The aim of this thesis is to investigate how members of Australian superannuation funds can manage risks arising from uncertain security returns and unpredictable mortality so as to ensure a steady income stream during retirement. In chapter 2 we note that the proportion of superannuation assets invested in foreign assets has increased over the past two decades, exposing investors to currency risk. Surveys of superannuation funds verify that most international bond holdings, but not equity holdings, have been hedged for currency risk. We test the mean-variance efficiency of this practice against two alternative hedging strategies: a conventional forward hedge and a selective hedge conditioned on the domestic-foreign interest differential. Implementing optimal hedging results in portfolios whose returns stochastically dominate portfolios constructed under restricted equity hedging, according to our new adaptation of Barrett-Donald (2003) tests. Selective hedging works best for equities and conventional hedging for bonds. Chapter 3 applies a discrete-time Merton (1971) model to questions of optimal decumulation and asset allocation for self-funded retirees drawing down lump-sum retirement benefits. Risk management is taken to revolve around protecting a pre-specified minimum consumption stream. Risk tolerances and lifetimes are allowed to span a range of possibilities. In the case of an agent living to age 90, ideal investment in equity-type assets increases gradually from 27-43 % over remaining life. This is much lower than the 55-60% observed among retirees. Conservative investment strategies are needed to meet consumption goals over long lifetimes. Milevsky and Young (2002, 2003) attribute the reluctance to voluntarily annuitise to a valuable real option to delay annuitisation (RODA). Chapter 4 extends the RODA analysis to the case of HARA preferences. A formula for the optimal timing of annuitisation is derived from the solution to a dynamic stochastic consumption and investment problem with uncertain lifetime. The effect of introducing a consumption floor is to reduce the delay before annuity purchase. As in the CRRA case, delayed annuitisation is associated with optimistic predictions of the Sharpe ratio and divergence between annuity purchaser and provider predictions of mortality.

<p>Title: Investigations on the real estate market, what are the main factors influencing the performance of the French Real Estate Investments Trusts?</p><p>Problem: In 2003, the French government implemented a new tax-exempt structure in the real estate market. Like REITs in the United States, SIICs are listed French companies that aim to improve the performance of real estate stocks on Paris Stock Exchange. The problem consists of determining the performance of the SIICs’ portfolio, identifying the major influences of economic factors and capturing financial behaviour in asset portfolio management.</p><p>Purpose: Recently, the subprime crisis has largely brought out uncertainty of financial actors in the real estate sector. In this context, we try to apprehend the performance of these specific</p><p>SIICs investment vehicles related to financial, economic and managerial influences, by quantifying their stock performance in a five-year time frame.</p><p>Methodology: A deductive approach guides our thesis to emphasize our research question. Our business strategy entails positivism and objectivism considerations and relies on a case analysis research design using the multifactor model. Besides, the data collection process is following a quantitative approach of twenty chosen French SIICs between 2003 and 2007.</p><p>Result / Conclusion: Even if the multifactor model used by the authors may be viewed as unspecified, useful results can still be extracted and analysed. The hotel & LDG sector slightly performs better than others depending on the strategy of investment and the state of economy. Long-term interest rate acts as the principal explanatory factor. Investors do not necessarily respond in favour of the general market confidence indicator.</p>

The importance of the Hotelling Valuation Principle (HVP) in economic study lies in its ability to examine and drive the decision of how much of a non-renewable natural resource to produce now versus how much to conserve for future generations - the root of natural resource policy, conservation, regulation, and taxation. Hotelling (1931) assumes that net price (selling price less cost per unit of production) will grow at the discount rate, which in a deterministic setting implies that reserve value is equal to current net price. However, the application of this ideal theory to the oil and gas industry may be difficult.<p>The oil and gas industry is influenced by government regulation, potential monopolistic forces, and well production characteristics - each of which violate the assumptions of Hotellings (1931) basic theory. How these violations affect the HVP is an open question. Most have the effect of limiting current supply, and thus driving prices higher than they would be in a perfectly competitive market. On the other hand, at least in the Canadian context, government regulation tends to increase costs, whereas technological advancement tends to reduce costs. The net result of these effects on future net prices and their discounted value, and therefore the effect on the HVP, is not clear a priori.<p>Another problem relating Hotellings (1931) basic theory to the oil and gas industry lies in the stochastic nature of a firms future net prices and extraction quantities, the product of which gives the firms future cash flows. Correlation between quantity and net price may result from expanding production when prices are high and reducing production when prices are low. Of course such correlation will affect the expected cash flows, and therefore firm value. Or, in other words, the ability to adjust production quantity provides real options for oil and gas firms which may add value.<p>Previous tests of the HVP on oil and gas reserves have utilized data that may contain confounding information that results in unreliable conclusions. The two major deficiencies include using (1) acquisition values, which utilize basin-average rather than firm specific net price data, and (2) conventional oil and gas company market valuations, which incorporate additional management exploration expertise value beyond the reserves value.<p>This study contributes to the literature by providing a more definitive test of the HVP through the use of Canadian oil and gas royalty trusts. These pure play publicly traded entities are focused on production rather than exploration and essentially remediate the deficiencies found in previous literature. Additionally, I include an ancillary variable to proxy real option value and control variables for firm characteristics such as oil weighting (proportion of oil relative to natural gas reserves), reserve quality (proportion of proven producing reserves relative to proven non-producing reserves), and firm size (based on enterprise value). This gives the reader a better understanding of value drivers in the Canadian oil and gas royalty trust sector and how they relate to the HVP.<p>My study generally fails to find support for the HVP. In particular, the results indicate that the HVP overestimates reserve value. This suggests that market participants expect net prices to grow at a rate significantly lower than the fair cost of capital, and production constraints limiting the extraction rate are binding. I do find that the real option proxy explains a significant amount of the difference between the value observed and the value predicted by the HVP. This differs markedly from what previous literature on the HVP applied to market data for the oil and gas industry documents. Each of these papers fails to reject the HVP. The fact that I generally find the value to be lower than that predicted by the HVP is not surprising given the previous literature using market data to test it. Since these studies use conventional oil and gas companies, which likely overvalue reserves because of an exploration premium, finding support for the HVP likely means that royalty trusts will likely correspond to a value lower than that predicted. The difference could account for the exploration premium. On the other hand, when I use the log-linear specification over the second, more volatile sub-sample, I also fail to reject Hotellings theoretical value, which is consistent with previous literature using market data.

