Purpose: The ability to make ends meet has long been a critical issue tied to individuals' financial well-being. This study proposes and analyzes a structural model to explain the antecedents of making ends meet behavior, grounded in the theory of planned behavior.Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through a survey of bank customers from a large Swedish retail bank (N = 14,617). Structural equation modeling includes antecedents to making ends meet, such as social learning, financial confidence, risk attitude, saving and borrowing intentions. To account for demographic and socioeconomic factors, group analysis was conducted across gender and income groups to evaluate the model's applicability.Findings: Results reveal that social learning, financial confidence and risk attitude collectively shape behavioral intentions to save and borrow. Saving intention positively contributes to the ability to make ends meet, while borrowing intentions decrease this likelihood. Additionally, the study finds that financial information received through social surroundings differently predicts saving intention and borrowing intention. The model's applicability across gender and income groups underscores the importance of these behavioral constructs in shaping make ends meet.Practical implications: Based on these insights, we propose that financial institutions seeking to enhance clients' ability to make ends meet could focus on delivering effective financial guidance and relative information on financial management. Specifically, it is essential to support individuals with limited resources in initiating saving, even in small amounts, while simultaneously reducing their reliance on borrowing to address financial gaps. By implementing initiatives that promote efficient money management techniques and offering programs that enhance financial literacy, banks can play important role in strengthening responsible financial behavior and improving financial well-being.Originality/value: This study advances understanding of the antecedents of making ends meet grounded in the theory of planned behavior. The proposed structural model integrates social learning, financial confidence and risk attitude as key factors shaping saving and borrowing intentions to explain making ends meet behavior. Notably, incorporating borrowing intention offers a more comprehensive perspective by revealing its potential counteracting effect on achieving financial stability. Our findings highlight the significant impact of social learning – through economic and financial information from sources such as family and banks – on saving and borrowing intentions.

This paper examines the extent to which the portfolios of green and conventional funds differ. We use non-metric multidimensional scaling to analyze the securities held by 6888 funds traded on European markets as of March 2023. This numerical methodology reduces the fund compositional matrix from thousands of dimensions to two dimensions, revealing patterns that can be studied graphically. We use the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation's Articles 8 and 9 to classify green funds, and with few exceptions find that green fund portfolios are largely the same as conventional fund portfolios. A notable exception are energy sector funds, where there are distinct differences between the holdings of green and conventional funds. Our findings suggest that the EU's regulatory effort on sustainable finance has not yet delivered on anti-greenwashing objectives, and that green investing is doing little to shift investment allocations.

A common claim holds that investment treaties reduce the willingness of host countries to regulate foreign-owned, environmentally-stranded, investments. A counter-argument is that the treaties can yield incentives for environmentally-friendly replacement investment. This paper examines these claims in a simple formal setting with an initial investment and a potential replacement investment, both of which are protected by an investment agreement. The paper shows how the treaty protection weakens incentives for environmental protection. The paper also shows how the extent of environmental damage depends on the implementation of core legal notions, such as investor legitimate expectations, the full compensation requirement, carve-outs from compensation obligations, and what qualifies as an investment.

This study investigates the interaction between fuel security and climate policy in Sweden, a small economy with no domestic oil production and one of the highest shares of fossil-free alternative fuels in the transport sector within Europe accounting for approximately 20% (by energy content) of total transportation fuel demand in 2019, excluding electricity. Using a Structural Vector Autoregression (SVAR) model estimated on monthly data from 2010 to 2023, the analysis quantifies the elasticity of Swedish GDP to global oil supply shocks and computes the associated fuel security premium. Results indicate that Sweden’s short-run GDP response to oil shocks is modest—approximately one-third the magnitude of the U.S.—but the longer-run response is comparatively stronger, reflecting the importance of international economic spillovers. The estimated fuel security premium reaches up to 0.065 EURO/liter diesel equivalent (or USD 12.6 USD/barrel of oil), underscoring persistent macroeconomic exposure despite high adoption of alternative fuels. A qualitative assessment of Sweden’s fuel market shows that while biodiesels are widely used, their reliance on imported feedstocks, exportability, and high cost limits their contribution to fuel security. Electricity and biomethane offer more promising pathways for enhancing fuel security due to their domestic production potential, barriers to international trade, and price competitiveness. The findings help define the scope to which unilateral fuel security policies can reinforce climate policy goals in small economies, emphasizing the importance of diversified energy systems and international coordination. These insights provide guidance for the strategic planning and implementation of energy policy in small, oil-import-dependent countries seeking to balance energy security and climate objectives in a globally integrated fuel market.

We study how the catastrophic 2011 Thailand flood affected Swedish firms that imported from Thailand, and find large and persistent long-run effects. Thai imports fell by 83 percent in the year following the flood, and the fall continued through to 2019 despite the relatively rapid recovery of Thai production. Thus, Swedish firms permanently switched suppliers. We also find evidence of re-shoring, but the dominant long-run effect is as switch to producers in other Asian countries.

Swedish transportation has a high reliance on biofuels, accounting for approximately 20% of total energy demand in 2019 for transportation, excluding electricity. This makes Sweden an exceptional opportunity to study the interaction between climate policy and fuel security objectives in a small open economy with no domestic oil production. Despite this high reliance, we estimate Sweden's fuel security premium to be upwards of 0.065 EUR per liter diesel equivalence (or 12.6 USD/barrel) of imported oil, which is comparable although lower than similar estimates for the USA. We then discuss fuel security policy related to specific fuels including HVO/FAME, biomethane, and electricity. We conclude that electricity, and to some extent biomethane, are the most promising in terms of their potential to support fuel security objectives and reduce greenhouse gas emission.

We study how the catastrophic 2011 Thailand flood affected Swedish firms that imported from Thailand. Output by the 50th percentile of importers with a higher share of Thai imports in total imports dropped by 8% in 2012. In aggregate, this translates into a 1.08 billion SEK drop in Thai imports for these firms, which translated into over 29.7 billion SEK in lost sales. The magnitude of the amplification effect is striking. The effects of the flood did not go away in spite of the relatively rapid recovery in Thai production, which is consistent with substantial fixed costs in establishing links in supply networks. Another key result is the importance of geographical diversification in a value chain. Our regressions show that firms that import a good from more than one country are almost completely shielded from the flood.