In this thesis we study problems in the context of inventory control and facility location. In chapter 2 we study the competition among risk averse newsvendors. We showed that the well-known result for the single-product monopoly firm, which states higher risk aversion causes the firm to reduce its order quantity, cease to hold under the competition. We concluded that the higher risk aversion does not necessarily cause both firms to reduce their order quantity. We showed that the impact of risk aversion on equilibrium quantities is a trade-off between two effects: (a) Own risk aversion increment which causes that the firm reduces its order quantity and (b) Effect of spillover demand from competitor which causes that the firm increases its order quantity. We also show which firm raises its order quantity as both firms become more risk averse depending on their attributes: profitability ratio (overstocking to understocking ratio), initial risk aversion level and demand characteristic (distribution and substitution). In Chapter 3, we study how the operational decisions of a firm's manager depend on her own incentives, the capital structure, and financial decisions in the context of the newsvendor framework. We showed that in contrast to common practices, tying the manager's compensation to stock price (equity value) may not be optimal for shareholders. We propose to tie the managers' compensation to the firm value or include a debt-like instrument in the compensation package to mitigate the risk taking behaviour of the managers. We also show how the board of directors can modify the compensation structure based on the state of the economy and publicly available information about company's demand. In Chapter 4, we study the effect of risk attitude of decision makers on well-known location problems with uncertain demand. In addition to providing mathematical formulations for those problems, we also discussed how we can solve these problems using linearization techniques. We also shed some light on the importance of considering the volatility and correlation structure. Furthermore, we apply a Bayesian updating method, a useful tool for updating the probability distribution to incorporate the consultants' view about uncertain factors in location problems.

This thesis presents three essays on credit ratings of regulated utilities, dividend signaling, and asymmetric information and security issuances and repurchases. Chapter 2 investigates the practices of credit rating agencies by using the regulated utility industry as a natural testing ground. Following deregulation and the Enron scandal, the general opinion among industry professionals is that utilities are being punished by rating agencies. Contrary to this popular belief, we find that the utility credit ratings are significantly higher compared to those of other firms, and this significance is more pronounced in the post-deregulation period. Although rating agencies often cite regulatory reasons for placing utilities on negative credit watches, these firms ratings are rarely downgraded after being placed on negative watches. Chapter 3 provides a rational explanation for the disappearing dividend trend. Dividends serve as signaling device and, under models of dividend signaling under information asymmetry, cost of signaling increases with volatility of firms cash flows. Declining propensities to pay dividends imply that (1) information asymmetries have become lower and/or (2) cost of signaling has increased. We find evidence consistent with both. In particular, firms with higher information asymmetries and lower stock price informativeness are more likely to pay dividends: the increasing stock price informativeness has made dividend signaling less valuable, and a significant portion of disappearing dividend trend could be explained by rising risk and increasing stock price informativeness. Chapter 4 investigates the motivations for debt and equity issuances and repurchases in hot and cold markets. I find that firms issue equity in hot markets to reduce adverse selection costs associated with asymmetric information. In particular, firms issuing equity in hot markets possess high asymmetric information while firms issuing equity in cold markets possess less severe asymmetric information. I also find that credit ratings and market-to-book ratios could explain why firms might repurchase equity or issue debt in hot markets rather than issue equity: firms with high credit ratings and low market-to-book ratios are more likely to issue debt even in hot equity markets, and firms with low market-to-book ratios are more likely to repurchase equity in any market. / Finance

公司面臨資金需求而選擇由發行新股的方式辦理增資後，投資人將以低於市價的價格申購，本文旨在探討現金增資股票折價的影響因子，使用最小平方法及一般動差法評估，以季資料做為實證分析，樣本期間為2001年1月1日起2009年12月31日止，共688個樣本點，本研究結果如下：(一)平均折價幅度為1.21美元，股價在宣告日當天，宣告價格和當日股價的報酬率約為5.6%，從文獻資料顯示1977年開始，現金增資的折價幅度與時俱增。(二)宣告日前一天的股價、保留盈餘、每股報酬、每股資本報酬、折舊以及發行六項變數具有統計上的顯著效果。 / When a company has money deficit, it may raises capital by issuing stocks. Investors buy those stocks with lower price. This paper investigates NYSE and Nasdaq stocks’ quarterly data from Jan.1, 2001 to Dec. 31, 2009. We use general moment method (GMM) to estimate the equation. The empirical results suggest: (1) The stock discount rate is increasing over time compared to prior researches. The average discount rate is 5.6%. (2) The stock price prior to claim day, earnings retention rate, return on average assets, return on average equity, depreciation and issue amount have statistically significant influences.

