The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of state ownership in Saudi firms listed in the stock market. The first chapter studies the influence of state ownership on financial constraint on investment. Some scholars believe state ownership has a negative effect on the firm value. However, by using two measures of financial constraint, the investment cash flow sensitivity and the Kaplan and Zingales financial constraints index, the finding indicates that the existent of government ownership decreases financial constraint in firms. Also, the results show that the higher government ownership percentage the less financial constraint in firms. The second chapter studies the influence of specific company factors and the government ownership factor on capital structure. The finding shows that tangibility of assets and size have a positive association with leverage. Leverage is negatively correlated with growth and profitably. Finally, the results suggest that government ownership affects the level of leverage negatively.

The difference in financial literacy among business owners may affect how financial decisions are made, especially when comparing between women and men. Using role congruity theory as the theoretical framework, the objective of this study is to examine how financial literacy, composed of financial knowledge and financial confidence, differs in influence in the decision-making process of financial decisions between self-employed women and self-employed men. Based on data from the 2014 Canadian Financial Capability Survey (CFCS), results show that self-employed women and self-employed men have equivalent financial knowledge. In addition, while self-employed women have less financial confidence than self-employed men, self-employed men are more overconfident than self-employed women, both groups are, in general equally likely to make risky (bad) decisions. This suggests that financial confidence plays an important role as financial knowledge does in the decision-making process.

Libya is a predominately Muslim country where Islamic finance has not yet been established. However, given the current extensive program of financial reform in Libya and the rapid growth and appeal of Islamic finance in comparable economies, there is growing pressure for a system of Islamic finance to be provided. There is then a pressing need for research into the prospects for Islamic finance from a consumer and provider perceptive to inform this debate and thereby meet the needs of policymakers, financial service providers and prospective users. Accordingly, this study of Libyan attitudes towards Islamic methods of finance, the first study attempted in the Libyan context and one of few studies globally, applies a model derived from the Theory of Reasoned Action to analyse attitudes towards Islamic finance. The particular focus is to understand how the Theory of Reasoned Action can be used for predicting and understanding attitudes towards the potential use of Islamic methods of finance by Libyan retail consumers, business firms and banks. Four main research questions are posed to address this objective. First, does awareness of Islamic methods of finance influence attitudes towards the use of Islamic finance? Second, do socioeconomic, demographic and other factors influence attitudes towards Islamic finance? Third, what are the principal motivating factors towards the potential use of Islamic finance? Finally, is religion the major influence on the likelihood of engaging in Islamic finance? Three surveys of 385 retail consumers, 296 business firms and 134 bank managers in Libya are conducted in 2007/08 to achieve this objective. Descriptive analysis and multivariate statistical analysis (including factor analysis, discriminant analysis and binary logistic regressions) are used to analyse the data. The principal findings are that awareness of Islamic methods of finance and socioeconomic, demographic and business characteristics are key determinants of the likelihood of the use of Islamic finance. Further, religion plays a key, though not the only, role in influencing these attitudes. The thesis findings are of key importance in informing future financial industry practice and financial policy formation in Libya.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Capella University, 2006. / Adviser: Apiwan Born. Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-167)

