1,721,096 research outputs found
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Essays on the effects of government and institutional ownership
No full textAbstract: This dissertation investigates the effects of government ownership and institutional ownership on corporate outcomes. We first examine the value of government ownership in Europe during the global financial crisis, and find that firms with government ownership experienced a smaller decrease in stock value than other firms. Furthermore, the positive effect of government ownership occurs only in countries with good investor protection and low corruption. Our results suggest that the benefits of government ownership increased relative to the costs of government ownership during the crisis, and a sufficient level of institutional quality is necessary for the benefits of government ownership to materialize. We then examine the relationship between the dividend policy and foreign institutional shareholding in Chinese listed firms. We find that foreign shareholding influences dividend decisions and vice versa. Changes in dividend payments over time positively affect subsequent changes in foreign shareholding, but the opposite is not true. Our results indicate that foreign institutional investors do not play an active role in promoting high dividends but instead self-select into Chinese firms that pay high dividends. Our evidence suggests that in an institutional setting where foreign investors have tightly restricted access to local securities markets and a relatively high risk of expropriation by controlling shareholders exists, firms can use dividends to signal good investment opportunities to foreign investors. We also examine the effect of institutional investors on corporate ESG performance in China by using an exogenous distraction measure of institutional investors\u2019 inattention constructed by Kempf et al.(2007). We find a significant positive relationship between institutional investor distraction and firms\u2019 ESG performance measured by two Chinese local ESG rating systems: Sino-security Index ESG and Wind ESG. The positive effect is more pronounced in firms with stable institutional shareholders and firms in low-pollution industries. Mechanism test shows that distracted institutional investors reduce site visits to the firm, so that firms face less pressure to reduce ESG engagement and can have better ESG performance. Our findings suggest that institutional investors view ESG activities as detrimental to shareholder wealth and prefer less ESG engagement in the Chinese context. Altogether, this dissertation offers new evidence on the role of government ownership, institutional ownership in general, and foreign institutional investors respectively, and highlights the importance of country-level institutional quality for different types of shareholders to influence corporate outcomes
Speculative asset prices
No full textAbstract: In this thesis, I tackle several key questions in financial economics. First, I focus on the question \u201cwhy do stock prices move over time\u201d? In theory, stock prices should equal the expected discounted cash-flows. However, does the variation in stock prices come from changes in expected cash-flows or discount rates? Why is this important? From the standpoint of finance practitioners, understanding the risk-return relationship can improve tactical asset allocation decisions and is crucial to assess the potential of new projects. For academics, evidence in return and dividend growth predictability disputes classic asset-pricing theories. Second, I address the question if managers adjust important decisions, such as dividend policy or the timing of initial public offerings, when the threat of war increases. For long-run investors, dividends form the largest part of the income. Having an understanding of managerial behavior, in particular when the disaster probability increases, is important for asset allocation decisions. Moreover, I test whether changes in stock prices in time of increased military conflict are driven by changes in expected cash-flows or changes in discount rates. In general, I show that time-varying expected returns and expected dividend growth are essential to understand stock price changes
Owerniship concentration: role of moderators and owners' identity
No full textDottorato di ricerca in Scienze aziendali e giuridiche, XXVI ciclo, a.a. 2012-2013Commissione europea, Fondo sociale europeo e della Regione Calabri
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Essays on corporate bonds in history
No full textAbstract: This dissertation is located at the intersection of three research areas: Credit markets, risk and return tradeoffs, and quantitative economic history. In the first chapter, we try to understand how the early Belgian corporate bond market developed and what investment performance it generated for investors. Specifically, we focus on the Brussels corporate bond market over the course of its first centennial from 1838 through 1939. We find that Belgium housed one of the most developed corporate bond markets in the world on a relative basis, showcasing new evidence of Belgium\u2019s leading role as an important financial center. In terms of performance, we find that the value-weighted annualized rate of return is much lower than estimates obtained from recent decades for the modern-day credit market. Yet, corporate bonds outperformed equities in terms of average rate of return and reward-to-risk ratio during the entire nineteenth century. The second chapter assesses whether credit market anomalies are a robust feature. In general anomalies are interesting because they should not exist. Employing a fully quantitative (systematic) approach to managing credit portfolios has gained significant traction in recent years. The interest comes from both quant equity shops looking to replicate their offering in credit and from discretionary credit investors who want to adopt a more systematic approach to managing their portfolios. I show that the overall majority of claimed anomalies are a robust feature of corporate bond returns rather than the result of data mining. Moreover, in the case of financial markets, returns should be a reward for risk. Empirically I find that is not the case for the corporate bond market. Hence my results showcase evidence of anomalous returns in the credit market. The third chapter explores the default risk and risk premium of the Belgian corporate bond market. Using novel default data based on the application of Moody\u2019s definition of corporate bond default within a historical setting, we find evidence that the Belgian credit market exhibited major clusterings. This novel result allows for refutation of previous claims made by financial historians that the US was to be seen as a \u201cWild West\u201d bond market while outside international markets were \u201csafe.\u201d Connecting default events with price information, we find that the Belgian corporate bond market exhibits a comparable credit risk premium to both long-run and more modern US evidence. This evidence reflects that the pricing of default risk is consistent over time
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dividend policy : a long-term investigation
No full textAbstract: The return from investing in stocks can be disentangled in two components: capital gains and dividends. For long-run investors, dividends form the largest part of the income. In this dissertation, we investigate dividend policy of firms listed on the Brussels Stock Exchange using data of almost two centuries (1824 122012). In the first study, we investigate how dividend policy evolves over our sample period. We show the institutional environment in which firms operate, which is generally believed to affect corporate dividend policy, changed drastically: investor protection improved seriously over time and dividend taxation was introduced. Despite these huge changes, we find dividend policy to be surprisingly stable over time. The second study explores whether the motives to pay dividends depend on (1) the institutional environment in which firms operate, (2) the state of the economy and (3) the maturity of the industry in which the firm is active. We find common determinants of dividend policy in different environments. Large firms, firms with a low level of idiosyncratic risk, firms with a high share price and more liquid firms are more likely to pay dividends. While this is consistent with life-cycle arguments, our evidence raises doubt about signaling as a first-order explanation of dividends. The third empirical study adds a new explanatory variable to the dividend debate. Consistent with imprinting theory, we show that dividend policy at the moment of the firm\u2019s first listing has a long-lasting impact on future dividend policy. However, the impact of the initial dividend policy decreases when a company goes through its lifecycle. This indicates managers are both firm and flexible when setting their dividend policy. In summary, stability seems to be the common denominator. Study I shows dividend policy is very stable over time. Next, we find that the determinants of the decision to pay are stable in different environments. Finally, we show that dividend policy has a stable component that persist over a company\u2019s life
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