The first essay examines the impact of investor protection, market monitoring, and liquidity on the firm-level and country-level earnings management using a sample of 432 firms from 34 countries cross-listed in the U.S. The major findings are as follows: First, cross-listed firms from countries with strong legal system, strong outside investor rights, more institutional investors, and higher financial transparency are less likely to engage in earnings management. In addition, in countries with strong investor protection or market monitoring, the level of earnings management is more pronounced for illiquid firms as compared to liquid firms. Second, cross-listed firms following IFRS have lower propensity in earnings management than those following the U.S. GAAP. Third, the degree of earnings management for cross-listed firms is greater in the home country than in the U.S. market. Fourth, cross-listed firms have higher earnings management in the pre-listing period than in the post-listing period. Fifth, foreign firms listed in U.S. major markets have lower propensity to engage in earnings management than those listed in the OTC market. The findings remain robust with the inclusion of industry fixed effects and GMM estimation. All findings are largely consistent with my hypotheses that better investor protection, greater market monitoring, and higher liquidity reduce the extent of earnings management. The second essay examines the relative contribution to price discovery process of EURO/USD currency futures traded on two major exchanges: Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), using the intraday data in 2010. The relative contribution to price discovery is estimated using the information share approach of Hasbrouck (1995). Empirical findings indicate that CME accounts for approximately 87% of price discovery in the EURO/USD market and its contribution is substantially larger in the morning than that in the afternoon. This study also examines the effect of trading characteristics, including volume, quoted bid-ask spread, and price volatility, on information share. CME’s price discovery leadership is attributed to its high trading activity, low transaction costs, and lower volatility. The results support the liquidity hypothesis that a market with greater liquidity contributes more to price discovery.

In the first chapter of this dissertation, I examine the relationship between hedging and diversification effects on CEO compensation in the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) industry. The REIT industry is suitable for this investigation for various reasons; primarily being that the REIT sample represents a relatively clean sample to study the effects of diversification and hedging on compensations. I find a positive and significant relationship between the interaction variable which reflects the effects of both hedging and diversification and CEO pay-for-performance sensitivity. This is consistent with the notion that managers are in a better position to manage firm risk if they use all the available tools and instruments, including hedging and diversification. I also find a positive and significant relationship between hedging and CEO pay-for-performance sensitivity, indicating that CEO compensation is more short term oriented because hedging is a relatively short term risk reduction strategy. The second chapter of this dissertation examines the relative contribution of regular and e-mini futures market to price discovery of EUR/USD futures contracts on the CME, using intraday data in 2010. The relative contribution to price discovery is estimated using the information share approach proposed by Hasbrouck (1995) and Gonzalo and Granger (1995). Empirical findings indicate that regular futures market accounts for approximately 66.5% of price discovery in the EURO/USD market. This study also examines if the regular future’s information share (IS) can be explained by the positioning of commercial and non-commercial traders. The results support the conclusion that the IS of regular futures can be better explained by non-commercial traders (speculators) than commercial traders (hedgers).

Abstract 1: In this paper, we investigate the effects of internal corporate governance on the length it takes to remove a CEO after the initial sign of poor firm performance. We find that firms that have a better quality of internal corporate governance are quicker to remove poor-performing CEOs. This result persists after controlling for other factors that might influence the CEO removal decision. Abstract 2: Employing a sample of voluntary CEO turnovers selected from S&P 500 firms over the period 2004-2009, I investigate the impact prior firm performance on a CEO’s potential of being hired on an equivalent job in a similar company. I find that the better the performance of the previous firm, the quicker is CEO being hired. In other words, the better the previous firm performance, the better is the CEO’s potential to a land a similar job faster. The result prevails even in the presence of control variables, such as the CEO’s education, tenure, age and gender. The better performers in previous firms also seem to yield greater improvement in performance of their new employers.

In the first chapter, we analyze the role of market development, risk premium, and transparency as factors influencing the value of cash in firms listed as American Depository Receipts. Based on the method by Pinkowitz and Williamson (2002), our primary results are as follows. The market value of cash is greater on average for ADR firms than for U.S. firms, and within the ADR sample the value of cash is greater for firms based in less developed countries after 2007 financial crisis but not before. Together, the results suggest that the market development is especially important during more volatile periods. Further, the value of cash is negatively associated with the market risk premium. In addition, the relation between insider trading law execution and the value of cash is statistically insignificant for all periods, but corporate-level transparency as measured by the number of analysts is weakly negatively related to ADR firms’ cash value before 2007 after controlling for the fixed effects. The second chapter attempts to assess the relative importance of superior information and hedging in institutional trading in equity index futures in the Taiwan Futures market for the sample period of January to June 2012. Based on the methodology by Llorente, Michaely, Saar, and Wang (2002), we find that, for the market as a whole, significant informed trading or hedging frequently occur, and the opening minutes tend to be associated with a greater portion of trading motivated by hedging. More important to our purpose, for foreign institutions the absolute value of institutional order imbalance tends to be greater on days when the overall market’s informed trading is greater in the cases of regular contract on Taiwan composite index futures and electronic index futures, but for the dealer and domestic fund groups trading is not correlated with the overall market’s informed trading or hedging. An additional analysis of the relation between past institution trades and current returns provides some evidence implying institutions are informed, but the evidence can also be interpreted as their trades, which account for more than half of the overall trading, having an impact on subsequent trades.

