The purpose of this research is to examine whether managers of troubled firms engage in income-increasing earnings management for capital market purposes to maintain a listing on the NASDAQ National Market. Troubled firms are defined as those firms whose share price has fallen below the specified dollar-per-share minimum mandated by the market. The two hypotheses attempt to answer two separate, but interrelated questions: First, do managers of troubled firms engage in earnings management more in periods of distress than in periods of non-distress? And second, do managers of troubled firms engage in earnings management more than similar firms not in jeopardy of delisting? Both a time-series and cross-sectional approach is used to answer these questions. The initial grouping consisted of all NASDAQ National Market firms with a share price of $1 or below at some point during the period from March 1997 through September 2002. The final sample consisted of 215 firms for the time-series analysis and 495 firms for the cross-sectional analysis. Two accrual expectation models were used, including the Jones (1991) and the modified Jones Model (Dechow, Sloan, and Sweeney, 1995). The results were unable to confirm that managers engage in this behavior, and similar to the results of DeAngelo, DeAngelo, and Skinner (1994), the findings suggest that managers' accounting choices primarily reflect their firms' financial difficulties, rather than attempts to inflate income through discretionary accruals. After controlling for reverse stock splits, dividend reductions, going-concern issues/bankruptcy, and changes in management, the models found significantly negative abnormal accruals. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of possible interpretations for the findings. / Ph. D.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Economics / Lance J. Bachmeier / Dong Li / For a unique sample of Israeli stocks that went public in the U.S. and then cross-listed in the home market, Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), this dissertation consists of three essays examining the dynamics of return spillovers and volume-return interactions across markets and the valuation effect around the event of cross-listing and delisting from the home market. In Chapter II, I investigate the role of trading volume in the information flow and return spillovers between the U.S. and Israeli markets. Findings suggest that the dynamics of volume-return interactions across markets can provide us with valuable information regarding future price movements, which can be a useful tool to predict future returns. I also find the home market to dominate the host market in pricing these stocks, which is consistent with the Home Bias hypothesis. In Chapter III, I analyze the impact of the event of cross-listing on stock returns and risk exposure. The behavior of abnormal returns around the cross-listing date implies that cross-listing in TASE is an effective mechanism in reducing market segmentation between the U.S. and the Israeli capital markets. Risk assessment following the cross-listing suggests a decline firms’ overall risk exposure, indicating a higher degree of integration between the two markets due to cross-listing. In Chapter IV, I evaluate changes in the cost-of-capital for Israeli firms after delisting voluntary from TASE, the home market, while maintaining their listing in the U.S., the host market. The results show a significant positive shift in U.S. and negative shift in Israeli market risk exposure after the delisting. These results indicate that firms delisting form their home market (TASE), face greater risk exposure, higher required returns on their stocks and, hence, higher cost-of-capital after delisting.

Il existe en France plus de 44 236 monuments historiques, dont la diversité des typologies architecturales s’est considérablement accrue ces dernières décennies (édifices industriels, constructions modernes, etc.). Cette diversification constitue cependant une perte de repère des critères discriminant les monuments à conserver. Cette thèse de doctorat s’intéresse donc aux processus de patrimonialisation et à la sélection des édifices à protéger. Précisément, cette étude porte sur le phénomène inverse, celui des annulations de protection, en France depuis 1990. La présente recherche vise à mettre en évidence les facteurs intrinsèques et extrinsèques des radiations de protection - en net accroissement, particulièrement dans les cœurs de ville - et permettre ainsi une réflexion sur l’évolution du patrimoine et des politiques de protection. / In France there are more than 44.236 listed buildings, whose diversity of architectural typolo-gies increased significantly these last decades (industrials buildings, modern constructions, etc.). However, this diversification will entail the loss of criteria specifying the monuments which are meant to be preserved. This doctoral thesis is thus focused on the processes of pat-rimonialisation and on selection rules of buildings considered for listing. To be precise, this study relates to the opposite fact: thereviews, the cancellations of protections and therefore the delisting of buildings, in France, since 1990. This research aims to highlight the intrinsic and extrinsic factors of delisting requests – a net increase, mostly in the city centres - and thus to get an overall picture of the situation on inheritance evolution and on process for listing or delisting.

