Arterial occlusive diseases are major causes of morbidity and mortality in industrialized countries and represent a huge economic burden. The extent of the native collateral circulation is an important determinant of blood perfusion restoration and therefore the severity of tissue damage and functional impairment that ensues following arterial occlusion. Understanding the mechanisms responsible for collateral artery development may provide avenues for therapeutic intervention. Here, we identify a critical requirement for mixed lineage kinase (MLK) – cJun-NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling in vascular morphogenesis and native collateral artery development. We demonstrate that Mlk2-/-Mlk3-/- mice or mice with compound JNK-deficiency in the vascular endothelium display abnormal collateral arteries, which are unable to restore blood perfusion following arterial occlusion, leading to severe tissue necrosis in animal models of femoral and coronary artery occlusion. Employing constitutive and inducible conditional deletion strategies, we demonstrate that endothelial JNK acts during the embryonic development of collateral arteries to ensure proper patterning and maturation, but is dispensable for angiogenic and arteriogenic responses in adult mice. During developmental vascular morphogenesis, MLK – JNK signaling is required for suppression of excessive sprouting angiogenesis likely via JNK-dependent regulation of Dll4 expression and Notch signaling. This function of JNK may underlie its critical requirement for native collateral artery formation. Thus, this study introduces MLK – JNK signaling as a major regulator of vascular development. In contrast, we find that JNK in hematopoietic cells, which are thought to share a common mesodermally-derived precursor with endothelial cells, is cellautonomously dispensable for normal hematopoietic development and hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal, illustrating the highly context dependent function of JNK.

The purpose of this thesis is to determine what effects draft order, monetary earnings, and Tommy John Surgery (TJS) have on the perceived value of a pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB). For the context of this thesis, value will be defined as a player's ability to contribute to their team's wins in a positive manner. TJS has become synonymous with MLB and baseball as a sport, and many are either skeptical of its effects or over-assuming of its benefits. The three aforementioned areas of concerns were used to structure the thesis, as each dependent outcome is analyzed in a chapter of its own. Multiple articles and studies pertaining to the effects draft order, financial earnings, and TJS may have on pitcher value were compiled and analyzed. Looking at studies between pitchers who underwent TJS prior to being drafted, their order by which they are picked by a team is not as affected as assumed, but the pitcher is more likely to return to the disabled/injured list during their career in MLB. A lens of economic value saw that pitchers who were paid more added to their teams' respective wins. However, the financial loss caused by a pitcher missing time to recover from TJS could outweigh the cost of wins. From a purely Tommy-John standpoint, there are significant changes both beneficial and detrimental to a pitcher's overall statistics. Further research and personal knowledge should be explored prior to receiving TJS as a pitcher. Overall, the factor of TJS seems to have a slightly negative influence on the other two factors and an overall stronger influence than draft order or monetary earnings.

