O aumento do valor de mercado e da liquidez em bolsa das ações e a expansão da cobertura de analistas e da participação de investidores institucionais são apontados na literatura como metas centrais dos programas de Relações com Investidores - RI. Os resultados de estudos internacionais apontaram relação significativa entre características dos programas de RI das companhias e a consecução destas metas. Entretanto, para o cenário brasileiro, as pesquisas sobre relações com investidores em sua maioria tomam o formato de questionários e visam avaliar a estrutura e o valor das RI na percepção dos profissionais da área e do mercado. Pouco realmente se sabe sobre os efeitos das RI no comportamento das ações das empresas brasileiras. Portanto, o objetivo deste estudo é verificar se a estrutura e as atividades de relações com investidores são realmente fatores determinantes da valorização das ações, liquidez em bolsa, cobertura de analistas e participação de investidores institucionais para as companhias abertas brasileiras. Os resultados encontrados apontam que as características dos departamentos de RI tem impacto indireto na liquidez das ações, através da expansão da cobertura de analistas e do número de investidores institucionais. O número de funcionários do departamento de RI apareceu como determinante importante tanto da cobertura de analistas quanto da participação de investidores institucionais. Já a qualidade das relações com investidores e o fato da empresa possuir um diretor exclusivo de RI apareceram como fatores explicativos importantes da cobertura de analistas. A principal contribuição deste trabalho é a de analisar uma questão até então negligenciada pela literatura acadêmica brasileira, mas que pode ter implicações importantes para uma das atividades vitais das companhias: seu relacionamento com os investidores. / The increase in the stocks’ market value, liquidity, analyst following and participation of institutional investors are mentioned in the literature as central goals of Investor Relations programs. International studies have shown the relationship between characteristics of IR programs and the achievement of these goals. However, to the Brazilian context, research on investor relations mostly take the form of questionnaires and aim to evaluate the structure and value of IR in the perception of IR professionals and the market. Little is actually known about the effects of IR on the behavior of the stocks of Brazilian companies. Therefore, the aim of this study is to verify if the organization and activities of investor relations are actually determinants of stock appreciation, stock liquidity, analyst following and institutional ownership for Brazilian companies. The results show that the characteristics of the IR department have indirect effect on the liquidity of the stocks through the expansion of analyst coverage and institutional ownership. The number of employees working in the IR department emerged as important determinant of both analyst following and institutional ownership. The quality of investor relations program and the fact that the company has an exclusive director of IR emerged as important explanatory factors of analyst following. The main contribution of this paper is to analyze an issue so far neglected by the Brazilian academic literature, but which may have important implications for one of the vital activities of the companies: their relationship with investors.

Este trabalho estuda o impacto do efeito manada do investidor institucional no preço futuro das ações no Brasil. Segundo a literatura internacional, ações compradas (vendidas) pela indústria de fundos de investimentos têm seus preços aumentados (diminuídos) no curto prazo, de 1 a 6 meses. Já no longo prazo, esse efeito se inverte, corroborando a hipótese desestabilizadora de preços do efeito manada dos fundos. Foram realizadas análises em painel com efeitos fixos dos dados mensais da carteira de todos os fundos de investimento brasileiros de 2009 a 2015 e os resultados corroboram parcialmente as expectativas, ações compradas pelos fundos, com persistência positiva, apresentam queda nos retornos futuros, e as ações vendidas pelos fundos, com persistência negativa, sofrem aumento de retornos futuros. Quando separada a variável persistência em persistência de compra e persistência de venda, os resultados são ainda mais surpreendentes, ocorre que as ações compradas pelos fundos apresentam um resultado futuro muito positivo, entretanto as ações vendidas pelos fundos apresentam um retorno futuro, tanto no curto quanto no longo prazo, superior ao das ações compradas. Fundos ativos e pequenos comprando e vendendo ações small caps apresentam um efeito ainda mais forte. / This paper studies the impact of institutional herding on stock prices in Brazil. According to international papers, stocks bought (sold) by the fund industry have their prices increased (decreased) in the short term, from 1 to 6 months. In the long term, this effect is reversed, corroborating the destabilizing hypothesis of the institutional herding on prices. Fixed effects panel analyses were performed with the monthly portfolio data of all stocks held by Brazilian investment funds from 2009 to 2015 and the results partially corroborate expectations, stocks purchased by the funds, with positive persistence, decline in future returns, and stocks sold by the funds, with negative persistence, suffer an increase of future returns. When we separate the persistence variable into persistence of purchase and persistence of sale, the results are even more surprising, it happens that the shares bought by the funds present a very positive result in the following months, however the shares sold by the funds present a future return, both in the short and in the long run, higher than the shares purchased. Small and active funds buying and selling small caps have an even stronger effect.

