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Magister Commercii - MCom / The drastic decline in stock prices on the 24th October 1929 sent a frantic wave of panic across the US. Merely a century later, on the 29th September 2008 another financial crisis hit the globe - this time leaving most countries devastated. The main objective of this study is twofold: 1) to determine whether leading indicators have sufficient predictive capacity to predict global financial crises; and 2) to use the Efficient Market Theory (EMT) and/ or Behavioural Finance Theory (BFT) as a means of developing a theory explaining the potential impact bad public announcements had on the level of investor confidence before the 1929 Great Depression and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. This study was not only designed to qualitatively conceptualise the notion of the term “investor confidence” whilst drawing special attention to its frailty using the 1929 Great Depression and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, but also assist governments, reserve banks and key institutions to develop effective strategies of mitigating the effects of the latter financial crisis as well as provide guidance on how another financial crisis can be prevented. This study extracted bad public announcements from 40 books and 60 journal articles using 6 NBER-based leading economic indicators (LEI) and 4 systematic risk-based leading non-economic indicators (LNEI) in order to: 1) qualitatively assess the extent to which leading indicators can be used to predict global financial crises 3 – 8 months in advance; and 2) use the EMT and/ or BFT to provide an explanation concerning the potential impact that bad public announcements had on the level of investor confidence before the 1929 Great Depression and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.

PhD (Statistics) / Department of Statistics / There has been a growing interest in investment opportunities in Africa. The net foreign direct investment (FDI) to Sub-Saharan Africa has increased from $13 billion in 2004 to about $54 billion in 2015. Investing on the stock markets is one of such investment opportunities. Stock markets in Africa have realised growth in market capitalization, membership, value and volume traded due to an increase in investments. This level of growth in African stock markets has raised questions about their efficiency. This thesis examined the weak-form informational efficiency of African stock markets. The aim therefore of this thesis is to test the efficiency of African stock markets in the weak-form of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) for eight countries, namely, Botswana, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia. Since, the researcher will be testing the weak-form of the EMH, the data to be used is on past price information on the markets of the eight countries. Data for the eight countries were obtained from DataStream for the period between August 28, 2000 to August 28, 2015. The data is for a period of 180 months which resulted in 3915 data points. Although there have been studies on the weak-form market efficiency of African stock markets, the efficiency conclusions on the markets have been mixed. This problem might be due to the methods used in the analyses. First, most of the methods used were linear in nature although the data generating process of stock market data is nonlinear and hence nonlinear methods maybe more appropriate in its analysis. Also these linear methods tested the efficiency of African markets in absolute form, however, an efficiency conclusion relying solely on absolute efficiency might be misleading because, stock markets become efficient with time due to improvements in the quality of information processing from reforms on the markets. The researcher solved this problem of using absolute frequency by comparing the results when the presence of long-memory in frequency and time domains of the markets were examined. The researcher used a semi-parametric estimator, the Local Whittle estimator to test for long-memory in frequency domain and the Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) to test for long-memory in time domain. The DFA method is suitable for both stationary and nonstationary time series which makes it to have more power over methods like the rescaled range analysis (R/S) in the estimation of Hurst exponent. Second, the researcher examined whether the markets were predictable under the Adaptive Market Hypothesis (AMH). The researcher employed the Generalised Spectral (GS) test to examine the Martingale difference hypothesis (MDH) of the markets. The Generalised spectral (GS) test is a non-parametric ii test designed to detect the presence of linear and nonlinear dependencies in a stationary time series. The GS test considers dependence at all lags. Third, because of the nonlinear nature in the data-generating process on the markets, the stationarity of the market returns under a nonlinear Exponential Smooth Threshold Autoregressive (ESTAR) model was examined. A nonlinear ADF unit root test against ESTAR and a modified Wald-type test against ESTAR in the analysis were employed. Fourth, the self-exciting threshold Autoregressive (SETAR) method was employed to model the returns when non-linear patterns were observed as a result of nonlinear data generating process on the markets. The literature on market efficiency of African stock markets has shown that variations exist in the study characteristics. There are variations in the method of analysis, type of test, type of data employed, time period chosen and the scope of analysis for the studies. The researcher therefore quantitatively reviewed previous studies by means of meta-analysis to identify which study characteristics affects efficiency conclusions of African markets using the mixed effects model. The findings showed the presence of long-memory in the returns of the stock markets when the whole sample was used. This made the markets weak-form inefficient, however, when the researcher tested for the persistence of long-memory through time, there were periods the markets were efficient in the weak-form. The memory effect was low in the South African market but high in the Mauritian market. Furthermore, it was observed that, the returns for Egypt, which were highly predictable when the whole data was analysed became not highly predictable when the rolling window approach of the GS test was used. Egypt had one of the lowest percentages of the windows that had a p-value less than 0.05 after South Africa. The results obtained from using the non-linear unit root tests on the logarithmic price series of the markets under study showed that, the markets were non-stationary and hence weak-form efficient under an ESTAR framework but for Botswana. Thus the markets were weak-form efficient when analysed using a non-linear method. This observation means that Africa’s foreign direct investment would have been increased over the years if the appropriate methods are used. This is because, over the years, studies on the weak-form efficiency African stock markets have ended with mixed conclusions with most of the markets being concluded to be weak-form inefficient as a result of the use of linear methods in the analysis. This finding, to us, has had an effect on investors commitments to Africa because the right methodology was not employed. iii The findings from modelling the returns under the non-linear SETAR model showed that, the SETAR model performs better than the standard AR(1) and AR(2) model for all the markets under study after the non-linear patterns were identified in the returns series. The SETAR (2,2,2) model is a threshold model, therefore, investors are able to move freely in search of higher opportunities between the low and high regimes. Investors main aim is to make profits, hence, the threshold model of SETAR gives them the freedom to move to a regime where the rate of returns is increasing unlike the standard AR(1) and AR(2) linear models where there are no switching of regimes. Finally, none of the study characteristics in the market efficiency studies was found to be significant in efficiency conclusions of African stock markets but the indicator for publication bias was significant. This means that there has been a change in attitude in recent years towards studies on informational market efficiency whose results do not support the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), unlike the earlier years when the EMH was formulated and acclaimed to be one of the best propositions in economics. It was therefore concluded that when time-varying methods are used in analysing weak-form efficiency, the dynamics of the markets become known to investors for proper decision-making. Also, nonlinear methods should be used in order to reflect the nonlinear nature of data capturing on the stock markets / NRF

