Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, 2017. / The extent to which the liquidity has an impact on stock return continues to be an eagerly researched topic. The effect on liquidity on the return of stocks has been a greatly debated subject on the capital market theory. The thesis looks at the impact of liquidity on the stock indices return of eight frontier markets. The paper uses two methods to estimate the regression namely, unbalanced dynamic panel Generalised Method of Moments and Fixed Effect Model. An analysis on factors affecting liquidity was done and turnover ratio, Amivest ratio and Amihud ratio were used as a measure for liquidity. The correlation between stock return and the liquidity measure was mixed; with turnover ratio having a negative correlation. Amivest ratio has positive relationship consistent with the risk premium and was found to be significant. However, the correlation on the Amihud ratio was not consistent with the liquidity premium as it was found to be positive. Although negatively correlated to return, the turnover ratio was found to be insignificant. / MT 2017

Thesis (M.Com. (Business Finance))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2017 / The writer studies the short-run determinants of bond yield volatility in South Africa (SA) by analyzing the impact that global factors –representing global funding conditions – have on the changes to the rand denominated generic 10-year government bond yield (SAGB). This is followed by a one-period forward forecast of this volatility. The explanatory variables tested in this study are as follows: net bond purchases by foreign investors, Chicago Board Options Volatility Index (VIX), JP Morgan Emerging Market Bond Index (JP EMBI) spread, the US dollar to SA rand (USDZAR) exchange rate, the SA 5 year credit default swap (CDS) rate, the 12 month interest rate expectation/9x12 forward rate agreement (FRA), dollar spot price of gold and dollar spot price of oil. The study period ranges from January 2000 to December 2015. The GARCH modelling technique is used due to its ability to capture the volatility clustering effects observed in time series return data. The writer used the Gaussian distribution as the default model, however in order to control for the skewness and fat-tails in financial market return data, the Student-T and Generalised Error distributions are also tested to see if the non-normally distributed bond returns could be better captured by alternative parametric assumptions. The results show that all the explanatory variables, with the exception of the FRA, are statistically significant in explaining volatility in the local generic 10-year government bond. / GR2018

Este trabalho teve por objetivo determinar a influência das características dos países e indústrias no comércio intra-industrial brasileiro de produtos manufaturados, considerando fluxos de quantidades comercializadas ao ano, para o período de 2002 a 2006, através de estimativas de uma equação gravitacional adaptada à análise dessa forma de comércio. As variáveis explicativas são relacionadas ao tamanho de mercado, representado pela proxy LPIBij, diferenças entre as rendas per capita dos países, representadas pela proxy LdPIBpcij, e tarifas aduaneiras aplicadas pelos países importadores, LTarifas. Tais variáveis foram utilizadas para analisar o comércio intraindustrial e seus componentes horizontal e vertical. A fundamentação teórica para proceder à segmentação do comércio intra-industrial brasileiro, segundo tais características, foi derivada de trabalhos conduzidos por Falvey (1981), Helpman e Krugman, (1985) e Greenaway, et al. (1995). A mensuração do Índice de Grubel-Lloyd e a posterior separação dos componentes do CII utilizando valor unitário indicam uma composição do comércio intra-industrial brasileiro com forte predomínio do componente CII Vertical Inferior.Os resultados da estimação das equações gravitacionais, com a utilização dos dados em painel e a utilização de Poisson Pseudo-Maximum-Likelihood comprovou ser a mais adequada para a estimativa econométrica.Para o comércio intraindustrial total, os resultados indicaram que o tamanho de mercado, tem um efeito positivo sobre o fluxo de exportação dos produtos brasileiros com comércio intraindustrial (0,517), porém, as diferenças entre as rendas per capita dos países (-0,183) e tarifas aduaneiras dos países importadores (-0,356), são negativamente relacionados. Os resultados para o comércio intra-industrial vertical e horizontal apresentam os mesmos sinais que o CII total, com alteração na magnitude. / This study aimed to determine the influence of characteristics for countries and industries in intra-industry trade (IIT) of Brazilian manufactured products, considering the annual trade flows for the period 2002 to 2006 and using a gravity equation adapted to analysis this form of trade . The explanatory variables are related to market size, represented by proxy LPIBij, differences between per capita incomes of countries represented by proxy LdPIBpcij, and tariffs imposed by importing countries, represented by proxy LTarifas. These variables were used to analyze the intra-industry trade and its horizontal and vertical components. The theoretical basis to make the segmentation of intra-industry in Brazil, according to such characteristics, was derived from studies conducted by Falvey (1981), Helpman and Krugman (1985) and Greenaway et al.(1995). The measurement of the Grubel-Lloyd index and the subsequent separation of components from IIT using unit value indicates that the brazilian intra-industry trade has a strong predominance of IIT Vertical Low quality. The results of the estimation of the gravitational equations with the use of panel data and the use of Poisson Pseudo- Maximum-Likelihood proved to be the most suitable for econometric estimation. The results for intra-industry total indicated that the market size, has a positive effect on the flow of exports of Brazilian products with intra-industry trade (0,517), however, the differences between per capita incomes (-0,183) of countries and tariffs in importing countries (-0,356) have a negative relation. The results for vertical and horizontal intraindustry trade have the same signals than intra-industry total but they differ in magnitude.

