This study examines asymmetric information content of REIT IPOs as compared to that of industrial IPOs matched by similar asset size, underwriter reputation ranking, and partial adjustment of the offer-price from the midpoint of the original file range. The asymmetric information level is proxied by the relative bid-ask spread (RELSPREAD), adverse selection component of Glosten and Harris (GH, 1988), and the adverse selection component of Lin, Sanger, and Booth (LSB, 1995). All three measures are estimated over 45- and 60-day windows. Using a sample of 78 equity REIT IPOs and 123 Industrial IPOs for the period of January 1, 1993 to December 31, 2007, the results indicate that REIT IPOs have less asymmetric information content as compared to mature industrial firms. All results control for leverage, beginning assets size, issue proceeds, underpricing, partial adjustment, number of IPOs within the same year, venture capital backing, underwriter reputation, average daily volume, average daily price, specialist’s inventory risk, and the turnover ratio. The results also control for the Nasdaq and NYSE rule change of minimum tick increments from 1/8th to 1/16th on June 2, 1997, and June 24, 1997, respectively. The findings provide strong support for the hypothesis that REIT IPOs have less asymmetric information content than non-REIT IPOs.

No description available.

The implication that first day returns of initial public offerings are a consequence of the imbalance of power between issuer and underwriter has been suggested more than it has been tested. An important tool in such an analysis has been missing. Using a resource contribution approach to bargaining power, measures of underwriter and issuer power are created. Significant results with both measures show that consistent with theory, underwriter power is positively associated with underpricing, while issuer power's association is negative. The underwriter power measure compares favorably in this study to Carter-Manaster's prestige measure. The theory presented also suggests that issuers and underwriters engage in a short-term cooperative agreement to bring critical resources to issuers to enhance their initial public offering. Contributed resources form the basis for each firms bargaining power which is strongest when setting the initial file price. Results show the importance of resource power on the distribution of proceeds and how power changes during the registration process. Finally this theory expands signaling theory and suggests that issuers under the influence and direction of their underwriter make pre-IPO organizational changes to send signals of quality to preemptively address investor's concerns. These pre-IPO gambits are intended to increase IPO proceeds, but come at a price. Theories of power are used to create a measure of the relative strength of these actors and find that making TMT changes significantly decreases underpricing. Although underwriter power is significantly associated with change, relative power does not reduce the amount of change signaled. / Business Administration

A renewed focus to produce college and career ready graduates capable of thriving in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and other career and technical education professions has made access to advanced mathematics and science courses for all students a priority in K-12 education. Previous research on achievement has indicated that Black and Latino students are underrepresented in advanced mathematics and science courses and are lagging behind their peers in academic performance. Some researchers have suggested that these disparities in participation and achievement result from unequal access to educational opportunities. This purpose of this study was to examine student access to advanced mathematics and sciences courses in Virginia public high schools as an indicator of college and career readiness. This study employed secondary data analysis of school level data from the Virginia Department of Education. Regression analyses, simple and multiple, were used to examine access to advanced mathematics (Algebra II and higher) and advanced science (Chemistry and higher) course offerings by school characteristics, including school size, economically disadvantaged percentage, the percentage of minority students, and urbanicity locale. The results of this study indicated that student access to advanced mathematics and science course offerings, excluding and including AP mathematics and science courses, as in indicator of college and career readiness, differed based upon school size, economically disadvantaged percentage, and urbanicity locale. These findings, consistent with national statistics and other research, suggested that students who attend public high schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia do not have equal access to advanced mathematics and science course offerings, including AP mathematics and science courses, when school size, economically disadvantaged, and urbanicity locales are considered. Other findings related to access based on the percentage of minority students were inconsistent with prior research, as there was no significant difference in the number of advanced mathematics and science course offerings, excluding and including AP mathematics and science courses, based on the percentage of Black and Latino students enrolled in Virginia public high schools. / Ed. D.

