Prediabetes is associated with an elevated risk for developing type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and associated cardiovascular complications. Lifestyle factors such as physical activity (PA) and dietary intake are strongly implicated in the development of metabolic disease, yet few Americans meet PA and dietary recommendations. Middle-aged and older adults are at increased risk for developing prediabetes and T2DM due to age-related muscle loss, increased fat mass, and alterations in glucose handling. In addition, this segment of the population is least likely to meet PA guidelines, particularly the resistance training (RT) recommendation of completing a whole body routine 2x/week. Ideally, individuals would alter their lifestyle in order to meet PA guidelines and habitually consume a healthy diet, to decrease disease risk. However, behavior change is difficult and optimal strategies to promote and maintain changes have yet to be determined. Furthermore, behavior change interventions tend to be time-, cost-, and resource-intensive, limiting the ability for efficacious programs to be translated into community settings and broadly disseminated. Evidence suggests that health-related behaviors, particularly diet and exercise habits, tend to cluster together. Thus, intervening on one behavior (e.g. PA) may elicit a spillover effect, promoting alterations in other behaviors (e.g. diet), though findings to date are conflicting. The purpose of this dissertation was to determine if participation in a social cognitive theory-based RT program targeting the initiation and maintenance of RT exerts a spillover effect and is associated with alterations in dietary intake and/or non-RT PA in a population at risk for T2DM. Data from the 15-month Resist Diabetes study was analyzed to evaluate this possibility. Sedentary, overweight/obese (BMI 25-39.9 kg/m2 ), middle-aged and older (50 -69 years) adults with prediabetes (impaired fasting glucose and/or impaired glucose tolerance) completed a 3 month initiation phase where they RT 2x/week in a lab-gym with an ACSM-certified personal trainer. Participants then completed a 6-month faded contact maintenance phase, and a 6-month no-contact phase during which they were to continue RT on their own in a public facility. No advice or encouragement was given to participants to alter dietary intake or non-RT PA habits. At baseline, and months 3, 9, and 15, three non-consecutive 24-hour diet recalls were collected to evaluate dietary intake and quality, the Aerobics Institute Longitudinal Study Questionnaire was completed to evaluate non-RT PA, and body mass, body composition, and strength (3 repetition maximum on leg and chest press) were measured. At months 3, 9, and 15 social cognitive theory (SCT) constructs were assessed with a RT Health Beliefs Questionnaire. In the first study, dietary intake was assessed at baseline and after 3 months of RT. Using paired sample t-tests, reductions in intake of energy (1914 ± 40 kcal vs. 1834 ± 427 kcal, p = 0.010), carbohydrate (211.6 ± 4.9 g vs. 201.7 ± 5.2 g, p = 0.015), total sugar (87.4 ± 2.7 g vs. 81.5 ± 3.1 g, p = 0.030), glycemic load (113.4 ± 3.0 vs. 108.1 ±3.2, p= 0.031), fruits and vegetables (4.6±0.2 servings vs. 4.1±0.2 servings, p= 0.018), and sweets and desserts (1.1 ± 0.07 servings vs. 0.89 ± 0.07 servings, p = 0.023) were detected from baseline to month 3. No changes in other dietary intake variables were observed. These findings supported additional investigation in this area. The second study assessed changes in overall diet quality (Healthy Eating Index [HEI]-2010 scores) and non-RT PA over the initiation, maintenance, and no-contact phases using mixed effects models. Demographic, physiological, and psychosocial factors that may predict alterations to diet quality and non-RT PA were also explored. Energy and carbohydrate intake decreased with RT (β= -87.9, p=.015 and β= -16.3, p<.001, respectively). No change in overall dietary quality (HEI-2010 score: β= -0.13, p=.722) occurred, but alterations in HEI-2010 sub-scores were detected. Maintenance of RT was accompanied by an increase in MET-min/week of total non-RT PA (β=153.5, p=0.01), which was predicted by increased self-regulation for RT (β=78.1, p=0.03). RT may be a gateway behavior leading to improvements in other health-related behaviors among adults with prediabetes. These results support the use of singlecomponent vs. multi-component interventions. This may have broad translational potential for the development of time-, resource-, and cost-efficient lifestyle interventions which can improve multiple health-related behaviors and decrease disease risk. / Ph. D.

