This thesis presents existing published work examining the coherent theme of the pertinent issues on economic development in West Africa. The seven distinct and thematically related papers span over six years of study into the issues relating to the socio-economic context of development in West Africa. Each of the papers discusses salient aspects of regional development in selected West African economies. This thesis has contributed to knowledge in the academic literature on: • The importance of health-responsive development policies in enhancing agricultural transformation. • The role of crude oil in augmenting economic performance. • The importance of export diversification in fostering intra-trade expansion and economic growth. • The role of agricultural trade policy options in facilitating economic expansion: the case of rice. • The contribution of standards to enhancing market access and economic development: the cocoa case study. • The importance of the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) in promoting market access and economic performance. • The contribution of Saemaul Undong Model to enhancing rural development policy space. The thesis has attempted to provide an answer to the question: How can regional economic development be achieved in West Africa? The critical review and analyses of the issues examined in each of the papers provide deep insights into the drivers of economic transformation in West Africa. In an attempt to respond to this research question, this thesis proposes a workable strategy for fostering economic development, but cautions that the success of the strategy is contingent on a strong political will, coupled with an effective coordination and cooperation at national and regional levels. The thesis concludes that the proposed transformation plan must be innovation led by strategically reconstructing the rural communities where economic potentials are yet to be exploited.

Capital budgeting is crucial in order for companies to sustain themselves, survive and flourish in markets and to increase shareholders' wealth. Nonetheless, decisions on capital budgeting are critical owing to the influence of uncertainty factors and dramatic changes in the environment milieu. Capital budgeting practices vary from country to country, from company to company and from project to project. Although many studies have been conducted in developed countries, there is a dearth of studies in emerging economies. Therefore, aims of this study were to investigate the prevalent choice of capital budgeting practices and influences of firms' characteristics on their choice based on Sri Lankan emerging market, identifying uncertainty factors and its influence on use of capital budgeting practices and explore the interacting effect of uncertainty factors between capital budgeting practices and performance, and finally, develop a capital budgeting model that would meld with the core components of uncertainty, firms' characteristics and firms' performance based on Sri Lankan market. The data for this study were garnered from primary data and secondary data collections. The primary data were collected from 186 CFOs working in companies listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange using self-administered questionnaires. The questionnaire was piloted with a sample of five CFOs. The secondary data were mainly collected from CSE via the Bloomberg website/annual reports. After the data were collected, they were analysed using multivariate analysis such as factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. This study revealed that the most popular capital budgeting technique used in Sri Lanka was NPV, followed by IRR, PB, ARR and DPB. As for capital budgeting tools incorporating risk, the most preferred method among Sri Lankan firms was uncertainty absorption in cash flows, followed by sensitivity analysis, probability analysis, scenario analysis, and adjusting the required return. Moreover, this study found that the most popular method for calculating cost of equity was the CAPM model followed by average historical returns on common stock. Emerging real options are at an embryonic stage in Sri Lanka. The use of naive capital budgeting practices was mostly preferred by small firms and mainly managed by CFOs with non-MBA educational qualifications and a short tenure. Sophisticated and advanced capital budgeting practices were used mostly by large firms; these were mainly managed by MBA qualified CFOs with a long tenure. As for industry differences, ARR was primarily applied by non-MBA CFOs and was also preferred by non-manufacturing firms. None of the other methods made any significant differences in terms of type of industry. This study found four new levels uncertainty: operational uncertainties (input, labour and production), financial uncertainties (interest rate, inflation and exchange rate), social uncertainty (policy, political and social) and market uncertainty (competitive, output market and input market). Apropos of the model, sophisticated capital budgeting practices were determined by the size of the capital budget, market uncertainty and financial uncertainty. Advanced capital budgeting practices were determined by the size of the capital budget, the educational qualifications of the CFOs, operational uncertainty and "~'U"''''lal uncertainty. In a similar vein, naive capital budgeting practices were determined by the size of the capital budget, the educational qualifications of the CFOs, industry and financial uncertainty. Moreover, this study found that social uncertainty moderates the relationship: between advanced capital budgeting practices and effectiveness, between sophisticated capital budgeting practices and Tobin_q and between advanced capital budgeting practices and Tobin_q. Overall, this study has made theoretical contribution as melding with uncertainty factors with capital budgeting practices, geographical contribution as investigated the prevalent capital budgeting practices in Sri Lankan emerging market and parametric contributions as identified firm characteristics and uncertainty factors on the choice of capital budgeting practices and consequence influence on firm performances. The directions for future research are clearly discussed. In a nutshell, beyond its valuable contribution, this study serves as a springboard for future research.

