Cette thèse s'intéresse au rôle des analystes financiers lors de la couverture des introductions en bourse dans un contexte international. Nous traitons de la valeur informationnelle des couvertures des analystes et de leur conséquence sur la performance à long terme des entreprises nouvellement introduites en bourse. Nous examinons si les recommandations des analystes financiers permettent de réduire le comportement irrationnel des investisseurs en situation de forte incertitude. Nous espérons qu'en réduisant les asymétries d'informations, les analystes financiers aident les investisseurs à mieux cibler la valeur de l'IPO. Cette thèse s'articule autour de deux parties : la première est consacrée au positionnement théorique et à nos hypothèses de recherche ; la seconde se focalise sur la vérification empirique d'un échantillon d'IPOs internationales (Etats-Unis, Angleterre, Allemagne et France) sur la période 1991 à 2005. Les résultats révèlent une sous performance des IPOs plus sévères pour les orphelines (sans couverture des analystes) que pour les non orphelines. Il apparaît que la couverture des analystes est importante pour les IPOs mais que le marché n'en perçoit pas toute la valeur. D'autres analyses soulignent que cette meilleure performance des non orphelines provient du nombre élevé de couvertures. Nous établissons que les recommandations des analystes sont significativement reliées à la performance à long terme des IPOs. Ainsi, nous vérifions le rôle crucial des analystes financiers dans la production et l'interprétation des informations. / This thesis explores the role of financial analysts' coverage on IPOs in an international context. We deal with the informational value of research coverage and the consequence on long run performance of newly public firms. We examine whether financial analyst recommendations allow alleviating the irrational investors' behaviour in the context of strong uncertainty. We expect that by reducing the information asymmetry, financial analyst recommendations help investors to define progressively the true value of the IPO. The thesis is organized in two main parts: the first part presents a survey of literature and define research hypothesis. The second part consists in an empirical validation of an international sample of IPOs (US, United Kingdom, Germany and France) over the 1991-2005 period. The results reveal that long run underperformance is much severe for orphans' IPOs (without financial recommendation) than non orphans' IPOs. The evidence suggests that analyst coverage is indeed important to issuing firm but the market do not fully incorporate the perceived value of this coverage. Further analysis reveals that this outperformance by non orphan stems from high coverage. We establish that analyst recommendations are significantly related to long run performance of IPOs. Hence, we corroborate the crucial role of financial analysts in producing and interpreting IPOs' financial releases.

I denna studie av nyintroduktioner på börsen (IPO:er), från 2006 till 2014, på börsen Nasdaq Nordic (som består av Nasdaqs börser i Finland, Sverige, Danmark och Island) undersöker vi om avkastningen för private equity-ägda företags IPO:er på lång sikt är högre än hos de icke private equity-ägda företagens IPO:er. Vi mäter den långsiktiga avkastningen genom att använda måttet BHAR och jämföra de två grupperna sinsemellan. Vi finner att private equity- ägda företags IPO:er har en högre avkastning än de icke private equity-ägda företagens IPO:er över de båda tidsperioderna 1 och 3 år. / In this study of IPOs, from 2006 until 2014, of the Nasdaq Nordic market (main markets of Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland) we are investigating whether the long-run return of private equity backed IPOs significantly differs from the return of non-private equity backed IPOs. We measure the long-run performance by using the simple BHAR and comparing the two samples. We find that private equity-backed IPOs significantly outperform non-private equity backed companies over the measured time periods, 1 and 3 years.

This study examined the effects of government expenditure on different components of economic growth in South Africa using quarterly data from the period 1970Q1 to 2016Q4. The six key policy variables employed in the analysis were derived from the Ram (1986) production model and the New Growth Path (NGP), a macroeconomic framework designed to address the main challenges (unemployment, poverty and inequality) facing the economy as a result of its political past. The analysis of the relationship was carried out using the VECM while the findings from the analysis revealed that though there exists a long-run equilibrium relationship among the variables. The long-run estimates showed that aggregate private consumption expenditure and employment-to-population ratio are significant but negatively, related to economic growth. However, the net inflows of foreign direct investment and gross fixed capital formation are negatively related to gross government expenditure. This implies that excessive public capital expenditure might reduce the positive impact of the two variables on economic growth. The study therefore suggests that government should consider increasing its expenditure on the significant variables that support labour and capital development, in order to enhance economic growth in South Africa. / Economics

