This paper studies if a change in political risk has a significant impact on the stock returns of countries. Additionally, the paper assesses if this change in political risk impacts stock returns differently in emerging and developed countries. The paper conducts a risk based portfolio analysis and a linear cross-sectional regression analysis in order to find a conclusive result. The portfolio analysis, which replicates a study carried out by Diamonte, Liew, and Stevens (1996), reveals that there is a difference in the impact that change in political risk has in developed and emerging countries. The regression analysis finds that change in political risk does impact stock returns but there is no statistically significant difference in this impact between emerging and developed countries. The regression analysis also finds that the existing level of risk does not significantly affect the impact that growth in political risk has on stock returns.

This paper aims to measure, compare and model Sovereign Risk. The risk position of South Africa compared to Emerging Markets as well as in comparison to Developed Markets is considered. Particular interest is taken in how the South African Sovereign Risk environment, and its associated determinants, differs and conforms to that of other Emerging Markets. This effectively highlights how the South African economy is similar to the Emerging Markets and where it behaves differently. Regression, optimisation techniques, dimension reduction techniques as well as Machine Learning techniques, through the use of sentiment analysis, is utilised in this research.

The world has grown increasingly globalized and competitive which has made it crucial for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to look beyond their native market in order to thrive. Although internationalization is considered somewhat uncertain in the face of corporate unfamiliar environments, non-internationalization in a globalized economy can be an even more risky task because it can cause the company to lose competitiveness. The business environment of the world is changing from time to time and in recent times there have been several market turbulences. Market turbulence increases the ambiguity and risk of a company's business process, and it is important to maintain a link between corporate strategies and changes in the environment due to turbulence. The main purpose of conducting this study is to examine the internationalization process of SMEs operating in Sri Lanka and Sweden and the impact of recent market turbulence on those enterprises. The study will also discuss how those businesses have sought to manage these turbulent situations. This study, which aims to learn through multiple cases, focuses primarily on Sri Lankan and Swedish businesses engaged in the manufacturing sector. The study's theoretical framework is structured in such a way that it incorporates the theories contained in the internationalization process theory and the market turbulence. The theories applied to the study in the analysis of empirical findings are compared and the analysis and conclusion are made as a result of the study. The study concludes by comparing the recent market turbulence experienced by the Swedish and Sri Lankan SMEs. The study identified that this turbulence had a major impact on SMEs operating in Sri Lanka. Further, It was identified that these market turbulences have had a severe impact on the supply chains of both countries, mainly as a factor common to both markets.

Purpose – The purpose of this master thesis is to examine factors influencing green consumption and to explain the moderating effect of market maturity on these factors in developed and emerging markets.Design/methodology/approach – In this research the pragmatism epistemology was employed as the scientific perspective of the current research. Deductive reasoning has been selected as scientific approach. The formulation of hypotheses, the collection and analysis of the data were based on and derived from existing theories. In line with deductive approach the collected data was analyzed quantitatively within cross-sectional time horizon. SSPS program was applied to process the collected research data and present the research results. The data was collected via online survey (Google Forms) in Russia and Sweden as well as credible and reliable secondary resources.Findings – Based on correlation and multiple regression analysis it was found that factor perceived consumer effectiveness positively (Beta=0.227) and significantly (Sig.<0.05) influences green consumption among young people in Sweden. Price is determined to affect negatively (Beta=-0.279) and significantly (Sig.<0.05) green consumption among young people in Sweden. Perceived consumer effectiveness positively (Beta=0.225) and significantly (Sig.<0.05) influences green consumption among young people in Russia. The presence of moderating effect of market maturity was not revealed within the conducted research. That means the level of development of countries (in case of Sweden and Russia) does not make a significant influence on the association between studied factors and green consumption among young people. Perceived consumer effectiveness is determined to be the main driving factor which pushes the younger generation toward sustainable consumption both in Sweden and Russia.Research limitations – the first limitation relates to the size of the sample. Although the sample of 100 respondents for each country (Sweden and Russia) was considered adequate, still a larger sample size could have provided more heterogonous findings and might have led to a different conclusion. Another limitation considers geographical and industrial boundaries. The research applies the theoretical model to the context of only two particular countries, namely, Sweden and Russia by focusing on consumption of green products from FMCG industry. With this regard, the findings of the study might not be fully suitable for other emerging and developed countries or other industries. Also, the application of non-probability sampling limited the authors to add more validity to the research. The last limitation is such a phenomena as socially desirable responding or response biases that means a tendency to choose the desirable response or the most moderate response.Practical implications – The findings ensure a better understanding of the content of moderating effect of market maturity and explain more in details how particular factors influence green consumption in emerging and developed markets. The model conceptualized by the authors is supposed to be a good basis for future researches aimed at examining moderating effect of market maturity on relationship between green consumption and factors influencing it in other emerging and developed markets besidesRussia and Sweden. In practice a special emphasis on perceived consumer effectiveness by the companies which market green products and target young consumers could helpthem to supply their products more successfully both in developed and/or emerging countries. Particularly, they need create a perception among potential consumers that buying green products contributes to sustainability and solution of environmental problems by elaborating particular strategies. As the research revealed a negative and significant relation between price and green consumption on the developed market it is important that managers consider price policy while marketing green products among young generation in developed countries.