Yes / The lake-dwellings of the Circum-Alpine region have long been a rich source of detailed information about daily life in Bronze Age Europe, but their location made them vulnerable to changes in climate and lake level. At several Late Bronze Age examples, skulls of children were found at the edge of the lake settlement, close to the encircling palisade. Several of the children had suffered violent deaths, through blows to the head from axes or blunt instruments. They do not appear to have been human sacrifices, but the skulls may nonetheless have been offerings to the gods by communities faced with the threat of environmental change. / Swiss National Science Foundation

Votive traditions have existed in virtually every society and culture during the last five thousand years. This traditions' 'longevity and universal appeal has led to diverse vow systems, numerous pilgrimages, and captivating ex-votos. The tradition is still vibrant today, particularly in the Northeastern areas of Brazil where thousands of pilgrims are avid believers. This thesis focuses on several aspects of Brazilian ex-votos, including cultural and economic contexts, visual aesthetics, folk religion and medicine, and how the tradition has evolved in the last three hundred years. An important aspect of this research includes deciphering why these objects are still being created in the twenty-first century and how they related to Brazil's current health care system, which is presently unable to support all of its citizens. The roots of this tradition in Brazil are deeply grounded in economics. However, ex-voto practices also have European, African, and indigenous influences that run deep beneath the Brazilian core. Folk customs, medicinal practices, and subconscious ways in which ex-votos heal participants are discussed in this thesis. A significant effort is also made to compare votive traditions among different cultures in order to understand these religious medical miracles from a global approach.

Agency Costs of Controlling Minority Shareholders (coauthored with Henrik Cronqvist) estimates the agency costs of controlling minority shareholders (CMSs) using a panel of Swedish listed firms. CMSs are owners who have a control stake of the firm’s votes while owning only a minority fraction of the firm’s equity. The study documents that families in control are almost exclusively CMSs through an extensive use of dual-class shares. The results show that increased ownership of votes by a controlling owner is associated with an economically and statistically significant decrease in firm value, but that the decrease in firm value is significantly larger for firms with family CMSs than for firms with financial institutions or corporations in control. This indicates that the agency costs of family CMSs are larger than the agency costs of other controlling owners.Family Ownership, Control Considerations, and Corporate Financing Decisions: An Empirical Analysis analyzes the relation between concentrated family control and firms’ choice of capital structure for a panel of Swedish listed firms. The results suggest that the capital structure choices made by firms with families in control are influenced by the controlling families’ desire to protect their control, and that the resulting capital structures are likely to increase the agency costs of family control. The Choice between Rights Offerings and Private Equity Placements (coauthored with Henrik Cronqvist) analyzes the determinants of the choice between rights offerings and private equity placements using a sample of rights offerings and private placements made by listed Swedish firms. The results indicate that control considerations explain why firms make uninsured rights offerings. The evidence also suggest that private placements, and to some extent underwritten rights offerings, are made by potentially undervalued firms in order to overcome underinvestment problems resulting from asymmetric information about firm value. Furthermore, private placements are frequently made in conjunction with the establishment of a product market relationship between purchaser and seller, which is consistent with equity ownership reducing contracting costs in new product market relationships. Why Agency Costs Explain Diversification Discounts (coauthored with Henrik Cronqvist and Peter Högfeldt) studies diversification within the real estate industry, in which firms can diversify over property types and geographical regions. Similar to previous studies, this essay documents the existence of a diversification discount. However, the major cause of the diversification discount is not diversification per se but anticipated costs due to rent dissipation in future diversifying acquisitions. Firms expected to pursue non-focusing strategies do indeed diversify more, are valued ex ante at a 20% discount over firms anticipated to follow a focusing strategy, and are predominantly family controlled. The ex ante diversification discount is, therefore, a measure of agency costs.  The Difference in Acquirer Returns between Takeovers of Public Targets and Takeovers of Private Targets shows, for a sample of Swedish takeovers, that the average acquirer abnormal return is positive and significant when the target firm is privately held but insignificant when the target firm is listed on a stock exchange. These results are robust when controlling for sample selection problems and other variables capable of explaining acquirer returns. The evidence is consistent with greater acquirer bargaining power and resolution of information asymmetries in takeovers of private targets. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2002

Thesis (doctoral)--Faculté des lettres de l'Université de Zurich, 1979. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 181-190) and index.

