Yes / This paper develops a model of optimal choice over an array of different assets, including domestic and foreign bonds, domestic and foreign equities, and domestic and foreign real money balances, with a view to examine whether stock markets have an effect on the exchange rate in the long-run. The model is tested using data from the UK and the USA. Evidence suggests that the UK stock market has a significant effect on the value of the pound's sterling nominal effective exchange rate in the long-run over the period 1982 to 2011.

The bonding power of the gift has been the subject of much social scientific research. My dissertation adds to this by examining the relationship between gift giving and commitment to a social network or an employing organization. Ideas and concepts from social exchange and identity theories provide the theoretical underpinnings for this investigation. Social exchange theory views human interaction as a series of resource exchanges, and I contend that how people exchange resources may have ramifications for the bonds that develop between them and for their commitment to particular social relations. This study has two parts. In the first half of the dissertation, I ask whether the greater relational solidarity that results from direct reciprocal exchange, as opposed to negotiated exchange, differentially affects whether actors choose to leave their existing exchange networks for new ones and if so, why? Direct reciprocal exchange involves actors directly and independently giving resources to others without knowing whether the recipients of those resources will reciprocate in kind. Negotiated exchange involves actors jointly bargaining over the terms of an agreement. Differences between these two forms of exchange inform my causal argument about why actors are more like to stay in social networks if they participate in direct reciprocal exchange. I test this argument using an experiment. The second half of the dissertation continues this investigation into reciprocal exchange by examining the factors that affect gift giving in the workplace as well as the effects of gift giving on organizational commitment. Here, gift giving is defined broadly to include any act that involves people freely and independently volunteering to provide either tangible or intangible benefits to others without knowing if others will reciprocate. Data from a survey distributed to registered nurses working for a large healthcare organization provides the empirical basis for this investigation. Together the experiment and survey allow for an in-depth investigation into how exchange processes affect commitments to social networks and organizations. As such, the findings reported herein advance sociological understanding about how micro-level processes shape macro-level structures. They also speak to the practical issue of organizational retention.

M.Com. (Economics) / The objective of the thesis was to examine the relationship between the rand exchange rate and the interest rate under the floating exchange rate system. A theoretical analysis of previous exchange rate regimes with a particular emphasis on the floating exchange rate system was conducted. At the end of the sixties it became evident that the limitations of the fixed exchange rate system were such that it could no longer handle the tensions which had developed in the international monetary system with its great dependence on the US dollar as reserve currency and unit of accounting. The floating exchange rate system deregulates the international monetary system. Market forces are allowed to play a more prominent role in determining a price variable such as the exchange rate. This flexibility has led to the globalization and internationalization of the world's fund markets.

This study has been prompted by the recent introduction of the JSE Alternative Exchange in South Africa, an alternative listing platform for smaller companies compared to the more established JSE Main Board Exchange. This new era has led to information asymmetry among current and prospective investors regarding the risk-return profile of the companies listed on the relatively new JSE Alternative Exchange and how this profile relates to the profile of firms listed on the long established JSE Main Board Exchange. In an attempt to fill the above information gap, this study sheds light on the short, medium and long-term performances of initial public offerings of companies listed on the JSE Alternative Exchange vis-a-vis that of JSE Main Board Exchange. This information is relevant for investment and financing decision making, principally for investors, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. The findings of this research appear to be contrary to expectations and to corporate finance theory. The results indicate that on average, initial public offerings by larger JSE Main Board companies outperform the smaller JSE Alternative Exchange companies on a nominal and risk-adjusted bases in the short-medium and long-term. It must be noted however that the differences in performance are not statistically significant. On the other hand, in line with documented evidence in the literature, it was found that the risk of returns on the smaller capitalisation JSE Alternative Exchange companies was indeed higher than that of the JSE Main Board companies. A similarity identified between the average performances of the two listing platforms is that, the returns for companies decreased overtime between the short and long-term. This may be partly due to the impact of the 2007 economic recession.

