Statistical hypothesis testing is one of the most powerful and interpretable tools for arriving at real-world conclusions from empirical observations. The classical set-up for testing goes as follows: the practitioner is given a sequence of 𝑛 independent and identically distributed data with the goal being to test the null hypothesis as to whether the observations are drawn from a particular family of distributions, say 𝐹, or otherwise. This is achieved by constructing a test statistic, say 𝑇_n (which is a function of the independent and identically distributed observations) and rejecting the null hypothesis if 𝑇_n is larger than some resampling/permutation-based, often asymptotic, threshold. In this thesis, we will deviate from this standard framework in the following two ways: 1. Often, in real-world applications, observations are not expected to be independent and identically distributed. This is particularly relevant in network data, where the dependence between observations is governed by an underlying graph. In Chapters 1 and 2, the focus is on a widely popular network-based model for binary outcome data, namely the Ising model, which has also attracted significant attention from the Statistical Physics community. We obtain precise estimates for the intractable normalizing constants in this model, which in turn enables us to study new weak laws and fluctuations that exhibit a certain \emph{sharp phase-transition} behavior. From a testing viewpoint, we address a structured signal detection problem in the context of Ising models. Our findings illustrate that the presence of network dependence can indeed be a \emph{blessing} for inference. I particular, we show that at the sharp phase-transition point, it is possible to detect much weaker signals compared to the case when data were drawn independent of one another. 2. While accepting/rejecting hypotheses, using resampling-based, or asymptotic thresholds can be unsatisfactory because it either requires recomputing the test statistic for every set of resampled observations or it only gives asymptotic validity of the type I error. In Chapters 3 and 4, the goal is to do away with these shortcomings. We propose a general strategy to construct exactly distribution-free tests for two celebrated nonparametric multivariate testing problems: (a) two-sample and (b) independence testing. Having distribution-freeness ensures that one can get rejection thresholds that do not rely on resampling but still yield exact finite sample type I error guarantees. Our proposal relies on the construction of a notion of multivariate ranks using the theory of optimal transport. These tests proceed without any moment assumptions (making them attractive for heavy-tailed data) and are more robust to outliers. Under some structural assumptions, we also prove that these tests can be more efficient for a broad class of alternatives than other popular tests which are not distribution-free. From a mathematical standpoint, the proofs rely on Stein's method of exchangeable pairs for concentrations and (non) normal approximations, large deviation and correlation-decay type arguments, convex analysis, Le Cam's regularity theory and change of measures via contiguity, to name a few.

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As far as wage disparity and its social, political and economic consequences are concerned, one can easily see that it is a popular topic on which many studies and research have been conducted. The recent financial turmoil drew the people`s attention on the issue of wage disparity, and the people started to discuss this issue on the equity and fairness grounds, but the only thing that economists can do is to examine the economic consequences of the wide wage disparities. It is much easier to conduct a study on the issue of wage disparity by using the data on the professional sport teams due to their several advantages and in this paper I chose to study the relationship between intra-team wage dispersion and teams` performance by using data on randomly chosen 16 teams from the National Football League over the sample period of 2000-2008. First of all, a general introduction to the issue takes place. Then a detailed theoretical background is provided. After mentioning some previous evidence and methodology, empirical results are revealed. Those results show us that Ramaswamy`s and Rowthorn`s Damage Potential Hypothesis is supported over Levine`s Cohesiveness Hypothesis by the data.

<p>As far as wage disparity and its social, political and economic consequences are concerned, one can easily see that it is a popular topic on which many studies and research have been conducted. The recent financial turmoil drew the people`s attention on the issue of wage disparity, and the people started to discuss this issue on the equity and fairness grounds, but the only thing that economists can do is to examine the economic consequences of the wide wage disparities. It is much easier to conduct a study on the issue of wage disparity by using the data on the professional sport teams due to their several advantages and in this paper I chose to study the relationship between intra-team wage dispersion and teams` performance by using data on randomly chosen 16 teams from the National Football League over the sample period of 2000-2008. First of all, a general introduction to the issue takes place. Then a detailed theoretical background is provided. After mentioning some previous evidence and methodology, empirical results are revealed. Those results show us that Ramaswamy`s and Rowthorn`s Damage Potential Hypothesis is supported over Levine`s Cohesiveness Hypothesis by the data.</p>

