Search Results

open access

Innovation Output and the Cost of Funds

Description: Do firms with higher levels of innovation output, measured by patent counts and citations, enjoy lower costs of funds? The process to develop and apply for patents involves valuable resources. Thus, applying for a patent is a credible signal that the underlying invention is valuable. This value is validated to some degree when the patent is granted. In addition, patents contain detailed information about the firm's inventions and provide collateral value as they can be sold and licensed. The n… more
Date: December 2016
Creator: Almomen, Adel Abdulkareem
open access

The Limits of Arbitrage and Stock Mispricing: Evidence from Decomposing the Market to Book Ratio

Description: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of the "limits of arbitrage" on securities mispricing. Specifically, I investigate the effect of the availability of substitutes and financial constraints on stock mispricing. In addition, this study investigates the difference in the limits of arbitrage, in the sense that it will lead to lower mispricing for these stocks, relative to non-S&P 500 stocks. I also examine if the lower mispricing can be attributed to their lower limits of arbit… more
Date: December 2015
Creator: AlShammasi, Naji Mohammad
open access

Single Notch Versus Multi Notch Credit Rating Changes and the Business Cycle

Description: Issuers’ credit ratings change by one or more notches when credit rating agencies provide new ratings. Unique to the literature, I study the influences affecting multi notch versus single notch rating upgrades and downgrades. For Standard & Poors data, I show that rating changes with multiple notches provide more information to the market than single notch rating changes. Consistent with prior literature on the business cycle, I show that investors value good news rating changes (upgrades) more… more
Date: December 2015
Creator: Poudel, Rajeeb
open access

An Analysis of Market Efficiency for Exchange-traded Foreign Exchange Options on an Intraday Basis

Description: This study examines the comparative magnitude of disturbances in intraday data for exchange traded foreign exchange (FX) options. An in-depth time series analysis on the frequency and extent of discrepancies in the disturbances is conducted. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, using intraday data and trading volume, this study attempts to determine whether both put-call parity and lower boundary conditions consistently hold for exchange traded options written on U.S. dollar denominat… more
Date: May 2015
Creator: Ren, Peter
open access

Three Essays on Insurers’ Performance and Best’s Ratings

Description: This dissertation consists of three essays: essay 1, Underwriting Use of Credit Information and Firm Performance ‐ An Empirical Study of Texas Property‐Liability Insurers, essay 2, Prediction of Ratings in Property‐Liability Industry when The Organizational Form Is Endogenous, and essay 3, A Discussion of Parsimonious Methods Predicting Insurance Companies Ratings. The purpose of the first essay is to investigate the influence of underwriting use of credit information on variation in insurers’ … more
Date: May 2015
Creator: Huang, Jing‐Hui
open access

Bank Capital, Efficient Market Hypothesis, and Bank Borrowing During the Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008

Description: During the Great Recession of 2007 and 2008, liquidity and credit dried up, threatening the stability of financial institutions, particularly the banking firms. Traditional source of funds from the last resort, the Discount Window of the Federal Reserve System, failed to remedy the liquidity problem. To assuage the liquidity and credit problem, the Federal Reserve System established several emergency lending facilities and provided unprecedented amount of loans to the banking industry. Using a … more
Date: December 2014
Creator: Zia, Mujtaba
open access

Determinants of Outbound Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions by Emerging Asian Acquirers

Description: This dissertation identifies key determinants of outbound cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by emerging Asian acquirers during 2001-2012. Using a zero-inflated model that takes into account different mechanisms governing country pairs that never engage in cross-border M&As and country pairs that actively participate in cross-border M&As, I uncover unique patterns for emerging Asian acquirers. Emerging Asian acquirers originate from countries with lower corporate tax rates than thos… more
Date: August 2014
Creator: Punurai, Somrat
open access

Significant Alphas in Real Estate Funds

Description: This study provide empirical evidence whether bias in the standard errors of Jensen’s alpha explains conflicting results in the extant literature in real estate funds. Significant alphas in real estate mutual funds and REITs are compared with heteroskedasticity consistent covariance matrix estimators (HC1, HC2 and HC3), Newey-West standard errors, a robust regression tempering the effect of high leverage points, a GARCH model, and a HC3 adjusted wild bootstrap. In the analysis of real estate mu… more
Date: August 2014
Creator: Rogers, Nina
open access