[pt] Esta dissertação tenta encontrar relações entre as variações das reservas internacionais do país e da sua taxa de câmbio. Estas relações são investigadas em diferentes contextos macroeconômicos, caracterizados essencialmente por mais duas variáveis: taxa de juros interna e remuneração do C-bond. Concentramos a análise em situações em que prevalece, nominalmente, câmbio flexível. Para isto, analisamos dados da economia brasileira após a mudança da política cambial de janeiro de 1999. A análise tem fundamentação teórica no Princípio da Paridade da Taxa de Juros, conforme aplicado à caracterização da situação de crise cambial por Carneiro e Wu (2001). Estudamos, também, a hipótese do Medo da Flutuação, proposta por Calvo e Reinhart (2000). O estudo foi baseado na análise de séries de dados mensais e diários. Analisando a série de dados diários, foi possível identificar correlações parciais negativas da variação de reservas com a variação da taxa de câmbio e com a remuneração do C-bond e positiva com a taxa de juros interna. / [en] This work searches relations between the variation of Brazilian international reserves and rate of exchange. These relations are investigated in different macroeconomic contexts, characterized essentially by two more variables: the internal rate of interest and the yield of the C-Bond. Analysis is focused on situations where floating exchange prevails. That is why we analyze Brazilian economic data after the change in the Brazilian exchange regimen, in January of 1999. This analysis has a theoretical basis on the principle of uncovered parity of the rate of interest, as well as on the results of Carneiro and Wu (2001) on the characterization of crisis in the exchange market. We consider also the hypothesis of fear of floating, proposed by Calvo and Reinhart (2000). The empirical study is based on the analysis of series of daily and mensal data. Analyszing the daily data series, we were able to identify a negative partial correlation of the reserves variation with the variation of the exchange rate as well as with the remuneration of the C-Bond and a positive partial correlation with the internal rate of interest.

by Fok Shun-cheong, Vincent. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1991. / Bibliography: leaves [37-38] / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / The Hong Kong Exchange Market --- p.1 / Structure of the market --- p.2 / Forecasting Exchange Rates --- p.4 / Objectives --- p.5 / Chapter II. --- METHODOLOGY --- p.6 / Selecting the Bases for Forecasting --- p.6 / Sampling --- p.9 / Chapter III. --- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK --- p.10 / Chapter 1. --- Investment Objectives --- p.10 / Chapter 2. --- Time Frame --- p.11 / Chapter 3. --- Funds Available --- p.12 / Chapter 4. --- Time Available --- p.12 / Chapter 5. --- Information Available --- p.13 / Chapter 6. --- Transaction Nature and Cost --- p.14 / Chapter 7. --- Knowledge and Background --- p.14 / Chapter 8. --- Position Taking --- p.14 / Chapter 9. --- Past Experience --- p.16 / Chapter 10. --- External Influences --- p.16 / Chapter IV. --- SURVEY FINDINGS --- p.18 / Individual Investors / Chapter A. --- The Level of Exchange Rate and Interest Rate --- p.18 / Chapter B. --- Seldom use of Charts and Technical Indicators --- p.19 / Chapter C. --- No Relationship between Demographic Variables and Forecasting Bases --- p.19 / Chapter D. --- No Relationship between the Experience of the respondents and the Forecasting Bases --- p.20 / Dealers / Chapter A. --- Charts often considered --- p.22 / Chapter B. --- Technical Indicators also important --- p.22 / Chapter C. --- Emphasis on the Fundamental rather than Technical Analysis --- p.23 / Chapter D. --- Market Sentiments --- p.24 / Chapter E. --- Econometric Models Seldom Used --- p.25 / Chapter F. --- Differences among the six major currencies --- p.27 / Chapter V. --- LIMITATIONS OF THE SURVEY --- p.29 / Chapter VII. --- SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS --- p.30 / APPENDICES / BIBLIOGRAPHY

