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I examine the relation between a firm's dividend policy and its strategic tax decisions. I posit that the capital market pressure associated with paying a dividend leads dividend-paying firms to seek predictable cash flows. I specifically focus on the volatility of a firm's cash effective tax rate (ETR) due to the observability, large size, variability, and periodicity of cash tax payments. Consistent with dividend payments altering a firm's strategic tax preferences, I find that firms that pay a higher dividend exhibit more predictable cash ETRs. Further, I find that the predictability of a dividend-initiating (eliminating) firm's cash ETR subsequently increases (decreases). Additionally, I find that, consistent with prior research suggesting that financially constrained firms "borrow" cash from their tax account, financial constraint moderates the positive relation between the predictability of a firm's cash ETR and its dividend payments. Importantly, my results hold for firms initiating a dividend in response to the exogenous shock of the Bush tax cuts. Finally, I also examine specific tax strategies dividend-paying firms use to help increase the predictability of their cash tax payments. My results contribute to the academic literature by examining whether, and how, dividend-paying firms alter their strategic tax decisions. Additionally, I contribute to ongoing public policy debates over the value of dividend payments by demonstrating a positive relation between dividend payments and the predictability of a firm's cash tax payments.

Kong Lai Ling. / "Architecture Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Master of Architecture Programme 2001-2002, design report." / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-100). / Chapter Part I - --- Topic defining --- p.p.3 / Chapter 1.0 --- Mission statement / subject / problem / issues / Chapter 2.0 --- Schedule / Chapter Part II - --- Background information --- p.p.11 / Chapter 3.0 --- Background / types of market / open air / shed-roof / market hall / market district / Chapter 4.0 --- Precedent study / overall planning / proportion of space / making of the space / Chapter Part III - --- Site --- p.p.28 / Chapter 5.0 --- Site analysis / site context / sign board / booth / Chapter 6.0 --- Program / Chapter Part IV - --- Design --- p.p. 54 / Chapter 7.0 --- Design development / fall term proposal / spring term proposal / Chapter 8.0 --- Design proposal / overall strategies / provision of shading / improvement of booth / design / Chapter Part V - --- Special study --- p.p.85 / Chapter 9.0 --- Special Study / efficiency of material / availability of standard material / details / Chapter 10.0 --- Review comments --- p.p. 90 / external reviews / internal reviews / final presentation / Chapter 11.0 --- Reference --- p.p.99 / precedent study / theory / history of hong kong

This thesis began with an introduction and literature review in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2, I propose a new intertemporal asset-pricing model based on heterogeneous beliefs to bring together the concurrent theories that could generate value and momentum effects. In this model, I assume that such behaviour occurs simply due to an agnostic view of forecasting returns considering the dominant strategy in the market. Given the endogenous price determination in the model, individuals were expected to adjust their own strategies to match the dominant strategy to obtain higher profits (from more accurate fore- casts). The idea was to bridge the literature on intertemporal asset allocation with the one on heterogeneous beliefs. In Chapters 3 and 4, I consider the empirical problem of implementing Markowitz (1952) mean-variance optimisation on a portfolio of stocks. In particular, I focus on the out-of-sample performance of the minimum-variance portfolio obtained from the use of asset group information and regularisation methods to obtain more stable estimates of the parameters in the model. Specifically, in Chapter 3, I introduce the use of regularisation methods to the portfolio selection problem and a literature review on the subject. In Chapter 4, I propose two alternative approaches for the use of the group structure information and to obtain more stable and regularised minimum-variance portfolios. I show that these procedures produce significantly better results in the portfolios compared with the unconstrained minimum-variance portfolios estimated from the whole data set in terms of portfolio variance and the Sharpe ratio.

Between the 1970s and 2000, the U.S. imprisonment rate increased by 700% (e.g., Beck and Harrison 2001). During the same time period, technological advancements and the decline of manufacturing production in urban areas eliminated many of the higher-paying blue collar job opportunities previously available to workers without college educations (e.g., Morris and Western 1999). The simultaneous large changes in imprisonment and labor markets are striking and the co-occurrence of these events suggests a possible connection between increasingly insecure employment conditions and rising imprisonment rates. Further, policies targeting the poor population (including criminal justice) became more punitive since the 1970s. This co-occurred with a resurgence of Republican Party popularity and overall imprisonment rates subsequently increased (e.g., Beckett and Sasson 2004). Understanding the association between labor market conditions and imprisonment may be especially important for historically disadvantaged minority groups. Research has yet to consider how specific labor market shifts (e.g., restricted blue collar opportunities) may influence imprisonment rates. It is unknown whether such labor market dynamics may better explain the exposure of historically disadvantaged racial minorities to criminal justice system control. This project examines the issues raised in the foregoing discussion using a unique dataset created for this purpose. Data at the local-level are combined from two primary sources: the National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP) (U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics1989 and 1999), and Integrated Public Use Micro Sample (IPUMS) data (1990 and 2000) (Ruggles, Alexander, Genadek, Goeken, Schroeder, and Sobek 2010). This project also draws from two general election studies, "General Election Data for the United States" (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research 1995) and American University Federal Elections Project data (Lublin and Voss 2001), and controls for criminal justice system characteristics using the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) (U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation 1988, 1989, 1998, 1999) and The Book of the States (1990 and 2000). Findings suggest that the percentage of men without college education and restricted blue collar employment rates for unskilled workers are positively associated with prison admission rates within the corresponding local areas. In addition, the local percentage voting for Republican presidential candidates is positively associated with prison admission rates. Further, concentrated disadvantage among local African American populations is significantly and positively associated with prison admission rates for this group. Conversely, concentrated socioeconomic disadvantage among Whites is significantly and negatively associated with prison admission rates for African Americans. In addition, the local percentage of unskilled African Americans is significantly and positively associated with prison admission rates for African Americans and Whites. Finally, the percentage of unskilled workers employed in blue collar industries is significantly and negatively associated with African American and not significantly associated with White prison admission rates.

