This thesis is divided into several sections the first section deals with aggregate data about the amount, dynamic and structure of municipal expenditures and the second section is focused on determinants which influence the amount and dynamic of municipal expenditures. In this thesis there is operated with data from years 2001-2013. In the first part of practical part there were used all municipalities which existed in 2001-2013; in the second part there were used 6 236 municipalities in the Czech Republic. Expenditures were grouped into several expenditure areas according to types and then also according to lines. It has been found out 17 determinants which could influence municipal expenditures. Relations between the explained variable (individual expenditure areas of municipalities) and explanatory variables (individual determi-nants) have been determined by using analysis of panel data (random effects model). It has been found out that municipal expenditures are influenced mainly by: jurisdiction of the municipality to a certain region, scope of delegated powers of municipalities, years of elections to municipal councils, existence of allowance organization or legal entity, population density of the municipality, built-up area of the municipality and the number of children and pupils at schools which were set up by municipalities.

From the concept of option-approach and its influence on levels of investment in times of economical instability in a nation, an assumption was built, based an empirical study of Alves and Luporini (2007), in which the main variables that capture the Brazilian economical instability also had a negative relationship on the investments made with funds of Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) for the period of 1995 to 2006. This study aimed to test this assumption. There fore an equation of investment was estimated to business fortunes of the institution's resources, with the method of data analysis in panel. The results validated the assumption in parts, indicating that in times of economical instability, the o raise interest rates raise on short-term (SELIC) and the devaluation of the exchange rate increased business investment with resources from BNDES. Meanwhile, the General Price Index - Internal Availability (IGP-DI) has meant that companies postpone their investment decisions in the institution's resources, are waiting for new and better information. / A partir do conceito do option-approach e da sua influência nos níveis de investimento em períodos de instabilidade econômica de uma nação, construiu-se o pressuposto, baseado no estudo empírico de Alves e Luporini (2007), em que as principais variáveis que captam a instabilidade econômica brasileira, também possuiriam relação negativa sobre os investimentos realizados com recursos do Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES), no período 1995 a 2006. O objetivo deste estudo foi testar este pressuposto. Para tanto, uma equação de investimento foi estimada para as empresas tomadoras de recursos da instituição, com o método de análise de dados em painel. Os resultados validaram o pressuposto em parte, indicando que em momentos de instabilidade econômica, a elevação da taxa de juro de curto prazo (SELIC) e a desvalorização da taxa de câmbio elevaram os investimentos das empresas com recursos do BNDES. Enquanto isso, o Índice Geral de Preços Disponibilidade Interna (IGP-DI) fez com que as empresas adiassem suas decisões de investimento com recursos da Instituição, aguardando por novas e melhores informações.

p. 1 - 98 / Submitted by Santiago Fabio (fabio.ssantiago@hotmail.com) on 2013-01-23T19:14:56Z No. of bitstreams: 1 9999999.pdf: 402893 bytes, checksum: be4822072c700c44e2b168a887552b82 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-01-23T19:14:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 9999999.pdf: 402893 bytes, checksum: be4822072c700c44e2b168a887552b82 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / As teorias sobre estrutura de capital sugerem diversas variáveis como determinantes das decisões de financiamento das empresas. Este estudo preocupou-se em analisar alguns fatores que supostamente determinariam o nível de endividamento de empresas de médio porte da Região Metropolitana de Salvador (RMS). Verificou-se, inicialmente, que a maior parte dos trabalhos empíricos sobre as empresas que atuam nos países em desenvolvimento aponta as mesmas variáveis e os mesmos métodos econométricos utilizados nas pesquisas sobre a estrutura de capital das empresas dos países desenvolvidos. Para verificar a existência de relação entre o endividamento e as variáveis composições dos ativos, índice de liquidez corrente, porte, crescimento e rentabilidade foram aplicadas regressões múltiplas em dados cross-section e dados em painel provindos das demonstrações financeiras de empresas de médio porte da RMS durante o período entre 2004 e 2005. Os resultados apontam as variáveis índices de liquidez corrente, composição dos ativos e porte como determinantes da estrutura de capital das firmas analisadas. Conclui-se, com base nesses resultados, que as características dessas empresas e os aspectos institucionais que permeiam a realidade brasileira exercem influência sobre o nível de endividamento das empresas analisadas. / Salvador

