In the first essay, we examine the link between CEOs political ideology - conservatism - and their firms' investment decisions. We focus on the effect of CEO conservatism on M&A decisions. Our evidence indicates that politically conservative CEOs are less likely to engage in M&A activities. When they do undertake acquisitions, their firms are more likely to use cash as the method of payment, and the target firms are more likely to be public firms and to be from the same industry. Conditional on the merger, CEO conservatism appears to have a significantly positive impact on long-run firm valuation. However, we find no evidence that conservative CEOs create value in the short run. All our results hold after controlling for CEO overconfidence. In the second essay, we investigate the impact of difference in local political ideologies between acquirers and targets on the likelihood of deal completion and announcement returns over the period of 1981-2009. We posit that increase in political ideology distance between acquirer and target leads to greater risks/costs associated with the integration process. This increase in distance is less likely to allow for the completion of deals and elicit less favorable market response to merger announcements. We find that when political ideology distance between acquirer and target in a merger are minimal, deals are more likely to be completed. We also find that acquirer which are politically proximate to their targets earn significantly higher returns than distant acquirers. After controlling for the geographic effect and other determinants of announcement returns, the political ideology effect still exists. Overall, the evidence suggests that corporate political ideology plays an important role in completing deals and determining announcement returns.

This thesis is a study of the organisations, behaviour and attitudes of a group of parliamentarians, conventionally described as the "Right", between 1905 and 1919. The Right is defined as comprising those deputies and senators who belonged to parliamentary groups which were almost united in opposing the law of Separation of the Churches and the State. It is pointed out in the Introduction that categories, suggested by writers such as Goguel, Rémond and Thibaudet, which attempt to describe more meaningfully the divisions in French politics are not particularly useful for the purposes of this study. Members of the Right were, before the passing of the law of Separation, in varying degrees conservative on the religious issue. They were united in opposition to the ministries of the years 1899 to 1906. They shared the same antipathies but lacked a positive aim. The Right could be described as a coalition as long as a bond of mutual sympathy lasted. After 1905 it rapidly disappeared. Section I contains a description of the electoral and parliamentary organisations of the Right and the effects upon them of four general elections. Those groups, which had no representatives in parliament, the most celebrated being the Ligue de l'Action Française, are outside the scope of this study. The parliamentary and electoral organisations were weak, divided and undemocratic. In 1905 most of them were of recent formation. They were formed during a period when there was a sharp division in French politics. The blurring of this division and successive electoral defeats took much of the life out of them. Only the electoral organisations had formal constitutions and these provide useful illustrations of the nature of the organisations. They were oligarchic and their importance depended on the stature of their leaders. At elections they approved rather than sponsored candidates. The parliamentary groups met infrequently and had no control over their members. But group membership is a useful guide to the political tendencies of deputés. The Senate groups became, after 1906, more eclectic and therefore a less useful guide to the opinions of their members. The major national issue of the election campaign of 1906 - the religious question - separated the Right from all other political tendencies. In 1910 the three main issues - the question scolaire, income tax and proportional representation - were confused and submerged by discussions about Briand and his policy of apaisement. On the main issues in 1914 - the Three Years Law and proportional representation (the question scolaire and income tax were of lesser importance) - the attitudes of the Right were shared by men of other political tendencies. The major issue of 1919, anti-socialism, provided common ground for all members of the Right and the Centre. Thus between 1905 and 1919 the Right became progressively less isolated in election campaigns. In Section II those issues on which the Right is usually thought to have distinctive views are examined. The most obvious of these is the clerical question. The difference of opinion within the Right on this question and the decline in its parliamentary importance are described. The formation of the bloc national marks the symbolic end to the isolation of the Right on the religious issue. It lived on as a divisive factor in politics but it no longer had the same primary importance that it possessed in 1905. On the constitutional question the Right was divided within itself as well as from its opponents. Republican, plebiscitary, corporative, bonapartist and monarchist ideas were defended by different sections. Since neither monarchist restoration nor major constitutional revision was a serious possibility curing this period, constitutional discussion was academic. But the ideas of members of the Right usefully illustrate the way they approached basic political problems. Under the heading "External Affairs" the views of the Right on colonial and foreign affairs are considered. Apart from a certain amount of polemical extremism and hints of racialism, the views of the Right varied in degree and not in kind from those of the Centre. The nationalists, who were noisy patriots, were more concerned about the enemy within than the enemy without. Few paid much attention to the practical difficulties which occured in the daily conduct of affairs. In Section III a diversity of subjects are treated under the general heading of "Interest". No group had a monopoly of deputies engaged in a particular activity. General patterns of personal interests emerge but they give no precise indication of individual political views and behaviour. The behaviour of the groups of the Right towards the ministries is described as this forms a background to (although it was not directly related to) discussions on social and financial measures. It also illustrates the evolution of the parliamentary tactics of the Right from disapproval of all anticlerical ministries to obvious preference for some ministries and eventually during the First World War, to support for governments. Some deputies and senators of the Right expressed views on the way in which society should be organised and on possible methods of resolving social discord. These are examined as an introduction to the reactions of the Right to trade unions and strikes. The attitude of the Right on the social question became progressively more negative. The preservation of the status quo became the primary consideration. The social and financial reforms, proposed by the Left to redistribute power and wealth within the community, were opposed by the Right. But there were divisions within the Right on the lengths to which opposition should be carried. Moreover the Right was never isolated in its opposition to these measures. The reason why the bills nationalising the Western railway, introducing old age pensions and income tax were delayed for so long was opposition in the Centre rather than on the Right of the Chamber and Senate. The passing of these bills and their acceptance by public opinion had a somewhat similar effect to the passing of the law of Separation. It removed them from public discussion and they lost their political importance. The thread running through the period 1905 to 1919 is the growing realisation by most of the Right that they had much in common with the Centre. There was something of a realignment in parliament and the country, with socialism replacing clericalism as the great divisive force. This realignment should not be overstressed. In parliament the most significant feature about the Right as a whole was not their shared beliefs and common tactics (which were minimal) but the fact that they were all in some way left out of the regime. Even in the Chambre bleu horizon there was a minority on the Right of the Chamber, as large as the opposition of the Right at the end of 1906, which was hardly represented in the cabinets of 1919 to 1924. More space is given to describing opinions rather than activities because the important initiatives taken by members of the Right were very few in number and present no difficulties. For most of the period the Right was a relatively passive opposition. External circumstances moulded attitudes and organisations. These circumstances are mentioned only briefly.

