The Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive ("AIFMD"), adopted by the European Union on 11 November 2010, has introduced a harmonized set of rules for alternative investment funds (“AIFs”) in Europe. This thesis discusses potential financial risks for the AIFs industry arising from the European regulatory reform, which started before the current financial crisis, and compares relevant European, Canadian and US rules governing AIFs. This comparative analysis is based on four main criteria: i) registration and authorization requirements, ii) general financial transparency requirements, iii) capital requirements, and iv) remuneration restrictions. The analysis of AIFs regulatory reform in Europe leads to three main conclusions. First, the AIFMD requirements are much stricter than analogue regimes in Canada and the United States. Second, as a consequence of this regulation, European AIFs may be in disadvantage. Third, the complexity of the present European institutional framework is not able to fully implement the European regulatory reform.

The overall goal of this research study is to determine if there is a correlation between electronic health (e-Health) adoption, e-Health investment and better health outcomes in a hospital setting. To carry out this research, data with respect to e-Health spending, e-Health adoption and relevant health outcome indicator results for Ontario hospitals were analyzed to determine if there is a correlation between the variables. There were significant positive correlations between e-Health adoption and investment variables; indicating that higher e-Health investment is associated with greater e-Health adoption. There were significant correlations between variables related to e-Health adoption, investment and certain health outcomes. For example, increased e-Health adoption was significantly and negatively correlated with variables related to Length of Stay (LOS), which suggests that increased e-Health adoption is associated with lower LOS. This study attempts to create a foundation upon which Return On Investment (ROI) may be calculated for e-Health technology.

The Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive ("AIFMD"), adopted by the European Union on 11 November 2010, has introduced a harmonized set of rules for alternative investment funds (“AIFs”) in Europe. This thesis discusses potential financial risks for the AIFs industry arising from the European regulatory reform, which started before the current financial crisis, and compares relevant European, Canadian and US rules governing AIFs. This comparative analysis is based on four main criteria: i) registration and authorization requirements, ii) general financial transparency requirements, iii) capital requirements, and iv) remuneration restrictions. The analysis of AIFs regulatory reform in Europe leads to three main conclusions. First, the AIFMD requirements are much stricter than analogue regimes in Canada and the United States. Second, as a consequence of this regulation, European AIFs may be in disadvantage. Third, the complexity of the present European institutional framework is not able to fully implement the European regulatory reform.

Existing research suggests that market misvaluations affect corporate investment, often leading to suboptimal investment. I examine whether earnings smoothness reduces the impact of market valuations on corporate investment and in turn enhances investment efficiency. I find that earnings smoothness has a strong negative effect on the sensitivity of corporate investment to stock prices. Further analyses indicate that this negative effect is driven by both innate and discretionary components of earnings smoothness and is more pronounced for firms operating in more volatile business environments. I complement these findings by demonstrating that firms with smoother earnings have lower over- (under-)investment and higher future operating performance. Collectively, the evidence suggests that earnings smoothness improves corporate investment efficiency by reducing the impact of market valuations on investment.

Since uncertainty and irreversibility are inherent, environmental policy involves the problems of timing of implementation. Environmental policy based on cost-benefit analysis using certainty equivalent presents values can be misleading under the combined effect of irreversibility and uncertainty. Using real options method, the thesis analyzes the timing of early action investment in Canada's Kyoto commitment. Early action investment in emission reductions is irreversible. The thesis uses a simple two-period model, and then lays out a corresponding continuous-time model to show that under technological uncertainty, early action investment should be delayed until more information - the results of R&D - is revealed. In particular, the more uncertain the outcome of research, the more the firm should delay early action investment. The thesis argues that Canada's Kyoto commitment is well intentioned but not wisely implemented: early action investment on emission reductions may not be efficient. The results suggest that a more gradual Kyoto program would be favourable.

I examine the relation between tax avoidance and firm investment by drawing on two capital market imperfections, adverse selection and moral hazard, to provide a link between tax avoidance and investment. Firms experiencing capital rationing because of adverse selection rely on internal resources to fund investment opportunities because of costly external financing. Tax avoidance can provide additional cash-flows that may alleviate capital rationing. Alternatively, tax avoidance can exacerbate problems of moral hazard by facilitating managerial rent extraction in the form of overinvestment. I find a positive relation between tax avoidance and investment suggesting effects of either capital rationing or overinvestment. To distinguish between these two effects, I examine how the relation between tax avoidance and investment varies in settings where capital rationing or overinvestment is more likely to occur. My findings suggest that firms rely on the cash savings from tax avoidance to alleviate capital rationing.

Since uncertainty and irreversibility are inherent, environmental policy involves the problems of timing of implementation. Environmental policy based on cost-benefit analysis using certainty equivalent presents values can be misleading under the combined effect of irreversibility and uncertainty. Using real options method, the thesis analyzes the timing of early action investment in Canada's Kyoto commitment. Early action investment in emission reductions is irreversible. The thesis uses a simple two-period model, and then lays out a corresponding continuous-time model to show that under technological uncertainty, early action investment should be delayed until more information - the results of R&D - is revealed. In particular, the more uncertain the outcome of research, the more the firm should delay early action investment. The thesis argues that Canada's Kyoto commitment is well intentioned but not wisely implemented: early action investment on emission reductions may not be efficient. The results suggest that a more gradual Kyoto program would be favourable.

