<p>This thesis aims at contributing to the growing number of studies on banking productivity, by attempting to introduce the interest rate spread as one of the driving forces behind productivity changes and alterations of the intermediary role of banks. The analysis is based on observations form the banking sectors of Germany and Sweden. As there is no clear concensus on the proper way of measuring banking output, and the choice of method varies considerably form study to study, this paper adopts the intermediation approach which is one of the three most offen recurring methods applied in research papers. The results include some interesting revelations such as the low significance of a change in labour and capital to the growth in banking output (challenging traditional theory), and that Swedish banks on average were moving away from the traditional intermediary role between 1979 and 1996 while German banks kept lending business at their centre of attention.</p>

We study the intraday behavior of bid-ask spreads for actively traded TAIEX option in Taiwan. A study of quality of price quotation offered by market makers is important because the market makers have the responsibilities to keep trading costs low and promote price discovery. Due to the observed wider price quotation from market makers, we find that market makers offer inefficient price quotations to fulfill their obligations under requirement of market making. Moreover, ways of quotation market makers choose, indeed, affect the price quotation of market makers. We also find foreign institutional investors (QFIIs) and market makers bear lower execution cost when they deal on TAIEX option market. Overall, despite the large trading volume and increasing liquidity in TAIEX option, our results suggest that market makers do not play an important role to the market liquidity of TAIEX option market as we thought previously. / We study the intraday behavior of bid-ask spreads for actively traded TAIEX option in Taiwan. A study of quality of price quotation offered by market makers is important because the market makers have the responsibilities to keep trading costs low and promote price discovery. Due to the observed wider price quotation from market makers, we find that market makers offer inefficient price quotations to fulfill their obligations under requirement of market making. Moreover, ways of quotation market makers choose, indeed, affect the price quotation of market makers. We also find foreign institutional investors (QFIIs) and market makers bear lower execution cost when they deal on TAIEX option market. Overall, despite the large trading volume and increasing liquidity in TAIEX option, our results suggest that market makers do not play an important role to the market liquidity of TAIEX option market as we thought previously.

Essen, Univ., Diss--Duisburg, 2008.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 189-194). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 189-194). Also available on the Internet.

Research concerning covenants has at large not examined what quantifiable relationship covenants have with yield spreads. We shed light on this topic as we evaluate Swedish bond indentures. By examining the relationship between covenants and yield spread, our results indicate whether covenants effectively mitigate the bondholder-stockholder conflict. The results from our OLS-model indicate that the poison put option and covenants restricting dividends and mergers have a positive relationship with the yield spread, and that the negative pledge has a negative relationship with the yield spread. Furthermore, our results indicate that some covenants are too costly for companies issuing investment grade bonds. Those covenants are therefore only included in bonds with higher yield spreads, where a conflict between bondholders and stockholders could be greater. / Ett kvantifierbart förhållande mellan kovenanter och räntebasmarginalen har överlag i tidigare forskning inte undersökts. I denna uppsats åskådliggör vi detta förhållande genom att undersöka svenska företagsobligationer. Genom att studera relationen mellan kovenanter och räntebasmarginalen kan våra resultat visa på huruvida kovenanter motverkar konflikten mellan obligationsinnehavare och aktieägare. Resultaten från vår OLS-modell visar att poison put option och kovenanter som begränsar utdelningar och fusioner har ett positivt samband med räntebasmarginalen, medan negative pledge har ett negativt samband med räntebasmarginalen. Vidare visar våra resultat att vissa kovenanter är för dyra för företag som ger ut investment grade obligationer. Dessa kovenanter finns därför bara med i obligationer med högre räntebasmarginaler, där en konflikt mellan obligationsinnehavare och aktieägare kan vara större.