This dissertation, which consists of three essays, studies three applications. Each of them emphasizes the microfoundations of economic models. The first essay proposes a nonparametric estimation of structural labor supply and exact welfare change under nonconvex piecewise-linear budget sets. Different from previous literature, my method focuses on a nonparametric specification of an indirect utility function. I find that working with the indirect utility function is very useful in simultaneously addressing the labor supply problems with individual heterogeneity, nonconvex budget sets, labor nonparticipation, and measurement errors in working hours that previous literature was unable to. Further, the estimated indirect utility function proves to be convenient and efficient in calculating exact welfare change and deadweight loss under general piecewise-linear budget sets. In the second essay, I solve the equity premium, risk-free rate, and capital structure puzzles by laying a more solid microfoundation for consumption-based asset pricing models. I argue that the above two asset pricing puzzles arise from the aggregation of hump-shaped life-cycle consumption into per capita consumption, which accounts for the unanimous rejections of Euler equations in the literature. As for the third puzzle, I show that a firm's capital structure can be determined by heterogenous investors maximizing life-time utility even though the capital structure is irrelevant on the firm side. The endogenously determined leverage generates an even larger equity premium than a fixed one. The third essay studies the solution concepts of coalition equilibrium. Traditional solution concepts such as Strong Nash Equilibrium, Coalition-proof Nash Equilibrium, Largest Consistent Set, and Coalition Equilibrium violate the fundamental principles of individual rationality. I define a new solution concept, Weak Coalition Equilibrium, which requires each coalitional deviation to be within-coalition self-enforceable and cross-coalition self-enforceable. The cross-coalition self-enforceability endows coalitions with farsightedness. Weak Coalition Equilibrium is a generalization of Coalition-proof Nash Equilibrium and a re nement of the concept Nash Equilibrium. It exists under a weak condition. Most importantly, it is in line with the principle of individual rationality.

This thesis examines the capital structure choice of Australian firms with an emphasis on the impact of market timing and liquidity considering 1438 available firms for the period, 1997 to 2005. The relationship between capital structure and its determinants is the main focus of this thesis, with four empirical analyses. These analyses are all conducted within the Baker and Wurgler (2002) and Hovakimian (2006) models with both pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) and fixed effect panel analysis. The theory of market timing introduced by Baker and Wurgler (2002) has received considerable attention in recent years. Baker and Wurgler (2002) contend that past market timing has a long lasting impact on capital structure and thus, capital structure is the cumulative outcome of the past attempts at equity market timing. This thesis examines the Baker and Wurgler (2002) argument in an Australian context. It is found that the variation in leverage was explained by the market-to-book ratio and the effect of market-to-book ratio was explained by equity issues as market timing theory implies. However, the results are sensitive to data sample choice with variation in the strength of the negative relationship observed between external finance weighted average market-to-book and leverage. This suggests that while market timing appears to affect capital structure choice, it does not support the hypothesis that past market timing decisions have a long lasting impact on Australian firm capital structure. Hovakimian ( 2006) questions the Baker and Wurgler (2002) conclusion about firm behaviour and finds evidence that past market-to-book ratio has a significant impact on current financing decisions because it contains information about growth opportunities, not captured by the current market-to-book ratio. This thesis also examines the Hovakimian (2006) argument and finds evidence to support the argument of Hovakimian (2006) that, growth opportunities provide a reasonable explanation for the past market-to-book ratio effect for Australian firms. Analysis also focuses on broad industry differences. And it is found that there are significant differences between mining and non-mining firm in the determinants of capital structure. Finally, the impact of liquidity on Australian capital structure choice is analysed within the context of the Baker and Wurgler (2002) and Hovakimian (2006) models. It is found that liquidity is important to a firm's leverage choice. There is evidence that liquid firms tend to have lower leverage. Further, while liquidity has little effect on the sensitivity of leverage to market-to-book for Baker and Wurgler (2002) filtered data, a liquidity effect is evident in a broader set of four standard deviation filtered data. It is also found that greater liquidity is associated with less sensitivity of leverage to cash flows and that the asset tangibility relation with leverage is also sensitive to liquidity. Finally, there is evidence that more liquid firms are more sensitive in their tendency to revert to some long run leverage value.

