Em setembro de 2007 o grupo Gerdau concretizou a aquisição da siderúrgica americana Chaparral Steel, desembolsando para isso 4,2 bilhões de dólares. Para financiar esta compra, 93% do funding foi de capital de terceiros e participação de acionistas, obtidos através de operações de empréstimo, emissão de ações e de um Bond, com prazo médio total de 5 anos. As operações foram contratadas no terceiro trimestre de 2007, período no qual a crise do subprime começou a preocupar as empresas e investidores, com o reporte de contínuas perdas por mau-pagamento de hipotecas, principalmente nos Estados Unidos, afetando diversos produtos financeiros. Destaca-se nesta estruturação o fato dela ter sido premiada pela International Financing Review Awards como a melhor operação de empréstimo feita por uma empresa da América Latina em 2007 e também a questão de ser o maior valor desembolsado pelo grupo Gerdau em uma aquisição. Como um todo, a operação manteve a empresa dentro dos indicadores das melhores práticas do seu segmento e possibilitou criação de valor para os acionistas e stakeholders. / In September of 2007 the Gerdau group finalized the acquisition of the American steelmaker Chaparral Steel, with a disbursement of 4.2 billion US dollars. Only 7% of the financing of this purchase was cash, the remaining 93% was obtained through the emission of new shares, short-term and long-term debt, and a Bond, with a total average maturity of 5 years. All the operations were contracted on the third semester of 2007, when the subprime crises started to scare off companies and investors, with the continuous report of losses due to the financial structured products on the mortgages market, mainly in the US. The highlights of this structure are that it was awarded by International Financing Review Awards as the best Latin American Loan of 2007 and also, it was the most ever paid by the group in an acquisition. Last but not least, the operation kept the company in the range of the best practice ratios of its segment and allowed the creation of value for its shareholders and stakeholders.

The goal of this thesis is to explore how household heterogeneity propagates and amplifies macroeconomic shocks within the economy using both economic theory and empirical data. The assumption of a single "representative" household has been a mainstay of macroeconomic research over the past half-century. However recent work suggests that not only is there a considerable degree of heterogeneity among households, but that these differences have a significant impact on a range of macroeconomic issues such as the e?ectiveness of fiscal stimulus (Kaplan et al., 2014; Broda and Parker, 2014), monetary policy (Auclert, 2017; Kaplan et al., 2016), the housing market (Attanasio et al., 2012; Blundell et al., 2008; Guerrieri and Iacoviello, 2017; Ngai et al., 2016; Mian et al., 2013), consumption (Ahn et al., 2017a; Blundell and Preston, 1998; Campbell and Cocco, 2007; Engelhardt, 1996) and employment (Ravn and Sterk, 2016; McKay and Reis, 2016; Abo-Zaid, 2013a) among many others. This literature has highlighted how households respond differently to aggregate shocks or changes in policy and how simply aggregating or averaging across them can obscure important truths about the economy. However, relaxing this assumption poses several challenges. The first is choosing the degree and manner in which households di?er. While in reality households can differ along many dimensions, in practice it is only feasible to include a small number of these in any given model. Thus one must choose the most salient dimensions along which households differ and the structural reasons behind such differences. For example, when examining the dynamics behind the housing market is it important to model differences in income, wealth, age, tastes or composition? No single model will be able to incorporate all these differences and so it is incumbent on researchers to proritise and justify their choices. In this thesis I will show why household heterogeneity in the housing and labour markets is both empirically relevant and an important consideration when considering the problem of optimal policy. The second challenge is a computational one. While models can be structured such that differentiated households make identical decisions, in general these differences will cause choices, and thus outcomes, across households to diverge. This produces a non-degenerate distribution of households across their specific state variables. This raises the problem of how this potentially infinite-dimension distribution is incorporated within the model. Previous literature has developed a range of options for handling this problem including approximating the distribution with a small handful of moments (Krusell and Smith, 1998) and approximating it with projection and perturbation methods (Reiter, 2009). In this thesis I will outline two different methods for dealing with this computational problem. The first, set out in Chapter 1, shows how market clearing prices can be feasibly calculated by aggregating over the distribution of households. The second approach involves simulating the model with aggregate uncertainty using numerical derivatives based on impulse response functions. The first chapter of this thesis will examine how heterogeneity in wealth and income affects households' decision to purchase housing and the implications for their consumption of non-durable goods. It constructs an Aiyagari-Bewley-Huggett model in which households are subject to an idiosyncratic income shock and thus hold different amounts of liquid wealth and illiquid housing. I then evaluate how the anticipated changes in household debt associated with the leveraged purchase of housing affect the consumption of non-durable goods. I show that the differences in income and wealth lead to significant variance in marginal propensities to consume among households. I show that households that are saving for a house deposit can have negative marginal propensities to consume as they lower their consumption in anticipation of being credit constrained as the probability that they will buy a house increases. This result has important implications for the design of fiscal policy, as it shows that payments to first time home buyers, which was a common policy response to the Global Financial Crisis, can lead to falls in aggregate consumption rather than stimulating growth. The second and third chapters examine how the combination of heterogeneity in workers' wages and downward nominal wage rigidity affects the transmission and design of different aspects of monetary policy. In Chapter 2 I show that in this environment there is a trade-off between a higher rate of inflation which gives workers more flexibility when setting real wages, at the cost of greater price dispersion in the goods market. After outlining a numerical algorithm to solve the model I use micro-data on the distribution of workers' change in wages to calibrate the nominal wage rigidity. I show that downward nominal wage rigidities bend the Phillips curve constraining the inflation rate from falling in times of low demand. This indicates that an inflation rate that is only moderately below its target can mask large falls in the output gap. Finally, I find that the monetary policy rule can be implemented by placing a higher weight on wage inflation, relative to a symmetric nominal wage rigidity. In Chapter 3 I discuss how downwardly rigid wages can amplify or mitigate the welfare loss caused by the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates and how this varies with the parameterisation of the model. I find that the optimal rate of inflation is increased by the presence of both nominal interest rate and wage rigidities, when modeled either separately or in tandem, and is 3 per cent in the baseline calibration of the model.

