Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-111). Also available in electronic version.

Zugl.: Bern, Universiẗat, Diss.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1986. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 172-184). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-121).

The paper describes an attempt to gain insight into the relationship between cash and futures markets for US lean hogs and EU live pigs, and the opportunity of arbitrage hedging. In doing so, the authors use newer methods of threshold cointegration analysis for time series from 1999 until 2008. Besides the existence of a long-run equilibrium, asymmetric price adjustments can be demonstrated. This is especially the case for the EU live pigs, where price variations of the basis are higher and exhibit lower standard deviation. The results also perfectly show that cash prices follow the futures market more than the other way round. Furthermore, a grid search has revealed that the residual-based threshold in either market is near zero and therefore coherent with economic interpretation. Thus, at least theoretically, arbitrageurs in those markets are able to exploit the price differences between the two markets and reap no-risk monetary benefit. Hence, the results are in line with the statement that "speculating the basis" generates a better return. (authors' abstract)

The diploma thesis deals with selected derivatives based on an analysis by determining the impact on profit, the income tax base and the amount of value added tax at ordinary entrepreneurs. The theoretical part focuses on issues of financial markets and financial derivatives. The practical part includes comparison of selected financial derivatives, selection of the most suitable derivative and impacts of the derivative transactions.

Text in English with summaries in English and Afrikaans / The introduction of single stock futures to a market presents the opportunity to assess an individual company's response to futures trading directly, in contrast to the market-wide impact obtained from index futures studies. Thirty-eight South African companies were evaluated in terms of a possible price, volume, and volatility effect due to the initial trading of their respective single stock futures contracts. An event study revealed that SSF trading had little impact on the underlying share prices. A normalised volume comparison pre to post SSF trading showed a general increase in spot market trading volumes. The volatility effect was the main focus of this study with a GARCH(1,1) model establishing a volatility structure (pattern of behaviour) per company. Results showed a reduction in the level and changes in the structure of spot market volatility. In addition, a dummy variable regression could find no evidence of an altered company-market relationship (systematic risk) post futures. / Business Management / M.Com. (Business Management)

abstract: Sustainability visioning (i.e. the construction of sustainable future states) is considered an important component of sustainability research, for instance, in transformational sustainability science or in planning for urban sustainability. Visioning frees sustainability research from the dominant focus on analyzing problem constellations and opens it towards positive contributions to social innovation and transformation. Calls are repeatedly made for visions that can guide us towards sustainable futures. Scattered across a broad range of fields (i.e. business, non-government organization, land-use management, natural resource management, sustainability science, urban and regional planning) are an abundance of visioning studies. However, among the few evaluative studies in the literature there are apparent deficits in both the research and practice of visioning that curtails our expectations and prospects of realizing process-based and product-derived outcomes. These deficits suggests that calls instead should focus on the development of applied and theoretical understanding of crafting sustainability visions, enhancing the rigor and robustness of visioning methodology, and on integrating practice, research, and education for collaborative sustainability visioning. From an analysis of prominent visioning and sustainability visioning studies in the literature, this dissertation articulates what is sustainability visioning and synthesizes a conceptual framework for criteria-based design and evaluation of sustainability visioning studies. While current visioning methodologies comply with some of these guidelines, none adhere to all of them. From this research, a novel sustainability visioning methodology is designed to address this gap to craft visions that are shared, systemic, principles-based, action-oriented, relevant, and creative (i.e. SPARC visioning methodology) and evaluated across all quality criteria. Empirical studies were conducted to test and apply the conceptual and methodological frameworks -- with an emphasis on enhancing the rigor and robustness in real world visioning processes for urban planning and teaching sustainability competencies. In-depth descriptions of the collaborative visioning studies demonstrate tangible outcomes for: (a) implementing the above sustainability visioning methodology, including evaluative procedures; (b) adopting meaningful interactive engagement procedures; (c) integrating advanced analytical modeling, sustainability appraisal, and creativity enhancing procedures; and (d) developing perspective and methodological capacity for long-range sustainability planning. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Sustainability 2013

