Context The number of Initial Public Offerings on the Swedish market has increasedrapidly over the last decade, reporting over 100 IPOs only in 2021. Although theincrease has been extraordinary, the majority of the IPO performance researchhas been conducted on larger markets such as the US, Germany, and China. Thiscreates a gap in the research regarding the performance of IPOs on the fastgrowing Swedish stock market.  Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to fill the identified research gap and examine howthe Swedish IPOs perform in relation to established firms listed on the OMXSSmall Cap. Findings on long-term over-or underperformance would lay afoundation for potential investment strategies as well as show signs ofinformation asymmetry and mispricing. To further extend the use of ourfindings, firm-specific factors will be tested in a regression model to find ifspecific firm characteristics have a positive or negative impact on the long-termperformance of the IPOs.  Questions at issue 1. Does the Swedish Initial Public Offerings over/underperform comparedto the OMXS Small Cap in the long run? 2. Which firm-specific factors affect the long-term performance of an IPO? Methodology To find if the IPOs over-or underperform the OMXS Small Cap index, the Buyand Hold Abnormal Returns over 24 and 36 months are calculated with theOMXS Small Cap as a benchmark index. Further, a regression analysis with 15explanatory variables is performed with the received BHAR results as thedependent variable to find if there are any significant relationships between thefirm-specific variables measured before the IPO and the long-term performance.  Results The Buy and Hold Abnormal Returns presented a positive abnormal return forboth periods measured, with a significant overperformance of 9,91% over the36-month period, and 21,14% for the 24-month period. Further, the regressionanalysis showed a positive relationship between firm performance and firm sizeand Return On Equity, indicating that a high ROE, as well as a larger firm sizeat the date of the listing, increases the chances of higher long-term returns.

Non-deal roadshows (NDR) are privately held one-on-one meetings between the buy-side of financial institutions and firm management. Using a novel dataset of these meetings, I examine the effects that NDR meetings have on the outcomes of two important corporate events: seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) and mergers and acquisitions (M&As). I also study the potential implications of the information content in NDRs on the behavior of stock returns following earnings announcements, which has been the subject of much academic work. I structure the dissertation in three essays. In the first essay, I examine the relationship between NDR activity and the underpricing of SEOs. I find that NDRs are associated with lower SEO underpricing. This association is stronger for firms with infrequent NDR activity, for smaller firms, and for firms with higher analysts' forecast errors. These findings suggest that NDRs reduce the level of asymmetric information between firms and investors, which results in a lower cost of raising equity. In Essay 2, I investigate whether the occurrence of NDR meetings affects post-earnings-announcement drift (PEAD). I find that PEAD declines after NDR activity when the most recent NDR meeting occurs within one month before the earnings announcement. This decline is most pronounced among smaller firms, firms with high idiosyncratic volatility, and firms with Friday earnings announcements. These findings suggest that NDRs are mechanisms to convey earnings-specific information about forthcoming earnings. In the third essay I explore the relationship between NDRs, the medium of exchange used in M&As and the value created by this important corporate event. I show that NDR activity is important to understand the cross-sectional variation of the excess returns around M&As, and the bid premium. NDRs are also relevant to understand the medium of exchange. This relevance of NDR is more pronounced when the firms involved have higher levels of asymmetric information. My findings suggest that NDRs convey relevant information about acquiring and target firms, and this information affects the financing of M&As and the value created by these combinations. Taken together, the results reported in this dissertation highlight the relevance of the NDR as a mechanism to reveal information.

