Den 1 april 2018 implementerade den svenska regeringen en flygskatt i Sverige med målet att minska den svenska flygindustrins utsläpp i atmosfären. Med hjälp av nationalekonomisk mikroteori, tidigare studier, statistik, egna beräkningar och jämförelser baserade på sekundärdata, analyserar uppsatsen den svenska flygskattens måluppfyllelse, kostnadseffektivitet och incitament till teknologisk utveckling. Uppsatsen når slutsatsen att den nuvarande utformningen av den svenska flygskatten inte uppfyller kraven för de styrmedel som främjar kostnadseffektivitet, inte ger några ytterligare incitament till teknologisk utveckling utöver EU-ETS handelssystem med utsläppsrätter samt missar klimatmålen på både nationell och internationell nivå. / On the 1st of April 2018, the Swedish government implemented a flight tax in Sweden with the goal of reducing the Swedish aviation industries atmospheric emissions. With the help of the theory of microeconomics, earlier studies, statistics, calculations, and comparisons based on secondary data, the essay analyzes the Swedish flight tax with regards to its achievement of the environmental objectives, cost-efficiency and, incentives to technological development. The essay reaches the conclusion that the current design of Swedish flight tax does not achieve the requirements of cost-efficient regulations, does not promote further incentives to technological development beyond the already established European Union Emission Trading System and does not meet the environmental objectives nationally nor internationally.

Maintenir un accroissement soutenu de la valeur pour les actionnaires estaujourd'hui reconnu comme un des principaux objectifs stratégiques pour les institutions financières. Générer une croissance stable de la valeur pour les actionnaires nécessite une concentration intense sur une prestation de services de meilleure qualité aux clients, le recrutement, le maintien d'un effectif motivé, et l'entretien d'excellentes relations avec les différents partenaires de la firme bancaire.Cette thèse présente une évaluation analytique de la création de la valeur actionnariale dans le secteur bancaire. La première partie : Fournit un cadre pour l'analyse théorique de la valeur actionnariale en discutant comment la valeur actionnariale peut être définie, si elle peut être considérée comme un objectif valable et stratégique pour la banque, comment la valeur actionnariale peut être mesuré et comment elle peut être créé. La deuxième partie de la thèse présente des Investigations empiriques afin de mesurer la valeur actionnariale et certains de ses déterminants. La partie finale Analyses l'importance de Ces facteurs dans lacréation de valeur pour les actionnaires.L'échantillon utilisé comprend les dix banques tunisiennes cotées sur la bourse des valeurs mobilières de Tunisie entre 1995 et 2009. Nous utilisons un modèle de panel pour examiner les déterminants de la création de valeur pour les actionnaires (Mesuré par l'EVA et ses composante, c.-à-d. profits économiques et coût de capital) comme une fonction linéaire de variables spécifique aux banques et a l?industrie bancaire et des variables macro-économique. Nous trouvons que Divers facteurs semble être d'importants déterminants significatifs des profits économiques et de la valeur actionnariale créée par les banques. En cohérence avec la littérature antérieure, nous avons des efficiences coût et revenu qui sont liées positivement à la performance des banques: à savoir, les profits économiques ont eu un lien positif avec l'amélioration de l'efficience revenu, tandis que l'EVA est positivement liée a l'amélioration de l'efficience coût. Deuxièmement, nous trouvons une relation positive entre les pertes de crédit et la valeur actionnariale, ce qui explique que des pertes élevées inattendues impliquent un plus grand volume d'affaires et peut-être de moins bonne qualité du portefeuille de prêts. Troisièmement, nous avonsobservé un lien positif entre l'endettement bancaire et les profits économiques, mais non pas avec l'EVA. Cela est dû à la relation positive entre effet de levier financier et le coût du capital. Dans l'ensemble, plus le levier financier est important plus les profits économiques seront aussi importantes, mais cela est compensé par des coûts du capital plus élevés. / Creating sustainable shareholder value is at this time accepted as one of the mostimportant strategic objectives for financial institutions. Generating stable shareholder value growth requires an intense focus on delivering benefits to customers in the most efficient way, hiring and retaining motivated personnel, maintaining excellent relationship with other firm stakeholders.This thesis provides an analytical assessment of shareholder value creation in banking. The first part of the text provides a framework for analysing shareholder value theory by discussing how shareholder value can be defined, if it can be considered a valid strategic objective for banks, how shareholder value can be measured and how it can be created.The second part of the text presents empirical investigations in order to measureshareholder value and some of it drivers. The final part analyses the importance of these drivers in creating shareholder value. In order to have a broad view of the sector, the sample analysed comprises commercial Tunisian banks listed on Tunisian stock exchange between 1995 and 2009. We use a panel model to examine the determinants of bank's shareholder value reaction (measured by EVA and its components) as a linear function of various bank-specific, industry-specific and macroeconomic. We find that various factors are found to be statistically significantdeterminants of economic profits and shareholder value created by banks. Consistently with the previous literature, we find that cost and revenue efficiency are positively related to bank performance: namely, economic profits are found to have a positive link with revenue efficiency improvements, while EVA is positively related to cost efficiency improvements. Secondly, we find a positive relationship between credit losses and shareholder value providing evidence that higher unexpected losses imply larger business volume and perhaps lower loan portfolio quality. Thirdly, we observe a positive link between bank's leverage and economic profits, but not with EVA. This is due to the positive relationship between financial leverage and the cost of capital, overall, greater financial leverage increase economic profits but this is compensate by higher costs of capital.

