Existing papers have shown that innovation and consumer satisfaction influence the firm performance and stock returns; however, the related papers usually neglect the impacts of market status. This paper extends prior papers by considering the impacts of market status when exploring the relationship among innovation, consumer satisfaction, and firm performance. Empirical results show that in the bull markets innovation and consumer satisfaction do not significantly affect stock returns while in the bear markets stock returns are positively associated with the level of innovation and consumer satisfaction. These results suggest that managers should take market status into consideration when making marketing decisions.

This study investigates the effect of board networks on M&A transactions. I select 331 samples of M&A transactions among U.S. Fortunate 500 companies which are also U.S. public companies from 2002 to 2011. In addition, I use definition of board networks by Cai & Sevilir (2012) to identify whether there exist board networks in each sample. About research design, first I use event study methodology to estimates cumulative abnormal returns (CAR), and then examine the relationship between the board networks and M&A performance through regression analysis. Empirical analysis results are as follows:¡G 1. M&A announcement brings significantly negative abnormal returns to the U.S. Fortunate 500 companies. 2. The board networks will decrease the M&A performance for the U.S. Fortunate 500 companies. 3. The board networks are not efficient information channels for the U.S. Fortunate 500 companies.

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<p>The purpose of this paper is to investigate if real stock returns are related to real GDP growth for the case of Sweden between 1980 and 2008. By using correlation tests, the paper presents evidence that there is almost no correlation between current real stock returns and current real GDP growth. On the other hand, Granger causality tests show that stock returns are related to future production growth for the period 1980-2008. Stock returns therefore indicate real economic activity in the next quarter. Between 1980 and 1992, there is no evidence of Granger causality from stock returns to GDP growth. However, stock returns Granger-cause production growth between 1993 and 2008, which suggests that the market has become better at predicting future economic activity. The paper also documents that GDP growth does not indicate future stock returns.</p>

The goal of this dissertation is to contribute to the new field of happiness economics which over the past several decades has substantially enhanced our understanding of cognitive judgment, human behavior, and the nature of happiness. Chapter 1 starts with a discussion of the subjective approach to measuring well-being and lays the foundation for the empirical work that follows in chapters 2 and 3. This approach has a strong appeal because ancient and modern cultures, and a long tradition in philosophy, view achieving happiness as the ultimate goal of human existence. It also recognizes that humans are the best judges of their own condition. In this first chapter, I discuss some common ambiguities related to the term happiness and outline some of the most common ways in which subjective well-being (SWB)data is measured. Next, I discuss how reliable subjective well-being data is and what are some of its strengths and weaknesses in the context of economic research. Some major insights from the growing literature on happiness economics are also provided and alternative approaches to measuring quality of life (and well-being) are suggested in the last section. One puzzle in the happiness economics literature has been that although real incomes have substantially improved over the past 40 years, happiness levels in the United States have stagnated. In chapter 2, I show that the rising level of income inequality in the United States since the 1970s can explain the stagnating happiness levels of Americans. First, using subjective well-being data from the General Social Survey, I estimate the concavity of the utility function within a neo-utilitarian framework of welfare analysis and calculate the Atkinson index of inequality. Although the estimates suggests that Americans have become increasingly more inequality-averse over time, the results suggest that the concavity of the utility function alone cannot explain the happiness patterns observed in the past several decades. Once I account for the negative external cost from economic inequality, however, the empirical analysis implies that economic growth has not been sufficient to compensate for the loss of subjective well-being associated with the rising level of inequality. This is consistent with the findings of several different surveys on subjective well-being. Finally, I evaluate the equality-efficiency trade-off in the US, and discover a small and positive trade-off. Chapter 3 considers another important policy topic in recent years -- the increasing cost of college tuition and the scrutinized value of higher education. Using subjective well-being data, I show that higher education has a large non-monetary (happiness) return that goes beyond the benefit of finding a better paid and more satisfying job. A person with a high school degree, for instance, would have to earn \$41,683 more per year to be equally as happy as somebody with a college degree that has a similar socio-economic background. This large non-monetary return is associated with better marriage, health, and parenting choices, and stronger social networks that translate into higher levels of interpersonal trust. The lion's share of this non-monetary return is earned in college while the majority of the returns from graduate school are associated with higher salary. This return varies among the different subgroups of the population. Women, for example, benefit twice as much from a college education as men, and this non-monetary return has slightly increased over time. This may explain, at least partially, the increase in demand for college education over the past 30 years, and the unprecedented rise in the price of college tuition. It is hypothesized that one way in which education works is to change the attitudes, values, and behavior of students. Higher education, for example, makes students more open-minded, tolerant, and risk-averse. Evidence in support of this hypothesis is found by estimating the coefficient of risk (and inequality) aversion. Finally, using subjective well-being data from the European Value Study, the average non-monetary return from higher education is also calculated for Europeans and compared to that in the United States. Although higher education is also found to have a positive effect on happiness in Europe, the non-monetary returns are much larger in the United States. Furthermore, contrary to the United States, the direct effect of education on happiness in Europe is substantial, while the indirect effect is negligible.