This essay aims to explore the migration from Kalmar and Karlskrona city parishes during the first half of the 20th century divided into three intervals 1915-1920, 1930-1935 and 1943-1948. As stated above the main part of the study aims to map the migration flows to and from Kalmar and Karlskrona and furthermore compare the empirical data to Swedish national statistics. To be able to correctly compare the data gathered the empirical data of the essay is divided into four variables; age, sex, professional or other titles and whether the individuals migrated alone or with family. A comparison between Kalmar, Karlskrona and national statistics will be made to investigate whether the two city parishes are able to act as representations of the national statistics or if the two city parishes have a different outcome than what the national statistical data presents. The results show that the migratory patterns differ both between Kalmar and Karlskrona and in the national statistics of migration in regard to the city parishes. With the usage of migration theories and perspectives such as the migration transition, secondary labor market theory and push- and pull perspective and concepts such as voluntary migration and chain migration the study was able to both analyze and understand the data provided from the city parishes archives

Thesis (MComm (Statistics and Actuarial Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / In recent times many theories have surfaced posing challenging threats to the Efficient Market Hypothesis. We are entering an exciting era of financial economics fueled by the urge to have a better understanding of the intricate workings of financial markets. Many studies are emerging that investigate the relationship between stock market predictability and efficiency. This paper studies the existence of calendar-based patterns in equity returns, price momentum and earnings momentum in the South African securities market. These phenomena are commonly referred to in the literature as security market imperfections, financial market puzzles and market anomalies. We provide evidence that suggests that they do exist in the South African context, which is consistent with findings in various international markets. A vast number of papers on the subject exist in the international arena. However, very few empirical studies on the South African market can be found in the public domain. We aim to contribute to the literature by investigating the South African case.

Wong Hau Man, Ben. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-89). / Abstract / Acknowledgment / Chapter Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2. --- Introduction to the Hang Seng Index Futures Market --- p.9 / Chapter Chapter 3. --- Dynamic Efficiency --- p.17 / Chapter 3.1 --- The Potential Lead/Lag Relationship between the Stock Index Futures price and the Stock Index --- p.18 / Chapter 3.2 --- Empirical Evidence of the Lead/Lag Relationship -the US experience --- p.20 / Chapter 3.3 --- Granger and Engle's Error-Correction Model --- p.21 / Chapter 3.4 --- Error-Correction Model for the Hang Seng Index Futures Price and Hang Seng Index --- p.25 / Chapter 3.5 --- Simultaneous Error-Correction Model --- p.30 / Chapter Chapter 4. --- Price Volatility --- p.38 / Chapter 4.1 --- Why Volatility Matters --- p.38 / Chapter 4.2a --- Theoretical Foundation of the relationship between Futures Trading and Cash Market Volatility --- p.39 / Chapter 4.2b --- Empirical Evidence of Futures Trading and Cash Market Volatility - the US experience --- p.40 / Chapter 4.3 --- The Schwert Estimation Method --- p.42 / Chapter 4.4 --- Hang Seng Index Volatility and Cash Market Trading Volume --- p.47 / Chapter 4.5 --- Hang Seng Index Volatility and Futures Trading Activities --- p.48 / Chapter 4.6 --- Hang Seng Index Volatility and Contract Life Cycle --- p.50 / Chapter Chapter 5. --- Margin Policy --- p.56 / Chapter 5.1 --- The Economic Role of Futures Margin --- p.57 / Chapter 5.2a --- Theoretical Foundation of the relationship between Margin Requirement and Futures Volatility --- p.58 / Chapter 5.2b --- Empirical Evidence of Margin Requirement and Price Volatility --- p.59 / Chapter 5.3 --- HSI Futures Margin Requirement and Probability of Exhaustion --- p.61 / Chapter 5.4 --- HSI Futures Margin Requirement and HSI Futures Volatility --- p.64 / Chapter 5.4a --- Event-Study Approach --- p.64 / Chapter 5.4b --- Alternative Method --- p.66 / Chapter 5.5 --- HSI Futures Leverage and Price Volatility --- p.70 / Chapter Chapter 6. --- Conclusions --- p.81 / REFERENCES --- p.85 / APPENDIX 1. - Data Description --- p.90 / APPENDIX 2. - FIGURES --- p.92 / Chapter - --- Figure 1. Trend of HSI from May 86 to Dec93 --- p.93 / Chapter - --- Figure 2. Trend of HSI Futures Price from May 86 to Dec93 --- p.94 / Chapter - --- Figure 3. Volatility of HSI from May 86 to Dec93 --- p.95 / Chapter - --- Figure 4. HSI Futures Margin and Futures Volatility (Futures volatility is measured in daily change in contracts value) --- p.96