Research on task-based language teaching (TBLT) offers a large body of evidence suggesting that cognitive task complexity influences learners’ language production and development. Studies that investigate task complexity, however, provide contradictory results on the way different linguistic aspects of performance are affected by the manipulation of cognitive task complexity. The empirical study presented in this degree project aimed to investigate the effect of task complexity on the accuracy, complexity and fluency in learners ́ written performance. An additional goal of the study was to examine whether proficiency level would mediate the effects of cognitive task complexity. In order to explain the influence of cognitive task complexity on linguistic performance two theoretical models are used and discussed, namely Skehan’s Limited Attention Capacity Hypothesis (Skehan 2015) and Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson 2001, 2011, 2015). In order to answer the research questions guiding the study, 71 Swedish high school students of Spanish performed a simple or a more cognitively complex version of a written task. Results showed that increasing task complexity had a positive effect on the fluency, accuracy, and complexity of the participants ́ written performance, and that these effects were greater among the high proficiency participants’ productions. These results offer valuable implications for syllabus and task designers, language teachers and examiners, as well as second and foreign language researchers.

This study concerns the composition of the Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and is part of a scholarly discussion within New Testament studies known as the “Synoptic Problem.” In this study, the composition of the Gospels is considered in light of ancient compositional practice, a field of study within the Synoptic Problem that has grown in popularity in recent decades. It specifically looks at the way that Matthew and Mark and Luke would have moved through their sources or exemplars (source-utilization movement) when they composed, presuming that some sort of direction of dependence is the case. Each of the Simple Solutions is considered in this regard—the Augustinian Hypothesis, the Büsching Hypothesis, the Farrer Hypothesis, the Griesbach Hypothesis, the Lockton Hypothesis, and the Wilke Hypothesis, as well as the Two-Document Hypothesis. It may be presumed some sort of direction of dependence is the case between the Synoptic Gospels, whatever direction this might be, and the form these sources took would have likely been bookrolls (or scrolls). The thesis introduces a neglected factor in Synoptic Problem studies. Whereas historically each Gospel text has been presumed to be a single bookroll, in this study, a multiple-bookroll hypothesis is also tested. Instead of there being one bookroll per Gospel, the possibility that each Gospel was distributed over several bookrolls is also tested. Additionally, the study takes into consideration the role of memory and memory-access of traditions in the process of composition. Several other matters concerning ancient compositional practice is also treated throughout. When the various Hypotheses are examined in terms of how the Gospel-authors would have moved through their texts, in light of a multiple bookroll hypothesis, among other factors, the result seems to favour strongly Lukan Absolute Posteriority (i.e., the Augustinian and Farrer Hypotheses). / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This study concerns the composition of the Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and is part of a scholarly discussion within New Testament studies known as the Synoptic Problem. It considers the composition of the Gospels in light of ancient compositional practice. It specifically looks at the way that Matthew and Mark and Luke would have moved through their sources or exemplars during composition (source-utilization movement), according to a number of different hypotheses. Each Gospel may be presumed to have used sources when their authors composed, and the sources would have likely been bookrolls (or scrolls). A number of Hypotheses have been presented over the last two centuries concerning how the Gospels were composed and what direction of dependence that composition took. When these various Hypotheses are examined in terms of how the Gospel-authors would have moved through their texts, the result seems to favour two possibilities above others. Both of these possibilities have it that the author of Luke was the utilizing author of both Matthew and Mark.

An alternative way to invest on the stock market is to invest in IPO’s. An IPO (InitialPublic Offering) is the first time a company goes public on a stock market, giving outshares to private investors and financial institutions. However, there might be someuncertainties about the share price as it never has been traded on the stock exchangebefore and it could therefore be difficult to determine a reasonable value for the shareprice. Consequently, if the offering price for the investor is significantly lower thanthe “correct valued” price it will generate positive initial return during the first tradingday and this phenomenon is labelled as underpricing, generating more “money on thetable”. Still, previous researches display an underperformance among IPO’s during alonger period after the introduction compared to already established companies withinthe same sector, arguing that investors should sell their shares early after the firsttrading day.The objective of this study is therefore to determine if underpricing exists for IPO’son the Swedish stock exchange and if there are any differentiations amongst sectors,and also to investigate two different Buy-and-Hold strategies. A final objective for thestudy is to determine if the level of underpricing is affected by some explanatoryvariables.With a quantitative study and a longitudinal approach, the results confirm the effect ofunderpricing for IPO’s on the Swedish stock exchange, generating an averageunderpricing of 5.56%. Additionally, this study cannot display any different medianunderpricing between industry sectors. However, it contradicts with theunderperformance phenomenon, indicating an overperformance for longer Buy-and-Hold strategies. Lastly, a regression of explanatory variables trying to explain thelevel of underpricing demonstrates no statistically significant results.

