Thesis (M.Econ.)--University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

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Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005.

The aftermarket stock price performance of micro-capitalized IPOs with penny stock status is an often-neglected subsample in the IPO research literature. As the markets in which these IPOs are often traded are subject to lower listing and disclosure requirements, there is a higher degree of asymmetrical information between issuers and investors than on more regulated exchanges. Another characteristic of micro-capitalized IPOs is the investor base, which is dominated by retail, or irrational, investors, causing the aftermarket trading to be driven by irrational behavior. With this in mind, this paper studies 139 IPOs made on the Swedish fringe marketplace Aktietorget, over the period 2007-2015, and their 15 months’ aftermarket price performance. The study adopts an event time approach to compare the returns on the IPOs to returns on a market index used as benchmark. Using a Student’s t-test and a Wilcoxon signed rank test, there are no conclusive evidence of abnormal returns that would question the Efficient Market Hypothesis. Results from multiple linear regression models, evaluating IPO price performance over a 15-month period, provide evidence for positive hot period and hot industry effects, and negative underpricing and offer price effects. Furthermore, a positive effect of post-issue company market value is evident for 3-, 6- and 12-months aftermarket periods. This paper provides evidence of return predictability of micro-capitalized IPOs using factors surrounding the IPO date, but requests additional evidence from other geographical samples, with precise definitions of normal returns.

The Psephenidae is a family of freshwater beetles usually found in swift streams worldwide. Their unique disc shaped and flattened larvae have made this a group of interest for scientists for centuries. Morphologically, this family has been relatively well researched, and systematically the family is fairly well known and supported as monophyletic. One issue with Psephenidae, and with many other insect groups, is the lack of the molecular phylogenetic analyses to test morphology hypothesizes. After successfully sequencing these two genes from species representing nearly all of the known genera, the data were analyzed using both Bayesian and parsimony methods. Analyses were performed individually for each gene, a combined molecular analysis, using just morphological data, and a total evidence analysis using both molecular and morphological data. After analyzing the trees, definite inconsistencies were discovered between the current data set and the previous studies performed using only morphological characters. Individual gene analysis showed low support for the monophyly of proposed subfamilies within the psephenids, but combined molecular and total evidence analysis showed much more resolution as well as support for most but not all of the proposed subfamilies. For this study, the relationships among the genera of this family were studied with both molecular and morphological data as well as combined in a total evidence analysis. DNA from specimens was extracted, amplified, and sequenced for all available genera that could be acquired locally and abroad through collaborators and their contacts in other countries. The nuclear gene Wingless (Wg) and the mitochondrial gene Cytochrome Oxidase 1 (CO1) were utilized in this study; amplification of several other nuclear genes was attempted but the results were poor and they were excluded from the analysis.

This thesis examines the use and representation of letters (and other written messages) in Thomas Hardy's novels, and it considers how Hardy's writing engages with Victorian communication technologies. The 1895 Preface to Far from the Madding Crowd describes Hardy's fictional setting as a ‘a modern Wessex of railways, the penny post, mowing and reaping machines, union workhouses, lucifer matches, labourers who could read and write, and National school children'. The penny post, a communication revolution with an enormous social, economic, and cultural impact, was introduced on 10 January 1840, just a few months before Hardy was born. This thesis aims to demonstrate how a consideration of the material, technological and cultural conditions of communication in Victorian England might reshape our understanding of Hardy's novels, especially of the countless letters, notes, and telegrams which permeate his texts. The written messages in Hardy's novels serve as a means for exploring the process of human communication, and the way this process shapes individual identity, interpersonal relationships, and social interactions alike. Chapter I of this thesis relates Hardy's portrayal of letters to the historical transition from oral tradition to written culture. Chapter II enquires into the relationship between letter writing and notions of privacy and publicity in Hardy's novels. Chapters III and IV argue that Hardy uses letters so as to give a strikingly modern complexity to his representation of human subjectivity and intersubjectivity. The two final chapters investigate how the modalities and technological conditions of written communication influence the construction of Hardy's narratives, the design of his plots. Taken together, the six chapters examine Hardy's perception of one of the most fundamental human activities: communication.

published_or_final_version / Economics and Finance / Master / Master of Economics

The diploma thesis The birth of the daily The New York Times deals with the birth and evolution of the daily newspaper The New York Times. It analyses its birth on the background of the state of American journalism in the middle of the nineteenth century. It deals with the rise of the penny press and the founding of the most important papers of this era, mainly New York Sun, New York Herald and New York Tribune. The birth of The New York Times is described as a natural step in the filling of a gap on the publishing market, which lacked a serious and unbiased paper. After describing the founding of The New York Times the thesis deals with the two most important eras in the history of the paper. These are the period after the death of its founder Henry Jarvis Raymond, when the paper was lead by his old collaborator George Jones and the repeated rise of the paper under Adolph S. Ochs at the turn of the nineteenth century. In the final part of this thesis, the state of the paper at the start of the twenty-first century is described. A description of the atmosphere of this explored era, the social conditions in USA in the middle of the nineteenth century and the situation on the media market also forms a part of this thesis. A part of the thesis is dedicated to short passages summarizing the lives of the...

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