Em setembro de 2007 o grupo Gerdau concretizou a aquisição da siderúrgica americana Chaparral Steel, desembolsando para isso 4,2 bilhões de dólares. Para financiar esta compra, 93% do funding foi de capital de terceiros e participação de acionistas, obtidos através de operações de empréstimo, emissão de ações e de um Bond, com prazo médio total de 5 anos. As operações foram contratadas no terceiro trimestre de 2007, período no qual a crise do subprime começou a preocupar as empresas e investidores, com o reporte de contínuas perdas por mau-pagamento de hipotecas, principalmente nos Estados Unidos, afetando diversos produtos financeiros. Destaca-se nesta estruturação o fato dela ter sido premiada pela International Financing Review Awards como a melhor operação de empréstimo feita por uma empresa da América Latina em 2007 e também a questão de ser o maior valor desembolsado pelo grupo Gerdau em uma aquisição. Como um todo, a operação manteve a empresa dentro dos indicadores das melhores práticas do seu segmento e possibilitou criação de valor para os acionistas e stakeholders. / In September of 2007 the Gerdau group finalized the acquisition of the American steelmaker Chaparral Steel, with a disbursement of 4.2 billion US dollars. Only 7% of the financing of this purchase was cash, the remaining 93% was obtained through the emission of new shares, short-term and long-term debt, and a Bond, with a total average maturity of 5 years. All the operations were contracted on the third semester of 2007, when the subprime crises started to scare off companies and investors, with the continuous report of losses due to the financial structured products on the mortgages market, mainly in the US. The highlights of this structure are that it was awarded by International Financing Review Awards as the best Latin American Loan of 2007 and also, it was the most ever paid by the group in an acquisition. Last but not least, the operation kept the company in the range of the best practice ratios of its segment and allowed the creation of value for its shareholders and stakeholders.

