Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, 1980. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Robert Bojanek. / M.S.

The dominant role of credit ratings, along with the failure of important FIs, exacerbated the 2008 crisis and caused further damage to European economies, which highlighted the need for effective regulation to prevent a reoccurrence. This thesis investigates the effect of EU and US recent regulatory reforms of the rating industry on the quality of credit ratings of financial institutions (FIs), as well as the impact of the new EU financial regulatory initiatives on the performance of FIs. The first empirical Chapter focuses on the EU reforms of credit rating agencies (CRAs) and provides evidence supporting the presence of a conservative rating bias in the post regulatory period, as increased scrutiny, fines and liability increase the cost of over rating. CRAs exhibit an unwarranted decrease in EU FI ratings, evidenced by an increase in false warning and a fall in the informativeness of FI rating downgrades in the post regulatory period. A subsequent rise in stock market responses to rating upgrades is consistent with CRAs expending greater effort to ensure they are justified. The second empirical Chapter focuses on the US reforms of CRAs and reports no significant impact on FI ratings, rather each CRA has responded differently to the passage of the US Dodd-Frank Act (DFA). There is, however, a significant reduction in stock market reactions to FI credit rating signals, consistent with diminishing reliance on credit ratings by market participants in the US. The third empirical Chapter builds and estimates a dynamic model of FI behaviour using discrete choice dynamic programming (DCDP). The model is used to simulate and examine the impact of regulations, including EU reforms of CRAs, capital adequacy regulation (Basel III), and the bail-in regime, on FIs' behaviour in the real economy. The results show that the shift to increasingly conservative rating behaviour triggered by the CRA reforms has caused FIs to respond by manipulating their capital ratios and to reduce lending activities. The results also show that more stringent capital requirements stimulate FIs to hold more capital, reduce lending and reveal a positive influence in reducing bank insolvency rates, particularly during the crisis period. The introduction of a bail-in regime reveals similar results, but crucially stimulates the adoption of a stable equilibrium (unlike Basel III). This thesis highlights drawbacks with the current regulatory reforms of the EU and US FI rating industries and suggests potential solutions. The thesis also informs the policy debate surrounding the best way to regulate both CRAs and FIs and ensure that there is not a reoccurrence of the problems present in the 2008 financial crisis.

A competition agency represents an independent regulatory institution, which takes the form of an administrative body. A competition authority enables the development of markets and displays to market operators and new players a dedication to the principles of free markets and fair competition. In other words, a competition authority should intervene in a timely manner to correct any anti-competitive behaviour and implement the necessary remedies; it should be equipped with an adequate knowledge of the market in order to make its decisions. Moreover, its involvement should be predictable, that is, it should have a positive influence on markets. Furthermore, a competition agency should continuously evaluate its role as public institution and law enforcer by following the economic and legal evolution of the jurisdiction in which it operates. Until recently, the debate has predominantly revolved around the substance of competition law. However, in recent years, the evaluation of the performance of competition agencies has been embraced by numerous countries, including developing ones. This is because most emerging countries around the world have progressively been opening their domestic markets to competition, which led to giving more power to competition agencies to monitor markets. As this perspective has not been explored in the context of Maghreb countries, which also represent developing economies, this research endeavours to do so. Therefore, the aim of this research is to analyse the extent to which the performance of competition agencies in Maghreb countries influences the enforcement of competition law.

This paper critically evaluates guidelines concerning participatory development by the World Bank and USAID. It focuses on the different conceptual frameworks adopted in order to examine the differing ways of adopting participation in their development agenda. A literature –based method was adopted and the analysis included evaluation of five documented experiences including the Ghana Secondary Education Improvement Project and Ghana Water Sanitation and Hygiene Project from both the World Bank and USAID. Baum project cycle stages have been taken as activities for project participation. The findings are; the need for better planning; ensuring sustainability; and involving beneficiaries. / Article was sent as 4 word documents - I compiled into pdf version and let Farhad know 21/06/2016 - sm / The full text will be available at the end of the publisher's embargo, 31st July 2018.

The U.S. federal government spends millions of taxpayer dollars to implement the federal enterprise architecture framework (FEAF). This qualitative multiple case study extracted successful FEAF implementation strategies used by agencies in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. The population for this study included 10 information technology (IT) planners in 3 federal agencies. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and triangulated in comparison to 33 public documents. General system theory was used as a conceptual framework for the study, and data analysis included reviews of the academic literature, thematic analysis, and member checking to identify themes and codes related to successful aspects of the strategies collected. Key themes emerging from data analysis included critical leadership support for implementation, organizational culture, practices for maintaining an accurate organizational history, and means to maintain this knowledge. Based on the findings, the implications of this study for positive social change include efficient, effective, and reliable government services for U.S. citizens and a significant reduction in IT spending in federal agencies. In turn, the results may result in effective federal services and effective use of taxpayer money.

