Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1987. / Vita. M.I.T. copy lacks leaves 203-204. / Bibliography: p. 211-217. / by Martha Schary. / Ph.D.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2004. / "June 2004." / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-86). / Sovereignty today is conditional, compromised and contractual in ways that require a reassessment of the doctrine of sovereignty in an era of globalization and global capital markets. Taking as a case study Indonesia during its financial crisis in 1997-1998, this thesis explores the sovereign ability of a state such as Indonesia to act effectively and independently in its own economic interest in a crisis. The argument of this thesis that sovereignty today is conditional, compromised and contractual to an unprecedented degree rests on two pillars: first, that a universal awareness of human rights increasingly has imposed a contract on sovereign leaders demanding, as a condition for the right to sovereign non-interference, that they respect the most fundamental human rights of their citizens. Second, as the case of Indonesia will demonstrate, that in the global economy where contagion is a real and dangerous phenomenon, countries must accept IMF conditionality or find themselves cut off not only from assistance from the International Financial Institutions but, more importantly, from private investors whose loss of confidence in an economy can trigger a serious financial crises with severe long-term consequences for the society as a whole. / by Nader Alexander Mousavizadeh. / M.B.A.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2011. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 68-70). / The idea that massive natural resource endowments would lead countries to weak economic growth and development is counterintuitive. Oil, gas, copper, gold or other resource riches should, at least in theory, spearhead countries with such natural wealth to growth that parallels non-commodity-based economies and help them achieve high-income status. This has not been the case for majority of the endowed countries particularly in North Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. With few exceptions, such as Norway, Botswana, Chile or Australia, the resources proved to be a curse. I begin with a survey of previous academic literature and research on the effects of natural resources on a given country's economic, social and political development. I then move to exploring the many challenges and pitfalls faced by resource-based economies. Such concepts as the Dutch Disease, Rentier State, Governance and Corruption are discussed. In the final section, outline different methods of the resource curse management by first exploring monetary and fiscal policies, and later touching upon the issues of responsible governance. I conclude by proposing a multi-step framework for resource management. / by Damian Kasprzyk. / S.M.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2000. / Also available online at the DSpace at MIT website. / Includes bibliographical references. / This paper attempted to extract from the literature a package of measures, or metrics, that can be used by microcredit programs and institutions to gauge their success as financial institutions, as well as their broader societal impact as welfare organizations. What was learned is that microcredit organizations, unlike more traditional financial institutions, are largely unregulated and therefore tend to use of variety of non-standardized measures to assess their success and sustainability. Moreover, it is clear that microfinance institutions can not easily trade-off those measures that track institutional success, for those that measure the well-being of the community as a result of borrowing money and mounting a micro-enterprise, since a number of confounding factors make direct correlation difficult. By employing the Balanced Scorecard framework, microcredit organizations can collect regularly data that reports on the financial status of the organization, its internal business practices, the rate of borrower success, and lessons learned. Moreover, the microcredit organization that assumes to impact the borrower community at large, can use the same framework to aggregate these data across borrower communities and monitor them along with certain health and welfare data to infer a degree of behavioral impact. / by Judith B. Seltzer. / M.B.A.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2015. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 157-163). / This thesis consists of three essays in corporate finance and capital markets. The first chapter estimates the effect of competition from low-cost index funds on fees in the money management industry. A difference-in-differences analysis exploiting the staggered entry of index funds finds that while actively managed funds sold directly to retail investors reduce fees by six percent, those sold through brokers increase fees by four percent. Additionally, actively managed funds, especially closet indexers, shift away from holding the index portfolio. The paper proposes a price-discrimination model to illustrate that the effect of low-cost passive fund competition depends on market segmentation. Beyond the price competition effect, the entry creates a selection effect that isolates the least-price-sensitive investors in the broker channel and results in a price increase for this group. Repeating the study using the entry of exchange-traded funds reveals similar but stronger finding. Overall, the results shed light on why aggregate mutual fund fees decline slowly despite increased competition from lower-cost passive alternatives. The second chapter, joint with Jean-Noel Barrot, examines the effects of imperfect investor risk adjustment on the behavior of mutual fund