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The relationship between finance and the real economy which has been the subject of centuries old debates, gained renewed prominence with the relative and unprecedented growth of the financial sector over the last few decades. Finance has changed not only in terms of its size compared to other sectors, but also in terms of the nature of its products, and how it affects outcomes in the real economy. This has become known as financialisation. Research in other places has shown that the financial sector has grown at the expense of the real economy, as it has negatively impacted real investment. This occurred against the backdrop of non-financial corporations (NFCs) diverting more of their surpluses to the financial sector in the form of financial payout and financial investment. This research project studies the relationship between financialisation and the real economy in South Africa. Using aggregated data of all listed firms (with the exception of financial companies) on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange between 1971 and 2012 the impact of financialisation on real investment is empirically tested. Two channels in the form of financial payout (dividend and interest payments) and financial income (dividend and interest income) through which funds flow between the real economy and finance are analysed. We find that increased financial activity by NFCs may have a negative impact on real capital investment. Financial income presents more robust results than financial payout which may be an indication that the crowding out effect is a serious problem in South Africa.

The thesis is focused on the treatment of long-term tangible assets in IFRS and Czech accounting legislation, and discusses the issue of its reporting and valuation.

Thesis advisor: Jeffrey Pontiff / My thesis contains four essays on the pricing of financial assets and the role of non-professional investors. The first two essays describe the legal framework governing Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and the liquidity transformation functions of ETFs. The third essay examines how trading by nine different types of market participants are related to characteristics that have previously documented to predict the cross-section of equity returns. The fourth and final essay examines whether and how orders originating from retail brokerages respond to analyst recommendations. In my first essay, I describe the legal framework that governs ETFs and theoretical benefits of the ETF security design relative to two other popular investment management security structures: open-end and close-end mutual funds. To do so, I briefly describe the history of the modern investment management industry. I describe the role of Authorized Participants (APs), the main security design innovation of ETFs, and highlight the key theoretical differences between the three classes of funds. Lastly, I describe SEC rulemaking that governs the behavior of ETF Managers and their APs. In the second essay, I document a hidden but substantial cost associated with the liquidity transformation that corporate bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs) provide. When creating new shares, authorized participants (APs) deliver a subset of the portfolio of bonds that underlie a corporate bond ETF. This subset contains bonds that realize low future returns, reducing ETF performance by 48 basis points per annum. This loss in performance cannot be attributed to forgone compensation for risk or illiquidity, but instead results from APs utilizing information regarding future changes in net asset values to strategically deliver bonds when those bonds are expected to realize poor performance in the near future. My third essay is joint work with Jeff Pontiff and David McLean. We provide the most comprehensive study of market participation to date. We assess the informativeness of 9 different participants’ trades, and how each participant’s trades relate to 130 different variables that together reflect the cross-section of expected stock returns. Firms and short sellers tend to be the smart money—both sell stocks with low expected returns, and their trades predict returns in the intended direction. Firms, however, also seem to possess private information, while short sellers do not. Retail investors buy (sell) stocks with low (high) expected returns and their trades predict returns opposite to the intended direction. All 6 types of institutional investors are weighted towards stocks with low expected returns, but none of their trades robustly predict returns. My fourth essay is joint work with Jeff Pontiff and David McLean. We ask whether retail investors are responsive to analysts’ revisions. We consider revisions in recommendations, price targets, and EPS forecasts, all of which predict returns. Revisions in recommendations and price targets portend greater retail trading in the direction of the revision. The effects are stronger for All-Star Analysts’ revisions, and retail investors also respond to All-Star’s revisions in EPS forecasts. Retail investors trade in anticipation of revisions in price targets and recommendations, consistent with analysts or brokers “tipping” some retail investors. Retail trades earn higher returns when aligned with analysts’ revision. The results show that retail investors are one channel through which analysts’ information gets into prices. Our findings also support the idea that spikes in retail trading reflect informed trading, some of which is informed by analysts. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Finance.

This study presents the financial behavior of individuals in Umeå and how their allocation of financial assets has changed as an effect of the financial crisis of 2008. We have also elaborated further on what variables that has had the most impact on individuals’ reallocation behavior. We have chosen a quantitative approach and based our findings on the data derived from 210 participants. Our entire sample was drawn from the geographical area of Umeå and the data was collected through the use of a survey. Our research is built upon a deductive approach; hence we are not generating new theory but rather drawing our conclusions from the comparison of our collected data with previous made research. Our analysis led us to the conclusion that the majority of the individuals in Umeå have not chosen to reallocate their financial assets due to the financial crisis of 2008. Our research was to most parts in line with previous research made within this area. We were also able to determine some main variables that have had a evident effect on the individuals decision to reallocate or not. Some of the most prominent variables are; gender, income and risk willingness.