This thesis focuses on the empirical investigation of Credit Default Swap (CDS) spreads and return dynamics for listed corporates in the US, UK and EU. Academic interest in CDS market is continuously growing and this thesis aims to provide a better understanding of the CDS market dynamics. Specifically, this thesis explores three critical areas of research interest for the CDS market with each Chapter Two, Three and Four focussing on a specific aim, objectives and research questions within the context of the overall thesis. The thesis is largely based on three separate but broadly related research studies. The first study, Chapter Two, explores the dynamics of quarterly CDS spreads for corporates in US, UK and EU for the three major economic conditions namely; pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis period. This study is the first to explore such a wider sample domain both in terms of the geographical coverage as well as the period of analysis. CDS spreads are regressed using both accounting based ad-hoc measures as well as theory driven market based variables, individually as well as collectively in a single combined model. This study documents the changing nature of spread predictor variables based on the sub-period of analysis and find the market based variables to be more closely aligned to spreads than their accounting counterparts. This study proposes the use of both information sets as additive rather than substitutive within the CDS pricing framework. This study also tests the effect of bond market liquidity dynamics and CDS market liquidity effect on CDS spreads and finds spreads in the post-crisis period to be plagued by both bond market and CDS liquidity dynamics. This study concludes that CDS spreads in the post-crisis period may be plagued by non-default driven factors and should not be considered as pure measure of corporate credit risk. Thus signals from CDS market should be carefully considered in conjunction with other financial market indicators before drawing policy implications. The second study, Chapter Three, evaluates the effect of the interest rate, quantitative easing and fiscal policy announcements in US and UK on corporate CDS returns. The unprecedented interventions announced by government and Central banks to contain the effect of the financial crisis provides the motivation for this study. This study measures the effect of these announcements on corporate credit risk by estimating daily CDS returns which is a better time series measure of corporate credit risk than CDS spreads or equity returns as used in past studies. This study notes an opposite effect of interest rate announcement where credit risk for firms following the interst rate announcement decreased for US corporate while it increased for UK corporates. Across both US and UK, corporate credit risk tends to be lower following QE announcements; highlighting its popularity during the financial crisis. Fiscal policy announcements are characterised by minor improvement in corporate credit risk which is short lived. By comparing pre and post announcement days abnormal return, this study finds that median abnormal return following US policy interventions were higher in post announcement days in US while an opposite effect can be noted for the UK corporates. This study concludes that policy interventions in US were more effective in stablising corporate credit risk for US corporate which policy announcements in UK were not effective. This study also tests the differential effect following policy interventions across corporates sampled based on sector, credit quality, frim size and CDS liquidity. No other study have undertaken such a detailed sub-sample analysis across policy announcements in US and UK and the findings underline the theme that firm specific heterogeneity leads to differential effect of policy announcement on corporate credit risk. The third study, Chapter Four, attempts to provide evidence of the generalizability of the Fama and French (FF) asset pricing model to the CDS market. The test on generalizability of the FF model to the CDS market has not been attempted before and this study is the first to check the external validity of the FF model with an aim to test if the model works for the CDS market. The findings from the portfolios returns indicate the average daily excess returns are not perfectly aligned as expected to the book-t-market, operating profitibility and investment factors and expose variations in average return sufficient to provide strong challenges in asset pricing tests. The relationship between the portfolio type and