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The objective of my two essays together is to examine whether the trades made by the insiders prior to open market repurchase (OMR) announcements contain information that can be used to identify the repurchases that are motivated by undervaluation. The existing literature on shares repurchases suggests that while undervaluation has been a dominant motive behind repurchases for past few decades, identifying these undervalued firms still remains a challenge. The book-to-market ratio is commonly used as a proxy for mispricing; however, its ability to identify undervalued repurchasing firms has recently come into doubt (Chan et al., 2004). Instead, I propose using proxies based on insider trading to identify the undervalued repurchasing firms.In the first essay, I document a relation between insider trading and both the short- and long-run stock returns of open market repurchasing firms. My findings suggest that the personal trades made by insiders prior to the OMR announcements contain information that can be used to identify undervalued repurchasing firms. I use various measures of insider trading and show that firms with high (low) insider buying (selling) prior to repurchase announcements earn abnormal stock returns in both the short- and long-run. I also find a positive (negative) relation between insider buying (selling) and the actual repurchasing activity of the firms.In my second essay, I further test whether the trades made by insiders prior to OMR announcements contain information that can be used to identify the repurchases that are motivated by undervaluation by examining the post-announcement operating performance. I find a relation between insider trading and the post-announcement operating performance for the OMR firms that is consistent with the hypothesis that insiders' trades prior to OMR announcements are informative. Specifically, I find that firms with high insider buying prior to the OMR announcements outperform their corresponding control firms, whereas, firms with low insider buying do not. In addition, I test for a relation between insider trading and (a) the accruals management around OMR announcements, and (b) the market reaction to the earnings announcements made by the OMR firms. I find a weak evidence of insiders timing their trades along with accruals management. However, the market reaction to earnings announcements made by the OMR firms does not seem to vary with level of insider trading. Overall, the evidence is consistent with insiders of repurchasing firms knowing when their stocks are undervalued and they timing both their personal and firm level trades accordingly.

Firms that announce open-market share repurchase programs are not obligated to follow through in the actual acquisition of shares. In fact, we find that the majority of firms fail to acquire the target number of shares specified at announcement and many firms fail to repurchase any shares at all. Therefore, the announcement of a share repurchase program has a degree of uncertainty regarding the announcing firms credibility. This study examines the possibility that market participants evaluate the credibility of a firms share repurchase announcement based on the firms previous share repurchase history. We examine 1,507 share repurchase programs for firms listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) from 1995 to 2005 and find that firms that have completed a higher proportion of previous share repurchase programs experience larger abnormal returns on the announcement of subsequent repurchase programs. Therefore, we conclude that the market reacts more favorably to the share repurchase announcements of credible firms compared to firms that lack credibility.

Firms that announce open-market share repurchase programs are not obligated to follow through in the actual acquisition of shares. In fact, we find that the majority of firms fail to acquire the target number of shares specified at announcement and many firms fail to repurchase any shares at all. Therefore, the announcement of a share repurchase program has a degree of uncertainty regarding the announcing firms credibility. This study examines the possibility that market participants evaluate the credibility of a firms share repurchase announcement based on the firms previous share repurchase history. We examine 1,507 share repurchase programs for firms listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) from 1995 to 2005 and find that firms that have completed a higher proportion of previous share repurchase programs experience larger abnormal returns on the announcement of subsequent repurchase programs. Therefore, we conclude that the market reacts more favorably to the share repurchase announcements of credible firms compared to firms that lack credibility.

This dissertation provides a thorough analysis of the costs associated with, and efficacy of, sequential license buyback auctions. I use data from the Texas Shrimp License Buyback Program - a sequential license buyback auction - to estimate the effects of a repeated game set-up on bidding behavior. I develop a dynamic econometric model to estimate parameters of the fisherman's optimal bidding function in this auction. The model incorporates the learning that occurs when an agent is able to submit bids for the same asset in multiple rounds and is capable of distinguishing between the fisherman's underlying valuation of the license and the speculative premium induced by the sequential auction. I show that bidders in the sequential auction do in fact inflate bids above their true license valuation in response to the sequential auction format. The results from our econometric model are used to simulate a hypothetical buyback program for capacity reduction in the offshore shrimp fishery in the Gulf of Mexico using two competing auction formats: the sequential auction and the one-time auction. I use this simulation analysis to compare the cost and effectiveness of sequential license buyback program relative to one-time license buyback programs. I find that one-time auctions, although they impose a greater up-front cost on the management agency - are capable of retiring more fishing effort per dollar spent then sequential license buyback programs. In particular, I find one-time license buyback auctions to be more cost effective than sequential ones because they remove the possibility for fishermen to learn about the agency's willingness to pay function and use this information to extract sale prices in excess of the true license value.

