The study is set to assess private actors participation in the global climate governance through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) adopted during the Kyoto Climate Conference of 1997 in Japan. The general aim of this thesis is to understand why there are so few CDM projects in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). The study is based on literature review of selected academic and policy documents, statistical analysis of CDM project distribution, and a questionnaire distributed to four respondents that include Tricorona, EcoSecurities, Vattenfall and Swedish Energy Agency to acquire relevant data. The data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics and the CDM project pipeline. The main conclusions of the study are: (1) the Kyoto Protocol did not place a binding commitment on industrialized countries as to how they should channel CDM investment in developing countries and; (2) the market incentive placed within the CDM did not take into consideration the historical and socioeconomic issues of poverty, poor infrastructural and institutional problems of Sub Saharan African countries in order to avoid the unequal distribution of projects. The study concludes with the recommendation that the post-2012 CDM era should create a new framework that will assist Sub Saharan African Countries in developing alternative energy, and in promoting green technology. The thesis equally recommends that the market mechanism should be enforced by a new political mechanism that will help to promote good governance, as well as upgrade the existing political institutions and infrastructural development in SSA.

Many people have not even heard about Eritrea and even less about the free zones that is establishing there. The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding about the free zones that exits in Eritrea today. The port of Massawa is the one that the focus is upon in our thesis. The reason for the implementation of the free zones is the re-construction of the economy. The country is restoring the economy due to the fact that they had been in war with Ethiopia. Free zones are an established concept that already exists in other country’s for example Djibouti, Dubai, Sudan and so on. The free zones in Eritrea will have to show its forefeet to be competitive. We want to increase the understanding of the free zones in Eritrea and even increase the understanding for how the strategy and the project are being handled. We will use models and theories to explain how the implementation is being done in the Eritrean free zones. The models that we are going to use, will illustrate how the management can be done. The methodological chapter will describe the approached used during the entire thesis. By collecting various kinds of data, the understanding has increased. We have analyzed all data, concluded the report and offered further recommendations.

The role of information is central to the study of corporate finance. In the real world where one party usually has more and better information, information asymmetry forms the basis of analysis in many key aspects of modern economics including contract theory and principle-agent problems. Although technology facilitates information flow, information continues to play an important role because we live in an environment in which there is more information and information that is more complex. Moreover, we are experiencing a fundamental shift towards a knowledge-based economy in which ideas and concepts, both in the form of information, gain importance. This thesis examines the role of information as we make this transition in two separate settings: First in a “real impact” setting where knowledge generated at leading research universities spills over into firms nearby, and second, in a "traditional market" setting where analysts help disseminate information. In the post-industrial economy of the 21st century, innovation is the engine of economic growth. As a result, we increasingly value human capital and knowledge. Chapter 2 looks at the location of firms relative to knowledge centers and its impact on stock volatility. I argue that knowledge spillovers foster firm R&D and find supporting evidence. My evidence is consistent with the classic models on the impact of human capital on economic growth (Nelson and Phelps, 1966). Chapter 3 examines the impact of knowledge and innovation on firms’ cash management policies. Bates, Kahle, and Stulz (2009) find that the average cash-to-assets ratio for firms more than doubles in the past decades and attribute it to changing firm characteristics. I identify innovation as a driving force behind these changes, resulting in firms holding more cash as a precaution. In Chapter 4, I study the investment value of information from analysts, or more specifically, analyst target prices. Due to potential conflicts of interest problems, the value that analysts provide to investors remains controversial. Moreover, since the information age is characterized by information overload, it is harder for investors to identify relevant information. I find that institutions trade in the same direction as the consensus target price movement. / Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2012-03-07 14:20:20.178

In this dissertation, I investigate the impact of institutional investors on security prices and corporate policies, and offer a new perspective on the vital role that institutional investors play in the modern capital market. Specifically, on the impact on security price movements, I design a new measure of stock-level sentiment based on mutual fund publically disclosed portfolio information and provide a new dimension to better predict stock returns. A trading strategy based on the new sentiment metrics can generate an annualized alpha of 21.27%. The abnormal returns cannot be explained by the time-varying expected returns and transaction costs, and can be best explained by mutual fund overreactions. Hence, my findings can be interpreted as a new anomaly in a new era-when institutional investors are the marginal traders. On the impact on corporate policy side, I document two pieces of new empirical evidence on the importance of long-term institutional holdings: the entrenchment effect of long-term institutional holdings in the context of corporate financing decisions and the active monitoring role of long-term institutional investors in the context of international firms’ accounting qualities. Combined with previous studies which favour a long-term institutional investor, the evidence on the cost side of long-term holding I document here can serve as the first call for an optimal investment horizon for firms operating in the U.S. / Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2012-04-11 22:22:17.627

No description available.

