Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Economics, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

The thesis aims to analyze European funds promoting tourism in the Czech Republic, and to assess the extent to which the Czech Republic was able to take advantage of this support. The intention is to introduce current possibilities of using EU funds and analyze how effective implementation was. The work is divided into three chapters. The first chapter is devoted to regional policy and the instruments through which it is implemented. The second chapter deals with the Implementation process of EU funds at European and national level. The last chapter analyzes data focused on financial support to the tourism development in the period of 2007-2013, and 2014-2020.

v AJ The thesis addresses funding of public universities in the Czech Republic. It describes, analyzes and assesses the current method of university funding from public and other resources and points out the most important issues in this area. A part of the study is devoted to the topic of introducing tuition fees as one of the possible methods of students' participation on the university's funding. The study provides arguments for and against such measure and proposes a solution on how to apply it in the Czech Republic. In relation to that, the focus is also posed on financial aid to students, specifically student savings for education and student loans on tuition fees without which the introduction of such measure is difficult to imagine. Criteria which the system providing loans to students should account for are considered and further other possible alternatives of the system are introduced and assessed. The final section presents several possibilities from which public universities may obtain funding beyond the basic framework of the state budget.

Submitted by Elba Lopes (elba.lopes@fecap.br) on 2017-12-19T23:43:16Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Estev??o Garcia de Oliveira Alexandre.pdf: 334978 bytes, checksum: 69b02b620b3b65622dfb7a5492fa4e21 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-19T23:43:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Estev??o Garcia de Oliveira Alexandre.pdf: 334978 bytes, checksum: 69b02b620b3b65622dfb7a5492fa4e21 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-20 / This study analyzes the Brazilian Multimarket Investment Funds and aims to establish a relationship between characteristics of these funds and their respective financial returns. The variables discussed here are: the number of shareholders, the funds equity, time of existence (age), their administration and the performance fees. Through a sample of 216, we identified multimarket investment funds and the returns presented in the last 10 years. Thus, we performed regression tests (MQO and robust) based on two distinct models, one comprising the five variables studied and a second with analysis of these variables from four different groups. Statistical evidence was found to establish a relationship between fund equity and profitability, age and profitability in the model 1. In the model 2, only the construct fund assets presented some explanation for the four working groups, while the fund age variable had some explanatory power in two of the four working groups. The results are convergent with those obtained by Malaquias and Eid (2014) and Laes and Silva (2014), and the study of these characteristics helps to better understand the market of Multi-Market Investment Funds in Brazil. / Esta pesquisa analisa os Fundos de Investimento Multimercados brasileiros e tem o objetivo de estabelecer rela????es entre caracter??sticas desses fundos e seus respectivos retornos. As vari??veis aqui discutidas s??o: a quantidade de cotistas, o patrim??nio l??quido dos fundos, tempo de exist??ncia (idade), sua taxa de administra????o e a taxa de performance. Utilizando uma amostra de 216 fundos de investimento multimercados, identificaram-se os retornos apresentados nos ??ltimos 10 anos. Para tal, foram realizados testes de regress??o (MQO e robusta), com base em dois modelos distintos, o primeiro compreendendo as cinco vari??veis estudadas e o segundo com as mesmas, mas que foram analisadas em quatro diferentes grupos. Pelo modelo 1, foram encontradas evid??ncias estat??sticas para estabelecer rela????o entre patrim??nio do fundo e rentabilidade, idade e rentabilidade. Pelo modelo 2, apenas o patrim??nio dos fundos apresentou algum poder de explica????o para os quatro grupos de trabalho, enquanto a vari??vel idade do fundo apresentou algum poder de explica????o em dois dos quatro grupos de trabalho. Estes resultados est??o convergentes com aqueles obtidos por Malaquias e Eid (2014) e Laes e Silva (2014). O estudo destas caracter??sticas ajuda a compreender melhor o mercado de Fundos de Investimentos Multimercados no Brasil.