average excess return trend is also found to fluctuate based on the sub-period of analysis. Apart from testing the external validity of the FF model, this study also aims to access the external validity of the default risk hypothesis, by testing if the default risj is proced in the cross section of CDS returns and if the FF factors; SMB and HML factors are proxying for default risk in the CDS returns. The finding indicates that it is unlikely that SMB and HML are proxying for default risk. Overall, the findings from this study indicates the FF three factor (3F) and FF five factor (5F) model can be generalised to the CDS market, between the two models the 5F model is a better asset pricing model for the CDS market. This study goes a step further and queries if the FF factor model for the CDS market can be improved on by augmenting it with a default driven factor. Augmenting both the 3F and 5F model with default factor results in at best a marginal improvement to the models' explanatory power across the sub-periods analysed in this study. Hence for reasons of parsimony, this study suggest the FF 5F model to be preferred asset pricing model for the CDS market. Notwithstanding these separate contributions, overall this thesis contributes to a better understanding of CDS spreads, CDS returns and thus the CDS market in general. The past decade have seen a wealth of literature focussing on CDS market and the knowledge and understanding of the CDS market dynamics is being continuously refined and expanded. The findings of this thesis will provide useful insight and a deeper understanding for a variety of stakeholders including regulators, market participants, the financial community and the academic community at large to be able to better understand an important source of credit risk information.

This study examines the decision-usefulness of financial information produced in the external financial reports from the implementation of the International Accounting Standards (IAS) and the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to equity investors of the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) in their investment decision-making process. The study employs mixed method research that uses quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative research methodology employs archival financial data from the ASE using inferential statistics to investigate the association between share market prices and a well known model, the residual earnings model, derived from (Preinreich 1938, Ohlson (1995) Feltham and Olson (1995)). Data is collected from companies listed on the ASE for the period before implementation of the IAS/IFRS, 1980-1989, and for the period after implementation, 1991-2009. In general, the results indicate a statistical association between share market prices and book value per share (BVPS) and residual earnings per share (REPS) with the BVPS robust to share market prices. The second quantitative method employs questionnaires administered to individual and institutional equity investors of the ASE. Key findings indicate that equity investors believe the implementation of the IAS/IFRS produces decision-useful financial information, that the accounting information has the useful qualitative characteristics proposed by the International Accounting Standards Board and that the price-to-book ratio, the dividend discount model and the price-earnings multiple are very useful models as inputs into their investment decision-making process. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to accounting, auditing and ASE experts in Jordan. Prevalent findings indicate that developments within the ASE and accounting profession have influenced the decision-usefulness of financial information. Few believed that Jordan should develop its own accounting standards. This research contributes to knowledge, being the first comprehensive study that employs a mixed method research using archival financial data for a 29-year study period from the ASE and primary data to evaluate the decision-usefulness of financial information produced from implementing the IAS/IFRS. Furthermore, this research fills a gap in the literature by examining the period before IAS/IFRS implementation and the period after implementation in Jordan to determine if IAS/IFRS implementation resulted in decision-useful financial information. The main implication of this research is that reported financial information has greater decision-usefulness after the implementation of the IAS/IFRS than before, implying positive effects of accounting standard-setting in an emerging economy.

