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The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate the viability of sculpture as a potential alternative investment. This goal is achieved through partly assessing the market quality of the auction market for sculptures and partly by studying their long-run diversification potential. The assessment of the sculpture market quality, together with the long-run co-movement analysis are objectives met through conducting four individual studies. In Paper I, I find that auction house art experts' relative estimate range positively affects realized prices. The effect is robust across the mid- low- and high-end segments of the international sculpture market. Interpreting the art experts' price estimate range as a proxy for the prevailing divergence of investor opinion in the art market, the findings are consistent with the disagreement model of Miller (1977). This evidence is contradictory to the predictions of the general auction model in Milgrom (1982) and does not lend support to the interpretation of the price estimate range as a proxy only for uncertainty. Moreover, the study gives insight into the price determinants of sculpture using a unique large dataset of over 65,000 sculpture sales at international auctions. Paper II is the first study to find evidence of a home bias in prices of art sold at international art auctions. All else equal, art prices are higher when they are auctioned in the home country of the artist compared to outside of the artist's home country. Moreover, the home bias in prices is more pronounced in the low-end sculpture market segment than in the high-end segment, indicating that familiarity can be a potential explanation of the bias. Furthermore, the home bias is found to be partly related to patriotism. The findings indicate that the home bias in prices increases as the relative level of patriotism rises in the home country of the artist, and that patriotism is a more persistent source of the home bias in art prices than familiarity. Paper III examines the absolute and time-varying weak-form market efficiency of the international sculpture auction market. The results indicate that the sculpture market efficiency varies over time lending support to the Adaptive Markets Hypothesis. Moreover, I find that the times of peaking relative market inefficiency coincide with distress in the wider economy and financial markets. Additionally, I find evidence that auction house art experts' pre-sale estimate accuracy Granger causes developments in time-varying market efficiency, highlighting the importance of art experts. Paper IV analyzes the dynamic relationship between the international sculpture market and the traditional financial investments during the period 1985-2013. Three international sculpture price indices are constructed to proxy for the general sculpture market price movements along with the low- and high-end segments of the international sculpture market. The results show that price development in the sculpture market does not move together with government bond prices in the long run. When it comes to equity markets, I find significant cointegrated dynamics between sculpture indices and the world equity markets. On the other hand, there is no such relationship when the S&P 500 is considered. Furthermore, cointegration is detected when analyzing the sculpture markets with the world GDP per capita. Granger-causality tests reveal that sculpture prices, in general, are Granger-caused by GDP per capita. Moreover, the Granger-causality tests indicate that sculpture price developments follow the world equity price movements, but not those of the S&P 500.

This thesis examines the impact of company announcements on the daily stock returns of lowly capitalised companies. A total of 105 companies comprise the sample and 1464 events are examined over the period 21110/97 to 03/0412000. The methodology employed is primarily, empirical in nature. Event studies are conducted to gauge the impact of company announcements on stock returns using the single index market model (SIMM) as the chosen equilibrium market model for modelling abnormal returns. The study professes three mam contributions to knowledge. The empirical evidence suggests that financial announcement have a more timely impact on stock returns than non-financial announcements. Secondly, there appears to be significant over-reaction and mean-reversion exhibited by lowly capitalised firms. Thirdly, the speed of adjustment of stock prices to new information is increased in cases where shareholder concentration is high while over-reactions appear inversely proportionate to shareholder concentration. This may be a consequence of smaller firms experiencing leakage of boardroom level information prior to public announcement days.

This diploma thesis is dedicated to the phenomenon of art collecting, which under certain circumstances can be considered as an alternative investment. The aim of the thesis is to examine the possibilities of art collecting and investing in the context of both Czech and world art markets, and determine whether art collecting is a form of investment that can generate future profit. Another goal of the thesis is the creation of recommendations that can help collectors create a quality collection while increasing its value over time, no matter if the collection is to be sold afterwards or not. The thesis is divided into several parts. In the first part I describe the collecting itself, various types of collections, significant collectors and also the institutionalized forms of collections in the Czech Republic and abroad. After that I talk about the art market regarding its selling channels together with their advantages and disadvantages for collectors. Subsequently I focus on the price-making process on the art market which creates the base for the next chapter about investing in art where I describe types and rules of investing in art, and afterwards I define the rules regarding the management of an art collection in general with emphasis on its appreciation. In the end I show a practical example of the artworks price development using the artworks of one well-known Czech artist, where some of the formal theoretical statements are applied about investing in art and building an art collection. The whole thesis is assembled together with the opinions of experts from the art field in the form of expert interviews by adding their practical notes continuously to the text.

The present diploma thesis deals with international art trade. It is divided into four chapters. The first chapter introduces key market agents and describes briefly the art market history. It also shortly evaluates the current market situation. The second chapter describes major international art trade centers and analyses key market patterns and electronic trading. The third chapter provides overview of regulations and rules at the US, EU, and Chinese art markets. The last chapter compares investment into art with selected other investment options. This chapter includes also a case study concerning Picasso's late works on paper. The theoretical part of the thesis aims to provide comprehensive overview of the international art trade. The objective of the case study is to analyze evolution of a narrowly defined art market segment in a given period and to compare it with the development of global art market and also with the presumptions resulting from the theoretical part. The other objective of the case study is to compare the return on investment of this art market segment with respect to the S&P 500 shares and gold.