Thesis advisor: Alicia Munnell / Thesis advisor: Tony Webb / Risk level of investments helps to determine investment return in the long run. Consequently, it is important to understand how investors determine their acceptable level of risk. Previous studies have suggested that women have a lower risk tolerance in investing than men. This is troubling because it means that women are likely to make lower returns on investments than men. This difference in acceptable risk could lead to income inequality between men and women during retirement as people rely on wealth generated from investments made during their lifetime to live during this stage of life. This study seeks to explain what motivates women to choose their acceptable level of investment risk by expanding on the models of previous studies, which are believed to be overly simplistic in their treatment of gender. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

The Market Timing - Buy and Hold (MT-BH) is introduced, tested against widely accepted performance models of market timing and tested if implamentation is possible. The MT-BH metric measures the condition of engaging in market timing strategies relative to buy and hold investing across an equity market. The metric provides an alternative explanation to why market timing results of investors and managers vary through time and across different equity markets. This dissertation examines how the is correlated with traditional market timing measures of the Treynor and Sharpe ratios over the 1995-2010 time period and how it affects widely used measures of regression based market timing models of Treynor- Mazuy and Henriksson-Merton. The Market Timing - Buy and Hold (MT-BH) metric can be applied to any equity market over any time period to condition the market timing skill of money managers in any equity market around the world. The final accomplishment of this dissertation is to determine if readily available finance and macro-economic variables can help investors determine which years are more favorable to pursue market timing strategies and which years favor buy and hold investing. When real GDP growth rates, inflation rates and PE ratios were low or negative and when dividend yields were high, market timing strategies were favorable across 44 country market indexes from 1994-2008. These results were robust to country level of development, negative market return years and other control variables. The conditions for pursing market timing strategies were time variant and detectable with macro-economic and finance variables. The MT-BH metric allows investors and brokers to determine when to switch from buy and hold investing to a market timing strategy using macro-economic and financial variables and helps to explain why market timing skill of managers is rarely found to be persistent. / by William Fount Johnson, III. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