ABSTRACT In the first essay titled "The Value of Strategic Alliances in Acquisitions and IPOs," I investigate how firms' strategic alliance experience affects their valuations as acquisition targets or in IPOs. I propose that strategic alliance experience serves as a valuable signaling device for target and IPO firms, particularly those with more intangible assets and greater opacity. The results show that takeover targets with alliance experience receive higher premiums than those without such experience. More recent alliance experience as well as alliance experience in the same industry also contributes to a larger target gain. Similarly, IPO firms that have alliance experience are shown to obtain higher valuations than those without the experience. Finally, alliance experience increases the likelihood that private firms exit by going public rather than being acquired. In the second essay titled "For Better or For Worse: The Spillover Effect of Innovation Events on Alliance Partners," I examine the spillover effects of breakthrough innovations on the strategic alliance partners of the innovative firm. I find direct stock market evidence that the shareholders of strategic alliance partners significantly benefit from the spillover effects of these innovations. Multivariate analyses indicate that young and newly listed innovator firms with better growth opportunities generate bigger abnormal returns when announcing innovation events and bring larger spillover effects for their alliance partners with similar characteristics. In addition, I explore the risks associated with alliance partnerships, showing that FDA warning letters cause significant wealth losses for both the innovative firm and their alliance partners.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between gold and stock returns with evidence from BRIC countries during 2001-2010. The importance of this topic is caused by instability in the world economy and stock markets, and due to this instability, there is a growing interest in gold from investors and the current bull market of gold. Considering that gold is independent from most of the macroeconomic factors we believe that it therefore should be independent from or low correlated with stock, which makes this metal useful for portfolio diversification. Based on previous studies, we also believe that gold can be used to predict, to some degree, the stock market trend. The force behind such stable price growth of gold is sustained by demand from emerging countries such as BRICs. Moreover, there is lack of research on this topic from the perspective of different economic sectors. These facts determined the choice of countries along with their economic sectors. The research was designed in the frame of quantitative method. The types of relationship that were investigated are correlation and spillover effects. In order to examine these relationships we have utilized secondary data, which are gold prices and stock indices turned into returns. The Pearson’s correlation and diagonal BEKK GARCH were applied to test the correlation and spillover effects between returns of gold and stock, respectively. The results of the study showed that gold and stock returns are correlated, however to a low degree. Additionally, correlation varies across countries and their economic sectors over time, which may influence investors’ decision in choice of allocation of investments. The other findings showed the existence of mean spillover effects, both unidirectional and bidirectional, and volatility spillover effects between gold and stock returns. The principal conclusions were that gold is an efficient portfolio diversifier, which also plays a role of a hedge and a safe haven. Similarly, taking into account an existence of spillover effects, gold can be helpful in terms of stock prediction and vice versa. Further, another important finding was that not all of the economic sectors had mean spillover with gold, but in terms of volatility, every sector had a certain relationship with gold.