Σκοπός της παρούσας Διδακτορικής Διατριβής (ΔΔ), είναι να ελέγξουμε το εύρος των επιδράσεων δύο ευρέως διαδεδομένων ψυχολογικών φαινομένων (γνωστικά σφάλματα), του συντηρητισμού και της αντιπροσώπευσης, στο Χρηματιστήριο του Λονδίνου για την περίοδο από το 1980 έως το 2012. Για να ικανοποιήσουμε τον παραπάνω σκοπό, χρησιμοποιήσαμε τις προσέγγιση των τάσεων και της σταθερότητας στις χρηματοοικονομικές επιδόσεις . Αναλύσαμε αν η σταθερότητα των παρελθουσών επιδόσεων σε συγκεκριμένους χρηματοοικονομικούς δείκτες, έχει προβλεπτική ικανότητα για τις μελλοντικές τιμές των μετοχών, ελέγχοντας τρεις διατυπωμένες υποθέσεις (Hypothesis Tests). Προκειμένου να απαντήσουμε θέματα ευρωστίας και αξιοπιστίας, υπολογίσαμε και συγκρίναμε τις υπερβάλλουσες αποδόσεις (abnormal returns) με διάφορες μεθόδους (single, three and four factors). Επίσης για αξιοποίηση των πολυπαραγοντικών μοντέλων, χρησιμοποιήσαμε μια εναλλακτική μέθοδο υπολογισμού των three and four factor models, που παρουσιάστηκε από τους Gregory et al. (2013) και ελέγχθηκε αποκλειστικά για την αγορά του Λονδίνου. Τα αποτελέσματα είναι μικτά, και υποστηρίζουν το βαθμό επίδρασης των δύο φαινομένων στις αποδόσεις, ανάλογα με την περίοδο εξέτασης και τις μεθόδους υπολογισμού των αποδόσεων. Ειδικότερα, οι υπερβάλλουσες αποδόσεις που παρατηρήθηκαν με τα πολυπαραγοντικά μοντέλα, επιβεβαιώνουν ευρέως την ύπαρξη των υπό εξέταση γνωστικών σφαλμάτων, σε αντίθεση με τα αποτελέσματα που προκύπτουν από το μονοπαραγοντικό μοντέλο. / The aim of this academic research is to examine the potential magnitude of the impact of two well known psychological phenomena, such as representativeness and conservatism, in the London Stock Exchange (LSE) for the period of 1980 to 2012. To fulfil this purpose, the approaches of trend and consistency in the accounting performance are followed. We analyzed whether the stability of past performance in specific financial ratios, has predictive power for future stock prices, by testing three formulated hypotheses (Hypothesis Tests). In order to address questions about robustness and reliability, we calculated and compared the excess returns (abnormal returns) with various methods (single, three and four factors). Also in order to take advantage of the multifactor models, we used an alternative method of calculation for three and four factor models, presented by Gregory et al. (2013) and tested exclusively for the London market. The results are analysed thoroughly and compared in sub periods, namely, before and after the recent financial crisis. The conclusions are mixed, and the findings support the dependence of the two cognitive biases upon the examined period and the abnormal returns calculation method. Specifically, the results of abnormal returns obtained by the multifactor models largely confirm the existence of the psychological phenomena examined, which is in contrast to those of the single factor model, which derives variations depending on the examined biases.