The following dissertation contains two related essays. The first essay explores how institutional investor presence impacts investments during the global financial crisis. Using OLS, industry fixed effects, and Heckman 2SLS regression approaches, I explore two ways through which institutional investors could impact investments: liquidity and monitoring. My findings best support monitoring theory. I find that institutional investors monitor capital and R&D levels to maximize crisis period firm value. The second essay is a direct fallout from my first essay. In it, I investigate how institutional investor types influence investments. I ask, do certain types of investors improve liquidity or monitor firm investment behavior during the global financial crisis? My results suggest that long-term, dedicated institutional investors monitor firm investments more than short-term, transient investors. As a result, firms with greater dedicated investor presence perform better during the crisis periods than their peers.

The aim of this PhD thesis is to analyze the history and current situation of hedge funds and assess their potential to destabilize financial markets. The findings of the analysis are used to validate the assumptions underlying the major regulatory changes of hedge funds in the key global economic centres after the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Since their inception early last century hedge funds have gone through a period of great expansion in the sixties, followed by a decline due to large losses sustained in the early seventies. The nineties meant a real breakthrough for hedge funds as a result of which they became prominent players in the alternative investment space. As of today, there is over ten thousand hedge funds that globally manage close to 3 trillion US dollars. Compared to mutual funds and other financial institutions the volume of assets under management is still relatively small, the rate of growth over the past fifteen years has however been very significant. What is emphasized with respect to the impact of hedge funds on financial markets is the contribution to increasing the liquidity and efficiency and their role on the financial derivatives market where hedge funds are actively involved in the transfer of risk. They are at the same time subject of criticism for their purported destabilizing effect on financial markets and contribution to fluctuations in the prices of investment instruments. Although the share of hedge funds in triggering major financial crises has not been conclusively established, these investment entities were one of the targets of the wide-ranging regulatory changes following the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. The dissertation first discusses the history and current situation of hedge funds and defines the term hedge fund. The following section describes the basic characteristics and principles of their functioning and reviews the regulation in the major domiciles. The final chapter is focused on the empirical analysis of the impact of hedge funds on financial markets. The inputs for this analysis include a global hedge fund index and representative market indices and data from the CFTC on positions in the 10 year US government treasury note futures. In the first step the descriptive statistics for the transformed time series are presented. The second part of the analysis focuses on lagged correlations between returns and volatility of the global hedge fund index and representative market indices. Granger causality tests are applied in the following section to determine the relationships between the returns and volatility of hedge fund and representative market indices. In the final step of the analysis Granger causality tests are used to analyze the link between the changes in positions in the 10-year US treasury note futures held by hedge funds and the change in settlement prices of these futures with the aim to assess whether hedge funds have the capacity to move the market. In conclusion, the results of this analysis are discussed in light of the recent regulatory changes and the potential for the future growth of hedge funds is assessed.