[pt] O rating soberano pode ser definido como uma nota dada pelas agências de risco às obrigações do governo central de um país. Apesar do primeiro rating atribuído ao país datar de 1986, percebe-se que sua importância cresceu muito a partir de 1994, com a emissão dos brady bonds. Em teoria, as agências de ratings teriam o papel de antever acontecimentos no mercado, e conseqüentemente, seriam suas análises que influenciariam o comportamento dos mesmos; no entanto, severas críticas vêm sendo feitas no sentido de que elas apenas reagem a acontecimentos já amplamente conhecidos. Este trabalho tem, portanto, o objetivo de analisar o impacto das avaliações de risco do país emitidas por estas agências sobre o principal título da dívida externa brasileira, o c-bond. Para avaliar estes impactos, foi analisado o comportamento do spread do c-bond em períodos anteriores e posteriores às divulgações das análises destas agências. O estudo indicou que os ratings soberanos influenciam as cotações do c-bond, sendo os impactos de suas alterações mais significativas para os casos de downgrade ou rebaixamentos das notas soberanas do país. / [en] Sovereign rating can be defined as an assessment of the relative likelihood that a Government will default on its obligations. Although the first rating assigned to Brazil dates from 1986, the importance of sovereign rating increased as from 1994, by which time brady bonds were issued and begun to be actively traded. In theory, the role of credit rating would be to add new information to the market, and therefore, their analyses would influence market behaviour; however, several financial market observers have criticized them for just reacting to completely available information. This study therefore analyses the impacts of sovereign rating changes announcements on c-bond spreads. We analysed how c-bond spreads respond to the agencies´ announcements of changes in their sovereign risk assessments and our analyses indicate that the ratings changes do influence c-bond spreads, most significantly in downgrades events.

In recent years public sector organisations in New South Wales have been subjected to changes in their operating environments. Changes have included micro-economic reforms by Government and changes in stakeholders' expectations of how public sector organisations manage their affairs. The need to deal with the increasing number and diversity of issues arising, has motivated public sector managers to become increasingly involved in strategic management. The focus of this research was to study how strategic issues were processed within the context of their approach to strategic management. Strategic issue management has been proposed as an appropriate management system for use in conditions of moderate to high levels of environmental turbulence as a means to providing a mechanism for real time response to emerging issues. Three of the four organisations in the study indicated a progressive increase in perceptions of environmental turbulence over a six year period to points mid way between the 'Changing' and 'Discontinuous' levels on the Ansoff and McDonnell (1990) environmental turbulence scale. Research findings indicted that all four public sector organisations undertake a form of strategic issue management which is separate to the periodic strategic planning cycle. In answer to the criticism of the theoretical void which is seen to exist in linking organisational response to changes in the environment, theoretical models were developed for the Sensing, Deciding and Executing functions of the processing dimension of Ansoff's (1987) proposed paradigm of emerging strategic behaviour. The models provide the framework for tracking how eight strategic issues were processed in four public sector organisations. Field research-was conducted over a fifteen month period collecting both secondary and primary data. A case study research methodology was developed for the project following a review of the relevant literature. There were clear indications that the Sensing, Deciding and Executing functions were performed and that the issues under study passed through numerous phases during their processing cycles. The interconnected and iterative nature of issue processing across the Sensing, Deciding and Executing phases were demonstrated in the research findings.

Today�s globalized network communication initiates new interactive formats, transforming not only the dissemination, but - increasingly - the production of news. The �one-way� flow of news from a news outlet to the audience has been replaced by a network structure. Following Castells� concept of the �network� (1996) as the central model of information structures, I perpetuate this paradigmatic shift and suggest that networks also transform the professional journalism sphere in many world regions. A revised sphere of journalism is taking shape in which an increasingly global flow of news is evolving and a multiple platform structure of journalism is taking shape in which boundaries between traditional media outlets of print, radio, and television and between national and �foreign� journalism are blurring. Furthermore, I argue that a globalized journalistic network sphere is emerging which involves �traditional� journalistic outlets and bloggers, media activists, so-called citizen journalists, or user-generated content providers alike. These new journalistic spheres of connectivity establish new (and continuous) links between journalists, their sources as well as their audiences. This fundamental change creates new professional levels of connectivity on one hand and on the other, has severe strategic and organizational implications for the management of print, broadcast and online news outlets. Within this new �network� sphere of journalistic practice, the roles of journalistic outlets change. This work suggests a framework that helps to understand journalistic organization today, with innovative work structures based on digital technologies transforming the character and in effect substituting the model of �top-down� journalism models by a model that is far more complicated. I argue that within an evolving global news sphere, information flows are multidirectional. Decentralization and non-linearity become the key parameters defining news flows at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The character of this network in the journalism sphere is transnational, crossmedia, and cross professions. Based on results of thirteen qualitative interviews with media practitioners in Germany, the US and the UK, I argue that a new geography of journalism is taking shape in which journalistic outlets are being transformed into nodes. These nodes are arranged in a dense net of information gathers, producers and disseminators and the interactive connections among them constitute what I want to call network journalism.