Prior studies have found that a firm advertising for one of its products not only can increase the sales of the advertised product, but also spill over the advertising effect by increasing sales of other existing products in the same brand. This study examines whether a fund family spending money on one of its managed funds can attract more money flows into the advertised fund and bring the advertising spillover effect that attract more money flows into other members in the same family. Under the assumption that a fund family is a risk aversion investor endowed with a negative exponential utility function, this study finds a theoretical allocation proportion for a fund family¡¦s spending on advertising of individual funds under management, which is the function of the fund family¡¦s risk aversion level and initial wealth, as well as the mean and the variance of the expected returns generated by individual funds¡¦ advertising and the advertising spillover effect. Empirically, the evidence shows that an advertised fund can significantly attract greater cash flows and bring the significant advertising spillover effect on cash flows of other individual funds in the same family. After grouping funds into lower-, mid- and higher-performing funds based on funds¡¦ past performance, the results indicate that an advertised fund with mid performance can attract greater cash flows than an advertised fund with higher and lower performance. Moreover, an advertised fund can bring stronger advertising spillover effect on cash flows of higher-performing funds than lower- and mid-performing funds in the same family. Regarding with the family cash flows, the evidence shows that a fund family¡¦s aggregating advertising expenditures on managed funds can significantly increase the family cash flows and the advertising effect on the family cash flows is stronger in large families than in small families. The empirical results suggest that a fund family can benefit from its advertising expenditures and which allocating higher proportion for advertising of mid-performing funds than higher-performing funds could attract money flows into its managed funds more efficiently.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between knowledge capital (including research & development (R&D), Automation capital stock (AICT), Electronic system (EICT)) diffusion and productivity. We used translog production function to estimate for all six Taiwan high-technology industries. And we also construct the diversification (DIV) and vertical indicator (VIC) to analysis the relationship with organization using the AICT and EICT.

In this thesis, I study the impact of minimum wage policy and city agglomeration on wages and employment in local labour markets. This is an important topic because having a better understanding of the determinants of regional wage differentials and employment offers insights into: the roles played by local production, consumption and city structures; the standard of living enjoyed by workers with different human capitals; and policy recommendations for the future minimum wage law and city planning regulations. I use local occupation and geographic information to assess how highly productive occupations and local consumption amenities sort workers and generate local wage differentials. I also use this information to construct instruments that enable the accurate estimation of the effects of policy interventions. After an introduction in chapter 1, chapter 2, The Impact of the Minimum Wage on the Wage Distribution: Evidence from China, provides an empirical estimation of the effects of minimum wages using a Chinese household survey. I introduce new instrumental variables, relating to transport costs and local productivity, to control for the potential median wage endogeneity. The instrument variable regressions indicate that the effective minimum wage, defined as the ratio between the minimum wage and the median wage, significantly reduces the lower tail wage inequality — measured by the wage differential between the 50th and the 10th percentiles— by up to 0.3 per cent. In chapter 3, The MinimumWage and Its Impact onWage and Employment, joint work with Coen Teulings, we propose a novel framework for estimating the effects of minimum wages by considering the neoclassical wage and labour participation equations at the same time. To estimate the non-linear censored model with correlated error terms, we provide a five-step procedure and use maximum likelihood estimation. After correcting the bias using occupation information and city size, we find that effective minimum wage correlate significantly with the proportion of workers earning below minimum wage. I study the structure of city and commuting in chapter 4, Consumer City and the Sharing Economy. Based on the international trade literature, I develop a theoretical model with multiple cities, which have different amenities and productivities. In equilibrium, the unobservable parameters are estimated using local employment, wage, and commuting information. Cities show strong agglomeration effects in both productivity and consumption amenities. A counterfactual technological improvement, providing a cheaper transportation for workers and consumers, leads to a more concentrated employment distribution, commuting pattern and higher utility. In the final chapter, Agglomeration and Sorting, joint work with Coen Teulings, we show that agglomeration externalities are strongly related to the occupational structure. At the same time, regional differences in house prices offset these externalities. We develop a multi-region model with regional heterogeneity in workers and jobs, tradable versus non-tradable commodities, consumption amenities, regional house prices, non-homothetic utility, and interregional labour mobility. The model fits the regional data on the fixed wage effects, the return and mean level of human capital, land prices, and the city-rural area distinction well. We use land values to calculate the value of agglomeration.

