The thesis processes the auditor’s role and whether it can constrain possible earnings management in smaller Swedish private corporates. The removed auditing obligation that was abolished in Sweden 2010 with the reason to reduce the administrative burden faced by smaller corporates, contributed to an important discussion regarding the auditor’s actual importance. In addition, the corporate tax in Sweden was significantly reduced from 26.3 percent to 22 percent, which gave Swedish corporates incentives to reduce their earnings before the tax reduction, and therefore pay less taxes. This phenomenon is used in the thesis as an excellent opportunity to measure earnings management since there were significantly strong incentives for corporates to manipulate their earnings at that time. The thesis aims to increase understanding among these corporates accounting, and whether the auditor can strengthen the accounting- and audit quality, and therefore constrain earnings management. Through the use of a quantitative method where statistical tests have been performed on underlying data gathered from the corporates annual reports, the thesis research question has been answered. The formulation of the research questions is “Does the degree of earnings management differ between audited and unaudited corporates?”, which has been investigated by measuring the degree of earnings management through unexpected accruals, but also through SG&A cost stickiness. Furthermore, the thesis aims to provide the research area with arguments regarding the appropriateness of the audit exemption. The result obtained in the thesis indicates that audited corporates have less negative unexpected accruals, and hence a minor degree of earnings management in comparison with unaudited corporates. However, no significance is shown in the result, at a five percent significance level, which means that it’s not possible to say with certainty that there’s a difference between these two groups in terms of negative unexpected accruals. Instead, there is evidence that there’s a significant difference between audited and unaudited corporates in terms of cost stickiness, where unaudited corporates showed more cost stickiness and thus also a higher degree of earnings management. With an additional test the thesis also demonstrates that there are corporates that don’t follow the Swedish laws regarding audit exemption. This is when it’s discovered that there are corporates that aren’t covered by the audit exemption, and thus don’t meet the required limits, but still don’t provide an auditor. These corporates also prove to have a higher degree of earnings management since the thesis received a significant result in terms of negative unexpected accruals. To sum up, the thesis highlights that the auditor’s role is of great importance in several aspects, and for this reason there are motives for legislators to review the audit exemption in Sweden.

Submitted by Joao Luiz Ayres Queiroz da Silva (jluizayres@gmail.com) on 2012-01-13T03:10:40Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseDoutorado_JoaoAyres_VersaoFinal_Eletronica.pdf: 529477 bytes, checksum: d6770f4fc6e8a2ced7e469151b866323 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Andrea Virginio Machado (andrea.machado@fgv.br) on 2012-02-17T16:50:02Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseDoutorado_JoaoAyres_VersaoFinal_Eletronica.pdf: 529477 bytes, checksum: d6770f4fc6e8a2ced7e469151b866323 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-02-28T12:07:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseDoutorado_JoaoAyres_VersaoFinal_Eletronica.pdf: 529477 bytes, checksum: d6770f4fc6e8a2ced7e469151b866323 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-07-26 / Esta tese tem como objetivo principal aproximar a evidencia empirica existente sobre os agregados macroeconomicos com as novas evidencias empiricas baseadas nos micro dados de precos ao consumidor, tendo como base os modelos padroes de rigidez de preco utilizados na literatura de politica monetaria. Para isso, esta tese utiliza a base de dados individuais de precos ao consumidor no Brasil fornecida pela Fundacao Getulio Vargas. Especificamente, esta tese foca em tres temas principais: a existencia de variac˜oes temporararias de precos, a heterogeneidade na rigidez de precos entre firmas de um mesmo setor e o formato das func˜oes hazard. Os resultados mostram que: existe de fato uma correlac˜ao entre as variaveis referentes as mudancas temporararias de precos e os agregados macroeconomicos; a heterogeneidade na rigidez de precos entre firmas de um mesmo setor apresenta efeitos significativos sobre a dinamica dos agregados macroeconomicos; e por fim, o formato mais geral da func˜ao hazard proposta nesta tese possibilita novas dinamicas dos agregados macroeconomicos. / This thesis has as its main goal to approximate the existing empirical evidence on macroeconomic aggregates with the new empirical evidences based on micro data on consumer prices, having as a baseline the standard sticky-price models used in the literature on monetary policy. In order to do that, this thesis makes use of a micro data on individual consumer prices in Brazil published by Getulio Vargas Foundation. Specifically, this thesis focus on three main issues: the existence of temporary price changes, the within-sector heterogeneity in price stickiness and the shape of hazard functions. The results show that: there exist a correlation between variables on temporary price changes and macroeconomic aggregates; the within-sector heterogeneity in price stickiness has significant effects on macroeconomic dynamics; and the more general specification of the shape of the hazard function that is proposed in this thesis leads to new dynamics for the macroeconomic aggregates.

Humour has for a long time been regarded as something unproblematic that in general shouldn’t be taken seriously, and humour research has mainly focused its positive functions and effects. However, humour is indeed a social and discursive practise that, just like others, have social implications. The aim of this essay is, informed by an intersectional perspective, to problematize and critically examine stand-up comedy as discursive practise and to make visible how humour build upon dominating discourses in society. The aim is also to examine the self-contradictory dimension of the jokes. In a critical discourse analysis of Özz Nûjen’s show Dålig stämning (2013), using PC (political correctness) as an overall analytical framework, the analytical categories ‘women’ as well as ‘ethnicity and culture’ are focused. My conclusion is that in all cases of Nûjen’s prerogative of interpretation, ‘stupidity’, as the lowest common denominator, sticks to symbols, bodies and phenomenon that are associated with something deviant or negative. By what is not expressed, a white, normative Swedish PC-identity is constructed as the abstract, preferable subject. Nûjen’s stand-up comedy, i.a. in expressions of self-contradiction, proves to mainly reinforce social norms. Consequently, negative preconceptions and biased representations of reality are cemented. Though Nûjen does contribute to sociocultural change to some extent, the elaborations of the jokes in most cases prove to sustain the social order. A renegotiation of identities is therefore made strictly limited. However, in one case, Nûjen does challenge the notion of identities as fixed and essential, when renegotiating the master status and construction of “The ethnical Other woman”.