Humans are born with innate abilities that vary across individuals. Those innate abilities are at their origin unaffected by their name. Yet, as a child grows up it can be put in different situations based solely on name it holds. Those situations alter individuals' behavior in allocation of scarce resources (Carlson and Conrad, 2008) and consequently its earnings (Jurajda and Munich, 2007). At origin of these empirically observed differences might be use of alphabetical ordered lists at elementary and lower secondary schools. The empirical test I conducted fails to reject the null hypothesis that there is relation between surname initials and student achievement. Those at the bottom of alphabetical ordered list of students tend to do better than the rest of the class. Possible explanation might be use of alphabetical sorting during examinations, which creates uneven incentives among students. To support this explanation a model of student's decision under risk is presented and discussed.

Today it is common for shares to be listed in alphabetical order in newspapers, indexes, databases, watch lists and statements. Investors often face a search problem because of the thousands of available shares. It causes investors to make use of a ready-made stock list to make a financial decision. In this study, we have investigated whether there is alphabetical bias on the Swedish stock exchange and whether it has any impact on the investment decision. Previous research shows evidence that alphabetical bias occurs in the selection of shares based on alphabetically arranged lists on the US stock exchange. In this study, a quantitative method was used for data collection, later data were processed using univariate analysis, bivariate analysis, and multivariate analysis. Using the data collected, the different variables could be calculated, Tobin's Q, Market value, Name flow, Stock turnover rate, Stock price, and Age. The result cannot ensure whether alphabetical bias occurs in the Swedish stock market, however, we can with 99% certainty determine that early placed shares receive higher Tobin's Q than late placed. / Idag är det vanligt att aktier noteras i alfabetisk ordning i tidningar, index, databaser, bevakningslistor och uttalanden. Investerare möter ofta ett sök problem på grund av de tusentals tillgängliga aktierna. Det får investerarna att ta hjälp av en färdig ordnad aktielista för att fatta ett finansiellt beslut. I den här studien har vi undersökt ifall det råder alfabetisk bias på Nasdaq Stockholmsbörsen och om det har någon inverkan på investeringsbeslutet. Tidigare forskning visar belägg för att alfabetisk bias förekommer vid val av aktier utifrån alfabetisk ordnade listor på den amerikanska börsen. I denna studie tillämpades en kvantitativ metod för datainsamlingen, senare bearbetades data med hjälp av univariat analys, bivariat analys och multivariat analys. Med hjälp av den insamlade data kunde de olika variablerna räknas fram, Tobins Q, Marknadsvärde, Namnflyt, Aktieomsättningshastighet, Aktiekurs (pris) och Ålder. Resultatet kan inte säkerställa om alfabetisk bias förekommer på den svenska aktiemarknaden, dock kan vi med 99% säkerhet fastslå att tidigt placerade aktier erhåller högre Tobins Q än sent placerade.