Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / A historical analysis of the philanthropic response to the Great Depression by community foundations; the thesis uses the individual story of the Indianapolis Foundation as a case study to provide detailed examples of how community foundations modified their grant-making behavior in response to the Great Depression’s economic effects.

The main goal of this dissertation is to develop a seasonal water balance model for evaporation, runoff and water storage change based on observations from a large number of watersheds, and further to obtain a comprehensive understanding on the dominant physical controls on intra-annual water balance. Meanwhile, the method for estimating evaporation and water storage based on recession analysis is improved by quantifying the seasonal pattern of the partial contributing area and contributing storage to base flow during low flow seasons. A new method for quantifying seasonality is developed in this research. The difference between precipitation and soil water storage change, defined as effective precipitation, is considered as the available water. As an analog to climate aridity index, the ratio between monthly potential evaporation and effective precipitation is defined as a monthly aridity index. Water-limited or energy-limited months are defined based on the threshold of 1. Water-limited or energy-limited seasons are defined by aggregating water-limited or energy-limited months, respectively. Seasonal evaporation is modeled by extending the Budyko hypothesis, which is originally for mean annual water balance; while seasonal surface runoff and base flow are modeled by generalizing the proportionality hypothesis originating from the SCS curve number model for surface runoff at the event scale. The developed seasonal evaporation and runoff models are evaluated based on watersheds across the United States. For the extended Budyko model, 250 out of 277 study watersheds have a Nash-Sutcliff efficiency (NSE) higher than 0.5, and for the seasonal runoff model, 179 out of 203 study watersheds have a NSE higher than 0.5. Furthermore, the connection between the seasonal parameters of the developed model and a variety of physical factors in the study watersheds is investigated. For the extended Budyko model, vegetation is identified as an important physical factor that related to the seasonal model parameters. However, the relationship is only strong in water-limited seasons, due to the seasonality of the vegetation coverage. In the seasonal runoff model, the key controlling factors for wetting capacity and initial wetting are soil hydraulic conductivity and maximum rainfall intensity respectively. As for initial evaporation, vegetation is identified as the strongest controlling factor. Besides long-term climate, this research identifies the key controlling factors on seasonal water balance: the effects of soil water storage, vegetation, soil hydraulic conductivity, and storminess. The developed model is applied to the Chipola River watershed and the Apalachicola River basin in Florida for assessing potential climate change impact on the seasonal water balance. The developed model performance is compared with a physically-based distributed hydrologic model of the Soil Water Assessment Tool, showing a good performance for seasonal runoff, evaporation and storage change.

The length and depth of the Great Recession of 2008 provides an opportunity to examine the policy behavior of local governments unlike any window since the 1930's post Depression era. Utilizing Peterson's (1981) City Limits typology as a framework for local government policy allows for an evaluation of whether or not the economic downturn caused local governments to change their relative expenditures between policy categories. The City Limits typology has been widely used in the literature to explain how expenditures define a local government's role in economic development. The typology has had limited use in a pre-post natural experimental research design to determine if a local government has 'shifted' policy priorities as measured by changes in expenditures among and between policy categories. This research design and the use Peterson's framework combine for a study that has not yet been conducted under similar conditions. Most of the existing literature, including the research from the 1980's, failed to account for inter-state differences that directly affect local government expenditures and policy. Concentrating solely on Florida local governments, this study eliminates the confounding nature of a national study and ensures that the unit of analysis is comparable for research purposes. The study utilizes actual expenditure data for all cities and counties in Florida from FY2006 through FY2011. The research tests for the relationships between changes in policy priorities from pre- to post-recession, and the type of government, form of government, and various socio-economic factors. The research contributes to a new body of knowledge that is just beginning to emerge in the literature about how local governments respond to periods of extreme fiscal stress. The findings suggest that cities and counties had an inverse response from pre- to post-recession with cities shifting toward developmental expenditures and counties prioritizing allocational spending. Differences were also found between forms of government. In addition, the density of population was found to contribute differently to shifts in expenditures for cities and counties. The study identifies emerging patterns that can help local governments understand past behavior and better anticipate future economic downturns.

