Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-112).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-121).

M.Com. (Business Management) / The word "business" is described by the Oxford Dictionary as "one's occupation of affairs, things needing dealing with, buying and selling, trade or a commercial firm" (Swannell P68). The activities ofabusiness are usually carried outwith the primary intention of creating a profit. The objective is to maximise the return on an investment to such an extent that it exceeds the cost of the capital to which the investment relates. This can, however, be a very difficult and intricate process, depending on the nature of the industry concerned, as well as the complexity of the variables affecting the business. Each business has an internal as well as an external environment in which it operates. The internal environment consists of capital, equipment, labour and know-how (Churr and Gous) from which an infrastructure is created. This infrastructure includes an accumulation of raw materials, equipment, funding and personnel. All these are managed and guided by people with entrepreneurial skills in an effortto make the aforementioned acceptable profit. The variables in this internal environment can be managed and controlled to a greaterextent than those of the external environment. One of the variables of the external environment over which individual companies have virtually no control, but which have a significant influence on the profitability of a company, is foreign exchange rates. Although all companies are affected to some extent by exchange rates, those companies involved in international transactions in different currencies are subject to more exposure and consequently a greater foreign exchange risk...

M.Com. (Financial Economics) / Exchange rate forecasting has been an important and complex field of study originating mainly from the introduction of floating exchange rates in the 1970s. Since then, various models have been developed to explain exchange rate behaviour, all contributing in their own way to the understanding of what economic and financial information reveal about the future price of exchange rates. To measure the performance of a variety of exchange rate models, researchers in exchange rate forecasting almost always use the random walk model as benchmark to evaluate the forecasting performance of exchange rate models. An exchange rate model is regarded as superior if it can outperform a random process. The random walk model, a special case of the unit root process, helps us to identify the kinds of disturbances that drive the exchange rate to follow an independent successive process. If the exchange rate follows a random walk process, it has no mean reversion tendency and a directional shock in the exchange rate will cause it to deviate from its long-run equilibrium. Conversely, if the exchange rate does not follow a random walk, it has mean reverting tendencies, and will follow a stationary process which allows us to accurately forecast the exchange rate based on historic observations (Lam, Wong and Wong, 2005:1). However, it seems unrealistic that exchange rates will follow either a random walk process or a stationary process. If we assume that the exchange rate follows a random walk, we also assume that the order flow information from exchange rate trades follows a random walk, and by implication that macroeconomic exchange rate information follows a random walk [see Lyons (2001) for the link between order flow and macroeconomic fundamentals]. It seems unrealistic that exchange rates will follow an identifiable mean reverting (stationary) process, as daily exchange rates are exposed to risk, news and speculation which functions independent from long-run exchange rate fundamentals. Ironically, Meese and Rogoff (who laid the foundation for the use of random walk models as benchmark in exchange rate forecasting) emphasize that exchange rates do not follow an exact random walk (Meese and Rogoff, 1983:14). However, if it is known that exchange rates do not follow a random process explicitly, alternative exchange rate benchmark models should be considered. Yet, judging by the universal...

This paper investigates the effects of real exchange rate misalignment (REM) on economic growth in Kenya over the period 1964-2009. The real exchange rate misalignment is defined as the difference between the equilibrium exchange rate and the actual real exchange rate (RER). The equilibrium real exchange rate was obtained by using the purchasing power parity (PPP) approach. To this effect, the study examined the existence or absence of the cointegration between the REM and economic growth, using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach. The ARDL approach is employed to determine both the long-run and short-run dynamics of the model. The results suggest that no long-run relationship exists between economic growth and the REM in Kenya. The short-run model is then estimated, using the OLS (ordinary least squares) method. From this model, it is determined that trade openness has a positive impact on economic growth, while foreign aid has a negative impact on economic growth; and both are considered empirically significant. The inflation rate and REM both negatively impact economic growth, but are empirically insignificant. All variables corroborate the a priori expectations.

The United States operates a dual payments system which gives rise to the distinction between Clearing House Funds and Federal Funds. Due to the fact that, unlike the United States, Canada operates a single payments system, a potential arbitrage opportunity arises in transacting between the Canadian and U.S. money markets on certain days of the week. There are essentially two situations in which U.S. investors can have an interest: the Friday-Monday transaction and the Thursday-Friday transaction. Since both the foreign exchange market and the money market are almost certainly efficient, any potential arbitrage opportunity should be eliminated by adjustments in both markets. This paper looks at the impact of the transactions that would tend to eliminate any arbitrage opportunity, upon interest rates and exchange rates. The institutional details for arranging such transactions are also examined. Only the implications in the foreign exchange market were empirically tested using daily spot rates and forward rates from 1973 to 1976. Since daily interest rates in this period were not available, only one example of daily variation of interest rate within a week was illustrated. It was found that transactions in both the spot market and the forward market have to be arranged one business day in advance. Therefore, the spot/forward rate is also quoted one business day in advance (for example, spot/forward rate that prevails on Thursday is quoted for Friday's transaction). Hence the rate implication from the movements of funds should be shifted one business day backward. The results show that the day-to-day movements in the spot and forward markets are as we would expect. Within the foreign exchange market, the forward rates adjust to a greater extent than the spot rate in eliminating the advantage that arises from the movements of funds. This also indicates that most investors prefer to cover their investments by arranging forward contracts. The arbitrage opportunity that arises involving movements of funds between Canada and the United States is also applicable between the United States and any European country that operates a single payments system. The theory behind it is identical to that described in this paper. Finally, it was found that even if banks in Canada and the United States use the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (S.W.I.F.T.) for a number of transactions in the near future, mechanisation of the International cheque clearing systems is not one of the functions for which S.W.I.F.T. will be used. Therefore,the "Big Fridays" operations are expected to continue. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

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