This dissertation consists of two self-contained chapters that empirically examine bidder firm returns of U.S. companies in cross-border mergers and acquisitions. In chapter one I examine how cultural distance between bidder and target country impacts internalization benefits. The results suggest that shareholders are initially concerned about the acquisition in culturally distant countries, which outweighs any potential benefits from internalization. However, in the long-run we observe a significant reversal of these findings. In the second and third year following the announcement, greater cultural distance positively impacts the bidder firm's operating performance and the bidder experiences significant internalization benefits from technological know-how when cultural distance is great. Long-run calendar-time returns further support this finding. These results add to the existing literature by highlighting the importance of cultural distance when examining internalization benefits. In chapter two I attempt to explain abnormal bidder firms' returns in cross-border mergers and acquisitions by comparing the first-mover hypothesis to the late-mover hypothesis. I also study the reactions of rival firms to bidder firm announcements as a further test of the first-mover hypothesis. The findings suggest that cross-border acquisitions are generally value-destroying for strategic pioneers unless cultural distance between the U.S. and the target country is great. Further, I find positive announcement effects for followers as long as cultural distance is small.

This dissertation includes two chapters that investigate the role venture capitalists (VCs) play in the underpricing and in the long-run performance of IPOs. The first chapter focuses on the underpricing of IPOs and attempts to determine the role that VCs play in this underpricing process. The evidence is consistent with a view that VCs agree to underpricing to ascertain benefits from both "grandstanding" and "spinning." The second chapter examines the long-run performance of IPOs and tries to determine the role that VCs play in the development of IPOs. Here, the evidence suggests that VC-backed IPOs appear to have better access to capital than non-VC-backed IPOs, but the long-run performance of VC-backed IPOs is generally mixed.

This dissertation comprises two topics. In Chapter 1, I explore the short- and long-run relation between insurance development and economic growth for 40 countries between 1981 and 2010. Applying a pooled mean group estimation, I find that life and nonlife insurance have different short- and long-run effects on the growth. On a full sample analysis, life insurance exerts a significantly positive long-run effect on the growth, while its short-run effect is not significant. Nonlife insurance, in contrast, has a significantly positive short-run growth effect but no long-run effect. On a reduced sample analysis, the observation on life insurance is qualitatively similar, but the growth effect of nonlife insurance is no longer significant both in short and long run, suggesting that specific countries drive the overall effect in the full sample. The results pass a battery of robustness tests. The analysis on individual countries reveals that the short-run effect and adjustment speed toward the long-run equilibrium varies across countries. I also analyze if the level of income and insurance development makes any difference on the growth effect of insurance. The results show that the growth effect of life insurance is significant in non-high income countries and countries with low level of life insurance development, while the effect is not significant both for life and nonlife insurance in high income countries. In Chapter 2, I employ the dynamic panel threshold model to investigate how institutional environments shape the impact of insurance development on economic growth. I conduct four hypotheses for possible intermediate effects of institutional environments on insurance-growth nexus: quasi-institution positivity, quasi-institution negativity, quasi-institution duality, and quasi-institution neutrality. I use multiple measures related to political, economic, and legal environments to evaluate the soundness of institutional environments. Empirical results show that the quasi-institution negativity hypothesis is supported for life insurance because the observation is consistent across all institution-related measures. The results in nonlife insurance are not as uniform as those in life insurance. The quasi-institution positivity, negativity, and neutrality are respectively supported in different institutional measures, and the coefficients in most cases are significant only at a marginal significance level. The overall findings suggest that a sound institutional environment does not necessarily benefit the growth effect of life insurance, but an unhealthy one does deter it and that the effect depends on specific measure in the case of nonlife insurance. In Chapter 3 I briefly introduce some directions for further research.