This study examines the extent to which volunteer-run local land trusts in Ontario are governed in a manner that will allow them to protect valued ecosystems effectively in perpetuity. It also identifies needs and opportunities for building the capacities of land trusts as long term stewardship organizations. The primary academic contribution of this research is the identification of criteria for evaluating land trust governance and their ability to meet their conservation aims. The criteria are applied in a case study of the Niagara Land Trust, a local land trust in the process of incorporating. Specific recommendations are made to assist this organization to improve its operations. The principal findings of this research are that some local land trusts have attained a level of governance which will allow them to protect land in perpetuity, but some land trusts have not. The failure of some land trusts could result in donors and government questioning the movement as a whole. Generally, the main gaps in capacity centre on weaknesses in financial sustainability, training/managing of volunteers, record-keeping, baseline inventories and continued monitoring, and the problem of requiring people to have specific professional skills in largely volunteer organizations. The thesis concludes by offering specific suggestions to the Niagara Land Trust, the Ontario Land Trust Alliance and the Canadian Land Trust Alliance. Local land trusts have provided many communities with an attractive option for conserving land; strengthening the movement will ensure that this grassroots work can continue.

This study examines the extent to which volunteer-run local land trusts in Ontario are governed in a manner that will allow them to protect valued ecosystems effectively in perpetuity. It also identifies needs and opportunities for building the capacities of land trusts as long term stewardship organizations. The primary academic contribution of this research is the identification of criteria for evaluating land trust governance and their ability to meet their conservation aims. The criteria are applied in a case study of the Niagara Land Trust, a local land trust in the process of incorporating. Specific recommendations are made to assist this organization to improve its operations. The principal findings of this research are that some local land trusts have attained a level of governance which will allow them to protect land in perpetuity, but some land trusts have not. The failure of some land trusts could result in donors and government questioning the movement as a whole. Generally, the main gaps in capacity centre on weaknesses in financial sustainability, training/managing of volunteers, record-keeping, baseline inventories and continued monitoring, and the problem of requiring people to have specific professional skills in largely volunteer organizations. The thesis concludes by offering specific suggestions to the Niagara Land Trust, the Ontario Land Trust Alliance and the Canadian Land Trust Alliance. Local land trusts have provided many communities with an attractive option for conserving land; strengthening the movement will ensure that this grassroots work can continue.

