This dissertation consists of two empirical papers that explore recent phenomena in Banking and Microfinance Performance. Chapter 1, “Market Power and Bank Performance in MENA Countries,” examines the determinants of market power in 12 Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), specifically within six Gulf Cooperation Countries and six non-Gulf countries. We examine the dynamics of bank competition in MENA countries, provide an up-to-date assessment of market power, investigate the factors impacting bank competition, and explore the evolution of market power during the financial crisis. Our results show an overall increase in market power following the GFC for both regions. We find that bank size, capitalization, and diversification affect market power differently in the pre-crisis and post-crisis years. Larger banks enjoy cost advantages and the diversification impact on market power has decreased in the post-crisis years and the impact of capitalization on market power increased during the GFC. Overall, banks with higher capitalization can better weather the crisis. Chapter 2, “The impact of firm-level characteristic and county-specific attributes on the performance and efficiency of the Microfinance institutions,” estimates the impact of country-specific macro-variables and firm-specific attributes on the financial performance and the efficiency of microfinance institutions (MFIs). We use a large international up-to-date database consisting of over 10,000 firm-years for MFIs over 89 countries during the period 2008-2015. Several interesting findings emerge: a) regulation and outreach are negatively correlated. b) There is a negative and highly statistically significant correlation between the percentage of female borrowers and loan size, which is evidence of “mission drift”. c) An increase in the percentage of female board member has positive and statistically significant effect on MFIs profitability and ROA; which emphasizes the importance of female participation in leading position in MFIs.

A financial crisis in 2007 changed the development of the global financial system. A lot of financial innovations, although they cannot be considered the only reason of the crisis, affected the critical situation reasonably. The initial crisis of the financial system soon transferred into real economy. German banking system suffered from negative effects of the financial crisis. The federal government sets up a Special fund for stabilization of the financial market (Soffin) to help the financial sector. Germany is the second largest exporter in the world and the fall of the foreign demand meant a depression of its export. The Czech financial system (banking) was not affected too seriously during the initial period of the financial crisis. The main reason of this was that the majority of Czech banks are controlled by foreign subjects which meant that risky businesses were implemented by principal companies. The crisis transferred into real economy through the channel of foreign trade.

This thesis studies the relationship between efficient working capital management and firm profitability, and if the global financial crisis has affected the relationship. Previous literature has presented inconsistent results regarding the impact of working capital management on firm profitability, finding both negative and positive effects. It has also been argued that the global financial crisis has increased the attention of and possibly changed the attitude towards working capital management as a strategy in order to increase firm profitability. In the study, the cash conversion cycle is used as a measure for working capital management, and return on assets as a measure for firm profitability. The sample in this thesis consists of 1170 observations from 78 Swedish listed companies over the time-period 2003–2017. Both multiple regression analysis and an independent-sample t-test were conducted in order to examine the given relationship. The findings of this thesis indicate that firms can increase their profitability by implementing efficient working capital management. However, the global financial crisis has not brought a change in companies' working capital management.

Prior research on the ability of financial ratios to predict bankruptcies has shown a significant difference between the companies that went into bankruptcy and those that survived. This paper investigates whether there is a difference in the prediction ability of financial ratios during the last financial crisis compared to relatively normal macroeconomic environments in which most previous studies have been conducted. We use univariate analysis to compare companies that went into bankruptcy during 2010 and 2011 with companies that remained active. Our dataset consists of 51 failed companies that are matched with 102 companies that remained active. All companies were Swedish limited companies with more than 50 employees and the comparison is made with 26 financial ratios. Our result indicates that financial ratios were better tools to predict bankruptcy during the crisis than during more stable macroeconomic conditions. In total 24 of the analyzed financial ratios differed significantly between the two populations and many of them showed significance earlier prior to the bankruptcy than in comparable studies.