x, 59 p. / Governments around the world provide financial incentives to encourage renewable energy generation and energy conservation. The primary goals of these efforts are to mitigate climate change and improve long-term energy independence by reducing reliance on fossil fuels. The consensus in the energy incentive literature is that performance-based incentives, which fund energy output, are more cost efficient than investment-based incentives, which fund capital input. This thesis uses a 30-year case study of Oregon's Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC) program to argue that investment-based energy incentives are moderately cost efficient relative to other state performance-based incentives and can be an effective driver of clean energy deployment. However, this analysis also finds that there are significant opportunities to improve the cost efficiency of investment-based energy incentive programs by targeting least cost projects. Namely, 50% of the first year kilowatt-hour electricity returns of the BETC program could have been achieved at 10% of the cost. These lessons from historical BETC spending should guide policymakers, NGO.s, and businesses who aim to make targeted use of fiscally-constrained energy incentive programs. / Committee in charge: Laura Leete, Chair; Ron Mitchell, Member; Grant Jacobsen, Member

This work aims to demonstrate the efficiency degree achieved by the Brazilian states in the allocation of public resources for education. We used multivariate statistical analysis, with Data Envelopment Analysis and Multiple Regression, with data from 2001 to 2011. The results show that some states achieved good efficiencies such as Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul. These states succeeded in conciliating reasonable expenses with good scores in education assessments and tests. Maranhão and Pará had unsatisfactory scores in teaching, but also lower budgets of public expenditure. Thus, focusing on Brazilian Public Education, the results show the efficiency degree in public spending and education outcomes, using several variables and time periods. / Este trabajo tiene como objetivo demostrar el grado de eficiencia alcanzado por los estados brasileños en la asignación de recursos públicos para la educación. En el método de investigación, nosotros utilizamos análisis estadísticos multivariados, con Análisis de Envoltura de Datos y Regresión Múltiple, con datos de 2001 a 2011. Los resultados muestran que algunos estados lograron buenas eficiencias, como Minas Gerais y Rio Grande do Sul. Estos estados lograron conciliar gastos razonables con buenas puntuaciones en evaluaciones y pruebas de educación. Maranhão y Pará tuvieron puntuaciones insatisfactorias en la enseñanza, pero también tenían un menor gasto público. Por lo tanto, en este estudio nos centramos en el gasto público en la educación brasileña. Y los resultados muestran el grado de eficiencia en gasto público y resultados educativos, utilizando varias variables y periodos de tiempo. / Este trabalho tem como objetivo demonstrar o grau de eficiência alcançado pelos estados brasileiros na alocação de recursos públicos para educação. Para isso, foi aplicada a análise estatística multivariada, com análise envoltória de dados e regressão múltipla, para dados da educação brasileira de 2001 a 2011. Os resultados mostram que alguns estados alcançaram boas eficiências, como Minas Gerais e Rio Grande do Sul. Esses estados conseguiram conciliar despesas razoáveis com bons resultados em avaliações e testes educacionais. Maranhão e Pará apresentaram pontuações insatisfatórias no ensino, mas também orçamentos mais baixos da despesa pública. Assim, com foco na Educação Pública Brasileira, os resultados mostram o grau de eficiência em gastos públicos e resultados educacionais, usando várias variáveis e períodos de tempo.

