Apresenta-se uma mudança de paradigma para o instituto jurídico da doação no Brasil. Se a doação tem origem no altruísmo e na benevolência, hoje também pode ser considerada um instrumento estratégico de promoção social. Em tempos ditos de crise, enquanto não faltam projetos sociais e pessoas carentes de direitos mínimos, também existem pessoas dispostas a doar dinheiro para causas sociais. Pela perspectiva do doador, analisar-se-á quais os mecanismos jurídicos existentes de incentivo à doação em dinheiro por pessoa física para fins públicos, ou seja, quais os benefícios do investidor social. A partir da análise de direito comparado entre Brasil e Estados Unidos, examinar-se-á que o ato de doar dinheiro por pessoa física às finalidades públicas por meio das leis de incentivo gera uma contrapartida fiscal ao doador. Evidencia-se, portanto, uma nova modalidade de negócio jurídico que apresenta características mistas de direito privado e de direito público, irradiando efeitos financeiros: a doação de direito público. / The study presents a changing paradigm for the legal institution of Donation in Brazil. If the donation stems from altruism and benevolence, it can now also be considered as a strategic instrument of social advancement. In times of crisis, while there are many social projects and destitute people of minimum rights, there are also people willing to donate money to social causes. From the perspective of the donor, the thesis will analyze which are the legal mechanisms to encourage donation in cash by an individual in the public interest, ie what benefits for the social investor. From the analysis of comparative law between Brazil and the United States, will be considered that the act of donating money by individual for public purposes through a legal incentives system generates a tax return to the donor. Therefore, it can be pointed a new type of legal institute which presents mixed private law and public law characteristics, radiating financial effects: the donation of public law.

Do investment portfolios meet the needs and preferences of investors? Can the portfolio selection process be improved? Traditionally, investor preferences have been identified using risk tolerance questionnaires. These questionnaires have recently attracted a fair deal of criticism. However, there has been little focus as to whether the questionnaires are useful in predicting investors' risk-taking behaviour. In this thesis, an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach was employed to find answers to the primary research question: what factors determine risk-taking behaviour in investment decisions? This thesis looked at the risk-taking behaviour of investors in Canada (N=192) and the risk-taking advice provided by financial advisers in Canada (N=155), collectively risk-taking decisions. The results suggested that return expectations and demographic variables were important predictors of risk-taking decisions, whereas risk tolerance questionnaires were not. Further investigation suggested that investment literacy impacted risk-taking decisions while investment experience impacted both return expectations and risk-taking decisions. In a novel contribution by this thesis, additional perspective was provided by qualitative analysis using semi-structured interviews with investors and advisers. From the results of the qualitative analysis, the author suggests that discovery and self-discovery, a consistent approach and a focus on process versus outcome are key attributes valued by both investors and advisers. The thesis concluded with implications and recommendations for stakeholders, including a greater focus on return expectations, more training in discovery for advisers, simulating investment experience for prospective investors and including investment literacy in school curricula.