by Chiu Mei-Yee, Pamela, Pong Kwok-Hung, Patrick. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 52). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENT --- p.iii / LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS --- p.iv / LIST OF TABLES --- p.v / ACKNOWLEGEMENTS --- p.vi / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- OBJECTIVES --- p.3 / Chapter III. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.4 / Chapter IV. --- THE SAMPLE --- p.9 / Chapter V. --- METHODOLOGY --- p.14 / The Market Model --- p.15 / Methods to Estimate the Excess Returns --- p.16 / Chapter VI. --- RESULTS AND ANALYSIS --- p.19 / Price Effects on Inclusion in HSI --- p.19 / Price Effects on Exclusion from HSI --- p.33 / Comparison between Inclusion and Exclusion --- p.41 / Chapter VII. --- IMPLICATIONS --- p.42 / Chapter VIII. --- CONCLUSION --- p.45 / APPENDIX --- p.47 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.52

This study investigates whether earnings components are correctly priced by the Chinese investors. Under the Chinese GAAP, total earnings can be easily decomposed into core earnings and non-core earnings. Core earnings are more persistent than non-core earnings and cash flows from operations are more persistent than accruals, as expected. However, the market underestimates (overestimates) the value implications of current core (non-core) earnings for future earnings. Furthermore, the market overprices (underprices) accruals (cash flows from operations). Therefore, future returns adjusted for risk factors identified in this study are predictable by the information contained in the components of current earnings. Both the portfolio tests and regression analysis generate economically significant abnormal returns that are robust to sensitivity checks. Further analysis suggests that there is no significant difference in the extent of mispricing across firms with different characteristics such as transaction costs, arbitrage risks, investor sophistication, or firm size. This could be due to the measurement errors in the proxy variables for these characteristics. / Wu Donghui. / "July 2003." / Advisers: In-Mu Haw; James Xie. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 64-07, Section: A, page: 2551. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-130). / Available also through the Internet via Current research @ Chinese University of Hong Kong under title: Mispricings of earnings components empirical evidence from China. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if abnormal patterns concerning the rates of return during specific weekdays and months are observable for the companies in the OMXS30 during the period 2003-2010. A special focus will be put on the Monday effect anomaly. Background: Investors have a tendency to search for investment opportunities. If errors exist in the pricing of stocks it indicates that anomalies are present and that the stock market is inefficient. Investors then have the possibility to utilize the anomalies in order to receive above average returns. Method: This study is using data of stock prices from Nasdaq OMX in the period of 2003-2010. The strength and existence of the Swedish stock market efficiency is measured through autocorrelation-, chi-square- and regression tests. Average monthly stock returns are calculated on daily-, monthly-, and yearly basis. The returns are compared in order to examine if day-of-the-week and turn-of-the-year anomalies exist. Conclusion: No Monday effect is found in 2003-2010. However, positive Thursday- and positive Friday effects are detected. A negative turn-of-the-year effect as well as a positive April effect is found. The investment opportunities that could be utilized in 2003-2010 due to the specific anomalies in the period do not necessarily imply that the same anomalies can be expected on the OMXS30 in the future.

<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if abnormal patterns concerning the rates of return during specific weekdays and months are observable for the companies in the OMXS30 during the period 2003-2010. A special focus will be put on the Monday effect anomaly.</p><p><strong>Background: </strong>Investors have a tendency to search for investment opportunities. If errors exist in the pricing of stocks it indicates that anomalies are present and that the stock market is inefficient. Investors then have the possibility to utilize the anomalies in order to receive above average returns.<strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Method: </strong>This study is using data of stock prices from Nasdaq OMX in the period of 2003-2010. The strength and existence of the Swedish stock market efficiency is measured through autocorrelation-, chi-square- and regression tests.<strong> </strong>Average monthly stock returns are calculated on daily-, monthly-, and yearly basis. The returns are compared in order to examine if day-of-the-week and turn-of-the-year anomalies exist.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>No Monday effect is found in 2003-2010. However, positive Thursday- and positive Friday effects are detected. A negative turn-of-the-year effect as well as a positive April effect is found. The investment opportunities that could be utilized in 2003-2010 due to the specific anomalies in the period do not necessarily imply that the same anomalies can be expected on the OMXS30 in the future.</p>