In this paper I investigate if and how strengthening creditor rights enables firms to engage in more innovation activities, using the enactment of a new property law in China as a natural experiment. By using a newly constructed measure of land unavailability, I find that firms in cities where construction is more constrained by geography substitute short-term debt with long-term debt, hold less internal cash, invest more on intangible assets and eventually generate more patents after the enactment of the law. Moreover, this positive effect of the reform on innovation is more profound for firms that have more tangible assets, that are dependent on debt financing and that are more financially constrained. Those results highlight the importance of debt financing for innovation and shed light on the underlying mechanisms through which it takes effect. / <p>Lic.-avh. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2015</p>

SMEs are considered to be an engine for growth in both developed and developing countries, by generating employment opportunities, strengthening industrial linkages, securing home markets and earning valuable export revenue. Government-backed loan schemes play a major role in many countries, by enabling small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to access credit facilities. The Credit Guarantee Corporation in Malaysia has been charged with this key role in assisting SMEs, and its main financing instrument is the New Principal Guarantee Scheme (NPGS). The overall aim of this thesis is to examine the extent to which the NPGS is appropriate to the financing needs of Malaysian SMEs. The primary objective is to identify the factors that determine the utilisation of the NPGS; utilisation depends upon a number of demand and supply factors, as well as the characteristics of firms and owner-managers (OMs). An important secondary objective is to investigate the effectiveness of the NPGS, by exploring the generation of finance and economic additionality, as well as the net cost of the Scheme to the Treasury. After a literature review, and the development of theoretical frameworks, a number of hypotheses are put forward. The methodological approach combines a questionnaire survey with case studies based on interviews with borrowers and financiers, and interviews with key informants. The questionnaire is principally concerned with the factors that affect the utilisation of the NPGS, whereas the case studies and interviews focus on the three elements of effectiveness. The questionnaire data are derived from a sample of firms from the CGC's database. The sample includes firms involved in a variety of activities, from the manufacture of high-technology goods to the processing of resource-based products. Firms were randomly selected to adequately represent racial composition, legal structure and loan size within the CGC's portfolio. The questionnaire data were supplemented by 15 in-depth case studies. Two major findings emerge from this study. First, a number of independent variables did have a significant relationship on the utilisation of the NPGS: the amount of security or collateral; limited company status; manufacturing sector; size of firm; use of external advisers for fund raising; and the existence of written business plans. However, the majority of the hypotheses relating to the characteristics of OMs were rejected; the researcher offers some explanations for this apparent anomaly. Second, the case studies demonstrate that NPGS has achieved finance additionality comparable with achieved in guarantee schemes elsewhere, as well as a significant degree of economic additionality. The net cost of the Scheme was difficult to determine with any degree of precision. On the basis of the research findings, the researcher is able to put forward a series of recommendations to improve the operations of the CGC.

One schedule of reinforcement that is used to decrease the rate of a target behavior is differential reinforcement of low rates (DRL). During this schedule, reinforcement is delivered for a target response if it occurs after a certain amount of time has passed since the last instance of this target response. The current study used a table-top game called PORTL and college student participants to investigate how collateral patterns develop and are disrupted during DRL schedules. After the participant developed a collateral pattern of behaviors with the objects, the researcher removed one of the objects that was part of the pattern and waited for a new pattern of behaviors to develop. Once the participant developed a new collateral pattern, the researcher removed a second object. This continued until there was only one object present. Results showed that the rate of reinforcement decreased following the removal of each object, then slowly increased as a new pattern developed.

No description available.

Collateral management has, during the most recent years, been an increasingly important part of a bank’s operation. The bank is facing an allocation problem of how to post collateral to all its counterparties in order to mitigate the credit risk and the number of transactions that requires collateralization is increasing. This master thesis has investigated if it is possible to effectively solve this allocation problem and hence reduce the cost of collateral management by using numerical optimization. Four mathematical linear optimization models of different structure and characteristics have been developed which aims to reflect the complex nature of the problem. These models have been solved with real-life data and it can be concluded that optimization can be used in order to reduce the cost of the collateral allocation and that the problem can be efficiently solved in an acceptable amount of time. The solution showed a reduced cost of almost 15% for the selected business day compared to the cost of current collateral allocations. / Säkerhetshantering har under de senaste åren varit en allt viktigare del av en banks verksamhet. Banken står inför ett allokeringsproblem kring vilka säkerheter som ska ställas till dess motparter för att minska den kreditrisk som uppkommer i samband med lånehandeln samt att antalet transaktioner som kräver ett säkerställande ökar. Denna uppsats har undersökt möjligheten till att effektivt lösa detta allokeringsproblem och därigenom minska kostnaden för säkerhetshantering genom att använda numerisk optimering. Fyra matematiska linjära optimeringsmodeller av olika strukturer och egenskaper har utvecklats som syftar till att återspegla problemets komplexa natur. Dessa modeller har lösts med verklig data och slutsatsen är att optimering kan användas för att minska kostnaden för en banks säkerställande och att problemet effektivt kan lösas inom en acceptabel tidsram. Lösningen visade en reducerad kostnad på nästan 15% för den valda arbetsdagen jämfört med kostnaden för nuvarande allokering av säkerheter.

