The relationship between state sovereignty and investor right is well discussed in academic circles. However, when these concepts are nested with major issues such as investment screening and narrowed in the natural resource sector, the outcome points to the fact that academic conversatiosn on the issues are still embryonic. Indeed, investment treaty arbitration has increasingly come under attack because it has the propensity to elevate investors ahead of host states and afford foreign investors broad investment rights they can invoke and pursue upon minimum regulatory changes. The threat of substantial arbitral award can result in host states not enacting policies, regulations, laws or reaching decisions despite them being needed. This thesis analyses investor-state dispute settlement in Africa with a narrow focus on the natural resource sector and questions the legitimacy of these mechanisms and whether they can strike an appropriate balance between investment screening and state sovereignty and investment protection. secondly the thesis assesses whether investment screening can be deployed the potential conflict between investment screening and and state sovereignty and to ehat extent this conflict resulst in the phenomenon of "regulatory chill". the study concludes on the extent to which investor state arbitration can resiolve the seemingly conflict and offers recommendations.

Целью работы является совершенствование методического подхода к оценке инвестиционной привлекательности малых промышленных предприятий. Совершенствование заключается в разработке методического подхода к оценке инвестиционной привлекательности малых промышленных предприятий в сфере производства мясной продукции. Разработанный методический подход позволяет на основе общедоступных, открытых источников получать более комплексные оценки положения предприятия на рынке как в динамике, так и в текущем моменте относительно конкурентов, что повышает качество принимаемых инвестиционных решений. / The aim of the work is to improve the methodical approach to assessing the investment attractiveness of small industrial enterprises. The improvement consists in the development of a methodical approach to assessing the investment attractiveness of small industrial enterprises in the field of meat production. The developed methodical approach allows, on the basis of publicly available, open sources, to obtain more comprehensive assessments of the company's position in the market both in dynamics and in the current moment relative to competitors, which improves the quality of investment decisions.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Problem: This study aims to examine the factors that influence the individual's different choice of risk level. Demographic characteristics are the underlying factors being analyzed in the study with a special emphasis on geographic factors – this in order to analyze and explain the Swedish individual’s approach to risk. Based on certified private advisers’ perspective, the study will also examine their approach to manage individuals’ risk. Purpose: Studying the differences in risk aversion among individuals when making investment decisions, based on demographic factors and geographical areas. Theory: The essay’s theoretical framework deals with theories covering behavioral finance, the risk appetite development in individuals at a demographic and geographic way, and an overview of previous research on the subject. Method: We conducted a quantitative study in which 340 respondents were asked to answer a survey. We also interviewed three certified counselors from three different banks in Sweden. Conclusions: In line with behavioral finance theory, people are not rational when making investment decisions. The study concludes that people in big cities tend to be more risk-averse than people in smaller cities. Sex is shown to be a differentiating factor with men having a higher risk-aversion than women. A higher income and level of education leads to a higher risk attitude and marital status affects the risk appetite where a married person has a higher risk appetite than a person who is single. Age and education, showed to have no relationship to the level of risk.

Many professional traders, hedgers, and institutional investors utilise spread trading to engage in the futures market. Most of the literature dedicated to futures spreads was published between the late 1970s and early 1990s, and has partly lost its relevance. This is because of the emergence of new financial instruments, changed relationships and regulations within the financial industry and, furthermore, the advent of round-the-clock electronic trading which has increased the number of players and liquidity of futures markets many times over (Hull, 2006). Hence, there is a need to explore futures spreads from a contemporary perspective. The six publications which form the basis of this PhD examine futures spreads from different perspectives. They address questions surrounding spreads systematisation, classification and analysis. The thesis develops a new framework for futures spreads analysis which has practical application as an investment tool. This thesis makes a contribution to theory and practice in the area of futures spreads. The research results could find wide application in the futures industry and of interest to the research community.

No description available.

