator model and the Makeham function for estimating mortality intensity. An applied case study was conducted to evaluate how stressed market- and insurance conditions would impact the liability. Additional studies was performed to test how different degrees of rational behaviour among policyholders would impact the liability.  The policyholder population was fictitious and consisted of 100 policyholders. The results illuminated that the degree of rationality had a relative significant impact on the insurance company's liability, as opposed of what impact trends in longevity had on the best estimate in a separated stress test. On the other hand, when stress testing market risk and trend in longevity at the same time, the non-linearity risk was relatively high. The results of this thesis indicated the importance of studying risks in a combined case and not only separately, and also that higher degree of rational behaviour among policyholders could lead to an increase in surrender of profit generated policyholders which in turn affected the insurance liability.

published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Master / Master of Science in Real Estate and Construction Development

published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Master / Master of Science in Construction Project Management

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / abstract / Business / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Economics and Finance / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

In 2014, Professor Scelles and his colleagues ran a test regarding the determinants of professional soccer team values. This thesis will follow a similar model and estimate the determinants of firm values in professional soccer teams from 2007-2016. It will include Asian ownership, percentage of foreign players and Asian sponsorship as new variables. This paper will also test the determinants on market cap and enterprise value in addition to Forbes’ valuation. The results of this study shows that the new variables have a significant impact depending on the valuation that is being tested on.

Hedonic pricing (HP) is an economic technique for placing monetary values upon costs or benefits which do not have market prices. This thesis applies the HP method to the valuation of road transport and visual disamenity impacts, as reflected in variations within property prices. In order to carry out such a study one has to determine not only the magnitude of the environmental impact at each property, but also structural, neighbourhood and accessibility variables characterising each property. These have to be controlled for before the portion of the property price attributable to the environmental variable can be observed. In the past all these variables have been calculated using labour intensive techniques such as house to house surveys. These led to high study costs and limited the scope of such research. This thesis circumvents these problems through the use of large scale digital data and a Geographical Information System (GIS). This study demonstrates how a GIS can significantly improve a HP study through the calculation of a wider range of more sophisticated variables. However the calculation of such a large number of variables causes difficulties when these data are modelled. This study illustrates how these problems can be overcome through a combination of Principal Components Analysis and a Multiple Regression. The final model had a higher degree of explanation and a lower incidence of collinearity than in previous research vindicating the use of GIS. Prices and values for a range of road transport and visual disamenity impacts are presented. The main limitations upon the research was the time and effort required to obtain data and to convert them into a GIS format. This took half of the research time. Various developments that might improve this situation in the future are presented, along with ways in which the study could be extended.

In an ever more urban world, the role of green spaces in cities is increasingly highlighted for their capacity to provide ecosystem services for human well-being. Yet, the value of urban green spaces is still widely overlooked in urban policy and planning. This dissertation examines the evidence base for the multi-functionality and values of urban green spaces, in the context of decision support and for priority setting in urban policy and governance. First, the multi-functional character of urban green spaces and the many benefits they provide to humans through the delivery of ecosystem services is studied through a literature review. Secondly, the pluralism of values is examined through case studies from urban green spaces in Barcelona, Spain. Within these case studies, value perceptions, value emergence and value dimensions are scrutinized by combining different methods, including remote sensing, participatory observations, interviews, surveys, statistical analysis and geographical information systems. Finally, pathways for an integrated valuation of ecosystem services in urban planning are explored through a review of state-of-the-art knowledge on multi-criteria decision analysis applied in relation to ecosystem services. The dissertation shows the multi-functional character of urban green spaces and outlines their specific importance for the provision of cultural ecosystem services. It contributes to operationalize the perspective of value pluralism in the assessment of ecosystem services from urban green spaces. It is noted that the perception of diverging values is mainly determined by the characteristics of the ‘valuator’, the socio-institutional context, as well as different valuation languages through which values are assessed. The perspective of value pluralism endorsed in this thesis, underlines the need for an integrated valuation of ecosystem services to inform decision-making and governance. The thesis examines the potential of multi-criteria decision analysis as a tool to facilitate such integrated valuation of ecosystem services, in the context of urban planning. By putting forward the value of ecosystem services for humans, the thesis intents to provide a cornerstone for policies towards more sustainable and resilient cities that recognize the interconnection and dependency of cities on healthy ecosystems worldwide.