The United States has a long-standing history of appropriating Indigenous representations for the use of mascots in athletics. Despite protest by Indigenous groups against this practice, professional athletics teams continue to appropriate Indigenous representations as mascots. The National Congress of American Indians produced a public service announcement (PSA), Proud to Be (PTB), to elicit support from the general public for changing the name/mascot Redskins. The purpose of the proposed research is to experimentally examine the effects that PTB has on support among Non-Indigenous participants, as function of political alignment. We considered two competing outcomes: The Counterproductive Hypothesis predicts the more conservative participants are, the less supportive they will be of changing the Redskin name/mascot, especially after watching the PTB rather than two control PSAs (directed at ending the word retard or reducing texting and driving). We also expect that the more conservative participants are, the less supportive they will be of either “name change” campaign, especially the one that corresponds with the PSA they view. Alternately, The Effective Hypothesis predicts if the PSA induces empathy among viewers, it could elicit support independent of political perspective. That is, participants will be supportive of changing the Redskin name/mascot after watching PTB rather than either control PSA. This effect will occur through the effects of PTB on increased empathy (specific to the target group). Preliminary analyses provide support for the Effective Hypothesis: Regardless of political perspective, participants experienced increased empathy for Indigenous People after viewing PTB, which led to increased support for the message promoted by Proud to Be.

I examine the effect analysts have on the price response to earnings announcements. To address this question, I exploit an exogenous shock to analyst coverage to show that, following the loss of an analyst, the market reaction to earnings announcements decreases. In cross-sectional analyses, I show that the magnitude of the negative effect is decreasing in information asymmetry and the likelihood that a firm’s earnings are used more for contracting purposes. I further show that the magnitude of the negative effect is increasing in the readability of the financial statements and financial reporting comparability. This study contributes to the literature by providing a deeper understanding of the effect analysts have on the pricing of information contained in earnings announcements. As such, the results of this study should be of interest to regulators, researchers, and investors.

New information has an important role in asset price movement. This paper investigates the role of scheduled domestic news releases on the Australian government bond market. Specifically, it examines the impact of pre-announced macroeconomic news release on bond futures markets and associated market volatility. Furthermore, an EGARCH-in-mean model is used to determine the asymmetric response of the conditional volatility to either news release or unexpected changes of some news content. The results indicate that excess return of bond futures in the research period was leptokurtic (fat-tailed) with time-varying conditional heteroscedasticity. Day of the week volatility was also present but with a declining pace. It’s generally attributed to the release dates of announcements and information flow from offshore markets. Although announcement effects to the bond futures market were significant, they depended on the type of maturity. Finally, results from EGARCH indicate that fundamental lagging indicators such as CPI and GDP are always important in explaining the impact of news release on market volatility, whereas the unemployment rate has a reasonable role in announcement surprises. The data suggest the following conclusion: investors are seriously concerned with news releases on macroeconomic variables they can feasibly forecast because they are always fundamental and provide a partial indication of the future economy. Surprises from news content are also critical to investors because some important variables can only be forecasted with limited accuracy. Therefore, deviation from anticipated outcomes in the actual content also causes significant market movement. / Thesis(M.Comm.)-- School of Commerce, 2007.

