Performance measurement of Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) is of increasing importance for aid agencies, policy-makers and donors. A widely used benchmark for measuring the efficiency of NPOs is the overhead cost ratio, consisting of the total money spent on administration and fundraising relative to the budget. Donors generally favor a lower overhead cost ratio as it ensures that more Money directly reaches beneficiaries. Unlike fundraising expenses, administrative costs do not contribute to advertising the actions of an NPO even though they account for a significant proportion of overhead cost. Reducing administrative expenses is a logical consequence from a financial viewpoint, but might negatively affect NPOs through the resulting administrative capacities. This phenomenon is known as "Nonprofit Starvation Cycle" This work provides an analytical framework for analyzing NPO decision making concerning administrative costs. The paper provides answers to important research questions on the optimal level of administrative spending, the influencing factors and the effects of available information on NPOs. The research shows that focusing on financial performance measurements can result in reduced utility created for NPOs. Less transparency often leads to increased utility for NPOs, but more transparency can increase NPOs' utility if the information available exceeds a certain threshold. Fluctuating donations are challenging for NPOs' planning and may Impact administrative capacities negatively.

My dissertation consists of two essays on mutual funds. The first essay examines the role of extreme positive returns on future fund flows using maximum style-adjusted daily returns (hereafter MAX) over the previous month. My results suggest that there is a positive and significant relation between MAX and future fund flows. The results are robust to controls for fund performance, fund size, age, turnover, fund fees, volatility, and skewness of fund returns. Of particular interest, this relation exits only in retail funds. Moreover, MAX is persistent from one month to the next, but MAX-based investment strategies are associated with lower risk-adjusted returns than investors could have achieved in otherwise similar funds. Overall, my analysis suggests that mutual fund investors are attracted to maximum style-adjusted daily returns, which is in line with the theoretical argument that investors exhibit a preference for lottery-like payoffs. These investors are successful in achieving a lottery-like return profile, but this strategy is costly in terms of expected returns The second essay studies the effect of recent and long-term mutual fund performance on future fund flows. I document that investors' response to recent performance depends on average long-term performance. In particular, a recent loser fund experiences outflows only if its longer-term performance is also poor. Similarly, recent good performance leads to more inflows only if the fund has also good long-run performance. In contrast, investors ignore recent performance if it provides a signal that conflicts with the longer-term signal. This implies that good fund managers with a longer-term focus will find it easier to attract future inflows than managers with a short-term horizon.

by Shek Wong. / Thesis submitted in: December 1997. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-[94]). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Electronic Commerce --- p.3 / Chapter 1.2 --- Electronic Cash --- p.7 / Chapter 1.3 --- What This Report Contains --- p.9 / Chapter 2 --- Cryptographic Background --- p.11 / Chapter 2.1 --- Euler Totient Function --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2 --- Fermat's Little Theorem --- p.12 / Chapter 2.3 --- Quadratic Residues --- p.12 / Chapter 2.4 --- Legendre Symbol --- p.13 / Chapter 2.5 --- Jacobi Symbol --- p.14 / Chapter 2.6 --- Blum Integer --- p.16 / Chapter 2.7 --- Williams Integer --- p.18 / Chapter 2.8 --- The Quadratic Residuosity Problem --- p.19 / Chapter 2.9 --- The Factorization Problem --- p.20 / Chapter 2.10 --- The Discrete Logarithm Problem --- p.20 / Chapter 2.11 --- One-way Functions --- p.21 / Chapter 2.12 --- Blind Signature --- p.22 / Chapter 2.13 --- Cut-and-choose Methodology --- p.24 / Chapter 3 --- Anatomy and Panorama of Electronic Cash --- p.26 / Chapter 3.1 --- Anatomy of Electronic Cash --- p.26 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Three Functions and Six Criteria --- p.28 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Untraceable --- p.29 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- Online and Off-line --- p.30 / Chapter 3.1.4 --- Security --- p.32 / Chapter 3.1.5 --- Transferability --- p.33 / Chapter 3.2 --- Panorama of Electronic Cash --- p.34 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- First Model of Off-line Electronic Cash --- p.34 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Successors --- p.35 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Binary Tree Based Divisible Electronic Cash --- p.36 / Chapter 4 --- Spending Limit Enforced Electronic Cash --- p.37 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction to Spending Limit Enforced Electronic Cash --- p.37 / Chapter 4.2 --- The Scheme --- p.41 / Chapter 4.3 --- An Example --- p.44 / Chapter 4.4 --- Techniques --- p.47 / Chapter 4.5 --- Security and Efficiency --- p.51 / Chapter 5 --- Interest-bearing Electronic Cash --- p.53 / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction to Interest-bearing Electronic Cash --- p.53 / Chapter 5.2 --- An Example --- p.55 / Chapter 5.3 --- The Scheme --- p.55 / Chapter 5.4 --- Security --- p.57 / Chapter 5.5 --- An Integrated Scheme --- p.58 / Chapter 5.6 --- Applications --- p.59 / Chapter 6 --- Abacus Type Electronic Cash --- p.61 / Chapter 6.1 --- Introduction --- p.61 / Chapter 6.2 --- Abacus Model --- p.63 / Chapter 6.3 --- Divisible Abacus Electronic Coins --- p.66 / Chapter 6.3.1 --- Binary Tree Abacus Approach --- p.66 / Chapter 6.3.2 --- Multi-tree Approach --- p.57 / Chapter 6.3.3 --- Analysis --- p.69 / Chapter 6.4 --- Abacus Electronic Cash System --- p.71 / Chapter 6.4.1 --- Opening Protocol --- p.71 / Chapter 6.4.2 --- Withdrawal Protocol --- p.74 / Chapter 6.4.3 --- Payment and Deposit Protocol --- p.75 / Chapter 6.5 --- Anonymity and System Efficiency --- p.78 / Chapter 7 --- Conclusions --- p.80 / Chapter A --- Internet Payment Systems --- p.82 / Chapter A.1 --- Bare Web FORM --- p.82 / Chapter A.2 --- Secure Web FORM Payment System --- p.85 / Chapter A.3 --- Membership Type Payment System --- p.86 / Chapter A.4 --- Agent Based Payment System --- p.87 / Chapter A.5 --- Internet-based POS --- p.87 / B Papers derived from this thesis --- p.89 / Bibliography --- p.90

