Akerlof (1970) 肇端了資訊經濟學的發展，而 Leland & Pyle (1977)，Ross (1977) 和 Bhattacharya (1979) 等正式將資訊經濟學帶入財務研究的領域後，資訊不對稱的重要性日益受到重視，且已對傳統財務理論產生很大的衝擊，但是關於資訊不對稱的研究僅偏重於均衡條件的探討，對於如何影響風險性資產的價格以及影響程度則未見系統性研究．而且資訊不對稱的程度很難具體衡量，因此此一議題鮮見實證探討．本研究即將資訊不對稱正式納入風險性資產定價模式，並以銀行借款為實證對象，利用共變結構模型找出資訊不對稱的衡量變數，對資訊不對稱程度加以衡量．本研究在理論模式的建構，分別以一般競爭均衡，利率結構，選擇權定價，與銀行借款信用評等等四個定價模式，將資訊不對稱正式納入各模式中，推導其對價格的影響．四個不同模式均獲致相同結論：資訊不對稱使債權人的認知風險高於完全資訊時的實質風險，致使借款人資金成本上升．利用LISREL為資訊不對稱界定出一組配適良好的衡量模式，包括借款企業的年齡，規模，保證人人數，以及與銀行往來期間等四項變數．實證結果顯示，資訊不對稱對借款者的償債能力．理論模式與主要研究命題獲實證結果支持．

本文包含兩篇文章，分別探討國際市場公司改名對企業股價與借款成本的影響。從本文的實證分析結果得知，國際市場公司改名對公司股票價格與其貸款成本有截然不同的影響。 Cooper, Dimitrov and Rau (2001)與Cooper et al. (2005)發現當網際網路興盛時，不論公司業務主體是否與網際網路有關，於公司名稱加入與網路有關文字之公司其股價報酬上升且維持一段時間；然而，當網際網路衰弱時，將公司名稱刪除網路字樣之公司，其股價出現顯著異常報酬，使得股東財富增加。鑒於近年來國際石油價格急遽上升，之後又逢美國次級房貸風暴因而暴跌，國際石油價格的波動走勢提供本文第一篇文章之研究動機。本文第一篇文章的研究目的在於探討當國際石油價格持續上升時，國際市場公司是否傾向變更其公司名稱，將其公司名稱加入「石油」或「原油」等相關之文字，透過公司名稱的變更提高企業價值；而當國際石油價格急速下降時，國際市場公司是否反而傾向將其公司名稱刪除「石油」或「原油」等相關之文字，以防止股價下跌。此外，由於美國與加拿大地理位置與文化相近，過去文獻常將兩者作比較。顧此，本文進一步探討美國公司與加拿大公司更名對企業股價的影響是否有顯著地差異。 本文發現當國際石油價格上漲時，美國公司傾向將其公司名稱加入「石油」或「原油」等相關之文字且其股價報酬上升，企業價值增加。然而，當美國次級房貸風暴時期，投資人深恐石油產業將受美國次級房貸危機影響，因此變更公司名稱之公司其股價下跌。另外，本文發現由於近年來加拿大為世界主要石油輸出國之一，投資人對石油產業公司的了解度較佳，因此美國與加拿大公司更名對企業股價有不同的影響。 過去文獻主要以股東角度探討公司更名議題，本文第二篇文章主要從銀行貸款者的角度來探討公司更名的影響。本文認為公司更名提高貸款者與借款者之間的資訊不對稱，增加銀行貸款者評估借款者未來還款能力的不確定性。為了要降低不確定性帶來的財務風險，銀行貸款者傾向提高借款利息或增加要求抵押擔保品。本文發現在公司更名後，公司須負擔較高的借款成本、較多的抵押品擔保與合約限制。此外，公司更名後，願意加入聯合貸款的銀行數目降低。 這些實證結果支持本文的推論。在股票市場上，公司變更公司名稱對企業價值有顯著地影響，管理階層藉由變更公司名稱影響投資人對其的看法(investor sentiment)，進而提高股票價值。然而，在借貸市場上，公司變更名稱提高公司與貸款者間之資訊不對稱，公司更名須償付較高的借款成本和較多的抵押品擔保。本文的實證結果說明金融機構對公司治理具有監督和管理的重要角色。 / Two essays are comprised in this dissertation to examine the benefits and costs of corporate name changes. The empirical investigation on corporate name changes in stock market and loan market provide the entirely different insights on the effect of corporate name changes. With the recent oil price in surge and then crash, I have the opportunity to examine whether firms have the incentives to changes their names when oil price surge. In the first essay, I examine the wealth effect of corporate name changes involving oil-related terms. Following Cooper, Dimitrov and Rau (2001) and Cooper et al. (2005), I argue that firms tend to change their name by adding the words “oil” or “petroleum” to names when oil price in surge, while deleting the words “oil” or “petroleum” to names when oil price in a crash. I also compare the effect of corporate name changes between U.S. and Canadian stock market. Consistent with the prediction, I provide the evidence that there exists valuation effect of corporate name changes involving oil-related terms in U.S. stock market when the recent oil price surge. When financial crisis exploded U.S. stock market reacts significant negatively to corporate name changes. This is perhaps because investors expect economic difficulty caused by the financial crisis, which in turn, would hurt the oil industry and high oil price is not expected to be sustainable. On the contrary, relative to U.S. market, Canadian stock market has little reaction on the corporate name changes regardless of the type of name changes or market condition. This opposite results can be attributed to the different economic structure between U.S. and Canadian market. In the second essay, I focus on the effect of corporate name changes from the perspective of bank loan holders. I examine the cost of corporate name changes in the loan contracting. A corporate name changes creates information asymmetry and uncertainty about the future cash flow of a firms. To reduce the increase of credit risk, bank loan holders would attempt to enhance the efficient monitoring by tighter contracting terms and more concentrated lending structure. Consistent with this argument, the empirical results show that loan after name changes have significantly higher loan spread, higher probability of being secured, more general covenant restrictions and fewer lenders participate in a syndicated loan. Following Wu (2010), I categorize corporate name changes into different types of name changes and examine whether there is different effect among different types of name changes. I find that firms experiencing radical name changes are more likely to bear more financing costs. Lastly, I provide the evidence that firms pay higher borrowing costs when investors experience a significantly positive reaction from stock market through cosmetic name changes, which illustrate the importance of banks playing the role of monitoring and controlling borrowers.

