There is an ongoing trade war between the two largest economies in the world. Since the trade war is still ongoing, few studies have been done to investigate how it affects the global economy. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the trade war’s effect on the Swedish stock market between the 2nd of March 2018 when U.S. president Donald Trump first threatened to impose tariffs on Chinese imports to the 15th of January 2020 when the phase one deal was signed. Data is collected from Donald Trump’s official twitter account and by statements from the U.S. and Chinese governments. An event study is then made by using the market model to find abnormal returns for different sectors and stocks on OMXS large cap. The study shows that the sectors react differently to the announcements. Some sectors were not affected at all and others were heavily affected. Telecommunication is a sector that had an average cumulative abnormal return close to zero both when there was positive news and negative news about the trade war. Contrarily, a sector that seems to be highly correlated to the news about the trade war is the Technology sector. Basic Resources is the most affected sector in the study when bad news occurred. From our study, we can conclude that the Swedish stock market is affected by the trade war.

[pt] Um dos grandes fatores motivadores das operações de fusões e aquisições é a expectativa de criação de valor para as empresas envolvidas. Este trabalho tem por objetivo avaliar esta expectativa por parte dos acionistas por ocasião do anúncio de tais operações. Para isso foram analisadas 20 operações, destacadas no período de 2003 a 2011 no mercado brasileiro, através da metodologia de estudo de evento. Neste estudo foram medidos os retornos anormais ocorridos nas ações de emissão das empresas adquirentes, com a utilização das cotações destas ações na BMEFBOVESPA, assumindo que as expectativas de criação de valor são imediatamente incorporadas aos preços dos ativos, logo após a disponibilização da informação sobre a operação de fusão ou aquisição. / [en] One of the most important reasons for Mergers and Acquisitions deals is the expectation of value creation for the companies involved. The objective of this research is to evaluate this expectation by the shareholders by the time of the announcement of the deal. In order to do that, 40 deals were analyzed, spanning the period from 2003 to 2011 in the Brazilian market, using the event study methodology. During this work, the abnormal returns obtained by the acquiring companies’ shares were measured, using data from the Brazilian stock exchange BMEFBOVESPA, considering the premise that the expectations of value creation are immediately added to the assets’ prices, after the announcement of the M&A deals. For the whole sample considered no statistically significant abnormal returns were detected, although in a few specific deals they have been observed, both positive and negative.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of cross-listing on companies' performance. It is divided into two aspects, one in short-term and the other in long-term. In short-run study, 6 companies cross-listing in NYSE and Chinese market are in the sample. In pre-cross-listing period, the abnormal returns are mostly positive and remain stable; the cumulative abnormal returns are close to 0 and the difference among them is very small; but on the cross-listing day, all the companies' abnormal returns decline, and after that day, the abnormal returns still fluctuate around 0 while most of them are negative, and the difference among each company's cumulative abnormal return become large. In long-run study, by using multiple regression of 99 Chinese companies listed in th U.S. markets form 2007 to 2012, there is a significant positive relationship between total asset turnover and cross-listing at 5% significance level and there is a significantly negative relation between market value and cross-listing at 10%significance level; return on equity and return on asset are both positive with cross-llisting, but not significant.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has moved to the forefront of many firms' concerns and is defined as a firm taking into consideration the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of the firm's actions on all stakeholders: customers, employees, shareholders, communities at large, and the environment. This dissertation will look at several public announcements and examine not only the level of corporate social responsibility a firm has but also the effects these announcements have on not only firm value but also customers' reactions to them. The three samples examined in the paper are boycotts announcements, recall announcements, and negative social responsibility announcements. The announcements were separated into the three groups to allow me to better analyze the effects of individual announcements and distinguish between types of announcements. The first part of the study focused on market response, measured by stock reactions and shows that the three samples of event announcements produced inconsistent results. Each of the three events produced the negative short term effects expected, either for Day 0 or for the post event period (+1, +30). However, the significance varied and the control sample for both recalls and boycotts produced positive post announcement results, implying that competitors are positively affected by these announcements. With regards to the control samples, only the general announcements control sample produced negative post announcement implying market wide affects. These test also showed that recalls may be subject more often to leakage. The general findings of this test are as expected though the significance was not. The second part of the study focused on customer's reactions, measured by change in market shares, to the three announcements. I found that no significant effect existed due to any of the three types of announcements, negative CSR announcements, boycotts, and recalls. This can be interpreted as the lack of public response to the announcements studied. These results were then followed up with a regression analysis that put the market share as the dependent variable and `Sample" as one of the independent variables. The purpose was to see if the firms that were subject to an announcement affected market share significantly. With regards to the tests establishing the effects of variables on market share, it was found that the results in all three samples were similar. The Size variable was always among the most significant followed by whether the firm is in its growth stages or mature stages. The Sample variable is the most important variable in the regression and shows that the subject firms did not have the expected effect on market share. For all three samples the Sample variable was not consistently significant but was, in fact, positive. This implies that a negative announcement positively contributes to market share. The implication of these regressions is not necessarily contrary to the event study first completed since the stock market study is observing owners' responses while the market share analysis is studying the customers' response to the same announcements. The final portion of the study shows that KLD is relatively effective at ranking firms, both at the product and firm level. Effective ranking is determined as the firm's lack of need to reassess a firm after an announcement. I find that there is no significant or economic difference in the ranking provided by KLD in the years surrounding the event. However, the regression results in all samples tested did produce the negative reaction in the KLD ranking that was as expected. However, it was only significant in the boycott sample. I conclude that the market reacts minimally to poor CSR and that customer's barks' are worse than their bite.

