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The purpose of this study is to investigate which groups of individuals are less likely to follow the authorities’ recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden. The thesis aims to explain the decision-making of these individuals during a pandemic based on the theory of Expected Utility. A linear probability model is estimated in addition to a logistic regression. The study finds that the estimated effect of gender and age are significantly different from zero when considering socioeconomic control variables. The results suggest that older individuals’ expected utility is higher when following the recommendations. For men as well as younger individuals, the theory needs an extended analysis including factors from a behavioural economics point of view. This paper is an addition to an increasing number of studies conducted on the COVID-19 pandemic. / Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka individer som är mindre sannolika att följa de allmänna råd och rekommendationer som myndigheter uppmanar till under COVID-19 pandemin i Sverige samt att konkretisera potentiella bakgrunder till varför vissa individer väljer att inte följa de utifrån teorin om förväntad nytta. Tidigare studier har visat att män och yngre individer är mindre benägna att följa restriktioner under andra pandemier. Mot den bakgrunden formulerades uppsatsens hypoteser att män och yngre individer är mer sannolika att inte följa rekommendationer under pandemin i Sverige. En linjär sannolikhetsmodell och en logistisk regression estimerades, där ålder och kön var determinanter mot en binär utfallsvariabel definierad som 0 = följer rekommendationer och 1 = följer inte rekommendationer. Resultatet visade att kön och ålder uppvisade en effekt signifikant skild från noll även efter socioekonomiska kontroller. Utifrån förklaringsmodellen tyder resultatet på att äldre individer har en hög förväntad nytta av att följa rekommendationer. För män och yngre individer behöver teorin hämta stöd från beteendeekonomin. En fördjupande analys av individers riskpreferenser rekommenderas i framtiden för att ge tydliga rekommendationer till olika grupper i samhället.

I analyzed the effects of Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Revenue Protection crop insurance (RP) on the RP coverage level by certainty equivalents and certainty equivalent returns. ARC is a commodity program that falls under Title I of the 2014 farm bill and triggers a payment for a participating producer once his actual revenue falls below a band of 76-86 percent of a calculated expected revenue. RP is a revenue-based crop insurance program that allows for a producer to sign up for one of eight different coverage levels ranging from 50-85 percent in 5 percent increments. This leads to the idea that in order to maximize his utility, a fully-informed, expected-utility maximizing producer should not choose to select full coverage RP but rather select the 75 percent RP and pair it with the ARC program. This analysis is conducted under the conceptual frameworks of expected-utility and cumulative prospect theory.

L'objectif central de cette thèse est d'étudier le comportement de fraude fiscale des contribuables quand ils ne déclarent qu'une partie de leur revenu. Le premier chapitre complète la littérature existante en étudiant le niveau de déclaration du revenu et les effets de changements des taux de taxe, de pénalité et de probabilité de contrôle, en considérant des fonctions d'imposition et de pénalité non linéaire, dans le cadre de la théorie de l'espérance de l'utilité.Le cadre fourni par la théorie des perspectives cumulatives est ensuite utilisé dans le second chapitre. L'accent est mis sur la dépendance des décisions du contribuable vis-à-vis du revenu de référence introduit par cette théorie. Le troisième chapitre caractérise le barème optimal d'imposition du revenu et la stratégie de contrôle et de pénalité que doit mettre en place l'État quand le comportement de fraude des contribuables vérifie les propriétés de la théorie des perspectives. / This dissertation analyzes the tax evasion behavior of taxpayers when they do not declare their entire income. The first chapter studies the declaration of the taxpayer and the effects of changes in the tax rate, the penalty rate and the probability of audit. The tax and the penalty functions are assumed to be non linear. The setting is provided by expected utility theory. The setting provided by cumulative prospect theory is used in the second chapter. Reference dependence, which is a central point in this theory, is particularly studied. The third chapter characterizes the optimal income tax and audit schemes under taxe evasion behavior, when of tax payers behave as predicted by prospect theory.

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We have developed a game-theory based prediction tool, named Preana, based on a promising model developed by Professor Bruce Beuno de Mesquita. The first part of this work is dedicated to exploration of the specifics of Mesquita's algorithm and reproduction of the factors and features that have not been revealed in literature. In addition, we have developed a learning mechanism to model the players' reasoning ability when it comes to taking risks. Preana can predict the outcome of any issue with multiple stake-holders who have conflicting interests in economic, business, and political sciences. We have utilized game theory, expected utility theory, Median voter theory, probability distribution and reinforcement learning. We were able to reproduce Mesquita's reported results and have included two case studies from his publications and compared his results to that of Preana. We have also applied Preana on Iran's 2013 presidential election to verify the accuracy of the prediction made by Preana.