This dissertation consists of 2 essays in the area of corporate finance. The title of my first essay is “Impact of Institutional Investors on Firms’ Financial Constraint and Liquidity”. We can find ample evidences in existing literature which show that institutional investors play a vital role in the corporate world. Many researchers have linked institutional investors to activism, monitoring benefits, mitigating the cost of debt using government bond, spin off activities and improving information asymmetry problem. In the first essay, I would like to add another dimension to institutional investors’ literature by examining institutional investors’ role in mitigating financial constraint problem in the firm. Institutional investors have large financial networks and make large financial investment in firms. Their presence might help firms attract external capital. I am using 2 financial constraint measurements; KZ index (Lamont, Polk, Saa-Requejo, 2001) and bank line of credit (Sufi, 2009). I am also adding additional measurement for financial constraint using notes payable. I find evidences to support the hypotheses that institutional investors’ presence and ownership mitigate financial constraints. The title of my second essay is “Long- and Short-Term Institutional Investors and Payout Policy”. In the second essay, I examine the relationship between the firms’ payout policy and the presence/ownership of certain type of institutional investors. I classify the types of institutional investors using Bushee’s (1998, 2001) classification of institutional investors. I find that the presence and the magnitude of long term institutional investors positively affect the likelihood and the magnitude of dividend. I also find that the presence and the magnitude of short term institutional investors positively affect the likelihood and the magnitude of share repurchases. This study suggests that the presence of different types of institutional investors can affect certain type of payout policy. Keywords: Transient; dedicated; monitoring; trading

For more than a decade, to reduce the agency problem, various ways have been examined on how to align the interest of manager with shareholders. Evidence and empirical findings are conflicting on the agency problem. Recently, deferred compensation as one incentive compensation draws the attention as a means to incentivize CEOs to make them work for the firm. However, it is still not evident if deferred compensation has effect on aligning CEOs with the firm’s goal possibly due to the issue on data. Therefore, the first essay investigates if deferred compensation has the effect on the agency problem and on the firm performance improvement after dealing with the data issue. This paper mainly aims to investigate if there is the non-linear relationship between the investment choice problem and the deferred compensation as Jensen and Meckling (1976) claim. This paper concludes that deferred compensation from NQDC table has positive and significant effect on the firm performance and the investment choice problem. More importantly, following McConnell and Servaes (1990), this paper finds the curvilinear relationship between Tobin’s Q and the deferred compensation and can confirm Jensen and Meckling (1976) theoretical application. The second essay aims to clarify the understanding on the relationship between the firm’s cash holdings and its causes by introducing the more detailed relationship between cash holdings and macroeconomic uncertainty. While previous literature tries to explain the level of cash holdings mainly by the firm-level variables, this study considers the full impact of the macroeconomic uncertainty on the level of cash holdings by introducing the firm’s heterogeneous exposure to macroeconomic uncertainty to see if the heterogeneity can tell the difference in the change in the level of cash holdings. This paper finds that macroeconomic uncertainties measured by difference macroeconomic condition variables are significant and contribute to the change in cash holdings. Additionally, this paper shows that the firms’ different level of exposure to macroeconomic uncertainty can cause the different degree of cash holdings and that firms with the higher level of exposure have the higher level of cash holdings.

