Thesis (Ph. D.)--Stanford University, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-185).

In part 1 of this study I examine several models of competitive markets in which a group of uninformed traders uses the equilibrium price of a traded asset as an indirect source of information known to a group of informed traders. Four different models are compared in two homogeneous information cases plus one asymmetric information case, revealing a) an allocative efficiency benefit resulting from the opportunity to trade current consumption for future consumption, b) a 'dealer' benefit accruing to traders who are able to observe and act on demand fluctuations not apparent to other traders, c) a 'hedging' benefit accruing to all traders, and d) a loss of hedging benefits due to information dissemination before hedge trading can take place. The effect of an increase in precision of information given to informed traders is calculated for the above factors and for net welfare. In part 2, a two-factor model using the instantaneous rate of interest and the return on a consol bond to describe the term structure of interest rates - the Brennan-Schwartz model - is used to derive theoretical prices for American call and put options on U.S. government bonds and treasury bills. These model prices are then compared with market prices. The theoretical model used to value the debt options also provides hedge ratios which may be used to construct zero-investment portfolios which, in theory, are perfectly riskless. Several trading strategies based on these 'riskless' portfolios are examined. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

This dissertation studies topics in financial economics. In the first chapter, The Corporate Supply of (Quasi) Safe Assets, I examine whether the demand for safe assets affects nonfinancial corporations in the US. Investors value safety services in financial assets, such as the ability to serve as a store of value, to serve as collateral, or to meet mandatory capital and liquidity requirements. I present a model in which investors value safety services not only in traditional safe assets such as US Treasuries, but also in corporate debt. Shareholders thus maximize the value of the firm by complementing standard business operations with safe asset creation. Based on this theoretical framework, I use the CDS-bond basis to derive a measurement of the safety premium of corporate bonds. I document substantial cross sectional variation in the safety premium of corporate bonds, which allows me to test the model’s predictions. I show that a high safety premium leads toa marked increase in debt issuance by relatively safer firms. These debt proceeds have a small impact on real investment and are largely used instead for equity payouts. This mechanism can explain why, in the aftermath of the financial crisis, non-financial investment grade companies significantly increased their debt issuance and equity payout while investment remained weak. The second chapter, The Cross-Section of Risk and Return, focuses on a common practice in the finance literature which is to create characteristic portfolios by sorting on characteristics associated with average returns. We show that the resultant portfolios are likely to capture not only the priced risk associated with the characteristic but also unpriced risk. We develop a procedure to remove this unpriced risk using covariance information estimated from past returns. We apply our methodology to the five Fama-French characteristic portfolios. The squared Sharpe ratio of the optimal combination of the resultant characteristic efficient portfolios is 2.13, compared with 1.17 for the original characteristic portfolios. In the third chapter, Should Information be Sold Separately? Evidence from MiFID II, we examine whether selling information separately improves its production. We use a recent regulation in Europe (MiFID II) that unbundles research from transactions to investigate this question. We show that unbundling causes fewer research analysts to cover a firm. This decrease does not come from small- or mid-cap firms but is concentrated in large firms. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the reduction in the coverage quantity is accompanied by an increase in the coverage quality. Further analyses suggest that the enhancement of analyst competition could drive the results: inaccurate analysts drop out (extensive margin) and analysts who stay produce better-quality research (intensive margin). Our findings suggest that selling information separately improves information quality at the cost of reducing information quantity.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2016-12-06T18:30:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodolfo Gonçalves de Abreu Ribeiro.pdf: 587202 bytes, checksum: c449f1c9fde46a828eb284fa630fef9d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-06T18:30:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodolfo Gonçalves de Abreu Ribeiro.pdf: 587202 bytes, checksum: c449f1c9fde46a828eb284fa630fef9d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-11-21 / The current capitalism phase is determined by finance; it is the heart of social relations nowadays. The neoliberalism that has resurfaced as a political ideology in the late 1970’s contributed to the advancement of finance in the economy. This ideology was as ideal thoughts of Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. His ideals were that the State should not intervene in the economy, and market forces should act freely without any intervention mechanism. The postwar period until the mid-1970 was marked by “repression of finance", with the financial and capital markets regulated and compartmentalized. Then, this capitalism period begins to show a crisis and finances, before suppressed, unite to neoliberalism speech to rescue their earnings eroded by inflation. The neo-liberal prescription breaks down barriers and limits of finance, and the creation of numerous financial mechanisms increase the income levels. This process, called Financialization of the global economy, has started the United States of America and in Britain, firstly has spread by the central countries and secondly in outlying countries. An important component of this process of financialization was the securitization of debt securities that together with institutional investors have grown exponentially in this capitalism stage. The main focus of this study is investigate the mechanism of public debt as a factor of income concentration in favor of rentiers / A fase atual do capitalismo é marcada pelo domínio das finanças, sendo que estas se encontram no centro das relações sociais. O neoliberalismo, que ressurgiu como uma ideologia política no final dos anos 1970, contribuiu para o avanço das finanças na economia. O ideal neoliberal tinha como princípios os pensamentos de Friedrich Hayek e Milton Friedman, cujas convicções eram de que o Estado não deveria intervir na economia, e as forças de mercado deveriam atuar livremente, sem quaisquer mecanismos de intervenção. O período que marca o pós-guerra até meados dos anos 1970 é assinalado pela “repressão das finanças”, com os mercados financeiros e de capitais regulamentados e compartimentados. Essa fase do capitalismo começa a entrar em crise e as finanças, antes reprimidas, unem-se ao discurso neoliberal a fim de resgatar os seus rendimentos corroídos pela inflação. O receituário neoliberal quebra as barreiras e os limites para as finanças e, com a criação de inúmeros mecanismos financeiros, é possível retomar os elevados níveis de rendimento. A financeirização da economia começa nos Estados Unidos da América e na Grã- Bretanha, espalha-se pelos países centrais do capitalismo e, em um segundo momento, penetra nos países periféricos do capitalismo. Um componente importante desse processo de financeirização foi a securitização dos títulos de dívida pública que, juntamente com os investidores institucionais, cresceram exponencialmente nessa etapa do capitalismo. O foco desse estudo é o mecanismo da dívida pública como um fator de concentração de renda em favor dos rentistas