This thesis models the Australian-US Dollar (AUD/USD) exchange rate with particular attention being paid to investor risk aversion. Accounting for investor risk aversion in AUD/USD exchange rate modelling is novel, so too is the method used to measure risk aversion in this thesis. Investor risk aversion is measured using a technique developed in Bliss and Panigirtzoglou (2004), which makes use of Probability Density Functions (PDFs) extracted from option markets. More conventional approaches use forward-market pricing or Uncovered Interest Parity. Several methods of estimating PDFs from option and spot markets are examined, with the estimations from currency spot-markets representing an original application of an arbitrage technique developed in Stutzer (1996) to the AUD/USD exchange rate. The option and spot-market PDFs are compared using their first four moments and if estimated judiciously, the spot-market PDFs are found to have similar shapes to the option-market PDFs. So in the absence of an AUD/USD exchange rate options market, spot-market PDFs can act as a reasonable substitute for option-market PDFs for the purpose of examining market sentiment. The Relative Risk Aversion (RRA) attached to the AUD/USD, the US Dollar-Japanese Yen, the US Dollar-Swiss Franc and the US-Canadian Dollar exchange rates is measured using the Bliss and Panigirtzoglou (2004) technique. Amongst these exchange rates, only the AUD/USD exchange rate demonstrates a significant level of investor RRA and only over a weekly forecast horizon. The Bliss and Panigirtzoglou (2004) technique is also used to approximate a time-varying risk premium for the AUD/USD exchange rate. This risk premium is added to the cointegrating vectors of fixed-price and asset monetary models of the AUD/USD exchange rate. An index of Australia???s export commodity prices is also added. The out-of-sample forecasting ability of these cointegrating vectors is tested relative to a random walk using an error-correction framework. While adding the time-varying risk premium improves this forecasting ability, adding export commodity prices does so by more. Further, including both the time-varying risk premium and export commodity prices in the cointegrating vectors reduces their forecasting ability. So the time-varying risk premium is important for AUD/USD exchange rate modelling, but not as important as export commodity prices.

The main focus of the paper is the problem of exchange-rate exposure of Swedish firms between Jan, 1st 2002 and Sep, 27th 2006. Defined as “a measure of the potential for a firm’s profitability, net cash flow, market value to change because of a change in exchange rates”, the problem of exchange rate exposure is investigated, making use of the “Market Value Approach” (also known as “Stock Market Ap-proach”), with certain additional extensions. With Sweden being a very open economy with strong export orientation, we expected to find a greater number of firms showing significant ex-change rate exposure to one or more of the chosen 6 bilateral exchange rates (SEK/EUR, SEK/USD, SEK/DKK, SEK/NOK, SEK/GBP and SEK/JPY). Also, companies are divided into categories with respect to their main operating activity. The empirical study finds 78% of all companies in the sample with significant exposure, with dominance of lagged effect over con-temporaneous. This percentage is higher than found in previous empirical studies, being in sup-port of the suggestion that relation exists between economy openness and exchange rate expo-sure of firms. However, the significant cross-section differences across categories and the high level of heterogeneity within categories deter us from determining the sign, direction and magni-tude of the exchange rate exposure. Suggestions are made for further studies and possible exten-sions of the topic of the present paper.

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<p>The main focus of the paper is the problem of exchange-rate exposure of Swedish firms between Jan, 1st 2002 and Sep, 27th 2006. Defined as “a measure of the potential for a firm’s profitability, net cash flow, market value to change because of a change in exchange rates”, the problem of exchange rate exposure is investigated, making use of the “Market Value Approach” (also known as “Stock Market Ap-proach”), with certain additional extensions. With Sweden being a very open economy with strong export orientation, we expected to find a greater number of firms showing significant ex-change rate exposure to one or more of the chosen 6 bilateral exchange rates (SEK/EUR, SEK/USD, SEK/DKK, SEK/NOK, SEK/GBP and SEK/JPY). Also, companies are divided into categories with respect to their main operating activity. The empirical study finds 78% of all companies in the sample with significant exposure, with dominance of lagged effect over con-temporaneous. This percentage is higher than found in previous empirical studies, being in sup-port of the suggestion that relation exists between economy openness and exchange rate expo-sure of firms. However, the significant cross-section differences across categories and the high level of heterogeneity within categories deter us from determining the sign, direction and magni-tude of the exchange rate exposure. Suggestions are made for further studies and possible exten-sions of the topic of the present paper.</p>