No description available.

Background: A company’s choice of capital structure is influenced by the access to internal and external capital but also by the opportunities and threats that the management perceives in the environment and the management’s attitude towards risk. How an individual perceives and interpret the environment depends on the cognitive structures, which are shaped by personality, background and earlier experiences. Accordingly cognitive structures can be expected to influence the choice of capital structure. Purpose: Out of a cognitive perspective we intend to study the relationship between the way a company views it’s environment and what capital structure it chooses to have, in order to contribute to an increased understanding about what lies behind a company’s capital structure policy. Delimitations: Debt policy refers to the choice of capital structure. Cognition is briefly presented as a phenomena and in relation to risk judgement in decision processes. Realization: Our empirical studies are based on information from the annual reports of H&M, JC and Lindex from the period of 1989-2000. Results: The studied companies have a very similar view on the environment and their capital structures are relatively similar since all of them have a high share of equity. Consequently the choice of capital structure can be said to be influenced by the company’s view on the environment even though this is not the only influencing factor.

<p>Background: A company’s choice of capital structure is influenced by the access to internal and external capital but also by the opportunities and threats that the management perceives in the environment and the management’s attitude towards risk. How an individual perceives and interpret the environment depends on the cognitive structures, which are shaped by personality, background and earlier experiences. Accordingly cognitive structures can be expected to influence the choice of capital structure. </p><p>Purpose: Out of a cognitive perspective we intend to study the relationship between the way a company views it’s environment and what capital structure it chooses to have, in order to contribute to an increased understanding about what lies behind a company’s capital structure policy. </p><p>Delimitations: Debt policy refers to the choice of capital structure. Cognition is briefly presented as a phenomena and in relation to risk judgement in decision processes. </p><p>Realization: Our empirical studies are based on information from the annual reports of H&M, JC and Lindex from the period of 1989-2000. </p><p>Results: The studied companies have a very similar view on the environment and their capital structures are relatively similar since all of them have a high share of equity. Consequently the choice of capital structure can be said to be influenced by the company’s view on the environment even though this is not the only influencing factor.</p>

This study explores the increasingly popular government practice of issuing green bonds. By interviewing individuals involved in the development of the Swedish green government bond issued in 2020, and examining key documents, it provides an in-depth understanding of the motivations driving a government to issue a green bond. The empirical analysis shows that the Swedish government did not issue the green bond to finance green investments, but to promote the green bond market, communicate what it was already doing in terms of environmental investments, help investors attain more sustainable portfolios and strengthen the Swedish government as a bond issuer. While the political driving force behind the green government bond was the Green Party, it was strongly supported by segments of the financial sector. The main criticism came from authorities within the government itself. Even though the proponents of the green government bond shared a concern about the environment, it was not clear how this policy would ultimately contribute to the green transition. This analysis suggest that it is more appropriate to consider it as a form of industrial policy for supporting the sustainable finance industry. This is the first in-depth case study conducted on a green government bond and thus contributes to a new research topic. It also contributes to the literature on Sustainable Finance and Investment and green bonds more generally. Furthermore, it contributes to research on government debt policy and the political economy of the green transition.

The main purpose of this thesis is to examine the simultaneous determination of debt, dividend, and inside ownership policies in Sweden. We apply a simultaneous equation model estimated with 3SLS. The results reveal a positive two-way causal relationship between debt and dividend polices. We also find a two-way causal relationship between inside ownership and dividend policies, but dividends affect inside ownership in a positive way while inside ownership affects dividends in a negative way. Further, we find a relationship between inside ownership and debt policies, but any causality appears to run from inside ownership to debt in a negative way. This study supports the notion that the convergence of interest and the entrenchment theory are not mutually exclusive. We also show that a SEM estimated with 3SLS is justified empirically over the OLS and that the difference between using 3SLS compared to 2SLS is negligible in our model.

Die vorliegende Dissertation befasst sich mit dem Markt für Mittelstandsanleihen, der 2010 in Deutschland etabliert wurde und nur wenige Jahre später, im Zusammenhang mit massiven Anleiheausfällen, zusammengebrochen ist. Ziel der Arbeit ist es zu analysieren, welche Faktoren zum Zusammenbruch des Marktes beigetragen haben könnten, um besser zu verstehen, wie mittelständischen Unternehmen der Zugang zum Kapitalmarkt erleichtert werden kann. Das erste Kapitel analysiert die Entscheidung, sich am Markt für Mittelstandsanleihen zu finanzieren. Verschiedene Theorien versuchen zu erklären, welche Unternehmen sich vorrangig über Banken und welche sich am Kapitalmarkt finanzieren. Entgegen der Theorie haben sich vorwiegend Unternehmen mit schlechterer Kreditwürdigkeit am Markt für Mittelstandsanleihen finanziert. Das zweite Kapitel untersucht, ob der Zugang zum Markt für Mittelstandsanleihen finanzielle Beschränkungen aufheben und so Investitionen anstoßen konnte. Eine alternative Motivation könnte jedoch auch sein, dass Unternehmen sich Geld von gutgläubigen Privatinvestoren geliehen haben, um die Insolvenz zu verschleppen. Emittenten von Mittelstandsanleihen waren zwar finanziell eingeschränkt, investierten jedoch weniger als erwartet. Eine große Anzahl der Emittenten wäre ohne die Mittelstandsanleihe bereits im Jahr der Emission zahlungsunfähig gewesen. Das dritte Kapitel untersucht vor dem Hintergrund der massiven Zahlungsausfälle, ob Investoren in der Lage waren, Unternehmen mit hohem Risiko von solchem mit niedrigerem Risiko zu unterscheiden. Erschwert wurde die korrekte Einschätzung der Risiken durch eine starke Präsenz von Privatinvestoren sowie einer Inflation der Anleiheratings. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass Investoren nicht in der Lage waren, riskante von weniger riskanten Mittelstandsanleihen zu unterscheiden. Dies könnte zum Zusammenbruch des Marktes beigetragen haben, da dieser für hochqualitative Unternehmen letztendlich zu teuer war. / This dissertation explores the German market for SME bonds that was established in 2010 and collapsed soon after, when one third of the listed bonds defaulted. The first paper studies the choice to enter the German MBond market. The results show that MBond issuers in contrast to theoretical predictions and prior empirical findings, have lower credit quality. The second paper examines to the extent to which the main goal of the MBond market, alleviating nancial constraints in order to spur firm investment, has been achieved. Indeed, a major fraction of MBond issuers have been finnancially constrained in the year prior to issuance. However, MBond issuers appear to invest less than expected. The results are more in favor of the alternative explanation that MBond issuers timed the market and exploited a window of opportunity to issue junk bonds to retail investors, in order to nance future losses and avoid or postpone bankruptcy. In the light of the high default rate and the final collapse of the market, the third paper analyzes whether investors were able to distinguish between high and low risk MBonds. Rating in ation in the MBond market could have distorted the information channel, hampering investors' risk assessment of the MBonds. The results indicate that di erences in default risk were not adequately reflected in MBond yield spreads. Thus, it appears that MBond investors were not able to distinguish between high and low quality issuers. As a consequence, the MBond market was relatively more expensive for high quality issuers than it was for their low quality counterparts, which may have contributed to the near-total collapse of the market.