The dissertation proposes three approaches for financial risk management. In the first topic, we investigate the stock return and risk of financial holding companies via Markov regime-switching model. The model reduces the disadvantage of traditional linear model, which disregard information of another regime if there exist structural change during the estimation periods. The empirical result shows that all financial holding companies have different stock risk between state 0 and state 1. Moreover, stock risks of all financial holding companies are significant lower after listing. That is, financial holding companies have diversification benefits after listing. In the second topic, we gauge the credit risk of guarantee issue in a bills finance company in Taiwan by a market-based model. Since bills finance companies engage in short-term loans, we renew the contract that can extend short-term loans to mid-and long-term loans. We find that the recovery rate, different industries and business cycle have significant impact on the credit risk of the bills finance company. In the third topic, we relax the assumption of Jarrow, Lando and Turnbull (1997), and propose an elaborate model to gauge the credit risk of Taiwanese bank loans. The empirical result indicates that the credit risk is heavily reliant on the recovery rate. Therefore, collateral value check procedure is very important, which has been found in previous topic. On the other hand, we find that the credit risk management is indifferent between banks participated in financial holding companies and others. That is, banks do not have better credit risk management if take part in financial holding companies. In conclusion, we expect approaches of the dissertation will be helpful for Taiwan¡¦s financial institutions to rise to the challenge of financial risk in the future.

This dissertation considers the failure of the Japanese government from 1991 through late-1998 to take measures to bring swiftly under control the threat to the nation's finance system posed by nonperforming loans that arose with the collapse of the late-1980s land-price bubble. While some works plausibly argue that this record of delay, and a larger failure of the Japanese state to adjust its general economic policy strategy, can be attributed largely to a progressive fracturing of a 1950s consensus on basic economic policy objectives between relatively internationally competitive firms and firms more dependent on state protection of their business opportunities, this insight has led few scholars to enquire into the role played by advocates of the policy interests of Japan's most competitive large firms in producing the widely lamented policy of delay on nonperforming loans. Counter to the literature's preponderant emphasis on political pressure from protection-dependent firms as impediment to swift state adjustment to nonperforming loans and other economic policy challenges of the late-20th century Japanese state, this dissertation finds that state officials and expert commentators who in debates on nonperforming loans and closely related policy issues strongly advocated dismantling protections on which large numbers of firms depended and in their stead adopting policies more favorable to the firms best able to weather the harsh economic conditions of the 1990s, displayed willingness to tolerate further delay comparable to (and sometimes greater than) that shown by state officials and expert commentators who advocated greater solicitude for the protection-dependent. This finding is based chiefly on a reading of official Ministry of Finance policy statements, transcripts of hearings of relevant Japanese House of Representatives committees, public opinion polls, reporting and commentary published in two national-circulation and two local Japanese newspapers, and a variety of books and longer articles published in the mass-audience Japanese business press. This finding, I argue, suggests a need for more sustained critical analysis of the role of leading business interests in Japan's political processes, which in turn argues for a closer engagement than is now commonly attempted with the work of Karl Marx and Chalmers Johnson, and for following up some preliminary suggestions in the existing literature of an emergent economic policy dimension of Diet party competition. / text