Cases involving sudden environmental events, such as British Petroleum’s (BP’s) accidental oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, clearly demonstrate the causal relation between poor corporate environmental performance and abrupt loss of shareholder value. Under such circumstances, a firm’s results can be readily priced using a conventional valuation model and hence, there is a clear nexus between environmental performance and business outcomes, as represented by the firm’s financial results as well as the event impact on shareholder value through equity prices. However, in less extreme cases there is no clear evidence of there being a relationship between these elements. Further, in relation to the literature on the nature of and motivations for corporate social and environmental reporting, scant attention has been directed towards research on the usefulness of environmental performance information to financial decision makers. Moreover, such studies as there have been have delivered mixed results in the absence of a conceptual framework that is able to distinguish the quality of such reporting from underlying performance and other representations of performance, such as reputation and SRI index membership. In order to address these previous shortcomings in this field, the proposed research focuses on environmental issues to investigate whether corporate environmental performance information can be considered as an aspect of a firm’s value, in terms of equity performance and to this end three empirical studies are carried out probing the relationships, respectively, between: - corporate social responsibility (CSR) reputation and equity performance, - socially responsible investment (SRI) index membership and equity performance, and - CSR ratings and share selection in SRI versus general investment funds, whilst in each case controlling for other environmentally related factors, as well as financial performance. The findings of the first empirical study suggest that environmental reputation and physical performance measured as proxies of the corporate environmental performance have value relevance, being negatively significantly related to the stock valuation, whereas environmental disclosure (DJSI) is not value relevant to financial decision-makers, and hence, not incorporated into share prices. However, the outcomes suggest that the GRI, an alternative measure of environmental disclosure, is value relevant even though it is not incorporated into share prices. The outcomes of the second empirical study indicate that companies being added to the DJSI or the FTSE4Good index in the March announcement results in a temporary decrease in a their share price, whilst companies added in (deleted from) the September announcement of the FTSE4Good index experience a significant but temporary increase (decrease) in stock return. However, membership of SRI indices does not have value relevance. Finally, the findings from the third empirical study suggest that CSR ratings have a weak influence on the ownership holdings decisions taken by SRI fund managers and further, they show that they, on aggregate, prefer to take into account multidimensional CSR measurements when making investment choices.

This paper describes our work pricing options in the binomial model on leveraged exchange traded funds (ETFs) with three different approaches. A leveraged exchange traded fund attempts to achieve a similar daily return as the index it follows but at a specified positive or negative multiple of the return of the index. We price options on these funds using the leveraged multiple, predetermined by the leveraged ETF, of the volatility of the index. The initial approach is a basic time step approach followed by the standard Cox, Ross, and Rubinstein method. The final approach follows a different format which we will call the Trigeorgis pricing model. We demonstrate the difficulties in pricing these options based off the dynamics of the indices the ETFs follow.