Problem definition: Along with a rapid growth of Internet usage new forms of communication and marketing have occurred. Influencer marketing have become a popular marketing form, but are brand’s aware of the risk it involves when collaborating with an influencer? This thesis examines how a brand’s trustworthiness can be affected by an influencer’s wrongdoing, in the perception of the critical generation - Generation Z. Purpose: Since Generation Z are a digital and critical generation who rely on influencers recommendations, but also value trustworthiness and transparency from a brand, we want to explore how Generation Z’s perceived trustworthiness of a brand change when an influencer connected to a brand makes a wrongdoing. Research question: This thesis consist of two research questions.  RQ1: Can there be a relationship between an influencers trustworthiness and a brand’s trustworthiness in Generation Z’s perception?    RQ2: How does an Influencers wrongdoing spill over on Generation Z’s perception of a brand’s trustworthiness depending on the brands reaction?  Methodology: The study is based on a quantitative method with a deductive approach. The empirical data was collected through a online survey that was answered by 148 respondents. The data were then analyzed through SPSS. Hypotheses developed from the research questions were then accepted or rejected.  Conclusion: The study resulted in that there is a weak relationship between Generation Z’s perception of an influencer’s trustworthiness and a brand’s trustworthiness. Furthermore, the findings from the survey resulted in that there is a negative spillover effect on brand’s trustworthiness regardless on how they act on an influencer’s wrongdoing.

In this thesis, I study the effect of the downsizing of military bases after theCold War on both local house prices and neighboring municipalities’ houseprices. To establish causality, I use a Difference-in-Difference approach withTwo-Way Fixed Effects. Then an Event Study is performed to examinepossible dynamic effects. I studied both the general effect and heterogeneitytreatment effect. I found that there, in general, is no effect on local houseprices. Only from the 1999s defense bill, which increased local house priceswhen air force bases closed and decreased when army bases closed. However,there is evidence of spillover effects on neighboring municipalities’ houseprices in general, regardless of the base type, from the downsizing of themilitary.

In the new context of major public emergencies, this paper will mainly study the measurement and influencing factors of systemic risks in Chinese financial institutions based on three dimensions: overall situation, industries, and institutions. First, it uses the DTW-MST network model to describe the dependence structure between financial institutions and between industries. It explores important institutional nodes of risk dependence from a network perspective. Then, it uses the time-varying Copula-CoVaR model to measure financial institutions' and industries' risk spillover effect on the whole financial system and analyze the characteristics and differences of risk spillover. Last, it uses the panel regression model to study the influencing factors of the risk spillover effect of financial institutions and explore the sources of systemic risks. The results show that: (1) Industrial Bank (CIB), Changjiang Securities (CJSC), and China Pacific Insurance (CPIC) are the central nodes of the banking, securities, and insurance industries, respectively. (2) The risk spillover effect is characterized by a significant asymmetry and thick tail, and negative news has a greater impact on the risk spillover effect. (3) The value at risk (VaR) and volatility of financial institutions have a significant positive correlation with the risk spillover effect, while the size of financial institutions has a significant negative correlation with the risk spillover effect. / Business Administration/Finance

Yes / Digital finance is playing an increasingly prominent role in economic development. This paper examines the impact of digital finance on industrial structure upgrading based on panel data from 289 Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2011 to 2020. The paper adopts fixed effects, mediating effects, and spatial econometric models and the findings are as follows. First, digital finance development significantly boosts industrial structure upgrading in Chinese cities. The evidence remains valid after various robustness tests. Second, digital finance and industrial structure upgrading exhibit positive spatial spillover effects. Third, digital finance indirectly affects industrial structure upgrading through innovation, entrepreneurship and the structure of household consumption channels. Fourth, the influence of digital finance is more significant in cities with more developed economies, less financialization and lower income inequality. Finally, among the sub-indicators of digital finance, the breadth of coverage plays the most significant role, inspiring policymakers and financial institutions to speed up the digitization infrastructure in backward areas. / This work was supported by the Natural Science Fund of Hunan Province (2022JJ40647).