In 1979 Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky created the prospect theory. It became an accepted and appropriate theory in explaining decision making under risk. The prospect theory has been one of the most cited articles in economics and Kahneman received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences as a result of the creation and development of the theory. Therefore the prospect theory is considered to be more suitable compared to the previously accepted theory, the expected utility theory. Following the prospect theory, researchers have utilized it to describe individual but also corporate management decision making when faced with risk. In this thesis the authors will focus on the latter. Despite the prospect theory being a well-accepted theory, there have been several critics due to its limitations and Audia and Greve (2006) are one of these critics. Their study suggested that corporations under threat, i.e. small firms with low returns, act risk averse. The findings of Audia and Greve (2006) violate the prospect theory when considering small firms that have below target returns. They tested the theory on an industry that has the characteristics of having relatively high proportions of tangible assets. Audia and Greve (2006) also proposed that a similar conclusion could be drawn if tested on an industry characterized by having a high level of intangible assets. This thesis examines the applicability of the prospect theory in the Swedish automotive industry and staffing and recruitment industry. The characteristics of the two industries are that the automotive industry has a high proportion of tangible assets and the staffing and recruitment industry has a high level of intangibles. The authors test if the prospect theory can be used to describe the decision making of both industries but also test the theory on small and large firms. Following the results of this paper we show that the prospect theory can be applied to the Swedish automotive industry and staffing and recruitment industry, characterized by having high levels of tangible assets and intangible assets respectively. The theory can also be used to explain decision making under risk for small firms within both industries and large firms within the automotive industry. Even though the prospect theory was originally tested on individuals, the conclusion can be drawn that the prospect theory once again prevails as an explanation of the decision making in the management of corporations. It can describe the decision making of firms in the two industries having characteristics of different asset tangibility and for firms of different size.

This thesis aplied tools of economic analysis on situation in poker, where players choose to finish tournament or make a deal and take certain amount of money immediately. Theoretical frame consists of economic theories for decesion under risk and poker literature. Hypotheses are tested with regresion analysis on dataset which I obtain by my own observing. Estimations support hypothesis that players are risk-averze and loss-averze. In bigger tournaments are bigger prizepools and that is the reason, why players in bigger tournament make deals more often. Moreover deal is more likely, when players are approximetly equal skilled in poker.

Background: Since the emergence of Covid-19 has it reaped and created havoc within every segment of society on a national and global scale. The financial market experienced significant declines and losses but some asset items handled the fluctuations better than others. Moreover, since some asset items are associated with different risk levels will various investors with contrasting risk attitude allocate dissimilar proportion of their disposable capital between these alternatives. Especially during low and high levels of economic uncertainty which is related to the volatile market of Covid-19. Although, little to no research has been conducted aimed at understanding how Covid-19 impacted Swedish students asset allocation prior and post the pandemic with different risk profiles.   Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate if students with different risk attitudes (risk-preference, risk-neutral and risk-averse) conduct statistically different asset allocation prior and post the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, investigate shifts in asset holdings prior and post the pandemic. Moreover, in order to fill the identified literature gap and add to the current body of knowledge regarding asset allocation and variability concerning risk attitudes since its exclusion of Swedish student’s risk attitudes and impact of Covid-19 on preferable asset items.                                    Method: This investigative study concerns a quantitative survey of 81 different students attending Jönköping University. The survey was structured in a way to uncover whether students with different risk attitudes conduct asset allocation statistically different prior and post the Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, incorporate sociodemographic factors of students in order to measure its relation to risk attitudes and uncertainty changes. This will be done through non-parametric tests (distribution free) such as the Chi-square, Kruskal-Wallis and Bonferroni adjusted p-value approach. The data is later discussed and interpreted through various academic sources and in the context of the frame of reference (expected utility theory).                              Conclusion: The impact of Covid-19 resulted into increased asset allocation of less risky and “safe” asset in order to deal with the declining stock market and future economic uncertainty. The study also suggest that students liquidated some of their current/fixed deposits and re-invested their disposable capital into a more conservative money management strategy, which was a continuous identified pattern.  Furthermore, the results indicate that students with different risk attitudes conduct significantly different asset allocation concerning commercial insurance, stocks/funds and various bond types prior to Covid-19. However, post the eruption has the statistical identified differences in bonds asset allocation reduced which refers to that the statistical power and dissimilar allocated proportion amongst asset items has diminished. Further multiple comparison reinsures this conclusion. Thusly, the study implies that the differences between asset allocation and student risk profiles are diminished post Covid-19 and therefore students perceived and allocated more similar capital proportions into various asset items. Hence answer the initial stated research question and empirically state that risk attitude of students impact how they conduct asset allocation prior to and to a lesser extent post Covid-19

Background: In today's society, there is more pressure to be sustainable and not least in the financial world. Several agreements, such as the Paris Agreement, have been created to steer countries towards more sustainability. When it comes to the economy, several SRI strategies have been developed to serve the same purpose. However, the problem that emerges is that investors who invest sustainably and use these strategies can lose returns and thus depart from their main goal of maximizing profits.   Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how SRI strategies are used by investors when constructing their portfolios in terms of profit maximization. The paper will thus conclude if the underlying motivation behind the choice of strategy is affected by maximizing profit.   Method and implementation: By conducting a qualitative study and interviewing several fund managers at the largest banks and fund companies in Sweden, the authors aim to answer the research question. The answers provided by the respondents are presented and analyzed in the empirical section and linked to the study's theory.   Conclusion: In this study, there is clearly shown that by investing, according to SRI, a professional investor is still able to profit maximize. The authors, therefore, see that the new way of being rational as an investor is to include SRI strategies. The relationship with being both sustainable and profit-maximizing can be seen as a significant motivating factor. The same can be said about reduced ESG risk and creating legitimacy towards customers. Furthermore, a combination of strategies can be seen as a way to create an optimal portfolio by the investors. This further proves that sustainable investing is the most rational way of investing and a way to achieve an investors main goal to profit maximize.