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The behavior of the term structure of interest rates in government bonds parallels that of the behavior in high-grade corporate bonds. Previous studies have demonstrated that there are synchronous changes in different maturities in high-grade corporate bonds. Results of statistical tests and measurements of the term structure in U.S. Treasury obligations are compared with previous studies to confirm that the behavior of the yield curve, from the mid-1950's until the 1970's, is consistent with previous norms that there are synchronous changes in all maturities but that there has been an increase in the relative sensitivity of changes in longer term rates since the 1970's per unit change in the short term rates. Generally, all maturities move in the same direction with intermediate and long term rates more synchronous than shorter term rates. Changes in rates are highly correlated across all maturities, but intermediate and short term rates are somewhat more highly correlated with each other than with long term rates. Also, there is a general tendency for relative volatility to vary inversely with maturity. However, there was an increase in the relative volatility of longer term rates in the 1970's and 1980's. The results are generally consistent with Meiselman's earlier findings for high grade corporate bonds between 1900 and 1954, except for the more recent increase in the volatility of long term U.S. Treasury bonds. / Master of Arts

Peng, Handa. / "August 2011." / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-83). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.1 / 摘要 --- p.2 / Acknowledgements --- p.3 / Introduction --- p.6 / Chapter Section I --- Literature Review --- p.11 / Theories on Sovereign Default --- p.11 / Historical Case Studies on Sovereign Default --- p.15 / Brief Summary on the Existing Theories and Empirical Cases --- p.16 / Chapter Section II --- Historical Backgrounds --- p.21 / Political Instability and Military Expenditures --- p.21 / Fiscal Status during the rule of the Nanking Government --- p.22 / Silver Standard and Currency Reform in 1935 --- p.26 / Chapter Section III --- Sovereign Default and Restructuring Episodes of the Nanking Government --- p.29 / Data --- p.29 / Sovereign Debt as a Heritage --- p.30 / Background Information of the Debts --- p.34 / The Restructuring Episode --- p.37 / Market Reactions --- p.42 / Chapter Section IV --- Capital Market Access and Reputational Theories in the Restructuring Episode --- p.45 / Access to the International Capital Market --- p.45 / Relevance of the Traditional Reputational Model --- p.48 / Signaling Model and Role of Reputation --- p.51 / Chapter Section V --- Role of Sanctions in the Restructuring Episode --- p.57 / Analytical Framework of the Sanctions Model --- p.57 / Three Possible Channels of Direct Sanctions --- p.60 / Chapter Section VI --- Informational Explanation of the Restructuring Episode --- p.64 / A Practical Analytical Framework for the Informational Model --- p.64 / Issue of Credibility and Currency Reform --- p.66 / The Need for the Settlement of Old Debts --- p.68 / Outcomes --- p.73 / Summary --- p.77 / Conclusion --- p.79 / References --- p.81 / Chapter Appendix I --- Basic information on Chinese sovereign bonds traded in the London Stock Exchange --- p.84 / Chapter Appendix II --- Price of Chinese Sovereign Bonds traded in the London Stock Exchange --- p.86 / Chapter Appendix III --- Price level change around the settlement of two Tienstin-Pukow loans --- p.93 / Chapter Appendix IV --- "Price levels and yield to maturities of the Chinese sovereign bonds on November 1，1935 and June 25, 1937" --- p.94 / Chapter Table I --- Classification of Literatures on Cost of Sovereign Defaults --- p.17 / Chapter Graph I --- Fiscal Status of China in the Nanking Decade --- p.22 / Chapter Graph II --- Breakdown of Revenue --- p.23 / Chapter Graph III --- Breakdown of Expenditures --- p.24 / Chapter Graph IV --- Financing Methods of Government Deficit --- p.25 / Chapter Graph V --- Time Distribution of Borrowing and Defaulting of Old Debts --- p.32 / Chapter Table