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1 Abstract Thesis: Protection of customers and investors on financial markets The purpose of my thesis is to analyse and comment an issue of legal tools implemented for the protection of investors on financial markets and customers, clients of financial institutions. The thesis is formally divided into eight chapters. Thesis commences by introductory defining the scope of thesis and tasks given to be commented. Chapter one summarize definitions of terms further used in the thesis with special focus on content of the term "Customer (Client)" and "Investor" and their distinction for purpose of this thesis. Second chapter focuses on historical aspects and inputs for development and improvement of financial regulation. I am attempting especially to highlight the influence of political changes and financial crises to concerns about regulation of financial environment (which usually lead to its modification or tightening of rules) on given samples firstly of development in the Czech Republic after year 1989 and secondly on European Union during the last financial crisis of years 2007 - 2009. Third chapter consists of analysis of the financial markets regulation in the Czech Republic under present legislation mainly and in detail focusing on the role of Czech National Bank. As the Czech National Bank integrated...

This thesis examines the integration of European stock markets, focusing on the affect of the EU and Eurozone. Moreover, the thesis analyses whether increasing integration is a local trend possibly caused by the EU and Eurozone, or whether either the Japanese or American stock market gets more integrated with the European ones as well. We study the integration using weekly data of eighteen European stock markets and stock markets of Japan and the US over the horizon of twenty years. The method used is an extension by Klöessner and Wagner (2012) of a method originally introduced by Diebold and Yilmaz (2009). We find a positive effect of the EU on the integration of the stock markets. Also, the integration is rather local as the American and Japanese stock markets are proved to not have a higher increase in integration with the European stock markets that they have with each other. Finally, we find the Eurozone does not have an immediate positive effect on the integration of the stock markets. Keywords Stock markets integration, Spillovers, EU, Eurozone, Diebold and Yilmaz Author's e-mail vildova.t@email.cz Supervisor's e-mail mp.princ@seznam.cz

Current theoretical insights into firm internationalisation have mainly been established from research on firms originating from developed countries, with a strong focus on the manufacturing sector. Studies have recently begun to examine the internationalisation of emerging market firms, the international growth of SMEs, and service firm internationalisation, and a range of theories have been employed to gain understanding in these areas. This study examines internationalising small service frims from an emerging market, whose location-intensity makes them a rare type of firm for whom internationalisation might appear to be a counter-intuitive strategy. This study seeks to understand the internationalisation motives, enablers, and paths of location-intensive food service SMEs from the emerging Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It asks why, what and how to location-intensive food service SMEs from emerging markets internationalise? The aims is to provide a deeper understanding of firm internationalisation by examining a group for whom the purpose and methods of internationalisation appears to be obscure. To do this, the thesis introduces a more comprehensive account of firm internationalisation by identifying the three interrelated aspects of internationalisation, which are presented as motives, enablers and paths. This is followed by a review of the mainstream internationalisation theories and perspectives, before revealing important findings that have emerged from previous internationalisation research separately on the emerging markets, SMEs and services and these are drawn together into an overall research framework. The research method balances deductive and inductive approaches. It recognises existing research an theoretical frameworks, but allows for new themes to emerge inductively from the data. A multiple case study was adopted, with qualitative data collected through interviews with owners and top managers of purposefully selected case firms. Industry experts were also interviewed and relevant documents were reviewed to achieve triangulation and minimise bias. Data was explored and thematically analysed by coding into the pre-existing categories suggested by the conceptual framework, and this allowed new findings and themes to emerge. This exploratory study revealed a number of concepts that shaped a coherent approach to the interrelated aspects of internationalisation. Perspectives found in emerging market MNE literature are extended and offer useful insights for location-intensive service SMEs from emerging markets but other important themes emerged from the findings itself. the study suggests that asset augmenting motives, strategic and entrepreneurial enablers and outward and inward linked paths are important when explaining the internationalisation of these firms. These firms have strategic motives of increasing their organisational legitimacy in their home market primarily due to the entrance of well-established MNEs and consumer perceptions. The strategic entrepreneurship paradigm captures many of the internationalisation enablers of the case study firms, specifically the entrepreneurs' role in simultaneous opportunity seeking (either recognition or creation), and advantage seeking behaviour through research building. The paths pursued by the firms are found to be both outwardly and inwardly linked, in a way closely associated with Luo and Tung's (2007) springboard perspective. Finally, the case firms' internationalisation paths reflect a deviation from the born-again global viewpoint first presented by Bell et al (2001). This study advocates that emerging market service firms need to implement and coordinate a number of strategies simultaneously to upgrade their resources, due to the entrance of established foreign MNEs. This implies that foreign MNEs should recognise their own resource combinations that represent real value to local firms, and therefore re-examine whether further standardisation over adaption is better suited when entering certain host markets. This thesis highlights the importance of impression management to complement legitimacy in consumer-centred industries, and this is suggested as a rich avenue for future enquiry. Future research might also test the theoretical contributions made her, especially concerning the new motives, enablers and paths identified in this study.

