Die vorliegende Dissertation besteht aus drei Kapiteln über die Investmentfonds. Das erste Kapitel befasst sich mit der Rolle der Fondsmanager in der Bilanzverschönerung. Auf Basis der Analyse der Karrierewege von amerikanischen Fondsmanagern werden signifikante zusammenwirkende Manager-Fixed-Effects identifiziert, die nach der Kontrolle der endogenen Matching-Probleme immer noch robust sind. Die geschätzten Manager-Fixed-Effects haben signifikante Einflüsse auf die Out-of-Sample-Vorhersagen. Außerdem wird festgestellt, dass die Verriegelungen der Investmentfonds, die von gemeinsamen Managern verwaltet wurden, wichtige Kanäle für die Bilanzverschönerung verursachen. Das zweite Kapitel beschäftigt sich mit den Investmentstrategien der Fonds im Hinblick auf die Nutzung von Credit Default Swaps (CDS). Die Zuordnung der CDS-Positionen der Investmentfonds zu ihrem Bestandportfolio bietet eine neue Methodik zur Identifizierung der CDS-Strategien und kompensiert somit die Analysen der existierenden Literatur auf der Makroebene. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Anreize zur Risikoreduzierung die Spekulationsanreize dominieren, insbesondere, wenn die Kreditexposition durch ungedeckte Leerverkäufe der CDS-Verträge erhöht wird. Die erfahrenen Fondsmanager tendieren dazu, mehr Kreditrisiko in Kauf zu nehmen, während es für die Fondsmanagerinnen wahrscheinlicher als für ihre männlichen Kollegen ist, gegen das bestehende Risiko abzusichern. Der letzte Teil nimmt die Pleite von Lehman Brothers unter die Lupe, um sich mit der daraus resultierenden unerwarteten Schließung der CDS-Positionen als einem natürlichen Experiment auseinanderzusetzten. Diese Studie dient zur Untersuchung der Risiko- und Leistungsimplikationen der CDS-Investments der Fonds. Die Investmentfonds besitzen bei ihren CDS-Transaktionen im Durchschnitt einen beachtlichen Teil Extremrisiko. Während die CDS-Nutzer von guten Gesamtmarktlagen profitieren, erleiden sie unter Verlusten bei geclusterten Ausfällen. / This dissertation comprises of three chapters on mutual funds. The first chapter establishes the role of managers in the deceptive practice of window dressing. Employing comprehensive career history of U.S. mutual fund managers, I find strong jointly significant manager fixed effects, which are robust after addressing endogenous matching concerns. The estimated manager fixed effects are significant in making out-of-sample predictions. Further I establish that mutual fund interlocks through common managers are important channels that spread window dressing. The second chapter studies the investment strategies of mutual funds regarding their use of credit default swaps (CDS). Matches between mutual funds’ CDS positions and their underlying portfolio in the holdings facilitate a new approach in identifying CDS strategies that complements the “macro” level analyses in the existing literature. I find risk reducing incentives are dominated by speculative incentives, especially those to increase credit exposure via naked short CDS contracts. Experienced fund managers tend to take on more credit risk, while female managers are more likely to hedge comparing with their male peers. The third chapter employs the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the resulting sudden closures of CDS positions as a natural experiment to examine the risk and performance implications of mutual funds’ CDS investments. Funds on average load up on a significant amount of tail risk by trading CDS. While CDS users benefit when market conditions are favorable, they suffer during periods of clustered defaults.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-12-05T11:46:10Z No. of bitstreams: 1 André Luiz Siqueira Alencar.pdf: 1311128 bytes, checksum: 58ccfea26fa0387f8f6b78d02f0ca957 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-05T11:46:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 André Luiz Siqueira Alencar.pdf: 1311128 bytes, checksum: 58ccfea26fa0387f8f6b78d02f0ca957 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-10-23 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / The objective of this dissertation is the critical analysis of the representation made by the media regarding the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, one of the largest banking institutions in the world, as well as the actors involved. There are always different ways of saying the same thing, and these modes are not accidental alternatives. Differences in expression bring ideological distinctions, and thus differences of representation. In the decade of 2008, the world went through an economic recession triggered by US mortgage lending, which led to bank failures, unemployment and rising poverty. Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy is considered one of the most important milestones of the 21st century, equated only with the terrorist attacks of September 11. The analysis will be made in editorials of two newspapers: Folha de S.Paulo and The New York Times, with basic support of the Systemic-Functional Grammar (SFG). The SFG’s theoretical-methodological proposal makes it possible to relate the lexicographic choices of the text microstructure to the macro structure of ideology and force relations, establishing a link between social and individual, macro and micro, social and cognitive typology. This type of approach is especially useful in examining the discourse of different groups with specific ideological characteristics. For SFG, language has the function of constructing three meanings – or metafunctions: ideational (information), interpersonal (interaction) and textual (linguistic organization of metafunctions). SFG also involves Critical Linguistics, to which any aspect of the linguistic structure carries ideological significance – lexical selection, syntactic choice, etc. The research should answer the following questions: (a) How can ideational metafunction, through transitivity, construct the representation concerning Lehman Brothers bankruptcy? (b) What role do interpersonal metafunctions have, through modality and evaluativeness, in this process? The results show that the Brazilian editorial “Cada vez pior” describes and narrates the negative aspects of the crisis, however, without positioning against or in favor of the issue, while the American editorial “Wall Street Casualties” also describes and narrates, but suggests positive aspects of the collapse / O objetivo desta dissertação é a análise crítica da representação feita pela mídia com referência à falência do Lehman Brothers, uma das maiores instituições bancárias do mundo, bem como aos atores envolvidos. Há sempre modos diferentes de dizer a mesma coisa, e esses modos não são alternativas acidentais. Diferenças em expressão trazem distinções ideológicas, e assim diferenças de representação. Na década de 2008, o mundo passou por uma recessão econômica desencadeada pelos empréstimos hipotecários americanos, que acarretaram falências bancárias, desemprego e aumento da pobreza. A falência do Lehman Brothers é considerada como um dos marcos mais importantes do século XXI, igualado somente aos ataques terroristas de 11 de setembro. A análise será feita em editoriais de dois jornais: a Folha de S.Paulo e o The New York Times, com apoio básico da Gramática Sistêmico-Funcional (GSF). A proposta teórico-metodológica da GSF possibilita relacionar as escolhas léxicogramaticais da microestrutura do texto com a estrutura macro da ideologia e das relações de força, estabelecendo um elo entre o social e o individual, o macro e o micro, o social e o cognitivo. Esse tipo de abordagem é especialmente útil no exame do discurso de diferentes grupos com características ideológicas específicas. Para a GSF, a língua tem a função de construir três significados – ou metafunções: ideacional (informação), interpessoal (interação) e textual (organização linguísticas das referidas metafunções). A GSF envolve também a Linguística Crítica, para a qual qualquer aspecto da estrutura linguística carrega significação ideológica – seleção lexical, opção sintática, etc. A pesquisa deve responder às seguintes perguntas: (a) Como a metafunção ideacional, por meio da transitividade, pode construir a representação referente à falência do Lehman Brothers? (b) Que papel têm a metafunção interpessoal, por meio da modalidade e da avaliatividade nesse processo? Os resultados mostram que o editorial brasileiro “Cada vez pior” descreve e narra os aspectos negativos da crise, embora sem se posicionar contra ou a favor da questão, ao passo que editorial americano “Wall Street Casualties”, ao descrever e narrar, sugere aspectos positivos da derrocada

This thesis suggests that consensus is a critical blind spot in crisis management models. The authors have grounded their argument in one conceptual framework by integrating two model theories in crisis management models and consensus theory and its related behaviors; Abilene Paradox and Groupthink. The authors evaluated these theories against Lehman Brothers between 2007 and September 2008. The results demonstrate that consensus is problematized in the decision-making process throughout the crisis management model. This suggests that consensus is a dormant risk factor that should be viewed as problematic in crisis management models. The authors conclude that the role of a principled constructive dissenter should be formalized in leadership and management of organisations to short circuit problematic consensus in crisis models.