In the first part of the thesis I focus on credit markets in developing countries, and describe the competitive interaction between Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). Microfinance has recently attracted a lot of attention from investors, politicians, scholars and, most of all, people working on development. As a results, a huge number of MFIs are being created all over the world so that, as of today, practitioners reckon that about 100 millions of customers are being served. Remarkably, about 67% of them are women. The reason of this extraordinary effort is that Microfinance is considered the most promising development tool currently available. This belief is based on two important features of Microfinance: (i) It promises to be financially viable (and in some cases even profitable) since poor people have proven to be reliable clients. As a result, Microfinance is potentially a zero-cost development tool. (ii) It hinges on the entrepreneurial abilities of the poor. It is designed to help the poor to help themselves, in their own home countries, by allowing them to use their skills, ideas and potentials. This should progressively make developing countries independent of rich ones' help. The growth of Microfinance has been so fast that many issues and related research questions are still not answered. In my thesis I try to address one of them, that I believe particularly important: the increase of competition between MFIs. As economic theory predicts, competition can have dramatic consequences in terms of borrower welfare, profitability of the institutions and, therefore, on the attractiveness of the business for potential investors, donors and entrants. I use the tools of industrial organization and contract theory to understand these effects, measure them, and give some interesting policy advice. In the first paper, I analyze the effects of entry of a new MFI in a previously monopolistic microcredit market. In order to catch the salient features of financial markets in developing countries, I use a model of asymmetric information and assume that institutions can offer only one type of contract. I consider different behavioral assumptions for the MFIs and study their influence on equilibrium predictions. The model allows showing that competition can lead to equilibria in which MFIs differentiate their contracts in order to screen borrowers. This process can, unfortunately, make the poor borrowers worse off. Interestingly, the screening process we describe creates a previously unexplored source of credit rationing. I also prove that the presence in the market of an altruistic MFI, reduces rationing and, via this channel, affects positively the competitor's profit. In the second paper, I study the effects of competition in those markets in which, due to the absence of credit bureaus, small entrepreneurs can simultaneously borrow from more than one institution. As in the first paper, I analyze an oligopolistic microcredit market characterized by asymmetric information and institutions that can offer only one type of contract. The main contribution is to show that appropriate contract design can eliminate the ex-ante incentives for multiple borrowing. Moreover, when the market is still largely unserved and particularly risky, a screening strategy leading to con- tract differentiation and credit rationing is unambiguously the most effective to avoid multiple borrowing. The result of this paper can also be read as important robustness checks of the findings of my first paper. In the last part of the thesis, I depart from the analysis of developing countries to consider, more generally, the corporate governance of financial infrastructures. The efficient functioning of financial markets relies more and more on the presence of infrastructures providing services like clearing, settlement, messaging and many others. The last years have been characterized by interesting dynamics in the ownership regime of these service providers. Both mutualizations and de-mutualizations took place, together with entry and exit of different players. Starting from this observation, in the last paper (with Joachim Keller), we analyze the effects of competitive interaction between differently owned financial providers. We mainly focus on the incentives to invest in safety enhancing measures and we describe the different equilibrium market configurations. We use a model in which agents need an input service for the financial market they operate in. They can decide whether to provide it them selves by forming a Cooperative or outsource it from a Third Party Provider. We prove that the co-existence of differently governed infrastructures leads to a significant reduction in the investment in safety. In most cases, monopolistic provision is preferable to competition. Moreover, the decision rule used within the Cooperative plays a central role in determining the optimal market configuration. All in all, throughout my thesis, I use the tools of industrial organization and contract theory to model the competitive interaction of the different actors operating in financial markets. Understanding the dynamics typical of developing countries can help in gaining a deeper comprehension of the markets in richer countries, and vice-versa. I am convinced that analyzing the differences and the similarities of financial markets in different regions of the world can be of great importance for economic theorists, in that it provides a counterfactual for the assumptions and the results on which our predictions and policy advices are based.

This article examines the liberalization and cross-border integration of European financial markets from a political-economic perspective. Three features particularly come to the fore: First, national liberalization and European integration have been two sides of one integrated political process that owes its specific dynamics to the conflicts of interest between different groups of actors. Second, not only effective liberalization, but also market integration relies on an extension and formalization of public financial market regulation – and thus seemingly on ‘more state’. Third, the established distinction between ‘state’ and ‘market’ and their respective roles is insufficient for a proper understanding for the politics of financial market regulation.

The thesis is concerned with the history of financial supervision in Sweden during the twentieth century up to the financial crisis in the early 1990s. To this end a theoretical framework is developed which is based on institutional economics, law and economics, theories on bureaucracies, regulatory enforcement and policy analysis. Except for the attempt to propose how financial supervision and supervisors could be understood theoretically, the thesis address problems ranging from the organization of supervision in relation to regulation and the changes of the regulated market, the constraints and abilities put on supervisors in different institutional arrangements and regulatory regimes, and the competence of supervisors. The extensive use of empirical data aims to make the thesis a contribution also to financial history research in general, and the growing research on the histories of financial supervision in particular.