Bangladesh reformed its corporate governance by adopting Bangladesh Corporate Governance Guidelines-2006 (the BCGG-2006 hereafter) due to pressures from international financial institutions (IFIs). However, there is huge controversy in prior literature regarding the IFIs’ suggested reform initiatives. The thesis asks specific research questions: RQ1. Do institutional investors and bankers in Bangladesh perceive that the level of compliance with the BCGG-2006 by the investee or borrowing company influences the investment and lending decisions respectively? RQ2.1. To what extent is the BCGG-2006 implemented in form rather than in substance? RQ2.2 Is there a relationship between the nature of compliance with the BCGC-2006 and firm performance? RQ3.1. To what extent does reported compliance with the BCGG-2006, as reported in annual reports, overstate underlying compliance with the BCGC-2006? RQ3.2 Does the overstatement of compliance reported in annual reports lead to a different relative ranking of a firm’s corporate governance structure? RQ3.3 What factors influence the overstatement of compliance with the BCG-2006 in annual reports? To investigate RQ1, an inductive approach is taken and data are collected by using semi-structured interviews of investment managers and credit rating analysts. In order to examine the remaining RQs, a deductive approach is taken and data are collected: (1) by using a structured survey questionnaire addressed to company secretaries or CFOs; and (2) from annual reports and stock exchanges. With respect to RQ1, this study finds (1) strong evidence that institutional investors and bankers perceive limited impact of corporate governance mechanisms recommended by the BCGG-2006 on investment and lending decisions respectively. In order to theorise the above findings, two theories: agency theory and the theory of path dependence are contrasted. Using a grounded theory coding, this study finds that (1) companies are locked in the path of control by sponsor families and sponsor families then impede the implementation of the BCGG-2006 and (2) institutional investors and bankers lock themselves in the path of name-based and relationship-based investment and lending practices which deters consideration of corporate governance mechanisms introduced by the BCGG-2006. Very few interviewees provide an explanation consistent with the agency theory. This evidence thus points more to the theory of path dependence than to agency theory. In relation to RQ2.1, this study finds that local privately-owned companies and government-owned companies either do not comply or comply in form but not in substance with the BCGG-2006, while subsidiaries of foreign multinational companies comply in form and in substance with the BCGG-2006. The relative strength of path dependence in local privately-owned companies and government-owned companies and subsidiaries of foreign multinational companies explains these results better than agency theory. The evidence with respect to RQ2.2 provides an indication that the nature of compliance with separation of the chairman and CEO, board independence and audit committee does not have an association with firm performance in case of local privately-owned companies. However, the evidence in relation to RQ2.2 provides an indication that the nature of compliance with the corporate governance mechanisms introduced by the BCGG-2006 makes a difference in firm performance in subsidiaries of foreign multinational companies. With respect to RQ3.1, it is found that companies overstate compliance with the BCGG-2006 in annual reports. With respect to RQ3.2, this study finds that the rank of a firm’s corporate governance is different when comparing compliance with the BCGG-2006 as reported in annual reports with compliance with the BCGG-2006 as stated in the survey. With respect to RQ3.3, it is found that overstatement of compliance is more pronounced with respect to less-observable provisions of the BCGG-2006, is positively associated with control by sponsor families and is negatively associated with control by institutional investors. This evidence is again more consistent with the theory of path dependence and institutional logic than agency theory. The findings of this thesis suggest that corporate governance researchers in developing countries should consider the role of path dependence rather than agency theory exclusively. This thesis also makes a methodological contribution by investigating overstatement of compliance with the BCGG-2006. The findings of this study may also assist regulators in developing countries and the IFIs in formulating future governance guidelines for developing countries.

No description available.

This thesis examines the treatment of tax in investor-state arbitration of expropriation and national treatment protection. The root of the study is the special characterisation of tax in the sovereignty of the state and the consequent sensitivity of states to have their tax policies being the subject of private adjudication. Tax has in the past been characterised as a non-arbitrable matter, but that is true only if states have purposefully deemed them so under the international investment treaties that they are party to. Tax is generally arbitrable under the expropriation provisions of international investment treaties, but states are seldom found liable for tax expropriation. National treatment, on the other hand, is generally not arbitrable under international investment treaties, but when an investment treaty permits the arbitration of alleged national treatment tax violations, violations are affirmed in more cases than not. The reason behind the comparable success rates is the difficulty in proving the existence of expropriation by taxation whereas national treatment tax violations are comparatively easier to substantiate. This thesis establishes what constitutes a tax expropriation, and how the success rate of claims for national treatment tax violations justifies the general exclusion of the application of national treatment protection to tax matters for sovereignty retention. In order to achieve the foregoing, this thesis examines sovereignty and the sovereign power to tax; the relinquishment of tax sovereignty under international investment treaties; the arbitrability of tax and the reasoning behind the reluctance of states to submit tax disputes to arbitration; the capability of tax to be expropriatory; the fundamentals of the expropriation standard under customary international law and international investment treaties and how they are applied by arbitral tribunals in tax expropriation claims; and the fundamentals of the national treatment protection and how they are applied by arbitral tribunals in claims for national treatment tax violations.

In this thesis, the ten stocks with the highest dividend yield from the OMXS30 have been used to construct a portfolio, a strategy called The Dogs of the Dow. The portfolio was equally weighted and rebalanced every year. The purpose of this thesis is to see how the strategy would perform in terms of return and risk compared to the market. To define the market two indexes were used, OMXSPI and OMXSGI, which excludes and includes dividends respectively. A low dividends portfolio was also used as a benchmark. Though beating the market some individual years and showing a tendency of performing better in an up-going market, the strategy's average annual return of 9.69 percent for the whole period only beat one of the benchmarks. The strategy's risk was fairly similar to the market risk hence, it does not compensate the lower return with lower risk. The Sharpe ratio showed that the Dogs of the Dow portfolio had the best risk adjusted return in only two out of the eleven years. This points towards the conclusion that the strategy would not have performed better, overall, compared to the benchmarks between the years of 2005 and 2015.