As a result from the latest financial crisis, the banking industry has undergone major modifications during the last years in order to limit banks’ risks. A vast majority of existing literature tends to focus upon credit risk evaluation methods and techniques mainly concerning quantitative measures and large companies. Thus, the lack of research regarding credit risk evaluation of SMEs is profound, especially considering Sweden. With the dominant market share of SMEs compared to large corporations the authors found it interesting to further explore this area of the credit assessment process as SMEs largely impact the Swedish business sector.   The purpose of the thesis at hand is to explore and provide empirical evidence of which criteria banks assess when evaluating credit risk of SMEs in Sweden. In regards to the purpose the authors have chosen to adapt the perspective of the banking industry throughout the thesis. In order to bridge the research gap the following question was established, “How do banks evaluate credit risk of SMEs in Sweden?” In light of the lack of research regarding qualitative assessment of credit risk, the authors found it interesting in terms of developing new theoretical and practical knowledge to establish the following sub-question, “What are the qualitative criteria used by banks when evaluating credit risk of SMEs in Sweden?” Further, as existing literature mainly focus on large companies the authors found it interesting to compare the findings regarding credit risk evaluation on SMEs to the evaluation process of one of the largest credit rating agencies. As a result the second sub-question was established as following, “Are these criteria similar to the criteria used by Standard & Poor’s in their rating model?” These questions were conducted in order to provide the authors and the reader with further insight regarding the criteria used by banks in their evaluation process.   An inductive approach was adopted, in line with the epistemological stance of interpretivism and the ontological belief of constructivism. With this in mind, the authors of the thesis conducted a qualitative exploratory research employing narrative interviews in order to collect the data needed, as of the lack of existing research to address the research questions.   The results of the research were that the criteria used in the assessment of credit risk tend to alter from advisor to advisor. The most commonly used criteria by the advisors are budget, business plan, customer’s customers, internal and external discipline, financial statements, industry specifics, historical accounts, key individuals, relationship, repayment capacity and the owner/individual. It was discovered that the qualitative criterion of assessing the individual majorly impacts the credit risk evaluation. However, what matters in the end is the overall impression of both qualitative and quantitative measures of the firm.   In regards to sub-question one, the authors established a list of qualitative criteria used by advisors in their credit risk evaluation of SMEs, the most widely used criteria among the advisors are the owner/individual, key individuals, internal discipline, industry specifics, external discipline, customer’s customers, relationship and business plan. In comparison with the criteria used by Standard and Poor’s and the banks, it was evident that the criteria used in the evaluation differed a lot between the two.

published_or_final_version / Economics / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Women's access to micro credit has increased substantially worldwide. International organizations, non-governmental organizations, commercially-oriented institutions and governments support the proliferation of micro credit programs through diverse funding arrangements, and specifically target women to participate in such initiatives. This dissertation explores women's experiences in a micro credit program in Cairo, Egypt, funded by Save the Children (USA) in order to contribute to the growing debate on women's poverty reduction and empowerment potential. Because women's voices are critical the issues are raised through questions regarding women's situation in micro credit and what factors assist women in meeting their choices and concerns, and empowerment outcomes. / A qualitative research study of women's micro credit groups based in Cairo's Abdeen and Imbeba neighbourhoods was used in order to address women's experiences. In the literature reviewed on micro credit and micro finance, international development paradigms for women, and the socio-economic context in Cairo served to identify important influences. Women's sources of power based in the household were used to develop a conceptual framework. Women's triple roles in production, reproduction and community managing, women's practical and strategic gender needs, and theories of women's empowerment formed the principal elements. / Findings were based on interviews and observation with 69 project participants, including 54 women borrowers, of which 11 interviewed women agreed to a second interview, and 4 key staff members of the Group Guaranteed Lending and Savings program. Numerous assumptions regarding the role of micro credit in the lives of low-income women are reported and analyzed. An exploration of women's experiences reveals that, social issues in micro credit are as important, perhaps even more so, than the economic concerns of the projects. Only through building a more complete picture of women's lives can micro credit programs achieve their objective: to contribute to greater gender equity in society. / Keywords. micro credit; women; informal economy; poverty; empowerment; international social work; Middle East

Thesis (doctoral)--Universiẗat Bayreuth, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 378-411).

