349 research outputs found
Market liquidity, analysts coverage, and ownership concentration: evidence from ASE
No full textThis research investigates the association between analyst coverage, ownership concentration and market liquidity in Amman Stock Exchange (ASE). Using a unique dataset about information asymmetry, several proxies related to the information asymmetry are used to clarify certain aspects of market liquidity. In a sample of 131 companies with comprehensive data collected from company guides and Datastream, information asymmetry measured by analysts’ coverage is found to be an important determinant of market liquidity. In particular, market liquidity is lower where firms have larger analysts coverage and where firms are denoted with high degree of ownership concentration. The effect of analysts coverage is, however, found to be more marked in firms with high levels of ownership concentration. The study provides theoretical and empirical improvement of market liquidity literature towards an understanding of the information asymmetry proxies in ASE. Policymakers, after the 2007-2009 scandal have formed governance codes that highlight the importance of disclosure requirements as key responsibility of financial analysts. The link between analysts coverage and market liquidity established in this research provides evidence for insider investors on the roles and potential effectiveness of analysts in carrying this responsibility
The effect of ownership level, concentration and owners’ identity on market liquidity in the UK capital market
No full textThis study investigates the effects of ownership level, concentration and owners’ identity on stock market liquidity in the UK. The study also examines the effect of the recent financial crisis on the relationship between ownership level, concentration, owners’ identity and market liquidity in the UK. The sample includes 226 non-financial companies from the FTSE All-Share Index listed on the London Stock Exchange, over the period between 2003 and 2012. After controlling for two types of Endogeneity, i.e., simultaneity and unobserved heterogeneity, through the application and use of a pooled OLS year and industry dummies, this study finds the evidence suggesting that ownership level, concentration and owners’ identity are important determinants of market liquidity in the UK.
The results suggest that insider ownership and ownership concentration are negatively correlated with market liquidity. In contrast, institutional ownership has been identified as positively correlated with market liquidity. While analysing the effect of owners’ identity on market liquidity, it was revealed that executive and non-executive directors’ ownership both decrease market liquidity. The findings also suggest that the existence of controlled shareholders (i.e., investment banks, government, pension fund, and foreign ownership) have a negative impact on firms’ market liquidity. However, the presence of free float shareholders in a firm’s ownership structure has a positive impact on market liquidity. As a result, this study regards the free float shareholders as uninformed investors whereas controlled shareholders and insiders are regarded as informed investors because they have access to a firm’s private information.
After considering the effect of financial crisis, it was revealed that both the insider ownership and ownership concentration insignificantly negatively affect market liquidity in the pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis periods of the recent financial crisis. However, institutional ownership had a significantly positive impact on market liquidity during the 2007-2009 financial crisis. With respect to insider identity, both executive and non-executive directors’ ownership have a negative impact on market liquidity. Nevertheless, controlled shareholders (i.e., investment banks, government, employee, pension fund, foreign) ownership had an insignificantly negative impact on market liquidity, whereas free float shares had an insignificantly positive impact on market liquidity during the recent financial crisis. Keeping in mind the importance of market liquidity in the economy, it can be argued that the findings of this research have implications for the current and potential investors, policymakers and practitioners. As a result, the outcome of this study demands that firms should pay more attention to their ownership structure disclosure policy and improve quality of the disclosed information as much as possible
Market Liquidity, Analysts Coverage, and Ownership Concentration: Evidence From ASE
Get PDFThis research investigates the association between analyst coverage, ownership concentration and market liquidity in Amman Stock Exchange (ASE). Using a unique dataset about information asymmetry, several proxies related to the information asymmetry are used to clarify certain aspects of market liquidity. In a sample of 131 companies with comprehensive data collected from company guides and Datastream, information asymmetry measured by analysts’ coverage is found to be an important determinant of market liquidity. In particular, market liquidity is lower where firms have larger analysts coverage and where firms are denoted with high degree of ownership concentration. The effect of analysts coverage is, however, found to be more marked in firms with high levels of ownership concentration. The study provides theoretical and empirical improvement of market liquidity literature towards an understanding of the information asymmetry proxies in ASE. Policymakers, after the 2007-2009 scandal have formed governance codes that highlight the importance of disclosure requirements as key responsibility of financial analysts. The link between analysts coverage and market liquidity established in this research provides evidence for insider investors on the roles and potential effectiveness of analysts in carrying this responsibility
Rent - seeking trade policy : a time series approach