本論文包含兩篇獨立但主旨相關的文章， 目的均在探討融資契約與廠商投資的關聯，以分析融資契約的實質效果。第一篇文章「股價資訊外部性與新投資之採行」研究權益證券(股票)集訊、揭訊功能的實質效益，我們由股價資訊公開所產生的外部效果，分析股價資訊效率性與廠商投資效率之間的關聯。在1.眾多異質廠商，2.投資具實質選擇權(real options)特性的假設下，內生化廠商與股市交易者的資訊取得決策，發現1. 均衡時廠商的投資與資訊取得決策取決於廠商技術水準與股價效率性之高低：高股價效率性時，無廠商取得新資訊，皆根據股價判斷投資，低股價效率性時，僅較低技術廠商根據股價資訊投資。2. 股價有額外的資訊揭露效果：由於廠商僅能獲得新資訊的部份效益，且廠商利用資訊有機會成本，將投資證券化可提高新資訊被揭露的可能性，使得資訊可被充份利用，提昇投資效率。3. 股價資訊可提增投資效率，增加廠商期望報酬，但當體系平均技術水準落後，新資訊的實質效益低落時，股價資訊公開的外部淨效益亦趨薄弱，故經濟發展初期，股市資訊公開的外部效益相對不重要。 第二篇文章「抵押品、財務槓桿與廠商投資」研究借貸契約中，抵押品舒緩借貸限制的作用，及其可能產生的實質效果。我們採用Williamson(1986,1987)的狀態確認成本模型(costly state verification model)，在該訊息不對稱模型，廠商向外融資面臨借貸限制，僅較高自有資金廠商可獲融資。當借貸市場資金相當寬鬆，資金供給恆大於資金需求，資金成本(無風險利率)為一由模型外因素所決定的外生參數時，抵押融資不影響資金成本，此時抵押品具有舒緩借貸限制的作用，體系財務槓桿提高，期望查帳成本下降，投資的期望淨產出增加。若資金相對緊俏，無風險利率須由借貸市場均衡所內生決定時，長期而言，財務槓桿僅受體系資金寬鬆程度的影響，短期間抵押融資雖能提高財務槓桿，但隨槓桿之提高，資金需求增加，無風險利率上揚，在新的均衡，較低自有資金廠商投資的期望報酬下降，借貸利率上漲，反而增加其應負債務，資產狀況惡化，此即本文所欲突顯之抵押融資的潛在成本。 第一章 緒論 3 第一節 研究動機 3 第二節 研究內容與架構 5 第二章 文獻回顧 7 第一節 融資契約的功能 7 第二節 金融結構與實質經濟活動 13 第三節 股價資訊與廠商投資 18 第四節 抵押品與廠商投資 22 第三章 股價資訊外部性與新投資之採行 27 第一節 前言 27 第二節 基本模型 29 第三節 期中股市均衡與股價效率性 35 第四節 股價資訊外部效益 41 第五節 小結 46 附 錄 47 第四章 抵押品、財務槓桿與廠商投資 53 第一節 前言 53 第二節 基本模型 55 第三節 抵押融資模型-資金寬鬆時的抵押品效果 62 第四節 抵押融資模型-資金緊俏時的抵押品效果 66 第五節 小結 70 第五章 結論 72 第一節 研究限制 72 第二節 未來研究方向 77 參考文獻 79 / This dissertation collects two separate but related papers, both study the channel through which financing contracts can affect firms' investment decisions and the corresponding real effects. The first paper " Informational Externality of Stock Prices and Firms' New Investment Decisions" analyzes what real benefits the information acquisition and signaling function of stocks can produce. From the viewpoint of informational externality, stock prices may disclose some valuable information beneficial to firms' investment decisions. Under the assumptions of " heterogeneous technology" and "new investment as a real option", this paper finds 1. Firms' investment and information acquisition decisions are determined both by their own technology level and stock prices efficiency. With high price efficiency, no firms acquire information directly, all make investment decisions based on stock prices. With low price efficiency, most firms acquire information directly, only few low-tech firms make decisions according to stock prices. 2. Stock prices have additional signaling effect. Firms can ony get half benefits of new information, besides they have opportunity costs in using information. As a result, stock prices can enhance the possibility of information disclosure, improving investment efficiency. 3. When the economy is underdeveloped and the real benefit of new information is small, the net benefit produced by informational externality will be tiny. The stock prices externality effect is thus comparatively unimportant at the beginning stage of economy. The second paper " Collateral, Financial Leverage and Firms' Investment"analyzes the constraints-smoothing function of collateral and its real effects. By adopting Williamson's costly state verification model(1986,1987), I find that with this specific asymmetric information structure, there are financing constraints in capital markets, only firms whose own capital inputs are higher above some level can get borrowed capital. The question is " Can offering collateral smooth this kind of financing constraints?" In markets with abundant capital where capital supply always exceeds demand, capital cost(riskless interest rate)will be an exdogenously-determined parameter which won't be affected by collateral financing. In this scenario, collateral can smooth financing constraints, increase financial leverage and improve the net expected return of investment. On the contrary, if capital is not so abnudant that the capital cost should be determined endogenously by capital market equilibrium, then in the long run this economy's financial leverage depends only on the relative abundance of capital. Though collateral financing can increase financial leverage in the short run, as capital demand increases, capital cost will also increase. This will offset the initial smoothing effect of collateral. After full adjustment of capital cost, at the new equilibrium the financial leverage remains unchanged. However, the expected return of firms with lower own capital inputs become smaller, and their borrowing rates become higher which mean they have heavier debt burden and less net worth at the new equilibrium.