Cette thèse traite de la notion de compétitivité des unités industrielles par l’indicateur de l’efficience obtenu avec la méthode DEA. L’efficience des alumineries de l’industrie de l’aluminium primaire est analysée sur quatre années distinctes 2005, 2009, 2010 et 2012. Les résultats révèlent que ces unités sont globalement peu efficientes techniquement (inefficience de l’ordre de 1 à 5% selon la technologie utilisée et la région) ; leurs combinaisons productives semblent donc peu optimales. De plus, l’inefficience est davantage prononcée au niveau du coût et de l’allocation de leurs ressources en considérant les prix des inputs différents ou identiques d’une aluminerie à une autre. Tout ceci pourrait expliquer les fermetures enregistrées ces dernières années. Par ailleurs, nous avons montré que l’inefficience technique était expliquée par l’impact des variables explicatives âge, taille et le taux de change. Au travers d’un modèle VECM linéaire nous avons montré qu’il existe une relation de long terme entre la performance financière des grands constructeurs automobiles et le prix de l’aluminium allié. Ce résultat étant l’indicatif de l’interdépendance entre ces deux industries. / This thesis deals with the concept of competitiveness of industrial units by the efficiency indicator obtained by DEA approach. We use a cross section data over four different years around 2009. The results show that these units are generally technically inefficient (inefficiency of the order of 1 to 5% by technology and region); their productive combination thus seems less than optimal. In addition, the inefficiency is more pronounced in the cost and allocation of resources by considering the inputs prices of an aluminum smelter in another. All this may explain the closures of recent years. We analyze the assessment of how external factors such as exchange rate, vintage and scale affect the smelters efficiency. Through a linear VECM model we have shown a long-term relationship between the financial performance of major car manufacturers and the price of aluminum alloy. This result is indicative of the interdependence between the two industries.

The electricity cost is one of the largest components of operating costs on a belt conveyor system. This dissertation introduces a unique Conveyor Electricity Cost Efficiency Audit Methodology (CECEAM). In the CECEAM the conveyor system is evaluated from a high to detail level in order to identify opportunities to improve electricity costs. The CECEAM includes methodologies and tools developed to analyze not only the conveyor belt alone, but also the materials handling system as a whole. The outline of the dissertation is structured as follows: Chapter 1 includes the background and problem identification by means of a literature study. The main objective, as well as specific objectives, is defined in this chapter. In chapter 2, the CECEAM is introduced and an overview of the total methodology is discussed. The data acquisition part of the CECEAM; documentation, personnel, walk, technical audit as well as the conveyor database is discussed in chapter 3. Chapter 4 concentrates on the Conveyor Energy Conversion Model (CECM) and the verification thereof. The Integrated Conveyor Energy Model (ICEM) methodology is introduced (in chapter 5) and the economic evaluation concepts and energy management basics needed in the CECEAM are covered. Chapter 6 covers a CECEAM case study where the practical application of the CECEAM is illustrated with ICEM simulations, opportunity identification and recommendations. The conclusion and recommendations for further studies is proposed in chapter 7. / Dissertation (MSc (Electrical Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

In this dissertation, I examine three major aspects of Germany's education system from an empirical public finance perspective. First, I analyse the effects of strong demographic shifts by considering how the East German Länder responded to the rather dramatic decline in the number of students in primary schools (1993-2002). The demographic shock is a consequence of collapsing birth rates after German Reunification. Previous results from the literature, which rely on data from rather stable demographic periods, suggest that public resources are incompletely adjusted to shrinking cohort size such that large reductions in the student population translate into important increases in spending per student and not in significant reductions of public resources allocated to education. Evidence from a panel of 5 East German Länder over the 1993-2006 period suggests, however, that resource adjustments have been considerable, especially in the years when student cohorts were actually decreasing. Adjustments have been less tight in the period when student numbers stagnated such that the 50% decrease in cohort size has translated into a 25% increase in the teacher/student-ratio. Second, I test whether partisan theory can help to explain the practise of ability-tracking in West Germany. The analysis starts from the empirical observation that in the German education system – where tracking is practised very early compared to other OECD countries – the correlation of parent’s education or income with their children’s track choices is very strong. Thus, students whose parents have a high-education background have significantly higher probabilities of attending a high-ability track. Partisan theory states that political parties when in office pursue the interests of their members and electoral constituencies. Political parties representing highly educated households should therefore support the practise of ability-tracking and advocate higher education spending on the tracks for good students. Evidence from a panel of 10 West German Länder over the 1979-2006 period suggests that German political parties support tracking if they represent high-education households and oppose tracking if they represent lower educated households. The results also suggest that political parties tend to allocate public resources towards the track in which party members’ or party electorate’s offspring is overrepresented. Third, research-oriented higher education in Germany is almost exclusively provided by the public sector, which highlights the importance of measuring university cost efficiency, because market exit and entry – which ensure efficient resource use in the private sector – virtually do not exist (see e.g., Hanushek, 2002). Based on a panel of 70 German public universities over the 1998-2003 period I provide evidence about the factors that benefit efficient resource use in the German higher education landscape. I analyse whether relatively liberal university regulation improves the cost efficiency of public universities as suggested in the literature (see Aghion et al., 2008). The results show that liberal university regulation indeed contributes to more efficient use of resources. Moreover, I find that a prosperous private economic environment seems to reduce university costs.