Get PDFUsing a time-series approach, the author analyzes the relationship between the extent of rent-seeking trade policy and both political and economic variables. For rent-seeking trade policy, the indicator he uses is the number of foreign-trade regulations passed each year for the benefit of a single firm or industry. The author uses data from Uruguay for 1925-83. Uruguay, which experienced an impressive economic decline, is an outstanding example of a rent-seeking society. After being a wealthy economy in midcentury, it suffered almost complete stagnation, which led to social and policital disintegration by the end of the 1960s. Three decades of restrictive regulations on foreign trade had created a nearly closed economy by the end of the 1960s. It was worth analyzing whether policymakers'great receptiveness to demands for protection could account for Uruguay's decline. Over the period 1925-83, the author finds almost 4,000 laws, decrees, and administrative resolutions that create, maintain, or modify a foreign-trade regulation for the benefit of a single firm or industry. About half of them explicitly identify the petitioner - usually a firm or guild. Since the size of the Uruguayan economy changed over the period studied, the author scales the annual number of regulations by output or exports to measure the extent of rent-seeking trade policy. The author shows that the extent of rent-seeking trade policy increased with discretionary policies and under dictatorship. (In the period studied, there were two stages of democracy - until 1932 and from 1943-72 - and two stages of dictatorship.) He also shows that rent-seeking trade restrictions increased under import-substitution strategies and, more unexpectedly, under active export promotion. This suggests that discretionary power leads to wasteful distribution, whether it is used to support inward- or outward-oriented policies. Finally, the author analyzes the correlation between innovations in the trade policy indicator and innovations in the growth rates of output and exports, with a lag of up to 20 years. Surprisingly, he finds a positive correlation with output growth rates after two or three years. But the correlation becomes negative some years later, particularly in the case of exports. The short-run positive impact on growth rates, together with the surprisingly long time lag before the negative impact, may account for policymakers'receptiveness to demands for protection.Trade Policy,Achieving Shared Growth,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies
Board gender diversity and dividend policy: Case of Jordanian commercial banks
No full textThis paper aims to investigate the impact of board gender diversity on dividend policy in the context of Jordanian commercial banks. Using a sample of 13 Jordanian commercial banks listed on Amman Stock Exchange during the period 2005-2014, we find strong and robust evidence indicating that diversified boards tend to pay higher cash dividends to shareholders since women can better address the needs of investors in impatient emerging markets. Moreover, this paper presents the negative moderating effect of both, the government existence in the boardroom and international financial crisis on the relationship between gender diversity and dividend policy indicators. Under such conditions, the diversified boards became more conservative and retained most of the profit and paid fewer dividends because of the risk-averse tendencies of women directors.</jats:p
Board diversity and social responsibility: The case of Jordanian commercial banks
No full textThis paper examines the impact of the board diversity on firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Using a sample of 13 Jordanian commercial banks listed at Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) during the period 2005-2014, the study finds that board diversity measures, namely: board size, gender, age, education; nationality and independence are positively associated with CSR performance. At the same time, the existence of institutions’ representatives was found to be negatively affecting the social participation of banks. This paper provides a substantial contribution to the existing research studies that tackle CSR not only in Jordan but also in the region by introducing female directors, as it suggests that the quotas for women participation should be increased. The results are considered important to policymakers, government regulators, potential investors and CSR agencies.</jats:p
McMaster Grid Scheduling Testing Environment
No full textTitle: McMaster Grid Scheduling Testing Environment, Author: Majd Kokaly, Location: ThodeWith the phenomenal growth of the Internet and the advancement of computing hardware,
grid architectures have been developed to exploit idle cycles in large networks of
computational resources. One key aim of resource management (scheduling) schemes
is to find mappings of incoming workload to machines within the grid to maximize
the output. The first contribution of this thesis is the construction of a tool to aid
researchers in testing and improving scheduling schemes, namely the McMaster Grid
Scheduling Testing Environment (MGST). The Linear Programming Based Affinity Scheduling Scheme (LPAS_DG) was introduced
by researchers at McMaster, and simulation results have been promising
in suggesting that this scheduling scheme outperforms other schemes when there is
high system heterogeneity and is competitive under lower levels of heterogeneity. The
second contribution of this research is providing suggestions to improve this scheme,
based on the results of experiments where the LPAS_DG scheme was actually deployed
on the MGST test bed.ThesisMaster of Applied Science (MASc
Financial structures and economic development
Get PDFThe author constructs a model that captures the two-way nature of the relationship between financial and economic development - and allows societies at different levels of economic development and with different policies to choose different financial services. In this model, various types of financial contracts and institutions arise in response to the economic environment. Incentives for financial structures to emerge are generated by liquidity and productivity risk, the costs of gathering information and mobilizing resources, and the costs of financial transactions. The emergence and development of financial arrangements in response to the economic environment can alter investment decisions and per capita growth rates - while the level of per capita income helps determine the types of financial services a particular society chooses to develop and use. The author not only reconciles more empirical regularities than past theoretical studies have done, but highlights the role of public policies on financial activities. Policy has important implications for the rate of economic growth, the level of financial development, and the types of institutions providing financial services. The model also predicts that per capita growth rates should be related to the types of financial services provided by the financial sector. Thus, the most common empirical measure of financial development may not appropriately capture fundamental features of financial development.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Intermediation,Governance Indicators
Etoposide induces cell death via mitochondrial-dependent actions of p53
Get PDFBackground
Etoposide has been used clinically in cancer treatment, as well as in numerous research studies, for many years. However, there is incomplete information about its exact mechanism of action in induction of cell death.
