This dissertation is an extension of Leland and Pyle's (1977) signaling model. It introduces the length of the retention period to which the entrepreneur commits in the prospectus as a signal of firm value, in addition to the retention level. The analysis uses concepts of game theory to examine a two-period model where an entrepreneur seeks to issue shares on the market and invest in a productive project that generates outcomes which are publicly announced at the end of the next two periods. The entrepreneur can retain some of her firm's shares and trade them later on the secondary market, after information has been released about the outcomes. The length of the retention period is found to be a signaling mechanism that complements ownership retention. Depending on the information structure of the firm, a longer retention period may reduce or increase the retention level necessary for separation. The model also shows that there are realistic situations in which entrepreneurs prefer to retain a portion of their firm's shares for longer than the minimum retention period imposed by regulations, and others in which she prefers the shortest period possible. The optimal combination of under-diversification and commitment is shown to depend on the information structure and the probability distribution of outcomes of the firm. The empirical implications of the model are tested on the set of firms that made an initial public offering in 1981. Although the results of the tests are generally consistent with the predictions of the model, they are not strong enough to reject the null hypotheses.

This thesis comprises three essays on market microstructure, focusing on the issues of insider trading, asymmetric information and market liquidity. The first essay examines the effects of the mandatory disclosure regulations on the trading behavior of informed traders. Specifically, we compare the (perfect Bayesian) equilibrium when disclosure is mandatory to the equilibrium when insiders do not have to disclose their trades. We show that under mandatory disclosure the market becomes more efficient and more liquid, making the uninformed traders unambiguously better off. We also show that in order to conceal part of his information, under mandatory disclosure the insider may trade against his information, and, at the same time, add a random---"noise"---component to his trade order. As a result, insiders may end up buying (selling) when his information indicates the asset is overvalued (undervalued). This provides a rationale for contrarian trading. / The second essay examines trading behavior, price behavior and the informational efficiency and the informativeness of the price process in the equilibrium of a strategic trading game when some investors receive information before others. We show that the early informed investor may trade against his information to maintain his information superiority over the market. Under some conditions, subsequent price changes are positively correlated. We also find that the price process is less efficient and less informative than would be the case where there is no late-informed trader. / The third essay analyzes the infra-day behavior of market liquidity of the Toronto Stock Exchange which uses a computerized limit-order trading system. Along with previous studies, we show that the U-shaped infra-day pattern of spread does not depend on the market architecture. In addition, we confirm that bid-ask spread and market depth are two dimensions of market liquidity. Liquidity providers use both dimensions to deal with adverse selection problems. We also examine how price volatility and trading volume affect market liquidity. Price volatility is inversely related to market liquidity but trading volume is directly related to liquidity. High trading volume implies high liquidity trades and as a result, liquidity providers decrease (increase) ask (bid) price and/or increase depth at each quote.

This thesis contributes to our knowledge of the behaviour of the Chinese stock market by offering an empirical investigation into issues such as market segmentation, inter‐relationships between Chinese stock markets and inter‐relationships with foreign stock markets. Basic questions which have been typically analysed for developed stock markets are considered in this thesis. These include an analysis of core concepts such as volatility; causal links with economic variables and the reasons why the theoretical stock price may be different from the actual stock price. Methodological methods include; cointegration, generalised autoregressive heteroscedastic modelling (GARCH), vector autoregressive framework modelling (VAR) and panel data analysis. Both daily and monthly observations are used over a time period from 1996 to 2006. The results indicate that there is a rich set of reasons why we may observe phenomena such as a discount on B shares and a relationship between A shares and B shares. The findings also suggest that China is not isolated from the rest of the world and that there is evidence of inter‐relationships with foreign stock markets and that Chinese stock market prices are close to their fundamental value. This is not generally the finding for developed stock markets. Overall, it appears that the methodological approaches usually associated with developed stock markets can serve us well as useful tools in creating a deeper understanding of the underlying fundamentals describing the Chinese stock market.