managers. We exploit a natural experiment when a major fund rating company changed its rating methodology. While in the old system, all equity funds were compared with one another in one pool, in the new algorithm, funds become compared within narrow peer groups. This algorithm revision increases the ability of retail investor to compare funds based on risk-adjusted returns, and it has an important impact on the fund mangers' compensation. The sensitivity of retail fund flows to systematic returns is eliminated. Using institutional funds as a control for retail funds in a difference-in-differences analysis, we find that this revision reduces fund managers risk taking behavior, in particular for funds in the categories that had biased low ratings ex-ante. The third chapter, joint with Carola Frydman and Eric Hilt, documents the dividend policy of firms in the United States during the first three decades of the twentieth century. This period features severe information asymmetry between insiders and outsiders, while other factors that could affect the payout policy were relatively muted. In the years surrounding World War I, industrial firms increased their payout ratios and dividends became less sticky. The new industrial firms listed on the NYSE in the 1920s had the best fit with the Lintner (1956) model and these firms refrained from committing to sticky dividend policy. Consistent with the asymmetric information theory, the market reacted positively to dividend increase announcements, especially to those made by the new industrials, and reacted negatively to dividend cuts. / by Yang Sun. / The effect of index fund competition on money management fees -- The effect of investor risk adjustment on fund manager incentives -- Dividend policy in the early twentieth century United States. / Ph. D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2011. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 109-115). / This thesis consists of three chapters in asset pricing and international finance. In Chapter 1, I examine the effect of tradability, the proportion of a firm's output that is exported, on its stock returns. The empirical patterns are consistent with the adjustment of the relative price of tradable to non-tradable goods, due to endowment shocks. I find firms that produce tradable goods have asset returns and earnings that are twice as cyclical as firms that produce non-tradable goods. A tradable minus nontradable portfolio of stock returns can predict changes in real exchange rates and the relative quantity of exports. A two-country endowment economy model formalizing the relative price mechanism is able to match the empirical facts. In Chapter 2, joint with Leonid Kogan and Roberto Rigobon, we take an openeconomy perspective on consumption growth predictability. We find that the combination of the U.S. and the world real interest rates predicts U.S. consumption growth. Predictability is highly significant, both statistically and economically, and is strongest at horizons of two to three years. The growth rate of consumption of services is more predictable than the growth rate of consumption of nondurable goods. We interpret this evidence using a two-country equilibrium exchange economy model and conclude that the predictive relation between interest rates and consumption growth is likely generated by output shocks in the non-tradable good sector. In Chapter 3, joint with Leonid Kogan, we examine the effects of data snooping on the performance of linear factor models at explaining asset pricing anomalies. We gather 22 anomalies established in the literature and create three-factor models from sorting firms into portfolios with respect to these anomalies. From 1950-2007, half of the factor models we construct can explain 31% or more of anomalies. In comparison, the CAPM and Fama French models rank in the 20th and 40th percentile of models respectively. Factors constructed from sorting by external financing characteristics (net stock issues and composite issuance) are able to explain a large proportion of anomalies. None of the models are able to explain momentum. / by Mary Tian. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1987. / Bibliography: leaves 125-129. / by Peter S. Fader. / Ph.D.

Thesis: S.M. in Management Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (page 68). / In 1991, four Central European countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) decided to form a political alliance called the Visegrad Group to explore paths of cooperation in various domains. Since the fall of communism, these countries have followed a formidable development trajectory that culminated with their integration in the European Union in 2004. In this thesis, we approach this region using a new macroeconomic theory that provides a framework to evaluate the complexity of economies and their productive structures. After analyzing trade data at a world level we find that V4 countries have complex economic structures. They also demonstrate a high level of robustness as they maintain consistent Economic Complexity Rankings when we vary the theory's underlying assumptions. We show that V4 countries have acquired capabilities relevant to many sectors, which provides them with numerous development opportunities. Based on those findings, we suggest policy recommendations leading both to stronger regional integration and to the creation of a more attractive business environment. / by Kalman de Chalendar and Marc Giraud. / S.M. in Management Studies

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-172). / by Andrew A. King. / Ph.D.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1991. / Title as it appears in the M.I.T. Graduate List, Sept. 1991: Valuing information. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-89). / by Marhsall W. Van Alstyne. / M.S.