Dado o recente cenário econômico brasileiro, caracterizado por incertezas políticas e instabilidades econômicas, é essencial que as empresas engajem uma política de hedge, como parte de sua política financeira, com o objetivo de evitar que seus resultados sejam afetados por fricções de mercado. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho teve como objetivo verificar o impacto da política de hedge sobre os custos de agência das empresas brasileiras. Os resultados obtidos foram de encontro com a literatura sobre hedge e custos de agência, foi encontrado que quanto maior a utilização do hedge, menor são os custos de agência enfrentados pelos acionistas. Essa relação demonstra que ao engajar a utilização do hedge na política financeira da empresa, o gestor passa a minimizar os impactos das fricções de mercado, e reduz as perdas residuais que os acionistas sofreriam em suas riquezas, caso o gestor não engajasse a política. Ainda, conforme sugerido por Dadalt, Gay e Nam (2002), outro benefício encontrado nesse resultado, é que ao reduzir os impactos das fricções de mercado nos lucros da empresa, o gestor informa aos stakeholders, um lucro que demonstra melhor a performance da companhia, assim credores e investidores podem tomar melhores decisões referentes aos contratos com a empresa, com base em um lucro que contém menor informação assimétrica. Dessa forma, a utilização da política de hedge pode aliviar problemas relacionadas a seleção adversa entre a empresa e seus stakeholders / Given the recent Brazilian economic scenario, characterized by political uncertainties and economic instabilities, it is essential that companies engage in a hedge policy as part of their financial policy, in order to prevent their results from being affected by market frictions. In this context, the present study aimed to verify the impact of the hedge policy on the agency costs of Brazilian companies. The results obtained were in agreement with the literature on hedge and agency costs, it was found that the greater the use of hedge, the lower the agency costs faced by the shareholders. This relationship demonstrates that by engaging the use of hedge in the company\'s financial policy, the manager starts to minimize the impacts of market frictions and reduces the residual losses that shareholders would suffer in their wealth if the manager did not engage the policy. As suggested by Dadalt, Gay and Nam (2002), another benefit found in this result is that by reducing the impacts of market frictions on company profits, the manager informs stakeholders of a profit that best demonstrates the performance of the company, so creditors and investors can make better decisions regarding contracts with the company, based on a profit that contains less asymmetric information. In this way, the use of the hedge policy can alleviate problems related to adverse selection between the company and its stakeholders.

O alto nível de competitividade no cenário global faz com que as empresas que competem neste ambiente reinventem suas estratégias de negocio com uma freqüência maior que no passado, exigindo um bom sistema de avaliação. Diante desta necessidade, os gestores buscam indicadores capazes de refletir com exatidão a real situação da empresa. Uma forma de mensurar o desempenho organizacional que vem ganhando espaço e a capacidade de um negocio gerar valor. O objetivo com este trabalho foi o de se analisar os níveis de geração de valor econômico adicional (EVA - Economic Value Added) das empresas dos países do BRIC (Brasil, Rússia, Índia e China) e compará-los com os níveis das empresas dos países desenvolvidos (EUA, Japão e Alemanha). Foram coletados dados dos relatórios financeiros e contábeis das principais empresas de capital aberto de cada pais, referentes ao período de 2000 a 2010. Os resultados mostraram que, em media, as empresas de ambos os grupos de países são agregadoras de valor. Mostraram também que as empresas dos EUA são, destacadamente, mais geradoras de valor, em media e no agregado dos onze anos cobertos pelo estudo, que as empresas de qualquer um dos demais países. Dois resultados inovadores obtidos foram a detecção de que empresas de ambos os grupos de países obtiveram o mesmo nível de retorno sobre o capital investido, e a constatação de que as empresas da maioria dos países emergentes do BRIC são agregadoras de valor, enquanto que a minoria dos países desenvolvidos contou com empresas agregadoras de valor no período. / The high level of competitiveness in the global causes companies to reinvent their business strategies with a higher frequency than in the past, requiring a good evaluation system. Given this need, the managers seek indicators that accurately reflect the real situation of the company. One way to measure organizational performance that has gained importance is the capacity of a business to create value. The aim of this study was to analyze the level of economic value added (EVA - Economic Value Added) of companies from the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and compare them with the levels of firms developed countries (USA, Japan and Germany). The data was collected financial reports and statements of major public companies in each country, for the period 2000 to 2010. The results showed that, on average, the company both groups are value-adding countries. They also showed that U.S. companies are focusing on those that create more value, on average and in the aggregate of the eleven years covered by the study, that companies of any of the other countries. Two innovative results were obtained for the detection of companies from both groups of countries achieved the same level of return on invested capital, and the realization that companies in most developing countries of BRIC are value-adding, whereas a minority of developed countries had value-adding enterprises in the period.