This dissertation focuses on labour market returns of migrants and non-migrants in transitional urban China. Literature on internal migrants in urban China reveals different perspectives on whether internal migrants have higher or lower labour market returns than urban residents. Labour market segmentation theory highlights the effect of an institutional barrier, the Hukou system, and suggests that migrants are placed in the lower segment of the market while urban residents have many advantages over migrants. On the contrary, migration selectively literature suggests migrants in urban China are positively selected and have higher quality than non-migrants, thus suggesting that migrants have higher-level returns than non-migrants. Market transition theory provides a transitional view and suggests the inequality caused by the Hukou system is decreasing with the development of a market economy, with competitiveness increasing among both migrants and urban non-migrants. The main objective of this research is to examine the differences in earnings and occupational attainments among different population groups - urban non-migrants, temporary migrants and permanent migrants - and their changes over time, and to examine factors that contribute to the changes. Three key factors, Hukou reforms, development of market mechanisms and migration selectivity, are highlighted in this study. Using CGSS 2003 and 2008, the empirical analysis shows that first, the independent effect of migrant status on earnings was significant in 2003 but not significant in 2008, however, migrant status had a significant independent effect on individuals’ occupational attainments in both 2003 and 2008. Second, migration selection had significant and positive effects on individual’s earnings and occupational attainments in both 2003 and 2008. Third, migrants with urban Hukou status have an advantage in labour market returns. Urban migrants (temporary and permanent migrants from urban to urban) had a net earnings advantage over urban non-migrants in two years of 2003 and 2008; permanent migrants (permanent migrants from rural to urban and from urban to urban) had an advantage in occupational attainments over urban non-migrants in both 2003 and 2008. The mixed findings of decreased effects of migrant status on individual’s earnings from 2003 to 2008 and the remaining effect of migrant status on individual’s occupational attainment from 2003 to 2008 indicate that both segmentation and competition exist in urban labour markets in China. This reflects the nature of China’s transition from a planned to a market economy, where growing market forces co-exist with institutional legacies. Migrants in China are positively selected and migration experience contributes positive returns on earnings and occupational attainments.

This doctoral dissertation titled "Product Strategies in Supply Chains" consists of three essays. In this dissertation, I study firms' strategic decisions regarding design of products and product lines in different supply chain contexts. I focus on firms' strategic interactions with supply chain members, including consumers and suppliers, in dynamic environments. The first essay (Chapter 2) studies how the cost structure of and information asymmetry about an OEM's in-house option affect her choice of product design quality in a decentralized supply chain where the supplier specifies contract terms. The second essay (Chapter 3) examines the effect of product returns and their potential refurbishing on intertemporal product strategy and profit of a firm facing strategic consumers. We also examine the effect of product returns on the time inconsistency problem faced by the firm. The third essay (Chapter 4) investigates the impact of competition from a third-party remanufacturer on product strategy and profit of an OEM in the presence of strategic consumers. Motivated by general perception among practitioners and the extant literature showing the competition from third-party remanufacturers as undesirable for the OEM, we specifically examine whether competition from a third-party remanufacturer is always undesirable for the OEM.

This dissertation examines the effect of income smoothing on information uncertainty, stock returns, and cost of equity. Following existing literature, I construct two income smoothing measures - capturing income smoothing through both total accruals and discretionary accruals. I show that income smoothing tends to reduce firms' information uncertainty, as measured by stock return volatility, analyst forecast dispersion, and analyst forecast error. Further, I provide evidence that market prices income smoothing and rewards income smoothing firms with a premium. Controlling for unexpected earnings shocks and other firm characteristics, income smoothing firms have significantly higher abnormal returns around earnings announcement. Finally, I show that income smoothing, particularly through discretionary accruals, reduces firms' implied cost of equity.

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