The potential of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in promoting economic growth in both developed and developing countries is widely accepted and documented by both scholars and policy makers. Particularly lacking are studies on the evidence in support of the importance of credit rationing to the sustainability of SMEs in an emerging economy like South Africa’s. This specific problem, especially in the developing countries, has been identified as the major bottleneck in realising socio-economic potentials of SMEs in those countries. However, one of the major ways of addressing the challenge of inadequate funding that exists within the SME sector is the use of bank credit. This study was therefore undertaken to explore the role of commercial banks in the provision of credit to the SMEs in South Africa. This study focuses on the issue of the relationship between the banking industry and SMEs. In particular, the problem of credit rationing of, and discrimination against SMEs by commercial banks was investigated. Because credit rationing and finance gaps can stem from imperfections on either supply-side (banks), or demand-side (SMEs), or both, the intention of the study was to examine both of these variables in order to uncover the implications of their relationships. The empirical analysis is based on survey data collected by means of a structured questionnaire which was distributed amongst banks and SME borrowers in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Contrary to the general view that commercial banks are disinclined to provide credit to SMEs, the study found that South African banks are keen to serve the SMEs and are therefore making efforts to penetrate this potentially profitable market segment. However, several obstacles are potentially restricting the involvement of banks with SMEs in South Africa. The findings revealed that regulations such as the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA) and the National Credit Act (NCA) came out strongly as major hindrances of bank financing to SMEs. Furthermore, it was shown that compliance with the NCA was ranked higher than credit history and profitability as a factor hindering the approval of SME loans. - iii - However, by using the structural equation modelling (SEM), the results also show that there is a positive and significant influence of lending technology and collateral on the supply of credit to SMEs. Variables such as creditworthiness, collateral and e-banking were found to have a positive and significant impact on the provision of credit to SMEs by commercial banks. For both the supply- and demand-side analysis, technology came out as the most important predictor of SME access to finance. This means that banks should strive to align their lending techniques with the dynamic technological developments so as to reach as many SMEs as possible even in the geographically dispersed regions. It is anticipated that improving SME access to bank credit could be the key to the growth and sustainability of SMEs, the alleviation of poverty and unemployment; and consequently leading to the growth of the South African economy. / Business Management / D. Com. (Business Management)

Cette thèse étudie différents mécanismes par lesquels l'immobilier des entreprises influe sur l'investissement, l'emploi et la mobilité des Sociétés Non-Financières (SNFs). L'actif immobilier représente une part très importante de la valeur de l'actif des entreprises et les locaux constituent souvent un des principaux postes de dépenses des SNFs. Les prix de l'immobilier ont un effet sur la valeur de l'actif que les entreprises peuvent déposer en garantie et sur le coût des facteurs de production. Dans le cadre d'un marché du crédit frictionnel, la capacité d'emprunt des entreprises peut être accrue par une hausse de la valeur de marché des actifs. Les deux premiers chapitres de cette thèse étudient cet effet de collatéral et ses conséquences sur l'investissement et l'emploi. Le premier chapitre présente une modélisation dynamique qui met l'accent sur le comportement des variables relatives au marché du travail. Le second chapitre explore les effets hétérogènes entre entreprises en analysant des données microéconomiques. Le dernier chapitre porte sur les conséquences des spécificités des coûts d'ajustement de l'immobilier. En étudiant le comportement de mobilité d'entreprises qui sont soumises à des coûts de déménagement différenciés, nous mettons en évidence un effet notable des coûts associés au changement de la taille des locaux sur la dynamique de l'emploi. / This thesis studies channels through which corporate real-estate affects investment, employment and mobility of Non-Financial Corporations (NFCs). Real-estate assets account for a sizable share of firms' asset value and premises are often one of the main expenditure items of NFCs. Real-estate prices hence have a bearing on the value of firms' pledgeable assets and on the cost of inputs. In a frictional credit market, the firms' borrowing capacity can be enhanced by an increase in asset's value. The first two chapters of this thesis study this collateral channel and its effects on investment and employment. The first chapter proposes a dynamic setting with a focus on labor market variables whereas the second explores heterogeneous effects across firms, based on micro-data. The last chapter examines the consequences of the peculiarities of real-estate adjustment costs. Studying the relocation behaviour of firms facing varying moving costs, we document important effects of the costs associated with a change in the size of the premises on the employment dynamics.

Způsoby stanovení hodnoty společnosti především za účelem bankovního financování jsou hlavním tématem této diplomové práce. Problematika oceňování společnosti je popsána jak z teoretické stránky věci, stejně jako z metodologické stránky věci. Práce popisuje specifika ocenění v závislosti na oboru podnikání a snaží se nalézt optimální řešení k úspěšnému úvěrovému řízení.