<p>This study seeks to evaluate the performance of unit trust managers based on their client affiliation classification. Worldwide, the number of investors investing in unit trusts is on the rise and increasingly they want to be able to evaluate the performance of the managers managing their funds so as to make better investment decisions. This increase in the asset size and number of unit trusts funds could be attributed but not limited to the low capital required for investment by small investors who before could not afford to invest in portfolios requiring large capital (Prather, Bertin, and Henker, 2004). In addition, the fund managers of these units are believed to have special skills such as market timing and stock selectivity which contribute to the performances they achieve. The evaluation of the performance of unit trust fund managers is a largely unexplored area in South Africa. As a result, the study focuses on South Africa fund managers and has as aim to evaluate the performance of two groups of fund managers (independent and dependent) who were classified based on their client affiliation structure. The client affiliation classification is as a result of the fund manager‟s clientele base. The dependent group are those who formed part of a group structure and offer other wealth management services for which their clients or investors in the unit trust services originate from within the group while the independent group are those whose clients are pulled together from diverse individuals or institutions and does not form part of a group or render other services other than fund management. Two fund types were selected namely / general equity funds and balanced funds. It has also examined the underlying skills the different groups of fund managers possess. The performance of unit trust has an effect on many parties who are related in one way or the other to the unit trust funds. The results of this study will inform individual investors, trustees and asset consultants in their decision making process of selecting a fund manager. The results of the study will be of value to the asset management industry in terms of assessing their structures and restructuring the investment service business to meet the expectations of their clients / the investors. It could also be used as a marketing tool. Publicly available historical data on the returns generated by fund managers for a five year period from&nbsp / 2005 to 2009 was obtained. Analyses were done using the independent sampled t-test and the Treynor Mazel model respectively for the different research questions posed. The results obtained indicated that there were no statistically significant differences between the performances of independent fund managers with those of dependent fund managers. However, dependent fund managers of equity funds performed better than their counterparts the independent fund managers. In the case of balanced funds, the independent fund managers performed better than their dependent counterparts. On average, both fund&nbsp / manager types possessed selectivity skills for equity funds and none for balanced funds. However for both fund types, the dependent fund manager demonstrated more selectivity skills than their independent counterparts. The results for market timing skills demonstrated that on average, both fund managers did not possess market timing skills for balanced funds while possessing these skills for equity funds. The dependent&nbsp / fund managers demonstrated more market timing skills for balanced funds though negative when compared to that of their counterparts. On the other hand, the equity fund independent fund&nbsp / managers demonstrated more market timing skills than the dependent fund managers.</p>

<p>This study seeks to evaluate the performance of unit trust managers based on their client affiliation classification. Worldwide, the number of investors investing in unit trusts is on the rise and increasingly they want to be able to evaluate the performance of the managers managing their funds so as to make better investment decisions. This increase in the asset size and number of unit trusts funds could be attributed but not limited to the low capital required for investment by small investors who before could not afford to invest in portfolios requiring large capital (Prather, Bertin, and Henker, 2004). In addition, the fund managers of these units are believed to have special skills such as market timing and stock selectivity which contribute to the performances they achieve. The evaluation of the performance of unit trust fund managers is a largely unexplored area in South Africa. As a result, the study focuses on South Africa fund managers and has as aim to evaluate the performance of two groups of fund managers (independent and dependent) who were classified based on their client affiliation structure. The client affiliation classification is as a result of the fund manager‟s clientele base. The dependent group are those who formed part of a group structure and offer other wealth management services for which their clients or investors in the unit trust services originate from within the group while the independent group are those whose clients are pulled together from diverse individuals or institutions and does not form part of a group or render other services other than fund management. Two fund types were selected namely / general equity funds and balanced funds. It has also examined the underlying skills the different groups of fund managers possess. The performance of unit trust has an effect on many parties who are related in one way or the other to the unit trust funds. The results of this study will inform individual investors, trustees and asset consultants in their decision making process of selecting a fund manager. The results of the study will be of value to the asset management industry in terms of assessing their structures and restructuring the investment service business to meet the expectations of their clients / the investors. It could also be used as a marketing tool. Publicly available historical data on the returns generated by fund managers for a five year period from&nbsp / 2005 to 2009 was obtained. Analyses were done using the independent sampled t-test and the Treynor Mazel model respectively for the different research questions posed. The results obtained indicated that there were no statistically significant differences between the performances of independent fund managers with those of dependent fund managers. However, dependent fund managers of equity funds performed better than their counterparts the independent fund managers. In the case of balanced funds, the independent fund managers performed better than their dependent counterparts. On average, both fund&nbsp / manager types possessed selectivity skills for equity funds and none for balanced funds. However for both fund types, the dependent fund manager demonstrated more selectivity skills than their independent counterparts. The results for market timing skills demonstrated that on average, both fund managers did not possess market timing skills for balanced funds while possessing these skills for equity funds. The dependent&nbsp / fund managers demonstrated more market timing skills for balanced funds though negative when compared to that of their counterparts. On the other hand, the equity fund independent fund&nbsp / managers demonstrated more market timing skills than the dependent fund managers.</p>