Cette thèse a pour objet d’analyser l’impact du suivi par les analystes financiers lors de l’introduction en bourse sur la qualité du marché secondaire et sur la future vie boursière de l’entreprise. Dans cet objectif, trois études empiriques sont menées sur le marché français. La première apporte une nouvelle explication à la relation positive qui existe entre la sous-évaluation initiale et la liquidité sur le marché secondaire. Elle montre que cette relation positive se forme par le biais de la couverture des analystes financiers. En se basant sur la méthode de l’analyse de survie, notre deuxième étude révèle que le suivi par les analystes financiers a un impact positif sur la durée de vie boursière de l’entreprise. La troisième étude démontre que la couverture peut également influencer l’occurrence et la rapidité d’occurrence d’une émission secondaire. Il apparaît que les firmes les plus couvertes au moment de l’introduction sont celles qui retournent le plus rapidement au marché pour effectuer une émission secondaire garantie. Ces travaux soulignent l’importance du suivi par les analystes financiers des introductions en bourse. / This thesis aims to analyze the impact of IPO analyst coverage on the quality of the secondary market and on the future market life of the firm. For this purpose, three empirical studies are conducted on the French market. The first one provides a new explanation for the positive relation between initial underpricing and post-listing liquidity. We find that this positive relation is formed through analyst coverage. Our second study shows that analyst coverage has a significant positive impact on IPOs survival. The third study explores the linkage between analyst coverage and subsequent seasoned equity offerings. Our results indicate that analyst coverage is a significant predictor of subsequent SEO and that more covered firms are those that return more quickly for an insured offering. Our findings enlighten the importance of analyst coverage around IPOs.

This thesis examines the efficacy of markets, using both quantitative and qualitative methods in a complementary way. Specifically, it starts (in Part II) by using the results from a quantitative analysis of initial public offering (IPO) underpricing as a barometer for corporate governance failure. This quantitative work identified Russia, China and India as extreme outliers. The data set used for this work was the cross-section sample of 45 countries developed by Loughran, Ritter & Rydqvist (2008). More broadly (in Part III), the thesis takes the lead of the quantitative evidence to examine, in a qualitative framework, possible sources of corporate governance failure in China, India and Russia. This was done categorically, under the headings of Globalisation, Corporate Governance, Institutional Structure and Competitive Strategy. Data were gathered by eldwork in China, India and Russia, and these findings were then benchmarked against findings from further fieldwork in the United Kingdom. This created a unique 56,000 word database, which was used for both cross-site and within-site analysis. This indicates how both unique attributes (e.g. rule of law, transparency, regulation, etc.), and common attributes (e.g. transition from a socialist/Marxist regime, market immaturity, asymmetric information etc.), combine to explain the different morphologies of corporate governance in these three countries. The quantitative analysis (Part II) consists of exploratory data analysis (EDA) and econometric work. The exploratory data analysis establishes, through graphical means and regression techniques, a negative correlation between IPO underpricing and globalisation (as measured by the KOF index, see Dreher, 2006). Building on this, the subsequent econometric modelling suggests that economic, demographic and institutional factors are all significant determinants of IPO underpricing. The qualitative analysis carried out in Part III of the thesis, builds on and extends the quantitative analysis of Part II. This is consistent with the multiple method approach, which combines both quantitative and qualitative analysis to achieve a synthesis of findings. The qualitative analysis uses evidence from semi-structured interviews with finance professionals and opinion makers, as well as evidence from additional primary and secondary sources, which was also made available through fieldwork contacts. This analysis emphasises the especial importance of board composition, information flows, the judicial system, the stock exchanges, and financial regulators for forms of corporate governance.