One of the critical issues that face the accounting profession today involves choosing among alternative accounting information modes. This dissertation provides comparative empirical evidence on the predictive power of accrual-based accounting signals versus cash-flow accounting signals versus both of these signals jointly. The empirical hypotheses compare the degrees of association between the market evaluative criteria, market beta and security price behavior, and the different accounting signals. The research methodology employed includes the following. 1. Market beta and changes in security prices are used as the evaluative criteria. 2. Two regression models are developed and used to test the predictive power of the alternative accounting signals. 3. Several specifications for each model are used. These specifications are simple regression, multiple regression, interaction effect, partial correlation, incremental correlation, and time series and cross sectional analysis.

Abstract This thesis is a descriptive empirical research about the connection between architectonic quality and housing prices. The architectonic quality is defined in this research through the institutional concept of quality as it is understood inside the profession of architecture, which defines what is regarded as good architecture and which factors connected to designers can generate architectonic quality. By analyzing debt-free market prices of apartments, it is studied how well the institutional concept of quality corresponds to consumers’ appreciation. The research uses hedonic price models as a research method, which is a commonly used method for analyzing housing prices in the field of economics. The empirical data of the research consists of the apartment buildings located in the southern downtown area of Helsinki and the real estate transactions in them during the years 1980–2008. The factors of the architectonic quality in this data are collected and developed especially for this research. The main research question is: Is there a connection between the factors of architectonic quality and housing prices? More precise sub-questions are: Are education, experience, or merits of the building designer relevant factors of housing prices? Are the architectonic style or architectonic appreciation of the building relevant factors of housing prices? In addition, it is studied if there is a correlation between the architectonic view and housing prices, which would indicate that the architectonic quality causes also economic externalities. The result of the research is that the studied factors of the architectonic quality and housing prices are connected. The education, experience and merits of the building designer are all factors which are perceived to increase apartment prices. It was also revealed that the architectonic style and the architectonic appreciation of the building correlate with the housing prices. Moreover, a clear price premium related to architectonic view can be found in the analysis. However, all the factors employed do not give unambiguous results, which gives reason to study the differences of used factors and raises further research questions. / Tiivistelmä Tämä väitöstutkimus on kuvaileva empiirinen tutkimus arkkitehtonisen laadun yhteydestä asuntojen hintoihin. Arkkitehtoninen laatu määrittyy tutkimuksessa institutionaalisen laatukäsityksen kautta arkkitehtuurin alan sisäisenä näkemyksenä siitä, mitä pidetään hyvänä arkkitehtuurina ja mitkä rakennusten suunnittelijoihin liitetyt tekijät voivat edesauttaa arkkitehtonisen laadun syntymistä. Analysoimalla asuntojen velattomia myyntihintoja selvitetään, miten hyvin tutkimuksessa määritelty arkkitehtuurin institutionaalinen laatukäsitys vastaa kuluttajien arvostusta. Analyysimenetelmänä käytetään hedonista regressiomallinnusta, joka on taloustieteissä yleinen asuntojen hintojen tutkimisessa käytetty menetelmä. Empiirinen aineisto tutkimuksessa koostuu Helsingin eteläisen kantakaupungin alueen rakennuksista sekä niissä käydyistä asuntokaupoista vuosina 1980–2008. Aineiston arkkitehtonisen laadun muuttujat ovat tätä tutkimusta varten kehitettyjä ja kerättyjä. Päätutkimuskysymys on, onko arkkitehtonista laatua mittaavilla muuttujilla yhteys asuntojen hintoihin. Tarkentavia apukysymyksiä ovat seuraavat: Onko rakennussuunnittelijan koulutuksella, kokemuksella ja ansioituneisuudella merkitystä asuntojen hintatekijöinä? Onko rakennuksen arkkitehtonisella tyylillä tai arkkitehtonisella arvostuksella merkitystä asuntojen hintatekijöinä. Lisäksi tutkitaan, onko arkkitehtoniselle näkymälle löydettävissä asuntojen hinnoissa ilmenevä korrelaatio, joka indikoisi sitä, että arkkitehtonisella laadulla on myös taloudellisia ulkoisvaikutuksia. Tutkimuksen tulokseksi saadaan, että tutkituilla arkkitehtonisen laadun muuttujilla on havaittava yhteys asuntojen hintoihin. Sekä rakennussuunnittelijan koulutukseen, kokemukseen että ansioituneisuuteen liitettyjen muuttujien havaitaan tutkimuksessa olevan asuntojen hintaa nostavia tekijöitä. Myös rakennuksen arkkitehtoninen tyyli ja arkkitehtoninen arvostus osoittavat selkeän yhteyden asuntojen hintoihin. Niin ikään arkkitehtoniselle näkymälle löydetään suoritetuissa analyyseissä selkeä asuntojen hinnoissa havaittava preemio eli hintaero. Kaikki tutkitut mittarit eivät kuitenkaan anna täysin yksiselitteisiä tuloksia, mikä antaa aihetta tarkastella käytettyjen mittareiden eroavaisuuksia ja synnyttää jatkotutkimuskysymyksiä.