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Through increasingly efficient mass-production techniques, car-ownership has been made affordable to a large segment of the world's population, beginning in Europe and North America in the first decades of this century and recently extending rapidly throughout all other continents. The industry, however, is running out of major new opportunities for growth, and automotive markets in the Western World have entered the phase of maturity; this is typified by slowing growth and intensifying competition. These factors are driving fundamental change in the economics of the industry, and are forcing rationalisation and consolidation across the world. In a drive to remain competitive, the major Vehicle Manufacturers are relying more and more on the capabilities of their first-tier suppliers, and are pushing design and development responsibility further down the supply chain; suppliers are taking on a new role within the automotive industry and are increasingly becoming involved in the design and development of new products in collaboration with their major customers. The core theme throughout this research enquiry has been to investigate such practices (which have been termed co development), with particular emphasis placed on the European automotive industry. The literature within the areas of customer-supplier relationships and product development is wide and varying, and both bodies of knowledge are beginning to stress the importance of co-development in a number of industries. However, even though academics and industrialists are suggesting co development is necessary in today's marketplace, research into this area remains scarce and few insights into the improvement of such relationships can be found. This research has begun to close this gap by identifying those factors that can influence the successful transformation of co development. Through a series of focus groups, fifty-two concepts were identified that were seen to influence the success of co-development improvement activity - due to the nature of the focus group methodology, these concepts were wide-ranging and covered all aspects of the cross-company relationship, highlighting many -areas for further investigation. These concepts were reviewed and grouped, and four concepts plus sixteen sub-concepts chosen for additional analysis - these include a preparation phase, in which both organisations recognise the need for improvement and commit to enhance their existing relationship, the nature of communication across organisational boundaries, the alignment of working practices at all levels of the business, and an implementation phase in which actual improvements are realised and further sustained. These have been represented in an initial conceptual model that simply depicts the interdependencies that exist between the four high-level concepts. This conceptual model has been further tested and expanded through seven case studies; six cases were conducted at first-tier suppliers, whilst one was completed within a European-based VM. The major data collection tool used during these studies was the semi-structured interview, providing deep insights into co-development improvement from both sides of the relationship. The case studies only reiterated the importance of the concepts and sub-concepts within a co-development environment, and provided insights into the 'who, what, where, when, and how' of the topics under consideration. Finally. the concepts have been validated through a twelve-month action-research study, involving the actual implementation of the conceptual model in an industrial setting. The researcher gained first hand experience of co-development improvement, and observed an organisation struggling with the complexities of the cross-company environment. The knowledge gained throughout this period has not only emphasised the importance of the concepts and sub-concepts to co-development improvement, but has provided future implementers with insights into how one organisation has successfully transformed forty of their co-development relationships.

This study set out to investigate the relationship between returns in the residential property markets and two key economic variables of output and interest rates. The main focus was on the short-term rates path and how it is influenced by the Taylor rule fundamentals and in turn, its effect on the returns in the property markets within the developing countries of South Africa, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Czech Republic. A secondary focus was on building a model that can be further developed into a full forecasting model of returns in the residential property markets. Output was found to be a strong driver of returns in the residential property markets across all four countries. Real changes in the economic activity feed into the residential property markets and drives returns. Output can be incorporated into a forecasting framework for returns in the residential property markets within these countries The short-term rate paths within the countries studied were found to be consistent with the Taylor rule but with heavy short run deviations from the rule. Short-term rates deviated from the rule in the short run, but showed a tendency to revert to the rule in subsequent periods. Returns and prices in the property markets were driven by the short-term rates only in two of the emerging markets. For these countries, this link between rate and returns mean there was also a link between monetary policy and returns in the property sector. Similar to the Taylor rule process, property returns in the two emerging markets were found to have short run deviations which could not be explained by interest rates and output. For the purposes of building a fully fledged forecasting model, this model must be expanded to include other explanatory factors. Adding the risk premium as an explanatory variable could be the starting point.