Cette thèse examine l’impact de la structure actionnariale sur la structure du capital et la performance des banques commerciales européennes sur la période 2002-2010. Elle est composée de trois essais empiriques. Le premier chapitre teste l'effet de la divergence entre les droits de contrôle et les droits pécuniaires d'un actionnaire ultime sur l’ajustement du ratio du capital à son niveau optimal et sur l’offre de crédit par les banques. Les résultats montrent qu’en présence de divergence entre les droits de contrôle et les droits pécuniaires, les banques n’émettent pas du capital pour augmenter leur ratio et, au contraire, elles réduisent leur taille en ralentissant leur offre de prêts. Le chapitre 2 teste l’effet de cette divergence sur la rentabilité et le risque bancaires en temps normal et en temps de crise. Les résultats montrent que bien qu'une divergence entre les droits de contrôle et les droits pécuniaires soit associée en temps normal à une rentabilité plus faible et un risque plus élevé elle a, à contrario, amélioré la rentabilité et contribué à la résilience des banques pendant la crise financière de 2007-2008. Le troisième chapitre teste si le réseau des actionnaires auquel la banque est liée au sein d’une chaîne de contrôle affecte la relation entre la diversification et la performance. Les résultats montrent que la présence des investisseurs institutionnels dans les chaînes de contrôle aide les banques à tirer des bénéfices lorsqu’elles diversifient leurs activités. / This dissertation examines the role of ownership structure in explaining capital structure and performance of European commercial banks from 2002 to 2010. It comprises three empirical essays. The first chapter explores the effect of greater control rights than cash-flow rights of an ultimate owner on the bank’s capital ratio adjustment and its lending decisions. The results show that whenever control rights exceed cash-flow rights, banks do not issue equity to increase their capital ratio and, instead, downsize by mainly slowing their lending. Chapter 2 provides evidence on how the divergence between control and cash-flow rights affects bank profitability and risk during normal times and distress times. The findings emphasize that during normal times the divergence between control and cash-flow rights is associated with lower profitability and higher risk. Conversely, during the acute financial crisis period (2007-2008), such a divergence improves profitability and banks’ resilience to shocks. The third chapter takes into account differences in the strength of ownership network to which banks belong when assessing the effect of greater activity diversification on bank performance. The results show that diseconomies of diversification vanish the stronger is the ownership network surrounding the bank in the control chain. Such mitigating roles are attributable to the presence of domestic and foreign institutional owners in the pyramid.

Theme of this thesis is capital structure of the company and capital productivity. The aim is evaluation of relationship between capital structure of the company and capital productivity followed by recommended suggestions to optimize capital structure of the company from the perspective of increasing the capital productivity. The first part of this thesis clarifies theoretical knowledge from Czech and foreign literature. In the practical part, the analyzed company is presented and the analysis evaluating capital structure of the company are made. Afterwards capital produktivity and its relationship to capital structure is evaluated. Bases for practical part were gained from financial statements of selected company. In conclusion, there are presented recommendations to optimize the capital structure in terms of capital productivity for analyzed company.

Assess the capital structure of the company, including influencing factors. Further evaluate various concepts cost of capital, cost of analyzing individual components of equity in a particular company and assess their impact on business performance.