In many developed countries angel capital investment is the main source of external financing for high growth early-stage entrepreneurial companies. In spite of its importance, research in the angel capital market is still very limited. This is partly due the fact that data on angel capital investment is rare and unsystematic. This dissertation attempts to learn more about this important but not well-understood angel capital market. In particular, the first essay looks at the relationship between angels and venture capitalists in financing start-up ventures. This essay juxtaposes a complements hypothesis – angel financing is a springboard for venture capital, against a substitutes hypothesis – angels and venture capital are distinct financing methods that ought not to be combined. The result shows that companies that obtain angel financing subsequently obtain less venture capital, and vice versa. On average venture capitalist make larger investments, but this alone cannot explain the substitutes pattern. In addition, this essay reports that companies funded by venture capital perform better than angel backed companies, as measured by successful exits or revenues. Mixing angel and venture capital funding tends to be associated with worse performance. The second essay studies the role of geographic distance between the angel investors and the investee companies on the angel investment performance. This essay conjectures four possible channels that can explain the relationship between distance and the return to angel investment. It shows that distance has a positive relationship with the return to angel investment. Examining the effect of distance across different categories of angel investors, across angel investor’s locations, and across company’s location, this essay finds evidence that this positive relationship is mainly driven by the “objectivity effect”, which suggests that distant investors can evaluate the prospect of a company more objectively than close-by investors, who tend to be more biased in their judgments. The third essay examines why entrepreneurs find it generally hard to find angel investors. This essay modifies the standard search model introduced by Pissarides to explain this phenomenon. In this model, angels hide to force entrepreneurs to engage in a costly search. The result shows that angel investors adopt the hiding strategy to screen out low-productivity entrepreneurs who would otherwise inundate angels. Interestingly, social surplus is often increased when angels hide, though in some circumstances surplus may fall. / Graduate / 0505 / danvo@uvic.ca

In this dissertation, I study the influence of monitoring by institutional investors on corporate behavior within the context of CEO compensation-based incentives. I find that institutional investors provide an executive with higher levels of compensation sensitivity with respect to a firm’s equity price (Delta). In contrast to prior literature, however, once I control the dynamic nature of the data, institutional investors do not affect compensation sensitivity with respect to a firm’s equity risk (Vega). Instead, I find that institutional investors appear to influence the risk profile of firm through the firm’s investment, financing and diversification policy choices even after I control for the CEO’s compensation structure. The results suggest that compensation-related incentives to increase risk (i.e. vega) and monitoring by institutional investors are substitutes of each other in that both can offset the managerial incentives to reduce risk that stem from greater levels of compensation delta. These results are robust to potential endogeneity problems that may arise due to the dynamic nature of panel data.

This master thesis examines the role of foreign investors in the Istanbul Stock Exchange in three dimensions: differences among sectors and subsectors in terms of foreign trading activity, the effect of November 2000 &amp / #8211 / February 2001 crisis on returns and foreign trading activity, and the relationship between return and foreign trading activity. Data used in this thesis covers 72 months between January 1997 and December 2002. Significant differences among sectors and subsectors in terms of foreign trading activity is found. On the other hand, there is no statistically significant difference in the mean values and variances of returns on the overall market, national sector and most subsector indices before and after the crisis period of November 2000 &amp / #8211 / February 2001. However, foreign trading activity has decreased in interest-sensitive and cyclical industries and increased in defensive industries during the recession that follows the crisis. The relationship between return and net foreign trading volume relative to the total trading volume is statistically significant for the overall market and national sectors. Furthermore, we find that the effect of net foreign trading volume relative to the total trading volume on return is larger for stocks included in the ISE-30 index. The mean returns on stocks associated with negative NFV and positive NFV are statistically significantly different from each other. We further find that it is more likely to observe positive (negative) return on a stock when net foreign trading volume in that stock is positive (negative).