O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar as relações entre a atividade de negócios, representada pelas variáveis de contratos em aberto e volume negociado, o conteúdo informacional dos diferentes grupos de participantes, categorizados pela bolsa brasileira, e a volatilidade diária e intradiária dos preços futuros para boi gordo, café arábica e milho, contratos agropecuários de maior liquidez na BMF&BOVESPA. O ferramental metodológico foi baseado nos trabalhos de Bessembiender e Seguin (1992), Daigler e Wiley (1999) e Wang (2002), amparados, majoritariamente, pela teoria de microestrutura de mercado e noise trading. Os resultados encontrados sugerem que existe relação entre contratos em aberto, volume negociado e volatilidade dos preços futuros. No caso de contratos em aberto, foi encontrada uma relação negativa (positiva) entre a série esperada (não esperada) e volatilidade, sendo que o impacto da série não esperada é superior, em magnitude, ao da série esperada. Para o volume negociado, em geral, há evidência de um efeito positivo do volume negociado (tanto esperado como não esperado) sobre a volatilidade, sendo que a série esperada apresentou maior impacto do que a série não esperada. Quanto ao conteúdo informacional dos participantes, no modelo com volatilidade diária, encontrou-se evidência de que choques de demanda de pessoa jurídica não financeira contribuiu para o aumento da variação dos preços futuros de boi gordo. No contrato de café arábica, o modelo sugere que choques de demanda de pessoa física influencia a volatilidade de forma positiva, enquanto que no contrato de milho, choques de demanda de todas as categorias de agentes, com exceção da pessoa jurídica não financeira, aparentemente atuam de forma a incrementar a volatilidade dos preços futuros. Desta forma, a separação da posição líquida não esperada e a avaliação do impacto positivo dos choques de demanda sobre a volatilidade sugerem que tais investidores são não informados. No âmbito da análise da volatilidade intradiária, os resultados obtidos são, majoritariamente, similares aos encontrados no modelo que analisa a volatilidade diária. Ademais, a regressão quantílica possibilitou o mapeamento completo dos impactos das variáveis analisadas, mostrando que há diferenças significativas em relação à influência das séries nos diferentes quantis da distribuição condicional da volatilidade, tanto diária quanto intradiária. / The objective of this study is to investigate the relationships between business activity, represented by the variables of open interest and trading volume, the information content of different groups of participants, categorized by the Brazilian exchange, and daily and intraday volatility of futures prices for live cattle, arabica coffee and corn, which are the Brazilian agricultural contracts that have greater liquidity. The methodological tool was based on the works of Bessembiender and Seguin (1992), Daigler and Wiley (1999) and Wang (2002), supported mostly by the market microstructure theory and noise trading. The results suggest that there is a relationship between open interest, trading volume and volatility of future prices. Particularly for open interest, is was found a negative relationship (positive) between the expected series (unexpected) and volatility, and the impact of unexpected series was superior in magnitude comparing to the expected series. For the traded volume, in general, there was evidence of a positive effect of trading volume (both expected and unexpected) on the volatility, and the expected series showed greater impact than the series unexpected. As for the informational content of the participants, considering the model that explains the daily volatility, is was found evidence that demand shocks non-financial corporation contributed to the increase in variation of live cattle futures prices. For the arabica coffee contract, the model suggests that demand shocks of individual influences positively the volatility. For the corn contract, demand shocks of all categories of participants, with the exception of non-financial corporation, apparently act in order to increase the volatility of future prices. Thus, the separation of the unexpected net position and the evaluation of the positive impact of demand shocks on volatility suggest that such investors are not informed. In examining the intraday volatility, the results obtained are mostly similar to those found in the model which analyzes the daily volatility. The quantile regression permitted the complete mapping of the impacts of the variables analyzed, showing that there are significant differences regarding the influence of the variables in the different quantiles of the conditional distribution of volatility, intraday as much daily.