This master thesis deals with the analysis of housing prices in Prague. The main goal is to identify and explain the factors which have an influence on the prices of flats at the macro and micro level. Two spatial statistic methods, namely multiple linear regressions and geographically weighted regressions (GWR), are used in the first part of the thesis, which deals with the prices in Prague in general. The influence on the values of flats in Prague basic settlement units caused by several factors such as the distance from the Old Town Square, age of dwellings, the presence of migrants or air pollution was investigated using these two methods. The price map of the association of real estate agencies, the Czech Statistical Office and the Prague Institute of Planning and Development provided the data used in the presented research. Price profiles from the centre of Prague to the suburbs in various directions were also created and analyzed. Factors with an influence on housing prices at the micro level in a case study of the Prague cadastral territory of Modřany are described in the second part of the thesis. The analysis of new developer projects and older flats in panel houses investigates the influence on the housing prices caused by factors such as noise, physical condition of apartments and the quality of...

This study examines the American Dollar (USD) denominated currency returns of five developing market currencies for the presence of the day-of-the-week effect. Daily data from January 1995 to February 2008 is examined, and is split into two subperiods, SP1 (1995 - 2002) and SP2 (2003 - February 2008). Currency returns are non-normally distributed across the full data set and SP1 , but tend towards normality in SP2. As such non-parametric tests are used to test the equality of the first four moments across days of the week. Tests on the first moment show that two of the currencies do not show any evidence of the day-of-the-week effect. However, evidence of the day-of-the-week effect is found in the other three currencies in SP1, although the effect disappears or weakens significantly in SP2. Little evidence of the day-of-the-week effect is found in tests on the second moment. The hypothesis of equal higher moments across currency returns is rejected for almost all of the weekday pairs for all five currencies in SP1 , but in SP2 the hypothesis of equal higher moments can only be rejected for a single pair of weekdays for one currency. This indicates the disappearance of the day-of-the-week effect across higher moments in SP2. Thus, the study finds that the day-of-the-week effect is present across the first moment and higher moments in the returns to most currencies in SP1 , but has disappeared for all five currencies in SP2. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

This study estimates the interdependence between South Africa‟s monetary policy and stock market performance, utilising structural vector autoregression (SVAR) methodology. The study finds that a stock price shock which decrease stock prices by 100 basis points leads to 5 basis points decrease in interbank rate. A monetary policy shock that increases the interbank rate by l percent leads to decrease in real stock prices by 1 percent. This result for South Africa is similar to the result by Bjornland and Leteimo (2009) which earlier concluded that there was a high interdependence between interest rate setting and stock prices. However the magnitude of the relationship is relatively lower for South Africa compared to that of the United States of America (USA). The result of the current study is also very much consistent with the argument that the South African stock market is resource-based and so is influenced by external shocks, meaning monetary policy shock does not have as much impact on stock market in South Africa as in the USA. However the SARB may have to consider watching movements in stock prices so that booms in stock markets do not defeat central bank monetary policy thrusts. The stock price market is an essential source of information for monetary policy in South Africa.