Does Underwriter Size Matter? Only Within the Right Context

Description: The initial matching relationships between underwriters and bonds/issuing firms and the certification quality of underwriters, as determined by changes in the issuing firm’s financial strength post issue, are the two primary research topics in this dissertation. Based on total underwriter syndicate market share, two distinct categories, low market power (LMP) syndicates and high market power (HMP) syndicates were defined. Firm financial strength is examined based on a new factor developed in … more
Date: May 2014
Creator: Kendall, Lynn K.
open access

The Effect of Stock Splits on Small, Medium, and Large-sized Firms Before and After Decimalization

Description: This study examines the impact of reducing tick size and, in particular decimalization on stock splits. Based on previous studies, this study examines hypotheses in the following three areas: first, market reaction around stock split announcement and ex-dates, second, the effect of tick size on liquidity after stock split ex-dates, and third, the effect of tick size on return volatility after stock split ex-dates. The impact of tick size on market reaction around split announcement and ex-dates… more
Date: December 2013
Creator: Jang, Seon Deog
open access

Federal Funds Target Rate Surprise and Equity Duration

Description: In this paper I use an equity duration framework to develop and empirically test the hypothesis that returns on growth stock portfolios react more strongly to Federal Funds target rate change announcements, as compared to value stock portfolios. When I decompose the Federal Funds rate change, I find that portfolio returns are only sensitive to rate shocks, as opposed to the predictable component of rate change. Since growth stocks are expected to have higher duration than value stocks, I furthe… more
Date: May 2013
Creator: Tee, Kienpin
open access

Economic Motivation of the Ex-Dividend Day Anomaly: Evidence from an Alternative Tax Environment

Description: Several studies have observed that stocks tend to drop by an amount that is less than the dividend on the ex-dividend day, the so-called ex-dividend day anomaly. However, there still remains a lack of consensus for a single explanation of this anomaly. Different from other studies, this dissertation attempts to answer the primary research question: How can investors make trading profits from the ex-dividend day anomaly and how much can they earn? With this goal, I examine the economic motivatio… more
Date: December 2011
Creator: Anantarak, Sarin
open access

Risk Management And Market Efficiency On The Midwest Independent System Operator Electricity Exchange.

Description: Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, Inc. (MISO) is a non-profit regional transmission organization (RTO) that oversees electricity production and transmission across thirteen states and one Canadian province. MISO also operates an electronic exchange for buying and selling electricity for each of its five regional hubs. MISO oversees two types of markets. The forward market, which is referred to as the day-ahead (DA) market, allows market participants to place demand bids and su… more
Date: December 2011
Creator: Jones, Kevin
open access

The Reasons for the Divergence of IPO Lockup Agreements

Description: Most initial public offerings (IPOs) feature share lockup agreements, which prohibit insiders from selling their shares for a specified period of time following the IPO. However, some IPO firms agree to have a much longer lockup period than other IPO firms, and some are willing to lockup a much larger proportion of shares. Thus, the primary research question for this study is: "What are the reasons for the divergence of the lockup agreements?" The two main hypotheses that this dissertation inve… more
Date: August 2010
Creator: Gao, Fei
open access

Time Series Analysis of Going Private Transactions: Before and after the Sarbanes-Oxley Act

Description: Using 1,473 going private transactions completed between 1985 and 2007, I assess whether the increase in going private transactions that occurred after the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) was driven by SOX, or whether this phenomenon continues an ongoing historical trend. To examine this issue, I initially used structural break tests and intervention analysis. From the initial techniques, I find support that the passage of SOX increased going private transactions for these categ… more
Date: August 2010
Creator: Kim, Jaehoon
open access

Institutional ownership and dividend policy: A framework based on tax clientele, information signaling and agency costs.