This dissertation consists of three essays on the effect of excess compensation and corporate governance changes on the firm’s performance. The first paper utilizes a cost minimization stochastic frontier approach to investigate the efficiency of director total compensation. Our findings suggest that board members are over compensated. We show that, on average, the director actual compensation level is above the efficient compensation level by around 63%. Our results suggest that an increase in director excess compensation decreases the likelihood of CEO turnover, reduces the turnover-performance sensitivity, and increases managerial entrenchment. Thus, the surplus in director compensation is directly associated with managerial job security and entrenchment. Furthermore, although director excess compensation is not significantly inversely related to the firm’s future performance, it has an indirect negative effect on future performance through its impact on the entrenchment-performance relationship. Therefore, this essay proposes that the overcompensation of directors is directly associated with a board culture predicated by mutual back-scratching and collusion between the CEO and the board members. The second essay tests the effect of an exogenous shock, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002, on the structure of corporate boards and their efficiency as a monitoring mechanism. The results suggest an increase in the participation of independent directors at the expense of insiders. Consequently, we investigate the implications of board composition changes on CEO turnover and firm value. We document a noticeable reduction in CEO turnover in the post-SOX period. We also demonstrate that, after SOX, a board dominated by independent directors is less likely to remove a CEO due to poor performance. Finally, we highlight a negative association between the change in board composition and firm value. We propose that our findings are predicated on an off equilibrium result whereby firms were forced to modify iv their endogenously chosen board composition. Therefore, contrary to the legislators’ objectives, we suggest that the change in board structure brought about inefficient monitoring and promoted an unfavorable tradeoff between independent directors and insiders. The third essay examines the relationship between the firm’s governance structure and its value during different economic conditions. We show that both relative industry turnover and CEO entrenchment increase during economic downturns. We also find that relative industry turnover and managerial entrenchment have opposite impacts on the value of the firm throughout the recessionary period. While industry turnover leads to an appreciation in firm value, managerial entrenchment reduces shareholders’ wealth. The negative impact of managerial entrenchment on firm value, however, outweighs the positive impact of industry turnover. Accordingly, we propose that a recession provides managers with a good opportunity to camouflage their behavior and extract more private benefits and, thus, blame the poor performance on bad economic conditions.

Today's labor market includes expectations of flexibility and security for employers and employees, but these does not always go hand in hand. The majority of all fixed-term employees in Sweden are under the age of 29, and the employment form can be seen as an opportunity but also as a source of insecurity for employees. Research shows that fixed-term employees run a higher risk of losing their job during economic fluctuations and that the perceived risk of losing their job can lead to stress and poor health. The purpose of this study is to gain an increased understanding of perceived job security and stress in young adults with temporary employment during the current recession. The theoretical frame of reference applied is the flexicurity-model based on Wilthagen and Tros, Muffels and Wilthagen and also Karasek and Theorell's demand-control-support model. The results of the study show that the informants experience their employment as insecure and that the recession has contributed to increased uncertainty. The study also shows that informants experience a low degree of control in their employment and partly high demands, and that a lack of support can be a cause of stress. Temporary employment can offer flexibility for employers, but can lead to restrictions in private life and perceived stress and anxiety for young adults who depend on their work as a source of income. / Dagens arbetsmarknad innefattar förväntningar på flexibilitet och trygghet för arbetsgivare och arbetstagare, men som inte alltid går hand i hand. Merparten av alla tidsbegränsat anställda i Sverige är under 29 år och anställningsformen kan ses som möjlighet men kan också innebära otrygghet för arbetstagare. Forskning visar att tidsbegränsat anställda löper högre risk att förlora jobbet vid konjunktursvängningar och att upplevd risk att förlora jobbet kan leda till stress och ohälsa. Syftet med studien är att få ökad förståelse om upplevd anställningstrygghet och stress hos unga vuxna med tidsbegränsad anställning under rådande lågkonjunktur. Den teoretiska referensramen som tillämpats är dels flexicurity-modellen med utgångspunkt i Wilthagen och Tros samt Muffels och Wilthagen och dels Karasek och Theorells krav-kontroll-stödmodell. Resultatet i studien visar att informanterna upplever sin anställning som otrygg och att lågkonjunkturen bidragit till ytterligare otrygghet. Studien visar även att informanterna upplever låg grad av kontroll i sin anställning och delvis höga krav samt att brist på stöd kan vara en orsak till stress. Den tidsbegränsade anställningen kan innebära flexibilitet för arbetsgivare, men kan leda till begränsningar i privatlivet samt upplevd stress och oro för unga vuxna som är beroende av sitt arbete som inkomstkälla.

