"Cross-Border Contagion in the Banking Sector: The Case of Nordic Countries" by Lina Baronaite Abstract: The objective of the thesis is to estimate the degree of cross-border contagion among the Nordic banking sectors. It analyzes a sample of sixteen largest listed Nordic banks from January 2004 to January 2014. Using a multinomial logit model we test whether there is any degree of contagion among the four banking sectors, whether it is more pro- nounced for larger banks and whether the recent financial crisis has exacerbated it. Our results are in line with similar studies conducted for other countries. In particular, we find that a shock in one bank- ing sector is positively associated with an increase in shocks in another banking sector. Second, these shocks are larger and more significant for larger and more active international banks. Finally, the effect of the recent financial crisis has ambiguous effects on the cross-sectoral banking contagion. It appears that contagious links between some sec- tors weakened (Sweden and Denmark, Sweden and Finland). Other economies (Sweden and Norway) on the contrary became more depen- dent on each other. The results are robust to a wide variety of changes in specifications.

This study assesses the impact of the Basel III regulatory framework on interbank contagion. It focuses on the direct interbank contagion that spreads via interbank foreign claims among national banking sectors. A balance sheet-based network model employs the quarterly consolidated banking statistics, collected by the Bank for International Settlements, to simulate the consequences of credit and funding shock under stressed market conditions. Compared to the Basel II, the Basel III regulatory framework reduces the probability of interbank contagion (following a simulated default of one banking sector) from 31% to 14% and lowers the impact of contagion by 63% in terms of average loss for a banking sector. The simulations under both regulatory frameworks show that relatively smaller banking sectors can trigger severe interbank contagion comparable to large banking sectors. Throughout the 2005-2009 period, the Basel III regulatory framework stabilizes the fluctuations of the scope of interbank contagion.