No description available.

This thesis is an examination of a moral, cultural and political movement referred to as the New Right. Its specific focus is on three Canadian right-wing organizations, each of which exhibits particular characteristics while at the same time sharing the basic ideological assumptions of the others. These organizations and their particular characteristics are: i) the prolife/profamily REAL Women of Canada and moral conservatism, ii) the anti-bilingualism and anti-Charter Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada (APEC) and cultural conservatism, and iii) what was arguably the dominant New Right organization during its time — and as I show, among the weaker links in the New Right chain — the Reform Party of Canada and conservative populism. Though Reform was a relatively successful federal political party and the other two are pressure groups, the members in each nevertheless conceive of their respective organizations as vehicles for the authentic views of "the people." In other words, of these organizations see themselves as the true representatives of the majprity of citizens in English-speaking Canada who, they allege, have been deliberately denied political influence commensurate with their numbers since the era of left-leaning, "special interest" politics, policies and moral-cultural values took hold beginning in the late 1960s. By analyzing the New Right phenomenon in general and the three Canadian groups in particular, this project seeks to a) understand the ideological perspective of the movement; b) assess whatever tension, be it normative, policy-driven or strategic, existed between the groups examined herein; and c) determine whether or not such tension was indicative of a fundamental wealkness in the Canadian New Right. I also draw upon three basic questions to frame the analysis presented herein: 1. Is the Canadian New Right ideologically coherent? 2. What explains the New Right's relative lack of success in Canadian politics? 3. Is there a future for the New Right in Canadian politics? I keep these questions in mind throughout the thesis and reconsider them specifically in the concluding chapter.

During the 1980s, women in country music enjoyed unprecedented success in record sales, television, film, and on pop and country charts. For female performers, many of their achievements were due to their abilities to mold their images to mirror American norms and values, namely increasing political conservatism, the backlashes against feminism and the civil rights movement, celebrations of working and middle class life, and the rise of the South. This dissertation divides the 1980s into three distinct periods and then discusses the changing uses of gender, race, class, and region in female country music and links each to larger historical themes. It concludes that political and social conservatism influenced women’s country performances and personas. In this way, female country music is a social text that can be used to examine 1980s America.