The influence of liquidity / illiquidity on the return on assets has been widely researched in last years, from both individual assets and market perspectives.Given the evidence that the liquidity / illiquidity is a multidimensional measure and that a single proxy is not sufficient to assess it, this study, aiming for greater robustness, seek to evaluate the role of same using different measures, making sure that its use influence the results. This paper analyzes the influence of liquidity / illiquidity in stock returns in the Brazilian market, using the measures proposed by Amihud (2002) and Liu (2006) beyond traditional measures such as trading volume, number of trades, spread and turnover. To that we use data from December, 1994 to April 2010 of the stocks traded on the Bolsa de Valores, Mercadorias e Futuros de São Paulo (BOVESPA). The results obtained through the estimation of the model using the measure of illiquidity for the actions allow to concluding that the expected illiquidity has positive impact on the monthly return, supporting the first hypothesis of the original study by Amihud (2002), which suggests that the expected stock return is an increasing function of expected illiquidity. Regarding the second hypothesis tested, the unexpected illiquidity (residual) showed negative impact on return, confirming the hypothesis that unexpected illiquidity has a negative effect on the stock price, that is, the illiquidity is priced in the Brazilian market. In another way, the estimation results of the model that used the measure of Liu (2006) for the actions, demonstrated that the variables expected liquidity and unexpected liquidity were not significant in explaining returns. As to the model that has used variables of market liquidity the estimation with the measure of Amihud (2002) did not present significance for the variables expected market iliquidity and unexpected market illiquidity. Differently, the model estimated using the variables of market liquidity for the stock returns presented positive impact to the variable expected market liquidity. In turn, the variable unexpected market liquidity showed negative impact on monthly returns. It can be inferred that in Brazil, a country with great heterogeneity in the liquidity, the market liquidity risk of lose space for the individual liquidity risk. / A influência da liquidez/iliquidez sobre o retorno dos ativos vem sendo vastamente pesquisada nos últimos anos, tanto da perspectiva individual quanto do mercado. Tendo em vista as evidências de que a liquidez/iliquidez seja uma medida multidimensional e que uma única proxy não é suficiente para avaliá-la, este estudo, na busca de maior robustez, se propôs a avaliar o papel da mesma a partir de diferentes medidas, verificando se o seu uso influencia os resultados. O presente trabalho analisa a influência da liquidez/iliquidez no retorno das ações no mercado brasileiro, empregando as medidas propostas por Amihud (2002) e Liu (2006), além das medidas tradicionais como o volume financeiro, quantidade de negócios, spread e turnover. Para tanto são utilizados dados de dezembro de 1994 a abril de 2010 de ações negociadas na Bolsa de Valores, Mercadorias e Futuros de São Paulo (BM&FBOVESPA). Os resultados obtidos por meio da estimação do modelo utilizando a medida de iliquidez para as ações permitem concluir que a iliquidez esperada apresentou impacto positivo no retorno mensal, corroborando a primeira hipótese do estudo original de Amihud (2002), a qual sugere que o retorno esperado de ações é uma função crescente da iliquidez esperada. No que diz respeito à segunda hipótese testada, a iliquidez inesperada (residual) mostrou impacto negativo no retorno, confirmando a hipótese de que a iliquidez inesperada tem um efeito negativo sobre o preço das ações, ou seja, que a iliquidez é precificada no mercado brasileiro. De outra forma, os resultados da estimação do modelo que empregou a medida de Liu (2006) para as ações, demonstraram que as variáveis liquidez esperada e liquidez inesperada não foram significativas para a explicação dos retornos. Quanto ao modelo que utilizou as variáveis de liquidez de mercado a estimação com a medida de Amihud (2002) não apresentou significância para as variáveis iliquidez esperada-mercado e iliquidez inesperada-mercado. De modo diferente, o modelo estimado empregando as variáveis de liquidez de mercado para o retorno das ações apresentou impacto positivo para a variável liquidez esperada-mercado. Por sua vez, a variável liquidez inesperada-mercado mostrou impacto negativo nos retornos mensais. Pode-se inferir que no Brasil, um país que apresenta grande heterogeneidade na liquidez, o risco da liquidez de mercado perde espaço para o risco de liquidez individual.