Bakgrund - Den finansiella sektorn har en viktig funktion i omställningen mot ett merhållbart samhälle, där institutionella investerare genom hållbara investeringar kan ha storbetydelse för den hållbara utvecklingen. Samtidigt har hållbarhet också fått en störrebetydelse för institutionella investerare i deras beslut om investeringar. Att göra enhållbarhetsbedömning av potentiella investeringsobjekt har därför blivit en vanligtförekommande handling under institutionella investerares investeringsbeslutsprocess. Syfte - Syftet med rapporten är att skapa förståelse för hur investerare i svenskainvestmentbolag och riskkapitalbolag bedömer företagets hållbarhet inför investeringsbeslut. Metod - Studiens empiriska material har insamlats genom kvalitativa semistruktureradeintervjuer med investerare i svenska investmentbolag och riskkapitalbolag. Därefter har entematisk analysmetod tillämpats för att identifiera, beskriva och analysera teman i detinsamlade empiriska materialet. Resultat - Studiens resultat har visat att det finns ett flertal hållbarhetsrelaterade faktorer somtas i beaktande vid investerares hållbarhetsbedömning av företag. Dessa faktorer är (1) Hållbarhetsengagemang hos portföljföretagets företrädare, (2) Portföljföretagets medvetenhetinom hållbarhetsområdet, (3) Portföljföretagets strategi kopplat till hållbarhet, (4) Portföljföretagets hållbarhetsrelaterade kommunikation, (5) Portföljföretagets internakompetens inom hållbarhetsområdet, (6) Hållbarhetsfunktionens placering i portföljföretaget, (7) Portföljföretagets egen riskbedömning med avseende på hållbarhet och (8) Efterföljandeav hållbarhetsrelaterade regleringar, internationella riktlinjer och certifieringar. Vidare harframkommit att investerare vid bedömningen av företagets hållbarhet tar hänsyn till olikaobjekts- och kontextberoende faktorer, såsom företagets ålder, mognad, storlek, land,branschtillhörighet och företagets riskfylldhet. Slutligen har studiens resultat visat attbetydelsen av hållbarhet i investerares investeringsbeslutsprocess i hög utsträckning skiljersig beroende på investerarens investeringshorisont, investeringsstrategi och tillvägagångssättför hållbara investeringar. Forskningsbegränsningar - Att den empiriska studien endast innefattar investerare i svenskainvestmentbolag och riskkapitalbolag, kan ses som en begränsning. Författarna gjorde dockett aktivt val att inrikta studien mot den svenska kontexten, vilket därmed innebär att deegenskaper som kännetecknar den svenska finansmarknaden, måste tas i beaktande i studiensresultat. Nyckelord - Institutionella investerare, Investeringsbeslutsprocess, Hållbara Investeringar,Signalering, Hållbarhetssignaler / Background - The financial sector has an important function in the transition towards a moresustainable society, where institutional investors through sustainable investments can have agreat impact on sustainable development. Sustainability has also become more important forinstitutional investors in their investment decisions. Making a sustainability assessment ofpotential investment objects has therefore become a common act during institutionalinvestors’ investment decision-making process. Purpose - The purpose of the report is to create an understanding of how investors in Swedish investment companies and venture capital companies assess the company’ssustainability before investment decisions. Method - The study’s empirical material has been collected through qualitativesemi-structured interviews with investors in Swedish investment companies and venturecapital companies. Further, a thematic analysis method has been applied to identify, describeand analyze themes in the collected empirical material. Findings - The results of the study have shown that there are several sustainability-relatedfactors that are taken into account when investors assess the sustainability of companies.These factors are (1) Sustainability commitment of the portfolio company’s representatives,(2) The awareness in the area of sustainability within the portfolio company, (3) The strategylinked to sustainability within the portfolio company, (4) The sustainability-relatedcommunication within the portfolio company, (5) The internal competence in the area ofsustainability within the portfolio company, (6) The location of the sustainability in theportfolio company, (7) The portfolio company’s own risk assessment with regard tosustainability and (8) Following sustainability-related regulations, international guidelinesand certifications. Furthermore, it has emerged that when assessing the company’ssustainability, investors take into account various object- and context-dependent factors, suchas the company’s age, maturity, size, country, industry and the company’s riskiness. Finally,the results of the study have shown that the importance of sustainability in investors’investment decision-making process differs to a large extent depending on the investor’sinvestment horizon, investment strategy and approach to sustainable investment. Research limitations - The fact that the empirical study only includes investors in Swedishinvestment companies and venture capital companies can be seen as a limitation. However,the authors made an active choice to focus the study on the Swedish context, which thusmeans that the characteristics that characterize the Swedish financial market must be takeninto account in the study's results. Keywords - Institutional Investors, Investment Decision Process, Sustainable Investments,Signaling, Sustainability Signals