This dissertation locates the origins of the modern conservative movement in the intellectual history of the 1930s and 1940s. I argue that it was during the years of the Great Depression, when laissez-faire capitalism was most discredited, that a group of conservative academics and intellectuals began to lay the foundations for its postwar resurgence. Angered by the New Deal, those intellectual activists honed their free market ideology and began to develop a network through which to distribute it. As a result, they began to lay the intellectual and institutional foundation for the conservative movement. This dissertation recovers a number of narratives that reveal the rudimentary makings of a movement. It was during the 1930s and 1940s that economist Henry Simons worked to turn the University of Chicago's economics department into a bastion of free market sentiment; Leonard Read, after a decade of free market advocacy, created the first libertarian think tank, the Foundation for Economic Education, in 1946; legal scholar Roscoe Pound, worried by the spread of legal realism in the academy and growth of government in Washington, dramatically moved to the political right to make common cause with conservatives; Albert Jay Nock, his protégé Frank Chodorov and Felix Morley created a network of conservative writers and publications that paved the way for William F. Buckley's National Review ; and writers such as Rose Wilder Lane and Isabel Paterson made the case for laissez-faire in the pages of popular publications such as the Saturday Evening Post and the New York Herald Tribune . Historians have generally attributed the rise of the modern right to the conservative political mobilization in response to the civil rights movement, campus agitation of the 1960s, and the campaign for women's rights. As a result, historians tend to view the modern conservative movement as a distinctly postwar social and political phenomenon. This dissertation enriches that account by revealing the ties the modern conservative movement has to the years of the Great Depression and the debate over the government's role in the economy.

Previous accounts of the development of the New American Right have demonstrated the popularity and resonance of the ideology in Southern California. However, these studies have not shown how contention surrounded conservatism’s ascendancy even in regions where it found eager disciples. “Save Our Republic” uses one conservative Southern California community as a vehicle to better understand the foundations of a wider movement and argues the growth of conservatism was not nearly as smooth as earlier studies have suggested. Santa Barbara, California, experienced a much more contentious introduction to the same conservative elements and exemplifies the larger ideological clash that occurred nationwide during the late 1950s and early 1960s between “establishment,” moderate Republicans and the party’s right flank. In California’s cradle of conservatism, the ideology’s birth was not an easy one. Santa Barbara should have provided a bonanza of support for the John Birch Society, a staunchly anticommunist organization founded in 1958 by retired businessman Robert H.W. Welch. Instead, its presence there in the early 1960s divided the city and inspired the sort of suspicion that ultimately hobbled the group’s reputation nationally. Rather than thriving in the city, the JBS impaled itself in a series of self-inflicted wounds that only worsened the effect these characterizations had on the group’s national reputation. Disseminated to a nationwide audience by local newspaper publisher Thomas M. Storke, who declared his intention to banish the organization from the city, the events that occurred in Santa Barbara throughout 1961 alerted other cities of the potential disruption the JBS could inspire in their communities. The JBS would forever bear the battle scars it earned in Santa Barbara. “Save Our Republic” argues the events in Santa Barbara exemplify the more pronounced political battle that was occurring throughout the nation in the 1960s as conservatives grappled to determine the bounds of their ideology. The threat from the right that caused so much handwringing in the halls of conservative power had an equally unsettling effect in the city’s parlors, churches, schoolhouses and newsrooms.

