A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2014. / The period between 2008 and 2009 was an interesting and dramatic time for financial markets. This period marked the beginning of the financial tsunami that would plague global markets for many years to come. This economic meltdown had massive effects on many everyday issues such as house prices, interest rates and inflation. Investment banks were also affected with numerous investment banks either defaulting or being taken over by the U.S. Federal Reserve to avoid default. This group of investment banks include names such as Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns, Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac and many more. The myth of “too big to fail” was tested and failed because of the number of banks that were allowed to default during the crisis. Many things have changed because of the crisis. One area in finance that has changed is the pricing of financial derivatives. The realisation that huge investment banks can default has dried up the liquidity in capital markets. Therefore banks cannot borrow a shortfall of cash at a risk-free rate anymore but rather at a significant spread over the risk-free rate. The risk-free rate is a core concept of derivative pricing. If investment banks cannot borrow and lend at the risk-free rate then the Black-Sholes-Merton theory laid down in the 1970’s may not be applicable post the credit crisis. The aim of this dissertation is to review the framework of Piterbarg, Burgard and Kjaer to price a general derivative post the credit crisis. This review includes a variety of numerical methods to implement the framework.

Sukuk are a special kind of securities based on Islamic law. Being an up-to-date and increasingly important instrument, sukuk are traded in financial markets of not only Muslim countries. The aim of the dissertation is to review this Islamic legal institute in its entirety and to examine it from the point of view of the Czech and European Union legal regulation of securities and financial instruments. The starting point of the dissertation is the assumption that by studying foreign law and comparing its institutes, it is possible to achieve a better understanding of one's own legal regulation and possibly create new solutions that would otherwise be hidden in the standard context of understanding national law. The dissertation deals with sukuk both in terms of their theoretical definition provided by the Islamic legal theory (the idealistic approach) as well as from the point of view of their actual form in practice as products of Islamic securitization (the pragmatic approach). The analysis of the examined legal institute results in a new definition of the concepts of sukuk and Islamic securitization. The paper further concentrates on the structures of a total of seven main types of sukuk, namely: (i) Sukuk al-Ijarah, (ii) Sukuk al-Murabahah, (iii) Sukuk as- Salam, (iv) Sukuk al-Istisna'a, (v)...

In Essay 1, I investigate the impact of corporate life cycle dynamics on the observed negative association between asset growth and stock returns in the crosssection. I find that the asset growth effect on average exists across some life cycle stages measured using cohorts. However, controlling for certain variables associated with the theoretical explanations, I find there is no relation between asset growth and returns. I argue this evidence is consistent with an agency-based explanation of the asset growth effect. Furthermore, a decomposition of the drivers of the effect shows that different components of assets (i.e. working capital and financing) drive asset growth effect at different life cycle stages. From a decomposition analyses, results show that in the youngest firms (cohort 1), asset growth effect is mostly driven by both operating liability and stock financing on one side (financing) and noncash current assets, PPE, and growth in other assets (for working capital) while cohort 3’s drivers appear to be stock issuances, together with noncash current assets, which I conclude offer further support for agency issues. In Essay 2, I examine how firms’ life cycle affect insider trading behavior, profits surrounding trades, price informativeness, and financing constraints. I argue that if firms’ policies and characteristics change over time as shown in lifecycle literature, then