Introduction and background: The 1990s crisis and the global financial crisis year 2008 shows the same indications that the property market was affected negative. The Swedish Property companies had a difficult time on the market when the crisis led to decreased property trade and financing problems for the Property companies. The Swedish property companies became less attractive on the market and contributed to a drop in prices on investment property. Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to examine if there is any relation between the Swedish Property companies impairments on their investment property and the global financial crisis year 2008. Method: The essay is based on a quantitative study where we examined Swedish Property companies’ annual reports. We answered our questions and our purpose from the empirical data that we collected from the annual reports. Conclusions: The study resulted in that we found a correlation between the Swedish Property companies’ impairments on their investment properties and the global financial crisis year 2008. However, we found that the Swedish Property companies’ impairments were lower than market indications prove.

The purpose of this study is to examine the volatility spillover among a country&rsquo / s foreign exchange, bond and stock markets and the volatility transmission from the global bond, stock and commodity markets to these local financial markets. The sample for the study includes data from both emerging and developed economies in the time period between 2004 and 2011. A multivariate GARCH methodology with the BEKK representation is applied for the local financial markets and global variables are included as exogenous variables into the model. The volatility integration of the financial markets of the emerging economies is stronger compared to the integration of the developed economies. Global variables have a spillover effect on the developed markets only after the global financial crisis, whereas they significantly affect the volatility in emerging markets for both the pre- and post-crisis period. North American countries in the sample, U.S. and Mexico, have low local volatility integration in the pre-crisis era and the integration rises in the post-crisis period. Moreover, they are more open to the internal and global short-term shocks in the post-crisis period. Germany and Turkey are the representatives of the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region and they have high local market integration and are open to global shocks for both sub-periods. Far Eastern markets, Japan and Korea, also have high local market integration and their vulnerability to the global effects is large and getting larger for the post-crisis period. The most important limitation of this thesis is the difficulty of reaching sharp generalizations due to the small number of countries analyzed. This limitation can be addressed by the inclusion of a larger number of geographically dispersed countries. The most noteworthy originality of this study is the addition of the exogenous global variables for modeling volatility spillovers. Furthermore, comparison of results for emerging versus developed markets and the pre- versus post-crisis periods is another contribution of this study to the existing literature. The findings of this study can be used by investors interested in assessing the risks of investing internationally.

The economic crisis of 2007 has had debilitating effects on the global economy, affecting GDP growth, unemployment and trade to name a few. In response to these economic effects, numerous policy interventions were implemented. There are various existing time-series methods available to determine better estimates of GDP growth rates, one of which is Stein’s Paradox which uses observed averages to estimate unobservable quantities which are closer to the true unknown GDP growth rates or theta (θ) in order to determine better growth rates post the economic crisis. The resulting James-Stein estimator (z) is said to be better than the arithmetic average, and thus a closer approximation to the true GDP growth rates which are unobservable. This dissertation analyses the effects of the 2008 financial crisis on the global economy, with specific reference to South Africa and America, and their corresponding policy interventions to determine the growth trajectory after the crisis. The main objective is to determine if better estimates of GDP growth can be calculated using Stein’s Paradox, across a sample of 30 countries, using quarterly GDP growth for the period 2005 to 2008. Annual GDP data was also used for the period 2009-2011, and future GDP growth rates were forecasted for the period 2012 to 2016. To reinforce the Stein’s Paradox, the Monte Carlo study is undertaken. It is used to determine how the James-Stein estimates perform under different conditions using a common c or unique c, and to determine which condition will provide more accurate GDP growth rates (Muthen. 2002). Analysis of time series data across a sample of 30 countries using Stein’s Paradox provided better estimates of GDP growth rates than the individual average growth rates for each country based on the lower standard deviation and total squared error of estimation achieved. This shows that the results are closer to theta and have a smaller amount of error, particularly when a common c was used. The Monte Carlo results indicate that better GDP growth rates are achieved when using a common c instead of a unique c given that a smaller standard deviation and variance is derived. Therefore the Monte Carlo study aims to reinforce or verify Stein’s Paradox. The study also indicates that emerging and developing countries seem to be the driving forces of growth in the future, while developed countries seem to be lagging behind. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