Det finns vissa risker förenat med att vara resenär ombord på en färja. Att resa med ett passagerarfartyg har mer och mer utvecklats till en fritidsaktivitet där själva resandet ofta är av underordnad betydelse. Tidigare forskning visar att cirka 13 procent av passagerarna inte tar till sig den allra viktigaste säkerhetsinformationen. Attityden bland passagerare verkar vara en något likgiltig inställning till säkerhetsinformation, trots tidigare olyckor. Syftet är att studera passagerarnas attityder till säkerhetsinformation ombord på en nattfärja som trafikerar Sverige-Finland. Fokus ligger på attityder till de risker man kan utsättas för på grund av att man är i en okänd miljö när man reser med en färja. Föreliggande studie är en uppföljning av magisteruppsatsen ”Operatörernas attityder till säkerhet på finlandsfärjorna” (Magnusson, 2010). Följande frågeställningar valdes för att kunna uppnå uppsatsens syfte: -          Tar passagerare del av den säkerhetsinformation som tillhandahålls av rederiet? -          Anges något skäl till varför man inte tagit del av säkerhetsinformationen? -          Förstår passagerare vad olika symboler och larm betyder?   I denna uppsats användes intervjuer som metod, eftersom intresset är riktat mot passagerarens ståndpunkt och attityder angående säkerhetsinformation ombord på ett passagerarfartyg. Vidare var avsikten att fånga upp vad passageraren upplever som relevant och viktigt. Intervjuer skedde bland svensktalade passagerare ombord på en finlandsfärja. Resultat av studien visar att passagerarna ansåg att säkerhetsinformation är mycket viktigt, men ändå fanns det uppenbara brister i deras inhämtande av den säkerhetsrelaterade information som faktiskt tillhandahölls av rederiet. Flera passagerare läste av olika anledningar inte den information som presenteras. Som skäl till varför de inte hade tagit del av befintlig information angavs att de inte hade hunnit, att det vid tillfället var bra väder, att de litade på besättningen och att fartyget ansågs vara säkert. De allra flesta passagerare i undersökningen var nöjesresenärer och de flesta av dem hade rest med det aktuella fartyget tidigare. Av de 48 intervjuade passagerarna visste de flesta var man kan få tag på säkerhetsinformation ombord, men de hade inte tagit del av den. Passagerarna svarade att det går att få information i hytten, på skyltar, samt att det vid behov går att fråga i fartygets Information. Flera passagerare hade inte hört säkerhetsutropet via fartygets PA-system i samband med avgång och det tycks till största delen ha berott på att de inte hade lyssnat ordentligt och att det var för mycket bakgrundssorl. Flera passagerare visste inte vad de skulle göra vid ett eventuellt utrymningslarm (sju korta och en lång signal) och flertalet av passagerarna visste inte heller vilken samlingsstation de tillhörde och vilket däck den låg på. Tre skyltar förevisades för passagerarna (pil för utrymningsväg, samlingsstation och barnlivbälte) och även om inte alla passagerare visste vad de betydde, så kunde de räkna ut de två första genom slutledningsförmåga, men symbolen för barnlivbälte begreps bara av hälften av de tillfrågade. / There are some risks involved when travelling onboard a ferry. Travelling with passenger ferries has increasingly evolved into a recreational activity and the journey itself is often of secondary importance. Previous research has shown that approximately 13 percent of the passengers do not receive the most important safety information. The attitude among several passengers seems to be a somewhat indifferent approach toward safety, despite previous accidents. The purpose was to study the passengers’ attitudes to safety information onboard a night ferry in traffic between Sweden-Finland. The focus is on attitudes to the risks you may face because of being in an unfamiliar environment when you travel by ferry. This study is a follow up to the D-level master thesis “The operators’ attitudes towards safety on the ferries Sweden-Finland” (Magnusson, 2010). The following questions were selected to achieve the purpose for this thesis: -          Do passengers take part of the safety information provided by the shipping company? -          Is there any reason given why the information was not absorbed? -          Do passengers understand the different symbols and alarms?   In this thesis interviews were used as method. The main interest was focused on the passenger's outlook and attitudes on safety on board a passenger ferry. Furthermore, the intention was to catch the passengers believes in what is relevant and important. The interviews were done with Swedish speaking passengers. The result of the study showed that passengers believed that safety is very important; yet there were obvious deficiencies in their gathering of the safety-related information that actually was provided by the Company. Several passengers did not, for various reasons, read the information presented. As reasons for why they had not taken note of the available information, they said they had not had time, it was good weather during the voyage, they trusted the crew and the ship was considered to be safe. The vast majority of the passengers in the survey were leisure travellers, and most of them had travelled with the ship earlier. Among the 48 interviewed passengers, the majority knew where to find safety information on board, but they did not take it in. The passengers said that it is possible to get information in the cabin, on signs, and if necessary go to the ship’s reception. Several passengers had not heard the safety announcement by the ship's PA system at the departure and it seems it was because they had not listened properly and that there was too much murmur. Many passengers did not know what to do in case of an evacuation alarm (seven short and one prolonged blast) and most of the passengers did not know which assembly station they belonged and which deck it was located on. Three symbols were shown to the passengers (evacuation route arrow, assembly station and children’s life jacket) and although not all the passengers knew what they imply, they could figure out the first two symbols by reasoning, but the symbol of children’s life jacket was understood only by half of the respondents.