For the past half a century, there has been progressive development in corporate finance theories, and among these, corporate financial decisions have been attracting the attention of outsiders. As the outsiders¡¦ learning process of the firm¡¦s private information determines the firm¡¦s value, managers who are concerned with outsiders¡¦ perceptions of their firms try to enhance their firms¡¦ short-term reputation through their financial decisions. However, up to this date, few reputation models have been applied to predict these financial decisions. Three corporate finance issues are involved to identify the reputation effects on corporate finance: (1) convertible bond call policies, (2) IPO decisions and activities, and (3) corporate financing policies. As for the first issue, this study constructs a two-period reputation model of a convertible bond call policy. This model concludes that in equilibrium, a firm with bad management quality and a bad reputation chooses to call, while a firm with good management quality or of a good reputation builds up it reputation by not calling the convertible bonds. This is consistent with the signaling theory proposed by Harris and Raviv (1985). However, the reputation model here identifies the call policy as a reputation-building mechanism rather than being only a signaling role, and suggests that the reputation rents resolve the discrepancies of the stock¡¦s post-call price performance. As for the IPO decisions and activities, this study performs another reputation model to analyze a firm¡¦s reputation effects on IPO activities, especially on the decision to go public. The results yield that a firm¡¦s reputation does affect its decision to go public. By listing equities publicly, firms with good management quality and a solid past would anticipate enhancing their reputations, and those with a poor past would anticipate building up good names. Furthermore, good reputation firms with bad management quality would anticipate maintaining their reputations by going public. On the other hand, it is found that good firms over-invest in building up their reputations and bad firms take advantage of their reputations to go public. Both result in firms¡¦ over-going public and IPO mispricing. This constitutes an alternative interpretation on IPOs¡¦ long-run underperformance and the sharp decline of the survival rate. As for the corporate financing policies, the other reputation model is constructed by taking both determinants, the costs of financial distress as well as the firm¡¦s reputation into consideration. The results show that good management quality firms with good reputations enjoy their financial flexibility between debt and equity. Bad management quality firms take advantage of their good names to issue equities, which leads to over investment. Good management firms lose their financial accesses due to bad reputations, which lead to under investment. Reputations would screen the bad management quality firms with bad reputations off the market. This dissertation concludes that reputations indeed affect the three selected corporate financial decisions and suggests further plow on more corporate finance issues.

The study examines the price elasticity of demand for cigarettes in the short- and long run in Sweden. The time period for the study is 17 years and covers the years 1996-2012. The results of the study shows that the price elasticity of demand for cigarettes in the long run is higher than in the short run for the Swedish consumers, which is in line with previous studies in the area. The fact that the price elasticity of demand for cigarettes is higher in the long run, indicates that the substitution effect has a significant impact on the price elasticity of demand for cigarettes in the long run. The study was conducted in two parts where the authors investigated the effect of cigarette tax on cigarette prices and in addition the cigarette prices impact on the demand for cigarettes in Sweden. The combined result of the study demonstrates that increasing the cigarette tax by 10 per cent means that the demand for cigarettes is reduced by 5 per cent, while government revenues from the cigarette tax will increase by 4.5 per cent. The result in this paper shows why the state's incentive to raise the cigarette tax is twofold, since a tax increase will generate health benefits through reduced consumption and generate increased revenues to the state. These incentives are also shown to have a greater impact in the long term. / Studien undersöker efterfrågans priselasticitet på cigaretter på kort- och lång sikt i Sverige. Tidsperioden för undersökningen är 17 år och omfattar åren 1996-2012. Studiens resultat visar att efterfrågans priselasticitet på lång sikt är högre än på kort sikt för de Svenska konsumenterna, vilket ligger i linje med tidigare studier inom ämnet. Det faktum att priselasticiteten för cigaretter är högre på lång sikt indikerar på att substitutionseffekten har betydande effekt för efterfrågans priselasticitet på cigaretter på lång sikt. Studien har genomförts i två delar där författarna undersökt cigarettskattens effekt på cigarettpriset och i sin tur cigarettprisets effekt på efterfrågan på cigaretter i Sverige. Det kombinerade resultatet i studien påvisar att en ökning av cigarettskatten med 10 procent medför att efterfrågan på cigaretter minskar med 5 procent, samtidigt som statens intäkter från cigarettskatten ökar med 4,5 procent. Resultatet i denna uppsats visar därför att statens incitament till att höja cigarettskatten är tvådelad, då en skatteökning genererar hälsovinster genom minskad konsumtion samt genererar ökade intäkter till staten och att dessa incitament har en större påverkan på lång sikt.