The strengthening of the entrepreneurial landscape has been viewed as a means to national economic growth, wealth creation as well as job creation. Good examples exists where government deliberate actions have contributed to these kind of positive growth, yet this research exposes the rigour and hard work needed to bring about this success. The rigour stems from the pursuit of a holistic approach which involves the strengthening of the six domains of entrepreneurship ecosystem growth as posited in literature, while the hard work is related to the discipline and expertise required to pilot such initiative. Research has shown that many countries may be looking for entrepreneurship in the wrong places. Funding availability is only a part of a thriving entrepreneurship ecosystem, the strengthening of other domains can help an ecosystem grow more sustainably. The role of government in driving the entrepreneurship ecosystem can be restricted and channeled towards government performing it traditional role of providing the enabling environment and allowing the private sector drive the ecosystem. Where the growth of the entrepreneurship ecosystem is led by public initiative, it may be better to jettison the idea of the individual firm’s development and pursue the strengthening of the ecosystem in all it domains.

The Ghanaian real estate market, though thriving, grapples with insufficient market data. The lack of data renders the market nontransparent and increases transaction costs. Considering the market performance over the past few years, great potential lies for even more growth if this problem is addressed. This research aims to provide an understanding of the data needs of the market and the effects of data paucity on the market. It also explores the potential that state institutions provide to ameliorate the problem. The data for this study is collected from interviews with real estate valuers and data aggregation firms that operate in the Ghanaian market. Data is also collected from acts of parliament. The research outlines the perspectives of valuers regarding the problem and the provisions that legal documents make for improving access to market data. This is conducted through qualitative methods. The research finds that the problems with data inaccessibility do not only affect market transactions but also the training of valuers and research about the market. The results indicate that government legislation makes provisions that should enable the collection of data by different agencies to be made publicly available; however, it appears the lack of incentives and a lack of enforcement of these institutions has resulted in the status quo: stakeholders in the market seem to be sitting on a goldmine.  Therefore, relevant stakeholders in the market need to drive change in data provision for a more transparent and efficient market.

<p>This dissertation comprises two essays on over-the-counter (OTC) markets, covering both the primary and secondary markets for municipal bonds.</p> <p>In the first chapter, I explore a novel channel through which exchange-traded funds (ETFs) improve pre-trade price transparency and thereby retail investors' bargaining power in OTC markets. ETFs are required to daily disclose their full holdings, often along with their constituents’ end-of-day prices, which are good timely references for investors to negotiate with broker-dealers, particularly when the securities have not traded recently. I find that ETF-held bonds have significantly lower retail markups than those of bonds not held by ETFs. This effect cannot be explained by selection or ETFs' own trading activity but is driven by the daily disclosures by ETFs holding the bonds. During 2010--2021, retail investors saved over $200 million when trading ETF-held bonds. There is also a spillover effect to the primary market---when municipalities have outstanding ETF-held bonds, their new issues have lower yields and smaller price dispersion.</p> <p>In the second chapter, I both theoretically and empirically document a non-monotonic relation between local municipal bond mutual funds, or informed investors, and underpricing in the municipal bond market. Empirically speaking, offering yields are higher in states that have open-end municipal bond funds, and with larger aggregate fund size. However, holding local fund size constant, yields decrease in the number of funds. Such relations hold when local funds' primary market participation is instrumented with the similarities in characteristics of new issues and existing bonds in their portfolios. I further confirm my empirical findings with a security underpricing model that incorporates the imperfect signals available to informed investors. Despite facing higher borrowing costs, issuers benefit from local funds' certification resulting in both institutional and retail investors' higher demand in the primary market.</p>

The bias implied by conservatism in accounting and its impact on information risk in equity markets is the subject of considerable debate. On one hand, opponents of conservatism believe that any kind of biased information is actually misinformation and thus increases uncertainty. Perhaps most prominent among opponents of conservatism is the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). The FASB contends that accounting information should be neutral—free from bias; a bias in favor of reporting either good or bad news is inconsistent with representational faithfulness and neutrality. On the other hand, proponents of conservatism point to incentives of management to manipulate financial statements by exaggerating apparent good news and/or hiding apparent bad news. Proponents argue that the bias implied by conservatism is necessary to offset the asymmetric reporting incentives of the firm’s management, and in so doing, conservatism allegedly improves information quality and reduces information risk. Finally, results of at least one recent study do not favor either position, suggesting that conservatism has no effect on information quality in equity market. This study finds that the bias implied by conservatism (bias in favor of reporting bad news) increases information risk in equity markets and consequently the cost of equity capital. Findings further indicate that sufficiently aggressive bias also increases information risk. That is, the market’s most aggressive firms, those reporting with a bias opposite that implied by conservatism, can reduce information risk by moving toward more neutral, unbiased reporting. Furthermore, the general effects of biased reporting (increased information risk) are consistent across all levels of information asymmetry among equity investors. These findings are interpreted as supporting the position of the FASB that biased accounting information increases information risk.

