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This thesis examines how Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) affects economic growth in Africa. Over the past two decades, China’s economic engagement in Africa has increased substantially, yet there is no clear consensus in the literature regarding the growth effects of these investments. The aim of this study is therefore to assess whether Chinese FDI is associated with economic growth in Af

Weak institutions and crime represent central obstacles to economic growth in many low- and lower-middle-income countries. At the same time, entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in economic growth, welfare and employment, while being particularly sensitive to a lack of legal certainty. The aim of this study is to analyze how crime and institutional quality affect entrepreneurship in low- and lowe

Renewed geopolitical tensions and rising protectionism have once again placed tariffs at the center of international trade policy. Following Donald Trump’s return to the White House in 2025, substantially higher tariffs were reimposed on Chinese imports, raising concerns about global spillover effects beyond bilateral U.S.-China trade. In particular, European policymakers have expressed concern th

This thesis examines the effects of European Union integration on exports, focusing on the most recent EU enlargement involving Croatia. In addition to assessing the direct impact of EU accession on Croatian exports to the EU, the study investigates potential spillover effects on exports from the Western Balkan Six (WB6) countries relative to a control group. The empirical strategy combines fixed-

This thesis examines the relationship between economic factors and fertility in European high-income countries over the period 1990–2023. Despite high living standards and well-developed welfare systems, fertility rates in many European countries have remained persistently below the replacement level. Raising questions about the relevance of traditional economic explanations. Using country-level p

This thesis examines the impact of Donald Trump’s social media sentiment on Bitcoin price returns, comparing two periods with distinct political con- texts: during his presidency in 2019 and his re-election campaign in 2024. Employing VADER, a sentiment analysis tool optimized for short social me- dia texts, the study analyzes the sentiment of Trump’s tweets and Truth Social posts. Using OLS regre

Stock analysts have a great influence on how investors choose to invest their money and which companies that will receive a share of the ever-growing amount of money that Swedish households choose to invest in stocks. With the influence that analysts have on the company inflows and outflows of capital, one can wonder what drives their target prices. This report analyzes which financial variabl

This thesis analyzes how the timing of mandatory pension contributions affects life-cycle consumption, portfolio choice, and housing decisions. A quantitative life-cycle model calibrated to the Swedish pension system is developed, in which individuals face uncertain labor income, mortality risk, and stochastic returns on financial and housing assets. Utility is derived from both non-durable consum

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse to what extent colonial trade patterns persist in former British and French colonies in Southeast Asia and West Africa, and how these effects differ between colonial powers and regions. The study combines a historic perspective combined with an empirical analysis of bilateral trade flows between France, the United Kingdom, and their former colonies over the

Recent increases in Swedish food prices have raised concerns about how input cost changes are transmitted to consumers. This study examines the extent and timing of price transmission in the Swedish food sector and whether the relationship changed after 2020, a period characterized by major macroeconomic and supply-chain shocks. Using monthly data for 2015-2024, we estimate first-differences panel

This thesis examines the relationship between Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance and firm-level risk among publicly listed companies in the Nordic countries. While prior research suggests that ESG may reduce firm risk, evidence for the Nordic region remains limited despite its high sustainability standards. Using panel data on 380 firms from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finlan

This paper examines whether the EU-South Korea Free Trade Agreement is associated with indirect effects on third-country exports, with a particular focus on Japan. The analysis uses annual bilateral EU-15 import data over the period 2005-2018 and compares post-2011 import patterns from South Korea and Japan to those from a common group of exporters not directly affected by the agreement. The empir

Clinical trials represent events that drive volatility in the biopharmaceutical sector through their binary characteristics, creating unique challenges for risk assessment. The study examines what factors drive stock return volatility for the top 25 US-listed biopharma companies around the release of clinical trial results. Analyzing 3380 clinical trial events between 2010-2020, this study employs

Decision-support systems based on artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly implemented in everyday societal contexts, including high-stakes domains such as finance, medicine, and law. While these systems play an expanding role in shaping important decisions under uncertainty, a fundamental question concerns how algorithmic advice affects the behavior of human decision-makers. Despite this, mo

This study investigates why households' perceived inflation differs from the official inflation in Sweden, measured by CPI, over the period 1994-2025. The analysis is based upon two hypotheses: the first examines whether periods of high inflation are related to a lower gap between perceived- and official inflation. The second examines whether increased media exposure regarding inflation, is li

Diversification reduces portfolio risk when assets are imperfectly correlated, yet evidence suggests that correlations rise in turbulent markets and weaken diversification benefits. This thesis examines whether market volatility undermines sector-level diversification in the Nordic equity market and whether any sector remain resilient. Using daily data for ten Nordic sector indices, the analysis a

This paper analyzes how different types of information affect how the market reacts to earnings announcements. This is done by focusing on short-term price dynamics following earnings announcements explained by EPS Surprise and Sentiment. The market reaction is measured as overnight and intraday abnormal returns. The main findings indicate an immediate overnight reaction associated with both EPS S

Financial markets are subject to sudden changes in volatility, which can challenge standard option pricing models such as Black–Scholes. While the Black–Scholes model remains a widely used benchmark, its assumptions of constant volatility and continuous price movements may limit its performance during turbulent market conditions. This thesis examines whether the Merton jump–diffusion model provide

This thesis investigates whether integrating technical market data with fundamental accounting variables improves the out-of-sample predictability of stock returns in the highly liquid S&P 100 universe. Using an expanding window approach from 2010 to 2024, the study compares the performance of regularized linear (Ridge Regression) and non-linear (Histogram Gradient Boosting) estimators against

This thesis examines how changes in the Swedish policy rate affect sectoral stock returns in the banking, real estate, and service sectors during the period 2012–2024. Using monthly sector-level data and regression-based analysis, we study whether monetary policy has heterogeneous effects across sectors with differing financial structures and interest rate exposure. The analysis covers both the pr