<p><br></p> <p>In my dissertation research I document information price discovery through investments in the alternate asset class of Venture Capital. The two chapters of this dissertation studies the effect of these investments in two different contexts. The first chapter analyses improvements in valuations of venture capital funds through syndication by VC funds. The second chapter documents improvements in stock prices, and valuations, of publicly traded firms through investments by institutional investors in VC funds and in public equity.</p> <p><br></p> <p>In the first chapter I examine the effect of syndication among venture capital (VC) funds on the funds' incentives to manipulate their performance measures. I show that the presence of new syndicate partners reduces misreporting by VC funds. About half of the reduction in manipulation is during the follow-on fundraising period. To identify that syndicate partners reduce performance misreporting I use: (i) a triple-difference approach around fundraising and (ii) availability-of-syndicate-partners as an instrument for the number of new syndicate partners. The implications of my findings are that LPs should better monitor VC funds with fewer new syndicate partners and regulators should consider the presence of peer-monitoring among VC funds before imposing disclosure requirements.</p> <p>  </p> <p>  Chapter two includes John J. McConnell, Timothy E. Trombley, and M. Deniz Yavuz as coauthors. In this chapter we report evidence consistent with institutional investors using industry-level information that they obtain from their investments in venture capital (VC) funds to earn excess returns in publicly-traded equities.  We use court rulings regarding the Freedom of Information Act as an exogenous shock affecting the information flow between VC firms and institutional investors to show that the excess returns are explained by information received via this channel.  Thus, institutional investors serve as conduits of information, making publicly-traded stock prices more efficient.  In the process, institutional investors earn higher returns from their VC investments than implied by the cash flows thereby received. </p>

The role of Institutional investors in alleviating the agent problem of management and its valuation effect has been studied extensively in corporate finance. We complement this stream of research by exploring management's control over institutional investors with misaligned objectives, particularly public pension fund, and the consequential valuation effect. We investigate the politic motive of public pension fund's shareholder activism and its impact on the target firms' operational performance, address the control of a strong management on public pension funds' self-serving agenda, and finally we compare the ownership adjustment pattern of public pension funds to other institutional investors to conclude public pension funds' ownership adjustment reflects their private pursuit. The first chapter explores the politic facet and performance effect of shareholder activism sponsored by public pension fund. In this study, we show that having a public pension fund as the leading sponsor of a shareholder proposal significantly improves the proposal's likelihood of being accepted by the target firm. The increased acceptance rate sources from the subset of proposals addressing a social responsibility issue, and targeting firms with weak insider control. An investigation of the public pension board reveals that the board's political profile is the primary determinant of public pension fund's propensity to lead a proposal, and the target firm's acceptance rate. We also assess the performance impact of shareholder proposals. For target firms with strong insider control, the performance impact of accepted social responsibility proposals is significantly positive; that of governance proposals is negligible. For target firms with weak insider control, the performance impact associated with public pension funds is either negative or negligible. These results suggest that the motive driving public pension funds' dominant presence in shareholder activism