LAMACZ, L. Private equity funds. Brno: Mendel University in Brno. 2014 The subject of this diploma thesis is investing through Private equity funds. Based on the research of factors that affect the profitability of private equity funds, the author has drawn up an investment recommendation. The research subject is relation between profitability and the denominated currency of the fund, Morningstar rating, the level of market capitalization, dividend yield and domicile of the fund. In diploma thesis, the author also compares the profitability of investments in the sector and regionally focused private equity funds with profitability of investments in stock indexes focused on the same sectors and regions. The thesis also offers an analysis of supply of private equity funds in the US market and analysis of the impact of financial crises that began in the fall of 2007 on the profitability of private equity funds. The final part is devoted to the presentation of the results attained and their discussion with other authors' similar themes.

This thesis is a collection of three essays on hedge funds with contributions to the empirical understanding of their fees, and their voluntary disclosure of returns and assets under management, using a large consolidation of widely-employed publicly available hedge fund databases. First, time-series variation in reported fees is analysed using fund launches within hedge fund management companies, and conditioning fees at launch on fund family characteristics. Larger and better performing fund families launch high fee funds. Funds with high management fees at launch do not perform any differently from low fee funds, though funds with high incentive fees marginally outperform. An interval regression technique is proposed to overcome the discrete nature of reported fees. Secondly, the reliability of voluntary disclosures of financial information is analysed with a different measure of time-variation --- tracking changes to statements of historical performance recorded at different points in time. This uncovers evidence that historical returns are routinely revised. These revisions are not merely random or corrections of earlier mistakes; they are partly forecastable by fund characteristics. Moreover, funds that revise their performance histories, significantly and predictably underperform those that have never revised. Finally, the availability, and timing, of the selective disclosure of assets under management by funds is examined. More than a third of funds have asset records falling short of returns published. There is evidence of strategic disclosure by funds --- asset reporting drying up after times of fund stress, such as poor performance or outflows. Furthermore, investors should take heed of the greater propensity for shortfall funds to trigger fraud performance flags. These results suggest that unreliable disclosures: constitute a valuable source of information for current and potential investors; have implications for researchers; and, exhort market regulators to include assets, not just returns, in the debate around mandatory disclosure by financial institutions.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T21:00:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 4 nicolauassali.pdf.jpg: 21057 bytes, checksum: e49c3a73a969030bb30a7b487e8ddf77 (MD5) nicolauassali.pdf: 745103 bytes, checksum: dcb827d78438926dd042deccffc5bab4 (MD5) 1_136970.pdf: 745134 bytes, checksum: 17ea1cc72a370b8ea2ba2cf6590ebe16 (MD5) nicolauassali.pdf.txt: 258686 bytes, checksum: 416660ae630d51947f844cef8a94fb45 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-02-13T00:00:00Z / This dissertation analyses the performance and features of some of the current Brazilian funds of funds, called multimanagers, as well as the performance of funds of funds as a result of the simulation of Brazilian funds portfolios that use several investment strategies known as multimarkets. The diversification through a multimarkets funds portfolio involves other variables beyond the traditional approach of mean-variance. The first part of this study presents the main features of the selected funds of funds and also describes more than the mean-variance, showing the third and fourth moments of the returns distribution. The second part uses the tool named Style Analysis (Sharpe, 1988) in order to determine the return exposure of each of the funds of funds of the sample to certain asset classes. In this study were chosen the following asset classes: Ibovespa, CDI, Dollar and IRF-M. Through the medium-variance approach, the third part of this study uses a tool known as the Portfolio Theory (Markowitz, 1952) as the minimum variance frontier, in order to evaluate the performance of each funds of funds in the given sample. The performance is evaluated on the comparison basis of the minimum variance frontier built from a benchmark portfolio (comprising two of the major Brazilian financial assets of low and high risk: CDI and Ibovespa, respectively) with another minimum variance frontier built from the addition of a fund of funds into the benchmark portfolio. The last part refers to simulations of multimarkets portfolio funds that allow the allocation of variable income in the portfolio and it also allows the use of leverage. The goal is to check through the