Description: This study is an empirical examination of a new theory that links dividends to institutional ownership in a framework of both information signaling and agency costs. Under this theory put forth by Allen, Bernardo and Welch in 2000, dividends are paid out to attract tax-favored institutional investors, thereby signaling good firm quality and/or more efficient monitoring. This is based on the premise that institutions are considered sophisticated investors with superior ability and stronger incen… more
Date: August 2008
Creator: Zaghloul Bichara, Lina
open access

Changes in Trading Volume and Return Volatility Associated with S&P 500 Index Additions and Deletions

Description: When a stock is added into the S&P 500 Index, it is automatically "cross-listed" in the index derivative markets (i.e., S&P 500 Index futures and Index options). I examined the effects of such cross-listing on the trading volume and return volatility of the underlying component stocks. Traditional finance theory asserts that futures and "cash" markets are connected by arbitrage mechanism that brings both markets to equilibrium. When arbitrage opportunities arise, arbitrageurs buy (sell) the ind… more
Date: December 2007
Creator: Lin, Cheng-I Eric
open access

Crude Oil and Crude Oil Derivatives Transactions by Oil and Gas Producers.

Description: This study attempts to resolve two important issues. First, it investigates the diversification benefit of crude oil for equities. Second, it examines whether or not crude oil derivatives transactions by oil and gas producers can change shareholders' wealth. With these two major goals in mind, I study the risk and return profile of crude oil, the value effect of crude oil derivatives transactions, and the systematic risk exposure effect of crude oil derivatives transactions. In contrast with pr… more
Date: December 2007
Creator: Xu, He

Bank Loans as a Financial Discipline: A Direct Agency Cost of Equity Perspective

Description: In a 2004 study, Harvey, Lin and Roper argue that debt makers with a commitment to monitoring can create value for outside shareholders whenever information asymmetry and agency costs are pronounced. I investigate Harvey, Lin and Roper's claim for bank loans by empirically testing the effect of information asymmetry and direct agency costs on the abnormal returns of the borrowers' stock around the announcement of bank loans. I divide my study into two main sections. The first section tests whet… more
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Date: December 2006
Creator: Hijazi, Bassem

Reconciling capital structure theories in predicting the firm's decisions.

Description: Past literature attempts to resolve the issue of the motivation behind managers' choice of a given capital structure. Despite several decades of intensive research, there is still no consensus about which theory dominates capital structure decisions. The present study empirically investigates the relative importance of two prominent theories of capital structure- the trade-off and the pecking order theories by exploring the conditions under which each theory can explain the financing choices o… more
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Date: December 2006
Creator: Palkar, Darshana

Empirical Tests of the Signaling and Monitoring Hypotheses for Initial Public Offerings

Description: The research questions investigated are: 1. Are the expected post-issue fractional holdings of the directors and officers, venture capitalists and institutions signals of firm value? 2. Are the expected post-issue fractional holdings of the directors and officers, venture capitalists and institutions signals of underpricing? and 3. Are the directors and officers, venture capitalists and institutions monitors of IPO investments? The signaling theory developed by Grinblatt and Hwang (1989) (GH) a… more
Access: Restricted to the UNT Community Members at a UNT Libraries Location.
Date: May 2006
Creator: Gordon, Sean Anthony Garnet
open access

Which version of the equity market timing affects capital structure, perceived mispricing or adverse selection?

Description: Baker and Wurgler (2002) define a new theory of capital structure. In this theory capital structure evolves as the cumulative outcome of past attempts to time the equity market. Baker and Wurgler extend market timing theory to long-term capital structure, but their results do not clearly distinguish between the two versions of market timing: perceived mispricing and adverse selection. The main purpose of this dissertation is to empirically identify the relative importance of these two explanati… more
Date: August 2004
Creator: Chazi, Abdelaziz
open access

An Empirical Investigation of Portfolios with Little Idiosyncratic Risk

Description: The objective of this study is to answer the following research question: How large is a diversified portfolio? Although previous work is abundant, very little progress has been made in answering this question since the seminal work of Evans and Archer (1968). This study proposes two approaches to address the research question. The first approach is to measure the rate of risk reduction as diversification increases. For the first approach, I identify two kinds of risks: (1) risk that portfolio … more
Date: May 2004
Creator: Benjelloun, Hicham
open access

Internal Capital Market and Capital Misallocation: Evidence from Corporate Spinoffs

Description: This study investigates the importance of reduced capital misallocation in explaining the gains in corporate spinoffs. The capital misallocation hypothesis asserts that the internal capital market of a diversified firm fails to meet the needs of the relatively low growth divisions for less investment and the needs of the relatively high growth divisions for more investment. Higher differences in growth opportunities imply that more capital is misallocated. This study finds that the higher the … more
Date: August 2001
Creator: Warganegara, Dezie L
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