is not market based, but laden with purpose other than value creation. In the second chapter, we postulate that the widely documented negative valuation effect of ownership by public pension will be weak on firms with extra managerial control mechanism and/or whose managerial ownership of cash flow is high. For firms with high level managerial ownership of cash flow, management bears higher cost for a concession made with public pension fund's misaligned objective. An efficient market will expect this effect and value the managerial control over public pension fund to the extent that the management's benefit is aligned with outside shareholders. Consequently, the cross section valuation difference of firms held by public pension funds can be explained by the managerial ownership of cash flow, managerial control derived from extra mechanism such as dual class share, however, has no explanative power. The last chapter investigates the link between private benefits and institutional holding change. We assume the cross section equilibrium of block holding will break when market sentiment is high. Consequently, block holder tends to shed more shares loaded with less private benefits by taking advantage of opportunities available in a high sentiment market. The empirical results support this conjecture. When the market sentiment is high, Institutional block holders tend to shed more private benefits meager dual-class share than private benefits affluent non-dual class share. This pattern does not exist when the market sentiment is low. Most importantly, public pension fund is identified as the major driver of this effect. / Business Administration

本研究經過分析台灣股市中三大法人的持股率與買賣超對於公司財務變數與市場變數的的關係，藉由法人的持股選擇觀點，進而組成具有法人選股特性的投資組合，並驗證其是否具有較佳的績效表現與是否具有擊敗大盤的能力。實證結果發現，外資偏向投資於較大報酬波動率與規模的公司，以及較低負債比率與股利殖利率的公司；投信具有偏好較高的股利殖利率、股東權益報酬率、移動平均報酬率之標準差與規模的公司，以及淨價市值比較低的公司；自營商喜歡較高的負債比率、淨值市價比、移動平均報酬率與規模的公司，以及報酬波動率較低的公司。在驗證經由法人的投資特性組成之投資組合表現中，發現投信之投資組合雖具有較高的平均報酬率，但是考量風險因子後，自營商的績效表現較佳，而且都具有擊敗大盤的績效表現。 / The study analyzed the relationship between Taiwanese institutional investors’ shareholding ratio or net buy-and-sell and the company's financial variables and market variables. Using the result of regression to compose a portfolio with the characteristics of institutional investors, and verification whether it has a better performance than the stock market index. The empirical results show that foreign investors tend to invest in the company with larger volatility and size, and also lower debt ratio and dividend yield; Investment trust investors with a preference for high dividend yields, return on equity, the long-term volatility and size of the company, and tend to invest in lower book-to-market ratio of the company; Dealers like high debt ratio, book-to-market ratio, size and momentum, and also preference for the company of lower volatility. The performance of the portfolio with institutional investors’ characteristics, we found that the investment trust's portfolio had highest average rate of return, but after consideration of risk factors, dealers had better performance. Both of the portfolio beat the stock market index’s performance.

隨著經濟走向自由化、國際化，且台灣亦公布企業購併法後，合併及收購等外部成長模式逐漸受到重視，而台灣證券交易市場目前資本來源比重也與過去以散戶為大宗的情況有別，近年來機構投資人交易扮演重要的角色，故本論文希冀探討機構投資人交易與台灣上市主併公司購併宣告效果的關聯。 本論文以台灣購併案件為探討對象，排除金融業相關案件，取樣自2003年至2012年間宣布購併的交易案件，以三大法人（外資法人、投信公司、證券自營商）為機構投資人代表，並且採用其每日買（賣）超股數占總流通股數比例做為交易指標，分別以市場模型及市場指數調整模型計算累積異常報酬率，探討機構投資人交易是否隱含對投資標的經營團隊品質的認證價值，進而反應在主併公司在（-1,+1）、（-2,+2）、（-3,+3）事件窗口下之購併宣告效果。 實證結果主要有以下幾點發現：首先，本研究發現三大法人累積淨買（賣）超與主併公司購併宣告累積異常報酬率在即期事件窗口（-1,+1）及（-2,+2）下均呈現顯著正向關係；第二，獲得三大法人累積淨買超之主併公司之購併宣告累積異常報酬率在（-1,+1）期間顯著高於三大法人累積淨賣超之主併公司，顯示機構投資人交易對主併公司經營團隊有品質認證價值；第三，三大法人中外資法人累積淨買（賣）超與主併公司購併宣告效果有顯著正向影響，而投信公司、證券自營商則與主併公司購併宣告後累積異常報酬率無顯著關係。 / This study investigates the relationship between institutional trading and the announcement effect of merger and acquisition. The research is based on acquiring firms listed in Taiwan which announced merger and acquisition between 2003 and 2012. We use cumulative net buying of three representative institutional investors including foreign institutions, mutual funds, and brokers to examine acquirer’s short-run stock performance around the announcement of merger and acquisition. First, the results indicate that cumulative net buying of total institutional investors is positively related to the short-run stock performance of acquirers. Second, acquirers with increase in institutional holdings prior to the merger and acquisition have better short-run stock performance than acquirers with decrease in institutional holdings. Third, the relationship between cumulative net buying of foreign institutions and the announcement effect of acquirers is significantly positive while cumulative net buying of mutual funds or brokers has no significant relationship with the short-run stock performance of acquirers.