No contexto de avanço da globalização, o Investimento Estrangeiro Direto (IED) mostra-se como um dos principais veículos para a inserção internacional dos países. Como os objetivos das empresas transnacionais e dos Estados hospedeiros não são os mesmos, há a necessidade de adoção de políticas que levem à convergência. No plano legal, observou-se nas últimas décadas a consolidação do regime internacional dos investimentos, com o crescimento exponencial do número de tratados de investimento e de arbitragens investidor-Estado fundadas nos mesmos. Mas há insatisfações de parte a parte com o sistema. Por um lado, os países tentam limitar o ativismo dos árbitros mediante a revisão de seus tratados. Por outro, tanto os investidores como os Estados começam a perceber que não há vencedores reais na arbitragem, dadas as suas diversas deficiências. Nomeadamente: custos elevados, longa duração, incoerência nas decisões e desgaste para as relações investidor-Estado no longo prazo. Nesse diapasão, surgem propostas de alternativas. Pensadores do sistema, valendo-se do Planejamento de Sistemas de Disputas, têm desenvolvido Políticas de Prevenção de Controvérsias. Tais políticas fundamentam-se nas dinâmicas de busca de soluções baseadas em interesses contrapostas às baseadas na força e nos direitos seguindo processos de administração precoce de conflitos. Diversos países, em diferentes níveis de desenvolvimento, têm tido êxito na implementação dessas políticas. A difusão das melhores práticas, movimento apoiado por organizações internacionais, oferece oportunidades para a melhora da governança, através da promoção de maior coerência e coordenação nas ações do Estado, da transparência e do império da lei. O tema é de interesse para o Brasil, país que, diferentemente dos demais, nunca ratificou um único tratado de investimento. Isso porque já surgem vozes na indústria clamando por uma mudança de posição, diante da emergência do país também como um exportador de capital. Caso tal inflexão se confirme, o Brasil tem a oportunidade de tomar partido das melhores experiências internacionais, usando tais tratados como instrumentos na sua estratégia de desenvolvimento. / Against the background of globalization, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is perceived as one of the key vehicles in the pursuit of countries for global insertion. Since the purposes of transnational corporations and host States do not coincide, there is a need to implement policies leading to convergence. In the legal dimension, the last two decades have witnessed the consolidation of the international investment regime, with an exponential growth in the number of investment treaties and investor-State arbitration proceedings based on them. However, both sides are experiencing discontent with the current system. On the one hand, countries attempt to limit arbitrators activism, undertaking a review of treaties they are parties to. On the other, both investors and States have come to realize that there are no true winners in arbitration, in light of its several shortcomings. Namely: high costs, long duration, discrepant decisions and damages to the long term relationship between investors and States. In line with these concerns, several proposals for alternatives have come to light. System thinkers, based on concepts of Dispute Systems Design, have been developing Dispute Prevention Policies. Such policies are rooted in seeking interest-based solutions as opposed to power and rights-based ones following processes of early conflict management. Several countries, with varying levels of development, have succeeded in implementing such policies. Spreading best practices, an initiative supported by international organizations, allows for improvements in domestic governance, through the promotion of greater coherence and coordination in State actions, transparency and the rule of law. This matter is of interest to Brazil, a country that, unlike others, has never ratified a single investment treaty. There are now growing demands from Brazilian corporations for a shift in position, in view of the countrys emergence as a source of outward FDI. Should such a shift take place, Brazil has in its hands the opportunity to learn from international best practices and use such treaties as instruments in its development strategy.

A presente pesquisa tomou por objeto os investidores pessoa física no mercado de ações brasileiro. Este universo de investidores comumente denomina-se e é igualmente denominado - pelas demais instâncias e agentes do mercado financeiro como \'pequenos investidores\', independentemente do capital de que dispõe para seus investimentos acionários, da experiência ou do conhecimento que possuem sobre a bolsa de valores. A pesquisa desenvolve uma análise sobre como fatores sociais, culturais e tecnológicos modelam, afetam e influenciam a ação e a cognição econômica neste universo particular de investidores. Onze entrevistas semi-estruturadas foram realizadas com pequenos investidores, duas com profissionais que atuam na área de \'educação\' do pequeno investidor, acompanhamos igualmente palestras e work-shops destinados a este público, bem como sites, fóruns de Internet e palestras virtuais frequentados por este público investidor. A análise deste material empírico conjugada ao estudo da bibliografia própria à área da Sociologia Econômica resultou na identificação e no estabelecimento de cinco instâncias de modelação da ação econômica, cinco espaços de mediação nos quais os indivíduos desenvolvem e exercem seus modos de operação prática neste mercado a partir de fatores ou dimensões sociais, culturais e tecnológicas. Estas cinco instâncias podem ser resumidas da seguinte maneira: 1. influência dos agentes e das iniciativas voltadas à educação do pequeno investidor em bolsa de valores, 2. o impacto das redes sociais para a operação prática dos pequenos investidores, 3. a conformação de estilos de operação e de tomada de riscos na bolsa ( grosso modo, \'conservadores\' ou \'arrojados\') a partir de identidades ou papeis sociais reivindicados e assumidos pelos pequenos investidores, 4. o papel de softwares e tecnologias que assessoram e equipam o pequeno investidor e, finalmente, 5. a constante associação entre o investimento em bolsa e o universo cultural dos jogos. Em oposição ao paradigma neoclássico das ciências econômicas, o estudo concluí que, em suas tentativas de cálculos e maximizações racionais, os indivíduos não são unidades auto-referenciadas e/ou auto-suficientes, ao contrário, seus cálculos e maximizações são constituídos a partir de fatores ou dimensões sociais, culturais e tecnológicas. / The present research centers its focus upon the natural person that trades stocks in the Brazilian stock market. This universe of investors is generally acknowledged as \'small investors\', regardless to the capital one has for stock investment, his experience or knowledge about the stock exchange. The research carries out an analysis on the social, cultural and technological factors that shape, affect and influence the economic agency among such investors. Eleven semi-structured interviews with small investors and two interviews with professionals that work on the education of these investors have been conducted. Moreover, I have attended several work-shops dedicated to this investment public, as well as analyzed sites, electronic forums and virtual lectures aimed at this public. The investigation of this empirical data associated to the study of the economic sociology bibliography have brought about the identification of five mediation spaces, through which small investors shape their concrete modes of economic agency on social, cultural and technological grounds. These five mediation spaces may be summed up as it follows: 1. the influence of educational initiatives and agents on small investors, 2. the impact of social networks on the economic agencies of such investors, 3. the shaping of investment styles ( either \'conservative\' or \'aggressive\') based on social identities and roles these investors vindicate, 4. the impact of technologies and softwares that ground the economic agencies of small investors and, finally, 5. the constant association between stock investment and the cultural universe of games among this universe of investors. As a conclusion, opposed to the orthodox financial economics, we argue that economic agency is a complex process along which individuals shape their rational calculations according to social, cultural and technological factors or dimensions.