The importance of the Hotelling Valuation Principle (HVP) in economic study lies in its ability to examine and drive the decision of how much of a non-renewable natural resource to produce now versus how much to conserve for future generations - the root of natural resource policy, conservation, regulation, and taxation. Hotelling (1931) assumes that net price (selling price less cost per unit of production) will grow at the discount rate, which in a deterministic setting implies that reserve value is equal to current net price. However, the application of this ideal theory to the oil and gas industry may be difficult.<p>The oil and gas industry is influenced by government regulation, potential monopolistic forces, and well production characteristics - each of which violate the assumptions of Hotellings (1931) basic theory. How these violations affect the HVP is an open question. Most have the effect of limiting current supply, and thus driving prices higher than they would be in a perfectly competitive market. On the other hand, at least in the Canadian context, government regulation tends to increase costs, whereas technological advancement tends to reduce costs. The net result of these effects on future net prices and their discounted value, and therefore the effect on the HVP, is not clear a priori.<p>Another problem relating Hotellings (1931) basic theory to the oil and gas industry lies in the stochastic nature of a firms future net prices and extraction quantities, the product of which gives the firms future cash flows. Correlation between quantity and net price may result from expanding production when prices are high and reducing production when prices are low. Of course such correlation will affect the expected cash flows, and therefore firm value. Or, in other words, the ability to adjust production quantity provides real options for oil and gas firms which may add value.<p>Previous tests of the HVP on oil and gas reserves have utilized data that may contain confounding information that results in unreliable conclusions. The two major deficiencies include using (1) acquisition values, which utilize basin-average rather than firm specific net price data, and (2) conventional oil and gas company market valuations, which incorporate additional management exploration expertise value beyond the reserves value.<p>This study contributes to the literature by providing a more definitive test of the HVP through the use of Canadian oil and gas royalty trusts. These pure play publicly traded entities are focused on production rather than exploration and essentially remediate the deficiencies found in previous literature. Additionally, I include an ancillary variable to proxy real option value and control variables for firm characteristics such as oil weighting (proportion of oil relative to natural gas reserves), reserve quality (proportion of proven producing reserves relative to proven non-producing reserves), and firm size (based on enterprise value). This gives the reader a better understanding of value drivers in the Canadian oil and gas royalty trust sector and how they relate to the HVP.<p>My study generally fails to find support for the HVP. In particular, the results indicate that the HVP overestimates reserve value. This suggests that market participants expect net prices to grow at a rate significantly lower than the fair cost of capital, and production constraints limiting the extraction rate are binding. I do find that the real option proxy explains a significant amount of the difference between the value observed and the value predicted by the HVP. This differs markedly from what previous literature on the HVP applied to market data for the oil and gas industry documents. Each of these papers fails to reject the HVP. The fact that I generally find the value to be lower than that predicted by the HVP is not surprising given the previous literature using market data to test it. Since these studies use conventional oil and gas companies, which likely overvalue reserves because of an exploration premium, finding support for the HVP likely means that royalty trusts will likely correspond to a value lower than that predicted. The difference could account for the exploration premium. On the other hand, when I use the log-linear specification over the second, more volatile sub-sample, I also fail to reject Hotellings theoretical value, which is consistent with previous literature using market data.

Wetlands cover a broad of areas, including aquatic and terrestrial ecological systems. Many people and agencies are attracted the natural resources value and begin the action to protect it. In 2007, the Construction and Planning Agency Ministry of the Interior¡]CPAMI¡^in Taiwan announced 75 sites as ¡§National Wetlands of Importance¡¨. Currently the Wetland Conservation Law draft completed of 2010. In the future the wetlands conservation and mitigation mechanism will be definite. Wetland conservation is not only a government duty but also the resporsibility of the Private Sector and Citizen. Sometimes non-government organization and community often face private land ownership, lack of income and problems with Taiwan¡¦s current laws and regulation. Many wildlife habitats and critical wetlands are not owned by government, such as Aogu Wetland, therefore many researchers begin to promote the idea of "public trust" as one of the models for wetland sustainable management. In this study use public trust management model to combine wetland conservation maintain wetland ¡§no net loss¡¨. The common consensus and co-management mechanism between public and private sectors become crucial issues. Major research methods used Depth-Interview with different field experts to find the solution and feasibility of the proposed framework. Wetland public trust is a tool advocating the collaboration and cooperation among public, non-profit organizations, enterprise, government to improve the outcomes of environmental conservation, which can be oversee by particular authorities This study proposes wetland public trust as an appropriate framework and integrates tax system to improve the wetland conservation models in Taiwan.

This study measures the short-term and long-term contagion effects in U.S. stock markets and REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) markets during the periods of subprime mortgage and financial crises. First, we test contagion between the U.S. stock market and the U.S. REITs market. Then, we test the contagion effects between the U.S. REITs market and eighteen international REITs markets, selected from North America, Oceania, Asian and Europe. To catch the asymmetric effect in the volatility structure of index returns and consider the time-varying data, this study employs asymmetric dynamic Copula models that measure contagion effects. The test result in this study shows that the contagion effect exists because of the fact that during the subprime mortgage crisis, the correlation between the U.S. stock market and REITs market significantly increased. Thus, the two markets lost ground together. While managing not to emerge in Asian REITs markets, the contagion then spread from the U.S. REITs market to Canada, Australia and most of the European REITs markets. In the later financial crisis period, however, the number of European REITs markets impacted by contagion from the U.S. REITs market decreased. Except for Singapore, contagion is absent from the Asian REITs markets. Contagion is more obvious in the short term than in the long term. These results imply that the Asian REITs markets are not easily affected by the U.S. REITs market, which in turn implies that investors could obtain the positive effects of international diversification by investing in this portfolio. In addition, investors should reduce the proportion of their investments placed in REITs markets, as well as focus on a long-term diversification strategy.

Universiẗat der Bundeswehr, Diss--München, 2008. / Literaturverz. S. [373] - 385.

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management