My research explores the notion of creativity in the context of informal work. Existing literature on the subject has primarily focused on identifying the factors which enhance or constrain creativity in the organisational or work context. Most research has been developed and implemented in western contexts such as the United States or Europe, and there is limited explanation available of creativity in non-western contexts. There is also no research explicitly directed at explaining creativity in the informal sector, which presents a gap in the literature. I have therefore sought to enrich this literature by constructing a conceptual perspective that explains creative engagement in informal work, a methodology to explore this concept, and stories that illustrate how this occurs. I have constructed my conceptual perspective of creativity by drawing on de Certeau's (1988/1984) notion of creative tactics. I propose that creativity is the tactical subversion of space within an order, where a person uses constraints to their advantage, to take action. This involves the ability to engage in plurality, use what one has at hand, and take advantage of chance opportunities that arise. In order to explore my conceptual perspective, I carried out my research during the post-2000 crisis in Zimbabwe because there was a high prevalence of informal work during this time. I have developed my methodology - focused narrative ethnography - to capture the perspectives and dynamic engagement of people working in the informal sector, and intensively collected data in the form of narratives, observations, and visual material. In addition, I have written a series of stories to illustrate the different ways in which this occurs. These reflect changing attitudes and practices of work, as well as artistic and communal engagement in informal work. My findings reflect three main perspectives. First, informal work is a space that enables creative action. Second, creative engagement is a complex process that occurs in moments of creative action, wherein a person tactically uses their constraints to their advantage. Third, these moments shift and change in relation to the ongoing and changing nature of constraint that is inherent in many contexts of lnformal work. A further finding is that several parallels can be drawn between the literature referring to survival during difficult situations and my explanation of creativity, so it may be a useful addition to the vocabulary of work-related creativity literature. My findings are important because I highlight at the most basic level what people go through to identify opportunity, and my perspective of creativity may thus provide fresh insights into other areas linked to creativity, such as innovation or entrepreneurship.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Syracuse University, 2009. / "Publication number: AAT 3385838."

This thesis aims to provide new behavioural finance insight into market anomalies through the use of a novel approach to measuring investor sentiment: the Facebook’s Gross National Happiness (GNH) index. The three empirical essays of this thesis investigate separately the relation between country-level investor mood – measured daily using the GNH index, and the following occurrences: the Monday Effect, return differentials in cross-listed shares; and herding. The empirical investigations are carried out with data (September 2007 to March 2012) for up to 20 international markets for which daily GNH data are available. In the first essay (Chapter 3), new empirical evidence is provided on the relation between mood and the Monday Effect. This chapter examines whether the well-documented evidence of Monday returns being significantly lower than other trading days of the week relates with mood. The results indicate that the Monday Effect become insignificant when mood is controlled for, and that such effect is more prominent within small capitalization indices and within collectivist and high uncertainty avoidance countries. These findings thus provide empirical support to a behavioural explanation for the Monday Effect, particularly the ‘Blue Monday’ hypothesis. The second essay (Chapter 4) investigates whether returns differentials in pairs of cross-listed shares is related to mood differential between the markets on which these securities are traded. The results, based on 281 pairs of synchronously traded cross-listed shares and controlling for arbitrage costs, support the hypothesized positive relation between return and mood differentials. Such relation is also found to be more prominent among small-cap firms, as these shares tend to attract small investors who are prone to sentiment-induced biases. The third essay (Chapter 5) adds to limited existing empirical evidence on the relation between investor mood and herding behaviour. This chapter investigates whether investors exhibit greater tendency to herd during days of extreme (upper or lower) moods, and whether such relation is affected by firm-size and culture. The results indicate the presence of herding during days with extreme mood, thus lending further empirical support to the notion that herding is mainly driven by psychological factors. Consistent with prior literature, the relation between herding and mood is found to be stronger within small capitalization indices and in countries with collectivist and high uncertainty avoidance culture. Overall, this thesis contributes to further understanding of the effect of investors’ psychological biases on the market.