Nesta tese investigaremos se os bancos, em geral, e se os empréstimos bancários, em particular, desempenham alguma função especial na economia brasileira, especificamente, no que se refere em explicar a performance da atividade produtiva. Procuramos averiguar as evidências teóricas e empíricas que visam desvendar a relevância do canal do crédito, em especial, do canal do empréstimo bancário, enquanto um canal adicional para a transmissão da política monetária. Isso é feito levando em conta o ambiente institucional em que a economia brasileira está inserida, cujo caráter específico, supõem-se de grande relevância para o melhor entendimento das reais condições apresentadas pelo mercado financeiro e, em especial, pelo mercado de crédito. A hipótese central considerada é que, além do impacto promovido pelo tradicional canal da taxa de juros (custo do capital) - através do efeito que exerce sobre as obrigações (depósitos) dos intermediários financeiros e sobre as decisões de investimento dos agentes - a política monetária afeta a atividade econômica através do mercado de crédito, em especial, através do canal do empréstimo bancário, devido ao efeito que exerce sobre a composição dos ativos das instituições financeiras, em particular, sobre as decisões dos bancos em relação ao volume e as condições em que os empréstimos serão ofertados. Considera-se ainda que, o sistema legal do país constitui a base para a formação de sua estrutura financeira e, por conseguinte, contribui para explicar o grau de desenvolvimento do mercado de crédito, bem como, a intensidade com que o canal do crédito responde aos choques de política monetária. Utilizando-se, como instrumento para a análise empírica, da metodologia de vetor auto-regressivo (VAR) constata-se que, os resultados observados estão em sintonia com a teoria do “canal do crédito”, a qual sugere que fricções informacionais no mercado são agravadas em períodos de restrição monetária, resultando em queda na oferta de crédito e aumento no prêmio de financiamento externo (spreads), o que contribui para potencializar a ação da política monetária sobre o produto e sobre os preços. Além disso, corroboram com os argumentos levantados pela literatura de “law and finance”, segundo a qual, aspectos institucionais, relacionados a baixa proteção do direito dos investidores, (associados às deficiências nas regras legais e à ineficiência na execução dessas regras), contribuem para intensificar as fricções informacionais no mercado de crédito e de capitais. / In this research we investigated if the banks, in particular, if the bank loans, carry out some special function in the Brazilian economy, specifically, to explain the performance of the productive activity. We tried to discover the theoretical and empirical evidences that seek to expose the relevance of the credit channel, especially, of the bank loan channel, while an additional channel for the transmission of monetary policy. Taking into account the institutional atmosphere in that the Brazilian economy is inserted, whose specific character is supposed relevant for understanding of the real conditions of the financial market and, especially, of the credit market. The central hypothesis is that, besides the impact caused by the traditional channel of the interest rate (cost of capital) - through the effect that it is done over the obligations (deposits) of the financial intermediaries and over the decisions of the agents' investment - the monetary politics affects the economical activity through the credit market, especially, through the channel of the bank loan, due to the effect that it exercises on the composition of the assets of the financial institutions, in particular, about the decisions of the banks in relation to the volume and the conditions the loans will be offered. The legal system of the country constitutes the basis for the formation of its financial structure and, consequently, it contributes to explain the degree of development of the credit market as well as the intensity with which the channel of credit responds to shocks on monetary policy. As instrument for the empirical investigation, the VAR analysis demonstrated that results are in syntony with the theory of the "credit channel". This theory suggests that informational frictions in the market are worsened in periods of monetary restriction, resulting in fall in the credit supply and increase in the premium of external financing (spreads). This contributes to accelerate the action of the monetary policy on output and prices. In addition, they corroborate the arguments from the literature of "law and finance", which suggests that institutional aspects, related to the low protection of the investors' rights (associated to the deficiencies in the legal rules and to the inefficiency in the execution of those rules), contribute to intensify the informational frictions in the credit and capital market.

A assimetria informacional é característica inerente ao mercado financeiro, transparecendo através de problemas de seleção adversa e risco moral. Não é diferente no tocante às operações de crédito bancário. Cientes disso, as instituições bancárias lançam mão de mecanismos de filtragem e monitoramento, bem como da exigência de garantias, para a redução da assimetria informativa. O contrato ocupa papel central nesse processo. Porque é do instrumento contratual a função de mitigar os efeitos deletérios da assimetria informacional, o presente trabalho objetiva avaliar se as cláusulas em contratos usuais de concessão de crédito pelo Banco Regional de Desenvolvimento do Extremo Sul (BRDE) são de fato desenhadas visando ao incentivo de publicidade de informações e prevenção de ações ocultas. / Informational asymmetry is an inherent characteristic of the financial market that presents itself as problems of adverse selection and moral hazard. It is not different in regard to bank loan operations. Aware of this situation, the banking institutions utilise screening and monitoring mechanisms, as well as collateral exigencies, in order to reduce the informational asymmetry. The contract plays a central role within this process. Because the contractual instrument has the purpose of mitigating the deleterious effects of the informational asymmetry, the present work intends to evaluate if the clauses employed in usual credit concession contracts by the Regional Development Bank of the Far South (BRDE) are indeed designed aiming at incentives to information disclosure and prevention of hidden actions.