from firm characteristics that motivate insider-trading behavior, one should observe some differences across varying life cycle stages measured using age cohorts. I find that insiders are net sellers at all life cycle stages of a firm. Furthermore, insiders tend to trade more in younger firms than in older firms even though they have fewer numbers of insiders trading. Trading characteristics are generally statistically significant across cohorts. Overall, insiders appear to predict the correct direction for positive wealth generation when trading. Specifically, at all lifecycle stages, they appear to sell before negative CARs, and buy during periods associated with negative CARs that lead to positive CARs days after insider transactions. The findings on price informativeness suggest that in general insider purchases enhance price informativeness for firms at different lifecycle stages, however, this finding holds only for cohort 4 (oldest firms) in the case of insider sales. The implication of this finding is that regulation should be more lax towards purchases as compared to sales for firms, except for sales in firms that are older. Lastly, insider trades are linked with positive investment-cash flow sensitivities for both insider purchases and insider sales, which generally increase monotonically across cohorts. This finding is robust to using GMM approach. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo investigar a relação entre aplicações em títulos e valores mobiliários e indicadores econômico-financeiros de instituições financeiras autorizadas a operar no Brasil, sobretudo, no que se refere às conclusões dessa relação quanto à exclusão recíproca entre aplicações em títulos e operações de crédito e, também, quanto ao impacto dessas aplicações em indicadores de rentabilidade. Os indicadores analisados são os comumente indicados pela Federação Brasileira de Bancos, pelo mercado e pela literatura acadêmica. Após a seleção dos indicadores, eles foram segregados nos grupos Liquidez, Estrutura Patrimonial, Estrutura de Aplicação, Estrutura de Captação, Rentabilidade, Margem, Custos de Captação e Participação de Despesas sobre Receitas Operacionais. As informações necessárias ao cálculo dos indicadores e à segregação das aplicações em títulos e valores mobiliários nas suas respectivas categorias foram coletadas do sítio do Banco Central. O período abrangido pelo estudo inicia-se no segundo semestre de 2005 e encerra-se no primeiro semestre de 2010, a amostra desse período é composta por 104 bancos. Considerando o expressivo volume de aplicações dos bancos em títulos e valores mobiliários (cerca de 40% das instituições aplicam mais em títulos e valores mobiliários do que em operações de crédito), a expectativa era de que fosse possível identificar as relações mencionadas e inferir sobre seu significado. Com a finalidade de se confirmar a hipótese, os dados foram submetidos à análise de dados em painel. Foram executadas 34 regressões, uma regressão para cada indicador. Dessas regressões, foi possível identificar 13 estatisticamente significantes, a um nível de confiança de 95%. Os indicadores que geraram regressões significantes integravam os grupos Liquidez, Estrutura Patrimonial, Estrutura de Aplicação Estrutura de Captação e Participação de Despesas sobre Receitas Operacionais. Verificou-se que as aplicações em títulos e valores mobiliários adquiridos com a finalidade de serem mantidos até o vencimento estão relacionadas a indicadores de liquidez mais altos e a indicadores de dependência de capital de terceiros mais baixos. A hipótese de que aplicações em títulos e valores mobiliários e aplicações em operações de crédito seriam alternativas reciprocamente excludentes encontrou apoio dos dados analisados, o mesmo ocorrendo com a suposição de que as aplicações em títulos não seriam significativas para explicar os indicadores de rentabilidade. Em termos de captação de recursos, os indicadores significantes do grupo Estrutura de Captação indicaram a existência de relação inversa com as aplicações em títulos e valores mobiliários, à exceção do indicador Mercado Aberto sobre Patrimônio Líquido que apresentou relação direta com as aplicações. O período de análise compreende o ano de 2008, ano em que houve a crise financeira mundial. Quanto aos possíveis impactos dessa crise, encontraram-se indícios dos