An empirical study of the effects of differential information and the expectations of investors is undertaken to test the differential information theory of Barry and Brown (1983). The theory is tested using the small firm effect. The excess returns found using ex post data are regressed against proxies for differential information and expectations. The residuals from these regressions are then tested to determine if the small firm effect is still observed. The results of this study are: 1. The tests provided empirical evidence that is consistent with the theory of Barry and Brown (1983) when a suitable proxy for differential information is used. 2. For the sample studied, the differential information effect on perceived risk by investors largely explained the small firm effect, when a suitable proxy was used. 3. Evidence was found that the small firm effect is composed of two parts supporting the findings of Keim (1983). One is a January effect, and the other during the remainder of the year, with the January effect still observed. 4. The proxy chosen to represent heterogeneous expectations must be selected with care. In this study the one selected did not prove suitable. Reasons are provided which indicate that the proxy chosen was the principal cause of the failure of these tests to support the theory. / Ph. D.

Various authors have scrutinised the sole utilisation of quantifiable (financial) appraisal criteria in capital investment appraisal. They argue that the appraisal of capital investment proposals must concentrate on the capital investment process as a whole and not only on the selection phase. These authors suggest that capital investment opportunities and proposals must be sought within the parameters set by strategy. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore and to describe how decision-makers in the platinum industry experience the influence of competitive strategy on the capital investment process. Semi-structured interviews were held with strategic capital investment decision-makers within a major role player in the platinum industry. Respondents were selected according to the snowball sampling method. An analysis of the results indicates that competitive strategy does influence the capital investment process. This influence is particularly observable with regard to the initiation of capital investment ideas, the capital budget allocation and the strategic appraisal criteria utilised by decision-makers to screen capital investment proposals. The strategic capital investment process constitutes much more than just the selection of capital investment proposals. Therefore, the findings of this study signify the importance of considering the influence of competitive strategy on the capital investment process. / Business Management / M. Tech. (Business Administration)

by Kwong Tung Choi. / Bibliography : leaves 127-132 / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1982

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Riverside, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 250-259).

Various authors have scrutinised the sole utilisation of quantifiable (financial) appraisal criteria in capital investment appraisal. They argue that the appraisal of capital investment proposals must concentrate on the capital investment process as a whole and not only on the selection phase. These authors suggest that capital investment opportunities and proposals must be sought within the parameters set by strategy. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore and to describe how decision-makers in the platinum industry experience the influence of competitive strategy on the capital investment process. Semi-structured interviews were held with strategic capital investment decision-makers within a major role player in the platinum industry. Respondents were selected according to the snowball sampling method. An analysis of the results indicates that competitive strategy does influence the capital investment process. This influence is particularly observable with regard to the initiation of capital investment ideas, the capital budget allocation and the strategic appraisal criteria utilised by decision-makers to screen capital investment proposals. The strategic capital investment process constitutes much more than just the selection of capital investment proposals. Therefore, the findings of this study signify the importance of considering the influence of competitive strategy on the capital investment process. / Business Management / M. Tech. (Business Administration)

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Master / Master of Science in Real Estate and Construction

This study investigates the capital structure practices of companies listed on the JSE by analysing their operating performance before and after significant leverage events defined as increases or decreases of more than 30% in a year. We develop a performance scorecard that acts as a complete synopsis of firm performance on aspects relating to leverage. We use a fixed effects regression on unbalanced panel data to test the relationship between the leverage change and 12 concurrent performance variables selected on the basis of their pre-established impact on firm leverage according to prior studies. We also test the relationship between the leverage change and the same set of performance variables five years before and five years after the event. We run a multiple discriminant analysis to test the predictive ability of our model. A 20% hold-out sample achieves a 48% correct classification rate.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, 1980. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY. / Bibliography: leaves 84-85. / by David Glenn Naugle. / M.S.

Chapter 1, "Emergency Preparedness: Rare Events and the Persistence of Uncertainty," develops a framework to understand how uncertainty might spike and persist after low-probability events occur. Unexpected events can have lasting effects on financial uncertainty, which in turn affects the real economy. This chapter uses a model in which the realizations of ex-ante unlikely events endogenously result in lower levels of private information. Lower levels of information propagate within the model, as uncertainty makes it harder for agents to acquire information about future periods, resulting in uncertainty persistence. This model of uncertainty is applied to an economy with a financial market. Uncertainty reduces asset demand and expected wealth, while increasing dispersion of beliefs. It also reduces investment and output, and results in higher credit spreads. Data on financial uncertainty, dispersion of beliefs, risk appetite, and credit spreads confirm the predictions of the model. Chapter 2, "Inattentive Valuation and Belief Polarization," uses a similar motivation to think about how two agents can disagree on the truth after seeing the same data. Based on the recent literature in inattention, we build a model allowing identical agents, shown the same set of signals from an objective state of the world, to permanently diverge in their posteriors. The inattentive framework allows for two effects: a confirmation and a confidence effect. The former states that agents who have a bias arrange their attention to perceive signals that agree with that bias. The latter states that agents pay less attention to any signal the more biased they are. These effects allow for permanent polarization of posteriors, even on issues with objective truth. Chapter 3, "The Real Consequences of Countercyclical Capital Controls," looks at the consequences of capital controls on investment and consumption in Brazil. Brazil is the most preeminent case of controls being imposed countercyclically. We find that capital controls have a significant negative impact on investment. The macro analysis uses a synthetic control method and finds that investment could have been approximately 20% higher if controls had not been put in place. The micro analysis uses a panel data approach and finds that the controls reduced the investment to assets ratio by as much as 40%, with some of its effects mitigated by the extension of subsidized credit by the government through the development bank. These results indicate that the renewed support for controls since the Great Financial Crisis should be more cautiously evaluated as it might harm the potential growth rate of Emerging Economies for a long-lasting period.