This study examines the matching of CEOs to firms and the compensation earned by such managers in a competitive labor market. I first develop a simple competitive equilibrium model and derive predictions regarding the change in wages when an inelastic supply of CEO labor cannot match an increase in demand. The model predicts that the CEO pay-size elasticity increases when more firms compete for a fixed supply of managers. I then empirically test this prediction using industry-level IPO waves as a proxy for increased competition among firms for CEOs. Consistent with the model, I find that pay-size elasticity increases with an increase in an industry's IPO activity. I also find that increased IPO activity leads to a greater likelihood of executive transitions between firms. Overall, the findings point to the substantial role market forces play in the determination of pay in the CEO labor market. I then use a structural model to examine the distortionary effects of frictions in the CEO labor market. I estimate the switching cost to be 20% of the median firm's annual earnings. While reduced-form estimates of the switching cost serve as a lower bound on the reduction in firm value, they underestimate the overall effect which also includes the resulting inefficient firm-CEO matches. Using counterfactual analysis, the switching cost is estimated to decrease the median firm's value by 4.8%, four times larger than the reduced-form estimate. / text

As with many in the city, a shared frustration with the pace of change has led to a greater concern for the continuity of past, present and future developments essentially eroding the past in the name of change. Familiar and favorite landmarks and destinations such as the Star Ferry, Queen’s Pier, Wedding Card street and Wanchai Market have all succumbed to the wrecker’s ball within the space of 10 years. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

Studies on urban modernization in early twentieth century South China usually attribute the development of rural areas to the effort of government and some returned overseas Chinese. In Wuyi, a region in Guangdong Province, South China, traditional clanship which dominated the rural society has usually been considered as a factor slowing down their urban modernization. However, most of the modernized rural markets were in fact developed by the local clan organizations. This thesis attempts to investigate the neglected role of these clan organizations in the process of urban modernization. Focusing on the rural market townscape in Wuyi during the Republican era (1912-1949), this thesis aims at answering two questions: (1) what was the urban morphology of Wuyi market towns in terms of their geographical distribution, market form, building fabric, and architectural form; and (2) how was the form of urban modernization in these towns influenced by civilian power of extended kinship? Answering the questions, this research presents a morphological analysis by mapping the rural markets based on extensive fieldworks in the region, and explores various models to understand the relationship between market form and social forces. The mapping starts from the market distribution in Duanfen, a town in Wuyi. By looking into the changes of “marketing areas” where new markets would emerge in the town from time to time, the changes in power among the clans are identified. It is shown that the geographical distribution of the markets could reflect the process of inter-clan competition. It is also discovered that the agglomeration process of neighbouring markets would result in different modes of twin-markets in Wuyi. During the Qing Dynasty, many local clans complained to the government that the new markets were founded too close to their original ones, thereby forcing those new markets to be relocated farther away. However, during the Republican period when free inter-market competition was allowed, more abutting twin-markets emerged as a new mode. In these twin-markets, the clanship buildings were imparted with symbolic meaning which proclaimed the territories and powers of competing clans. The morphological study on the thirty-eight market cases in Wuyi illustrates two different sets of market characteristics. Most of the central-square markets, especially those regular ones, were developed dominantly by a single clan. In contrast, markets founded without the domination by a single clan tended to have irregular linear-street forms without any central square. The study on the architectural forms in Wuyi identifies different shophouse styles developed during different periods of time. It is evident that the development of the two styles were closely related to the market form of the original regular fabric, as compared to the later irregular alterations. This research concludes that the clan organizations acted as a form of intermediate agents between the government and individual civilians, and facilitated the increase in the number of rural markets in Wuyi during the Republican era. In many aspects, the morphology of market townscape reflected the unique society in the Republican South China where traditional clanship and quasi-modern capitalism were merged. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The study objectives are: (i) to describe the settlement and household conditions and activities in the coastal area of Pakistan; (ii) to analyse the current behaviour of shrimp fishermen, and to describe the shrimp marketing system, and government policy towards the shrimp fisheries sector; (iii) to compare the current technology and economics of Pakistani shrimp farming with those of other shrimp-producing countries; (iv) to identify the scope for the future development of shrimp farming in Pakistan and the implications for fishermen households; and (v) to assess the future overall economic viability of the Pakistan shrimp farming sector. The research comprises: (a) a survey of current shrimp fishing in Pakistan; (b) reviews of shrimp farming in major producing countries; (c) budget analyses and linear program modelling of shrimp and other household enterprises, and (d) cost-benefit, financial, sensitivity, and policy analysis of shrimp farming in Pakistan. The conclusions/results include: (i)  Shrimp fishermen households in Pakistan have experienced a downward trend in their living standards over the last two decades due to over-exploitation of wild shrimp. (ii)  Good prospects for Pakistan farmed shrimp exist on the world market. (iii)  Suitable land is available, and a government-sponsored shrimp hatchery has started work to provide postlarvae. (iv)  Shrimp fishing households could reallocate their labour and other resources towards shrimp farming and thus be able to reap substantial amount of net benefits. (v)  Shrimp farming is economically viable along the Pakistani coastline. (vi)  Awareness of opportunities for shrimp farming on a modern technical, environmentally friendly and sustainable basis should be disseminated in the coastal areas of Pakistan. (vii)  Government assistance in the farm land allocation and institutional credit will be necessary help to boost the shrimp farming industry in the coastal areas.