Em setembro de 2007 o grupo Gerdau concretizou a aquisição da siderúrgica americana Chaparral Steel, desembolsando para isso 4,2 bilhões de dólares. Para financiar esta compra, 93% do funding foi de capital de terceiros e participação de acionistas, obtidos através de operações de empréstimo, emissão de ações e de um Bond, com prazo médio total de 5 anos. As operações foram contratadas no terceiro trimestre de 2007, período no qual a crise do subprime começou a preocupar as empresas e investidores, com o reporte de contínuas perdas por mau-pagamento de hipotecas, principalmente nos Estados Unidos, afetando diversos produtos financeiros. Destaca-se nesta estruturação o fato dela ter sido premiada pela International Financing Review Awards como a melhor operação de empréstimo feita por uma empresa da América Latina em 2007 e também a questão de ser o maior valor desembolsado pelo grupo Gerdau em uma aquisição. Como um todo, a operação manteve a empresa dentro dos indicadores das melhores práticas do seu segmento e possibilitou criação de valor para os acionistas e stakeholders. / In September of 2007 the Gerdau group finalized the acquisition of the American steelmaker Chaparral Steel, with a disbursement of 4.2 billion US dollars. Only 7% of the financing of this purchase was cash, the remaining 93% was obtained through the emission of new shares, short-term and long-term debt, and a Bond, with a total average maturity of 5 years. All the operations were contracted on the third semester of 2007, when the subprime crises started to scare off companies and investors, with the continuous report of losses due to the financial structured products on the mortgages market, mainly in the US. The highlights of this structure are that it was awarded by International Financing Review Awards as the best Latin American Loan of 2007 and also, it was the most ever paid by the group in an acquisition. Last but not least, the operation kept the company in the range of the best practice ratios of its segment and allowed the creation of value for its shareholders and stakeholders.

Um assunto recorrente na teoria de finanças tem sido a forma que uma empresa é financiada, ou seja, sua estrutura de capital e se essa afeta o valor da firma, sua rentabilidade e sua política de investimentos. A participação de capital de terceiros na estrutura de capital das empresas é pertinente em função do efeito da alavancagem financeira, que se refere à ação de captar recursos de terceiros a uma determinada taxa e aplicá-los em ativos que oferecem como retorno uma superior a esta. Assim, ao se utilizar de dívidas, uma empresa tem a possibilidade de aumentar a remuneração dos seus proprietários e, consequentemente, seu valor, por captar recursos a uma taxa e aplicá-los em outra possivelmente maior, embora com essa decisão passe a elevar seu risco, justamente pelo fato de assim passar a ter o compromisso com os credores que realizaram o empréstimo. Percebe-se, dessa forma, um potencial relacionamento entre as decisões de financiamento e investimento. Nesse sentido este trabalho teve como objetivo inicial examinar se a alavancagem financeira afeta as decisões de investimento das empresas brasileiras não financeiras de capital aberto. Para tanto, foram aplicados modelos de regressão linear múltipla com dados em painel no período de 2001 a 2011. Os resultados encontrados permitem dizer que existe uma forte correlação negativa entre a alavancagem financeira e o investimento nas empresas brasileiras não financeiras de capital aberto e que esse relacionamento é ainda mais intenso nas empresas com baixas oportunidades de crescimento. Constatando isso e considerando que diferentes elementos do endividamento podem exercer influências no investimento, um segundo objetivo foi propor um modelo que avalie como os aspectos de maturidade, fonte e custo do endividamento impactam o nível de investimento das empresas brasileiras não financeiras de capital aberto. Foi delineado um novo modelo de regressão linear múltipla que apurasse esses aspectos. Os resultados demonstram que o modelo proposto atende a finalidade desejada. Como conclusões destaca-se que o relacionamento negativo entre alavancagem financeira e investimento encontrado neste trabalho em um país emergente se assemelha ao observado em estudos anteriores em economias desenvolvidas. Além disso, conclui-se que os elementos de maturidade (curto e longo prazo), fonte e custo do capital de terceiros são relevantes para a determinação do investimento do conjunto de empresas estudadas. / A recurring theme in finance theory has been how a company is financed, ie, its capital structure and whether this affects the value of the firm, its profitability and its investment policy. The share of debt in the capital structure of companies is relevant duo to the effect of financial leverage, which refers to the action of raising funds from third parties at a certain rate and apply them in assets that offer returns as one exceeds this. Thus, when using debt, a company has the possibility to improve the incomes of their owners and therefore its value, by raising funds at a rate and apply them in another possibly larger, albeit with this decision elevates your risk, precisely because so going to have to compromise with creditors who took the loan. Thus, perceives a potential relationship between investment and financing decisions. In that sense this study initially aimed to examine whether the financial leverage affects investment decisions of non-financial Brazilian public companies. We applied multiple linear regression models with panel data from 2001 to 2011. Our results say that there is a strong negative relationship between leverage and investment in non-financial Brazilian public companies and this relationship is even stronger in firms with low growth opportunities. Noting this and considering different elements of debt can exert influences on investment, a second objective was to propose a model to evaluate how aspects of maturity, source and cost of debt impact the level of investment by non-financial Brazilian public companies. It was designed a new model of multiple linear regression that consider these aspects. The results demonstrate that the proposed model meets the desired purpose. As conclusions highlight that the negative relationship between leverage and investment found in this study in an emerging country resembles that observed in previous studies in developed economies. Furthermore, we conclude that the elements of maturity (short and long term), source and cost of debt are relevant for determining the investment of all firms studied.