Estudos recentes sobre fundos de pensão dos servidores públicos trazem indícios de fatores relacionados ao maior risco assumido nos investimentos. Para a realidade brasileira, existem poucos trabalhos que abordam as aplicações dos Regimes Próprios de Previdência Social (RPPS), apesar da representatividade dos valores detidos e da expectativa de escassez futura para o pagamento das pensões aos servidores públicos. Esta dissertação de mestrado traz a primeira análise com amostra representativa da totalidade, sendo composta por 629 carteiras de investimentos de RPPS durante os exercícios de 2015 e 2016. Os resultados encontrados levam à conclusão de que o risco assumido e o retorno alcançado pelas carteiras estão positivamente relacionados ao tamanho do fundo em volume de recursos, e negativamente relacionados à maturidade do fundo. A análise da performance dos fundos indica a importância do funcionamento de um comitê de investimentos. / Recent studies on the public servants’ pension funds provide evidence of factors regarding the greater risk assumed on the investments. For the Brazilian scenario, there are few works approaching the investments of the Alternative Social Security Systems (RPPS, Regimes Próprios de Previdência Social), despite the representativeness of the amounts withheld and the expected scarcity for the payment of the public servants’ pensions. This dissertation makes the first analysis with a sample representing all the 629 RPPS investment portfolios during the fiscal years of 2015 and 2016. The results allow us to conclude that the risk taken on and the return achieved by the portfolios are positively related to the fund size in terms of volume of resources, and negatively related to the fund maturity. The analysis of the funds’ performance indicates the importance of a having an investment committee in place.

As últimas décadas são marcadas pelo florescimento de uma ampla gama de trabalhos que buscam esclarecer ou melhor dimensionar as mudanças financeiras. Essas pesquisas, mesmo não sendo um bloco e tendo suas diferenciações conceituais e de perspectiva, têm acompanhado as crises financeiras que periodicamente abalam o mundo. O conceito de financeirização, que é muito utilizado, foi marcado pela crise de 2008, sendo amplamente disseminado após esse momento. Como esse trabalho pretende ser enquadrado nessa nova agenda de pesquisa, parte-se de uma discussão conceitual sobre a propagada financeirização das economias para se aproximar dos possíveis impactos na cidade contemporânea. Uma das características marcantes da financeirização é a concentração e centralização de capitais na órbita de grandes agentes financeiros: os investidores institucionais. O trabalho toma como objeto de estudo um deles, o maior fundo de pensão da América Latina: a caixa de previdência dos funcionários do Banco do Brasil (PREVI) A investigação é realizada em duas “frentes” complementares: a relação do fundo diretamente como proprietária de imóveis e as marcas da PREVI como geradora de recursos para o SFI. Os dados foram retirados dos relatórios anuais da instituição, de informações colhidas em depoimento de pessoas ligadas à PREVI durante a CPI (Comissão Parlamentar de Inquérito) dos Fundos de Pensão, de documentos publicados por instituições de controle e fiscalização do segmento, entre outros. Como resultados, ressalta-se a PREVI como um ator com papel relevante na promoção da cidade contemporânea. Os seus mais de 43 imóveis, que vão do resort aos edifícios corporativos de luxo, fornecem indícios de que também no Brasil os investidores institucionais são capazes de afetar a cidade, principalmente as grandes, como São Paulo e Rio de Janeiro, pela sua posição privilegiada no território nacional. Percebe-se, assim, uma instituição que capta recursos em escala nacio / The last decades are marked by the flourishing of a wide range of works that seek to clarify or better scale the financial changes. These researches, while not being a block and having their conceptual and perspective differentiations, have followed the financial crisis that periodically shake the world. The concept of "financialization", which is broadly used, was marked by the crisis of 2008, being widely disseminated after that moment. As this work intends to be included in this new research agenda, it starts from a conceptual discussion about the propagated "financialization" of the economies to approach the possible impacts in the contemporary city. One of the hallmarks of "financialization" is the concentration and centralization of capital in the orbit of large financial agents: institutional investors. The study takes as its object one of them, the largest pension fund in Latin America: the pension fund of Banco do Brasil employees (PREVI) The investigation is carried out in two complementary "fronts": the relationship of the fund directly as property owner and the brands of PREVI as a source of funds for the SFI. The data were taken from the institution's annual reports, information collected from persons linked to PREVI during the CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) of the Pension Funds, documents published by institutions of control and supervision of the segment, among others. As a result, PREVI stands out as an actor with a relevant role in promoting the contemporary city. Its more than 43 properties, ranging from the resort to the luxury corporate buildings, provide indications that in Brazil institutional investors are also capable of affecting the city, especially large ones, such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, because of its privileged position in the national territory. Thus, is possible to perceive an institution that attracts resources at a national scale and applies them in privileged points for real estate valuation.