論文摘要 本論文由兩篇獨立的文章所構成，第一篇文章從個體角度出發，探討臺灣產業出口與成長之間的關聯性；第二篇文章則以總體的角度，分析世界各主要國家經濟成長的型態(包括出口偏向型的成長與進口偏向型的成長)對該國貿易條件的影響。 長久以來，出口與產出之間的相互影響向來是廣受重視的議題。在國際經濟領域中，多數研究均專注於兩者間理論之建立，關於實證方面的探討並不多見，而個體角度來探討產業出口與成長之間的文獻更是稀少，以臺灣產業出口與成長之間因果關係為對象的研究則付之闕如。臺灣的經濟成就向來被歸功於出口擴張政策的成功，但出口導向的影響範圍究竟擴及多少產業的效果仍不明朗，因此第一篇文章關心的重點，在於探討對我國的產業而言出口擴張是否是個有效的政策？而究竟出口導向和產出導向哪一種政策的效果較好，也是本文所關心的目標。 第二篇文章討論成長型態對貿易條件的影響。由於出口偏向型的成長會使本國願意以更多出口財來換取進口財，將會使本國出口財的國際價格相對下降，進而惡化本國的貿易條件，改善外國的貿易條件；反之，在進口偏向型成長的情況下，出口財的減少則會使本國貿易條件改善，外國貿易條件惡化。是以一國的經濟成長對該國貿易條件的影響，將取決於其生產可能曲線外移的方向。本文嘗試以八個工業化國家和七個開發中國家為對象，在加入成長偏向政策、物價、匯率、所得移轉、對外投資、貿易平衡、貿易開放程度等因素的考慮下，來驗證成長型態對其貿易條件的影響效果是否符合理論的規範。 / The purpose of first paper is to investigate the empirical relationships between exports and domestic production in 22 Taiwan main industries, using time series data for the period 1982:01~2002:07. Different from the previous literatures, this paper examines the relations by taking into account industrial data because we are wondering whether the causal links between exports and outputs still sustain in individual industry, and either export promotion or production-led policies are more effective for industrial production. Hence, three related topics will be discussed: to recognize the incidence of export promotion policy in Taiwan industries, to explore either export promotion or production-led policies is more effective for industrial production, and to detect whether all exportation-oriented industries would simultaneously support export promotion hypothesis. The findings of the econometric analysis employing Granger causality test do not have enough evidence to support that the proportion of exports to production is a necessary condition for generating export promotion. Nevertheless, this study suggests that production makes great influence on exports in Taiwan individual industry but the effects of exports on production is not so prevailing as we thought before. Therefore, the influence of production to exports in Taiwan industry is more prevalent than that of exports to outputs. The purpose of the second paper is to examine the impacts of growth types on terms of trade by making a comparison between 8 industrial countries and 7 developing countries (involving 3 NICs countries). This paper finds that the theories seems not be supported because evidence shows the occurrence of positive effects of export-biased growth to terms of trade are more prevalent than negative ones. Moreover, the empirical results of negative incidence shown by import-biased growth come into conflict with theories, and the impacts of import-biased growth on terms of trade are indefinite. In addition, most results reveals that export-biased growth and import-biased growth policies in industrial countries are invalid, and most results in NICs and developing countries are ambiguous while export-biased growth or import-biased growth policies are adopted. Furthermore, the empirical results reveal that income transferring have great or opposite influence in NICs and developing countries, and trade openness is advantageous to NICs and developing countries but is disadvantageous to developed ones.