Le marché français, caractérisé en particulier par une forte segmentation, d’une faible sophistication des investisseurs et une domination des banques, serait peu compétitif. Sur le plan théorique, nous cherchons à illustrer, à l’aide des deux modèles simples, les effets d’une absence relative de compétition entre les fonds. Le premier met en évidence le rôle de la compétition dans la création des incitations implicites. Le second tente d’illustrer le fait que cette absence de compétition (liée à la domination des banques sur le marché français) conduirait à une performance plus faible pour les fonds. Sur le plan empirique, nous vérifions, d’une part, l’existence de ce manque de compétition du marché français. D’autre part, nous mettons en évidence l’existence d’un conflit d’intérêt direct entre les investisseurs et les fonds, résultant direct du manque de compétition du marché. Au niveau de la rentabilité des fonds, le manque de compétition du marché reflète dans le fait que les investisseurs ne réagissent pas fortement à la rentabilité relative des fonds. Au niveau des frais, l’insensibilité des investisseurs individuels aux frais des fonds pourrait traduire une moindre concurrence du marché. Nous observons également une discrimination par les frais entre les investisseurs institutionnels et les investisseurs individuels. Ces derniers paient plus chers pour une rentabilité plus faible. Toutefois, le marché commence à montrer des signes de compétition, reflétant dans le fait que les investisseurs individuels commencent à faire attention au rapport qualité-prix des fonds. Par ailleurs, un plus grand degré de sophistication des investisseurs institutionnels pourrait expliquer le fait que nous ne constatons aucun lien entre les frais et la rentabilité des fonds dans ce segment. En effet, ces investisseurs, susceptibles d’être plus sophistiqués, pourraient estimer la qualité de la gestion par des mesures plus complexes de la performance. Enfin, nous fournissons une preuve de l’existence d’un conflit d’intérêt entre les investisseurs et les fonds : les déséconomies d’échelle de performance. / The French market, characterized especially by a strong segmentation, low sophistication of investors and a domination of banks, would not be competitive. On the theoretical side, we try to illustrate, using two simple models, the effects of a lack of competition. The first one highlights the role of competition in the creation of implicit incentives. The second one shows that the lack of competition leads to weak funds’ performance. Empirically, we verify firstly the existence of this lack of competition in the French market. Secondly, we show the existence of a conflict of interest between investors and funds. The lack of competition reflects by the fact that investors do not react strongly to funds’ performance and individual investors are not sensitive to fund fees. We also observe a price discrimination between institutional and individual investors. The latter pays more for lower return. However, the market begins to show some signs of competition. In fact, individual investors start to pay attention to the “price-quality” rapport. In addition, a greater degree of sophistication of institutional investors may explain the fact that we do not obtain any relation between fees and return in this segment. Indeed, these investors may be more sophisticated and could estimate the quality of a fund by more complex measures of performance. Finally, we provide evidence for the existence of a conflict of interest between investors and funds: diseconomies of scale.