seus reflexos nos indicadores Liquidez Geral e Mercado Aberto sobre Patrimônio Líquido. Em ambos os indicadores verificou-se uma inversão de tendência a partir do segundo semestre de 2008, que passou a apresentar coeficientes negativos, contribuindo para a diminuição dos indicadores em questão. Efetuouse, igualmente, análise das relações entre os segmentos dos bancos e o seu impacto em cada indicador, por meio da técnica de Análise de Correspondência, todavia, os resultados não foram conclusivos. Apesar disso, encontrou-se um comportamento constante: o segmento de banco múltiplo foi posicionado no centro das três categorias de coeficientes, indicando que há instituições nesse segmento que se enquadram nas três categorias de coeficientes: coeficientes altos (que impactam bastante no indicador), coeficientes intermediários (que impactam razoavelmente nos indicadores) e coeficientes baixos (que pouco impactam nos indicadores). / This research aims to investigate the relationship between investments in securities and financial indicators of financial institutions authorized to operate in Brazil, specially with regard to the conclusions about mutual exclusion between investiments in securities and credit granting, and also about the impact of the investments in securities in the profitability indicators. The indicators assessed are commonly used by the Brazilian Federation of Banks (FEBRABAN), by the market and found in the academic literature. After selecting the indicators, they were segregated in groups: Liquidity, Asset Structure, Application Structure, Funding Structure, Profitability, Margin, Funding Costs and Participation Cost on Operating Income. Information needed for calculating the indicators and for segregating investments in securities in their respective categories (trading securities, securities available for sale and held to maturity) were collected from the Central Bank website. The study covers the period beginning in the second half of 2005 through the first half of 2010. The sample consists of 104 financial institutions. Considering the meaningful volume banks invest in securities (about 40% of banks apply more in securities than in loans), the expectation was that it would be possible to identify a relationship between investments in securities and financial indicators. In order to confirm the hypothesis, the data was subjected to a panel data analysis. Out of the 34 regressions performed, one regression for each indicator, it was possible to identify 13 statistically significant regressions, at confidence level of 95%. The indicators that have generated meaningful regressions belong to the groups: Liquidity, Asset Structure, Application Structure, Funding Structure and Participation Cost on Operating Income. It was found that investments in securities acquired for the purpose of being held to maturity are related to higher liquidity and lower dependence of debt indicators. The hypothesis that investments in securities and credit granting would be conflicting rather than complementary alternatives was supported by the analyzed data in the same way that the assumption that investments in securities would not be significant in explaining the profitability indicators was also supported. It was found that the three investment options in securities offered this feature. In terms of fundraising, the significant indicators of the funding structure group indicated an inverse relationship with investments in securities, except for the indicator of Market Open, which showed a direct relationship with the applications. The period of analysis covers the year 2008, marked by the global financial crisis. Among the possible impacts of the crisis, we found evidence of its effects on the Liquidity and Open Market indicators. In both indicators there was a reversal from the second half of 2008, which began to show negative coefficients, contributing to the reduction of those indicators. The relationship between the segments of the banks and their impact on each indicator was also analyzed using the Correspondence Analysis technique. However, results were inconclusive given that the perceptual maps obtained presented very concentrated categories in general. Nevertheless, we found a steady behavior: the universal bank segment was positioned in the center of the three categories of coefficients, indicating that this segment\'s institutions fall under three categories of coefficients, high coefficients (which strongly impacted the indicator), intermediate coefficients (which reasonably impacted the indicator) and low coefficients (which slightly impacted the indicator).

