This study investigates which objectives in the corporate balanced scorecard (CBSC) that corporate managers in large unlisted companies focus on within corporate control. It also investigates what the explanatory factors are for the corporate managers’ focus. The CBSC was proposed to alleviate the historical financial focus of managers in control activities. This study makes a contribution by reviewing corporate managers' focus on financial and non-financial CBSC-objectives in corporate control. A multiple case study was conducted, consisting of a mutually owned and a governmentally owned company, where data was collected from semi-structured interviews, internal documents and observations. Results indicate that corporate managers from the mutually owned company primarily focused on financial and customer objectives. Corporate managers in the governmentally owned firm primarily focused on financial objectives, complemented with quality objectives. Although having a mixed influence, the perceived complexity of measures, relationship between objectives and capital market pressure promoted corporate managers’ focus. The conclusion of this study is that financial objectives are prioritised in corporate control because of the influence of the three explanatory factors.

This thesis examines the impact of FTSE 100 index revisions on the various aspects of stock market quality and the cost of equity capital. Our study spans over the period 1986-2009. Our analyses indicate that the index membership enhances all aspects of liquidity, including trading continuity, trading cost and price impact. We also show that the liquidity premium and the cost of equity capital decrease significantly after additions, but do not exhibit any significant change following deletions. The finding that investment opportunities increases after additions, but do not decline following deletions suggests that the benefits of joining an index are likely to be permanent. This evidence is consistent with the investor awareness hypothesis view of Chen et al. (2004, 2006), which suggests that investors' awareness improve when a stock becomes a member of an index, but do not diminish after it is removal from the index. Finally, we report significant changes in the comovement of stock returns with the FTSE 100 index around the revision events. These changes are driven mainly by noise-related factors and partly by fundamental-related factors.

Η πρόσφατη έρευνα για τους καθοριστικούς παράγοντες σε επίπεδο επιχείρησης της σταθερής επένδυσης έχει τονίσει τη σημασία των επεξηγηματικών μεταβλητών ώς προσεγγιστικές για την εσωτερική χρηματοδότηση των εταιριών που κρατούν σταθερά τα μέτρα των σταθερών ευκαιριών ή το κόστος του κεφαλαίου. Τέτοιες μελέτες έχουν βασιστεί στις αποκλίσεις από τα νεοκλασσικά υποδείγματα επένδυσης με τις τέλειες αγορές κεφαλαιαου στην κατεύθυνση των υποδειγμάτων βασισμένων στις ασυμμετρικές πληροφορίες στις χρηματαγορές. Αυτές οι αποκλίσεις στηρίζονται στην γνώση των θεωρητικών υποδειγμάτων του χρηματοοικονομικού συμβολαίου υπό συνθήκες ασυμμετριών στην πληροφόρηση χρησιμοποιώντας την δυσμενή επιλογή ή/και τον ηθικό κίνδυνο, στα οποία οι μετακινήσεις στα εσωτερικά κεφάλαια προβλέπουν μετακινήσεις στα έξοδα επένδυσης, κρατώντας σταθερές ευκαιρίες επένδυσης. Ο σκοπός αυτής της διατριβής είναι να διαμορφωθεί ο αντίκτυπος του χρηματοοικονομικού περιορισμού στις αποφάσεις επένδυσης των εταιρειών στην Ελλάδα και στην Ευρώπη. Η διατριβή εφαρμόζει ένα δυναμικό υπόδειγμα επένδυσης, όπου οι χρηματοοικονομικές μεταβλητές και η πραγματική επένδυση συνδέονται σε μία προσπάθεια να ερευνηθεί το πρόβλημα της ατέλειας στις κεφαλαιαγορές. Ένα περαιτέρω βήμα προς τα εμπρός είναι να ερευνηθούν οι πιθανές ασυμμετρίες στις αποφάσεις επένδυσης σχετικά με την κατάσταση των προσδοκιών των επιχειρηματιών που δίνει έμφαση στο ρόλο του επιχειρηματικού κύκλου. Προκειμένου να παρασχεθεί μια πλήρης εικόνα του προβλήματος των αποφάσεων επένδυσης, εκτός από το κεφάλαιο, εισάγουμε τον όρο της ζήτησης εργασίας. Ειδικότερα, μελετάμε την πιθανή επίδραση στη ζήτηση εργασίας των ατελειών της αγοράς κεφαλαίου, τις θεσμικές ακαμψίες της αγοράς εργασίας υπό την μορφή της δύναμης των ενώσεων, και τον αντίκτυπο της αβεβαιότητας. Υιοθετούμε μια δυναμική μεθοδολογία χρονικώς επαναλαμβανομένων διαστρωματικών στοιχείων (panel data) χρησιμοποιώντας την μέθοδο των εκτιμητών των Γενικευμένων Ροπών-Generalised Method of Moments- (GMM) σε ένα σύνολο στοιχείων εισηγμένων Ελληνικών επιχειρήσεων κατά τη διάρκεια της περιόδου 1993-2001. Επιπλέον, εξετάζουμε ένα σύνολο στοιχείων σε κλαδικό επίπεδο για τις περισσότερες από τις ηπειρωτικές ευρωπαϊκές χώρες για την περίοδο από το 1987 εώς το 2003. / Recent research on determinants of firm-level fixed investment has stressed the importance of proxies for firms’ internal finance as explanatory variables, holding constant measures of firm opportunities or the cost of capital. Such studies have been based on departures from neoclassical investment models with perfect capital markets in the direction of models based on asymmetric information in financial markets. These departures build on insights from theoretical models of financial contracting under asymmetric information, using adverse selection and/or moral hazard examples, in which movements in internal funds predict movements in investment spending, holding constant investment opportunities. The purpose of this thesis is to model the impact of financial distress on the investment decisions of firms in Greece and in Europe. To do so, the thesis builds a dynamic investment model, where financial variables and real investment are linked in an attempt to explore the problem of imperfection in capital markets. A further step forward is to investigate potential asymmetries in agents’ investment decisions relative to the state of expectation highlighting the role of business cycle. In order to provide a full picture of the investment decision problem, apart from capital, we introduce the term of labour demand. In particular, we explore the potential effect on labour demand of capital market imperfections, labour market institutional rigidities in the form of union power, and the impact of uncertainty. We employ a dynamic panel data methodology, a GMM estimation technique, is used on a panel data set of Greek firms over the 1993-2001 period. In addition, a panel data set on a sectoral level for most of the continental European countries is also exploited for the period from 1987 to 2003.