Share repurchases in Sweden has since legalization in 2000 gained momentum. Similar to other corporate events, there are studies that examine whether this affects the share price performance. With studies in the U.S. that measured excess returns of approximately 3,5 percent on the announcement day; Swedish buybacks, holding a tighter regulation is of interest to study. The Stockholm Stock Exchange regulation regarding reporting is also similar to the Stock Exchange in Hong Kong. Unlike most previous research using only the announcement of a buyback, where an actual repurchase cannot be assured, the stock exchanges in this study requires disclosure on a daily basis, which means that the announcement can be linked to an actual share repurchase. The study aims to examine how the stock markets in Stockholm and Hong Kong react to share repurchases. Thereby judge whether the notice gives a negative or positive effect. The problem formulation takes the following approach: Is there abnormal returns at the announcement of share repurchases in the Stockholm stock exchange and the Hong Kong stock exchange.  The following sub questions will further be explored: Are there differences between the size of the abnormal return and industry? Is there a correlation between the abnormal returns and corporate market-to-book value? The survey is conducted through an event study, measuring abnormal return during a window of ten days prior to the announcement day and ten days after. Repurchases are studied during the period 2000-03-10 until 2011-04-10 in order to cover the entire period since legalization in Sweden. The sectors used are: industrials, financials, consumer discretionaries and information technology. Furthermore a regression analysis consisting of the variables market-to-book, divided into low and high values, and abnormal return is constructed. Through a theoretical synthesis, consisting of previous research, signaling hypotheses, the efficient market hypothesis and agency theory, the empirical data is analyzed. The conducted study shows low positive abnormal returns (AAR) for both Stockholm and Hong Kong at 0,37 percent and 0,38 percent for the announcement day respectively with a certain significance days before the announcement. Small differences exist between sectors, with financials showing highest abnormal return and consumer discretionaries the lowest in the two markets. There is furthermore a significant value between high market-to-book values and negative abnormal returns.

We reexamine the stock price drifts following open-market stock repurchase announcements by differentiating actual repurchases from repurchase announcements and by controlling for the repurchasing firms' earnings improvement in the announcement year relative to the prior year. Our results show that only firms that actually repurchase their shares exhibit a positive post-announcement drift. More importantly, we find that these repurchasing firms have the same post-announcement drift as their matching firms that have similar size and earnings performance but do not repurchase. Further analysis indicates that the post-repurchase announcement drift is not a distinct anomaly but the well-documented post-earnings announcement drift in disguise. In addition, previous studies suggest that the market perceives IPOs as bad news (i.e., competitive threats) to existing firms in the same industry. At the same time, the market has a tendency to be overly optimistic about IPO prospects, especially during hot IPO markets. Thus, the negative industry rival reaction could be the result of investors' over-optimism toward the IPOs' growth prospects and underestimation of the competitive positions of industry rivals. Our findings show that rival firms use repurchases as a means to signal their firm quality, as well as to correct the market's overreaction to the bad news. These IPO-induced repurchases are stronger when the rival firms are in a concentrated industry and experienced poor stock performance in the previous year.

This paper analyzes effect of gun buyback that took place in Great Britain in years 1996 and 1997 on crime rate and compares the results with theoretical arguments and previous empirical findings. It contains analysis of three independent time series: crime rate in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Models of the time series are built using Box-Jenkins methodology. The models are tested for presence of a structural break using visual analysis, Chow test and Quandt-Andrews test. These tests are used as an evaluation criterion of the effect of buyback on crime rate. The result of the analysis is that it is not possible to reject the null hypothesis that buybacks do not have effect on crime rate.

