Eidgen. Techn. Hochschule, Diss.--Zürich, 2006. / Zsfassung in dt. Sprache.

This thesis examines the financing and construction arrangements of the recently designed Airport Link project in Brisbane, Australia. The central hypothesis of the thesis is that the equity risk premium, combined with the public nature of toll roads, makes private financing of this kind of public infrastructure undesirable. It attempts to test this hypothesis by valuing the project under standard CAPM and WACC frameworks, and then modelling the sensitivity of the project’s value to different assumptions regarding traffic flows, inflation, asset risk, and errors in operating-cost forecasts. The results show that with large equity contributions the project is inherently unstable and given the finance structure, was always susceptible to a downward price spiral of the type observed. The thesis then models the project value under a public finance option and concludes that this is a more beneficial option for investors, the government, and the community alike.

This thesis examines the financing and construction arrangements of the recently designed Airport Link project in Brisbane, Australia. The central hypothesis of the thesis is that the equity risk premium, combined with the public nature of toll roads, makes private financing of this kind of public infrastructure undesirable. It attempts to test this hypothesis by valuing the project under standard CAPM and WACC frameworks, and then modelling the sensitivity of the project’s value to different assumptions regarding traffic flows, inflation, asset risk, and errors in operating-cost forecasts. The results show that with large equity contributions the project is inherently unstable and given the finance structure, was always susceptible to a downward price spiral of the type observed. The thesis then models the project value under a public finance option and concludes that this is a more beneficial option for investors, the government, and the community alike.

Zugl.: Hagen, Fernuniv., Diss., 2006

Diss. Univ. St. Gallen, 2007.

Bachelor-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2005.

This diploma thesis deals with a question of identification of causality between sentiment on social network Twitter and a price of specific, publicly traded stocks on New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). By a multi criteria analysis were chosen stocks of Microsoft Corporation and Apple Inc. There is constructed a model, which identifies authors messages on Twitter -- tweets and sentiment which they carry in relation to companies. Success of this model is examined by both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The thesis is trying to provide a solution to current and potential investors and management of the companies in order to take better decisions in allocating funds and managing the companies.

Este trabalho procura descrever e analisar a importância dos formadores de mercado e os objetivos das empresas que contratam os marketmakers na Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo (BOVESPA). Ele apresentará algumas características da legislação brasileira e informações a respeito deste mercado no Brasil para, através de ferramental estatístico, analisar se um formador de mercado pode trazer aumento de valor para os ativos bem como diminuição de volatilidade. Através de busca no sítio da BOVESPA de janeiro de 2002 a janeiro de 2010, foram analisadas 98 empresas de capital aberto na BOVESPA e após exclusões por falta de dados para montar a janela de eventos ou insignificância dos coeficientes, a análise se concentrou em 57 ativos. Foram elaboradas duas janelas de eventos (2 dias e 11 dias) e os resultados apontaram que há uma diminuição da amplitude diária, sugerindo a diminuição de volatilidade, e dessa forma, redução de riscos ao investidor, mas por outro lado, não há estatisticamente uma evidência de que há retornos anormais significativamente diferentes de zero quando da entrada de um formador de mercado tampouco quando da saída do marketmaker, exceto no retorno acumulado quando da saída do formador mercado da janela de eventos de 11 dias, com resultado positivo em 4.79%. Entretanto, mesmo com pouca significância estatística, todos os resultados podem estar indicando um eventual aumento (diminuição) da assimetria informacional quando da entrada (saída) do formador mercado. / This dissertation wants to analyze the importance of the marketmakers and describe the companies‟ goals when they decide to hire marketmakers in Brazilian stock Market Exchange (BOVESPA). After presenting the Brazilian legal environment and available data, the analysis focus on an event-study looking for changes in volatility using the daily amplitude as a proxy and the positive(negative) abnormal returns when hiring(rescinding) marketmakers. From January 2002 to January 2010, 98 enterprises were analyzed and after exclusions due to lack of data for event-study window estimation or coefficient non-significance , the analysis was concentrated on 57 assets. Two event-windows were created for this work (2 and 11 days) and results suggest volatility reduction when marketmaker services are being provided. However, there are no statistical evidence of abnormal returns due to the marketmaker, except for the 11-day-event-study when marketmakers stop providing the service, with a positive result of 4.79%. However, results tend to show with little significance an increase (decrease) of information asymmetry when marketmakers starts(stops) providing their services.