This study presents a descriptive account and an analysis of the development and practices of marketing communications in Thailand between 1987 to 1991, the period of the Sixth National Economic and Social Development Plan. By using a theoretical approach which combines features of both the &quotedeterminist&quote views of the relation between marketing and economic development (Joy and Ross, 1989), and the cultural dependency models (Reeves, 1993), the study takes a contextual and qualitative cultural approach to understanding Thai marketing communications practices. The development of Thai marketing communications between 1987 to 1991 was marked by the rapid growth of the influence of transnational advertising agencies (TNAAs) in Thailand, together with some substantial, but constrained, development of local advertising agencies and other ancillary marketing communications services. Advertising expenditure for the whole industry increased by some 200 per cent in the period, whereas some 38 new agencies were established as well, of which 34 were locally owned. The relative lack of capital of local agencies and professionals, however, together with the dominant influence of TNAAs on local marketing communications practices, meant that the growth of the marketing communications industry took place within the parameters determined by the TNAAs. This theme of the interplay between the local and the global development of marketing communications in Thailand is examined at different levels. The first chapter analyzes aspects of the national economy with reference to the effect of the National Economic and Social Development Plans and features of Thai culture and society which were the framework of the marketing communications. The second chapter then considers relevant Western and Thai literature to review earlier and current theories about the relationship between marketing communications and national development. The bulk of the analysis is then made in Chapters Four to Six. Chapter Four analyzes the Thai communication infrastructure and reviews the growth of transnational media advertising within the context of mass communications, public communications and communication for specific purposes. Mixed evidence emerges here of both an improvement in parts of the mass media, and continuing deficiencies in the telecommunication infrastructure. Chapters Five and Six then analyze the development and changes in Thai marketing communications in the period and the impact of globalization respectively. This is done through a qualitative content analysis of two monthly business magazines, Khoo Kaeng and Phoo Jad Karn, and two business newspapers, Thansetthakit and Prachachart Thurakit. The analysis here shows the dominance of a &quoteMadison Avenue&quote style of marketing communications among TNAAs, as well as growing use of sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing by local marketers. It is concluded that the industry practices of Thai marketing communications were mainly shaped by the actions of the TNAAs operating within the policy framework set by the Thai government.

<p>This study aims to investigate the relationship between systematic risk and credit ratings. The systematic risk, frequently measured by beta, is an important consideration for both investors and corporations. Therefore it is interesting to examine if indications about the systematic risk could be gained by looking at credit ratings, especially on the Nordic market, where credit ratings are seemingly growing in importance. Consequently, the following research hypothesis is posed;<em> We intend to establish a relationship between market risk (Beta) and credit ratings for firms in the Nordic countries.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p>In order to confirm or deny the research hypothesis, theories from peer reviewed databases were collected. These were divided into three sections; background theories, hypotheses about credit ratings and a literature review. The background theories consisted of two classical financial theories, the Capital Asset Pricing Model and the Efficient Market Hypothesis, which are the foundation upon which the research field have progressed. The hypotheses is specifically designed to explain the relationship between credit ratings and either systematic risk or stock price. The literature review contains information about studies which did not contribute to theory building, but produced results interesting in the research area.</p><p> </p><p>The actual sample in the thesis consisted of the 58 credit rated companies on the Nordic stock market. These companies were rated by Moody’s and/or Standard & Poor’s, the two largest credit rating agencies in the world. As a measure of the systematic risk, betas for each of the companies were calculated. To investigate the relationship between these variables a regression analysis was performed, as well as one sample T-test using the software SPSS.</p><p> </p><p>The result revealed a moderate relationship between beta and credit risk, a relationship which was not statistically significant on the five percent level. Our results suggest that credit ratings contain some information about companies’ systematic risk, a finding that might be useful for market participants.</p><p> </p>