This study examines the effects of delisting on firm value, risk and market liquidity. In a world where markets are becoming increasingly integrated, delistings may prove counter productive. We use the unique event, free from company specifics, that occurred on January 2, 1990 in the stock exchanges of Singapore and Malaysia to test for the above effects. On that day, dual listed companies were required to delist from the foreign stock exchange. We also use this event to test if the Singapore and Malaysia markets are globally integrated. Since financial data is found to show persistence in volatility, we model the return generating process in a generalized autoregressive conditionally heteroskedastic (GARCH) framework that takes into consideration changing volatility. For comparison purposes, OLS and Time-Deformation models are included. The study found delistings to decrease firm value, the size of which is related to how actively the stocks were previously traded on the foreign stock exchange. Risk levels increased following delistings. Nevertheless, thinly traded stocks showed significant changes in neither firm value nor riskiness. Further evidence of new listings to increase firm value was noted. Consistent with the political motive hypothesis, delisted stocks showed an increase in post-event volume, but however, lost relative liquidity compared with other stocks. While all portfolios considered show evidence for existence of conditional heteroskedasticity, comparison with standard OLS event-study results yields similar conclusions, although the return generating models with GARCH errors result in lower abnormal return variances. As for the time-deformation model, trading volume was found to be a good proxy for rate of information flow only for smaller capitalized stocks. Correlation and regression analyses showed that the Singapore and Malaysia markets are integrated to some degree with the international markets, such that a major delistings event between both markets did not change the pricing of risk in these markets.

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Publika aktiebolag som önskar att fortsätta sin tillväxt kan söka sig till börsen i syfte att underlätta kapitalanskaffning. För att ta upp aktierna till handel måste emittenten möta börsens krav för upptagande till handel. Noteringskraven som börsen ställer upp innebär i sig en kvalitetsstämpel för företagens förmåga att växa och eventuellt ge avkastning till befintliga och framtida investerare. Samtidigt som en notering för med sig diverse fördelar kommer det till ett pris. När ett bolag noterat sina aktier på en reglerad marknad eller på en handelsplattformkrävs det vidare investeringar för att säkerställa regelefterlevnad. Kraven på informationsgivning och likviditetskrav, för att nämna två av dessa krav, belastar företagen ekonomiskt. Kostnaderna som en notering av aktier för med sig kan för vissa bolag bli överväldigande. Det kan till och med vara så att kostnaderna överstiger den nytta som bolaget har av noteringsplatsen. Att avnotera aktierna kan i detta skede vara ett alternativ. I Europa har frivillig avnotering blivit ett instrument som bolag väljer att utnyttja i allt större utsträckning. Det innebär att börsbolag kan avföra sina aktier från handel på en reglerad marknad eller handelsplattform genom en ansökan. Att avnotera aktier från en reglerad marknad kan leda till besparingar för företagen, eftersom det inte ställs samma krav på onoterade bolag som för noterade bolag. Samtidigt som företagen kan gynnas i form av besparingar riskerar aktieägarna att hamna i ett sämre läge till följd av en avnotering. Försämringen består i att överlåtbarheten av aktierna begränsas i samband med att aktierna avnoteras. En frivillig avnotering kan även, utöver efter en ansökan, ske genom en så kallad cold delisting. Det innebär att bolagets aktier avnoteras utan att en formell ansökan lämnas in från bolagets sida. Cold delisting har diskuterats i andra europeiska länder, bland annat i Österrike. I Österrike var inlösen av minoritetsaktier och cold delisting de enda möjligheterna som stod bolagen till buds för att åstadkomma en avnotering. Den österrikiska Högsta domstolen ansåg dock att cold delisting var ett missbruk av lagen. Den nya BörsG som trädde i kraft efter Högsta domstolens avgörande välkomnades således av bolagen då det innebaren möjlighet att ansöka om en sådan avnotering på frivillig väg. I Sverige har bolag vars aktier handlas på en reglerad marknad eller handelsplattform möjligheten att ansöka om att avnotera sina aktier. Diskussionen som förts i andra europeiska länder väcker däremot frågan om hur det svenska regelverket ser på cold delisting samt om det kan anses vara ändamålsenligt.