Thesis advisor: Sara M. Moorman / There is much prior research on the benefits of marriage for adults, including for mental and physical health (Carr and Springer 2010). Further research has demonstrated that the quality of one’s marriage provides benefits, and not merely the status itself (see Carr and Springer 2010; Proulx, Helms, and Buehler 2007). A close, salient relationship such as marriage is not experienced in isolation, but is rather an interpersonal system, where the characteristics, feelings, and opinions of each partner can influence the other (Berscheid and Ammazzalorso 2001; Carr et al. 2014; Moorman 2016). However, less research has been performed that takes advantage of dyadic data to determine whether and how a partner’s marital quality may affect one’s own well-being (Carr et al. 2014; Kenny 1996). Moreover, emotional experiences rarely remain truly private; individuals unconsciously signal and express their feelings to others, and can even transmit these emotional experiences to close social partners (Christakis and Fowler 2013; Hatfield, Cacioppo, and Rapson 1994). The present dissertation examines the associations among older husbands’ and wives’ marital quality and well-being, using two sources of dyadic data, a range of measures of marital quality and well-being, and advanced analytic strategies appropriate for longitudinal and cross-sectional data. Older couples can differ from their younger and midlife counterparts, as both men and women trim their broader social networks in later life and increasingly focus on their closest and most rewarding relationships, such as marriage (Carstensen, Isaacowitz, and Charles 1999; Mancini and Bonanno 2006). Gendered roles may shift in later life, as well, as older adults cease activities such as child-rearing and full-time employment (Bookwala 2012). Thus, potential differences according to gender are also explicitly tested. The results of this dissertation will shed greater light on how older couples’ perceptions of marital quality influence various aspects of spouses’ well-being, cross-sectionally and over time. Mutual Influence and Older Married Adults’ Anxiety Symptoms: Results from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing analyzes cross-sectional dyadic data from 1,114 married older couples surveyed in the initial wave of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA; Kenny 2014), 2009-2011. Dyadic structural equation models (SEM) examined the direct and indirect associations between husbands’ and wives’ reports of marital strain and generalized anxiety symptoms in later life. Findings revealed that perceptions of marital strain were related with husbands’ and wives’ own generalized anxiety symptoms. Further, husbands’ anxiety symptoms were significantly related with wives’ anxiety symptoms, and vice versa, illustrating bi-directional feedback. Lastly, husbands’ and wives’ perceptions of marital strain were significantly indirectly related with their partners’ anxiety symptoms, with these associations being mediated by spouses’ own anxiety symptoms. These results suggest that emotional contagion may be the pathway for partner effects of marital strain on spouses’ well-being. Findings also suggest that efforts to reduce anxiety symptoms may be most effective when taking marital context and quality into account. Two-Wave Dyadic Analysis of Marital Quality and Loneliness in Later Life: Results From The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing analyzes dyadic reports of marital quality and loneliness over a two-year period, using longitudinal dyadic data collected from 932 older married couples who participated in both of the first two waves of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), collected from 2009-2013. Two-wave lagged dependent variable (LDV) models tested the cognitive perspective on loneliness, emotional contagion theory, and actor-partner interdependence by examining whether husbands’ and wives’ reports of marital quality and loneliness at baseline predicted both spouses’ loneliness two years later. Results indicated that one’s own perceptions of negative marital quality at baseline were related with greater loneliness after two years, supporting the cognitive perspective on loneliness. Further, both spouses’ reports of loneliness at baseline were related with loneliness two years later, supporting emotional contagion theory. Partners’ reports of marital quality were not related with future loneliness, failing to support actor-partner interdependence. Do “His” and “Her” Marriage Influence One Another? Older Spouses’ Marital Quality Over Four Years uses two-wave longitudinal data from the Disability and Use of Time (DUST) supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to examine associations between husbands’ and wives’ reports of marital quality over a four-year period. The sample consisted of 209 older married couples who participated in both the 2009 and 2013 waves of DUST. Lagged dependent variable (LDV) models tested whether older husbands’ and wives’ perceptions of marital quality are themselves subject to emotional contagion, by examining whether baseline reports of marital quality were related with one’s own and a partner’s marital quality after four years. Results indicated that (a) husbands reported better marital quality than their wives in both 2009 and 2013, (b) for both husbands and wives, baseline marital quality was significantly related with both one’s own and one’s partner’s marital quality four years later, and (c) there were no differences in effects according to gender. These findings offer support for the framework of “his” and “her” marriage, as well as emotional contagion theory. Together, these papers examine whether and how older spouses’ reports of marital quality and well-being are associated with one another, with a particular emphasis on assessing emotional contagion as a potential explanation and mechanism for dyadic partner effects. The results of these articles contribute empirically and theoretically to the literature(s) on marital quality and well-being; spousal interdependence; and emotional contagion. I discuss the implications of these articles for theory and future research concerning marriage and well-being in later life.

This dissertation examines how the inclusion of the social element in access-based consumption can influence affective and behavioral responses. The first essay builds upon the dimensions proposed by Bardhi and Eckhardt, who found that market mediation, anonymity, temporality, consumer involvement, type of accessed object and political consumerism are key dimensions on which to study access-based consumption. A reconceptualization of these dimensions is proposed in the current work to incorporate the social element. Foremost, a separation of renting and sharing based on the presence or absence of economic exchange is proposed. The implications for the remaining dimensions of anonymity, temporality, consumer participation, type of accessed object, political consumerism and governance are then discussed. Finally, key outcome variables of community, cooperation, loneliness and contagion are reviewed. In Essay 2, the guiding theory of social distance is used to empirically test the impact of the social element on evaluations of a rental service on the outcomes of satisfaction, attitude, disgust and community. In the rental context examined, users are interpersonally anonymous indicating that there is no relationship between the current user and other users. In addition, users must engage in extra-role behaviors because no intermediaries are present. In three experiments, it is shown that encounters with other users can lead to increased feelings of disgust and decreased satisfaction and attitude towards the rental service. Having information about other users, provided in the form of avatar images, can enhance feelings of community, as can certain types of communication between users. Given the benefits that emerge from feelings of community, Essay 3 explores factors that can enhance or detract from sense of community. Factors such as apathetic participation and similarity are considered. In addition, positive outcomes that emerge from feelings of community, such as sign-up likelihood and care behaviors, are measured. / 2015-04-17