The Abee enstatite chondrite breccia was studied using two methods: measurement of noble gases, and, analyses of the clast size-distribution and the overall texture of Abee. These studies were made in order to understand the formation of the Abee breccia and the formation of the enstatite chondrites. Noble gases were measured as a part of the consortium effort. Noble gases were measured in 17 samples from 10 regions within Abee. Radiogenic ages are 4.5 aeons. Cosmic ray exposure ages average 8 Myr. No evidence for pre-irradiation was found except for a chondrule which may have been neutron pre-irradiated. Abee has at least 2 iodine bearing minerals, both of which are silicate minerals. This suggests that iodine had refractory behavior in the E-chondrites. Two trapped components were found: one having planetary-type elemental and isotopic composition (termed "Kenna-type"), the second with a high argon to xenon ratio (termed "argon-rich") but isotopically similar to the first. Both components appear to be carried in silicate phases, probably enstatite. The Kenna-type component may be carried by small inclusions within silicate minerals. The argon-rich component may have originated from solar wind implantation before accretion of the E-chondrite parent body requiring an inner solar system origin or by noble gas trapping during high temperature mineral condensation requiring high nebular pressures. The clast size-distribution of Abee and 2 other meteorites from the Antarctic meteorite collection (BTNA 78004, ALHA 78113) were measured. The 3 meteorites appear to have formed during single, low energy impacts and that Abee was part of an ejecta blanket which mixed with surrounding regolith. From the textural study, a formation model for the Abee breccia is discussed. The breccia formed during a single impact. Clast metal rims were vapor deposited and partially metamorphosed during impact-generated heating. Greater heating formed dark and metal inclusions. Maximum temperatures were less than 1200 C and heating was brief. Later, the material was disturbed but not brecciated. Abee did not reside on an asteroidal regolith surface for a significant period of time due to the lack of pre-irradiation. This model suggests that the E-chondrite groups formed by metamorphic heating and metal to silicate fractionation on a single parent body.

Finance scholars disagree on how real world financial markets work. On the one hand, efficient market hypothesis (EMH) advocates claim that arbitrage ensures that market prices do not systematically deviate from their fundamental value even when some market participants are less than fully rational. Hence, in the EMH world, securities’ prices always reflect all available information. On the other hand, behavioural finance theorists argue that investors suffer important cognitive biases and that arbitrage is both risky and costly. In this alternative setting, prices may not reflect all available information and can systematically deviate from their fundamental value for long periods of time. My thesis contributes to this ongoing debate by exploring how the US equity market reacts to bankruptcy announcements. Using a set of 351 non-financial, non-utility firms filing for Chapter 11 between 1979 and 2005 that remain listed on a main exchange, I first find a strong, negative and statistically significant mean post-bankruptcy announcement drift. This ranges from -24 to -44 percent over the following 12 months depending on the benchmark adopted to measure abnormal returns. A number of robustness tests confirm that this result is not a mere statistical artefact. In fact, the post-bankruptcy drift is not subsumed by known confounding factors like the post-earnings announcement drift, the post-first-time going concern drift, the momentum effect, the book-to-market effect, industry clustering or the level of financial distress. In addition, I show that my main result is robust to different methods for conducting longer-term event studies. My empirical findings are consistent with the previous behavioural finance literature that claims that the market is unable to deal appropriately with acute bad news events. In the second part of this thesis, I investigate how limits to arbitrage impact the stock price of firms undergoing a Chapter 11 reorganization. I find that, despite the apparent large negative abnormal returns, the post-bankruptcy announcement drift offers only an illusory profit opportunity. Moreover, I show that noise trader risk is critical for the pricing of these firms’ stock. Taken together, my results suggest that limits to arbitrage issues can explain the persistence of the market-pricing anomaly I uncover. As such, the market for firms in Chapter 11 appears to be “minimally rational” (Rubinstein, 2001). My work additionally explores whether behavioural finance theory can help clarify why the post-bankruptcy announcement drift occurs in the first place. I find that the Barberis, Shleifer and Vishny (1998) and the Hong and Stein (1999) models do not account well for the typical return pattern associated with the announcement of Chapter 11. My results call into question the reliability of existing theoretical models based on behavioural concepts in explaining how real world financial markets really work. In the last part of this thesis, I show that the different motivations for filing for Chapter 11 Court protection affect the market’s reaction to this extreme event. Solvent firms addressing the Bankruptcy Court not as a last resort but as a planned business strategy characterize a strategic bankruptcy; companies on the verge of imminent failure typify a non-strategic bankruptcy. I find that for non-strategic bankruptcies, there is a negative and statistically significant post-event drift lasting at least twelve months. Conversely, I show that, although the initial market reaction to bankruptcy filing is similar in the case of strategic bankruptcies in terms of viewing all bankruptcies as homogeneous, there is a subsequent reversal in the stock return pattern for these peculiar firms. In effect, abnormal returns become strongly positive and significant suggesting that, over time, the market to recognise strategic bankruptcies as good news events. Overall, the results of my PhD allow me to make some important contributions to finance theory and the finance literature, in particular in the bad news disclosure and market pricing domains.