This thesis attempts to establish what determines financial development in Africa by making use of cross sectional and panel data techniques. Financial development, the dependent variable, is measured using the banking sector indicator liquid liabilities (M3) while trade openness, financial openness and the GDP growth rates are used as independent variables. The data used in this research ranges from 1975-200, though for the cross sectional analysis particular years (1975, 1985, 1995, and 2005) are focused on. The empirical results from both regression types generally suggest that trade openness has a significantly positive effect on Africa’s financial development. Cross-sectional results show that financial openness and the GDP growth rate are significantly negative in 2005. With the panel data results, financial openness is significantly negative in explaining financial development, while the GDP growth rate is insignificant suggesting that it is not an important determinant of financial development for African countries.

What explains the creation and strengthening of international securities market standards through the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)? This thesis addresses this question by analyzing the creation and strengthening of four of IOSCO’s international securities market standards between 1991 and 2010 relating to the following issues: the governance of cross-border financial crime, the objectives and principles of domestic securities market regulation, the regulation of credit rating agencies, and the regulation of hedge funds. This thesis argues that the creation and strengthening of these standards is derived from the role and influence of three different political actors: the transgovernmental network of securities market regulators, domestic legislatures, and states. The role and influence of these different political actors differs across issue areas and across time. To account for the differentiated sources of international securities market standards, this thesis proposes a Principal-Agent (PA) analytical framework. Domestic legislatures (the principal) delegate to securities regulators (the agent) the authority to oversee and regulate domestic securities markets by granting regulators specific forms of statutory authority. Exercising discretion within this act of delegation, domestic securities regulators act together in a transgovernmental network to create and strengthen international securities market standards. They are prompted to act by threats to the integrity and stability of developed financial centers from under-regulated or ineffectively regulated foreign financial centers, as well as by new policy preferences of domestic legislatures seeking to regulate previously unregulated financial market actors. Domestic legislatures also use multiple agents to ensure that agents act consistent with their policy preferences: their concerns about the costs of under-regulated foreign jurisdictions can generate direct pressure from states on international financial regulatory institutions to strengthen the implementation of international financial standards. This thesis makes an empirical contribution to existing literature by analyzing previously understudied international securities market standards. This thesis also makes a theoretical contribution to both IPE literature and PA theory within International Organization (IO) literature. For IPE literature, this thesis establishes a theoretical framework that accounts for the differentiated role and influence of the transgovernmental network of securities market regulators, domestic legislatures, and states in the creation and strengthening of international securities market standards. For PA theory within IO literature, this thesis highlights the role of the principled professional interests of the transgovernmental network of securities market regulators in creating and strengthening international securities market standards.

This study aimed to explore the business strategies of large financial groups and risk management, analysis of its implementation in practice strategy and decision-making process, and the development of this policy consideration. Understanding of how large financial holding group do its own resources and risk management controls in the financial turmoil of can be maintained after the high-performance business performance and strategy differences before and after the financial crisis This study using case study research made exploratory study foundings that with framework of the theory, according to the theory of the systematic collection, induction and data analysis. Research framework is divided into six items: 1.Analysis of the financial industry environment: 2.Before the financial crisis management strategy of the case company's direction. 3. after the financial crisis management strategy of the case company's direction. 4. Response strategy in the future. On selection of Fubon Financial and Cathay Financial Holding and Citigroup Bank of Taiwan.The research findings before and after the strategy differences between the financial financial crisis are listed as below: 1. The strategy differences for Cathay Financial Holding (1)Reorientation recruitment of manpower; (2).More attention to personnel training function; (3).More and more extensive range of professional services; (4). Information technology continue to improve; (5). Risk management control situations contractor for the previous high-risk business 2. The strategy differences for Fubon Financial Holding (1).To attracts more international and the recognition concept of talents; (2). From quantity to quality education and training aspects of the improvement; (3). Actively seeking to expand overseas business base; (4). Emphasis on providing clients with timely and consistent with the needs of the product; (5). Information processing and improve the marketing and organizational effectiveness; (6). On the action more attention to risk management and implementation. 3. The strategy differences for Citigroup Bank of Taiwan (1). More attention to human quality of staff; (2). Employees to obtain relevant training and professional certifications pay more attention to; (3). After the branch has continued to expand product reach economies of scale advantages; (4). Development of the past, Taiwan has not been exposed to products and services; (5). Information technology upgrading hardware and software facilities; (6). into Citigroup's risk control mechanisms.