Share repurchases reached a decade-high level in 2019, just as US equity indices reached a historical zenith, a move in tandem that supports more than merely a correlative relation. However, this relationship moves beyond that of just a close tandem move in indices alongside share repurchases, but to the behavior of firms which began to leverage themselves in order to promote the evermore profitable strategy of large buyback programs. Those repurchases indicate an idiosyncratic and procyclical leveraging that, while much smaller in scope and less combustible by lack of derivative amplification, led to the gorging on unsustainable debt described by Hyman Minsky and experienced in the Great Financial Crisis in the banking industry. In this case, the 'Minsky moment' that may have inevitably popped the self-promotion bubble came in the form of the 'black swan' event of the coronavirus outbreak. This paper aims to historically frame the issues, with delimitation of the effect of buybacks from 2009 to early 2020 with scant reference to historical factors influencing the increased usage of share repurchase programs. The analysis within this historical scope will reflect empirical measures on the market-wide level of share buybacks and debt levels alongside the concurrent equity index acceleration....

Nous nous intéressons au Problème de Dimensionnement de Lots mono-produit (PDL) dans une chaîne logistique composée d'un détaillant et d'un fournisseur en y intégrant le contrat buyback et l'approvisionnement par batch. L'objectif est de déterminer un plan d'approvisionnement pour le détaillant pour satisfaire ses demandes déterministes sur un horizon fini, tout en minimisant ses coûts d'approvisionnement et de stockage. Concernant le coût d'approvisionnement, nous supposons deux structures différentes : FTL (Full Truck Load) et OFB (Only Full Batch). Trois types de contrat buyback sont étudiés : avec des périodes de retour fixes, avec une limite de temps sur les retours, et avec des retours uniquement dans les périodes d'approvisionnement. Chaque contrat est caractérisé par un pourcentage de retour maximal qui peut être égal à 100% (retour total) ou inférieur à 100% (retour partiel). Pour le PDL sous le contrat buyback avec des périodes de retour fixes, nous supposons le cas de ventes perdues (lost sales). En outre, un autre concept ajouté dans les PDL sous les trois types de contrat buyback réside dans le fait que le détaillant peut jeter la quantité invendue et non retournée au fournisseur, appelé mise au rebut (disposal). Nous avons modélisé ces différentes extensions du PDL par des Programmes Linéaires en Nombres Entiers (PLNE). Nous avons ensuite développé des algorithmes exacts polynomiaux de programmation dynamique pour certaines extensions, et montré la NP-difficulté pour d'autres. Pour chaque problème résolu en temps polynomial, nous avons comparé l'efficacité et les limites de l'algorithme proposé avec celles des quatre formulations en PLNE. Nous avons également proposé des modèles mathématiques pour les PDL sous d'autres types de contrats de réservation de capacité dans le cas déterministe à multi-périodes. / We study the single-item Lot Sizing Problem (LSP) in a supply chain composed of a retailer and a supplier by integrating the buyback contract and the batch ordering. The purpose is to determine a replenishment planning for the retailer to satisfy his deterministic demands over a finite horizon, while minimizing the procurement and inventory costs. Regarding the procurement cost, we assume two different structures: FTL (Full Truck Load) and OFB (Only Full Batch). We consider three types of buyback contract: with fixed return periods, with a time limit on returns, and with returns permitted only in procurement periods. Each contract is characterized by the maximum return percentage being either equal to 100% (full return) or less than 100% (partial return). For the LSP under the buyback contract with fixed return periods, we assume the concept of lost sales. Another concept considered in the LSP's under the three types of buyback contract is the disposal of the unsold and unreturned quantities. We model these different LSP extensions as a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP). Thereafter, we develop exact polynomial time dynamic programming algorithms for some extensions and show the NP-hardness of others. For each problem solved in polynomial time, we compare the efficiency and the limits of the proposed algorithm with those of four MILP formulations by performing different tests. Finally, we propose mathematical models for the LSP's under other types of the capacity reservation contract in the deterministic and multi-period case.