II --- Purpose of the Old Debts --- p.35 / Chapter Table III --- Lending Countries of the Old Debts --- p.35 / Chapter Table IV --- Collateral of the Old Debts --- p.36 / Chapter Table V --- Currency Denomination of the Old Debs --- p.37 / Chapter Graph VI --- Restructuring Time Distributions --- p.39 / Chapter Graph VII --- Time distribution of new debts obtained during the Nanjing government --- p.46 / Chapter Graph VIII --- Exports and Imports of China in 1921-1937 --- p.61 / Chapter Graph IX --- "Wholesale Price Index in Shanghai, 1929-1937" --- p.74 / Chapter Graph X --- Monthly Exchange Rate of Chinese Currency to U.S. Dollar (Indirect Quotation) --- p.74 / Chapter Graph XI --- "Net Domestic Capital Formation in China, 1931-1936" --- p.76 / Chapter Graph XII --- "Industrial Product and Its Growth Rate in China, 1928-1936" --- p.76

Originally presented as the author's doctoral Thesis (Universität, St. Gallen, 2006). / Includes bibliographical references.

Originally presented as the author's doctoral Thesis (Universität, St. Gallen, 2006). / Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation studies topics in the areas of international finance. In the first chapter, the Unintended Consequences of Financial Sanctions, I study the economic impact of the U.S. financial sanctions against Russian companies in the aftermath of Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. I show that this sanctions program, which primarily cut off access to international financial markets for sanctioned firms, produced an unintended consequence of strengthening the sanctions targets relative to their unsanctioned peers. Specifically, while the policy successfully halted new international borrowings by sanctioned companies, the spillover impact of the policy resulted in these targets shrinking in size by less than unsanctioned Russian firms. To explain these results, I argue that sanctions led to a reallocation of domestic resources in favor of sanctioned firms. In particular, sanctions precipitated capital crowding out and credit rationing, causing unsanctioned domestic borrowers to suffer more from the policy. The research highlights the limitation of "targeted sanctions" and also sheds light more broadly on the impact of international financial integration and capital flows on firm size dynamics. In the second chapter, Quantitative Analysis of Sanctions Policy, I theoretically and quantitatively analyze the impact of financial sanctions on the target firms and the target economy. I introduce a heterogeneous firm model with segmented capital markets and financial frictions in which sanctions against international borrowers led to capital crowding out and credit rationing among domestic borrowers. I calibrate the model to the 2014 U.S. financial sanctions episode and use the model to estimate the impact of sanctions on firm sizes and macroeconomic variables. I also evaluate policy alternatives and identify factors for policymakers to consider in calibrating future sanctions programs. I conclude by discussing the 2022 sanctions program and inferring broader policy implications. In the third chapter, the Impact of Monetary Policy on the Specialness of U.S. Treasuries, I estimate the causal effect of monetary policy on the specialness of U.S. Treasuries. Quantifying this specialness by the U.S. Treasury Premium, which is the difference in the convenience yield of U.S. Treasuries and that of government bonds of other developed countries measured as the deviation from covered interest parity between government bond yields, I find that monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve increases the specialness of U.S. Treasuries primarily by increasing the convenience yield of U.S. Treasuries. I also find that the magnitude of the impact varies across the term structure and across countries, especially after the Global Financial Crisis, and U.S. and foreign monetary policy shocks have asymmetric impacts on the specialness of U.S. Treasuries. These results provide evidence for the unique ability of the Federal Reserve to affect the specialness of U.S. Treasuries by altering the supply of dollar safe assets.