The purpose of this study is to examine the volatility spillover among a country&rsquo / s foreign exchange, bond and stock markets and the volatility transmission from the global bond, stock and commodity markets to these local financial markets. The sample for the study includes data from both emerging and developed economies in the time period between 2004 and 2011. A multivariate GARCH methodology with the BEKK representation is applied for the local financial markets and global variables are included as exogenous variables into the model. The volatility integration of the financial markets of the emerging economies is stronger compared to the integration of the developed economies. Global variables have a spillover effect on the developed markets only after the global financial crisis, whereas they significantly affect the volatility in emerging markets for both the pre- and post-crisis period. North American countries in the sample, U.S. and Mexico, have low local volatility integration in the pre-crisis era and the integration rises in the post-crisis period. Moreover, they are more open to the internal and global short-term shocks in the post-crisis period. Germany and Turkey are the representatives of the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region and they have high local market integration and are open to global shocks for both sub-periods. Far Eastern markets, Japan and Korea, also have high local market integration and their vulnerability to the global effects is large and getting larger for the post-crisis period. The most important limitation of this thesis is the difficulty of reaching sharp generalizations due to the small number of countries analyzed. This limitation can be addressed by the inclusion of a larger number of geographically dispersed countries. The most noteworthy originality of this study is the addition of the exogenous global variables for modeling volatility spillovers. Furthermore, comparison of results for emerging versus developed markets and the pre- versus post-crisis periods is another contribution of this study to the existing literature. The findings of this study can be used by investors interested in assessing the risks of investing internationally.

Over the last decade, researchers have attempted to show how efficient the markets are by using Fama’s Efficiency Market Hypothesis (EMH). The theory states that an investor cannot increase his returns without taking additional risk. The markets can be efficient in different forms depending on the information included in the traded asset. It is quoted that: "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch". However, the topic still remains disputable since researchers have introduced controversial findings after investigating different markets. Overall, emerging markets have been characterized with higher volatility which consequently declares for market imperfections. Commonly, these market inefficiencies are quickly captured by the eye of the investors who are lurking for potential benefits through exploiting them. These are the so called arbitrage opportunities which exist on different level of impact, depending on the attitude of the market. The existence of arbitrage is clear evidence against Fama’s theory and it has been documented in numerous studies. Unfortunately those events occur rarely and disappear in a matter of seconds, thus; is highly competitive to capitalize. Over the last decade high frequency trading (HFT) became popular on different markets and it allowed traders to make decisions and execute transactions in a matter of milliseconds using algorithms. The market we are interested in is the Forex market which is a decentralized market where currencies from all over the world are traded. Main participants include multinational banks which rely heavily on HFT. The method used to benefit from inefficiency is called triangular arbitrage and it involves selling and buying 3 sets of currency pairs in times when a parity is violated. The goal of this study is to answer the following research question, “Is there a difference in triangular arbitrage opportunities between emerging markets and developed ones?” The main objective of this research is to examine how the number of arbitrage occurrences varies considering different market characteristics. Furthermore, the originality of the research stems from the comparison between strategies using currencies from developed economies and emerging ones. Moreover, the additional academic value comes from the analysis of a new dataset that has not yet been examined. Lastly, our results make an empirical contribution into a country’s economy by reducing market inefficiencies and increasing economic stability. Our sample consists of quantitative data totaling to 2.4 million observations per quotation taken from 2011 and 2013 for currencies picked using a non-probability convenience method based on their property to be converted to EUR and USD currency and availability of information. The research revealed that differences between the two types of market exist, and indicates that the “early” markets possess higher arbitrage activity in contrast to the mature economies. These results should boost the potential for a better trading management and upgrade the profit growth.