This thesis examines the impact of earnings announcements on the stock return performance. Most literature regarding this topic is related to the US market. We follow 40 of the largest and most liquid stocks on the virtual OMX Nordic Exchange from 2010 to 2012. In this research paper, we present the theoretical framework that gives an overview of the possible research areas, and provide empirical evidence of the repercussion of the earnings announcements on stock returns. We use the event study methodology to conduct this thesis. It is a standard approach established by Fama et al. (1969). It has been used in a variety of researches for gauging the effect of new information on the market value of a security. As we expected good news and bad news to have different reactions on the stock return performances, we have split our data in good news and bad news. To differentiate good news from bad news, we measure analysts’ forecast error. It consists in subtracting the earnings per share (EPS) of the analysts’ consensus forecast from the reported EPS of the same year. The analysis is composed of three different subdivisions: the study of the abnormal return during an event window of 17 days, the cumulative abnormal return during this event window, stock price behavior from growth stocks and from value stocks. Our findings show that stock behavior gradually responds to the earnings announcement. The stock reactions that appear within pre-event window may indicate information leakage. Our results describe most average abnormal returns as statistically insignificant during the event window. Earnings information has a lower impact on the stock market. We also find that the effect of positive earnings surprise on stock price lasts longer than that of negative earnings surprise. Stocks from OMX Nordic 40 index have a stable reaction on negative earnings surprise. As a conclusion, we highlight three points. Earning interim and annual earning information disclosure were unable to influence the stock market effectively, and therefore could not fully reflect the changes on the stock price. Investors can get the abnormal returns by using this earnings information during the whole event window.

This dissertation consists of three related chapters that study financial market volatility, jumps and the economic factors behind them. Each of the chapters analyzes a different aspect of this problem. The first chapter examines tests for jumps based on recent asymptotic results. Monte Carlo evidence suggests that the daily ratio z-statistic has appropriate size, good power, and good jump detection capabilities revealed by the confusion matrix comprised of jump classification probabilities. Theoretical and Monte Carlo analysis indicate that microstructure noise biases the tests against detecting jumps, and that a simple lagging strategy corrects the bias. Empirical work documents evidence for jumps that account for seven percent of stock market price variance. Building on realized variance and bi-power variation measures constructed from high-frequency financial prices, the second chapter proposes a simple reduced form framework for modelling and forecasting daily return volatility. The chapter first decomposes the total daily return variance into three components, and proposes different models for the different variance components: an approximate long-memory HAR-GARCH model for the daytime continuous variance, an ACH model for the jump occurrence hazard rate, a log-linear structure for the conditional jump size, and an augmented GARCH model for the overnight variance. Then the chapter combines the different models to generate an overall forecasting framework, which improves the volatility forecasts for the daily, weekly and monthly horizons. The third chapter studies the economic factors that generate financial market volatility and jumps. It extends the recent literature by separating market responses into continuous variance and discontinuous jumps, and differentiating the market’s disagreement and uncertainty. The chapter finds that there are more large jumps on news days than on no-news days, with the fixed-income market being more responsive than the equity market, and non-farm payroll employment being the most influential news. Surprises in forecasts impact volatility and jumps in the fixed-income market more than the equity market, while disagreement and uncertainty influence both markets with different effects on volatility and jumps. JEL classification: C1, C2, C5, C51, C52, F3, F4, G1, G14 / Dissertation

Financial market analysis nowadays constitutes an important pillar in central banks' monetary policy considerations. This is because the inherently forward-looking properties of asset prices can provide policy-makers with valuable information about future macroeconomic prospects, as seen through the eyes of investors. The five essays contained in this thesis elaborate upon three separate but complementary topics within the area of financial market research. First, the price discovery process of asset prices following releases of macroeconomic and monetary policy-related news is investigated. Such analysis can help in improving a central bank's understanding of how market participants update their views about future growth and inflation prospects. Second, an attempt is made to identify the factors which explain the time-varying co-movement of bond and stock prices. This analysis reveals that periods of negative correlation between the two assets tend to coincide with periods of very low investor risk appetite. Third, frequency distributions implied by options prices are often employed by central banks to assess the degree of uncertainty prevailing in markets as well as how the perceived balance of risks concerning future asset price movements is tilted. Various methods have been developed to estimate option-implied frequency distributions and the thesis assesses and compares the robustness of two of the most commonly used methods in central banks. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2007 S. 9-16: sammanfattning, s. 17-160: 5 uppsatser</p>