A presente pesquisa tomou por objeto os investidores pessoa física no mercado de ações brasileiro. Este universo de investidores comumente denomina-se e é igualmente denominado - pelas demais instâncias e agentes do mercado financeiro como \'pequenos investidores\', independentemente do capital de que dispõe para seus investimentos acionários, da experiência ou do conhecimento que possuem sobre a bolsa de valores. A pesquisa desenvolve uma análise sobre como fatores sociais, culturais e tecnológicos modelam, afetam e influenciam a ação e a cognição econômica neste universo particular de investidores. Onze entrevistas semi-estruturadas foram realizadas com pequenos investidores, duas com profissionais que atuam na área de \'educação\' do pequeno investidor, acompanhamos igualmente palestras e work-shops destinados a este público, bem como sites, fóruns de Internet e palestras virtuais frequentados por este público investidor. A análise deste material empírico conjugada ao estudo da bibliografia própria à área da Sociologia Econômica resultou na identificação e no estabelecimento de cinco instâncias de modelação da ação econômica, cinco espaços de mediação nos quais os indivíduos desenvolvem e exercem seus modos de operação prática neste mercado a partir de fatores ou dimensões sociais, culturais e tecnológicas. Estas cinco instâncias podem ser resumidas da seguinte maneira: 1. influência dos agentes e das iniciativas voltadas à educação do pequeno investidor em bolsa de valores, 2. o impacto das redes sociais para a operação prática dos pequenos investidores, 3. a conformação de estilos de operação e de tomada de riscos na bolsa ( grosso modo, \'conservadores\' ou \'arrojados\') a partir de identidades ou papeis sociais reivindicados e assumidos pelos pequenos investidores, 4. o papel de softwares e tecnologias que assessoram e equipam o pequeno investidor e, finalmente, 5. a constante associação entre o investimento em bolsa e o universo cultural dos jogos. Em oposição ao paradigma neoclássico das ciências econômicas, o estudo concluí que, em suas tentativas de cálculos e maximizações racionais, os indivíduos não são unidades auto-referenciadas e/ou auto-suficientes, ao contrário, seus cálculos e maximizações são constituídos a partir de fatores ou dimensões sociais, culturais e tecnológicas. / The present research centers its focus upon the natural person that trades stocks in the Brazilian stock market. This universe of investors is generally acknowledged as \'small investors\', regardless to the capital one has for stock investment, his experience or knowledge about the stock exchange. The research carries out an analysis on the social, cultural and technological factors that shape, affect and influence the economic agency among such investors. Eleven semi-structured interviews with small investors and two interviews with professionals that work on the education of these investors have been conducted. Moreover, I have attended several work-shops dedicated to this investment public, as well as analyzed sites, electronic forums and virtual lectures aimed at this public. The investigation of this empirical data associated to the study of the economic sociology bibliography have brought about the identification of five mediation spaces, through which small investors shape their concrete modes of economic agency on social, cultural and technological grounds. These five mediation spaces may be summed up as it follows: 1. the influence of educational initiatives and agents on small investors, 2. the impact of social networks on the economic agencies of such investors, 3. the shaping of investment styles ( either \'conservative\' or \'aggressive\') based on social identities and roles these investors vindicate, 4. the impact of technologies and softwares that ground the economic agencies of small investors and, finally, 5. the constant association between stock investment and the cultural universe of games among this universe of investors. As a conclusion, opposed to the orthodox financial economics, we argue that economic agency is a complex process along which individuals shape their rational calculations according to social, cultural and technological factors or dimensions.