We allow for heterogeneity in investors' ability to borrow from collateral in a Kiyotaki-Moore style macro model. We calibrate the model to match the quintiles of the distribution of leverage ratios of US non-financial firms. We show that financial amplification of the model with heterogeneous investors can be orders of magnitude higher, because of more pronounced asset price reactions. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Sponsorship, and particularly sport sponsorship, continues to grow ahead of all other forms of marketing communication in stature and spend. As a result, there is a growing need for proper sponsorship management and accountability within organisations. The objective of the study was to evaluate how an organisation manages sponsorship to effectively enhance brand image, a long-term differentiator for brands. Focusing on the Energade brand, a qualitative case study method of research, using data from secondary sources and face-to-face interviews, was used to test the propositions developed through literature review. The study indicated that effective management of sponsorship entails setting of consistently aligned and prioritised objectives. In order for a sponsorship to enhance brand image, the sponsorship has to be leveraged at an optimal ratio; the sponsored property has to be congruent with the sponsoring brand at an intrinsic, positioning, and communication objective levels; and lastly, in order for sponsorship to effectively enhance shift brand image, its association with a sponsored property has to be long term. The Energade sponsorship fell short of enhancing the brand‟s Image. Whilst having some of the prescribed affective sponsorship management practices, a number of limitations were identified. Recommendations for managing sponsorship to enhance brand image, from planning, execution and evaluation were presented. Setting of objectives should be more rigorous, leverage activity and non-sponsorship messages should be complementary, sponsorship congruency should be beyond functional fit, and long-term sponsorship of a single property is more effective than sponsoring different properties over time. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

This thesis analyze the democratization process of Mongolia and Ghana by applying a comparative case study. The study use Steven Levitsky and Lucan Ways theory of Western linkage and leverage to analyze the Mongolian and Ghanaian transition process, from being an non-democratic state to an consolidated democracy, through looking at the development of Western linkage and leverage and if there is any correlation between this development and the progress of democracy in respective state.The findings are that Western linkage in Mongolia never has been high but that the levels of Western linkage has developed positive in 1991 and 1995. The levels of Western leverage has been high in Mongolia since 1991. In Ghana the levels of Western linkage has been high and developed positive since at least 1996, but the levels of Western leverage has been low since 1996. Thus, the correlation between high levels of Western linkage and leverage and the democratization progress in respective state is weak, but there is some correlation between a positive development of Western linkage and the progress of democracy.

This study examines the effects of 2007/8 financial crisis on capital structure determinants of Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed companies in South Africa. Data extracted from INET BFA Expert database was analyzed using regression models on the correlation between the leverage and company size, growth, profitability, tangibility, liquidity, non-debt tax shield along with Ordinary Least Squares based on the sample of JSE listed companies for the period of 2004 to 2013. The study examined two industries namely, Real estate and Retail industry. The results show that size, tangibility, profitability and liquidity have significant impact on the capital structure before, during and after financial crisis. Growth results were inconsistent over the period under review, and non-debt tax shield was found to be statistically insignificant. The study also shows that the 2007/8 had statistical significance on the capital structure of the listed companies in South Africa.

The thesis examines the European Union as a mediator in the case of Belgrade-Pristina dialogue. It tends to discover which factors led to lower mediation effectiveness after 2015, by EU's mediation strategy, leverage and coherence. The thesis is designed as a qualitative case study which compares three different stages of the case by implementing a combination of congruence method and process tracing. Drawing for the content and document analysis as well as four interviews conducted and two personal communications, the thesis analyses the factors which influenced effectiveness and compares them throughout three different phases of the mediation. In the end, the analysis shows that while strategy remained the same, levels coherence and leverages changed and concluded that it was the weaking of EU's leverage strength that influenced mediation effectiveness the most.