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<p>This thesis explores the following three important issues in the field of corporate finance: window dressing in corporate cash holdings, market effects of SEC regulation of short-term borrowing disclosure and market response to dividend change announcements by unregulated versus regulated firms.</p> <p>First, I find strong evidence of upward window dressing in cash holdings by U.S. industrial firms during the fourth fiscal quarter. This behavior is robust to several controls and a December year-end dummy. Further cross-sectional analysis reveals that the window dressing is sensitive to firm size and level of information asymmetry. I also find that firms manipulate discretionary accruals to dress up fourth quarter cash, perhaps to gain favourable credit terms on issuing short-term debt.</p> <p>Second, I use portfolios of financial and non-financial SEC registrants to examine the market reaction to proposed SEC short-term borrowing disclosure regulation. Using event study methodology, I find that the market reaction is positive and significant at the announcement date and negative and significant at the voting date. Overall, I observe a positive market reaction, indicating the usefulness of the disclosure from the vantage point of users. The results for various subsets confirm the expectations and suggest that a “one-size-fits-all” approach to regulation is undesirable.</p> <p>Finally, I use large samples of dividend increase and decrease announcements for the period 1960 to 2010 in order to compare stock price reactions of unregulated and regulated firms. I observe a stronger market reaction to the dividend increase announcements of unregulated firms compared to those of regulated firms after controlling for firm characteristics, market factors and contemporaneous earnings announcements, a result consistent with the dividend signaling hypothesis and uniqueness argument for regulated firms. However, I find that the market reaction to dividend decrease announcements is similar for unregulated and regulated firms. The cross-sectional analysis further confirms that the stronger stock price reaction to dividend increase announcements of unregulated firms is associated with the level of information asymmetry.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This dissertation consists of two essays. The first essay develops a new methodology for estimating the probability of informed trading from the observed quotes and depths, by extending the Copeland and Galai (1983) model. This measure (PROBINF) can be computed for each quote and it represents the specialist's ex-ante estimate of the probability of informed trading. I show that PROBINF exhibits a strong and robust relationship with the observed level of insider trading and with measures of the price impact of trades (ë) estimated based on the models of Glosten and Harris (1988), Madhavan and Smidt (1991) and Foster and Viswanathan (1993). In contrast, the alternative measure of the probability of informed trading (PIN) developed by Easley, Kiefer, O'Hara and Paperman (1996) exhibits a weaker and less robust relationship with insider trading and price impact of trades. The time series pattern of PROBINF in an intra-day analysis around earnings announcement is consistent with previous findings regarding informed trading. An important advantage of PROBINF over PIN and other measures of information asymmetry such as price impact of trades and adverse selection component of the spread is that, unlike these measures, it can be estimated for each quote, and thus can also be used to measure intra-day changes in informed trading and information asymmetry. In the second essay, I examine whether the underwriting syndicate composition influences the secondary market liquidity for initial public offerings (IPOs). Specifically, I argue that co-managers improve the liquidity of IPOs through the other services they provide, besides market making. Using a comprehensive sample of initial public offerings completed between January 1993 and December 2005, I find that IPOs with a high number of co-managers in their syndicates have lower spreads and a lower level of information asymmetry in the aftermarket. I argue that the information produced during the premarket and the analyst coverage in the aftermarket are the main channels through which co-managers mitigate the information asymmetry risk in the secondary market. / Ph. D.