O presente trabalho analisa a evolução da indústria brasileira de celulose no período de 1980 a 2005, enfocando três objetivos específicos: 1) analisar a estrutura e o desempenho da indústria brasileira de celulose, avaliando sua produção, exportação e custo de produção. Ao mesmo tempo, discute-se a reorganização dessa indústria a partir da década de 1980 e ressalta as mudanças que surgiram e seus impactos na competitividade da indústria; 2) identificar as pesquisas e inovações tecnológicas que ocorrem nas áreas florestal e industrial e ressaltar seus possíveis impactos sobre a competitividade da indústria brasileira de celulose; e 3) analisar a evolução das exportações brasileiras de celulose, elaborando um modelo econométrico para evidenciar os principais determinantes de sua oferta e demanda. Quanto ao primeiro objetivo desse trabalho, a estrutura e o desempenho da indústria brasileira de celulose foram analisados pelas seguintes variáveis: produção, exportação, custo de produção, número de empresas e, também, índices de concentração. Constatou-se que o Brasil vem ampliando e ganhando marketshare nas exportações de celulose. Esse desempenho exportador é causado, principalmente, pelas vantagens de custo de produção. Para analisar o segundo objetivo dessa dissertação, utilizou-se dados primários, coletados através questionários e a revisão de literatura, a fim de se realizar um levantamento das principais inovações tecnológicas ocorridas na silvicultura e produção industrial de celulose. Ao longo dos anos 80 e 90 e nos anos 2000, pesquisas ocorreram em diferentes intensidades, nas distintas etapas de produção florestal e industrial. Os dados das entrevistas, organizados na forma tabular e gráfica, bem como analisados pelo teste de Wilconox, ressaltam melhoria nas inovações tecnológicas em etapas do processo produtivo que trouxeram expressivos aumentos de produtividade na silvicultura e na produção industrial de celulose e que implicaram redução no custo de produção da celulose. Esta útima elevou a rentabilidade do setor, causando sua expansão. No terceiro objetivo desse trabalho, foram realizadas estimativas das equações de oferta e demanda de celulose para o período de 1980 a 2005. Em relação à oferta de celulose, as variáveis preço brasileiro da celulose exportada e exportações defasada foram significativas a 20% e a 1%, respectivamente. Já o custo de produção não apresentou significância estatística, mas teve o sinal esperado. A elasticidade-preço da oferta brasileira de celulose foi de 0,40, ou seja, trata-se de inelástica em relação ao seu preço. Em relação à estimativa da equação de demanda, o preço da celulose brasileira e a demanda internacional de celulose foram significativos a 1%. A elasticidade-preço da demanda de celulose encontrada foi -0,69 indicando que a demanda pela celulose brasileira é inelástica com relação ao seu preço. Por outro lado, a elasticidade da quantidade demandada de celulose brasileira em relação à demanda internacional desse produto foi 2,17, indicando que a quantidade demandada da celulose brasileira é elástica em relação à demanda internacional desse produto. / The present dissertation analyses the evolution of Brazilian pulp industry from 1980 to 2005, paying attention to three specific objectives: (1) analysis of the Brazilian pulp industry?s structure and performance, evaluating its production, exports and production costs. Besides that, the dissertation discusses the reorganization of this industry since the 1980\'s and highlights the changes that happened and their impacts on the sector\'s competitiveness; (2) Identify the researches and technological innovations that took place in forest and industrial areas, and emphasize their possible impacts on the competitiveness of Brazilian pulp industry; (3) analyze the evolution of the Brazilian pulp exports, elaborating an econometric model to evidence the main determinants of supply and demand for these exports. In relation to the first objective of this work, the structure and performance of the Brazilian pulp industry were analyzed through the following variables: production, export, production costs, number of enterprises, and also concentration indexes. It was evidenced that Brazil is increasing its market share in pulp exports. The increase of exports is mainly due to production cost advantages what associate to innovations in forest and industrial areas. To analyze the second objective of this dissertation, primary data, collected through questionnaires, and literature review were used to realize a survey of the main technological innovations that had occurred in silviculture and in Brazilian pulp production. Throughout the 1980\'s and 1990\'s and during the six first years of the 2000\'s, researches occurred in different intensities, in the distinct stages of industrial and forest production. The primary data organized in tables and graphs, as well as analyzed by Wilconox test, highlight the improves in the technological innovations in the stages of the production process what brought significant increases of productivity in silviculture and in the pulp industrial production, causing the reduction of pulp production cost. The latter enlarged sector\'s profitability, causing its expansion. In the third objective, supply and demand equations for pulp exports were run for data ranging from 1980 to 2005. Regarding to the pulp supply, Brazilian exported pulp price and lagged exports were statistically significant at 20% and 1% level, respectively. The production cost did not show statistically significant, but it had the expected signal. The price elasticity of Brazilian pulp supply was 0.4, so it is inelastic in relation to its price. The demand elasticity price founded was -0.69, indicating the quantity of Brazilian pulp demanded is inelastic in relation to its price. Meanwhile, the elasticity of Brazilian pulp demanded quantity in relation to international demand of this product was 2.17, indicating the demanded quantity of Brazilian pulp is elastic in relation to the international demand of the product.