The crisis on Wall Street. This essay is a comparative study of how two business newspapers report on the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings in September 2008. Seven articles from the Swedish European financial newspaper Affärsvärlden (Business World) and five articles from the Chinese-Asian news agency XINHUA FINANCE are examined. The aim is to analyze, understand and evaluate from a rhetorical perspective. My thesis is that rhetors storytelling can tell us more about how we cope with crisis in the global economic discourse. The texts can portray man as a narrative creature when identification as a rational actor is not enough.  The analytical methods used are linguistic analysis with an emphasis on metaphor analysis, narrative analysis based on pentad - Critical dramatism, and discourse analysis with doxological outlook.  The results show that both newspapers seek to defend the global economic discourse, but they do so in different ways. Affärsvärlden advocates calmness and conveys a cautious attitude. The heart of the crisis, as well as its solution, is on Wall Street. XINHUA advocates control and expresses confidence in authorities and the system. Asia is presented as Wall Street's savior. / Krisen på Wall Street. Uppsatsen är en komparativ studie av hur två affärstidningar berättar om banken Lehman Brothers Holdings konkurs i september 2008. Materialet för undersökningen är sju artiklar från den svenska europeiska finanstidningen Affärsvärlden och fem artiklar från den kinesiska asiatiska nyhetsbyrån ZINHUA FINANCE. Syftet är att analysera, förstå och värdera situationen från ett retoriskt perspektiv. Tesen är att tidningarna (retorerna) kan visa oss, via sina texter, berättelserna om en kris i den globalekonomiska diskursen. Texterna kan visa människan som narrativ varelse där identifikationen som rationell aktör inte räcker till. Analysmetoderna som används är lingvistisk analys med störst vikt vid metaforanalys, narrativ analys utifrån pentaden - kritisk dramatism, samt diskursanalys med doxologisk utblick. Resultatet visar att båda tidningarna strävar efter att försvara den globalekonomiska diskursen, fast de gör det på olika sätt. Affärsvärlden manar till lugn opch visar en avvaktande attityd. Räddningen och krisens centrum finns på Wall Street. XINHUA visar på kontroll och tilltro till auktoriteter och systemet. Asien framställs som räddare åt Wall Street. Nyckelord: Retorik, lingvistisk analys, metaforanalys, Eubanks, narrativ analys, Pentden, Burke, diskurs, doxa, Lehman Brothers konkurs, 17 september 2008, Affärsvärlden, Xinhua Finance.

Medical images have been used to depict the anatomy or function. Their high-dimensionality and their non-linearity nature makes their analysis a challenging problem. In this thesis, we address the medical image analysis from the viewpoint of statistical learning theory. First, we examine regularization methods for analyzing MRI data. In this direction, we introduce a novel regularization method, the k-support regularized Support Vector Machine. This algorithm extends the 1 regularized SVM to a mixed norm of both '1 and '2 norms. We evaluate our algorithm in a neuromuscular disease classification task. Second, we approach the problem of graph representation and comparison for analyzing medical images. Graphs are a technique to represent data with inherited structure. Despite the significant progress in graph kernels, existing graph kernels focus on either unlabeled or discretely labeled graphs, while efficient and expressive representation and comparison of graphs with continuous high-dimensional vector labels, remains an open research problem. We introduce a novel method, the pyramid quantized Weisfeiler-Lehman graph representation to tackle the graph comparison problem for continuous vector labeled graphs. Our algorithm considers statistics of subtree patterns based on the Weisfeiler-Lehman algorithm and uses a pyramid quantization strategy to determine a logarithmic number of discrete labelings. We evaluate our algorithm on two different tasks with real datasets. Overall, as graphs are fundamental mathematical objects and regularization methods are used to control ill-pose problems, both proposed algorithms are potentially applicable to a wide range of domains.

美國雷曼兄弟公司(Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.)在2008年9月15日向美國法院申請破產保護，宣告進入美國破產法第11章重組程序，此程序影響由雷曼兄弟公司擔任發行或保證機構之連動債券。國內不少投資人購買雷曼兄弟相關的連動債券，因該等連動債券到期返還本金如係由雷曼兄弟公司支付或提供保證，當雷曼兄弟公司發生信用事件時，該公司之信用風險將可能導致該等債券之到期本金無法償付，造成投資人極度恐慌。 本研究從連動債券之發展、定義與類型出發，就投資人所爭議的銷售過程或資訊透明等議題，比較各國連動債券相關之法律規範，並就近年之國內外爭議案例進行法律分析，希望據以截長補短，並就我國在連動債銷售之法律規範之調整及紛爭解決機制等提出具體建議。