Some commentators attribute the success of certain hedge fund activism events to “wolf pack” activism, the support offered by other investors, many of whom are thought to accumulate stakes in the target firms before the activists’ campaigns are publicly disclosed. This paper investigates wolf-pack activism by considering the following questions: Is there any evidence of wolf-pack formation? Is the wolf pack formed intentionally (by the lead activist) or does it result from independent activity by other investors? Does the presence of a wolf pack improve the activist’s ability to achieve its stated objectives? First, I find that investors other than the lead activist do in fact accumulate significant share-holdings before public disclosure of activists’ campaigns, a result consistent with wolf-pack formation. Second, these share accumulations are more likely to be mustered by the lead activist rather than occurring spontaneously. Notably, for example, the other investors are more likely to be those who had a prior trading relationship with the lead activist. Third, the presence of a wolf pack is associated with a greater likelihood that the activist will achieve its stated objectives (e.g., will obtain board seats) and higher future stock returns over the duration of the campaign.

This dissertation consists of three related essays on the motivations and behavior of individual political donors. These essays test theoretical predictions from the campaign finance and political behavior literature using field experiments and a natural experiment, bolstering the causal interpretation of the findings. The first essay reports the results of a field experiment examining the effect of political information on the decision to contribute. In advance of the November 2014 election, postcards with information about the major party candidates for Ohio governor and secretary of state were mailed to nearly 40,000 randomly selected likely donors in Ohio. The messages in these mailings, seven in all, provided factual information regarding campaign fundraising and endorsements, as well as a simple election reminder. Notably, the messages did not include encouragements to donate or partisan cues. The experimental results show that partisan donors respond to electoral threats as well as electoral opportunities under different conditions. Donors are more likely to give to the stronger candidate when they receive a simple election reminder with no fundraising information. But when donors see which candidates are ahead and behind in total fundraising, donors give more to the candidate who is behind while donations to the candidate with more money are unaffected. The results show that donors respond to objective information about fundraising weakness in order to help their preferred candidate. The second essay (co-authored) uses experimental designs to explore two possible paths to expanding the number of small donors. First, we examine whether nonpartisan appeals, of the kind that nonprofit groups or governments could use, expand the donor base. The results suggest that one type of nonpartisan message represents a promising fundraising appeal: encouraging subjects to contribute in order to keep elected officials focused on policy issues of importance to the potential donor. Second, we determine whether informing the public about existing incentives for making small contributions increases the number and size of contributions. We report the results of two field experiments that randomly provided information to likely donors about municipal- and state-level incentives for making political contributions. Across the two experiments, we find little evidence that information about contribution incentives increases giving. The third essay examines the effect of presidential political advertisements on contributing to the presidential campaigns of the major party candidates. I examine the effect of aggregate political advertising on aggregate contributing at the media zone level, and also estimate the effects of each party’s advertisements separately on giving to the party’s presidential campaign. I find that aggregate advertisements may have an effect on aggregate giving, but this effect is substantively small (much smaller than previous scholars have found) and inconsistent across different model specifications. In addition, I find that examining aggregate amounts may mask differences between the parties. During the 2008 election, Democratic presidential advertisements had a small, but detectable, positive effect on giving to the Democratic campaign. By contrast, Republican advertisements did not significantly increase giving to the Republican campaign in 2008.

This thesis makes new observations of market phenomena for various commodities and trading strategies centered around these observations. In particular, our results imply that many aspects of the commodities markets, from delivery markets to producers and consumer derivative based ETFs can be modeled eectively using nancial engineering techniques. Chapter 2 examines what drives the returns of gold miner stocks and ETFs. Inspired by our real options model, we construct a method to dynamically replicate gold miner stocks using two factors: a spot gold ETF and a market equity portfolio. We find that our real options approach can explain a significant portion of the drivers of firm implied gold leverage. Chapter 3 studies commodity exchange-traded funds (ETFs). From empirical data, we find that many commodity leveraged ETFs underperform significantly against our constructed dynamic benchmark, and we quantify such a discrepancy via the novel idea of realized effective fee. Finally, we consider a number of trading strategies and examine their performance by backtesting with historical price data. Chapter 4 studies the phenomenon of non-convergence between futures and spot prices in the grains market. In our proposed approach, we incorporate stochastic spot price and storage cost, and solve an optimal double stopping problem to understand shipping certificate prices. Our new models for stochastic storage rates explain the spot-futures premium.