This thesis studies two types of problems in financial derivatives pricing. The first type is the free boundary problem, which can be formulated as a partial differential equation (PDE) subject to a set of free boundary condition. Although the functional form of the free boundary condition is given explicitly, the location of the free boundary is unknown and can only be determined implicitly by imposing continuity conditions on the solution. Two specific problems are studied in details, namely the valuation of fixed-rate mortgages and CEV American options. The second type is the multi-dimensional problem, which involves multiple correlated stochastic variables and their governing PDE. One typical problem we focus on is the valuation of basket-spread options, whose underlying asset prices are driven by correlated geometric Brownian motions (GBMs). Analytic approximate solutions are derived for each of these three problems. / For each of the two free boundary problems, we propose a parametric moving boundary to approximate the unknown free boundary, so that the original problem transforms into a moving boundary problem which can be solved analytically. The governing parameter of the moving boundary is determined by imposing the first derivative continuity condition on the solution. The analytic form of the solution allows the price and the hedging parameters to be computed very efficiently. When compared against the benchmark finite-difference method, the computational time is significantly reduced without compromising the accuracy. The multi-stage scheme further allows the approximate results to systematically converge to the benchmark results as one recasts the moving boundary into a piecewise smooth continuous function. / For the multi-dimensional problem, we generalize the Kirk (1995) approximate two-asset spread option formula to the case of multi-asset basket-spread option. Since the final formula is in closed form, all the hedging parameters can also be derived in closed form. Numerical examples demonstrate that the pricing and hedging errors are in general less than 1% relative to the benchmark prices obtained by numerical integration or Monte Carlo simulation. By exploiting an explicit relationship between the option price and the underlying probability distribution, we further derive an approximate distribution function for the general basket-spread variable. It can be used to approximate the transition probability distribution of any linear combination of correlated GBMs. Finally, an implicit perturbation is applied to reduce the pricing errors by factors of up to 100. When compared against the existing methods, the basket-spread option formula coupled with the implicit perturbation turns out to be one of the most robust and accurate approximation methods. / 本論文為金融衍生產品定價的兩類問題作出了研究。第一類是自由邊界問題，它可以制定一個受制於自由邊界條件的偏微分方程式(PDE)，雖然當中自由邊界條件的函數形式是已知的，但自由邊界的位置是未知的，只能通過為實際解施加連續性條件作隱式確定。這裡為兩個具體問題進行了研究，分別是固定利率按揭合約(fixed-rate mortgages)定價和方差恆彈性模型的美式期權(CEV American options)定價。第二類是多維問題，它涉及到多個相關隨機變量及他們引申出的多維PDE。這裡為一個典型例子進行了研究，稱為籃子差異期權(basket-spread options)，其基礎資產價格由相關的幾何布朗運動驅動。我們為這三個問題提出了解析近似解。 / 對於上述的自由邊界問題，我們提出了一項參數移動邊界來近似模仿未知的自由邊界，使原來的自由邊界問題轉化為移動邊界問題，從而提出一種解析近似解。控制移動邊界的參數是通過滿足近似解的一階導數連續性條件來定。得到了解析近似解令當中的衍生產品定價和避險參數能有效快速地計算出，相比於有限差分法(finite-difference method)，精度保持了但計算時間顯著降低。再透過應用一個多階段方案，將移動邊界重鑄成一項分段光滑的連續函數，能有系統地將近似解的結果逼近有限差分法的結果。 / 對於上述的多維問題，我們從Kirk(1995)的二維差異期權(spread option)近似解定價公式推廣到多維的籃子差異期權。由於最終的定價公式是封閉形式，所有避險參數也從而得到封閉式近似解。從一些模擬例子顯示出，近似解的定價和避險參數，與通過數值積分法(numerical integration)或蒙地卡羅模擬法(Monte Carlo simulation)獲得的基準值比較，只有小於百分之一的誤差。此外，透過利用一種期權價格和相關基礎變量的概率分佈關係，我們進一步推論出一項籃子差異變量的近似解分佈函數，這可應用到任何多維幾何布朗運動的線性組合變量分佈。最後，我們提出一種隱式攝動方法，把定價誤差減少高達一百倍，跟現有的近似解定價方法相比，這是其中一種最健全和準確的籃子差異期權定價方法。 / Lau, Chun Sing = 自由邊界和多維的金融衍生產品定價問題 : 解析近似解 / 劉振聲. / Thesis Ph.D. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-186). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 12, September, 2016). / Lau, Chun Sing = Zi you bian jie he duo wei de jin rong yan sheng chan pin ding jia wen ti : jie xi jin si jie / Liu Zhensheng. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only.