Methods
Etoposide was compared at various concentrations to characterize the mechanisms by which it induces cell death. We investigated its effects on mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) and focused on both transcriptional and non-transcriptional responses of p53.
Results
Here we demonstrate that treatment of MEFs with higher concentrations of etoposide induce apoptosis and activate the transcription-dependent functions of p53. Interestingly, lower concentrations of etoposide also induced apoptosis, but without any evidence of p53-dependent transcription up-regulation. Treatment of MEFs with an inhibitor of p53, Pifithrin-α, blocked p53-dependent transcription but failed to rescue the cells from etoposide-induced apoptosis. Treatment with PES, which inhibits the mitochondrial arm of the p53 pathway inhibited etoposide-induced cell death at all concentrations tested.
Conclusions
We have demonstrated that transcriptional functions of p53 are dispensable for etoposide-induced cell death. The more recently characterized effects of p53 at the mitochondria, likely involving its interactions with BCL-2 family members, are thus more important for etoposide’s actions.Peer reviewedfinal article publishedTranscriptionP53 acetylationFibroblastDNA damageMitochondri
Agricultural trade liberalization in the Uruguay Round : one step forward, one step back?
Get PDFAfter evaluating the Uruguay Round's impact on agriculture and border protection in the next decade, the author concludes that while there was significant reform of the rules - particularly the conversion of nontariff barriers into tariffs and the reduction and binding of all tariffs - in practice, trade will probably be liberalized less than expected. The objective of the Round was to reverse protectionism and remove trade distortions. This may not be achieved in practice, at least not until further reductions are carried out in future rounds of negotiations. The major exception to this conclusion is in high-income Asian countries, where protection for major commodities will be significantly reduced. The tariffication and binding of all tariffs on agricultural products represents a significant step forward. Liberalization is implicit because countries are prohhibited from arbitrarily raising tariffs to new higher levels. But many of the newly established tariffs are so high in many countries as to effectively prohibit trade. Patterns of liberalization vary considerably by commodity and by country. Generally, the extent of liberalization was diminished by binding tariffs to the base period of 1986-88, when border protection was at a high point. In most OECD countries, this was worsened by"dirty tariffication:"the new base tariffs offered even greater protection than the nontariff barriers they replaced. Even after the commitments to tariff reductions in the Round, the ad valorem measure of the final binding tariffs will remain higher than the average rate of protection in 1982-93. A number of developing countries in East Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East chose to lock in prior liberalization efforts on some products. But for most commodities, there will be little actual liberalization, since most developing countries chose to bind their tariffs at a maximum level. Even when countries reduced already-bound rates, bound tariffs remained significantly higher than current applied rates, giving countries the flexibility to raise tariffs later. The high level of bound tariffs may allow countries to apply variable tariffs below the bound level, thus failing to stabilize tariffs and improve market access. Moreover, the Round did not touch many of the worst distortions in developing countries, such as import subsidies, export taxes, state-trading monopolies, and domestic policies that implicitly tax agriculture.Trade Policy,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Export Competitiveness,Rules of Origin,Trade Policy,Rules of Origin,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research
- …
