Thesis (Ph. D.)--Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 161-170).

Magister Legum - LLM / This research paper aims to clarify and argue the need for Ethiopia to include civil forfeiture in its assets forfeiture legal framework. It will analyse the existing domestic assets forfeiture laws and international instruments on assets forfeiture. It will show how the new Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Proclamation and the other anti-corruption laws deal with assets forfeiture in general and civil forfeiture in particular. For a number of reasons, Ethiopian law enforcement is struggling to investigate crimes such as money laundering and corruption to obtain convictions.

Magister Legum - LLM

Diploma thesis "Valuation of selected part of assets" deals with problems with valuation of non-current tangible property and inventories by International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in comparison with Czech directives. Firstly will be described basic valuation techniques used by the IFRS and also by Czech directives. Secondly will be explained valuating models separately. Problems with valuation of non-current tangible property and inventories by IFRS and by Czech directives are discussed in last two parts. Discovered findings are compared in conclusion of that part. Diploma thesis is also covered by illustrative examples.

This study aims broadly to explore the legal and practical problems of winding up and insolvency for charities that are, or ought to be, registered with the Charity Commissioners for England and Wales and to explore possible 'rescue mechanisms.' It seeks to identify common underlying factors or trends associated with charities becoming insolvent or being wound up. The methodology consisted of book work and practical research in which a detailed study was made of 130 charitable companies and the experiences of legal and accountancy practitioners were sought. Twenty case studies were put together from information provided by the practitioners and from the author's own experience. The areas of legal complexity explored include problems associated with land and endowments, and the augmentation principle in respect of bequests to a corporate charity that has been dissolved. Some issues such as property holding and personal liability are more complex in an unincorporated association. Practical difficulties such as disputes between trustees, between staff and trustees, or between members are significant as are the legal and practical complexities associated with the contract culture. Charities represent an important sector of the economy, collectively being worth £19.7bn in 1998, and their success or failure is of public concern. The research indicates that charities are affected by societal changes, legislative change and changes in the attitudes of beneficiaries. Their dissolution or winding up is often a result of a combination of factors, both internal and external and service providing charities appear to be particularly vulnerable. The quality, cost, and availability of professional advice is considered. It is suggested that the role of local intermediary bodies could be enhanced and that a means be found for accrediting the competence of charity advisors, whether professional or lay.

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Virtual assets should be treated as a species of property. Users of virtual environments have legitimate expectations about acquiring legal interests in virtual assets as they would in their physical counterparts under similar circumstances. There are two sources of these expectations. Firstly, it is the architecture of virtual environments, the existence of virtual economies, and the property-like characteristics of virtual assets that frame users' expectations. Secondly, providers' representations and conduct either explicitly authorise or tolerate virtual asset transactions. As a result, issues of title and ownership arise. The existing legal framework fails to deal properly with these issues. Currently applicable laws, such as contract, intellectual property or consumer protection law, do not recognise users' expectations as legitimate. However, property law could provide the necessary answers by treating virtual assets as part of the law of property. The theoretical foundations of property law inform us about the origins, justifications and consequences of property rights, as well as their role in allocating valuable resources and resolving social conflict. The concept of virtual property entails property rights in virtual assets, which as durable, separable things of independent value. In consequence, a new category of virtual property would resolve the different and unjustified treatment of virtual assets. Virtual property recognizes and protects users' legal interest in virtual assets, based on their legitimate expectations.

This dissertation is composed of three essays which examine different topics in empirical asset pricing. Chapter 1 is the result of joint work with Andrew Ang and William Goetzmann. First, we document that American university and college endowments have shifted their asset allocations from stocks to alternative investments. By the end of the sample, the average endowment holds close to one third of its portfolios in private equity and hedge funds. What are the expectations of future returns that can explain these changes in portfolio holdings? Fitting a simple asset allocation model using Bayesian methods, we estimate that at the end of 2012, the average university expects its private equity investments to outperform a portfolio of conventional assets by 3.9% per year and hedge funds to outperform by 0.7% per year. These out-performance beliefs have increased over time, reaching their peak at the end of our sample. There is also significant cross-sectional heterogeneity in our results. Private institutions, universities with large endowments and high spending rates, and those that rely more on their asset holdings to meet operational budgets tend to expect higher alphas from alternative investments. Chapter 2 examines to what extent commodity prices have contributed to the inflation volatility experienced by the Chilean economy in recent years. First, I show that oil is the commodity that is most correlated with future inflation and inflationary expectations. Next, I use a Gaussian affine term structure model with observable macroeconomic factors to quantitatively study how shocks to oil prices affect bond yields and inflation expectations. I find a statistically significant but economically modest effect. An increase in the price of oil of 20% raises one-year inflation expectations by 25 basis points, while five-year expectations increase only by 8 basis points. The results suggest that central banks could benefit from paying attention to commodity prices when setting monetary policy. Finally, Chapter 3 studies both theoretically and empirically whether market expectations on the health of the financial sector affect stock returns. Prior literature shows that the ratio of intermediary equity to GDP predicts future market returns and is a priced risk factor in the cross-section of stock returns. Here, I extend this work and show that expectations of large declines in the capital of financial institutions can also help explain equity returns. Specifically, I show that different measures of intermediary equity tail-risk are priced in the cross-section. Firms that load on this financial tail-risk factor have lower expected returns. Motivated by these facts, I develop an intermediary asset pricing model where the financial sector's net worth is subject to large negative exogenous shocks. I calibrate the model to U.S. data and find that stocks that do well when disaster risk is high earn significantly lower returns, thus providing theoretical support to my findings. In addition, the model is able to match key asset pricing moments like the equity premium and the volatility of stock returns.

This Bachelor thesis deals with the definition of Intangible Assets in the context of financial reporting. The purpose is to integrate intangible assets into the balance sheet. After a thorough analysis of the ongoing research shows that there is general consensus concerning intellectual property, and general confusion concerning knowledge, information and organization capital. Some have what it takes to enter balance sheets, while others still lack a holistic concept that is generally accepted and fulfils the demand of accounting. Neither of them is reported according to the presently available and established knowledge. This thesis shows that a prerequisite for an improved reporting is the consequential extension of accounting principles for intangible assets. The fact that the term “intangible asset” became a gathering of all possible intangible phenomena demands counter-actions. One of its reasons is the demand for the measurement of relative performances of intangible assets. This thesis shows that reporting absolute figures for intangible assets does not stand in contrast with this, but can deliver the necessary data set for a holistic analysis that also deals with intangible assets.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 146 p. : col. ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.