Abstract The study reported here was tring to examine the macroeconomic variables that determine the earnings multiple of the Taiwan stock market. For this study, monthly time-series data were used for each of the variables from 1991 through 2001. We used earnings to price ratio¡]E/P¡^as the dependent variable¡AM1B¡BGDP¡]lag¡^¡Bmarket return¡Bcapital increasing rate¡Blog of 5 years bond yield¡Binflation rate¡Blag of earning growth and market value to GNP ratio¡]MV/GNP¡^as the independent variables to construct a multiple-regression model. And we finded the maraket value to GNP ratio¡]MV/GNP¡^was the most powerful variable of the 5 significant variables. GDP¡]lag¡^was second, capaital incresing rate ranked third. Market return was fourth, and M1B was the fifth most explanatory variable. Both capaital increasing rate¡]supply side¡^and M1B¡]demand side¡^variables were signifinant¡Ameant the Law of Supply ¡® Demand remained unchanged in the Taiwan stock market.

In chapter 1, we show (i) that the risk-return characteristics of our sample of 17 developed stock markets of the world have converged significantly toward each other during our study period 1974 2004, and (ii) that this international convergence in risk-return characteristics is driven mainly by the declining country effect, rather than the rising industry effect, suggesting that the convergence is associated with international market integration. Specifically, we first compute the risk-return distance among international stock markets based on the Euclidean distance and find that the distance thus computed has been deceasing significantly over time, implying a mean-variance convergence. In particular, the average risk-return distance has decreased by about 43% over our sample period. The speed of convergence, however, varies greatly across individual markets, largely reflecting the initial distance of each individual market from the international average risk-return characteristic. Lastly, we document that the risk-return characteristics of our sample of 14 emerging markets have been converging rapidly toward those of developed markets in recent years. This development notwithstanding, emerging markets still remain as a distinct asset class. In chapter 2, we examine the historical evolution of international earnings-to-price ratios for a sample of 17 markets over the period 1980 2004. We introduce a distance measure of earnings-to-price ratios among international stock markets and find that earnings-to-price ratios of 17 markets have significantly converged toward each other during the period. The average distance measure for 17 markets has decreased by about 80 percent during the period. The speed of convergence for individual markets varies and mainly reflects the initial distance of individual markets from the international average. We also find that although both country and industry effects account for convergence in earnings-to-price ratios among the sample markets, country effect dominates industry effect in terms of the magnitude. We further examine what could explain the declining country effect and document that the time trend of dividend-yield distance measure closely follows that of earnings-to-price distance measure. This result suggests that convergence in earnings-to-price ratio is mainly due to convergence in economic factors such as growth opportunities or discount rates rather than due to convergence in accounting practices.

Denna studie undersöker om en enkel värdeinvesteringsstrategi, anpassad för en privat investerare, kan generera överavkastning på den svenska aktiemarknaden. Investeringsstrategin testas under perioden 01.04.2012–31.03.2018. Tre nyckeltal används, book-to-market (B/M), earnings-to-price (E/P) och historisk försäljningstillväxt (SG), för att bilda tre likaviktade portföljer. En tvådimensionell sorteringsmetod används för att sortera urvalet och identifiera undervärderade bolag som väljs in i portföljerna. Tre portföljer skapas den 1 april 2012 och hålls i ett år innan innehavet omfördelas. Portföljernas avkastning riskjusteras med CAPM och Jensens alfa. Två av de tre portföljer som studien undersöker når en statistiskt signifikant överavkastning på enprocentsnivån och säkerställer att investeringsstrategin kan användas för att generera överavkastning.

This thesis examines the performance of portfolios sorted by gross-profit-to-asset (GPA) as a quality investing on the Swedish stock exchange. It constructs long-only portfolios and long-short portfolios sorted by GPA, book-to-market (B/P) and earnings-per-price (E/P). Thus, the thesis includes quality and value investing. The thesis compares separately the constructed long-only and long-short portfolios among each other. The long-only strategies are additionally compared to the market index. The study further examines a combined portfolio, sorting for GPA and B/P in order to test Novy-Marx’s findings. He reports, that the average return improves, while the standard deviation remains at the same level for a combined portfolio sorting for GPA and B/P. This requires a negative correlation. The comparison is based on different portfolio measurements as i.e. s.d. The asset pricing models CAPM and 5-Factor Model are applied. In addition, actual returns, excessive return over the risk-free rate and over the market index as a benchmark are assessed for the portfolio. The analysis is conducted for the time period 1994-2013 and separately for downturns, considering 2000-2003, 2007-2009 and 2010. The results show a great applicability of the gross-profitability ratio on the Swedish market. This quality strategy convinces not only during normal times with the portfolios GPA-h (long-only) and GPA-hl (long-short) but also in stressed times. GPA-h reports positive (abnormal) returns GPA-h during downturns. The long-only and long-short portfolios based on GPA outperform the market in both time periods. GPA-sorted portfolios perform in general better and the two value strategies during normal times and downturns, based on the annual average return. Examining the two value strategies EP-sorted portfolios are superior over BP-sorted portfolios. EP-portfolios achieve better performance during downturns, regarding Jensen’s alpha. It can be derived, that EP is countercyclical. The combined portfolio generates high return and has a high standard deviation. The assessed statement of Novy-Marx cannot be confirmed for the Swedish stock market. It has to be stated that we detected positive correlation instead of negative correlation. It can be derived, that GPA ratio is applicable on the Swedish market, considering the assumptions and limitations of this study. EP-based portfolios show a good performance during downturns. BP- based portfolios do not perform well on the sweidish market in the assessed time frame. The combined portfolio GPABP-hh does increase returns with constant standard deviation, referred to BP-h. Our findings show, that both value strategies do not outperform the market index. The EP-based value portfolios outperform BP-based portfolios. EP-h performs better during downturns considering Jensen’s alpha.