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2013. / Cannot copy abstract

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2013. / This study investigates the current private equity market in African frontier markets as well as inherent investment opportunities in these African frontier markets. The research includes an analysis of, inter-alia, the following: the development of capital markets in Africa, the classification of African frontier markets, the measurement of liquidity, the relationship between liquidity and asset prices and the history of private equity. This study will highlight to policymakers both in African and in donor capitals the need to implement strategies that will support investment (especially private equity investment) into the continent. The research carried out in this study should contribute to a better understanding of illiquidity risks of African frontier markets and show how these can be mitigated. This study will also provide key information on African frontier markets to investors and fund managers in order for them to understand that a typical investment strategy for investing in developed markets cannot be applied to frontier markets. The study analyses data of listed stocks on selected African stock exchanges and compares this to data for similar stocks listed on developed world stock markets to examine the relationship between liquidity, earnings multiples and market capitalisations for these stocks. Interestingly, results show that, while there is no relationship between the liquidity of stocks and the Price Earnings (PE) multiples of stocks, there is strong evidence to suggest that a relationship exists between the liquidity of stocks and the Enterprise Value to EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) multiples of stocks. Furthermore, we find strong evidence that African frontier market stocks are significantly less liquid and have lower earnings multiples than stocks with similar market capitalisations listed on stock exchanges in the developed world.

Thesis advisor: Fabio Ghironi / This thesis studies the role of product and labor market frictions for the propagation of shocks in closed and open economy. The first chapters focuses on the consequences of relaxing product and labor regulation for macroeconomic outcomes. Specifically, we study long and short to medium run effects of deregulation by developing a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium model featuring endogenous producer entry and search and matching frictions in the labor market. We calibrate the model to reproduce salient features of countries belonging to the Euro Area which are characterized by large barriers to entry, firing restrictions and unemployment benefits. We analyze the effects of single policy changes and a global reform in which product and labor market regulations are set at the current U.S. level. Three main results emerge. First, we show that deregulation -- either partial or global - would trigger adjustment costs in the short run, increasing unemployment and reducing consumption. Long run welfare gains would make up for short run costs. Second, reforms are interdependent as the effects of a policy change in one market depend upon the level of regulation prevailing in the other. Third, regulation has important consequences for the business cycle properties of the economy. After a full deregulation, the Euro Area would become more responsive to exogenous disturbances but the absorption of shocks would be quicker. Our findings suggest that concerns about the negative effect of strict regulation for the speed of recovery from downturns could be well placed. The second chapter studies how country-specific labor market frictions -- hiring and firing restrictions and protection of unemployed workers -- affect the consequences of trade integration. We address this question in a two-country model of trade and macroeconomic dynamics with heterogeneous firms, endogenous producer entry, and search and matching frictions in the labor market. We study the dynamic effects of trade integration on unemployment and economic activity and the business cycle implications of stronger trade linkages. The model introduces a novel source of amplification and propagation of domestic and international shocks, as fluctuations in job creation and destruction affect the profitability of producer entry into domestic and export markets. Structural differences in labor markets translate into asymmetric entry and export dynamics across countries. As trade barriers are reduced, unemployment initially rises (falls) in countries with more rigid (flexible) labor markets. In the long run, average productivity gains ensure positive employment effects in both countries. Trade is always beneficial for welfare, but the economy with a rigid labor market gains less. Integration has also important business cycle consequences. In contrast to benchmark international real business cycle models, but consistent with the data, the model predicts that trade integration leads to increased business cycle synchronization. Volatility increases in the country with a rigid labor market, but it falls for the flexible partner. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.