The financial crisis that struck financial markets in 2008 was devastating for the global economy. The impact continues to be felt in the market - most recently in sovereign defaults. 1 There are many questions as to the origin of the crisis and how the same events may be prevented in the future. This dissertation explores two financial instruments: securitisation and credit default swaps (CDSs) and attempts to establish the role they played in the financial crisis. To fully understand the events that unfolded before and during the crisis, a sound theoretical understanding of these instruments is required. This understanding is important to discern the future of stable financial markets and to gain insight into some of the potential risks faced by financial markets. The South African perspective regarding securitisation, CDSs and the global financial crisis is an important field of study. The impact of the crisis on South Africa will be explored in this dissertation, as well as, the effect of the crisis on South Africa's securitisation market (which has proved healthy and robust over the first part of the new millennium despite the global slowdown of these instruments) and the CDS market. A key goal of this work is to establish whether or not CDSs have been used in South Africa to hedge the credit risk component of bonds linked to asset–backed securities (ABSs). This will provide an indication of the maturity of the South African credit risk transfer (CRT) market and how South Africa compares to more developed financial markets regarding complexity, regulation, sophistication and market sentiment. Through the exploration and understanding of these concepts, the efficacy of emerging economies to adapt to globalisation, and how welcome financial innovation has proved to be in emerging markets will be addressed. / Thesis (M.Com. (Risk management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

The financial crisis that struck financial markets in 2008 was devastating for the global economy. The impact continues to be felt in the market - most recently in sovereign defaults. 1 There are many questions as to the origin of the crisis and how the same events may be prevented in the future. This dissertation explores two financial instruments: securitisation and credit default swaps (CDSs) and attempts to establish the role they played in the financial crisis. To fully understand the events that unfolded before and during the crisis, a sound theoretical understanding of these instruments is required. This understanding is important to discern the future of stable financial markets and to gain insight into some of the potential risks faced by financial markets. The South African perspective regarding securitisation, CDSs and the global financial crisis is an important field of study. The impact of the crisis on South Africa will be explored in this dissertation, as well as, the effect of the crisis on South Africa's securitisation market (which has proved healthy and robust over the first part of the new millennium despite the global slowdown of these instruments) and the CDS market. A key goal of this work is to establish whether or not CDSs have been used in South Africa to hedge the credit risk component of bonds linked to asset–backed securities (ABSs). This will provide an indication of the maturity of the South African credit risk transfer (CRT) market and how South Africa compares to more developed financial markets regarding complexity, regulation, sophistication and market sentiment. Through the exploration and understanding of these concepts, the efficacy of emerging economies to adapt to globalisation, and how welcome financial innovation has proved to be in emerging markets will be addressed. / Thesis (M.Com. (Risk management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

The global financial crisis has been catalogued as one of the worst economical recessions since the Great Depression in 1930’s. The history in Latin America has shown that the region has been turbulent in respect of economic crisis. They were three main channels, which are divided in contagion and/or interdepended to Latin America; first the remittances saw a drop, the smallest countries like the Central Americans countries were the most affected by this channel. The second channel was in the export with the freeze in the international trade market. And the third channel was the financial shock with global finances and credit constraint. For the seven biggest economies; Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela; the second and third channel were the ones that most affected them. There is not proof that within the region toxic assets were acquired; this is the main raison that we have take macroeconomics variables to measure the impact of the crisis. Thanks to the propitious economic circumstances in the past years made Latin American countries had a great economic growth, this helped them to grow their international reserves and have a healthier fiscal system. Those two tools were fundamental to fight against the crisis with counter cyclical policies. Also most of the countries have started to diversify they exports to other regions, focusing more in Asia especially the gigantic Republic Peoples of China. Some countries apply this strategy more aggressively than others, and as a result they bounced back quicker than other countries. It has been said, that this kind of economic depressions only happens once every one hundred years. Latin America suffered as the entire world did, but they were better prepare and their strategies worked to reactivate their local economies. Some countries have been economically performing better and have kept their inflation and unemployment rates at the same level as before the crisis started.