Este trabalho contribui para a literatura de finanças se propondo a analisar a relação entre o grau de internacionalização das empresas brasileiras e a probabilidade das mesmas em se deslistarem do mercado de ações. Para tanto, a formulação das hipóteses e a análise da relação entre as variáveis lidaram com conceitos e teorias no âmbito da Governança Corporativa (GC), a qual já está consolidada na teoria quando o assunto é deslistagem, mas introduziu a internacionalização como seu diferencial. Em primeiro lugar, com vistas à teoria da internalização, a qual atribui vantagens e diferenciais competitivos conferidos à empresa em virtude da adoção da estratégia de internacionalização e, em paralelo, aos efeitos positivos que tal estratégia gera no desempenho destas firmas, formulou-se a hipótese de que o grau de internacionalização se associa negativamente à probabilidade de deslistagem, principalmente em decorrência de tais benefícios gerados à organização. Por sua vez, como hipótese alternativa da pesquisa, foi proposta uma relação positiva entre estas variáveis, com base na teoria de agência, segundo a qual a internacionalização contribuiria para a deslistagem, por aumentar a separação geográfica entre acionistas e gestores e, consequentemente, os conflitos de agência e a dificuldade de monitoramento. Para o atingimento dos objetivos propostos, além de serem contempladas variáveis econômico-financeiras e de GC em ambos os cenários tratou-se ainda com a proposta de análise sobre períodos de crise, visto os acontecimentos do passado recente da economia brasileira. Partiu-se de um modelo-base, desenvolvido inicialmente por Pour e Lasfer (2013), ao qual posteriormente, foram acrescentadas as proxies de internacionalização e crise, contemplando também ajustes necessários ao contexto brasileiro. Os dados coletados contemplam o período de 2006 a 2014 e informações sobre empresas ativas e inativas na Bovespa. Como resultados obtidos, encontrou-se significância negativa entre o grau de internacionalização e a saída do mercado de capitais, atestando a primeira hipótese da pesquisa e indicando que os benefícios gerados pela internacionalização na empresa se traduzem em diferenciais e resultados que reduzem a probabilidade de deslistagem. Através da análise dos resultados das variáveis de controle foi possível verificar ainda que, mesmo com as vantagens inerentes ao processo de internacionalização, mediante aspectos particulares da GC no país, tais como a alta concentração acionária, ainda que a internacionalização reduza a probabilidade de deslistagem da empresa, os benefícios que ela gera à firma contribuem para sua deslistagem, possivelmente, pelo interesse destes controladores em reter de forma mais direta tais benefícios. Em relação à análise em períodos de crise, as consequências da crise do subprime norte-americano no mercado em geral foram mais relevantes do que a ocorrência dela em si, ao contrário do ano de 2014, que apresentou significância estatística, ressaltando os efeitos da crise interna brasileira. Para trabalhos futuros sugere-se a expansão da base de dados e o tratamento individual das razões adotadas pela empresa quando da decisão de deslistagem. / This work contributes to the finance literature proposing to analyze the relationship between the degree of internationalization of Brazilian companies and the likelihood of delisting. Therefore, even though the internationalization as a differential, in the formulation of hypotheses and analysis of the relationship between the variables dealt with concepts and theories within the Corporate Governance, which is already established in theory when it comes to delisting. First, with a view to the theory of internalization, which gives competitive advantages to the company due the adoption internationalization strategy and in parallel to the positive effects that this strategy generates on firms performance, it was formulated an hypothesis that the degree of internationalization would be adversely related to the probability of delisting, mainly due to such benefits generated to the organization. In turn, as an alternative hypothesis of the research, it proposed a positive relationship between these variables, based on agency theory, according to which internationalization would contribute to delisting by increasing geographical separation between shareholders and managers and, consequently, agency conflicts and the difficulty of monitoring. For the achievement of objectives, as well as being included economic and financial