The mainstream quantitative models in the finance literature have been ineffective in detecting possible bankruptcies during the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis. Coinciding with the same period, various researchers suggested that sentiments in social media can predict future events. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between investor sentiment within the social media and the financial distress of firms Grounded on the social amplification of risk framework that shows the media as an amplified channel for risk events, the central hypothesis of the study was that investor sentiments in the social media could predict t he level of financial distress of firms. Third quarter 2014 financial data and 66,038 public postings in the social media website Twitter were collected for 5,787 publicly held firms in the United States for this study. The Spearman rank correlation was applied using Altman Z-Score for measuring financial distress levels in corporate firms and Stanford natural language processing algorithm for detecting sentiment levels in the social media. The findings from the study suggested a non-significant relationship between investor sentiments in the social media and corporate financial distress, and, hence, did not support the research hypothesis. However, the model developed in this study for analyzing investor sentiments and corporate distress in firms is both original and extensible for future research and is also accessible as a low-cost solution for financial market sentiment analysis.

Moral Hazard and the Agency Costs thereof have long been accepted arguments in venture finance theory and have therefore long been accepted shortcomings in the venture capitalist / entrepreneur relationship. In psychological experiments ??? including economic ??? it has been shown that human beings prefer to act in a reciprocal manner that reduces any inequity in a relationship. Humans who expect to receive an unfair and inequitable position in a relationship, will take steps to rectify that position. Specifically, if a venture capitalist expects the entrepreneur to unfairly extract private benefits from the investee company post investment by the venture capitalist, then he or she will impose costly controls and monitoring mechanisms in place to prevent that. All relationships that impose controls and monitoring mechanisms are inefficient, as opposed to Advising the investee which draws upon the skills of the venture capitalist and is generally efficient. The venture capital industry is comprised of intelligent and professional people who can recognise inefficiency easily. Indeed, this is how they make poorly managed companies into profitable trade sales or IPO???s. The online survey completed for this thesis poses questions that attempt to show that venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are not locked in an antagonistic relationship where each merely acts in a self interested way. This thesis concludes that venture capitalists and entrepreneurs do work in a reciprocal relationship recognising the substantial efficiency gains to be made by doing so.