Estimation of stochastic volatility (SV) models is a formidable task because the presence of the latent variable makes the likelihood function difficult to construct. The model can be transformed to a linear state space with non-Gaussian disturbances. Durbin and Koopman (1997) have shown that the likelihood function of the general non-Gaussian state space model can be approximated arbitrarily accurately by decomposing it into a Gaussian part (constructed by the Kalman filter) and a remainder function (whose expectation is evaluated by simulation). This general methodology is specialised to the estimation of SV models. A finite sample simulation experiment illustrates that the resulting Monte Carlo likelihood estimator achieves full efficiency with minimal computational effort. Accurate values of the likelihood function allow inference within the model to be performed by means of likelihood ratio tests. This enables tests for the presence of a unit root in the volatility process to be constructed which are shown to be more powerful than the conventional unit root tests. The second part of the thesis consists of two empirical applications of the SV model. First, the informational content of implied volatility is examined. It is shown that the in- sample evolution of DEM/USD exchange rate volatility can be accurately captured by implied volatility of options. However, better forecasts of ex post volatility can be constructed from the basic SV model. This suggests that options implied volatility may not be market's best forecast of the future asset volatility, as is often assumed. Second, the regulatory claim of a destabilising effect of futures market trading on stock market volatility is critically assessed. It is shown how volume-volatility relationships can be accurately modelled in the SV framework. The variables which approximate the activity in the FT100 index futures market are found to have no influence on the volatility of the underlying stock market index.

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Over the last 40 years fisheries science has atrophied within the straight-jacket of fisheries management dogma.  Management models, which insist in predicting future fish populations by using a single index, spawning stock biomass (SSB), have led to a lack of questioning on how the many aspects of flexible reproductive traits can affect reproductive potential.  In this thesis I produce and use an individual based modelling approach to link empirical relationships with flexible reproductive parameters to quantify and qualify the effects that individual female size, condition, egg quality, spawning site quality and mortality during spawning can have on stock reproductive potential (SRP) and the temporal distribution of reproductive output. Model construction and sensitivity analysis have highlighted the need for essential data on reproductive traits, such as the connection between female size, condition, batch number and subsequent egg quality.  The results of a strategic study, using a wide range of size-selectively harvested populations, indicate that even across populations with the same SSB, changes in age/size structure can reduce SRP up to 74%.  The truncation of size structure alone will lead to a shortening of the spawning season by 4 weeks and a 2 week shift in the data of peak spawning.  The effect of low condition of individuals can lead to almost total reproductive failure, whereas the effect of increased condition is very dependent upon population structure.  Fishing during the spawning season kills season kills serial spawning fish before and while they are still releasing eggs.  Model simulations suggest that not fishing or not targeting larger fish during spawning can lead up to a 53% increase in reproductive potential. The model has been parameterised for North Sea cod and haddock and run for the years 1963 to 1999 with an array of different levels of realism/complexity of input data.

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This thesis provides a detailed empirical evaluation of the role and function of the FTSE 100 and FTSE Mid 250 index futures contracts, by considering the interrelated issues of hedging effectiveness and pricing efficiency. The aims of the thesis are outlined in chapter one, with chapter two providing a detailed review of the empirical literature relevant to this study. Chapter three investigates the hedging effectiveness of the FTSE 100 and FTSE Mid 250 index futures contracts in both an ex post and ex ante context. Despite relatively thin trading volume, the FTSE Mid 250 contract is shown to be an important hedging instrument. However, the results demonstrate the hedging effectiveness can only truly be examined by using an ex ante strategy in conjunction with spot portfolios that do not replicate market portfolios. Work into hedging effectiveness is further examined in chapter four using hedge ratios generated within the Extended Mean Gini framework. The results indicate that for both contracts the hedge ratio series are characterised by a step function which is strongly related to the hedger's degree of risk aversion. Chapter five examines the pricing efficiency of the FTSE 100 and Mid 250 contracts. While there were many deviations from fair value, both contracts appear to be quite efficiently priced, with opportunity for index arbitrage rare. Research into the economics of arbitrage is extended in chapter six by investigating the potential for intramarket and intermarket spread trading. While the intramarket spread is found to be very efficiently priced, trading well within its no-arbitrage limits, the intermarket is much less efficiently priced frequently violating its no-arbitrage limits. Chapter seven, provides a summary of the thesis and concluding remarks concerning the relevance of the issues investigated are drawn.

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