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[pt] Esse estudo tem como objetivo avaliar a manutenção de desempenhos anormais no longo prazo verificado em estudos anteriores de organizações listadas na BMF&Ibovespa que tiveram aporte de empresas de Private Equity e Venture Capital (PE/VC), bem como verificar a existência de mudança de comportamento num ano em que haja recessão no Brasil. A amostra utilizada contempla 70 empresas que abriram capital entre 2004 a 2008, em que após testar presença de retornos anormais acumulados foi observada uma relação inversa da esperada e verificada em trabalhos antecedentes, sendo realizado um teste de hipótese para verificação das diferenças das médias. Desta maneira, os resultados indicam que empresas que tiveram presença de fundos de PE/VC apresentam significativamente piores resultados que empresas que não tiveram este tipo de financiamento, o que posiciona este trabalho com uma ideia opositora em relação aos estudos prévios ao ser realizado num período de recessão. Posteriormente, através de uma regressão linear múltipla de cinco variáveis independentes, em que uma das variáveis era a presença ou não de PE/VC, foram avaliados os fatores explicativos do desempenho observado das empresas. O modelo de regressão corrobora a relação de piores desempenhos anormais nas organizações com a presença de fundos. / [en] This paper aims to vouch the perpetuity of the abnormal performance in the long term, verified in previous studies of organizations listed in the BMF&Ibovespa that had cash infusion of Private Equity and Venture Capital companies (PE/VC), as well as check for behavior change in a year when there is recession in Brazil. The sample includes 70 companies that went public between 2004 to 2008, in which after testing the presence of cumulative abnormal returns, it was observed an expected inverse relationship – verified in previous studies – being carried out a hypothesis test to verify the difference of means. Thus, the results indicate that companies that had the presence of PE/VC funds have significantly worse atypical results that companies who have not had this type of financing, which places this work with a divergent assessment to previous studies in a recession period. Subsequently, through a multiple linear regression with five independent variables, wherein one was the existence or absence of PE/VC, it was evaluated the explanatory factors of companies performance. The regression model corroborates the worse abnormal performance in companies with the presence of funds.

Titel: Kapitalstruktur i en lågkonjunktur – En kvalitativ studie av medelstora tillverkande företags kapitalstruktur. Forskningsfråga: Hur påverkas kapitalstrukturen i medelstora tillverkande företag av en lågkonjunktur? Syfte: Uppsatsens syfte är att få en förståelse för hur medelstora tillverkande företag resonerar gällande att finansiera sig med eget kapital kontra med skuldfinansiering i en lågkonjunktur. Metod: Studien har genomförts genom en kvalitativ metod med en abduktiv ansats, en kombination av deduktiv och induktiv ansats. Genom denna kombination av metoder har vi tagit del av vetenskapliga artiklar och analyserat vår insamlade empiriska data för att undersöka hur verkligheten stämmer överens med teorin. Slutsats: Studien visade på tre resultat. Det första resultatet visade på att det finns en tydlig koppling mellan ägarstruktur och kapitalstruktur i tillverkande medelstora företag. Privatägda företag tenderar att vara mer flexibla i sina finansieringsval medan koncernägda företag föredrar intern finansiering eller lån under gynnsamma marknadsförhållanden. Det andra resultatet visade på att en gemensam nämnare för alla företagen var betydelsen av en god relation med banken, särskilt i tider av lågkonjunktur eftersom bankens tillgång till likviditet och flexibla avbetalningsplaner kunde bli avgörande. Det tredje resultatet visade på att trots företagens medvetenhet om riskhantering så tolkades begreppet finansiell stress på olika sätt, vilket visar att begreppet är subjektivt. Däremot visade de sig att företagen är flexibla i sina finansieringsval och anpassar sig efter marknadsförhållanden i pressade ekonomiska tider. / Title: Capital structure in a recession – A qualitative study of medium-sized manufacturing companies' capital structure Problem statement: How is the capital structure of medium-sized manufacturing companies impacted by a recession? Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to gain an understanding of how medium- sized manufacturing companies’ reason regarding financing the firm with equity versus debt during a recession. Method: The study has been conducted through a qualitative method with an abductive approach, combining deductive and inductive approaches. With this combination of methods, we have reviewed scientific articles and analyzed our collected empirical data to gain an overview of how reality aligns with theory. Conclusion: The study showed three main findings. The first finding showed a clear link between ownership structure and capital structure in medium- sized manufacturing companies. Private-owned firms tend to be more flexible in their financing choices, whereas group-owned firms prefer internal financing or loans under favorable market conditions. The second finding highlighted a common denominator among all companies, emphasizing the importance of a strong relationship with the bank, particularly during economic downturns, as the bank's access to liquidity and flexible payment plans became crucial. The third finding demonstrated that despite companies' awareness of risk management, the concept of financial stress was interpreted differently among them, indicating its subjective nature. However, it was observed that companies are flexible in their financing choices and adapt to market conditions during economically challenging times.

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