<p> I examine the importance of the properties of accounting information to equity investors by estimating the implicit prices of accruals quality and operating volatility revealed from observed stock prices. I measure accruals quality parameters based on the model in Nikolaev [2016], which separates the volatility of accounting error from the volatility of the performance component of accruals. I use the hedonic regression approach, which relies on rational expectations (<i>Bajari et al</i>. [2012]) to identify the effect of accruals quality on firm value. This approach isolates time-varying unobservable factors correlated with accruals quality. My findings indicate that investors have preferences for higher accruals quality. At the margin, a 1% increase in the volatility of accounting error results in a 0.50% decrease in the firm value. At the same time, my findings indicate that investors have preferences for lower operating risk, which statistically and economically dominates preferences for accruals quality. At the margin, a 1% increase in the operating volatility results in a 1.43% decrease in the firm value. Overall, my findings suggest that the effect of accruals quality on firm value is largely driven by the operating risk. This result is robust to the choice of the model of time-varying unobservable firm characteristics and to different sets of control variables.</p><p>

<p> This study investigated earnings management in European firms. The private investors became victims of manipulated earnings where few laws offered regulatory oversight. The study forensically examined the attributes of earnings management identified using a discretionary accrual model published in Jones&rsquo; work and Schippers&rsquo; work. The firms&rsquo; managers should fulfil agency theory when they made reporting decisions, and they should act in the investors&rsquo; best interests to fulfil stewardship theory. The managers failed as they seemed to favor insiders when they reported manipulated earnings to outsiders like small investors even though the managers published financial reports conforming to the International Financial Reporting Standards. The investors depended on the decision usefulness of the reports. The study used the data of 432 listed firms in 11 code law nations. The paired t test identified significant differences between reported and economic earnings to find earnings management attributes and between economic and restated earnings to find earnings management cases. The research found that managers seemed to manipulate discretionary accruals to misstate earnings and reduce the decision usefulness of reporting. The data came from published financial reports and databases. The firms represented 11 nations and 9 industries that excluded banking and insurance. Almost 17% of nations and industry segments reflected earnings management attributes. About 29% of firms restated at least one annual earnings, and 84% of the restatements appeared to offset manipulation. The research results should prompt social change for small investors where regulators would redress the manipulation using stronger investor protection laws to improve the reported earnings quality and its decision usefulness.</p><p>

The thesis empirically investigates and compares some of the main aspects of Islamic and conventional banks during four periods: the pre-financial crisis, financial crisis, post-financial crisis and entire sample periods (2002-2015). Specifically, it investigates and compares the information asymmetry, credit risk and profitability in Islamic and conventional banks. For the information asymmetry investigation, a total sample of 211 Islamic and conventional publicly listed banks from Asia, Europe and Africa is used over the period 2002-2015. Quarterly data is retrieved from Datastream for the sample. However, for credit risk and profitability investigations, annual data for 225 Islamic and conventional banks are extracted from Datastream for the periods from 2002 to 2015 from Asia, Europe and Africa. The study aims to: (i) investigate and compare the degree of information asymmetry in Islamic and conventional banks for the pre-financial crisis, crisis, post-crisis and full sample periods; (ii) investigate and compare the degree of credit risk in Islamic and conventional banks for the pre-financial crisis, crisis, post-crisis and full sample periods; and (iii) investigate and compare the degree of profitability in Islamic and conventional banks for the pre-financial crisis, crisis, post-crisis and full sample periods. The empirical investigations provide important results in the three areas. First, the results show a significant difference in the information asymmetry level between Islamic and conventional banks for the crisis, post-crisis, and full sample periods. In fact, Islamic banks showed significantly lower information asymmetry levels than their counterparts in all information asymmetry proxy measures (i.e. Bid-Ask Spread, Share Turnover ratio and Stock Price Synchronicity SYNCH). These findings are robust with the intangibility ratio as a proxy of information asymmetry for all four periods (including the pre-crisis period). To the best of the author’s knowledge, such results are presented for the first time, and will add to the Islamic banking literature. Second, mixed results were found for the credit risk levels in Islamic and conventional banking credit risk for the four periods when Z-score and non-performing loans are used as credit risk proxy measures. However, the robustness check shows that there are no significant differences between Islamic and conventional banks in their credit risk for all of the different periods used in the study. This suggests that despite the different nature of both banks, their credit risk for the study periods do not statistically differ. These results contradict some prior studies conducted in the same area. Nevertheless, using only publicly listed banks, this thesis covers a longer period than other studies and investigates credit risk in four periods while using a combination of different control variables. Third, the results show that the profitability of Islamic banks is lower than conventional banks for the crisis, post-crisis and full sample period when using return-on-asset and return-on-equity as profitability measures. However, there are no significant differences between Islamic and conventional banks’ profitability during the pre-crisis period. These results are robust. Nevertheless, they affirm some prior studies’ findings and contradict others. This thesis uses up-to-date data for a longer period and investigates the profitability of publicly listed Islamic and conventional banks four different periods. Its findings add to the Islamic banking literature.