Financial authorities have traditionally relied on fines, suspensions, and bars to discipline misconduct in financial markets and, in that way, protect public investors and promote financial development. In theory, these sanctions should be sufficiently high to internalize the social cost of wrongdoing and deter future misbehavior. In practice, however, public firms are often criticized for being under-punished. This concern has motivated a line of research, especially in the United States, to examine whether enforcement actions initiated by public authorities generate negative indirect effects for the firms accused of misbehavior and, therefore, whether those effects supplement the regulatory sanction. In general, the answer to this question is positive under certain circumstances. Whether or not firms also suffer collateral effects in emerging financial markets, however, is a question that has received little attention in the literature. The purpose of this work is therefore to make a first step to fill this gap. Addressing this gap is important because emerging markets are smaller, less liquid, and more concentrated than the United States' financial market, which might neutralize the side financial effects of enforcement that prior studies have documented. As a result, the policy recommendations proposed in the prior literature are not necessarily applicable to emerging economies. This work focuses on three specific types of collateral effects: the effect of enforcement on (1) the defendant's stock price, (2) the defendant's operating performance, and (3) the cost of external financing. In terms of types of violations and sample countries, this work focuses on enforcement actions triggered by securities regulation violations in the five countries that form the MSCI-EC-LATAM index (Morgan Stanley Capital International Emerging Markets Index - Latin America). The results indicate that the stock price and operating performance of firms whose insiders were sanctioned for insider trading decline significantly after the imposition of the sanction. These results have various implications for the regulation of official penalties as a tool to promote financial development.

To date, research concerning children affected by parental incarceration has focused primarily on children that are eighteen years of age and younger. The effects of parental incarceration on adults that are eighteen years of age and older has remained unexamined. The purpose of this exploratory study is to explore the outcomes of young adult college students that have been affected by parental incarceration. A sample of 345 undergraduate college students was surveyed at a sizeable University in the southeastern region of the United States to create a demographic and behavioral profile of college students affected by parental incarceration. It was hypothesized that college students affected by parental incarceration will have lower institutional grade point averages (GPA), higher accounts of criminal involvement, higher likelihoods of substance abuse, and lower levels of self-control than college students that have not been affected by parental incarceration. Results indicated that, the outcomes of college students affected by parental incarceration were comparable to college students not affected by parental incarceration.

In order to reduce the risks, banks has two ways to evaluate the loan exposure. One is credit rating, and the other one is pledge collaterals. Many literatures and financial regulations are emphasizing on the importance of credit rating. However, with the illustration of a plenty of empirical study, the pledging collaterals are the popular way which was using by “lazy” banks. Credit rating or pledging with collaterals is the gap between theories and practices.  The aim of this thesis is to figure the factors which make the gap between the theories and practices. At last, the front-line employees are paid attention on. Since front-line employees are the first and direct one who contact customers. Reliability and responsiveness has a space to develop by training first-line employees, moral hazard controlling, and sectoral specialization the credit inspection.

Bakgrund: Behandlingen av Mediala collateral ligament (MCL) skador är debatterad. En skada på MCL kan leda till sämre medial stabilitet och nedsatt aktivitetsförmåga. Målet med den konservativa behandlingsformen är att minska svullnad och smärta för att på så vis få tillbaka full rörlighet och stabilitet. Behandlingen innebär ofta någon form av öppen eller låst ortos tillsammans med ett rehabiliteringsprogram. Syftet: Syftet med studien är att utifrån litteraturen analysera studiernas bevisvärde och beskriva konservativa behandlingsmetoder för MCL, med öppna och låsta ortoser tillsammans med träning. Metod: En litteraturstudie användes, då syftet var att göra en beskrivning av kunskapsläget. Artikelsökningen resulterade i 13 inkluderade studier. För att bestämma bevisvärde för studierna användes en granskningsmall av Carlsson och Eiman (2003) och Statens beredning för medicinsk utvärderings punkt om studiedesign. Resultat: Studierna fick bevisvärden från lågt - mycket lågt. Efter analys av de inkluderade studierna framkom att den mediala knästabiliteten uppvisade ett varierat resultat i båda grupperna med öppen och låst ortos. Dock återgick de flesta patienter till sin tidigare aktivitetsförmåga efter behandlingarnas slut. Slutsats: Av litteraturstudien kan inga slutsatser dras gällande i vilken utsträckning den mediala knästabiliteten och aktivitetsförmågan förändrats efter konservativ behandling med öppen respektive låst orts tillsammans med träning. Studiernas låga bevisvärde och varierade behandlingsmetoder inom låst respektive öppen ortos försvagar slutsatsen ytterligare.

To date, research concerning children affected by parental incarceration has focused primarily on children that are eighteen years of age and younger. The effects of parental incarceration on adults that are eighteen years of age and older has remained unexamined. The purpose of this exploratory study is to explore the outcomes of young adult college students that have been affected by parental incarceration. A sample of 345 undergraduate college students was surveyed at a sizeable University in the southeastern region of the United States to create a demographic and behavioral profile of college students affected by parental incarceration. It was hypothesized that college students affected by parental incarceration will have lower institutional grade point averages (GPA), higher accounts of criminal involvement, higher likelihoods of substance abuse, and lower levels of self-control than college students that have not been affected by parental incarceration. Results indicated that, the outcomes of college students affected by parental incarceration were comparable to college students not affected by parental incarceration.