This thesis examines Canadian FDI (foreign direct investment) in China from 1978 to 2006 in the context of globalization and with a focus on the challenges faced by Canadian firms when doing business in China. Building on John Dunning's 'eclectic model' of FDI and Kobrin’s ‘bargaining’ approach, this study explores the relative importance of home country (Canadian) and host country (Chinese) factors in explaining outcomes for Canadian firms in China in the mining, manufacturing and service sectors. Using interview data collected from Canadian high-level management personnel working in these sectors during 2005 the study argues that it has been largely the host country factors that have been at work in causing difficulties for Canadian companies in China. These include issues such as Chinese government regulations and institutions, cultural differences between Canada and China, as well as market and business environment impediments in China. On the other hand, home country factors, particularly the small size of Canadian firms in China, have also played an important part in affecting the operations of Canadian firms there. The empirical analysis of the mining, manufacturing and service sectors revealed that Canadian firms in China are not a homogenous group and their experience and challenges can only be understood in the context of the particular sector that they are engaged in. In particular, Canadian firms in the mining sector have been more subject to pressures from the Chinese state, while firms in the manufacturing sector have been subject more to factors surrounding the Chinese market and business environment. Firms in the service sector have fallen in between, and have been subject to both factors such as state regulation and local market and business conditions. The survey analysis of some Canadian successful firms in China also suggests that the fate of Canadian firms does not hinge solely on cultural dynamics associated with either home or host country or regulatory issues, but also on the very real efforts that individual companies make to understand local conditions, and to become accustomed and to prosper in China.

This study investigates variability in the importance of investment decision criteria used by venture capitalists in assessing new technology-based ventures and relates the criteria to the subsequent performance of the investment in the new venture. Variability was measured using interval and ordinal scale approaches for both criteria ratings and rankings. The analyses found that the criteria used by venture capitalists form a general hierarchy that is consistently ranked across ventures. However, there are some criteria that do not form part of this hierarchy and whose importance varies depending on the specific venture being evaluated. The criteria that are consistently considered important by venture capitalists can be thought of as necessary conditions for investment. The hypotheses concerning the relationship between the criteria and subsequent deal performance are that:· deal performance can be assessed by venture capitalists earlier for Internet-related ventures than for other-technology based ventures (H1);· Internet-related ventures have more extreme levels of deal performance (H2);· a small number of criteria will distinguish between successful and unsuccessful deal performance (H3);· criteria that do distinguish have above average variability (H4); and· criteria related to first-mover advantage distinguish between successful and unsuccessful deals (H5). The study was conducted in two parts. The original study (n=100) conducted by Bachher (2000) gathered information about the importance of the investment criteria using a web-based survey. The follow-up study (n=40) gathered information about the success of the investments by surveying the original participants and gathering information from the Internet. Limitations of the study include a nonrandom sample, a small sample size for the follow-up survey and the very small number (n=5) of unsuccessful investments identified. Evidence for hypotheses H1 and H2 was in the predicted direction but failed to achieve statistical significance. The evidence is supportive of H3. Evidence for H4 and H5 was not found. Additional analysis of the results suggests that venture capitalists whose investments were ultimately unsuccessful placed less importance on technology-related criteria than did venture capitalists investing in the other ventures. This finding implies that venture capitalists need to perform detailed assessments of the technology of new ventures.

The research at hand aims to define effectiveness of algorithmic trading, comparing with different benchmarks represented by several types of indexes. How big returns can be gotten by algorithmic trading, taking into account the costs of informational and trading infrastructure needed for robot trading implementation? To get the result, it’s necessary to compare two opposite trading strategies: 1) Algorithmic trading (implemented by high-frequency trading robot (based on statistic arbitrage strategy) and trend-following trading robot (based on the indicator Exponential Moving Average with the Variable Factor of Smoothing)) 2) Index investing strategy (classical index strategies “buy and hold”, implemented by four different types of indexes: Capitalization weight index, Fundamental indexing, Equal-weighted indexing, Risk-based indexation/minimal variance). According to the results, it was found that at the current phase of markets’ development, it is theoretically possible for algorithmic trading (and especially high-frequency strategies) to exceed the returns of index strategy, but we should note two important factors: 1) Taking into account all of the costs of organization of high-frequency trading (brokerage and stock exchanges commissions, trade-related infrastructure maintenance, etc.), the difference in returns (with superiority of high-frequency strategy) will be much less . 2) Given the fact that “markets’ efficiency” is growing every year (see more about it further in thesis), and the returns of high-frequency strategies tends to decrease with time (see more about it further in thesis), it is quite logical to assume that it will be necessary to invest more and more in trading infrastructure to “fix” the returns of high-frequency trading strategies on a higher level, than the results of index investing strategies.