Cílem práce bude vysvětlit nejnovější úpravu vykazování finančních aktiv a finančích závazků včetně derivátů pro potřeby účetní závěrky sestavované podle mezinárodních standardů finančního výkaznictví. Součástí práce bude i naznačení podmínek pro tzv. zajišťovací účetnictví.

This final thesis deals with the reporting and measurement of financial assets under IAS 39 and IFRS 9. Besides the basic characteristics of financial instruments, there is a comparison of the two standards and the reasons which prompted the IASB to create a new standard. All work is supplemented by practical examples mainly on revaluation of financial assets.

This master thesis is focused on portfolio diversification. In the Czech Republic, the majority of the population still deposits their free funds to current accounts, but the yield is not sufficient to cover the devaluation caused by inflation. In addition, investments in securities enable these funds to be better valued (naturally with a higher risk). The aggregate of all investments is called the investment portfolio. Harry Markowitz is the founder of modern portfolio theory. The aim of the thesis is to compile an optimal portfolio from chosen financial assets. The theoretical part of the thesis describes the terms such as the financial market, its nature and function and the basic elements of the investment strategy - profitability, risk and liquidity. On top of that, this part describes problems of portfolio theory with a focus on the Markowitz model of optimization. In total 15 stocks-issuing companies are selected from various industries. These companies are traded both on the Czech and American stock markets. The practical part is focused on creating optimal portfolio of selected financial assets. For different attitudes of the investor to risk and its selected strategy the optimal portfolio according to Markowitz is compiled. The weights of individual securities are determined as well as the yield and risk of the portfolios created and an effective boundary is demarcated.

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar el uso y aplicación del modelo de valoración de activos de capital, CAPM, como herramienta de planificación y evaluación financiera, comparándolo con otros modelos alternativos. El CAPM propone una relación entre el riesgo y rendimiento de un activo. El riesgo está representado por el coeficiente beta, que mide la sensibilidad del instrumento financiero en relación con el riesgo sistemático, ya sea en un portafolio de activos o en la valoración de una empresa. Debido a que existen críticas sobre la validez del CAPM, en este estudio se busca conocer la efectividad que tiene el uso y la aplicación del modelo. Para ello, se han buscado evidencias empíricas, en diferentes países, y sectores económicos en las que se compara el CAPM con otros modelos alternativos, tales como el APT o el de Tres Factores Fama y French que, según la investigación realizada, serían los más utilizados. Los resultados de esta investigación muestran que el CAPM no ofrece necesariamente resultados positivos significativos en los estudios revisados. Sin embargo, ello no quiere decir que el CAPM no sea un modelo suficiente para predecir la relación riesgo – rentabilidad en los casos en los que se aplica. Se concluye por ello que, a pesar de que existen modelos alternativos tratando de superar las limitaciones del CAPM, hoy en día este modelo sigue siendo el más utilizado fundamentalmente por su sencillez y por su capacidad de explicar y predecir, de manera suficiente, en la mayoría de las aplicaciones generales. / The objective of this paper is to analyze the use and application of the capital asset pricing model, CAPM, as a planning and financial evaluation tool and to compare it with other alternative models. The CAPM propose a relationship between the risk and return of an asset. The risk is represented by coefficient called beta, which measures the sensitivity of the financial asset in relation to it´s systematic risk, either in a portfolio or in the valuation of a company. Given that there are controversies about the validity of the CAPM, the study is gad is to understand the effectiveness of the use and application of the model. In order to do that, evidence, in different countries and economic sectors, is presented in which the CAPM is compared with other alternative models, such as the APT or the Fama and French Three Factor, according to this investigation would be the most used. The results of this investigation shown that, the CAPM, even though it is not able to offer significant positives results in the studies reviewed. However, it is not a sufficient model for predictins the risk - return relationship in the cases where it applies. It is concluded for that, although there are alternatives models trying to overcome the limitations of the CAPM, this model is nowadays the most used yet, fundamentally because of its simplicity and its ability to explain and predict, in a sufficient fashion, in most of the general applications. / Trabajo de Suficiencia Profesional