É comum afirmar que o segmento do agronegócio apresenta especificidades e características que resultam em decisões diferenciadas dos demais setores, muito embora isso ainda não tenha sido comprovado. Diante disso, este estudo buscou investigar o endividamento e o risco financeiro, através da análise da estrutura de capital das companhias brasileiras do agronegócio, listadas na Bovespa em 31 de dezembro dos anos de 1995 a 2000. Para isso, testou-se a existência de diferenças entre as decisões de estrutura de capital das companhias preponderantemente do agronegócio, com as demais companhias. Para algumas variáveis da estrutura de capital, verificou-se diferença significativa entre os grupos, sendo o grupo do agronegócio superior ao grupo das demais companhias. Os resultados sugerem maior endividamento e risco financeiro das companhias do agronegócio, em relação ao grupo das demais companhias, possivelmente pelas características e peculiaridades do segmento. O estudo buscou ainda identificar relação entre decisões de estrutura de governança e decisões de estrutura de capital, para as companhias do agronegócio. Foram encontradas associações significativas, com baixa correlação, entre estrutura de governança e estrutura de capital do agronegócio, em alguns dos índices de endividamento utilizados. De acordo com os resultados, sugere-se que quanto mais concentrada a estrutura de governança, menor o endividamento e risco financeiro, confirmando resultados encontrados no mercado brasileiro e no mercado internacional. / We often state that agribusiness segment provides specificities and characteristics resulting in decisions different from other areas, although it is not yet been proven true. Hence, this study has sought to investigate indebtedness and risk by analysing the capital structure in Brazilian agribusiness companies listed in the São Paulo Stock Exchange on 31st December from 1995 to 2000. Thus, we have checked the existence of differences between capital structure decisions in chiefly agribusiness companies, and other companies. For some capital structure variables, we have found significant difference among groups, and the agribusiness group was higher than other companies. The results have indicated more indebtedness and risk for agribusiness companies, in relation to the other companies, probably due to specificities and characteristics of the segment. The study has also sought to identify the relation between governance structure decisions and capital structure decisions for agribusiness companies. We have found significant associations with low correlation between governance structure and agribusiness capital structure and some indebtedness rates used. Results have suggested that the more concentrate the governance structure, the lower indebtedness and risk, which confirms results found in the Brazilian and international markets.

Essa pesquisa busca investigar a influência de diferentes níveis de fatores na variância da maturidade do endividamento corporativo na América Latina. Ao todo, foram levantados cinco diferentes grupos (divididos em três níveis de influência) de variáveis que potencialmente determinam a maturidade do endividamento das empresas dos países estudados ao longo do período de 1996 a 2009. Foi utilizado o modelo linear hierárquico, que possibilita o aninhamento de variáveis em diferentes níveis – em que os níveis superiores influenciam os níveis inferiores. Ao longo do estudo, procedeu-se à análise fatorial com o objetivo de extrair fatores representativos do nível de desenvolvimento financeiro e da qualidade das instituições de Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colômbia, México, Peru, Venezuela e Estados Unidos (países componentes da amostra). Os resultados sugerem que as variações ao longo do tempo e as variações entre as empresas são as maiores fontes de modificações na maturidade do endividamento. Além disso, o tamanho, a liquidez, a taxa real de juros e o nível de desenvolvimento financeiro do país se sobressaem como fatores que impactam de forma significativa a maturidade do endividamento corporativo. Finalmente, os fatores extraídos e a taxa real de juros impactaram indiretamente na maturidade do endividamento através de outras variáveis, a saber: oportunidades de crescimento, tamanho e liquidez. / This research investigates the influence of distinct factor´s levels in corporate debt maturity in Latin America. Five different variables groups (divided into three influence levels) that potentially determine the corporate debt maturity in the countries studied were collected over the period 1996 to 2009. We used Hierarchical Linear Modeling, which allows nesting of variables at different levels – in which the higher levels may influence the lower levels. Throughout the study, we proceeded to factor analysis in order to extract financial development and institutional quality factors in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and the United States (countries belonging to the sample). The results suggest that variations over time and variations between firms are the major sources of changes in corporate debt maturity. Moreover, size, liquidity, the real interest rate and the financial development stand out as factors that impact significantly the corporate debt maturity. Finally, the extracted factors and the real interest rate indirectly impacted the corporate debt maturity by others variables, namely: growth opportunities, size and liquidity.