Kostnad och tid är två parametrar som går hand i hand i näst intill alla sammanhang, inte minst i byggbranschen. Pressade tidsplaner och snäva budgetar kräver noggrannhet och effektivitet genom samtliga skeden i byggprocessen. Framför allt är en kortare byggtid av stor vikt, som ett resultat av det har det industriella byggandet fått en alltmer betydande roll. Syftet med denna rapport är att undersöka lönsamheten vid användandet av prefabricerade element gentemot konventionell platsbyggning. Arbetet har avgränsats till att undersöka ett enskilt område, nämligen lätta innerväggar. Rapporten har gjorts i samarbete med Peab AB och den har utförts på deras pågående projekt, köpcentrumet Mall of Scandinavia i Arenastaden, Solna. De två byggmetoderna har jämförts med avseende på tid och ekonomi. Vidare har de prefabricerade väggelelementens för- och nackdelar samt alternativa användningsområden undersökts. De prefabricerade innerväggarna som används i projektet tillverkas av företaget Elementum Eco AB i Bollebygd. Monteringen av väggelementen sker med hjälp av en modifierad gaffeltruck, vilket är ovanligt. Metoden kräver endast tre arbetare och medför en avsevärt kortare monteringstid jämfört med platsbyggda innerväggar. Metoden är ny för Peab och det är andra gången som de valt att använda sig av den. Det var vid ett tidigare projekt i Tanums kommun, då köpcentrumet Tanum shoppingcenter byggdes, som metoden introducerades för företaget. Efter färdigställandet var erfarenheterna av väggelementen positiva. Man ansåg sig ha vunnit både tids- och kostnadsmässigt och valde därför att bepröva metoden ytterligare en gång. Jämförelsen mellan de båda byggmetoderna har gjorts på två väggar med samma förutsättningar vad gäller dimension och arbetskraft. Fördjupade intervjuer som huvudmetod, egenhändigt utförda inspektioner och litteraturstudie har föranlett resultat i rapport. Resultatet av detta arbete visar att kostnads- och tidseffektiviteten ökar med en faktor på upp till närmare nio gånger, genom val av prefabricering som metod jämfört med konventionell platsbyggning som metod. Flera fördelar påvisas även inom områden som arbetsmiljö och miljöpåverkan. / Cost and time are two parameters that affect one another no matter what the context is, not least in the building industry. Both time schedules and budgets are pushed to the limit, therefore accuracy and efficiency needs to be considered through all stages of the building process. A shorter construction time is of vital importance and as a result of that, industrial building methods has taken a more significant part in the business. The purpose of this report was to investigate the profitability by using prefabricated panels instead of conventional building methods. Due to a given timeframe the investigation has been defined to focus on one special field, namely light prefabricated interior walls. The report was developed in collaboration with Peab AB and the work has been done on their ongoing project Mall of Scandinavia in Arenastaden, Solna. The two construction methods have been compared with respect to time and finances. Furthermore, the prefabricated panels advantages and disadvantages as well as alternative uses have been studied. The prefabricated interior walls, used in the project, are produced by Elementum Eco AB in Bollebygd. The walls are mounted by means of a modified forklift truck, which is somewhat unique. The mounting process requires only three workers and results in a considerably shorter assembly time compared to site-built interior walls. It is a new method and it is used by Peab for the second time. The company was introduced to the method at an earlier project in Tanum, when Tanum shopping centre was established. The over all experience turned out positive and once completed, both time and cost was considered to have been saved. Peab therefore chose to use the method once more. The comparison between the two methods of construction has been made on two walls with similar conditions in terms of size and manpower. The result of this report shows that both time and cost efficiency can increase nearly nine times by choosing prefabricated interior walls compared to conventional site-built ones. Furthermore, benefits in areas such as environmental impact and work environment are shown as well.