An important problem in mathematical finance is to develop option pricing models that are able to capture implied volatility “smile” or “skew” commonly observed in financial markets. Many existing models are based on time-homogeneous Markov processes and they often have difficulty in calibrating implied volatilities across both strikes and maturities. In this dissertation, we develop two parsimonious and analytically tractable option pricing models to evaluate VIX options and crack spread options, respectively. Our modeling approach is based on additive subordination, which is a natural generalization of classical Bochner’s subordination. Probabilistically, additive subordination corresponds to a stochastic time change with respect to an independent additive subordinator. To model the VIX dynamics, we timechange a non-affine mean-reverting 3/2 diffusion with an independent additive subordinator to capture its empirical features, such as mean reversion and jumps, as well as upward-sloping implied volatility skew in VIX options. Moreover, we develop a parsimonious and analytically tractable two-factor model for crude oil and its refined product to evaluate crack spread option, where each factor is an additive subordinate Cox-Ingersoll-Ross process. This model captures key empirical features of individual commodities, such as mean-reversion and jumps, as well as of their spread. Analytical formulas for related options prices under each model are derived via an eigenfunction expansion approach. Empirical results show that our models have great flexibility in calibrating implied volatilities across strikes and maturities of each underlying with excellent performance. Our results suggest that additive subordination is a useful technique that allows one to construct a large family of jump-diffusions and/or pure jump processes with rich time- and state-dependent local characteristics, which are suited for parsimoniously reproducing empirical features with analytical tractability. / 金融數學中的一個重要問題是建立能夠捕獲金融市場普遍觀察到的隱含波動率微笑現象的期權定價模型。許多現存的模型基於時間齊次的馬爾可夫過程且這些模型一般難以同時校準具有各種執行價格和到期時間的隱含波動率。在此博士論文中，我們建立了兩個簡潔且易於分析的期權定價模型，分別用於定價VIX期權和裂變價差期權。我們的建模方法基於additivesubordination，該方法是經典的Bochner的Subordination方法的自然延伸。從概率論上講，additive subordination定義了一個關於additive subordinator的隨機時間變換。為了對VIX的動態變化建模，我們對一個具有非仿射均值回复的3/2擴散過程進行時間變換來捕獲VIX的相關性質，如均值回复和跳躍，以及VIX期權中的向上偏的隱含波動率曲線。進一步，我們對原油和其成品油創建了一個簡潔的且易於分析的俩因子模型來定價裂變價差期權，其中每一個因子都是一個additive subordinate Cox-Ingersoll-Ross過程。這個模型可以捕獲每個油品價格的關鍵屬性，如均值回复和跳躍，以及其他之間的價差。每個模型下的相應期權價格的解析公式通過特偵函數展開的方式求解得到。實證研究表明我們的模型具有較好的靈活性，在校準每個期權品種的隱含波動率曲面方面都具有非常好的表現。我們的研究結果也表明additive subordination是一個非常有用的方法。它可以用於創建一大類具有時間和狀態相依特偵的跳躍擴散或純跳過程，這些過程可用於簡便的建模一些實證特徵且便於分析。 / Li, Jing. / Thesis Ph.D. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-142). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 13, September, 2016). / Detailed summary in vernacular field only.

Mortgage backed securities are one of the most important asset classes available to fixed income investors. They are also essential to the functioning of the financial and housing market by providing liquidity to the home mortgage market. Proliferation and wide spread acceptance of mortgage backed securities resulted in a significant deduction of the interest rates for home mortgages. The 2007-2010 financial crisis sparked enhanced scrutiny of the accuracy of the pricing of mortgage backed securities. The purpose of the present thesis is to develop a computer based mathematical methodology to accurately price individual mortgages that are the fundamental assets underlying every mortgage backed security. The focus of this paper is to correctly account for inherent interest rate and prepayment risk. Default risk is not subject of this project. Interest rate risk is handled in the framework of the arbitrage free Black-Derman-Toy (BDT) model. Public Securities Association’s (PSA) model is used to simulate prepayment risk. Monte Carlo simulation methodology is developed to evaluate the properly discounted current value of the risky cash flows and hence value the mortgages. The computational algorithms are implemented in R.