Yes / This study examines the extent to which the change from UK GAAP to IFRS has affected companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in the UK. The results suggest that, on average, profit reported under IFRS is higher than that reported under UK GAAP; however, the difference is much smaller for AIM listed companies as compared to what existing literature suggests for firms listed on main stock markets. The Gray's partial analysis results indicate that despite the extensive programmes for improving convergence over time there is still a considerable discrepancy between IFRS and UK GAAP.

The thesis is focused on economic capital management of top-ranked world banks. A basic theoretical framework is summarised at the beginning. The theoretical framework is then utilised in the main - empirical part. Since economic capital is not a figure commonly reported in any available database, we have created our own database based on annual reports of top fifty world banks of the year 2008. Based on this database we provide an extensive empirical study focused on years 2007-2010. Even though one third of the banks disclose economic capital only, thanks to our approach combining both quantitative and qualitative analysis we were able to study the topic in detail. Within quantitative part the development of economic capital and its allocation is studied, the differences between regulatory and economic capital in time is measured, a relationship between quality of economic capital disclosure and rating is searched for and relationship between the value of economic capital and changes in profits during financial crisis is studied. The qualitative part consists of case studies of fourteen banks. It is focused on special and unique features of economic capital management of individual financial institutions.

Submitted by Robin Joël Candreia (robincandreia@hotmail.com) on 2016-10-09T11:36:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 EESP - Analysis of HF Replication Products.pdf: 1357816 bytes, checksum: 6f8cc53a8c46b361a07188306396d0d7 (MD5) / Rejected by Ana Luiza Holme (ana.holme@fgv.br), reason: Dear Robin, Your Thesis is complete different from the structure that should be. In the email that I send there is a model of thesis. please follow the instructions that I send. All work must be done using the standards defined by ABNT or APA (American Psychology Association): http://bibliotecadigital.fgv.br/site/bkab/normalizacao. I wil send you again the model. Don't forget to ask for the Ficha catalográfica. Best. Ana Luiza Holme 37993492 on 2016-10-10T12:32:21Z (GMT) / Submitted by Robin Joël Candreia (robincandreia@hotmail.com) on 2016-10-17T18:34:06Z No. of bitstreams: 1 EESP Dissertation Robin Candreia.pdf: 1421318 bytes, checksum: a87439a38f564feee0905e7798b4d441 (MD5) / Rejected by Ana Luiza Holme (ana.holme@fgv.br), reason: Dear Robin, The numbers of the pages are missing, remember that the number of the pages count from the cover but only appear in the introduction. Best. Ana Luiza Holme 37993492 on 2016-10-17T18:48:35Z (GMT) / Submitted by Robin Joël Candreia (robincandreia@hotmail.com) on 2016-10-17T20:18:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 EESP Dissertation Robin Candreia.pdf: 1424345 bytes, checksum: 81b1d6017b1eaac36e10addc679df407 (MD5) / Rejected by Ana Luiza Holme (ana.holme@fgv.br), reason: Dear Robin, The numbers of the pages should appear only in the introduction. Please remove the number of the pages 8 and 9. Best. Ana Luiza Holme 37993492 on 2016-10-18T11:19:23Z (GMT) / Submitted by Robin Joël Candreia (robincandreia@hotmail.com) on 2016-10-18T19:13:16Z No. of bitstreams: 1 EESP Dissertation Robin Candreia.pdf: 1423280 bytes, checksum: 478f76d228a12fef8d50ed7aa8eab318 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Luiza Holme (ana.holme@fgv.br) on 2016-10-18T19:19:53Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 EESP Dissertation Robin Candreia.pdf: 1423280 bytes, checksum: 478f76d228a12fef8d50ed7aa8eab318 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-18T19:55:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 EESP Dissertation Robin Candreia.pdf: 1423280 bytes, checksum: 478f76d228a12fef8d50ed7aa8eab318 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-09-26 / Hedge fund replication has generated significant academic interest and received increased attention from a broad base of investors. This is mainly driven by its competitive after-fee returns along with its superior liquidity, transparency and lower due diligence costs. The purpose of this dissertation is therefore to provide a detailed critical analysis of available hedge fund replication products. The results show that the performance of replication products can vary widely, and replication approaches are still a work in progress. However, they offer an attractive way to enhance the returns of a portfolio while simultaneously diversifying risk because they show a low correlation to traditional asset classes. / Replicação de fundos de hedge gerou interesse acadêmico significativo e recebido maior atenção a partir de uma ampla base de investidores. Este é impulsionado principalmente pelas suas competitivos retornos pós-taxa, juntamente com a sua liquidez superior, transparência e custos de diligência menor devido. O objetivo deste trabalho é, portanto, fornecer uma análise crítica detalhada dos disponível de hedge produtos de replicação de fundo. Os resultados mostram que o desempenho dos produtos de replicação podem variar amplamente, e abordagens de replicação são ainda um trabalho em curso. No entanto, eles oferecem uma maneira atraente de aumentar os retornos de uma carteira e simultaneamente a diversificação do risco, porque eles mostram uma baixa correlação com as classes de ativos tradicionais.

