As the consequences of climate change is increasing the need of replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy globally is becoming more urgent. A central question that has been questioned in the literature is that if the world is on track on a transition away from fossil fuels or if we are only adding renewable energy to the energy mix in a world that continues to grow and consume more energy. Because of the above mentioned, this thesis aims to investigate if the increased generation of electricity from renewable sources are displacing the generation of electricity from fossil fuels. This is tested using a time and country fixed effects model including 176 countries with yearly observations from 2000 to 2020. The result from the regression showed that one additional kWh electricity generated from renewable sources has not statistically managed to displace one kWh of electricity generated from fossil fuels, net of controls. Previous studies using a similar methodology but on older time frames has shown result were almost no displacement has occurred when renewable sources have been added. The result from this thesis should not be interpreted as that the transition is not going to happen since it might be that the global initiatives taken around the globe to make the transition happenis not get visible in the numbers used in thesis, but the result does on the other hand indicate that several economic, political, and social factors has made the transition to renewables difficult, and that we should not assume that renewable energy will replace fossil fuels for electricity generation without policy measures that supports the transition.

Ten years have passed since Wal-Mart’s public announcement about its RFID technology adoption plan in 2003. Some large competitors of Wal-Mart in the U.S. retail industry jumped on the trend of RFID technology adoption. However, many U.S. retailers do not consider adopting RFID technology because of the uncertainty of return on investment and the lack of business cases demonstrating its profitability, productivity, or efficiency. This study investigates whether RFID companies have better financial performance ratios in the U.S. retail industry. RFID retailers have significantly higher operating margin, lower days-in-inventory, and lower per-employee costs. Compared with pre-RFID, the RFID retailers did not improve profit ratios after they adopted it, but their days-in-inventory ratio and sales efficiency improved significantly. Compared to small RFID retailers, large RFID retailers show greater inventory management efficiency and sales efficiency. Regression analyses show that inventory management efficiency does impact gross margins, but the impact of cost efficiency is negligible. RFID retailers have a positive relationship with gross margin increases. The regression analyses using the Cobb-Douglas production function show that the RFID retailers have a little higher labor productivity than non-RFID retailers. In summary, the analyses reveals that RFID retailers have a better record of maintaining an efficient inventory management and higher labor productivity, but more research is needed to demonstrate the relationship between cost efficiency and profitability.

Since theories of corporate finance are recognised to be conditional, this study explores the impact of the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2007-2009 and institutional settings in determining corporate financial decisions. The recession on the supply of credit and demand for credit affects the corporate financial channels. The credit recession causes more agency costs, bankruptcy costs and information asymmetry, which adversely influence both borrowing and investments. Firms reduce debt financing, retain more cash and cut corporate payouts due to a sharp rise in uncertainty. Moreover, the role of institutional settings on corporate decisions differs following the GFC. Three empirical chapters contribute to the literature: First, Chapter 3 investigates the role of GFC on determinants and the adjustment speed of leverage and debt maturity and reveals that the effect of bankruptcy costs, agency costs and information asymmetry only increases on debt maturity, as opposed to leverage in the post-GFC. The adjustment speed of leverage and debt maturity drops after the GFC due to the low supply and demand for credit. Chapter 4 examines how cash holdings have been affected by the GFC across countries which have different agency problems and analyses how the rise of agency costs and information asymmetry can explain cash decisions before and after the GFC. Financially constrained firms have quicker cash holdings’ adjustment compared to unconstrained firms. However, while firms in low-governance countries have slower adjustment speed of cash than those in high-governance countries in pre-crisis, it has been found that it is vice versa in the post-crisis period. Finally, Chapter 5 analyses the effect of agency problems and the GFC on dividend payouts. Contrary to firms in high-governance countries, those in common-law countries are less likely to pay out dividends, as confirmed by the substitute and outcome models, sequentially after the GFC. Also, dividends are used as a signalling device by the GFC. Overall, the GFC and institutional settings impact corporate financial policies of firms to specify where and when their shareholders invest. / Ministry of National Education of the Republic of Turkey İlim Yayma Vakfı İstanbul İktisatçılar Derneği (İKDER)

This paper examines whether the total amount issued of a company has an effect on corporate bonds’ yield spreads on the Swedish debt capital market. With panel data regression of over 150,000 observations from over 20 investment graded companies, it is found that the relationship is smile-like. Companies with lower and higher amount of issued bonds have a higher yield spread compared to those in the middle-size range of the same credit risk. The significance hold after controlling for other regressors such as bond-specific, firm-specific, and macroeconomic variables. The effect can be viewed as a market-illiquidity problem from the theory of constrained investors where Swedish issuers outgrow the smaller SEK market and the yield spread levels are not fully explained by default risk determinants. The paper’s result indicates that the total amount outstanding of a company has a role in explaining the dynamics of corporate bonds’ yield spread. / Denna uppsats undersöker om det totala utfärdade beloppet för ett företag har en effekt på företagsobligationers yield spread på den svenska skuldkapitalmarknaden. Med paneldataregression på över 150,000 observationer från över 20 investeringsgraderade företag kan det konstateras att förhållandet är icke-linjärt. Företag med lägre och högre belopp emitterade obligationer har en högre yield spread jämfört med dem i medelstorleksintervallet av samma kreditrisk. Signifikansen håller efter kontroll för andra regressorer, såsom obligationsspecifika, företagsspecifika och makroekonomiska variabler. Effekten kan ses som ett problem med illikviditet på marknaden utifrån teorin om begränsade investerare där svenska emittenter växer ifrån den mindre SEK-marknaden. Uppsatsens resultat indikerar att det totala utestående beloppet för ett företag har en roll i att förklara dynamiken i företagsobligationernas yield spread.