With suicide on the rise nationwide, it is important now more than ever to prioritize suicide as a public health issue. This means raising awareness and conducting research aimed at developing new suicide prevention tools and strategies, as well as reevaluating and challenging already existent ones. Media messaging can be a great suicide prevention tool. Suicide depictions and reporting in different forms of media—including newspapers, online publications, film, television, and more—have the power to influence behavior. When reporting in a safe and appropriate manner, the media can influence behavior in a positive way and encourage help-seeking. However, reports that sensationalize and glamorize suicide have the potential to spark suicide contagion. Thus, when reporting on suicide it is crucial to be aware of best practices and recommendations developed by experts. In recent years, media campaigns aimed at suicide prevention have gained traction. While there has been some evidence suggesting the success of such campaigns, more research is needed in this area. Further research is also needed to assess the effects of fictional depictions of suicide in film and television.

We demonstrate social contagion in attitudes and show it is more pervasive than believed. While prior research has demonstrated that individuals are influenced by others when explicitly exposed to others' attitudes, we demonstrate they are influenced even for issues where they were never explicitly exposed to group attitudes. In first two studies we show that individuals have a remarkable ability to predict the attitudes of others in a social group from very scant information--a phenomenon that we term `Social Clairvoyance.' Across three other studies, we delineate the psychological mechanisms that permit the performance of this feat - specifically, empathic responding directed at group members in an effort to understand their underlying motivations. Further, the empathetic simulation of others attitudes results in reaction in oneself towards the attitude object resulting in a shift in one's own attitudes. In three other studies, we show that the accurate prediction of others' attitudes results in a shifting of an individual's own attitude--a phenomenon we term `Attitudinal Contagion.' From this perspective, many marketing phenomena such as word-of-mouth, diffusion of new products, neighborhood effects may have been insufficiently understood since it does not require explicit exposure to the attitudes of another.

The occurence of financial contagion can lead to hazardous results for financial institutions, financial markets as well as for the whole economy. Therefore it can have even serious economic effects on everybody´s life. That is why it is of great interest to deeper understand its characteristics. As classical finance theory seems not to give the best answers to this topic, the young academic field of behavioural finance can deliver new insights. The main purpose of this work is to provide an introduction mainly to professionals in portfolio and risk management and help them to tackle the problem of contagion at an early stage. Therefore not only aspects of behavioural finance are discussed, but the topic contagion is also brought into connection with network analyses and the current regulation process. Our paper can not answer all questions related to contagion, but it can help the reader to better understand its main aspects and enables him to delve deeper into this field.

This study tests whether contagion effects existed during the ¡§subprime mortgage crisis¡¨ among the equity markets of the US, the EU, Asia and emerging markets. The time-varying correlation coefficients are estimated by the dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) of Engle (2002), using a multivariate GJR-GARCH with AR (1) model. The empirical findings show that the conditional correlation coefficients of stock returns between the U.S. and others countries were positive and that the contagion effect exists among stock markets. Financial markets displayed contagion effects, in that the global equity markets were confronted with elevated systematic risk at the same time. Therefore, this study further examines the role of systematic risk in the equity market of each country. I used the rolling formulae, the MV-DGP, and DCC-GARCH (1, 1) models to estimate the CAPM beta and downside betas. This study found higher systematic risk (downside systematic risk) in the stock markets of the United States, Germany, France and Brazil, which had beta values nearly above one, while the Chinese stock market had the lowest systemic risk and served as a hedge for investors and fund managers. Finally, the results demonstrate that DCC-HW beta can capture some downside linkages between the market portfolios and expected stock returns, while these linkages cannot likely be captured by the CAPM beta.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2002. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 148 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-145).