Questa tesi esamina l’interazione tra aspettative eterogenee e il rapporto creditore-debitore. In letteratura, non è ancora chiara la natura dell’interazione tra cicli del credito e aspettative individuali. Per questo motivo ho capito che sarebbe stato importante iniziare dai lavori seminali in entrambi i campi, ovvero Kiyotaki & Moore (1997) e Brock & Hommes (1997). Il mio principale obbiettivo è stato quello di studiare più nel dettaglio il funzionamento del vincolo di garanzia. Il fil rouge dell’intera tesi, infatti, è l’analisi del ruolo delle frizioni finanziarie nell’andamento del prezzo di un asset collateralizzato. In particolare, presento un modello dove l’ipotesi di aspettative razionali viene abbandonata. I risultati del primo capitolo rivelano che le aspettative individuali sono una fonte importante di instabilità, anche se la configurazione iniziale risulta stabile. L’elemento che provoca questa instabilità è la bancarotta causata dalla divergenza tra le aspettative di creditori e debitori sul prezzo dell’asset collateralizzato. Poi, nel secondo capitolo, effettuo un esperimento di learning-to-forecast. Fondato sul modello del primo capitolo, ha come obbiettivo quello di testare se e come la volatilità è legata alle percezioni di rischio dei creditori. Ciò che emerge è che ridurre il credito in risposta ad un aumento delle insolvenze in realtà conduce a scenari addirittura peggiori dove il benessere totale si deteriora e il numero delle bancarotte aumenta. / This thesis examines the interaction between heterogeneous expectations and the borrower-lender relationship. In the literature, the nature of the interaction between credit cycle and individual expectations is still unclear. Therefore I realized it was important to start from the seminal works in both fields, that is Kiyotaki & Moore (1997) and Brock & Hommes (1997). My main concern has been to gain insights into the collateral constraint. The common thread of the whole thesis, indeed, is to analyse the role of financial frictions in the price development of a collateralized asset. In particular, I introduce a model where rational expectations are dropped. The results of the first chapter reveal that even in a simple and stable setting, individual beliefs are an important source of instability. The driver of this instability is the bankruptcy caused by the divergence between borrowers' and lenders' price expectations on a collateralized asset. Then, I conduct an online learning-to-forecast experiment. Founded on the model of the first chapter, it tests whether and how volatility is related to lender-level risk perceptions. What emerges is that to shrink credit in response to an increase in defaults actually leads to worse scenarios where total welfare deteriorates and the number of bankruptcies increases.