In the first essay titled "Divestitures and Acquisition Probability", I examine the relationship between a firm's divestiture activities and the likelihood that the firm will become an acquisition target. Using a logit model comparing a sample of target firms matched with a sample of non-target firms from 1986 to 2010, we find that a firm is 27 percent more likely to be acquired within three years of a divestiture activity than if there was no previous divestiture, and the effect is stronger for firms with fewer numbers of segments. Our finding is robust to modifications of control variables, to managerial entrenchment, as well as to alternative diagnoses. Consistent with the literature, we find the market reacts positively to a divestiture announcement. However, cross-sectionally we find the market reaction is positively related to whether or not the divesting firm adopts a golden parachute feature and negatively on the firm's number of segments which is related to the probability of future acquisition. In the second essay titled "The Choice of Divestiture and Long-run Performance: Asset Sell-off versus Equity Carve-out," I examine the post-divestiture long-run performance of two different choices of corporate divestiture, asset sell-offs versus equity carve-outs, and find that the choice of divestiture method has important implications for post-divestiture long-run performance. My findings show that the sell-off parents' long-run abnormal returns are significantly higher than those of the carve-out parents. I also find evidence that the long-term abnormal performance improves with a reduction in the diversification discount. The effect of the diversification discount is weaker for divesting parents with higher levels of R&D. My results further show that a firm's pre-divestiture number of segments and level of asymmetric information are positively related to the probability of an asset sell-off.

Studien avsåg studera Private Equity-ägda och icke Private Equity-ägda nynoteringars långsiktiga avkastning. Med hjälp av bakomliggande faktorer så som ägarstruktur, underprissättning, marknadsvärde, storlek på nynotering, ålder, bransch samt heta och kalla marknader, identifierades om det fanns skillnader och vad de i så fall kunde bero på. Vidare undersöktes om nynoteringarna var underprissatta och om underprissättningen i så fall skiljde sig mellan de två ägarstrukturerna. I denna studie tillämpades ett kvantitativt tillvägagångssätt med en deduktiv ansats för att analysera sekundärdatan som samlades in. Urvalet bestod av 43 bolag varav 25 var PE-ägda och 18 var icke PE-ägda. Sekundärdata samlades in från ett flertal olika källor däribland Nasdaq, Skatteverket, Zephyr och Finansinspektionen. PE-ägda nynoteringar presterade bättre än icke PE-ägda på lång sikt, både för Buy-and-hold abnormal return (BHAR) 1 och 3 år. Samtliga nynoteringar var i genomsnitt underprissatta där PE-ägda uppvisade en högre underprissättning. Utöver resultatet att samtliga nynoteringar i genomsnitt var underprissatta, vilket var signifikant på en 0,1 procentsnivå, var ingen av skillnaderna signifikant. Slutligen uppvisade underprissättning som enda variabel en signifikant positiv påverkan på både BHAR 1 och 3 år. För BHAR 1 år visade dessutom storleken på nynoteringen och en av de fyra åldersgrupperna tio-nitton, i jämförelse med referensgruppen, en positiv signifikant påverkan. / The aim of this study was to determine whether there were any differences in the long-run performance between Private-Equity-backed and non-Private-Equity-backed IPOs. Further, the authors chose a number of variables from previous studies in order to examine whether these could explain the long-run performance of IPOs on the Swedish stock market Stockholmsbörsen. Finally, the study examined whether the IPOs was underpriced and if it differed between the two ownership structures. In this study a quantitative method with a deductive approach was used in order to analyze the collected secondary data. The study's sample consisted of 43 companies, of which 25 were Private-Equity-backed and 18 were non-Private-Equity-backed. The secondary data were collected from a variety of sources such as Nasdaq, Skatteverket, Zephyr and Finansinspektionen. Private-Equity-backed IPOs performed better than non-Private-Equity-backed IPOs in the long-run, both for BHAR 1 and 3 years. Further, all the IPOs were on average underpriced, where Private-Equity-backed showed a higher underpricing. Aside from the fact that all the IPOs were underpriced, which was significant at a 0.1 percent level, none of the differences were significant. Finally, the only variable that showed a significant positive impact on both BHAR 1 and 3 years was underpricing. For BHAR 1 year the size of the IPO and one of the four age groups 10-19, in comparison with the reference group, also showed a positive significant impact.