This dissertation is in the form of one survey paper and three essays on the topic of volatility. The unifying feature that permeates the entire thesis is the focus on the measurement and use of conditional second moment of equities and currencies as a measure of risk for asset pricing and policy purposes in the context of international markets. / The survey examines selected papers from the international finance literature and from the volatility literature with a focus on the theoretical and empirical relationship between first and second unconditional and conditional moments of domestic and international asset returns. It then specifically proposes several areas for investigation related to international finance topics. The first essay investigates the importance of asymmetric volatility when computing the risk premium of international assets. The results indicate that conditional second moment asymmetry is significant and time-varying. They also show that, if the price of risk is time-varying, the world market and foreign exchange risk premia estimated without allowing for time-varying asymmetry are less consistent with the data. Furthermore, they imply that asymmetry is more pronounced when the business condition is such that investors require higher compensation to bear risk. / In the second essay we start from the consideration that financial decision makers often consider the information in currency option valuations when making assessments about future exchange rates. The purpose of this essay is then to systematically assess the quality of option based volatility, interval and density forecasts. We use a unique dataset consisting of over 10 years of daily data on over-the-counter currency option prices. We find that the implied volatilities explain a large share of the variation in realized volatility. Finally, we find that wide-range interval and density forecasts are often misspecified whereas narrow-range interval forecasts are well specified. / In the third essay we examine whether the information contained in various measures of correlation among exchange rates can be used to assess future currency co-movement. We compare option-implied correlation forecasts from a dataset consisting of over 10 years of daily data on over-the-counter currency option prices to a set of return-based correlation measures and assess the relative quality of the correlation forecasts. We find that while the predictive power of implied correlation is not always superior to that of returns based correlations measures, it tends to provide the most consistent results across currencies. Predictions that use both implied and returns-based correlations generate the highest adjusted R2's, explaining up to 42 per cent of the realized correlations.