by Hok-hoi Fung. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-59). / LIST OF TABLES --- p.ii / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.iii / CHAPTER / Chapter 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 2. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.3 / Chapter 3. --- METHODOLOGY --- p.6 / Formulation of the TVTP Model --- p.6 / Filtered and Smoothed Probabilities --- p.9 / Maximization of the Expected Log-likelihood --- p.13 / Chapter 4. --- EMPIRICAL RESULTS --- p.15 / The Simple 2-state Markov Switching Model --- p.15 / The TVTP Model --- p.17 / The 3-state Markov Switching Model --- p.26 / Chapter 5. --- OUT - OF- SAMPLE FORECASTING --- p.34 / Chapter 6. --- CONCLUSION --- p.40 / APPENDICES --- p.42 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.58

by Chan Ka Man. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-65). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.iv / CHAPTER / Chapter I --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter II --- THE LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.4 / Chapter III --- METHODOLOGY / Forecast Pooling Technique / Modified Technique / Chapter IV --- MODEL SPECIFICATIONS --- p.16 / The Monthly Models / The Quarterly Model / Data Description / Chapter V --- THE COMBINED FORECAST --- p.32 / Pooling Forecast Technique in Case of Hong Kong / The Forecasts Results / Chapter VI --- CONCLUSION --- p.38 / TABLES --- p.40 / APPENDIX --- p.53 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.64

Submitted by Fabricia Fialho Reginato (fabriciar) on 2015-07-22T22:53:48Z No. of bitstreams: 1 LuisBragaEconomia.pdf: 6108813 bytes, checksum: bf186fda5918d6000c0c2500d6ea514c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-22T22:53:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LuisBragaEconomia.pdf: 6108813 bytes, checksum: bf186fda5918d6000c0c2500d6ea514c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Nenhuma / Este trabalho visa determinar a influência que os fatores sócio-econômicos, em conjunto com as variáveis construtivas usuais, provocam na valoração de imóveis no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Sendo o imóvel um bem com características distintas das demais, muitos pesquisadores buscam elementos diferentes para explicar esse comportamento distinto. Neste contexto, sobressai um dos fatores com grande relevância, a vizinhança. Os métodos inferenciais tradicionais dificultam a modelagem adequada pela multiplicidade dos fatores que influenciam o valor dos imóveis de uma determinada região. Sendo assim, os modelos de regressão espacial foram utilizados na estimação do valor unitário dos mesmos (VU). Já o modelo de regressão LAG foi utilizado para uniformizar a amostra de dados dos imóveis que se mostrou heterogênea. Não obstante, a krigagem demonstrou a estimativa do valor de um imóvel para determinada região. A aplicação dos métodos foi realizada para uma base de dados obtida junto a Caixa Econômica Federal, contendo imóveis transacionados no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, no período de 2006 a 2008. Ademais, os métodos de regressão aplicados confirmaram índices fortemente significativos nos modelos obtidos para todos os imóveis de uma região. Com isso, a estrutura espacial dos índices estimados minimizou a autocorrelação existente nos resíduos do modelo de regressão, melhorando a confiabilidade da avaliação. / This work aims to determine the influence that the social economic factors together with the usual variable constructive cause in the valuation of property, in Rio Grande do Sul State. Property is a material good with distinct characteristics from the other goods. Many researchers seek different elements to explain this situation. In this context one factor stands out with great relevance, the neighborhood. The traditional inferential methods difficult the adequate modeling because of the multiplicity of the factors that influence the value of the properties in a given region. Spatial regression models were used to estimate their unit value (UV). The regression model LAG was used to standardize the data sample of the properties, it was heterogeneous. Kriging showed the estimated value of a property for a given region. The application of the methods was performed for a database obtained from Caixa Econômica Federal, containing properties transacted in Rio Grande do Sul State, from 2006 to 2008. The applied regression methods confirmed strongly significant indices on the obtained models for all the properties in the region. The spatial structure of the estimated indices minimized the autocorrelation existing in the residuals of the regression models, improving the reliability of assessment.