This paper examines the effects of disclosures on information asymmetry by studying bid-ask spreads around independent management forecasts and earnings announcements released with forecasts. The findings suggest the disclosure of independent management forecasts increase information asymmetry in the market rather than resolving it. Regulation FD has reduced the overall level of information asymmetry in the market with respect to both earnings announcements and management forecasts although it has a greater effect on management forecasts, post-forecast spreads. Closer analysis reveals that when “good news” forecasts and separated from “bad news” independent management forecasts, good news management forecasts decrease information asymmetry. Since initial tests demonstrated that management forecasts increase information asymmetry, these findings suggests that the magnitude of the effect of bad news management forecasts is greater than that of good news forecasts.

This study examines how stock market returns and volatility responses to macroeconomic news announcements in US and Europe, and oil prices. Moreover, the market risk associated with these stock markets based on selected countries and regions is also analyzed here. In all chapters, the data is in a weekly time horizon and it covers 21 countries from different contents. In particular, Data covers three different time periods, i.e. full sample from 1/1/2000 to 12/31/2015, before the financial crisis, i.e. from 1/1/2000 to 9/27/2008 and after the financial crisis, i.e. from 10/11/2008 to 12/31/2015. Chapter 2 studies the impact of macroeconomic news announcements on stock markets in 21 countries using US and European countries macroeconomic news announcements. The first part investigates the impact of macroeconomic news announcements surprises in US and European Countries on stock markets returns in these countries. The second part analyzes the impact of macroeconomic news announcements in US and European Countries on stock markets volatility in these countries. Our results show that stock markets in selected countries react differently to macroeconomic news announcement in US and Europe. Chapter 3 study the interaction and volatility spillover between oil prices and stock markets returns and volatility in selected countries and regions. Oil prices are based on West Texas Intermediate (WTI). The analysis use VAR(1)-GARCH(1,1) model to capture the interdependence between stocks market and oil prices. The findings show that there is interdependence between stock markets and oil price changes in most selected countries and regions. Chapter 4 study the market risk in stock markets returns in selected countries and regions using IGARCH(1,1) and GARCH(1,1) to obtain the value at risk (VaR) and the expected shortfall (ES). The findings of chapter 4 show that market risk was high for most selected countries before the financial crisis and low after the financial crisis.

ix, 69 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / In this dissertation I investigate whether managers alter the linguistic tone of their earnings announcements to increase the value of their stock options. Empirical research finds evidence that managers use optimistic tone to signal future firm performance. However, prior literature also finds a positive relation between optimistic tone in earnings announcements and short-window abnormal returns. The market reaction to optimistic tone suggests that managers can profit from using pessimistic tone to lower the firm's stock price prior to option grants and optimistic tone to increase the stock price prior to option exercises. I hypothesize that managers adjust the tone of their earnings announcements to increase the value of their stock options. In addition, I hypothesize that managers will alter the tone to increase option payouts when the costs of doing so (proxied by litigation risk) are low and when the financial reporting incentives to do so (proxied by earnings management) are high. I test these predictions using 17,211 firm-quarter observations from 1998-2006. In my tests I regress the tone of the earnings announcement on its known determinants and indicators for a stock option grant or exercise shortly following the announcement. I do not find evidence that managers, on average, alter the tone of earnings announcements prior to option grants or exercises. However, I find that managers decrease optimistic tone prior to option grants when they also record low discretionary accruals, which suggests that altering tone and managing earnings are complementary strategies to move stock price. I also find that managers increase optimistic tone prior to option exercises when litigation risk is low, but decrease optimistic tone prior to option exercises when litigation risk is high. Further analysis indicates the litigation risk results hold only after the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Overall, my evidence suggests that managers increase optimistic tone prior to option exercises except when a high threat of litigation constrains such opportunism. When managers do alter tone, the average financial gain is small relative to their total compensation. / Committee in charge: Steven Matsunaga, Chairperson, Accounting; Angela Davis, Member, Accounting; David Guenther, Member, Accounting; Jeremy Piger, Outside Member, Economics