This thesis investigates the determinants of the use of debt and leasing in the UK using a comprehensive measure of debt and leases, in recognition of the link between lease and debt-type financing decisions, based on financial contracting theory and the tax advantage hypothesis. The design of the study takes account three lacunae in our current understanding of this topic. Firstly, despite the fact that the capital structure literature is voluminous, it is perhaps surprising that relatively little research has been carried out on lease finance, given its significant role as a major source of finance for many firms. Secondly, the role of tax in the capital structure decision is unclear. Empirically testing for tax effects is challenging because spurious relationships may exist between the financing decision and many commonly used tax proxies. More importantly, our understanding of the impact of taxes on UK financing decisions is far from complete, especially since several major corporate tax reforms have taken place in the last decade. Thirdly, empirical evidence on capital structure determinants is also voluminous but far from conclusive. Notably, contradictory signs and significance levels are commonly observed. Using the standard regression approach invariably involves identification of the average behaviour of firms, and therefore does not measure diversity across firms. In response to these three major issues, this study employs empirical research methods, namely cross-sectional pooled regression, static and dynamic panel data regression, and quantile regression to analyse a large sample of 361 non-financial firms, drawn from the FTSE 350 and FTSE All-Small indices over the tax years 1995 through 2003. The operating lease data are estimated using the constructive capitalisation method while the simulated before-financing marginal tax rate is used to proxy for the firms’ tax status. The endogeneity of corporate tax status is evident since the use of simple tax proxy, the effective tax rate, leads to a spurious negative relation between debt usage and tax rates. The problem was avoided with a better measure of tax variable that is the simulated before-financing marginal tax rate where it is found that the empirical relationships between the tax factor and debt and leasing are consistent with those theoretical predictions. Furthermore, there is a clear distinction between the effect of taxes on debt and leasing where the firm’s marginal tax status is only relevant when managers make decisions on debt financing. The use of quantile regression method in the present study represents a novel approach in investigating the determinants of the use of debt and leasing. The results reveal that the determinants of debt and leasing are heterogeneous across the whole distribution of firms, consistent with the notion of heterogeneity as promoted by Beattie et al. (2006), but contradicting their claim that the large-scale regression approach cannot measure firms’ diversity. This finding implies that average model results (e.g., from OLS or panel data models) may not apply to the tails of debt and leasing levels, and hence assuming that the determinants of debt and leasing decisions are the same for all firms in the economy is clearly unrealistic. Using the dynamic panel data model, this thesis confirms that debt and leasing are substitutes rather than complements, and that the degree of substitutability is more pronounced among smaller firms, where the degree of information asymmetry is greater. More importantly, the use of a joint specification for debt and leasing improves our understanding of the determinants of the two fixed-claim financing instruments. There is also significant evidence to support the view that firm characteristics affect contracting costs which in turn impact on the choice between alternative forms of finance, namely equity, debt and leasing.

Par rapport au système financier conventionnel qui a vécu ces dernières années des épisodes de forte instabilité liés en partie à une mauvaise gouvernance, le système financier islamique a montré des signes de robustesse et de pérennité. Sa capacité à surmonter les événements défavorables a incité plusieurs parties prenantes à proposer la finance islamique comme solutionaux déficits financiers et substitut potentiel au système bancaire actuel. Les partisans de cette finance ont fait valoir que la récente crise financière aurait pu être évitée si la finance islamique avec une bonne gouvernance et un cadre réglementaire solide avait été introduite au lieu de la finance conventionnelle. Pour ces raisons, l’objectif de cette thèse est d’une part d’examiner si la finance islamique pourrait garantir la stabilité en période de crise et être une alternative au système financier traditionnel, et d’autre part d’évaluer l’effet des mécanismes internes et externes de gouvernance bancaire sur le risque des banques islamiques par rapport à leurs homologues conventionnelles. Pour y arriver, nous avons élaboré trois chapitres avec desévidences empiriques en utilisant un échantillon de 95 banques islamiques et 130 banques conventionnelles (38 banques dont 14 banques islamiques sont exclues dans le dernier chapitre) dans 18 pays des régions MENAP et Asie du Sud-Est, durant la période 2006-2013. Le premier chapitre porte sur les spécificités et le risque de la banque dans un système financier islamiquepar rapport au système conventionnel. Les résultats trouvés indiquent que la taille et le capital de la banque ainsi que la croissance du PIB sont des facteurs clés de la solidité des deux systèmes bancaires de tous les pays étudiés, notamment des pays du Golfe. Cependant, d’autres résultats ne sont pas assez