Licentiat Theses / Licentiatavhandlingar
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Item PRIVATE PENSION SAVINGS: GENDER, MARITAL STATUS AND WEALTH - EVIDENCE FROM SWEDEN IN 2002(2008-05-27T13:48:27Z) Johannisson, IngerDuring the last decades, people in Sweden have changed their savings behavior towards long-term savings such as tax-deferred pension accounts. This indicates that the tax-deferrable pension savings will play a larger roll as a source of income for retired people in the future. To improve the understanding of the saving for retirement in general and the policy design for tax-deferred pension saving in particular, it is important to learn more about the people currently saving in the tax deferrable pension accounts. This paper investigates the attributes of the people beginning to save in tax-deferred pension accounts. The emphasis is on gender, marital status, and wealth. The theoretical framework is the life-cycle hypothesis. The results suggest that women are more likely to pension save and save a greater amount than men. Also, the results indicate that married and single people differ in their savings behaviour. The saving decisions of married people seem to be made at the household level and not on individual level. Further, the public old-age pension wealth has a positive impact on the probability of beginning to pension save and on the size of the pension saved amount for all individuals.Item “Institutions and Inequality”(2008-05-20T13:30:18Z) Isaksson, Ann-SofieThis paper investigates the hypothesis that the association between property rights institutions and economic performance is weaker in countries with high social divisions, as measured in terms of ethnic fractionalisation and income inequality. The results of the empirical estimations support this hypothesis and indicate that it could have some relevance for explaining identified regional variation in the institutional parameter. Moreover, they point to the importance of carefully evaluating the extent to which the institutions measure used captures the institutional framework applying for a broad cross-section of the population.Item Essays on Institutions and Economic Growth(2007-04-03T11:10:40Z) Hansson, GustavItem Two Essays on Performance and Growth in Swedish Banking(2006) Sjöberg, Pål; Department of EconomicsItem Speculative Attacks on Nordic Exchange Rates, 1971-1992(2005) Forsman, Mats-Ola; Department of EconomicsThis paper analyzes the relationship between economic fundamentals and balance-of-payments crises for the three Nordic countries, Norway, Sweden, and Finland, during 1971-1992. To identify periods of balance-of-payments crisis a method first introduced by Eichengreen, Rose, and Wyplosz (1996) was used. They did not report specific results for the three Nordic countries, but compared a group of ERM countries with a control-group of non-ERM countries (including Norway, Sweden and Finland) during 1967-1992. The results here verify theirs more generally, in that the three Nordic non-ERM countries in particular also followed the so-called first-generation of balance-of-payments-crisis models (Paul Krugman, 1979). A second finding was that balance-of-payments crises for the three Nordic countries mainly took place during recessions, typically when governments tried to stimulate their way out by holding government spending constant in spite of decreased tax revenues, which led to budget deficits and speculative attacks. This result is consistent with Krugman's first-generation model, based on constant revenue and increased spending, which led to the same result. Keywords: Balance of Payments Crisis; Nordic; Exchange rates; Speculative Attacks JEL-Codes: F31; F32Item Two Essays on Valuation of Marine Resources: Applications to Sweden(2004) Olsson, Björn (1971); Department of EconomicsPaper 1: Historical records show that the stock density of coastal cod (Gadus morhua) in the waters off the Swedish west coast is extremely low. In 2001 the stock size was two percent of the size in the 1970s. Scarce fish resources imply conflicting interests among various user groups, and sustainable management requires necessary trade-offs to be made. An economic evaluation of the social benefits of the use of these fish resources is valuable for coastal managers in their decision making process. In this paper, we apply the contingent valuation method to estimate the willingness to pay for an increased cod stock in the coastal waters of the Swedish west coast. Also, we test the effects of using different elicitation formats and payment vehicles in the valuation process. We find that the dichotomous choice format yields higher values than the open-ended format and that the formats are statistically different. Surprisingly, we find no statistical difference between payment vehicles (tax versus license fee). The median values range from SEK 150 to 250 depending on estimation method, and mean values range from SEK 230 to 900. A relatively modest aggregation procedure gives an aggregate WTP equal to SEK 704 million. This is a reflection of the public concern for the coastal cod population in the Swedish waters. Paper 2: The marine environment provides many goods and services dependent upon the quality of coastal waters. In this paper, we represent water quality by three different attributes, fish stock level, bathing water quality, and biodiversity level, and carry out a choice experiment among residents on the Swedish west coast to estimate the economic benefits of improved coastal water quality. We analyze data using the mixed multinomial logit model and explore various distributional assumptions and derive individual-specific parameters. Our results confirm heterogeneous preferences for these attributes and show that respondents have high levels of environmental concern and that substantial values are at stake. The most urgent action according to our findings is firstly to prevent further depletion of marine biodiversity and secondly to improve Swedish cod stocks.