The service industry has become increasingly competitive. This dissertation addresses a number of outstanding and fundamental questions of competitions in service operations and supply chains. The challenges are characterization of the equilibrium behaviors, estimating the impact of firms' interactions, and designing of efficient market mechanisms. The first chapter of this dissertation considers price competition models for oligopolistic markets, in which the consumer reacts to relative rather than absolute prices, where the relative price is defined as the difference between the absolute price and a given reference value. Such settings arise, for example, when the full retail price earned by the ``retailer" is reduced by virtue of a third party offering a subsidy or a rebate or in prospect theoretical models in which customers establish a reference price and base their choices on the differentials with respect to the reference price. When choosing among the various competing options, the consumer trades off the net price paid with various other product or service attributes, as in standard price competition models. The reference price may be exogenously specified and pre-announced to the competing firms. Alternatively, it may be endogenously determined, as a function of the set of absolute prices selected by the competing firms, for example the lowest or the second lowest price. We characterize the equilibrium behavior under a general reference value scheme of the above type; this in a base model, where we assume that the consumer choice model is of the general MultiNomialLogit (MNL) type. We also derive comparison results for the price equilibria that arise under alternative subsidy schemes. These comparisons have important implications for the design of subsidy schemes. The second chapter applies the results of the first chapter to the Medicare insurance market, both in terms of its existing structure, as well as in terms of various proposals to redesign the program. Based on an oligopoly price competition model tailored towards this market, and actual county-by-county data for the year 2010, we estimate the impact such reforms would have on the plans' market shares, equilibrium premia, the government's cost, and the out-of-pocket expenses of the beneficiaries. We employ two different methodologies to derive the parameters in the county-by-county competition models: (i) a calibration model, and (ii) parameter distributions obtained from models estimated in Curto et al. (2015). The predicted impacts on the above performance measures are remarkably consistent across the two methodologies and reveal, for example, that the government cost would decrease by 8% if the traditional fee-for-service(FFS) plans are kept out of competitive bidding process and by 16.5%-21% if they are part of the process. The third chapter studies a class of buy procurement mechanisms, framework agreements (FAs), that are commonly used by buying agencies around the world to satisfy demand that arises over a certain time horizon. We are one of the first in the literature that provides a formal understanding of FAs, with a particular focus on the cost uncertainty faced by bidders over the FA time horizon. We introduce a model that generalizes standard auction models to include this salient feature of FAs; we analyze this model theoretically and numerically. First, we show that FAs are subject to a sort of winner's curse that in equilibrium induces higher expected buying prices relative to running first-price auctions as needs arise. Then, our results provide concrete design recommendations that alleviate this issue and decrease buying prices in FAs, highlighting the importance of (i) monitoring the price charged at the open market by the FA winner and using it to bound the buying price; (ii) investing in implementing price indexes for the random part of suppliers' costs; and (iii) allowing suppliers the flexibility to reduce their prices to compete with the open market throughout the selling period. These prescriptions are already being used by the Chilean government procurement agency that buys US$2 billion worth of contracts every year using FAs. The fourth chapter considers the preference of contractual forms in supply chains. The supply chain contracting literature has focused on incentive contracts designed to align supply chain members' individual interests. A key finding of this literature is that members' preferences for contractual forms are often at odds: the upstream supplier prefers more complex contracts that can coordinate the supply chain; however, the downstream retailer prefers the wholesale price--only contract because it leaves more surplus (than a coordinating contract) that the retailer can get. This chapter addresses the following question: under what circumstances do suppliers and retailers prefer the same contractual form? We study supply chain members' preference for contractual forms in three different competitive settings in which multiple supply chains compete to sell substitutable products to the same market. Our analysis suggests that both upstream and downstream sides of the supply chains may prefer the same ``quantity discount'' contract, thereby eliminating the conflicts of interest that otherwise typify contracting situations. More interesting still is that both sides may also prefer the wholesale price--only contract, which offers a theoretical explanation to why the simple inefficient contract is widely adopted in supply chain transactions.