robustes pour savoir si les banques islamiques sont plus ou moins risquées que les banques conventionnelles. Par conséquent, nous concluons que le système bancaire islamique ne peut pas se substituer au système traditionnel, mais il est plutôt un complément financier qui a ses propres limites. Le deuxième chapitre examine l’effet des mécanismes internes de gouvernance bancaire, à savoir le conseil d’administration et le conseilde surveillance de la charia comme un organe de contrôle spécifique, sur le risque des banques conventionnelles par rapport aux banques islamiques. Les résultats ne montrent pas de différence significative entre les deux groupes bancaires,sauf pour les banques islamiques des pays du Golfe qui font preuve d’une plus grande solidité financière, grâce notamment auxcompétences de spécialistes en finance et en droit islamique, et au recrutement des administrateurs étrangers. En outre, nous trouvons que, dans les pays du Golfe en particulier, l'effet indésirable d'une taille importante du conseil d'administration et celui de la dualité des fonctions sur les risques des banques conventionnelles, disparaissent avec la présence d'un nombre élevé d’administrateurs indépendants. En traitant la question de la dimension externe de gouvernance bancaire dans le dernier chapitre, l’accent est mis sur l’effet probable des récentes réformes bancaires relatives aux banques conventionnelles et aux banques islamiques, à la lumière de Bâle III et du CSFI-12/15, sur le risque de ces banques. Les résultats trouvés montrent que si les exigences réglementaires de ces deux normes internationales de solvabilité avaient été appliquées durant notre période d'étude, elles auraient probablement amélioré la stabilité des deux systèmes bancaires des pays étudiés. Cependant, cet effet n’est pas uniforme pour toutes les banques, en particulier pour les banques conventionnelles des pays d’Asie du Sud-Est qui semblent moins stables et plus exposées au risque de crédit que le reste des banques.L’ensemble de ces résultats apporte une nouvelle dimension de la recherche en gouvernance dans une perspective islamique ... / Compared to the conventional financial system, which has experienced periods of high volatility in recent years partly due to poor governance, the Islamic financial system has shown signs of robustness and sustainability. Its ability to overcome the unfavorable events has encouraged several stakeholders to propose Islamic finance as a solution to financial deficits and as a potential alternative to the current banking system. The supporters of this finance argued that the recent financial crisis could have been avoided if Islamic finance with good governance and a solid regulatory framework had been introduced instead of conventional finance. For these reasons, the purpose of this thesis is twofold. First, we examine whether Islamic finance could guarantee stability in times of crisis and be a substitute for the traditional financial system. Second, we assess the effect of internal and external mechanisms of banking governance on the risk of Islamic banks compared to their conventional counterparts. To this end, we have developed three chapters with empirical evidence using a sample of 95 Islamic banks and 130 conventional banks (38 banks including 14 Islamic banks are excluded at the last chapter) in 18 MENAP and Southeast Asian countries, during the period 2006-2013. The first chapter analyzes the specificities and the risk of the bank in an Islamic financial system compared to conventional system. The results indicate that the size and capital of the bank as well as the GDP growth are crucial factors for the soundness of the two banking systems of all surveyed countries, especially of the Gulf region. However, other results are not strong enough to answer whether Islamic banks are more or less risky than their conventional counterparts. We therefore conclude that the Islamic banking system cannot replace the traditional system, but is, rather, a financial supplement that has its own limitations. The second chapter examines the effect of internal mechanisms of banking governance, such as the board of directors and the sharia supervisory board as a control organ specific to Islamic banks, on the risk of conventional banks compared to their Islamic counterparts. The findings show no significant difference between the two banking systems, except for the Islamic banks of Gulf countries, which demonstrate greater financial solidity thanks particularly to the skills of the specialists in finance and Islamic law, and the recruitment of foreign directors. In addition, we find especiallyin Gulf countries that the harmful effect of a large board size and dual functions on the risks of conventional banks disappear with the presence of a significant number of independent directors. In investigating the issue of the external dimension of banking governance, the focus is on the probable effect of recent banking reforms relating to conventional and Islamic banks, in light of Basel III and IFSB-12/15, on the risk of the two banking systems. Our findings support that if the regulatory requirements of these two international solvency standards had been applied during our sampling period, they would probably have improved the stability of the two banking systems of the surveyed countries. However, this effect is not uniform for all banks. In particular, conventional banks of Southeast Asian countries seem less stable and more exposed to credit risk than the other ones. All of these results bring a new dimension of governance research from an Islamic perspective, which could be a valuable source ofknowledge for both bankers and regulators in the banking sector.