This thesis investigates the impact of terrorist attacks on equity financial markets. It employs traditional event study approaches to identify and measure stock market reactions to terrorist attacks in New York on September 11, 2001, and subsequent terrorist attacks in Madrid, London and Bali. Three studies are presented. The first study investigates the impact of September 11 on the tenant firms within the World Trade Centre. The second study investigates industry effects following the Madrid and London bombings. The third study undertakes a sensitivity analysis to different event study techniques over the various terrorist attacks. The results from the three studies suggest that equity markets can remain efficient in the wake of terrorist events. Terrorist events can trigger large abnormal movement in both equity prices and volume traded. These price and volume effects are influenced by industry effects. Terrorism has a differential impact on stock markets and industry portfolios within stock markets. The detailed analysis presented in this thesis can be used to exploit that industry effect and can be employed to guide diversification strategies that could minimize terrorist risk through industry diversification. The thesis has also evaluated alternative event study methods and produced a critical analysis of event study methodology. It shows clearly that methodological choices can and do significantly influence results. The thesis contributes to eliminating some uncertainty about the markets response to terrorist events, and identifies opportunities for reducing terrorist risk in stock markets.

<p>We consider one transaction costs model which was suggested by Cetin, Jarrow and Protter (2004) for an illiquid market. In this case the hedging strategy of programming traders can affect the assets prises. We study the corresponding partial differential equation (PDE) which is a non-linear Black-Scholes equation for illiquid markets. We use the Lie group analysis to determine the symmetry group of this equations. We present the Lie algebra of the Lie point transformations, the complete symmetry group and invariants. For different subgroups of the main symmetry group we describe the corresponding invariants. We use these invariants to reduce the PDE under investigation to ordinary differential equations (ODE). Solutions of these ODE's are subgroup-invariant solutions of the non-linear Black-Scholes equation. For some classes of those ODE's we find exact solutions and studied their properties.</p><p>% reduce non-linear PDE to ODE's. To some ODE's we find exact solutions.</p><p>%In this work we are studying one model for pricing derivatives in illiquid market. We discuss it structure and properties. Make a symmetry reduction for the PDE corresponding our model.</p>

<p>The report is about globalization, when Chinese companies come to Europe. The aims are to sum up this phenomenon by answering three key questions thanks to the literature (why coming to Europe, how, what challenges may be encountered on the way), and then to update the challenges we found to make them more actual. We would like this report to be the reference in this field.</p><p>In order to do so, we built up a model explaining the process of Chinese companies coming to Europe, and then took contact with Chinese and Swedish companies with deep knowledge of internationalization and interviewed them, starting with the challenges we found out after a literature review. They helped us to sort these challenges between “no longer relevant” (despite recent information from the literature) and “still relevant”, and also added some new ones.</p><p>Then we updated our model: among the 16 challenges we had at the beginning, we kept 11 of them, removed 5 and added 2 new ones. The aims and means for coming to Europe remained unchanged.</p><p>We conclude this report by giving possible further studies such as listing which culture differences matter when doing business, or finding solutions to the problems found.</p>

The report is about globalization, when Chinese companies come to Europe. The aims are to sum up this phenomenon by answering three key questions thanks to the literature (why coming to Europe, how, what challenges may be encountered on the way), and then to update the challenges we found to make them more actual. We would like this report to be the reference in this field. In order to do so, we built up a model explaining the process of Chinese companies coming to Europe, and then took contact with Chinese and Swedish companies with deep knowledge of internationalization and interviewed them, starting with the challenges we found out after a literature review. They helped us to sort these challenges between “no longer relevant” (despite recent information from the literature) and “still relevant”, and also added some new ones. Then we updated our model: among the 16 challenges we had at the beginning, we kept 11 of them, removed 5 and added 2 new ones. The aims and means for coming to Europe remained unchanged. We conclude this report by giving possible further studies such as listing which culture differences matter when doing business, or finding solutions to the problems found.

We consider one transaction costs model which was suggested by Cetin, Jarrow and Protter (2004) for an illiquid market. In this case the hedging strategy of programming traders can affect the assets prises. We study the corresponding partial differential equation (PDE) which is a non-linear Black-Scholes equation for illiquid markets. We use the Lie group analysis to determine the symmetry group of this equations. We present the Lie algebra of the Lie point transformations, the complete symmetry group and invariants. For different subgroups of the main symmetry group we describe the corresponding invariants. We use these invariants to reduce the PDE under investigation to ordinary differential equations (ODE). Solutions of these ODE's are subgroup-invariant solutions of the non-linear Black-Scholes equation. For some classes of those ODE's we find exact solutions and studied their properties. % reduce non-linear PDE to ODE's. To some ODE's we find exact solutions. %In this work we are studying one model for pricing derivatives in illiquid market. We discuss it structure and properties. Make a symmetry reduction for the PDE corresponding our model.