The author investigated the condition under which competition effect and contagion effect impact the suppliers of the firm encountering data breach. An event study was conducted to analyze the stock price of 104 suppliers of Target after the large-scale data breach in 2013. The result showed that suppliers with high dependence on Target experienced negative abnormal return on the day after Target’s announcement, while those with low dependence experienced positive abnormal return. After regressing the abnormal return on some explanatory variables, the result showed that firms with better operational performance and high information technology capability were less negatively affected. This study suggested that suppliers who relatively highly rely on one customer company are susceptible for the negative shock from that customer because of contagion effect. Furthermore, maintaining good performance and investing in information technology can help firms reduce losses from negative events happened in customer companies.

Capital markets have changed profoundly since green bonds were first introduced in 2013 as a way of financing programs benefiting social and environmental sustainability. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether green bond issues are related to value creation as compared with conventional bond issues, and how the relative size of a bond issue may impact this relationship. Using bonds issued on Nasdaq Stockholm from 2014 to 2020, our study finds no significant abnormal returns for green bonds, the benchmark of conventional bonds nor the comparison of the means. Further, we could not find an interaction effect between the relative issue size and the green bond. Hence, this study finds no indication that green bonds create value. However, we show that relative size has a positive and significant regression coefficient in all models, meaning that the ​larger the relative size of a bond issue, the more the stock price is expected to increase.

Background: The credit rating agencies have been heavily contested and criticized. In addition to this, other informational sources may potentially deliver the information that the CRA is intended to provide. This may have changed their role in reducing information asymmetry in the financial market. Purpose: This thesis will investigate (i) whether changes (upgrade/downgrade) in credit ratings lead to abnormal returns in share value, and thereby provide useful information to potential and current investors. The thesis will also (ii) examine whether there are significant differences between the periods before and after the GFC in 2008. Method: Regression based event study using a dummy-variable approach. Conclusions: No strong evidence that credit ratings have a significant effect on stock prices in the European stock market. Small indications that the market is responding more strongly to a rating change announcement during the period 2000-2008 compared to 2009-2019.

This thesis examines the initial and long-term market reactions following reversed profit warnings on the Nordic markets. Furthermore, it investigates if firm size and trading volume can explain the magnitude of the market reaction. The study is based on 118 reversed profit warnings announced on the Nordic markets during 2010-2019 applying an event study approach, measuring abnormal returns. To examine if firm size and trading volume affects the market reaction, this study uses a regression analysis to complement the event study. Results show a significant initial market reaction, confirming that the market is genuinely surprised by a profit warning. In accordance with the efficient market hypothesis, the market is also seen to correct its expectations based on the new information. The initial reaction is more substantial for smaller firms and higher trading volume is seen to increase abnormal returns. Our long-term results show a significant reversal in share price, indicating that there is an overreaction to reversed profit warnings. The long-term regression results show that neither firm size nor trading volume explain the reversal in share price.

In 1890, the American naval officer and scholar Alfred Thayer Mahan formulated as a theory that seapower brings prosperity. This thesis in War Science tests whether Mahan’s theory remains valid in the modern day. A multi-disciplinary approach is taken, wherein a financial event study method is employed for hypothesis testing. Prosperity is the product of many factors that interact in complex systems. Consequently, isolating the positive contribution of seapower is difficult. Its influence is therefore inferred from its absence, in the form of failure to protect shipment of a key commodity. By the logic of the operationalisation, insufficient seapower results in attacks on shipping. Information of attacks is promptly reflected in asset prices on intensively traded financial markets. A negative change in a stock market index represents a reduction in the value of the traded assets. This in turn implies a negative contribution to national prosperity. Specifically, attacks on supertankers are used as empirical data. The ensuing impact is measured in first order effects on oil prices and second order effects on stock market returns. A strong correlation is found between attacks on supertankers and oil price shocks. A sufficiently strong impact is found on stock market returns to allow for arguing that Mahan’s theory retains validity. Given recent developments in major power relations, Mahanian postulates may be more in fashion now than in the previous century. The findings complement previous research on the benefits from seapower, naval presence and maritime security. In addition to general policy implications from exhibiting the significance of seapower, an elaboration on the current security situation’s ramifications for small states. Thereby it situates seapower in its grand strategic context.

In this thesis, I study the effect of the downsizing of military bases after theCold War on both local house prices and neighboring municipalities’ houseprices. To establish causality, I use a Difference-in-Difference approach withTwo-Way Fixed Effects. Then an Event Study is performed to examinepossible dynamic effects. I studied both the general effect and heterogeneitytreatment effect. I found that there, in general, is no effect on local houseprices. Only from the 1999s defense bill, which increased local house priceswhen air force bases closed and decreased when army bases closed. However,there is evidence of spillover effects on neighboring municipalities’ houseprices in general, regardless of the base type, from the downsizing of themilitary.