In chapter 1, we examine the nature and scale of the relationship between returns on sector Equity Traded Funds (ETFs) and their volatility. We discuss the source and direction of the effect between returns and risk and whether behavioral biases are prominent among sector ETFs. The study has implications for financial sector practitioners and investors, as it provides more information about the risk in sector ETF and whether that risk differs from that of other investment instruments. To this end, we test three hypotheses based on the relevant literature on volatility and returns: the leverage effect hypothesis, feedback hypothesis, and behavioral biases in assets pricing. We employ two measures of volatility in this chapter; specifically, we use the GARCH (1, 1) model and the Range-based autoregressive model. Chapter 2 presents an examination of the factors that affect payout policy in a frontier market. MSCI classifies the Saudi stock exchange as a large frontier market and proposes to be reclassified as an emerging market by next year. The Saudi market is characterized by the high governmental influence and dominance of individual traders on daily transactions. By studying the 12-year panel data, we assess the effect government, board characteristics, social norms and major shareholder on Saudi firms’ decision to distribute dividends. The government presence and investor taste, especially for Islamic-compliant firms, are discussed. This chapter provides valuable information for investors and practitioners by identifying the factors that should be considered when making finance and investment decisions in frontier markets.

This thesis compares policy instruments in the American and Canadian oil sectors from 1973 to 1977, the years immediately following the Arab oil embargo. Public policy has traditionally emphasized objectives over instruments even though instruments are at the heart of the policy making process. This case study helps to address this deficiency in the policy literature. It begins by providing a review of the instrument choice literature. Doern and Phidd's typology, which arranges instruments in terms of degrees of coercion, subsequently forms the basis for Chapter Two. Chapter Two's analysis of American and Canadian oil policy reveals that both countries agreed upon the security of supply objective. Furthermore, both deployed many similar instruments including suasion, direct expenditures, loans and guarantees, taxation, and regulation to reach the objective. However, one very important difference in instrument choice was made. While Canada deployed the most coercive policy instrument (public enterprise), the United States did not. Chapter Three offers three explanations for this specific difference. They are (1) differences in ideology, (2) market factors, and (3) differences in government institutions. The difference in ideology is the most important explanation. American ideology is decidedly more conservative than Canadian ideology. As such, American governments are less inclined to create government corporations, like national oil companies, than are Canadian governments. Furthermore, ideology is invariably reflected in a nation's party system, and neither of America's mainstream parties advocated the creation of an NOC while Canada's government party did. Market factors are also important. Countries with formidable industrial bases, such as the United States, are less likely to create public corporations than are those with weaker industrial bases. In the particular case of oil, Canada's oil industry was predominantly foreign-owned owing to insufficient pools of domestic capital. America's industry was overwhelmingly domestically-owned. Hence whereas Canada's NOC was the only oil company truly loyal to the Canadian people, an American NOC would have had to compete with home-based multinationals making it relatively unattractive to governing elites, and unnecessary to the American public. Finally, the differences between Canadian and American institutions are stark and important. Canada's parliamentary system of government fosters public corporations because corporations are easy to create and offer significant benefits to their political masters who can control them. The Canadian government set out to create an NOC in the mid-1970s and came across no obstacles. On the other hand, America's presidential system discourages public corporations. Not only did American Presidents and Congressmen not desire an NOC, but they were unable to legislate what comprehensive oil policy they did desire. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

The thesis addresses the role of national oil companies and their overseas engagement in the foreign policy decision-making process of states. Over the past 40 years, national oil companies have gained importance in the international oil industry and currently control around 90 per cent of the global oil reserves. A number of political and economic factors – depleting domestic reserves, economic growth – have resulted in an increasing expansion of Asian national oil companies to Africa. Through the use of two Asian national oil companies – Malaysia's Petronas and India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) – and their overseas engagement in Sudan and South Sudan as case studies, the thesis assesses three aspects: factors and motives that influence the relationship between government institutions and Petronas and ONGC, the connection between this domestic relationship and the overseas engagement of both companies, and the implications of the overseas engagement of Petronas and ONGC in both Sudans for the foreign policy decision-making process of Malaysia and India. This set of questions is analysed through a comparative case study design that is supported by in-depth interviews and based on Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA), proposing a four-level theoretical framework. This thesis thus seeks to demonstrate how FPA can help assess the connection between the domestic decision-making process and the international engagement of the companies. In doing so, it not only argues that process and engagement are in fact connected, but also critically addresses conventional assumptions about the overseas engagement of national oil companies. Furthermore, this thesis questions the idea that government institutions and national oil companies act in a coherent and coordinated manner when operating abroad.