return of the average values, variance, asymmetry and kurtosis, the efficiency of such funds as instruments of diversification. The outcomes show that the 32 multimanager funds of funds analyzed do not have normal return distribution and 29 ones present negative skewness behavior. The Style Analysis indicates high sensibility to CDI and IRF-M, and low sensibility to Ibovespa and Dollar, main financial market indexes. The majority of multimanager funds of funds improved the Minimum Variance Frontier when added to a reference portfolio (CDI + Ibovespa), in other words, there was a reduction on risk – return relation. The portfolio simulation indicates that in the last three years the multimarkets funds classified as Leveraged Variable Income has been more aggressive in the strategies due to the asymmetry behavior; however this kurtosis behavior indicates a position not too aggressive as well. So the construction of Funds portfolios that use several investment strategies should not be restraint to the mean-variance approach. It should also involve asymmetry, kurtosis and investor preferences. / Esta dissertação analisa o desempenho e as características de uma parte dos atuais fundos de fundos brasileiros, os denominados multigestores, bem como o desempenho de fundos de fundos resultantes da simulação de carteiras de fundos brasileiros que utilizam várias estratégias de investimentos, conhecidos como multimercados. A diversificação através de uma carteira de fundos multimercados envolve outras variáveis além da tradicional abordagem de média-variância. A primeira parte do estudo apresenta as principais características dos fundos de fundos selecionados e descreve, além da média e variância, o terceiro e quarto momentos das distribuições dos retornos. A segunda parte utiliza a ferramenta chamada Análise de Estilo (Sharpe, 1988), para determinar a exposição dos retornos de cada um dos fundos de fundos da amostra a determinadas classes de ativos. Neste trabalho foram escolhidas as seguintes classes de ativos: Ibovespa, CDI, Dólar e IRF-M. Através da abordagem de média-variância, a terceira parte do estudo utiliza a ferramenta conhecida na Teoria da Carteira (Markowitz, 1952) como fronteira de mínima variância, para avaliar o desempenho de cada um dos fundos de fundos da amostra. O desempenho é avaliado com base na comparação da fronteira de mínima variância construída a partir de uma carteira de referência (composta por dois dos principais ativos financeiros brasileiros de baixo e alto risco: CDI e Ibovespa, respectivamente) com outra fronteira de mínima variância construída a partir do acréscimo de um fundo de fundos à carteira de referência. A última parte refere-se a simulações de carteiras de fundos multimercados que permitem a alocação de renda variável na carteira e também permitem o uso de alavancagem. Seu objetivo é verificar, através dos valores de retorno médio, variância, assimetria e curtose, a eficiência desses fundos como instrumentos de diversificação. Os resultados mostram que os 32 fundos de fundos multigestores analisados não tem distribuição normal de retornos e 29 apresentam assimetria negativa. A Análise de Estilo indica grande sensibilidade ao CDI e ao IRF-M, e pouca sensibilidade ao Ibovespa e Dólar, importantes índices do mercado financeiro. A maioria dos fundos de fundos multigestores melhorou a Fronteira Eficiente quando adicionados a uma carteira de referência (CDI + Ibovespa), ou seja, houve uma redução na relação risco-retorno. A simulação das carteiras indica que nos últimos três anos os fundos multimercados classificados como Com Renda Variável Com Alavancagem tem sido mais agressivos nas estratégias, devido ao comportamento da assimetria, porém o comportamento da curtose indica também uma posição nem tão agressiva. Logo, a construção de carteiras com fundos que utilizam diversas estratégias de investimentos não deve se restringir à abordagem de média-variância. Deve também envolver também assimetria, curtose e preferências do investidor.

An objective of my graduation thesis is an analysis of hedge funds and hedge strategies while reflecting the distribution of the investments to right portfolio taking into account the risk. The main aim is to provide clear and consistent classification of whole variety of different hedge styles and strategies. There are plenty of different investment and trading strategies of hedge funds and their classification differs from analyst to analyst and from database to database. The work focuses on finding an alternative consistent classification of hedge funds which will lead to improvement of investment decisions of financial market participants, to effective distribution of the investment portfolio and therefore to elimination of undiversified risks. For the practical analysis I use real data of hedge fund returns of particular relevant time period. I focus on research and description of possible methods of hedge fund classification mentioning their pluses and minuses. After passionate evaluation of each method I have chosen two methods according to which I classify the hedge funds datasets and finally I compare the results of both. The theoretical part of work focuses on definition of hedge funds, hedge styles and strategies, pluses and minuses as well as risk accompanying particular strategy.