Este trabalho focaliza os fatores que influenciam a decisão das empresas de realizar uma oferta pública inicial de ações (IPO) e as implicações sobre o desempenho operacional ex-post. Por meio da construção de um banco de dados de empresas brasileiras de capital aberto e fechado relativos ao período entre 2002 e 2010, estimamos modelos econométricos cujos resultados sugerem que as empresas que realizaram IPO eram menores e mais endividadas e apresentavam maiores taxas de rentabilidade, investimento e crescimento. Há evidências, ainda, de que exploraram as circunstâncias favoráveis de preços das ações das empresas já listadas nos setores em que operavam. Para compararmos o desempenho operacional ex-post das empresas que realizaram IPO com o das que se mantiveram fechadas, recorremos à metodologia do propensity score matching. Encontramos evidências robustas de que os investimentos das empresas que listaram na bolsa nesse período são superiores aos das que permaneceram com o capital fechado. Para as demais variáveis de desempenho (rentabilidade, eficiência e endividamento), os resultados não revelaram diferenças significativas entre as empresas desses dois grupos. Essa evidência combinada com a observação de uma relação elevada entre valor de mercado e valor contábil das empresas já listadas do mesmo setor de atividade no momento do IPO pode indicar que a abertura de capital associa-se às exigências de funding para investimentos futuros. / We analyze the factors that influenced some Brazilian firms to conduct an IPO over the 2002-2010 period as well as the implications on their ex-post operational performance. Using an unique database composed of private and public companies, we estimated a logit model, whose results suggest that the firms that conducted IPOs were smaller, more leveraged, and more profitable, grew at a faster pace, and presented higher investment rates. Furthermore, they tended to explore the favorable equity market conditions of the already listed companies belonging to the same industries where they operated. To compare the ex-post operating performance of the companies that performed an IPO with those that remained private, we used the propensity score matching method. We found robust evidence of higher investment in IPO companies, whereas the results for the other variables (profitability, efficiency and leverage) do not suggest any difference between the two groups of companies. This finding coupled with the evidence of high stock prices of the already listed companies belonging to the same corresponding industry during the IPO may indicate that the decision to go public is related to funding requirements for undertaking future investments.

Ao longo dos anos, desde a concepção do CAPM, o modelo vem passando por um rigoroso escrutínio por parte da comunidade científica e dos agentes de mercado interessados na sua utilização prática. Evidências tanto a favor quanto contra a sua adequação foram surgindo. Várias foram as causas levantadas para o fraco desempenho do CAPM: omissão de variáveis no modelo, variação no tempo da medida de risco (β) ou, ainda, a ausência de outros momentos tais como assimetria e curtose. Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo a investigação empírica da relação entre momentos sistêmicos (covariância, coassimetria e cocurtose) e a taxa de retorno de ativos financeiros negociados no mercado brasileiro. Foi utilizada uma amostra de 179 empresas brasileiras regularmente negociadas na Bovespa entre os anos de 2003 e 2007. Para o teste do modelo de apreçamento, foi utilizado um procedimento em duas etapas. Na primeira, os comomentos de cada ativo foram estimados usando-se dados longitudinais de taxas de retorno. Os coeficientes estimados foram, então, utilizados em uma segunda etapa, na qual uma regressão com dados em painel buscou determinar a relação entre o prêmio pelo risco dos ativos e os comomentos estimados na primeira etapa. Foram estimados modelos com dados agrupados, efeitos aleatórios e efeitos fixos. A determinação do modelo mais adequado foi feita por meio de testes de especificação. Os dados mostraram evidências de que a distribuição de probabilidade das taxas de retorno da maioria das empresas não segue uma distribuição normal, e que tanto a covariância como a cocurtose são fatores de risco relevantes em modelos de apreçamento, mesmo controlados por fatores como: tamanho, alavancagem, liquidez, relação entre preço de mercado e preço contábil e relação entre valor de mercado e valor contábil. / Since the development of the CAPM, the model has been tested with a rigorous scrutiny by academic community and market practitioners who are interested in its practical utilization. Evidence for and against the adequacy of the model has arisen. Various reasons for the failure of the CAPM were raised: omission of variables, time-varying risk factors (β), or the absence of other moments like skewness and kurtosis. This research aimed at empirical investigation of the relationship between systematic moments (covariance, coskewness and cokurtosis) and the rate of return of financial assets traded in the Brazilian market. The sample consisted of 179 stocks regularly traded at Bovespa from 2003 to 2007. The test of the pricing model was run in a two-pass procedure. In the first pass, the comoments for every stock were estimated using a longitudinal series of rates of returns. The estimated coeficients were then used in the second pass, in a panel data regression that intended to establish a relationship between the risk premium and the comoments estimated in the first pass. Panel data models with pooled data, random effects and fixed effects were estimated. The adequacy of each model was tested by specification procedures. Data showed evidence that the rates of return were not normally distributed, and that covariance and cokurtosis were significant risk factors in pricing models, even after controlling for factors like: size, leverage, liquidity, price-earning ratio and