This thesis examines the relationship between private equity activity and perceived corruption in Asian countries controlling for many different economic factors. The study finds indications that perceived corruption negatively affects private equity in Asia, however this is not statistically proven for all countries. When analysing groups of countries separately, the study finds that higher perceived corruption is positively correlated with private equity activity in Developed markets but negatively correlated with private equity activity in Emerging markets. For Frontier markets, the relationship is not statistically significant, even though indications point to a negative relationship. The ability to enforce contracts, measuring the quality of judicial systems, is the most significant determinant of private equity activity. Furthermore, the paper finds that control variables overall have bigger effects for emerging and frontier countries than for developed economies, implying that richer economies already have higher levels of economic development and small changes do not have much impact, but for poorer countries, smaller changes in different factors seem to boost private equity activity

The relationship between national culture and CSR has received increased attention over the past few decades. However, to date, the results of this relationship are inconclusive as they show positive, negative, and non-significant results. Moreover, the results are outdated as only the first four dimensions of the Hofstede framework have been researched thoroughly, while the two newest dimensions have received very little attention with regards to their relationship to CSR. The key objective of this study is to contribute to the debate by testing the influence of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity, long-term orientation, and indulgence on CSR. This is done by analyzing 215 companies from 23 different countries, which are on the Forbes 2000 list. Furthermore, the moderating role of state of development is assessed in this context, by using the distinction made in the MSCI ACWI Index. By conducting a moderated multiple regression analysis, mixed results were found on the influence of national culture on CSR, which could be ascribed to a difference in sample. Moreover, the influence of state of development was not significant in the main regression, however, it gave interesting opportunities for future research. The findings of this study thereby add to the body of knowledge on national culture, CSR, and state of development, and provide several theoretical and managerial implications.

Submitted by Marco Bril (marcobril@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-02-19T14:07:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Mestrado Marco Bril.pdf: 1223942 bytes, checksum: e8c41cd4b4f9345cbe52d71959bebbd2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by GILSON ROCHA MIRANDA (gilson.miranda@fgv.br) on 2016-02-22T14:03:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Mestrado Marco Bril.pdf: 1223942 bytes, checksum: e8c41cd4b4f9345cbe52d71959bebbd2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Almeida (maria.socorro@fgv.br) on 2016-02-25T13:08:48Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Mestrado Marco Bril.pdf: 1223942 bytes, checksum: e8c41cd4b4f9345cbe52d71959bebbd2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-02-25T13:08:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Mestrado Marco Bril.pdf: 1223942 bytes, checksum: e8c41cd4b4f9345cbe52d71959bebbd2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-05-24 / This dissertation compares the behavior of the Brazilian economy to emerging and developing markets through principal component analysis. There were used variables of economic growth, as PMI; and macroeconomic variables, such as inflation, stock exchange, currency and interest rates. To achieve more consistent results, there were done two different analyses. The first one has compared these variables from different countries to the Brazilian PMI; whereas the second one has separated the later analysis in different time periods, in order to differentiate the period before and after the 2009 crisis. / A proposta desta dissertação é analisar o comportamento econômico brasileiro em relação às demais economias de países emergentes e desenvolvidos, utilizando-se como metodologia a análise de componentes principais com variáveis de crescimento econômico e macroeconômicas como inflação, bolsa, moeda e juros. Visando obter uma robustez maior nos resultados foram realizados dois exercícios, primeiro buscou-se comparar o resultado obtido para o Brasil com outros países. No segundo exercício a comparação foi realizada para diferentes períodos de tempo, de maneira de separar o período em pré e pós-crise de 2009.

Despite the meaningful impact that credit ratings have on sovereign countries and financial markets, research has not fully explored the determinants of these ratings in many emerging markets (EMs). The aim of this study was to identify and quantify the extent to which different macroeconomic factors impact sovereign ratings. Based on a review of the literature, an analysis of rating agencies' methodology papers, and economic intuition, it was hypothesised that measures of wealth, economic growth, monetary stability, fiscal trajectory, external accounts and governance would predict EM credit ratings. This hypothesis was largely supported by regression models that anticipated actual ratings with predictive power comparable to extant research, but across a much broader set of EM countries. By identifying the key drivers of these ratings, the current research suggests several areas that policymakers can address to improve their own sovereign ratings. / Economics / M. Com (Economics)