variables and GC, it was proposed the analysis of periods of crisis, as the events of recent past of the Brazilian economy. Starting from a base model initially developed by Pour and Lasfer (2013), which later, the proxies of internationalization and crisis have been added also contemplating adjustments to the Brazilian context. The data collected include the period from 2006 to 2014 and information on active and inactive companies at Bovespa. As results, it was found negative significance between the degree of internationalization and the delisting decision, confirming the first hypothesis of the research and stating that the benefits generated by internationalization in the company generate it spreads and results that reduce the probability of delisting. By analyzing the results of control variables was still possible to observe that, even internationalization reducing the likelihood of delisting, by particular aspects of corporate governance in Brazil, such as the high ownership concentration, the benefits it generates contribute to delisting. Regarding the analysis in crisis, the consequences of the crisis of the US subprime in general market were more relevant that the occurrence of itself, unlike the Brazilian internal crisis of 2014, which was statistically significant for the analyzed event. For future researches it is suggested the expansion of database and individual treatment of the reasons adopted by a company when delisting decision. / Dissertação (Mestrado)

In this thesis I investigate the impact of outside directors experience on company value. I do so by looking at a clear event, company delistings in the time period 2003 to 2011 in South Africa, a country with arguably imperfect institutions. Based on qualitative and quantitative research I am able to establish that director experience is indeed associated with company value. The qualitative analysis is based on semi-structured interviews with over 30 highly experienced, independent non-executive directors who have/had seats on over 150 South African listed company boards. Their responses confirm resource theory dependency and provide information on the nature of experience, its relevance during delisting and under other circumstances, as well as insight into the type of experience lacking on boards in corporate South Africa. The results of this research can be of practical use to nomination committees and has implications for future South African governance code reforms and/or guidelines.

<p>This thesis studies the impacts of three government policy interventions in Canada on individuals' behaviour and attempts to bound structural coefficients implied by economics theories using the estimated treatment effects. While the last chapter is on the healthcare market, the first three chapters focus on individuals' charitable behaviour, especially volunteer behaviour. A compulsory volunteer policy in Ontario is investigated from theoretical and empirical perspectives in chapters one and two respectively. In a theoretical overlapping generation model with social capital accumulation, we find that such a policy likely increases total public good provision and the social capital level. However, whether it increases long-run volunteering by those no longer subject to the policy depends crucially on the size of a public good demand elasticity. Chapter two empirically examines the impact of a “compulsory volunteerism” policy for adolescents on subsequent behaviour in Ontario, which mandates 40-hours of community service for high school students as a requirement for graduation. We estimate that: 1) the compulsory volunteer policy increased volunteer participation during high school; 2) those affected by the policy likely volunteered less than they otherwise would have after high school completion; 3) young people in Ontario who were not directly affected by the policy volunteered less after its introduction.</p> <p>The third chapter examines the impact of tax policy changes on individuals' volunteer behaviour and attempts to analyze the relationship between donations of time and money. We develop a model where individuals are heterogeneous in their labour market and volunteer productivities, and in their tastes, which shows that positive cross sectional correlation between donations of money and time may occur because of individual-specific effects even though each individual would regard such donations as substitutes. Exploiting the exogenous variation in the tax price introduced by a series of tax policy changes in Canada, we find that individuals make more time donations as the tax price of charitable donations increases, which casts doubt on earlier findings in cross sectional data that monetary and time donations are complements and suggests that they may be substitutes as most theories would imply.