La disparitions graduelle des peurs liées à l’inflation pendant l’ère de la «Grande Modération» macroéconomique est aujourd’hui chose révolue : la crise financière américaine des «Subprimes», la «Grande Récession» ainsi que la crise des dettes souveraines qui s’en est suivie ont abouti à un nouvel ordre économique caractérisé par une volatilité accrue de l’inflation, un accroissement des chocs dans les prix des matières premières et une défiance envers la qualité de la signature de certains émetteurs souverains pour n’en mentionner que trois caractéristiques. De la réduction des émissions de titres souverains indexés sur l’inflation aux taux réels négatifs jusqu’à de très longues maturités, cette nouvelle donne tend à mettre en péril aussi bien les stratégies conventionnelles de couvertures inflation que les stratégies directionnelles purement nominales . Cette thèse a pour but d’investiguer les effets de ces évènements qui ont changé la donne macro-financière et d’évaluer leurs conséquences en terme de couverture inflation aussi bien dans la gestion actif-passif des investisseurs institutionnels que sur l’épargne des particuliers. Trois stratégies alternatives de couverture sont proposées pour y faire face. / Gone are the days when inflation fears had receded under years of “Great Moderation” in macroeconomics. The US subprime financial crisis, the ensuing “Great Recession” and the sovereign debt scares that spread throughout much of the industrialized world brought about a new order characterized by higher inflation volatility, severe commodity price shocks and uncertainty over sovereign bond creditworthiness to name just a few. All of which tend to put in jeopardy both conventional inflation protected strategies and nominal unhedged ones: from reduced issues of linkers to negative long-term real rates, they call into question the viability of current strategies. This paper investigates those game changing events and their asset liability management consequences for retail and institutional investors. Three alternative ways to achieve real value protection are proposed.

Les hedge funds sont devenus des acteurs incontournables des marchés financiers et, pourtant, ils demeurent toujours inconnus ou «mal connus» à la fois par le grand public, les régulateurs et les juristes. À l’heure du bilan de la directive AIFM qui avait pour ambition de proposer une réglementation ambitieuse de l’industrie des hedge funds au sein de l’Union européenne, il convient de revenir sur ces entités dont l’histoire, les stratégies, le statut juridique, les caractéristiques et le régime juridique demeurent, encore, flous. La thèse vise à proposer une définition et un portrait-robot précis des hedge funds via leur identification par leurs caractéristiques, qu’elles soient propres ou empruntées à d’autres entités. Un hedge fund n’est pas un fonds de gestion collective ni une forme juridique à part entière. Un hedge fund peut revêtir tout type de forme sociale et sera communément considéré comme tel dès lors que l’entité s’emploiera à adopter certaines stratégies d’investissement et disposera d’une structure de rémunération et organisationnelle particulière. Ces dernières sont des indices permettant la caractérisation d’un hedge fund dont la nature juridique est quasi-exclusivement celle d’un fonds.Le hedge fund en tant que fonds est, selon le droit français, dépourvu, à tort, de la personnalité juridique alors même qu’il dispose de tous les attributs juridiques nécessaires à une telle reconnaissance. La présente étude démontre que le législateur français a ôté la personnalité juridique à la forme sociale originelle du hedge fund en droit français alors que les arguments en faveur de cette reconnaissance étaient plus convaincants. Un hedge fund en tant que fonds s’apparente davantage à une société hybride qu’à un numéro de compte. Cette théorie s’appuie principalement sur l’argument selon lequel il existe une personnalité morale embryonnaire où la personnalité juridique serait graduelle selon l’entité concernée. / Hedge funds have become key players in financial markets and are still unknown or « poorly known » by the general public, regulators and lawyers. At the time of the review of the AIFM directive which aimed to propose an ambitious regulation of the hedge fund industry within the European Union, it is necessary to return to these entities whose history, strategies, legal status, characteristics and legal regime remain, still, unclear. The thesis aims to propose a definition and an accurate robot portrait of hedge funds through their identification by their characteristics. These characteristics are both specific to hedge funds and borrowed from other entities. A hedge fund is not a collective fund or a legal form in its own right. A hedge fund can take any legal form and will be commonly considered as such when the entity strives to adopt certain investment strategies and will have a particular compensation and organizational structure. These characters are clues allowing the characterization of a hedge fund whose legal nature is almost exclusively that of a fund. However, the hedge fund as a fund is, under French law, wrongly deprived of legal personality even though it has all the legal attributes necessary for such recognition. The present study demonstrates that the French legislature removed the legal personality from the original social form of the hedge fund in French law while the arguments in favor of this recognition were more convincing. A hedge fund as a fund is more like a hybrid company than an account number. This theory is based mainly on the argument that there is a cohabiting legal personality where the legal personality is gradual depending on the entity concerned.