This dissertation examines three distinctive issues that concern the regulators and policy makers in the development of financial markets. It contains three stand-alone research projects within the context of law, finance and economic growth. Chapter 2 examines the dynamic relationship between banks and economic growth from the points of view of market efficiency and asset pricing theory. Publicly traded banks are broadly representative of a country???s banking sector, so that banking industry stock prices will broadly reflect the performance of a country???s banking sector. Because previous research has established that the institutional framework, as well as the aggregate size, of the banking sector can significantly affect economic growth, this chapter investigates whether the stock returns on a country???s banking sector contain information about future economic growth, and whether the specific country and institutional characteristics that affect the functioning of the banking system and market efficiency also influence this relationship. Using the data from 18 developed and 18 emerging markets, the chapter finds a significant and positive relationship between bank excess return and future economic growth in both the time-series and panel analyses. The chapter also finds that this positive relationship is significantly strengthened by the enforcement of insider trading law, by banking crises, by bank disclosure regulations and financial development, but is weakened by government ownership of banks. Chapter 3 investigates the role of bank idiosyncratic volatility in economic growth and systemic banking crises. Using the same dataset from Chapter 2, this chapter finds an ambiguous relationship between bank volatility and economic growth in the time-series studies, which suggests that the effect of bank volatility on economic growth is more country-specific. In the panel analyses, the chapter finds a negative but very weak relationship between bank volatility and future economic growth. This negative relationship is magnified by banking crises and bank disclosure standards, but is alleviated by the government ownership of banks, the enforcement of insider trading law and financial development. The chapter goes further to examine whether bank volatility leads to the occurrence of systemic banking crises, and finds that the marginal effect of bank volatility on the probability of banking crises is very weak for the sample of all markets, and this result is mainly driven by the data from the emerging markets. However, bank volatility is a significant predictor of banking crises even after being controlled for macroeconomic indicators, which implies that market forces are more powerful in promoting the soundness of the banking system in developed markets. We also find that those macroeconomic and banking risk management indicators have different impacts on the probability of banking crises for the emerging and developed markets. Therefore, caution needs to be taken in interpreting the cross-country results of the studies on banking crises. Chapter 4 studies the corporate governance issues in China, a significant developing country that has been neglected by the current law and finance literature. Incorporated with the legal environment and ownership structure of China???s listed companies, the chapter develops a simple game model to study a neglected aspect of current corporate governance literature: the expropriation arising from the mixture of weak investor protection, ownership concentration coexisting with ownership dispersion, and the absence of a controlling shareholder. The last two chapters find that government ownership undermines the positive link between bank excess return and economic growth, but alleviates the negative impact of bank volatility on growth as well. This chapter shows that government ownership is also a two-edged sword in corporate governance in China: it leads to a double-agency problem; however, the strong legal protection of State assets also increases the cost of expropriation. Using the data from 1996 to 2003, the chapter finds the empirical evidence consistent with the model. By analysing the puzzles in China???s stock market, the chapter suggests that improving the legal protection of investors is the key issue in the future development of the financial market.

The dramatic growth of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives in the last two decades and the ever-expanding range of financial derivative have triggered concerns as regards investor protection. These concerns have been exacerbated in recent times by phenomenal losses sustained by several large corporations (including municipalities), in the United States, Europe and Asia. This thesis seeks to evaluate the capacity of the existing regulatory framework in Australia to provide protection to participants trading in the OTC derivatives markets. The evaluation is carried out in three parts: first, by identifying the gaps in the Corporations Law regimes, second by determining the extent to which the general criminal and consumer laws are capable of stepping into the breach left open by the Corporations Law and third, by locating the gaps in the supervisory structure by identify the participants who are not subject to any form of supervision by the regulators. The examination conducted in this thesis of the regimes in Chapters 7 and 8 of the Corporations Law reveals a number of gaps in respect of investor protection. Significantly, the OTC derivatives market, which is by far the larger market compared to the on-exchange derivatives market, is generally unregulated by the Corporations Law. Comparative analysis between the sanctions provisions in Chapters 7 and 8 of the Corporations Law and those in the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) and the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) indicated that whilst these latter Acts have the potential to act as a substitute for some of the sanctions provisions in the Corporation Law, about half of the sanctions provisions under the Corporations Law regime has no equivalent provisions in these Acts. In consequence, some regulatory gaps remain. Gaps also occur in the supervisory structure as the surveillance by regulators of market participants is focused along institutional lines. The failure of the law to provide adequate protection to investors trading in the OTC derivatives markets is due primarily to an outdated, inflexible and inappropriate regulatory framework which, when originally constructed, was not intended to regulated the broad spectrum of financial derivatives. This thesis discusses the gaps and deficiencies in the Corporations Law regime and also discusses the recent recommendations made by the Wallis Committee and the Companies and Securities Advisory Committee as well as the proposals of the Treasury in relation to investor protection. It also provides some suggestions for law reform.

本研究採2003年12月至2010年6月上市上櫃公司為研究樣本，檢驗當期投資人情緒、公司治理、及動能投資策略對下期股價獲利的影響，與先前研究不同之處在於，投資人情緒使用世新大學投資人情緒資料庫所提供之「投資人情緒指數」。實證結果為: 1、當期投資人情緒悲觀會使得當期股價低估，而使下期股價向上修正時有較高的報酬率。 2、公司治理佳的股票報酬率顯著大於公司治理劣的股票報酬率。 3、過去股價報酬率較高者未來也有較高的獲利，反之則較低。 4、投資人情緒相較於公司治理及動能策略而言，為主要的影響股價的因素。 5、金融海嘯時，投資人情緒悲觀仍使下期股價有較高的報酬率，但公司治理劣者報酬率顯著大於公司治理佳者。