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Our aim of this paper was to create a method for comparing the overall relative efficiency of a prediction market for the English football league Premier League and a prediction market for the Swedish football league Allsvenskan. The purpose of this was to see how the overall turnover of a prediction market affects the efficiency of it. We conclude that while the implied probability of the two markets on average corresponds well to the win frequency, the Premier League prediction market has statistically significant lower variation than Allsvenskan. The method we created can also be used to test the relative prediction accuracy of any two prediction markets/bookmakers given enough observations.

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The ASE has developed greatly since its establishment and has succeeded in accomplishing several of its goals by mobilising capital into the productive sectors of the economy. ASE appears to be well organised, attractive, and aims to attract international investments in order to increase the depth of the market. The aim of the study is to explore the efficiency of this emerging market and investigate the integration with other capital markets in the region. Conventional tests beside recent econometric techniques are implemented. The thesis starts with a review of the development of the efficient market hypothesis, followed by an overview of the development of the Jordanian Financial Market. The autocorrelation and runs test - runs up and down, distributions of runs by length, and runs above and below -are applied to the daily price indices of ASE to examine whether ASE is weak form efficient. The empirical results reflect significant positive dependency patterns in stock prices and suggest that the price behaviour in ASE does not follow the random walk model over time. However, further investigation is applied to find whether these results could be exploited, through technical analysis, to outperform the simple buy and hold policy. Filter rules and moving average techniques are used. Furthermore, and for the results of moving average techniques, standard statistical testing is extended through the use of bootstrap techniques. According to the moving average rule, buy and sell signals are generated by two moving averages of the level of the index (long and short period averages). The conditional returns on buy or sell signals from actual data are compared to the conditional returns from simulated series generated by a range of models (random walk with a drift, AR (1), and GARCH-(M)). The results of this part of the study generally suggest that technical analysis helps predict stock price changes in the Jordanian stock market. In the next part of the thesis, recent econometric Procedures are employed to investigate the behavioural properties of ASE indices. The Box-Jenkins estimation, irrespective of the index examined produced different models with a high prediction performance, violating the EM: H conditions. The unit-root test also confirmed these results as the return series for all indices did not exhibit unit root, and all processes were stationary. The GARCH-M(l, l) model is estimated and present mix results cross the indices. To a certain limit, the results support the existence of a significant link between conditional volatility and stock returns, and the conditional variance is found to change over time as a result of volatility clustering effects. The last part of the thesis applies the cointegration and Granger causality tests to investigate the concept of market integration and comovements. These techniques are applied using, firstly, the five Jordanian daily indices, and secondly, the weekly price indices for ten MENA (Middle East and North Africa) markets. The cointegration test between the Jordan index and every other market index is applied. Moreover, different groups of markets (GCC, Africa, and Europe) are composed and the cointegration test is applied for each group. Results suggest that the Jordanian stock market does not exhibit a long run relationship with most other markets, and there is an advantage for investors looking for diversification in the Middle East markets.