Since the financial- and real estate crisis in 1990-1993, the Swedish real estate market has changed a lot. Companies that earlier considered themselves as technical-oriented has shifted towards being service-oriented with increased customer focus, which in turn has amplified the competitiveness within the industry. The organizational development in the Swedish real estate business has historically been neglected compared to other industries, but has changed as an effect of the increased competitiveness. There are organizational variations between companies operating on the Swedish real estate market where each company’s perception of optimal organizational structure affects the organizational operations and ultimately the profitability of the firm. This master thesis investigates how organizational differences, in terms of real estate management, between Swedish real estate companies impact the competitiveness of the firm. / Den svenska fastighetsmarknaden har förändrats mycket sedan finans- och fastighetskrisen som ägde rum mellan 1990-1993. Företag som tidigare ansett sig vara teknik-inriktade tvingades ändra sitt fokus till att vara mer service – inriktade, vilket ökade den interna konkurrensen på fastighetsmarknaden. Den organisatoriska utvecklingen har historiskt sett varit eftersatt jämfört med andra branscher men har också förändrats till följd av den ökade konkurrensen. Det finns organisatoriska skillnader mellan fastighetsbolag på den svenska marknaden som speglar varje bolags uppfattning av vad som är ”den ultimata organisationen” som i förlängningen påverkar organisationens struktur och lönsamhet. Denna masteruppsats utreder hur organisatoriska skillnader, vad gäller organisering av fastighetsförvaltning hos svenska fastighetsbolag i sin tur påverkar deras konkurrenskraft.

In recent years, the development considerations within transport planning have started to examine needs from a more comprehensive perspective in order to shift the focus of planning away from favoring automobile travel. New approaches are emerging around the world to face the challenges we are confronted with, such as urbanization, dispersion of community structures, change in population structure, aging, climate change, and tightening budgets. Therefore, this thesis is aiming to gain more insight on new approaches in transport planning by comparing emerging systems in Sweden and in Finland. The comparison is focused on the renewed procedures at the early stages of transport planning; the methods to conduct multi-modal studies through collaborative decision-making processes in both countries. Thus, in this thesis the renewed preliminary transport planning in Finland and the Swedish method of Strategic Choice of Measures are compared based on implications from practice. The main purpose is to learn from practice and therefore, the data for comparison is based on conducted test cases that aim to develop the emerging planning processes in both countries. In Sweden, the preliminary version of the new planning method, developed by the Swedish Transport Administration, was tested with six cases during 2011. KTH was commissioned to conduct a study to examine the collaborative planning of involved actors in each of these cases, and the cases together. Thus, in the Swedish context, the data for comparison will be collected from the earlier study conducted by a KTH researcher John Odhage. In the Finnish context, a case study will be carried out for the data collection. The chosen case consists of a pilot study initiated in Finland in 2012 for the purpose of collecting ideas for the development of a renewed preliminary planning process. In general, both countries approaches aim at creating efficient procedures that would contribute to cost-efficiency and sustainable development as well as fulfilling other aims of the transport policy of each country.  The focus of the comparison is on the critical aspects of multi-modal studies and three features of a collaborative process; the choice of actors, the problem formulation, and the process management. The comparison is carried out based on theoretical implications and the experiences from practice are scrutinized against the ideal approach of each country. It has become apparent that three clearly distinctive differences between the approaches can be pointed out: the role of the transport administration, the creation of a steering committee, and creation of a concept for process guidance. In addition, the four-step principle is the multi-modal tool used in both countries approaches to generate alternative measures to transport related issues. The basic idea of the principle is in the first place to influence land use, transport demand, and choice of travel mode, and secondly to examine if the use of existing transport system can be optimized prior to construction. However, based on the experiences from practice, it seems that in both countries processes the focus of generating alternative measures is leaning more against minor or large new investments. Thus, the search for complementary measures to achieve considerable cost-savings and more importantly, sustainable development, is perceived challenging.