The effect of institutional ownership and ownership concentration on the firm’s stock returns and volatility and financial performance has long been an interesting issue in the international business literature. A lot of debate has been going on regarding the relationship between institutional ownership, ownership concentration, returns, volatility and financial performance. The objective of this thesis is to study the effect of institutional ownership and ownership concentration on firm stock returns and financial performance of the listed companies in the Egyptian Stock Exchange. For this purpose, panel data model is employed. The results from the analysis show that institutional ownership has no effect on ex post stock returns as well as ex ante stock returns. On the contrary, institutional ownership represented by top management and individuals have a negative and significant effect on stock volatility, while employee associations have a positive and significant effect. No significant effect is detected on ex ante risk except for employee associations that have negative and significant effect on ex ante risk. In addition, the results show that institutional ownership has no effect on stock liquidity except employee associations and individuals that have a negative and significant effect on stock liquidity. Finally, the results show that institutional ownership represented by companies, holdings and individuals have negative effect on financial performance represented by ROA and ROE. Also, institutional ownership has no effect on debt to equity ratio except banks that have negative and significant effect and employee associations that have positive and significant effect. The results also show that ownership concentration has no effect on ex post stock returns but it has a positive effect on ex ante stock returns. Also, it has no effect on ex post risk but it has a positive effect on ex ante risk. On the other hand, ownership concentration has a negative and significant effect on stock liquidity. Finally, the results show that ownership concentration has no effect on either financial performance represented by ROA and ROE or debt to equity ratio. As such, the thesis makes an important contribution to the literature, since it tests the impact of ownership type and concentration on ex ante returns and volatility of stocks in Egypt, an emerging country that has been ignored in literature. Also, the analysis extends the literature by decomposing institutional ownership to several types. Moreover, it adds two components of volatility, volatility clustering and persistence, testing their effect on ex post and ex ante risk, which is not dealt by previous studies.

This thesis deals with methods of improvement of financial statements of European banks and their impact on the economy. The financial statements are the principal information source used by external users when making economic decisions. The thesis is focused on analysis of impairment of financial assets and insufficient creation of provisions for credit losses, on faire value and amortized cost measurement of financial assets, macrohedging of interest rate risk, reporting of goodwill and on derecognition and transfer of financial assets. The thesis investigates major differences between US GAAP and IFRS. Initial hypothesis are set down at the beginning of each chapter. These are confirmed after the analysis of the academic literature, primary resources and empirical data. The thesis confirmed the principal assumption that financial reporting under IFRS provides to European banks several ways how to improve their financial statements, which contradicts to the requirements of fair and true view of economic situation of entities. Low-quality financial information can lead to instability of the financial markets, which does not contribute to the economic growth.

This study compares certain factors of Austin College financial aid recipients to the same factors in their classmates who received no financial assistance. First, this study attempts to determine whether there are significant differences in selected variables between these two groups. Second, the study seeks to identify the causes for students' withdrawing from the College. Subjects were randomly selected from two groups: (l) 100 subjects receiving financial assistance; and (2) 100 subjects not receiving such assistance. The sources of data for this study were students'. records located in the Educational Advising Center, the Records Office, and the. Counseling Center.

The aim of the thesis is to determine the value of the firm KOOL Trading, spol. s r. o. at 30. 6.2010. Thesis is composed of two parts -- theoretical and practical. Theoretical part describes processes and methods used in valuation of the firm, which are applied later in practical part. The firm is introduced at the beginning of the practical part, strategic and financial analysis folow next. The financial plan is drawn on the basis of strategic and financial analysis. The value of the firm is determined by method of discounted cash flows, as a complemetary methods the method of discounted economic value added and book value are used.

中國大陸自一九七八年之後，展開了一連串的經濟改革，而金融改革則是其中的主要重點。 　　金融改革的主要目的，是企圖透過組織結構上的改良，來強化其集資之能力，以解決中國大陸經濟發展中，資金不足的問題。經濟發展需要以穩定的資金作為支持，中國大陸的資金困境不是其資金量的不足，而是資金調撥效率的低落，使得無法在即時、適時的條件下，將資金移交至需求者的手上，而此即是金融體制的問題。金融體制改革的結果使得大陸已經產生了金融深化，而金融深化將導致資金問題的獲得解決，也緩和了經濟發展中資金不足的現象。

<p>The distribution of asset returns may lead to structural breaks. Thesebreaks may result in changes of the optimal portfolio weights. For a port-folio investor, the ability of timely detection of any systematic changesin the optimal portfolio weights is of a great interest.In this master thesis work, the use of the Shewhart method, as amethod for detecting a sudden parameter change, the implied changein the multivariate portfolio weights and its performance is reviewed.</p><p> </p>

There are some nonlinear models for pricing financial derivatives which can improve the linear Black-Scholes model introduced by Black, Scholes and Merton. In these models volatility is not constant anymore, but depends on some extra variables. It can be, for example, transaction costs, a risk from a portfolio, preferences of a large trader, etc. In this thesis we focus on these models. In the first chapter we introduce some important theory of financial derivatives. The second chapter is devoted to the volatility models. We derive three models concerning transaction costs (RAPM, Leland's  and Barles-Soner's model) and Frey's model which assumes a large (dominant) trader on the market. In the third and in the forth chapter we derive portfolio and make numerical experiments with a free boundary. We use the first order additive and the second order Strang splitting methods. We also use approximations of Barles-Soner's model using the identity function and introduce an approximation with the logarithm function of Barles-Soner's model. These models we finally compare with models where the volatility includes constant transaction costs.

The distribution of asset returns may lead to structural breaks. Thesebreaks may result in changes of the optimal portfolio weights. For a port-folio investor, the ability of timely detection of any systematic changesin the optimal portfolio weights is of a great interest.In this master thesis work, the use of the Shewhart method, as amethod for detecting a sudden parameter change, the implied changein the multivariate portfolio weights and its performance is reviewed.

A reforming trend is captured showing that countries are shifting from defined benefit pension systems towards defined contribution systems. The reforms have been justified through predictions that the defined benefit systems will not manage to provide good enough pensions to members in the future. The newer defined contribution pension plans often include individual financial accounts where individuals have the possibility to choose how a part of their pension savings should be invested. Sweden was early to introduce such a system, which at the moment provides more than 800 funds to choose from. The aim of this thesis is to capture the market risk associated with these individual investments and does so by using Monte Carlo simulations for six selected pension funds. The method produces forecasts of replacement ratios, pension as percentage of pre-retirement income, for two hypothetical individuals: one who starts to work right after elementary school and one individual who starts a five year education and after graduation starts to work. The results show a slightly lower replacement ratio for the educated individual, which also is associated with a higher probability of ending up with a low replacement ratio. The market risk also varies between the funds, which implies that the funds should be chosen with great care. The study ends with arguments for an increasing paternalism with a carefully considered fund offering, providing fewer funds to choose from than today.

The diploma thesis deals with the basic concepts of measurement which were developed in the area of financial accounting. It focuses on the main features of measurement selected assets and liabilities according to the IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards). The thesis largely deals with the phenomenon of "fair value" in the contemporary form of the IFRS and in connection with the exposure draft "Fair Value Measurement". The role of measurement in the present financial crisis is also mentioned. The last chapter of the thesis is based on measurement of the selected assets and liabilities according to the Czech Accounting Legislation in comparison with the IFRS.