The following dissertation contains two unique empirical studies that contribute to the overall literature in the field of Financial Economics in the areas of mutual fund investing and financial intermediation and regulation. The first Chapter, entitled “The Impact of Macroeconomic Stress on the U.S. Financial Sector”, examines the relative impact of macroeconomic stress on financial and non-financial U.S. firms. Empirical results show that macroeconomic shocks appear to have a larger impact on financial firms. Additionally, the sensitivity of financial firms to macroeconomic events can be traced to the influence of non-depository institutions, or “shadow banks”, like finance and investment companies, which are less regulated than depository institutions. The results coincide with several trends in the financial sector including increased competition, complexity and interconnectedness and highlight the need for governance mechanisms that account for the risks associated with these factors. The second chapter, entitled “Partial Adjustment Towards Equilibrium Mutual Fund Allocations: Evidence from U.S.-based Equity Mutual Funds”, examines the relative efficiency of equity mutual funds in terms of speed of portfolio adjustment by applying a partial adjustment model. Empirical results show that mutual fund managers are able and willing to quickly adjust their portfolios when results have been sub-optimal, implying that the cost of persistent poor performance is perceived as being high. Managers can offset about 106 percent of the deviation within one period. Additionally, results show that funds that typically engage in the costly production of specialized information, like emerging market and sector funds have more efficient speeds of portfolio adjustment than more passive funds, like market index funds. The results imply that actively managed funds may have efficiency advantages that have been previously ignored in the empirical literature.

Submitted by Cristiane Oliveira (cristiane.oliveira@fgv.br) on 2011-06-03T15:35:44Z No. of bitstreams: 1 66080100257.pdf: 200849 bytes, checksum: ae84097637204a6b31a102a876915f87 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Vera Lúcia Mourão(vera.mourao@fgv.br) on 2011-06-03T16:51:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 66080100257.pdf: 200849 bytes, checksum: ae84097637204a6b31a102a876915f87 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Vera Lúcia Mourão(vera.mourao@fgv.br) on 2011-06-03T17:02:51Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 66080100257.pdf: 200849 bytes, checksum: ae84097637204a6b31a102a876915f87 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-06-03T17:08:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 66080100257.pdf: 200849 bytes, checksum: ae84097637204a6b31a102a876915f87 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-01-27 / We develop partial adjustment and duration models to test the relevance of country idiosyncrasies in determining the capital structure of publicly-traded Brazilian, Chilean and Mexican firms. Our data panel, ranging from the 4th quarter of 1996 to the 2nd quarter of 2010, consists of 4403 firm-quarter observations pertaining to 139 firms. Our findings suggest that capital structure dynamics vary by country and that local idiosyncrasies are key determinants of firms’ leverage levels. Additionally, trade off behavior cannot be clearly detected among Brazilian, Chilean and Mexican firms, suggesting that alternative theories steer the financing decision processes of Latin American managers. / Desenvolvemos modelos de ajuste parcial e de duration para testar a relevância de fatores específicos de países na determinação da estrutura de capital de empresas listadas nas bolsas de valores brasileira, chilena e mexicana. Utilizamos dados em painel, em um período que se estende do quarto trimestre de 1996 ao segundo trimestre de 2010, abrangendo 4403 observações relacionadas a 139 empresas diferentes. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que a dinâmica da estrutura de capital varia por país e que idiossincrasias locais são determinantes-chave dos níveis de alavancagem das empresas. Não detectamos comportamento explicado pela Teoria de Trade Off entre as empresas brasileiras, chilenas e mexicanas, o que indica que teorias alternativas possam comandar os processos de decisão de financiamento dos gestores latino americanos.