This dissertation collects four essays on banks, firms and real effects of bank lending. Owing to the appliance of different econometric methods on several datasets, insights in the behav-ior of and the impacts from financial markets and market participants are generated. In the first chapter, our results uncover a so far undocumented ability of the interbank market to distinguish between banks of different quality in times of aggregate distress. We show empirical evidence that during the 2007 financial crisis the inability of some banks to roll over their interbank debt was not due to a failure of the interbank market per se but rather to bank-specific shocks affecting banks’ capital, liquidity and credit quality as well as revised bank-level risk perceptions. Relationship banking is not capable of containing these frictions, as hard information seems to dominate soft information. In detail, we explore determinants of the formation and resilience of interbank lending relationships by analyzing an extensive da-taset comprising over 1.9 million interbank relationships of more than 3,500 German banks between 2000 and 2012. The second chapter examines the relationship between central bank funding and credit risk-taking. Employing bank-firm-level data from the German credit registry during 2009:Q1-2014:Q4, we find that banks borrowing from the central bank rebalance their portfolios to-wards ex-ante riskier firms. We further establish that this effect is driven by the ECB’s maturi-ty extensions and that the risk-taking sensitivity of banks borrowing from the ECB is inde-pendent of idiosyncratic bank characteristics. Finally, we show that these shifts in bank lend-ing are associated with an increase in firm-level investment and employment, but also with a deterioration of bank balance sheet quality in the following year. Once we analyze the relationship of banks as lenders vis-à-vis banks as borrowers and banks as lenders vis-à-vis non-financial companies as borrowers, we enlarge the understand-ing of non-financial companies not only in terms of being simply borrowers, respectively sub-jects exhibiting of credit risks. Instead, we try to understand the inner working of those com-panies more generally and analyze their quality not only in terms of a bank’s risk assessment but also in terms of the overall market assessment. However, this in turn can generate infor-mation useable to assess the quality of a bank’s credit portfolio in dimensions that so far are not taken into account by the current regulatory framework. Moreover, a better understanding of banks and non-banks beyond the standard lens of the banking and corporate finance litera-ture might promote new scopes for future research connecting those discrete subjects. In this regard, the third chapter analyzes the dependence of price reactions to corporate insider trad-ing on several measures of corporate governance quality. Our results strongly support the view that first, higher corporate governance levels seem to prevent or discourage insiders from engaging in insider trading as means of opportunistic rent extraction. Second, results confirm the notion of buy and sell trades not being just two sides of the same coin. That is, a higher level of corporate governance leads to a better pre-event information environment which results in less positive abnormal returns after insider buy trades as the incremental posi-tive information revealed by the trade is smaller. In contrast, sell trades in firms with better corporate governance are perceived to convey more valuable and most importantly negative information to the capital market so that prices adjust more for companies with better govern-ance schemes. Third, we show that institutional ownership even on an aggregate level is a sufficient measure to proxy a company’s corporate governance level. Hence, as information on companies’ bylaws and on investors’ investment dedication and type for example are scarce, respectively associated with higher costs because one has to gather that information one can refrain from that and instead proxy the governance level with the aggregate measure of institutional ownership. The latter result is important for carrying out future analyses merg-ing and extending the findings of the first two chapters. Last, the fourth chapter abstracts from borrowers as subjects of credit risk, as well, and most importantly extends the analysis of banks, firms and their interactions effecting each other by a macroeconomic perspective of the real effects of bank lending. That is, as capital flows and real estate are pro-cyclical, and real estate has a substantial weight in economies’ income and wealth Chapter 4 studies the role of real estate markets in the transmission of bank flow shocks to output growth across German cities. In this regard, real sector firms play a central role in the transmission mechanism we uncover. More specifically, the empirical analysis relies on a new and unique matched data set at the city level and the bank-firm level. To measure bank flow shocks, we show that changes in sovereign spreads of Southern Eu-ropean countries (the so-called PIGS spread) can predict German cross-border bank flows. To achieve identification by geographic variation, in addition to a traditional supply-side varia-ble, we use a novel instrument that exploits a policy assigning refugee immigrants to munici-palities on an exogenous basis. We find that output growth responds more to bank flow shocks in cities that are more exposed to tightness in local real estate markets. We estimate that, during the 2009-2014 period, for every 100-basis point increase in the PIGS spread, the most exposed cities grow 15-2 basis points more than the least exposed ones. Moreover, the differential response of commercial property prices can explain most of this growth differen-tial. When we unpack the transmission mechanism by using matched bank-firm-level data on credit, employment, capital expenditure and TFP, we find that firm real estate collateral as measured by tangible fixed assets plays a critical role. In particular, bank flow shocks in-crease the credit supply to firms and sectors with more real estate collateral. Higher credit supply then leads firms to hire and invest more, without evidence of capital misallocation.

Medical expenses refer to all medical and related expenditure reasonably incurred in respect of bodily injuries sustained. This then constitutes the primary loss in incidences of bodily injuries. However, it is accepted that bodily injuries infringe in the main the non-patrimonial aspects of the individual’s bodily integrity which is a personality right. Notwithstanding this trite provision of our law, the dissertation contends that medical expenses as a head of damages is inherently patrimonial. In essence, the true nature of medical expenses as a loss that ultimately affects both the patrimonial and non-patrimonial interests of the individual, is considered. Furthermore, the dissertation analyses the assessment and quantification mechanisms in our law, and makes a comparative study with the corresponding positions in England and Australia. The intended outcome of this dissertation is to provide clear guidelines for the award of damages, particularly where future loss is involved. / Private Law / LLM

The emerging financial industry of asset-backed short-term finance was investigated by this study. Literature indicated that banks, locally and globally, are forced by regulation and the use of information technology, to rely less on human judgement and more on programmed decision-making, when evaluating loan applications. This leads to time-consuming processes with non-standard loan applications and loss of opportunities for business persons. Asset-backed short-term finance is a market response to this tendency. Due to the emerging nature of this industry, no previous academic description of or investigation into this industry could be found – a gap in academic literature which this study aims to fill. The industry is strategically positioned in relation to banks by focusing on functionality for urgent non-standard loan applications (period between application and decision, and access to decision-makers) as value proposition, where banks are found lacking. Relatively high interest rates form the profit proposition, as firms in this industry have limited access to funds. Collateral is central as risk-mitigating strategy, forming a part of the profit proposition. The people proposition is essential, as the industry is distinguished by individualised decision-making. A survey among customers of this industry identified four clusters of potential customers: The first had no needs unfulfilled by banks, while the other three clusters were attracted by either functionality, or the evaluation of collateral in contrast to repayment ability, or a combination of the two. A survey among providers revealed hesitance to supply information and a low level of agreement on strategic matters – possibly due to the emergent nature of the industry. It is asserted that the basis for further study was laid. / Business Management / D. Com. (Business Management)