Both Gauss-Seidel Iterative 3D deconvolution and Richardson-Lucy like algorithms are used due to their stability and high quality results in high noise microscopic medical image processing. An approach to determine the difference between these two algorithms is presented in this paper. It is shown that the convergence rate and the quality of these two algorithms are influenced by the size of the point spread function (PSF). Larger PSF sizes causes faster convergence but this effect falls off for larger sizes . It is furthermore shown that the relaxation factor and the number of iterations are influencing the convergence rate of the two algorithms. It has been found that increasing relaxation factor and number of iterations improve convergence and can reduce the error of the deblurred image. It also found that overrelaxation converges faster than underrelaxation for small number of iterations. However, it can be achieved smaller final error with under-relaxation. The choice of underrelaxation factor and overrelaxation factor value are highly problem specific and different from one type of images. In addition, when it comes to 3D iterative deconvolution, the influence of boundary conditions for these two algorithms is discussed. Implementation aspects are discussed and it is concluded that cache memory is vital for achieving a fast implementation of iterative 3D deconvolution. A mix of the two algorithms have been developed and compared with the previously mentioned Gauss-Seidel and the Richardson-Lucy-like algorithms. The experiments indicate that, if the value of the relaxation parameter is optimized, then the Richardson-Lucy-like algorithm has the best performance for 3D iterative deconvolution. / Upplösningen på bilder tagna med mikroskop är idag begränsad av diffraktion. För att komma runt detta förbättras bilden digitalt utifrån en matematisk modell av den fysiska processen. Den här avhandlingen jämför två algoritmer för att lösa ekvationerna: Richardson-Lucy och Gauss-Seidel. Vidare studeras effekten av parametrar såsom utbredningen av ljusspridfunktionen och regularisering av ekvationslösaren. / Mobile: (0046)762778136

As the marketplace for crowdfunding grows to an estimated $5 billion dollars in 2013, academic research exploring the second largest platform Indiegogo has been largely overlooked. This research identifies causal characteristics that differentiate content and social spread strategies across ten technology campaigns on Indiegogo, covering a wide pledge fundraising range from $13,417 to $1,960,503. The researcher’s central hypothesis that better content and spread strategy executions would generate more campaign activity and higher pledges was proven to be generally true, but also an oversimplification of complex variables. Successful campaigns can be defined by both the pledge amount raised and the percent of goal reached, whereas all campaigns surveyed reached over 100% of their set goal. All campaigns selected met three key criteria in that they: launched by April 1st, 2013 and ended before October 15th, 2013, lasted between 31 and 51 days and used a Vimeo video player with open statistics. A five tier framework was designed to classify Blockbuster, Intermediate and Base level performance. Close watch was given to mainly the campaign pitch video followed by page content and social media channels. The pitch video content analysis examines narrative content tactics, technical triggers and pledge participation prompts and found that higher performing campaigns generally aligned with the optimized content analysis units, with some exceptions. There was a strong connection between more video views, especially at the frontend of the campaign, raising greater pledge amounts. Campaigns with more page content comments leveraged higher audience participation and pledges. Social media activity mainly through Facebook Likes had the most impact on pledge participation across campaigns. Video source traffic arrived mostly to the Indiegogo page from social media, email marketing and to a lesser extent from referral blogs and website links. In summary, the characteristics that defined better content and spread strategy executions were certainly related to increased campaign activity and higher pledges, but exhibited complex behaviors requiring more data to comprehensively understand the direct impact on a campaign’s performance. / text

The financial crisis of 2008 had systemic implications in the financial services industry spilling over into sectors such as the leverage loan market. I use regression analysis between two data sets (before and after the crisis) to understand the determinants of loan spreads for corporate loans of $100 million and larger, particularly the determinants which constitute bank effects, of the lead lending bank in the loan. I find that the effect of bank monitoring power is not a significant determinant of loan spreads, bank risk was significant before the crisis but not after, and bank size is significant both before and after. There is an inverse relationship between bank size and loan spread such that firms looking to take out a loan would receive a lower spread by mandating a larger bank as the lead arranger, and there is no longer a premium for mandating lead banks with less risk.

This paper proposes that managerial incentive compensation affects the firm choice between public and bank debt. To motivate the case I analyze a simple model with complete and perfect information that implies a positive relation between managers’ incentive compensation and preference toward bank debt. Using firm-level data over the period 1992-2005, I empirically examine the relation between managerial incentives and financing decisions. Specifically, I examine whether managers whose compensation is tied to firm performance choose bank over public debt as a commitment mechanism to reduce the cost of debt. Consistent with a monitoring role of banks, I find that the probability of choosing bank over public debt is positively related to the level of incentive compensation. Further, I find that public lenders price the incentive alignment between manager and shareholders by increasing the cost of debt, while the overall cost of bank loan does not depend on the manager’s incentive compensation. Finally, I find that banks are more likely to include a collateral provision in the debt contract if the manager’s compensation is tied to firm performance.