</p> <p>The last chapter exploits changes in Canadian public health insurers' reimbursement schedules regarding chiropractic services to identify the impacts of subsidies for providers and patients. Over the past two decades, fiscal pressures have seen these services partly or completely “delisted” from public health insurance programs. Despite a large sample of individuals, there are challenges for inference in this situation where the source of exogenous variation derives from a small number of jurisdiction-level policy changes. To address them, we employ aggregation, a wild cluster bootstrap that provides asymptotic refinement, and other approaches. The results show appreciable decreases in providers’ incomes and in utilization with the latter concentrated among low and middle income patients. But, chiropractors also augment their labour supply, perhaps increasing administration, marketing/promotion, or time per patient visit.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Die vorliegende Dissertation untersucht die Kontextabhängigkeit von Konsumentenpräferenzen in Folge eines Marktaustritts in 4 Aufsätzen. Aufsatz 1 diskutiert Auswirkungen einer Auslistung auf Kundenreaktionen. Zwei empirische Studien belegen die Existenz eines negativen Ähnlichkeits-, Attraktions- und Kompromisseffektes und zeigen wesentliche Determinanten einer markentreuen Reaktion auf. Aufsatz 2 bestätigt die Hypothesen über negative Kontexteffekte für Markeneliminierungen in verschiedenen experimentellen Situationen und Produktkategorien. Das sich ergebende Substitutionsverhalten resultiert durchweg in höheren Verlusten für Hersteller als für Händler. Aufsatz 3 diskutiert das Substitutionsverhalten in Out-of-Stock Situationen. Promotion wird hierbei als wesentlicher Einflussfaktor herangezogen. Verschiedene Online-Experimente demonstrieren einen negativen Ähnlichkeitseffekt für die temporäre Nichtverfügbarkeit von Produkten, welcher sich jedoch für preisreduzierte Güter des täglichen Bedarfs verringert. Werden ähnliche Substitute preislich reduziert angeboten, wird der negative Ähnlichkeitseffekt verstärkt. Der Effekt wird hingegen von einem Attraktionseffekt überlagert, wenn unähnliche Alternativen im Sonderangebot sind. Aufsatz 4 untersucht wesentliche Einflussfaktoren eines negativen Attraktionseffektes. In Anlehnung an das von Mishra et al. (1993) entwickelte Kausalmodell zur Neuprodukteinführung, wird ein adaptiertes ganzheitliches Strukturgleichungsmodell für den Marktaustritt getestet. Als wesentliche Treiber des betrachteten Phänomens resultieren die Konstrukte Anteil des Decoys, Präferenzstärke und Informationsrelevanz. / This thesis investigates the context-dependence of preferences in consequence of market exits in 4 essays. Essay 1 discusses the effect of brand delisting on customer responses. On the basis of two empirical studies, the existence of a negative similarity, a negative attraction and a negative compromise effect is revealed and key determinants of a brand loyal reaction are analyzed. Essay 2 supports the hypotheses on negative context effects for brand removals across different experimental settings and product categories. The resultant switching patterns collectively lead to bigger damages for manufacturers than for retailers. Essay 3 investigates preference shifts in out-of-stock situations by including promotion as essential driver. A series of online experiments demonstrate that for temporal unavailability of products, substitution behavior correspond to a negative similarity effect which is, however, reduced for stock-outs of low involvement fast moving consumer goods on promotion. While the negative similarity effect is enforced for promotions of similar substitutes, it is ruled out by the simultaneous occurrence of an attraction effect when dissimilar substitutes are offered at a reduced price. Essay 4 studies important antecedent variables of the negative attraction effect. In reference to the causal model on product introduction developed by Mishra et al. (1993), an adapted holistic framework for product exit is tested by using structural equation modeling. The results emphasize decoy share, preference strength and information relevance as major drivers of the considered phenomenon.