Using a sample of 51 banking organizations, I examine the effect of the Statement of Financial Accounting Standard 133 on the belief heterogeneity of market participants and how this heterogeneity affects abnormal trading volume surrounding earnings announcements. SFAS 133 is the first standard to require that all derivatives be recognized at fair-value and that the fluctuations in derivative fair-values be reported in either net income or other comprehensive income. The behavior of derivative instruments and the fair-valuation and treatment prescribed by SFAS 133 are complex. Due to the underlying complexity of both derivatives and the accounting treatment prescribed by the SFAS 133 standard, I expect that investors may have differing interpretations of the newly provided information. My hypothesis is that the income effects arising from the fair-value accounting for derivatives (SFAS 133) are associated with an increase in differing beliefs among individuals. I find that the income effects of SFAS 133 are significantly and positively related to belief heterogeneity among investors. The net income and other comprehensive income effects of SFAS 133 are significantly and positively related to increasing levels of abnormal trading volume surrounding earnings announcements. Additionally, levels of SFAS 133 net income is positively and significantly associated with three measures of belief heterogeneity derived from analysts’ forecasts. In an extended analysis I model the SFAS 133 income effects on abnormal volume using the three belief heterogeneity measures as the conduit. I find support for two of the three heterogeneity measures acting as a conduit for the effect of the SFAS 133 related income measures on abnormal volume. The results of this study indicate that, while the recognized fair-value of derivatives is value relevant to equity prices (Ahmed, Kilic, & Lobo, 2006), the income effects of the same financial standard causes heterogeneity in beliefs about the firm. This suggests that, at least in the case of derivative fair-values, there exists a trade-off between value relevance and the strength of consensus surrounding beliefs in the market.

Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Ted C. Schroeder / This study focuses on the effects of food safety recalls on a firm’s shareholder value. In this study, the effects of six recalls are studied using the event study method. Three models were used involving the daily stock returns for each recall, the daily prices from the S&P 500 and the S&P 500-Packaged Foods and Meats prices. Each of these models was used to determine the abnormal returns for the individual recalls during a determined event window. The four companies responsible for the recalls are all large, highly-diversified food production companies. Overall, the results from this study show there is short-term effect on shareholder values for the companies included in this study. This is an important topic that was widely studied in the late 1990’s and early part of the 2000’s. There have not been any notable studies in this area in the past decade which is why this study is useful. Results of this study are comparable to those mentioned in the literature review section.

Företagsförvärv är ett allt mer vanligt sätt för företag att skapa tillväxt och får i takt med ökningen i popularitet mer uppmärksamhet inom den akademiska litteraturen. Samtidigt har flera studier på både den amerikanska och den brittiska marknaden konstaterat att den kortsiktiga effekten på ett köpande företags aktiekurs både kan vara negativ och positiv. Genom en eventstudie av 111 förvärv genomförda på den svenska marknaden mellan 2009- 2016 studerar vi den kortsiktiga abnormala avkastningen som sker som en reaktion på att företag annonserar ett förvärv. Köparen vid ett förvärv kan skapa en positiv abnormal avkastning men den kortsiktiga reaktionen på marknaden skiljer sig åt beroende på valet av betalningsmetod samt om målföretaget är privat eller publikt. Resultatet i studien visar att förvärv av privata företag genererar en positiv avkastning vid annonseringen av ett förvärv medan publika förvärvsannonseringar leder till en motsatt effekt. Vidare leder valet att använda aktier som betalningsmedel till en negativ abnormal avkastning.

När ett företag annonserar om en förändring av utdelning delges marknaden information som kan uppfattas som att företaget går bättre eller sämre än väntat. I samband med utdelningsannonseringen påverkas ofta det egna företagets aktiekurs beroende på hur marknaden förhåller sig till informationen. En annonsering av förändring i utdelning tenderar också att påverka konkurrerande företag inom samma bransch. Syftet med denna uppsats är att via en eventstudie undersöka om en annonsering av förändring i utdelning från ett Large Cap bolag resulterar i en abnormal avkastning hos konkurrenter i samma bransch. Studiens urval består av 84 bolag verksamma inom industrisektorn på Stockholmsbörsen under perioden 2011–2016. Resultaten är entydiga, ingen statistiskt signifikant abnormal avkastning kan uppmätas hos konkurrenter i branschen till följd av annonsering av utdelningsförändring.

Abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) is one of the most common presenting complaints in our medical system with up to 30% of females affected by this condition. The current evaluation and management of AUB often requires multiple lengthy visits to both general practitioners and specialists. Advances in endoscopic technology have allowed clinicians to diagnose and treat women presenting with AUB in a single-visit within an outpatient uterine assessment and treatment unit (UATU). Unfortunately, the UATU is not the standard of care with very few locations in Canada providing this type of service. This thesis project aimed to synthesize data pertaining to efficacy and safety as well as to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a UATU service model compared to usual care in diagnosing and treating AUB. To address the main aim for this thesis project, the first manuscript focuses on the hysteroscopic procedures that may be offered in a UATU. The manuscript includes a systematic review that synthesizes outcome measures surrounding efficacy, patient safety, and cost data of outpatient hysteroscopy compared to hysteroscopy performed in the operating room. The second manuscript is a cost-effectiveness modelling study that compares cost and effectiveness outcomes, including time to diagnosis and time to treatment of a UATU versus usual care for women who present with AUB. Data used to populate the cost-effectiveness model were obtained from a retrospective review of patient charts and the published literature. The systematic review found no statistically significant difference in the safety, efficacy, or patient tolerability between outpatient and intraoperative hysteroscopy procedures. This review helps provide further support for performing procedures outside of a traditional operating room without increasing patient harm or compromising efficacy. However, given the current available evidence and limited number of studies, findings should be interpreted with caution. The cost-effectiveness analysis found that a UATU is cost-effective when compared to usual care in diagnosing and treating patients who present with AUB. These two studies combined provide evidence to support that the UATU has the potential to improve gynecologic care by reducing wait-times to receiving diagnosis and treatment and to lower overall costs to the health care system.

The purpose of the study is to empirically examine if there is any abnormal reaction from the stockholders on the Stockholm Stock Exchange and what could explain the reaction associated with a CEO-change. To be able to examine the subject, we chose to do research on whether the returns on a company’s stocks changes by calculating the actual returns and comparing these to the expected returns in a market model, which has been used frequently in previous and similar research. Through measures of return such as abnormal returns, average abnormal returns and cumulative average abnormal returns we examine if there are any significant reactions on the stock market by isolating the event of a CEO-change within chosen estimation and event-windows. To ensure that the study is relevant and credible, we chose to apply an event study which has been used in earlier studies and research. We have included 130 CEO-changes on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during the period 2000-2019 and have through the above-mentioned measurements of return examined how the market reacts to a CEO-change. To further try to explain what affects the reaction, a regression-analysis was conducted with numerous independent variables and the cumulative abnormal returns as the dependent variable. The empirical research has been put into relation to well-known theories and previous studies about CEO-changes for interpretation and analysis. The result indicates that no significant reactions have occurred on the Stockholm Stock Exchange associated with a CEO-change. However, the regressionanalysis shows some significant values on a few of the examined independent variables such as presentation of a new obligatory CEO, the company’s historical stock-returns and how long the CEO has held his position as the CEO. The conclusion of the study, which answers our main problem, is that there is no significant reaction on the Stockholm Stock Exchange associated with a CEO-change.

Reporäntan är något som påverkar alla. Mycket forskning har gjorts på den amerikanska marknaden kring reporäntans effekt på aktiekursen, med varierande resultat. Syftet med studien är att undersöka om tillkännagivandet av en förändrad reporänta leder till olika abnormal avkastning beroende på skuldsättningsgrad. Studiens urval består av 4807 stycken observationer på Nasdaq OMX Stockholm under perioden 2009–2018. Dessa observationer fördelas i portföljer utifrån företagens skuldsättningsgrader baserat på marknadsvärden och sedan genomförs en eventstudie. Studien finner inga signifikanta samband mellan en ändrad reporänta och abnormal avkastning baserat på skuldsättningsgrad.

This thesis aims at investigating the puzzling relationship between cor- porate acquisitions and expected stock returns by reviewing numerous studies on this topic through the use of state of the art meta-analysis tools. Such an analysis is required because many papers examined this relationship but their results varied. We therefore collected 421 estimates from 20 papers and led multiple regressions to test for the presence of publication bias. Throughout this analysis we indeed found evidence supporting the existence of publication bias. Furthermore, we decided to apply Bayesian Model Averaging to reduce the model uncertainty and find out why our abnormal returns estimates greatly vary across stud- ies. Our results suggest that one of the most important drivers are the standard-error terms. This subsequently proves that publication bias is the most responsible for the heterogeneity amongst our estimates. Our analysis fails to demonstrate any positive effects from M&A activity on a firm post-acquisition performance. We suggest that other motives are under-represented in the underlying theory that aims to assess M&A outcomes. Keywords Mergers and Acquisitions, Stock Returns, Abnormal Re- turns, Meta-Analysis, Publication bias Author's e-mail thibault.parreau@gmail.com Supervisor's e-mail...

We examine the phenomenon of firms that distribute dividends in excess of reported earnings, that is, 'unsustainable dividend-payers' in the Swedish market. Our hypothesis is that these firms will experience lower abnormal returns compared to their counterparts in both short and long term. With a dataset of 2061 observations from Nasdaq Stockholm and Nordic Growth Market during the period 1999-2017, we find that the abnormal returns are higher for unsustainable dividend-payers in the short term, while in the long run the result is on the opposite. Moreover, we find that the larger the difference between dividends paid and reported earnings, the higher the short-run abnormal returns but the lower the long-run abnormal returns to shareholders. Our results are robust to controlling for influences of other events on announcement dates and alternative measurement for model parameter, though not unambiguous. This study contributes to broadening the area of unsustainable dividends, which is perceived as a hot topic. It may be of interest to both individuals and institutions, who often have a longer-term perspective on their investments.

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