We live in an era where internationalization and globalization are two extremely attractive concepts. People aim to create a society where limits and restrictions are erased and a thriving society is a reality. Numerous transformations have occurred in order to realize this and one of the most vital ones is the globalization of the economy. The globalization was made possible through the discovery on the capital market. This market enables people to trade with each other, no matter place or time. Thus, a more efficient solution is offered for rapid and significant transfers such as loans and investment. According to various researchers, the capital market determines, in a way, which company will grow and which will stagnate in development. However, the capital market needs to be efficient in order to offer the services intended. The aim of this dissertation is to explain how efficient the capital market is when incorporating information regarding football player transfers. By examining the empirical findings, it will also be able to establish if assets of the same market value cause different share price fluctuations depending on if they are acquired or sold.

This study is concerned with investigating the impact of the monetary policy on the capital markets during the period (1989-2004). Specifically, there are three major objectives of this study: (1) To examine the impact of the money supply on the government bonds and treasury bills (supplies and rates) in Jordan and compare it with Bahrain, (2) To examine the relationship between the treasury bills and the government bonds in Jordan, and (3) To examine the effect of the money supply on the stocks price index in Jordan and compare this impact with the one in Bahrain. To accomplish the objectives of this study, a quantitative approach is employed. The quantitative approach is represented here by the econometric analysis (Time Series Analysis) of documentary secondary data. The research hypotheses were set up to examine the relationship between the money supply and a number of explanatory variables (treasury bills rates and issues, government bonds rates and issues, and stock price index). These hypotheses were tested using time series analysis (VAR method). The analysis was conducted for two countries: Jordan and Bahrain. The data covered the period (1989-2004) monthly data in Jordan, and 2000:9-2004:12) in Bahrain. The tests that have been used in this research in VAR model will include: selection of the lag length, unit root test, granger causality test, variance decomposition, and impulse response function. These tests will be examined by using Eviews (release 5.0) package and RATS (Regression Analysis of Time Series (release 6.0) software. The findings in Jordan revealed that there isn't any relationship between the money supply and the treasury bills rates and government bonds rates. However, there is a positive relationship between the money supply and issuance of the treasury bills and the government bonds. These findings lead to the quantity adjustment in the absence of the price adjustment. Moreover, the results indicate that there is a significant negative relationship between the treasury bills issuance and the government bonds issuance. And the last result in Jordan concluded that there is a positive relationship between the money supply and the stock price index. The finding in Bahrain were different from the findings in Jordan because of the difference in the financial system in the two countries, as Bahrain follows an Islamic financial system whereas Jordan's finanacial system is not an Islamic one. The prohibition of the interst rate in some cases in Bahrain and that Bahrain's economy is more open economy would lead to the conclusion that there isn't any relationship between the money supply and the stock market index and the money market instruments (treasury bills) and that it follows international capital flow adjustment. Also, it is important to mention that Bahrain Monetary Agency has issued Islamic instruments (long and short-term sukuk) beside the conventional instruments.

In capital market research (CMR) studies of the value relevance of accounting numbers are founded upon the concept that, in equilibrium, the book values are equal to or have some long-term relationship with the market value and that market returns are related to book returns. This thesis seeks to resolve a gap in the CMR by examining 30 selected individual firms listed on the Australian stock market during the period 1950 to 2004, using equilibrium correction modelling techniques. Even these limited prior works used cross-sectional techniques rather than the long-run, time-series, analysis used in this study. Moreover, dynamic analysis in the CMR has tended to focus on indexes or portfolio data rather than using firm-specific case study data of the type modelled here. No prior research has taken this approach using Australian data. The results of this thesis indicated that an equilibrium correction relationship between market values and book values for firms listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) could be determined by using accounting and macroeconomic regressors. The findings of the thesis were consistent with the literature in terms of the variables suggested and important in the firm's valuation from the three main approaches, the analysts (industry) approach, the finance and accounting theory (textbook) approach and the CMR literature approach. The earnings, dividends and book value variables are significant in their relationships with the firm's market values. The models constructed were typically more informative and had an increased forecasting performance compared with the a priori models tested, based on theory and the literature.

Thesis (doctoral)--Stockholm School of Economics, 1990. / Additional thesis statement in Swedish inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 397-412).

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1991.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 1999. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-123). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users. Address: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p9948029.