Vor dem Hintergrund der Erfolge und Niederlagen der Tea Party-Bewegung in der amerikanischen Politik während der letzten Jahre stellt sich die Frage, welcher Voraussetzungen es bedarf, in den USA konservative Politik auf nationaler Ebene durchzusetzen. Um dies zu beantworten, wird in der Dissertation Präsident George W. Bushs Versuch analysiert, Social Security durch eine (Teil-)Privatisierung der in dem Programm beinhalteten staatlichen Rentenversicherung zu reformieren. Bush kündigte den Reformplan direkt nach seiner Wiederwahl 2004 an, die Umsetzung scheiterte jedoch im 109. U.S. Kongress. Anlass für die Reformpläne waren Prognosen, nach denen aufgrund des demografischen Wandels Social Security ohne Anpassungen ab dem Jahr 2018 mehr an Bezügen auszahlen müsste, als es an Beiträgen durch Steuern einnehmen würde. Eine (Teil-)Privatisierung des Programms wäre eine weitreichende und symbolträchtige Reform zugunsten konservativer Politikziele gewesen. Social Security ist nicht nur ein fundamentaler Bestandteil der amerikanischen Sozialpolitik, es hat zudem als staatliches Programm eine Sonderstellung in dem zu großen Teilen auf Privatvorsorge ausgerichteten System sozialer Sicherungen inne. Für viele Konservative steht es seit seiner Einführung während der New DealÄra für staatliche Bevormundung und gehört zugunsten individueller Privatvorsorge abgeschafft. Social Security ist trotz derartiger Kritik nicht nur über die Jahrzehnte gewachsen, sondern verfügt neben der entschiedenen Unterstützung durch Liberale auch über eine mehrheitliche Zustimmung in der Bevölkerung. Von zentraler Bedeutung für die Bewertung der Chancen konservativer Politikumsetzung ist die Tatsache, dass der moderne amerikanische Konservatismus eine Koalition verschiedener Gruppierungen darstellt. Innenpolitisch wird er vor allem durch libertäre und sozialkonservative Ideale geprägt. Geeint werden die verschiedenen konservativen Ansätze unter anderem durch die Ablehnung des modernen amerikanischen Liberalismus. Neben vielen Gemeinsamkeiten besteht jedoch auch Konfliktpotenzial zwischen den jeweiligen Hauptanliegen der unterschiedlichen konservativen Fraktionen. Für die Analyse der Reformdebatte greift die Dissertation auf John W. Kingdons Multiple Streams- Theorie zurück. Nach dieser müssen die Entwicklungen in drei verschiedenen streams günstig sein, damit sich ein Zeitfenster für eine mögliche Reform öffnet (opportunity window). Dazu zählen der problem-, der policy- und der politics stream. Die Analyse zeigt, dass zum Zeitpunkt der Reformdebatte die Voraussetzungen für ein opportunity window in keinem der drei streams eindeutig gegeben waren. Ein Problembewusstsein in Hinblick auf die Zukunft von Social Security war zwar in weiten Teilen der Öffentlichkeit vorhanden, es gab aber Uneinigkeit über Gewichtung und Dringlichkeit des Problems. Große ideologische Differenzen zwischen amerikanischen Liberalen und Konservativen bestanden sowohl bei der Bewertung des Problemgrades als auch bei der Frage der grundsätzlichen Aufgaben und Gestaltung von Sozialpolitik. Zudem gab es ganz konkret Zweifel, ob die Reformvorschläge die Probleme überhaupt lösen könnten. Experten übten unter anderem Kritik an den Umstellungskosten und äußerten Skepsis gegenüber der seitens des Weißen Hauses angenommenen Höhe der Rendite von Privatkonten. Auch in der Gesamtbevölkerung existierten große Bedenken gegenüber den Reformplänen. Innerhalb der republikanischen Wählerschaft fehlte zudem eine eindeutige Mehrheit für die Reformen - gerade die für die Republikaner wichtige Wählergruppe der Rentner stand einer Teilprivatisierung in weiten Teilen ablehnend gegenüber und für sozialkonservative Wähler standen eher Wertefragen im Mittelpunkt. Die Unterstützung durch konservative Interessengruppen fiel ebenfalls eher verhalten aus, wohingegen liberale Interessengruppen in entschiedene Opposition gingen. Angesichts einer fehlenden einheitlichen Position innerhalb der republikanischen Fraktionen im Abgeordnetenhaus und Senat sowie einer Sperrminorität der Demokraten im Senat reichten letztendlich auch die republikanischen Mehrheiten im Kongress nicht für eine Reform aus. Neben den schwierigen Bedingungen innerhalb der streams wurden seitens des Weißen Hauses außerdem Fehler beim Zusammenbringen der streams, dem coupling, begangen. Am schwersten wogen dabei die mangelnde Koordination der Reformpläne mit Interessengruppen und insbesondere dem Kongress. Die gescheiterte Social Security-Reform verdeutlicht, dass der Konservatismus in den USA eine Koalition verschiedener Interessen ist. Um diese intern auszugleichen und extern durchzusetzen, braucht es Debatten und Kompromisse, sowohl innerhalb der konservativen Koalition als auch außerhalb mit den nicht konservativen politischen Akteuren.

This study concerned the political thought of Garry Wills. His books Nixon Agonistes (1969), and Confessions of a Conservative (1979), and the article "The Order of Convenience" (1961) were all analyzed. A common theme in Wills's thought is the rejection of individualism. He also finds fault in the liberal orthodoxies that serve as a governing orthodoxies in the United States. In place of liberal individual Wills suggests the Convenient State, a entity based on “loved things held in common." The potential inadequacy of the Convenient State is presented in light of the economic, racial, class, and ethnic divisions that trouble the United States. / Department of Political Science