Thesis (MA (Political Science. International Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / This study examines, broadly put, why the banking sector in China has not performed as well as other sectors of the economy when compared to international competitors, given that the economy as a whole has been performing so exceptionally at the time of writing and has been for the past two decades. The investigation examines reforms over the past twenty-six years to provide background to the issue as well as taking a view on the Chinese accession to the World Trade Organisation in 2001, providing analysis as to the effects of this accession as well as viewing the undertakings China has made, in general and specific to the banking sector, in terms of World Trade Organisation membership. The methodology employed is descriptive and explanatory in nature and information is sourced from existing academic writing as well as from banking industry publications and research. The source of information for the study is mainly of a qualitative nature, including historical and historical comparative information. Furthermore, the research forms applied research in that it seeks to bring together previous basic and exploratory research in order to identify specific problems and present potential solutions. Findings in the research include the burdensome effects of state-owned enterprises on the banking sector’s largest constituents, problematic aspects of endemic non-performing loans and a culture of lapsing debt in China as well as problems regarding political interference in the banking sector by the state and local authorities. Further problems identified include reporting and supervisory concerns, taxation treatment problems and a lack of risk-based commercial lending criteria in big Chinese banks. Analysis is provided into the effect of current and past restrictions in the sector, the development and reform model China is using to globalise its banks and the 2005 investment surge into China’s bank. Recommendations are made regarding the foreign ownership of the Chinese banking sector, state recognition of bad-debts as state loans, debt-management through asset management companies and reform of the state-owned enterprises and the problems inherent to this initiative. Finally, recommendations as to the role of the regulator and the challenge of political will are highlighted.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / Recently, and over the last few years, a number of major State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) have not been financially sustainable. There have been revelations of increased misappropriations of funds and millions of dollars in dubious investments. The alleged reason for the failure of these SOEs has been the lack of efficient corporate governance. The objective of this research report was to analyse the challenges and successful aspects faced by SOEs in Namibia with regards to the enforcement of good governance within the SOEs Governance Act No.2 of 2006. The report further aimed to establish whether the SOEs Governance Act provides appropriate mechanisms to ensure good corporate governance within the enterprises and investigate whether the act has been enforced. To attain these objectives, the report presented a review of Namibia’s SOE sectors and SOE Acts. In addition, interviews were conducted with representatives of three SOEs in Namibia, that of TransNamib, NamWater and NamPower. Namibian SOEs are faced with challenges in terms of maintaining good governance. The SOEs are compelled by state pressure to adopt more goals such as social development and political objectives on top of their profit motive. Thus, by acting in the best interest of state-owned enterprises, various boards may be in conflict with the interests of the government with regards to social and political goals. Based on the evidence presented in this research report, the study points out five crucial aspects of non-conformance to best practices that can be used as lessons and as a basis from where Namibia can spearhead its corporate governance practices for SOEs within the framework of the State-owned Enterprises Governance (SOEG) Act.

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University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

In this dissertation I offer an explanation for why Indian states are undertaking economic liberalization at different rates, focusing on reforms to the electricity sector. In the period between 1991 and 2003, India's states restructured their electricity systems to vastly different degrees. The dissertation evaluates three variables that feature prominently in the literature on economic policy change: ideological predilections of governing elites, external pressures like those coming from international financial institutions, and state-society interactions. I argue that it is the last explanation, focusing on the degree to which the potential "losers" from reform dominate state politics--that most compellingly accounts for the unevenness in state-level reforms. In my work, I lay greater analytic weight on the role of rural actors than much of the existing literature on the political economy of market reforms. The primary independent variable that explains this variation in reform outcomes is the organization and political strength of societal actors in each state, particularly rural and industrial constituencies, and middle class interests. In some parts of India, the advent of Green Revolution technologies in the late 1960s meant that farmers--chiefly larger landowners--became the primary beneficiaries of extensive development subsidies, including those for electricity. During India's period of economic liberalization in the 1990s, these beneficiaries constituted the main opponents of privatization, which today threatens to change the rules of the game by allocating resources according to market logics. Given these dynamics, where farm sectors are large or well-organized, reform has not proceeded. In the absence of rural political clout, state elites elected to privatize in order to satisfy industrial and urban constituents and signal the state's openness to private capital inflows. By comparing outcomes across states within the single country of India, the research design can control for some variables that are proposed as determinative of government policy, like electoral institutions and macroeconomic shock. I have selected cases to both capture variation of the dependent variable and control for other plausible explanations, such as ideology, financial crisis, and external pressure. / text

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