Este trabalho procura descrever e analisar a importância dos formadores de mercado e os objetivos das empresas que contratam os marketmakers na Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo (BOVESPA). Ele apresentará algumas características da legislação brasileira e informações a respeito deste mercado no Brasil para, através de ferramental estatístico, analisar se um formador de mercado pode trazer aumento de valor para os ativos bem como diminuição de volatilidade. Através de busca no sítio da BOVESPA de janeiro de 2002 a janeiro de 2010, foram analisadas 98 empresas de capital aberto na BOVESPA e após exclusões por falta de dados para montar a janela de eventos ou insignificância dos coeficientes, a análise se concentrou em 57 ativos. Foram elaboradas duas janelas de eventos (2 dias e 11 dias) e os resultados apontaram que há uma diminuição da amplitude diária, sugerindo a diminuição de volatilidade, e dessa forma, redução de riscos ao investidor, mas por outro lado, não há estatisticamente uma evidência de que há retornos anormais significativamente diferentes de zero quando da entrada de um formador de mercado tampouco quando da saída do marketmaker, exceto no retorno acumulado quando da saída do formador mercado da janela de eventos de 11 dias, com resultado positivo em 4.79%. Entretanto, mesmo com pouca significância estatística, todos os resultados podem estar indicando um eventual aumento (diminuição) da assimetria informacional quando da entrada (saída) do formador mercado. / This dissertation wants to analyze the importance of the marketmakers and describe the companies‟ goals when they decide to hire marketmakers in Brazilian stock Market Exchange (BOVESPA). After presenting the Brazilian legal environment and available data, the analysis focus on an event-study looking for changes in volatility using the daily amplitude as a proxy and the positive(negative) abnormal returns when hiring(rescinding) marketmakers. From January 2002 to January 2010, 98 enterprises were analyzed and after exclusions due to lack of data for event-study window estimation or coefficient non-significance , the analysis was concentrated on 57 assets. Two event-windows were created for this work (2 and 11 days) and results suggest volatility reduction when marketmaker services are being provided. However, there are no statistical evidence of abnormal returns due to the marketmaker, except for the 11-day-event-study when marketmakers stop providing the service, with a positive result of 4.79%. However, results tend to show with little significance an increase (decrease) of information asymmetry when marketmakers starts(stops) providing their services.

This thesis is formed of three chapters. The first chapter examines the effect on social mobility and economic growth following the introduction of reprogenetic technology such that parents can choose to invest in the talent or ability of their unborn children. I find that if the economy is initially in a steady state such that social mobility is low, the introduction of such technology can increase social mobility and economic growth. If the economy is initially in a steady state such that social mobility is high, then the introduction of such technology will not increase (and may decrease) social mobility and will not affect economic growth. The second chapter is a review of the literature on how immigration affects wages focusing on studies of the US and UK labour markets. The third chapter analyses how the skill premium depends on the relative supply of high and low skilled workers in the economy, and the size of the economy. Using a two-sector model where one sector is more skill-intensive than the other, and returns to scale are larger in the skill-intensive sector, I find that the skill premium depends positively on the size of the economy. I consider the effect of an exogenous increase in the number of skilled workers (perhaps due to immigration) on the skill premium and find that under certain conditions the skill premium may increase. I then analyse the effect on the skill premium and the relative price of the skill intensive good in the short and long run and compare the models predictions to the data.