Mok Ka Ming. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 31). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter I --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter II --- Data Description --- p.4 / Chapter III --- Market risks for stocks --- p.6 / Chapter 1. --- Listing Location --- p.7 / Chapter 2. --- Operation Location --- p.9 / Chapter 3. --- Measurements --- p.10 / Chapter IV --- The Model --- p.13 / Chapter V --- Empirical Results --- p.16 / Chapter 1. --- Summary statistics --- p.16 / Chapter 2. --- Diagnostics Test --- p.17 / Chapter 3. --- The co-efficient --- p.18 / Chapter 4. --- Comparing the result with US dollar-denominated returns --- p.21 / Chapter VI --- Sub-period analysis --- p.26 / Chapter VII --- Market analysis --- p.29 / Chapter VIII --- Industrial analysis --- p.31 / Chapter IX --- Conclusion --- p.35 / Chapter X --- References --- p.37 / Chapter XI --- Appendix --- p.39

Another achievement of this research is to elaborate the modified concept of Cash Rebate Mortgages. To examine the difference between Cash Rebate Mortgages and standard mortgages, we have built a simulation model to study the behavior of these two types of mortgages. The results indicate that the value of Cash Rebate Mortgages is higher than that of standard mortgages, but is more sensitive to embedded options. If the probability of exercising an option is higher, then the value of Cash Rebate Mortgages will drop at a faster rate than that of standard mortgages. / Several findings are elaborated in this dissertation. Our model has identified the major contributors to mortgage prepayment, and has developed a logistic regression model to describe prepayment behavior. We further illustrate that prepayment and default behavior are associated with financial reasons: the value of the refinancing incentive is usually greater than the prepayment penalty plus the transaction cost for refinancing mortgages, and the outstanding balance of the mortgage is higher than the current market value of the underlying property minus the transaction cost. / The final objective of this dissertation is to develop an option model for MBS issuers. Most previous studies that have developed MBS models have focused on investors, but the model that is presented here is specifically for MBS issuers. The current study develops a risk management tool for issuers and guarantors to monitor their MBS portfolios. The model projects the cash inflow of mortgages and the cash outflow to MBS, alters the traditional model by introducing decision trees, and uses a simulation program with multiple path generation to develop a model for issuers to manage their MBS portfolios. According to the results of the model, issuers can manage the risk level of their portfolios by determining the Collection Account Balance, the Overcollateralization Ratio, the Net Residual Value, and the Liquidity Advance. Finally this paper also provides suggestions on risk management for MBS issuers. / The objective of this dissertation is to develop an option model for residential mortgages and Mortgage-Backed Securities. Previous studies in the literature have identified several research opportunities that have not yet been explored. The current study attempts to fill the research gap, by altering the traditional model of mortgage valuation with a trinomial tree. We combine the prepayment, delinquency, default, and recovery of delinquency into a single model, to build a simulation program to generate different cash flow scenarios. The industrial data of the Korea Mortgage Corporation and a medium sized Hong Kong bank are used as empirical evidence for the model. / by Yat-ming Lam. / "February 2003." / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 64-09, Section: A, page: 3408. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [222-235]). / Available also through the Internet via Current research @ Chinese University of Hong Kong under title: Option theory for mortgages and mortgage-backed securities (Korea, China) / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / School code: 1307.

In the second part of the thesis, we investigate whether ownership structure has influence to long-term stock return. We use a risk adjustment method to make it possible to compare stock return in different terms, therefore, we can use GMM method to estimate the influence of ownership structure in a panel sample set. We find that, insider ownership and institutional ownership are all significantly favorable to long-term stock return. However, the quarterly insider ownership change and quarterly institutional ownership change do not show significant influence. We also use a Fama-MacBeth approach to compare the results from GMM estimation and we find that the results are similar. / This thesis consists of two related parts. In the first part, we develop a method to extract insider ownership information from insider transaction reporting files and by combining it with quarterly institutions holding report data, we obtain quarterly ownership structure for most common stocks listed in CRSP tape. We use ownership structure and quarterly ownership change to analyze how insiders, large institutions and individual investors differ from each other in their holding preference to stock characteristics and trading behavior. We find that, these three kinds of investors have significant difference in holding preference to size, price, monthly turnover, previous 12-months return. They also show significant difference in trading behaviors. Basically, institutions are momentum trader, and are interested in "growth" stocks. Insiders are anti-momentum trader, they sell more when past return is higher and they more focus on "value" stocks. / Zhu, Honghui. / "September 2002." / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 64-11, Section: A, page: 4150. / Supervisors: Jia He; Xiaoqiang Cai. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-101). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.