Chapter 2 undertakes a new investigation of the potential for options to mitigate short sale constraints, conducing two event studies which examine 1732 option introductions and the differential effect of the 2008 short sale ban on optioned and non-optioned stocks. I find option introduction mitigates 79% of the price adjustment efficiency disparity between short sale constrained and unconstrained stocks in relation to negative news. I also find evidence that negative information was incorporated more freely into optioned stocks during the short sale transaction ban of financial sector stocks. These results collectively suggest that in the presence of binding short sale constraints, options act as an effective substitute to short sales, significantly contributing to the informational efficiency of the market. In Chapter 3 we examine the determinants of success of foreign cross-listings in the U.S. using cumulative returns surrounding the cross-listing event and liquidity on the U.S. exchange as joint metrics of success. We find that the post-listing liquidity and valuation benefits of cross-listings are crucially dependent both on prior home-market success and on U.S. institutional holdings in the cross-listing quarter. Stocks with greater institutional ownership upon cross-listing see more liquid U.S. trading. Additionally, firms with a higher abnormal price run-up in the year prior to cross-listing and firms that see more liquid domestic trading enjoy greater post-listing liquidity in the U.S. Chapter 4 examines the asset allocation decisions of mutual fund investors, focusing on flight to quality considerations. Using the default spread, term spread and short term interest rate as proxies for economic conditions, we find that an expected improvement (deterioration) in Canadian economic conditions causes investors to direct flow away from (towards) fixed income-type funds and towards (out of) equity based funds. For example, a one standard deviation increase in the term spread (1.13%) results in an 84% increase and a 74% decrease in the percentage of flow directed at Canadian equity and money market funds respectively, relative to the previous month. / Finance

本文以2008年金融海嘯為分界點，由於在事前並沒有一個投資大師以及機構法人能夠精準的預測金融海嘯發生，海嘯發生之後幾乎使得市場上所有的投資人 都面臨虧損，不但金融權威一夕崩解，一向以報導「大師投資法」的媒體業也必須重新找尋新的出路，透過尋找神奇致富的素人取代失寵的名人與大師，報導其相關投資方法，來吸引一般投資大眾，以刺激其銷量。隨後，報章雜誌也相繼報導許多神奇致富故事，媒體一時之間變成「富翁製造機」，透過電視媒體加以延伸、渲染，閱聽大眾眼之所見、耳之所聞，都是唾手可得的賺錢妙方與密技，時下投資人紛紛起而效尤，期待自己能成為下一個大戶，投資市場上充滿了「樂透式」的投資氛圍。 本研究係作者本人長期的觀察與調查，發現很多名人或是素人，固然也有腳踏 實力，努力鑽研，創造財富的案例，也有不少案例在媒體的報導與引用上，因為採取「隱惡揚善」，甚至誇大賺錢、神奇致富的一面，對於賠錢部分卻是絕口不提，其次，大部分散戶投資人都希望能有捷徑或是透過學習、複製的方式，來進行投資理財，殊不知是用自己一知半解的想法進行投資，期待能於股市中發點小財，而且只看「結果」下的投資決策，會讓投資大眾產生錯覺，很容易失之偏頗。 所以，本研究的進行，期望達到下列目的： 1. 收集與整理相關媒體銷售的資料，了解目前散戶偏好的投資意見為何。 2. 針對受訪談的媒體從業人員所提供之意見進行歸納比較，進而探討名人與素人透過媒體管道所提供給散戶的投資建議，是否為一正確、可信之投資意見。 3. 最後，根據本研究之相關結論，並提出適當意見，做為媒體自律與散戶在投資理財上的建議。 / This study will investigate and analyze the changed role of the media industry as a 'rich making machine' since the financial crisis of 2008. The financial meltdown served as a turning point for the media since there were no investment gurus or corporate bodies that accurately had predicted the development. Virtually all investors in the market faced losses and many investment celebrities lost their credibility. Subsequently newspapers and magazines turned to rich and successful people to replace them and stimulating their sales by reporting miraculous rich stories. They are selling recipes how to make money to a willing audience, members of the investing public eager to become the next investment guru. Stimulated by this, the 'lottery' type of investment is in full swing on the market. Through long‐term observation and investigation we found that, first, many of the business celebrities actually based their success on a solid foundation, strove to study and then created wealth. Many of the media reports, however, tend to overly focus on the virtues and exaggerate the money making 'magic rich' side, while on the other hand neglecting or even covering up failures and bad deeds. Secondly, many investors are looking for a shortcut to create riches and try to copy others supposedly successful investment models without real understanding of market mechanisms and easily become misled by biased media reporting. This study is expected to achieve the following purposes: (1) Collect and collate information related to media sales, retail preferences in order to understand the preferences of all investors. (2) Conduct interviews with media practitioners, collect their opinions, summarize and compare them. Then discuss the advise given by investment celebrities given through the media pipeline and check if this advise is correct or credible. (3) Based on the findings of this study propose a self‐regulating body for the media and give recommendations for potential investors.