This study develops the structure and closure of an econometric regime-switching model within a partial equilibrium framework that has the ability to generate reliable estimates and projections of endogenous variables under market-switching regimes. Models used in policy evaluation usually either ignore the possibility of regime switching, using just a single method of price determination based on average effects, or incorporate highly stylised components that may not reflect the complexities of a particular market. This study proposes an approach that allows the incorporation of features of regime switching in a multisector commodity level model which capture salient features of the South African market and are therefore able to produce more reliable projections of the evolution of the sector under alternative shocks. The following hypothesis is tested in the study: With the correct model structure and closure, a combination of modelling techniques can be applied to develop a simulation model that has the ability to generate reliable estimates and projections of endogenous variables under market-switching regimes. The technique that is used to “close” a simultaneous or recursive simulation model determines the manner in which market equilibrium is achieved in the model. The choice of closure technique will depend on the equilibrium pricing condition in a specific market, specifically which market regime prevails in the market. It is important to note that trade flow and equilibrium pricing conditions under various trade regimes in the SA grain markets do not occur strictly according to these definitions. In the SA white and yellow maize markets some level of trade does occur with neighbouring countries at price levels that suggest that the market is trading under a type of regional autarky isolated from world markets. Industry experts argue that trade in the Southern African region is largely driven by regional issues like staple food, adverse weather conditions, location and quality concerns of genetically modified imported maize from non-African destinations, and to a lesser extent by arbitrage opportunities. This study, therefore, refers to “near-autarky”. Given the fact that markets can fluctuate between different trade regimes (therefore equilibrium pricing conditions), some type of regime-switching model needs to be utilised to determine model closure. A switching mechanism is introduced that allows the white maize model to switch between model closer under import parity, near-autarky, and export parity, the yellow maize model to switch between model closure under import parity and near-autarky, and the wheat model to close under import parity. Various approaches are used to test whether the regime-switching model complies with the hypothesis of this study. The first approach involves the simulation of baseline projections under a combination of different trade regimes in the grain markets. The second approach illustrates the usefulness of the automated switch between the various model closure techniques by comparing ex-post simulation results of the regime-switching model to the results of a previous version of the sector model that does not have the ability to switch between various market regimes. The last approach presents a more hands-on application of the regime-switching model to real-life examples by analysing the impact of a combination of market- and policy-related shocks in the form of scenario analysis. This study proves that the regime-switching model is able to capture a richer variety of market behaviour than standard models as a result of the regime-switching innovation outlined, therefore more accurately capturing the likely effects of shocks on the domestic market. It is therefore consistent with the hypothesis of this study. The regime-switching model is, by design, more rigorous than the previous model in that it emphasises price formation and correct model closure under alternative regimes. Although the model is particularly appropriate for the South African grain market as specified here, it provides a template for which models for other countries and commodities may be developed. / Thesis (PhD (Agricultural Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted

Dado el contexto actual de bajo crecimiento e incertidumbre internacional se busca determinar qué variable es aquella determinante en la valorización de los inmuebles multifamiliares de Lima – Metropolitana, tomando como periodo de tiempo a los años 2002-2014, un periodo muy atractivo ya que nuestro país logró importantes picos en el crecimiento y desarrollo económico-social. Mientras que en los últimos años no se vio este mismo nivel de crecimiento, lo que ayudará a que el estudio sea preciso por las dimensiones del ciclo económico que se presentaron en ese periodo. El estudio de investigación se direcciona a los inmuebles multifamiliares debido a que en los últimos años gracias a la expansión económica este segmento de mercado fue el de mayor expansión, lo que generó el incremento de la demanda y oferta de éstos bienes en el país, dada la alta rotación del producto se puede determinar que su movimiento es fundamental por el efecto que representa para el sector inmobiliario. A fin de contrastar las hipótesis y lograr los objetivos propuestos en el trabajo de investigación. / Trabajo de investigación

Prof. F. Lombard

In this dissertation, I describe various types of permanent establishments and other structures through which company may run its business abroad. I calculate and compare tax administrative costs incurred in connection with running such foreign business. Further, I apply this theory on a company that carries on business through a permanent establishment abroad.

The aim of my thesis " The settlement of intra-group supplies in the company" is the way of intra-group supplies settling. The first practical part is focused on a description of intra-group supplies, intra-group prices, which are set for the supplies, and settling. Regarding to the analysis of the current settings of intra-group prices, in the second part it is supposed to be found improvement that could bring the company lower costs and higher performance.